“Why, you never have heard of it, have you?” she demanded.

Galusha stroked his chin.  “That day in the cemetery,” he murmured.  “That day when I was—­ah—­behind the tomb and heard Captain Hallett and Mr. Pulcifer speaking.  I may be mistaken, but it seems to me that they mentioned the name of—­ah—­ah—­”

“The Development Company?  Of course they did and you told me so when you got home.  I remember now.  Well, Cap’n Jeth and Raish were both mixed up in it along with father.  Yes, and Doctor Powers and a lot more, though not so much.  Raish, of course, was at the back of it in the beginnin’.  He got ’em all in it, got himself into it, as far as that goes.  You see, it was this way.”

She told the story of the Wellmouth Development Company.  It—­the story—­began when the Eagle Fish Freezing Company of Denboro, a concern then running and operating one large cold storage plant in that village, were looking about for a favorable spot upon which to build a second.  The spot which appealed to their mind to purchase was the property at the mouth of Skoonic Creek in East Wellmouth.

“It’s a real pretty place,” said Martha, “one of the prettiest spots alongshore, and the view from the top of the bluff there is just lovely.  You can see miles and miles out to sea and all up and down the shore—­and back over the village, for that matter.  But, come to think of it, you know the place, Mr. Bangs.  It’s only a little way from the old Baptist buryin’ ground.”

Galusha nodded.  “Isn’t it where my—­ah—­late lamented hat set sail?” he asked.

“Why, of course it is.  Just there.  Well, the Eagle Fish folks made their plans to buy all that property, the hills on both sides, and the low land down by the creek.  It was just the place for ’em, you see.  And they were quietly makin’ arrangements to pick up the different parcels of land from the owners here and there, when Raish Pulcifer got wind of it.  There’s precious little goin’ on down this part of the Cape that Raish doesn’t get wind of, particularly if it’s somebody else’s secret.  He’s got a reg’lar pig’s nose for rootin’ up other people’s private concerns.  Well, Raish found out what the Eagle Company was up to and he started bein’ up to somethin’ himself.”

Mr. Pulcifer, so Miss Phipps went on to say, conceived the idea of buying the Skoonic Creek property before the Eagle Company could do so.  The principal difficulty was that just then his own limited capital was tied up in various ways and he lacked ready money.  So, being obliged to borrow, he sought out Captain Hallett, got the shrewd old light keeper’s cupidity aroused—­not a very difficult task at any time—­and Captain Jethro agreed to help finance the deal.