“But it didn’t seem to have any effect.  The two of you were as thick as ever.  We were laying bets in the tavern that you would be married before you went to sea again.  He didn’t like that—­the talk about your wedding.  But he wasn’t beaten yet; he was just preparing his ground.  Oh, he was a slick devil!

“He came to me one day and said, ’Beasley, give me the key to the Old Place—­and keep your mouth shut and stay away from there.’

“Now you begin to understand?  The Old Place—­that tumble-down old ruin of a house all alone out there on the cliffs.  It belonged to my father, you remember, but it hadn’t been lived in for years.  I had a key because we young bloods used the place for card-playing, and high jinks.

“I gave him the key.  Why not?  It was a small matter.  He went off to Boston—­business trip, he said.  I could make a good guess at the nature of the business.  Didn’t I know his ways?  But I wouldn’t blab; he owned me body and soul.  I was afraid of him.  His soft voice, his slick ways, and what he could do to me if I didn’t obey!

“He brought Beulah Twigg back with him from Boston.  Now you understand?  Little Beulah—­pretty face, empty head, too much heart.  He owned her body and soul, too.  When folks wondered where she had run off to, I could have told them.  I knew how he’d played with her, on the quiet, while he sparked Mary in the open—­last time he was home.  You were home then, also.  Remember, you left a day ahead of him, to join your ship in New York?  A China voyage, wasn’t it?  Well—­Beulah left the same day.  Just disappeared.  And poor old Twigg couldn’t understand it.  You remember the old fool?  Beulah was all the family he had, and after she skipped out he got to drinking.  They found him one morning at the bottom of the cliffs, not a hundred yards from the spot where they afterwards found her.

“But I knew what had become of Beulah.  I guessed right.  Didn’t I know his ways with the girls?  You know there weren’t many women who could stand out against him.  Mary could, and did—­that’s why he was so wild against you.  But little Beulah—­she threw herself at him.  And when she ran away, it was to join him in Philadelphia, and go sailing with him to South America.

“Now you know how he turned the trick on you, don’t you?  But—­don’t look at me like that!  I didn’t know what he was doing, I swear I didn’t!  I thought he just wanted his sweetheart near him, or that she insisted on coming, or something like that.  I thought it was devilish bold of him, bringing the girl where everybody knew her.  But then, he really wasn’t taking such a chance, because nobody ever went near the Old Place, except upon my invitation, and he drove her over from the next township in the night, and she didn’t come near the village.  I knew, but he knew I wouldn’t blab.  My God, no!

“Well, he came to me the next day after he got back from Boston.  ’I ask a favor of you,’ he said to me.  Yes—­asking favors, when he knew I must do what he said.  Smiling and purring—­you remember the pleasant manner he had.  ’Just a short note.  I know you are handy with the pen,’ he said.