But expectation stood so long on tip-toe that it grew tired, and came down a few inches.  Nothing occurred to arouse the quiet inhabitants.  Captain Allen was seen to enter his dwelling about two o’clock in the afternoon, and although not less than twenty sharp pairs of eyes were turned in that direction, and never abated their vigilance until night drew down her curtains, no one got even a glimpse of his person.

Jacob Perkins left the town, and took refuge with a neighbor living two miles away, on the first intimation of the Captain’s return.

The next day passed, but no one saw the Captain.  On the third day a member of the inquisitorial committee, who had his house under constant observation, saw him drive out with his son, and take the road that went direct to the neighborhood where Jacob Perkins lay concealed in the house of a friend.

Poor Jacob!  None doubted but the hour of retribution for him was at hand.  That he might have timely warning, if possible, a lad was sent out on a fleet horse, who managed to go by Captain Allen’s chaise on the road.  Pale with affright, the unhappy fugitive hid himself under a hay rick, and remained there for an hour.  But the Captain passed through without pause or inquiry, and in due course of time returned to his home, having committed no act in the least degree notable.

And so, as if nothing unusual had happened, he was seen, day after day, going about as of old, with not a sign of change in his deportment that any one could read.  In a week, Jacob Perkins returned to his home, fully assured that no harm was likely to visit him.

No event touching Captain Allen or his family, worthy of record, transpired for several years.  The only servants in the house were negro slaves, brought from a distance, and kept as much as possible away from others of their class in town.  Among these, the boy, John, grew up.  When he was ten years old, Jacob Perkins, though in some fear, performed the sacred duty promised to his mother on that memorable morning, when he looked upon her pale, statuesque countenance for the last time.  A flush covered the boy’s face, as he received the locket, and understood from whence it came.  He stood for some minutes, wholly abstracted, as if under the spell of some vivid memory.

Tears at length filled his eyes, and glistened on the long fringed lashes.  Then there was a single, half-repressed sob—­and then, grasping the locket tightly in his hand, he turned from Jacob, and, without a word, walked hastily away.

When the boy was sixteen, Captain Allen took him to sea.  From that period for n any years, both of them were absent for at least two-thirds of the time.  At twenty-five, John took command of a large merchant-man, trading to the South American coast, and his father, now worn down by hard service, as well as by years, retired to his home in S——­, to close up there, in such repose of mind as he could gain, the last days of his eventful life.  He died soon after by apoplexy.