“Five thousand,” he said, and his tone was not low.  “There you are, Miss Phipps.  Thank you.”

When, having escorted the lady to the door, Thacher came back to his private office, he found the light keeper sitting in the armchair reserved for customers and pulling thoughtfully at his beard.

“Well, Cap’n,” said Mr. Thacher, “what can I do for you?”

Captain Jethro crossed his legs.  “I come over to cash a couple of checks I got by mail,” he said.  “Had plenty of time so I thought I’d drop in and see you a minute.”

“Oh, yes, yes.  Glad to see you.”

“Um-hm.  Ain’t so glad to see me as you was to see Martha Phipps, I guess likely. I ain’t depositin’ any five thousand dollars.  ’Twas five thousand she just deposited, wasn’t it?”

The cashier was rather annoyed.  He did not answer at once.  His visitor repeated the question.

“Martha just put five thousand in the bank, didn’t she?” he asked.

“Why—­yes.  Did she tell you she was going to?”

“No.  I heard Eldridge say five thousand when he give her back her bank book.  Five thousand is a lot of money.  Where’d she get it from?”

“I don’t know, Cap’n, I’m sure.  Little more spring-like out to-day, isn’t it?”

“Um-hm.  Martha been borrerin’ from the bank, has she?”

“No.”

“Didn’t know but she might have mortgaged the Phipps’ place.  Ain’t done that, you say?”

“No.  At least, if she has she didn’t tell me of it.  How are things over at the lighthouse?”

“All right enough.  I don’t hardly believe she could raise more’n three thousand on a mortgage, anyhow. . . .  Humph!  Five thousand is a sight of money, too. . . .  Didn’t she tell you nothin’ about how she got it?”

Thacher’s annoyance increased.  The ordinary caller displaying such persistent curiosity would have been dismissed unceremoniously; but Jethro Hallett was not to be dismissed that way.  The captain owned stock in the bank and, before his illness, his name had been seriously considered to fill the first vacancy in its list of directors.

“Must have told you somethin’ about how she got hold of all that money,” persisted the light keeper.  “What did she say to you, anyway, Ed?”

“She said—­she said—­ Oh, well, she said she had sold something she owned and had got the five thousand for it.”

“Humph!  I want to know!  Sold somethin’, eh?  What was it she sold?”

“She didn’t say, Cap’n.  All she said was that she had sold it and got the five thousand.  Oh, yes, she did say that it was a bigger price than she ever expected to get and that there was a time when she never expected to get a cent.”

“Humph!  I want to know!  Funny she should sell anything without comin’ to me first.  She generally comes to ask my advice about such things. . . .  Humph! . . .  She didn’t sell the house?  No, I’d a-known if she had done that.  And what else. . . .  Humph! . . .”