"My soul and body, Judge!" she exclaimed. "What is it? What _is_ the matter?"
"The matter is that that confounded door is open again," he snapped.
"Why--why, of course 'tis. I just opened it when I came in."
"Umph! Yes. Well then, hurry up and shut it when you go out. _Shut_ it!"
Emmeline, going, not only shut but slammed the door. The judge smiled grimly.
"Sit down, Kendrick," he commanded once more, panting. "Sit down, I--I'm out of breath. Confound that woman! She seems to think I'm four years old. Ah--ah--whew!"
His exhaustion was so apparent that Sears was alarmed.
"Don't you think, Judge----" he began, but was interrupted.
"Sshh!" ordered Knowles. "Wait.... Wait.... I'll be all right in a minute!"
The captain waited. It took more than a minute, and even then the judge's voice was husky and his sentences broken, but his determination was unshaken.
"I want you to listen to me, Cap'n Kendrick," he said. "I know it sounds crazy, this proposal of mine, but it isn't. How much do you know about this Fair Harbor place; its history and so on?"
Captain Sears explained that his sister had written him some facts concerning it and that recently Judah Cahoon had told him more details. The judge wished to know what Judah had told. When informed he nodded.
"That's about right, so far as it goes," he admitted. "Fairly straight, for a Bayport yarn. It doesn't go far enough, though. Here is the situation:
"Lobelia, when she first conceived the fool notion," he said, "came to me, of course, to arrange it. I was her father's lawyer for years, and so naturally I was looking out for her affairs. I said all I could against it, but she was determined, and had her way. She, through me, set aside the Sylvanus Seymour house and land to be used as a home for what she called 'mariners' women' as long as--well, as long as she should continue to want it used for that purpose. She would have been contented to pay the bills as they came, but, of course, there was no business method in that, so we arranged that she was to hand over to me fifty thousand dollars in bonds, the income from that sum, plus the entrance fees and one hundred dollars yearly paid by each inmate, was to run the place. That is the way it has been run. She christened it the Fair Harbor. Heaven knows I had nothing to do with that.