anxiously. But Captain Hallett's answer, when at last he did reply,
sounded no nearer. Apparently the men were now standing still.

"Well," grunted the light keeper, "I'll listen to you for the five
minutes, Raish, but no more. I hadn't ought to do that. This is Sabbath
day and I make it a p'int never--"

"I know," hastily, "I know. Well, I tell you, Cap'n Jeth, all's I wanted
to say was this: What are we goin' to do with this Development stock of
ours?"

"Do with it? Why, nothin' at present. CAN'T do anything with it, can
we? All we can do is wait. It may be one year or three, but some day
somebody will have to come to us. There ain't a better place for a cold
storage fish house on this coast and the Wellmouth Development Company
owns that place."

"Yes, that's so, that's so. But some of us can afford to wait and some
can't. Now I've got more of the Development Company stock than anybody
else. I've got five hundred shares, Cap'n Jeth; five hundred shares
at twenty dollars a share. A poor man like me can't afford to have ten
thousand dollars tied up as long's this is liable to be. Can he now? Eh?
Can he, Cap'n?"

"Humph! Well, I've got eight thousand tied up there myself."

"Ye-es, but it don't make so much difference to you. You can afford to
wait. You've got a gov'ment job."

"Ye-es, and from what I hear you may be havin' a state job pretty soon