“Captain,” began Ellery.  Hammond interrupted him.

“Hold on!” he said.  “Belay right there.  If you and I are to cruise in the same family—­and that’s what I hear is likely to happen—­I cal’late we’ll heave overboard the cap’ns and Misters.  My name’s ‘Nathaniel’—­’Nat’ for short.”

“All right.  And mine is ‘John.’  Captain—­Nat, I mean—­how can I ever thank you?”

“Thank me?  What do you want to thank me for?  I only handed over somethin’ that wasn’t mine in the first place and belonged to you all along.  I didn’t know it, that was the only trouble.”

“But your promise to your father.  I feel—­”

“You needn’t.  I told dad that it was just as Grace said.  She says she’s got a better man, or words to that effect.  And—­I don’t know how you feel about such things, John—­but I b’lieve there’s a broader outlook up aloft than there is down here and that dad would want me to do just what I have done.  Don’t worry about me.  I’m doin’ the right thing and I know it.  And don’t pity me, neither.  I made up my mind not to marry Grace—­unless, of course, she was set on it—­months ago.  I’m tickled to death to know she’s goin’ to have as good a man as you are.  She’ll tell you so.  Grace!  Hello! she’s gone.”

“Yes.  I told her I wanted to talk with you alone, for a few minutes.  Nat, Grace tells me that Aunt Keziah was the one who—­”

“She was.  She met me at the Cohasset Narrows depot.  I was settin’ in the car, lookin’ out of the window at the sand and sniffin’ the Cape air.  By the everlastin’! there ain’t any air or sand like ’em anywheres else.  I feel as if I never wanted to see a palm tree again as long as I live.  I’d swap the whole of the South Pacific for one Trumet sandhill with a huckleberry bush on it.  Well, as I started to say, I was settin’ there lookin’ out of the window when somebody tapped me on the shoulder.  I looked up and ’twas her.

“You could have blown me over with a fan.  By the jumpin’ Moses, you could!  You see, I’d been thinkin’ about her—­that is, I was—­”

He hesitated, turned red, coughed, and went on.

“I was surprised enough to see her, I tell you.  Way up there at the Narrows!  I couldn’t have said a word, anyway, and she never gave me a chance.  ‘Nat,’ she says, ’don’t talk now.  Come with me, quick, afore the train starts.’

“Still I didn’t say anything, nothin’ sane anyhow.  ‘Keziah!’ I managed to stutter.  ‘Keziah!’

“‘Come!’ says she.  ’Hurry!  I want you to get off here.  I’ve come here on purpose to meet you.  I must talk with you; it’s important.  You can go to Trumet on the next train, to-night.  But now I must talk with you.  I must. Won’t you please come, Nat?’

“Well, I went.  The engine bell was beginnin’ to ring and we had to move lively, I tell you.  I swung her off the step just as the car begun to move.  After the smoke had faded away around the next bend I realized that my hat had faded away along with it.  Yes, sir!  I’d left it on the seat.  Ha! ha! ha!”