"Oh, don't, Ira!" gasped his sobbing wife. "She—"
"We've got to learn the straight of it," said the old man sternly. "If we've been bamboozled, we've got to know it. Now's the time for her to speak."
Sheila was still gazing at him. She nodded, indicating that his question was already answered.
"You—you mean to say you stole—like she says?"
"I was arrested in Hoskin & Marl's. They accused me of stealing. Yes."
She said no more. She turned, when he did not speak again, and walked slowly to the stairway door. She opened it and went up, closing the door behind her.
It was Ida May who moved first when she was gone. She jumped up once more and started for the stairway.
"I'll tell her what's what!" she ejaculated. "The gall of her to come here and say she was me and get my rightful place! I'll put her out with my own hands!"
Somehow—it would be hard to say just how—Cap'n Ira was before her, ere she could arrive at the stairway door.
"Avast!" he said throatily. "Don't take too much upon yourself, young woman. You don't quite own these premises—yet."