--I'll fight ye. And,
by hell, when I do I'll kill ye wid me two hands!"

"I'll take the chance. Unless you starve me or cripple me in the
meantime, I'll knock the everlasting life out of you."

The skipper growled and took up his interrupted work of investigating
the other's pockets. He unbuttoned the heavy reefer and thrust a hand
into an inner pocket. In a second he withdrew it, holding the little
casket bound in red leather. A cry of astonishment escaped him. He
pressed the catch with his thumb and the diamonds and rubies flashed and
glowed beneath his dazzled eyes.

"Me own diamonds!" he cried. "Holy saints alive, me own diamonds!
Where'd ye find 'em? Tell me that, now--where'd ye find 'em?"

Darling did not reply for a moment. Then, speaking quietly and somewhat
bitterly, he said, "If you really want to know, I found them on a dead
man, under the cliff a few miles to the north of here."

"That would be Foxey Jack Quinn," said the skipper. He closed the box
and put it in his pocket, then took up the lantern and went out, locking
the door behind him.

In the meantime, Mary Kavanagh had not been idle. She felt sure that the
stranger was safe from bodily harm for the night at least, now that
Dennis had shaken off the first blind deviltry of his rage. She knew
Dennis almost as well as old Mother Nolan did; and to-night she felt
sorry for him as well as angry with him. Leaving Flora in Mother Nolan's
care, she left the house, and followed Cormick and the others down to
the land-wash. The fog was thinning swiftly; but night had fallen, and
the sky, sea and land were all black as tar. She soon learned that no
sign of the stranger's boat could be found in the harbor. Returning from
the land-wash, she met Nick Leary.

"How bes ye a-feelin' now?" she asked, not unkindly. "But it served ye
right, Nick. A great man like ye has no call to be fightin' wid women."

"Me poor head buzzes like a nest o' wasps whin ye pokes it wid a club,"
said Nick. "Sure, Mary, 'twas a sweet tap ye give me! Marry me, girl,
an' ye'll be free to bat me every day o' yer born life."

"Sure, an' 'twould do ye no harm," said Mary. And then, "So ye've shut
the poor lad in the store, have ye?"

"Aye, but how'd ye know it, Mary?"

"I didn't know it, Nick, till ye telled me. Now go on wid yer business
o' huntin' for the boat an' I'll be goin' on wid mine. An' thanks for
yer offer, lad; but sure I'll never marry a man I kin knock down wid the
leg