The keeper looked at him.
"Ho! this you?" he asked.
"Nobody else."
It was the man who one day, when intoxicated, had been rescued from the bar, and the next morning had shown singular interest in the little box of sandalwood.
"Come up!" said the keeper, leading the man to the kitchen.
"I have been some time coming, haven't I?"
"Better late than never. Always glad to see people. Take that chair before the fire, and make yourself at home. I did not know as I should ever see you again. You are a Shipton man?" asked the keeper bluntly.
"Yes, I belong to Shipton; but then I am off about all the time. I think I have seen you on the street there."
"I was thinking myself I had seen you, but I couldn't say when, except that time you were at the lighthouse."
"Have you got that box now?"