"Not an atom. I told you it was a fairy tale. And I mustn't be quoted in
the matter. Honestly, the most of it is guess work, at that. But perhaps
a 'committee of one,' dropping a hint at home, might at least arouse
some uncomfortable questioning of a certain great man. That's about all,
though. Proof is quite another thing."

The captain pondered. He was fully aware that the unpopularity of the
"committee" would nullify whatever good its hinting might do.

"Humph!" he grunted again. "It's one thing to smell a rat and another to
nail its tail to the floor. But I'm mighty obliged to you, all the same.
And I'll think it over hard. Say! I can see one thing--you don't take a
very big shine to Heman yourself."

"Not too big--no. Do you?"

"Well, I don't wake up nights and cry for him."

Everdean laughed.

"That's characteristic," he said. "You have your own way of putting
things, Captain, and it's hard to be improved on. Atkins has never done
anything to me. I just--I just don't like him, that's all. Father never
liked him, either, in the old days; and yet--and it's odd, too--he was
the means of the old gentleman's making the most of his money."

"He? Who? Not Heman?"

"Yes, Heman Atkins. But, so far as that goes, father started him toward