y from Chance Along. Maybe they'll be comin' for her widout
waitin' for spring? She bes a wonder at the singin', an' no mistake--the
best I ever hear in all me v'yages into foreign ports. An' the looks o'
her! Holy saints, they bain't scarce human!"

Nick Leary grinned through his bandage.

"Aye, Pat, ye've got the discarnin' eye in yer head--ye an' the
skipper," he said. "However the skipper kep' himself away from Chance
Along for t'ree entire days, wid herself a-singin' an' a-flashin' her
eyes right in his own house, bes a puzzle to me. Aye, sure it do, for
didn't I see her put the spell o' women on to him the very first minute
she opened her eyes at him on the fore-top o' the wrack."

"Leave the skipper be, Nick Leary," said Mary. "Never half a word would
ye be sayin' if he could hear ye. Leave him an' his business be. He bes
a good friend to ye--aye, an' to every soul in the harbor who don't
cross him."

"Sure, Mary, I bain't meanin' naught," returned Nick. "Sure he bes a
good friend to me!"

Pat Kavanagh smiled and took up his fiddle and his bow. His hands were
still for a minute, and then the instrument began to sigh and trill. The
sounds gathered in strength, soared high, then thinned and sank to no
more than the whisper of a tune--and then Pat began to sing. This is
part of what he sang:--

"Come all ye hardy fishermen
An' harken to me song,
O' how the mermaid from the wrack
Come ashore in Chance Along.

"Her eyes was like the sea in June,
Her lips was like a rose,
Her voice was like a fairy bell
A-ringin' crost the snows.

"The Skipper he forgot the wrack,
Forgot the waves a-rollin',
For she had put the witchy spell
On Skipper Dennis Nolan.

* * * * *

"Come all ye hardy fishermen
An' larn from this me song,
To turn yer eyes the other way
To the girls from up-along."

"Yer songs get more foolish every day, father dear," said Mary.

"Sure, Pat, Mary bes right," said Leary. "Ye sings as if the girls in
Chance Along hadn't so much as one eye in the heads o' the entire crew
o' them. Now I bes t'inkin' as how there bes a girl in this harbor wid
eyes an' lips----"

"Sure, Nick, yer thoughts bes no better nor father's songs," interrupted
Mary.

CHAPTER XIII

BILL BRENNEN PREACHES LOYALTY

Black Dennis Nolan was permitted an interview with Miss Flora Lockhart
in the afte