"Yes. Tell me—tell all of them—that it isn't so!" pleaded the lad.
"Of course it isn't so, Joe."
"But why did you leave so suddenly, and why did the officer come for you the next day?" asked the lighthouse keeper. "It looked bad, Nate."
"I suppose it did," said Mr. Duncan, slowly. "But it can easily be explained. I was mixed up with those wreckers"
"Father!" cried Joe.
"But not the way you think, son," went on the former lighthouse worker quickly. "Hemp Danforth and I had a quarrel. It was over some business matters that he and I were mixed up in before I learned that he and his gang were wreckers.
"We quarreled, because he tried to defraud me of my rights, and I had to give him a severe beating. Perhaps I was wrong, but I acted on impulse. Then I heard that Hemp, to get even, had accused me of being a wrecker, and he had his men ready to swear to false testimony about me; even that I let the light go out, which I never did.
"I knew I could not refute it, especially at that time, and as something came up that made it necessary for me to leave for China at once, I decided to go away. I realize now that it must
