They had some years of difficulty and uncertainty during which
I caught brief glimpses of them now and then, always cheerful and
happy together. In the course of time the Obstacle, being not at
all bad-hearted but only pig-headed, probably relented a little, and
finally was gathered to his fathers, according to the common lot
of man. The older sisters behaved very well about the inheritance,
and Alice was not left portionless. She brought three fine boys
into the world. The house on Salvage Point was built by her and
Will together.

It was there that I spent a day with them, in the summer of 1918,
after many years during which we had not met. I was on naval duty,
with Commander Kidd, of a certain station on the Maine coast. By
invitation we put in with the motorboat S.P. 297, at Salvage Point.
So it was that I met my old friends again, and knew what had become
of their barque of love which I had helped to save from shipwreck.

The house on the peak of the hill was just what it ought to be;
not aggressively rustic, not obtrusively classic--white pillars
in front of it, and a terrace, but nothing dominating--it had the
air of a very large and habitable lighthouse.

The extraordinary thing was the arrangement of the grounds. At
every point one came upon some reminder of salvage. On the glorious
August day when I was there, shipwreck seemed impossible: the
Southern Way which opened to the Ocean was dancing with gay waves;
the blue mountains of Maine were tranquil on the horizon.

"But you see," said Will Hermann, "this is really rather a dangerous
point, though it is so beautiful. It is the gateway of the open sea,