“I do, most heartily.”
“Just touch a match to this paper you dropped. Here ’tis. I cal’late you wa’n’t intending for no one to see this but Beth.”
“That is true, Josiah. I wished to keep her from going any further with Mr. McGowan.” With trembling fingers he set fire to that piece of paper.
“One word more about money. What are you going to do about the loan on this place?”
“You may keep that, Josiah, as a token of my appreciation for what you have done.”
“Not this one,” said the Captain. “That’s honest enough to pass. I mean that one the interest has been paid on all these years.”
“I’m afraid that my lawyers foreclosed on that at noon–––”
“From what Harold said, I cal’late you’ll 371 find the interest was paid afore they had a chance to foreclose. If I was you, Jim, I’d just cancel that mortgage. The interest has more than paid it back these years. Mack’s estate otter be clear.”
The man before whom great ones had been made to tremble because of financial power, now meekly nodded assent to a sea captain.
“And we’ll just include everything you owe Mack in the papers Harold is going to draw up?”