IN WHICH CAPTAIN EBEN RECEIVES A CALLER At the edge of the bluff, just where the pines and the bayberry bushes were thickest, where the narrow, crooked little footpath dipped over the rise and down to the pasture land and the salt meadow, John Ellery and Grace had halted in their walk.

It was full tide and the miniature breakers plashed amid the seaweed on the beach.

The mist was drifting in over the bay and the gulls were calling sleepily from their perch along the breakwater.

A night hawk swooped and circled above the tall "feather grass" by the margin of the creek.

The minister's face was pale, but set and determined, and he was speaking rapidly.
"I can't help it," he said.