“To claim his son.”

“He—­says—­he’ll—­claim—­Archie—­as—­his—­ son!” she gasped.  “I’d like to see any man living dare to—­”

“But he can try, Lucy—­no one can prevent that, and in the trying the world will know.”

Lucy sprang from her seat and stood over her sister: 

“I’ll deny it!” she cried in a shrill voice; “and face him down.  He can’t prove it!  No one about here can!”

“He may have proofs that you couldn’t deny, and that I would not if I could.  Captain Holt knows everything, remember,” Jane replied in her same calm voice.

“But nobody else does but you and Martha!” The thought gave her renewed hope—­the only ray she saw.

“True; but the captain is enough.  His heart is set on Archie’s name being cleared, and nothing that I can do or say will turn him from his purpose.  Do you know what he means to do?”

“No,” she replied faintly, more terror than curiosity in her voice.

“He means that you shall marry Barton, and that Archie shall be baptized as Archibald Holt.  Barton will then take you both back to South America.  A totally impossible plan, but—­”

“I marry Barton Holt!  Why, I wouldn’t marry him if he got down on his knees.  Why, I don’t even remember what he looks like!  Did you ever hear of such impudence!  What is he to me?” The outburst carried with it a certain relief.

“What he is to you is not the question.  It is what you are to Archie!  Your sin has been your refusal to acknowledge him.  Now you are brought face to face with the consequences.  The world will forgive a woman all the rest, but never for deserting her child, and that, my dear sister, is precisely what you did to Archie.”

Jane’s gaze was riveted on Lucy.  She had never dared to put this fact clearly before—­not even to herself.  Now that she was confronted with the calamity she had dreaded all these years, truth was the only thing that would win.  Everything now must be laid bare.

Lucy lifted her terrified face, burst into tears, and reached out her hands to Jane.

“Oh, sister,—­sister!” she moaned.  “What shall I do?  Oh, if I had never come home!  Can’t you think of some way?  You have always been so good—­ Oh, please! please!”

Jane drew Lucy toward her.

“I will do all I can, dear.  If I fail there is only one resource left.  That is the truth, and all of it.  Max can save you, and he will if he loves you.  Tell, him everything!”

CHAPTER XXI

THE MAN IN THE SLOUCH HAT

The wooden arrow on the top of the cupola of the Life-Saving Station had had a busy night of it.  With the going down of the sun the wind had continued to blow east-southeast—­its old course for weeks—­and the little sentinel, lulled into inaction, had fallen into a doze, its feather end fixed on the glow of the twilight.