"I went back to the launch, pulled up her anchor and took her in tow. I
towed her in to her pier, made her fast and then left her for a while.
When I come back the little cabin-door was open and the girl's jacket
was gone.

"Then I walked up the path to the Saunders house and it done me good to
see a light in Barbara's window. I set on the steps of that house until
morning keeping watch. And in the morning the yacht was gone and the
weir-pole was vacant, and Cap'n Eben Saunders come on the first train.

"So's that's all there is of it. Allie hasn't come back to Bayport
sence, and the last I heard he'd married that Newport girl; she has my
sympathy, if that's any comfort to her.

"And Barbara? Well, for a long time she'd turn white every time I met
her. But, of course, I kept my mouth shut, and she went to sea next
v'yage with her dad. And now I hear she's engaged to a nice feller up to
Boston.

"Oh, yes--one thing more. When I got back to my shanty that morning I
wiped the chalkmark off the door. I kind of figgered that I'd paid that
debt, with back interest added."





THE LOVE OF LOBELIA 'ANKINS