Page 386 of 416

"Maybe you'll hear, too, that his mainstay snapped and his sticks

went into the water all because he carried too much sail. I

shouldn't be surprised. I've attended to that, too. So I guess

with his foretopmast cracked off and his mainstay snapped the old

M. C. ought to romp home an easy victor, if she is an old

ice-wagon. I tried to get Schofield to bet, but he's so tight

with his cash he wouldn't shake down a five-cent piece. Good

thing for him, though, he doesn't know it. Nothing would do me

more good than to get his roll, the virtuous old deacon!"

She stopped reading as a rumble of mirth went round the circle.

Code in the role of a virtuous deacon was a novelty. Even the

hard lines of Elsa's face relaxed and she smiled, albeit a trifle

grimly.

"That's all," she said, folding up the letter and putting it back

into the envelope. "The rest is personal and not ours. Now, Mr.

Durkee, if you still care to consider Captain Schofield as the

defendant in those two suits I want your arguments."