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John Hopkins Dennison, who had been Dr. Parkhurst's assistant, superseded me in the care of the church, and was able to bring to its support help that I could not have touched. Mr. Dennison's service to that church is worthy of a better record than it has yet received. He performed brilliant service, intensified the life of the church and gathered around it a band of noble people.

His father holding aloof, the loyal members of the crew in a most certain negligible minority, what was there to prevent Cunningham from carrying off Jane? Blood surged into Dennison's throat; a murderous fury boiled up in him; but he remembered in time what these volcanic outbursts had cost him in the past. So he did not rush to the chart house.

"It was Dennison's fault," I said, for I saw no good in dividing the blame, "and if a man can't take his luck in these things he is no use to anybody. My luck's always vile, but that doesn't matter to any one except me, and I am used to it."

The only thing that interests me about it is the fact that we have proof that the high board fence around Mr. Dennison's place ought to loom up any minute now." Hardly had Frank said this than Bluff broke in with his customary abruptness. "Right now I can see a little patch of the same fence over yonder, Frank. Notice that big beech, and look under the slanting limbs. How about it, am I right?"

It would have been wise of me to have gone away without waiting for Dennison's attempts to get level with me, but I felt like staying where I was. "Poor old fellow," Dennison groaned, "he sits up all night, and then his conscience smites him and his head aches, and he thinks the college is going to the deuce and is to be saved from perdition by his being rude.

The men shook their heads, as if confronted by something so unusual that it wasn't worth while to speculate upon it. The old man's son! They went out, locking the door. By this time Dennison's laughter had reached the level of shouting, but only he knew how near it was to tears wrathful, murderous, miserable tears! He fought his bonds terrifically for a moment, then relaxed.

So Cleigh was right? A quarter of a million in art treasures! "My word! I never before realized," continued Cunningham, "what a fine thing it is to possess something to stand on firmly a moral plank." Dennison's laughter was sardonic. "Moral plank is good," was his comment. "Miss Norman," said Cunningham, maliciously, "I slept beside the captain this morning, and he snores outrageously."

Once they went to a quilting at Squire Dennison's; the house was spotlessly neat and well-ordered; the people all kind; but Ellen thought they did not seem to know how to be pleasant. Dan Dennison alone had no stiffness about him. Miss Fortune remarked with pride, that even in this family of pretension, as she thought it, the refreshments could bear no comparison with hers.

He was clad in black, and looked like a feathered ecclesiastic; but I know not whether it were Bishop Dennison's ghost, or that of some old monk. On one side of the cloisters, and contiguous to the main body of the cathedral, stands the chapter-house.

On the dresser he saw a sheet of paper partly opened. Beside it lay a torn envelope. Dennison's heart lost a beat. The handwriting was his father's! Jane had gone to meet his father. How to secrete this note without being observed by either the manager or the Chinaman? An accident came to his aid.