eter!" replied the girl, "an' it bain't
safe the way we bes talkin' now, up an' down the drook. The lads o' the
harbor may be comin' this way an' a-hearin' us--an' then ye'll bes in as
bad a way as the captain himself. Let me come down to ye. Bes ye afeared
o' one lone woman?"

"Come down wid ye, then," said George, his voice none too steady, "but I
warns ye as how I hes a lantern here an' a pistol, an' if ye bain't all
alone by yerself I'll shoot ye like a swile an' ax ye yer business
afterwards. I's heard queer t'ings o' Chance Along!"

"I bes alone," returned Mary, "an' if ye fires yer pistol at me then ye
bes a dirty coward."

As she spoke she continued her difficult way down the channel of the
drook. She saw the yellow gleam of the lantern between the snarled stems
of the bushes. Strong, clear-headed and brave as she was, she began now
to sob quietly with fright; yet she continued to push her way down the
drook.

"They--they has caught the captain," she said, brokenly, "an' now they
bes huntin' all 'round the harbor for his boat. I has--come to tell
ye--an' to help ye."

George Wick parted the bushes, raised his lantern and peered up at her.

"There bain't no call for ye to be cryin'," he said, in a changed voice.
"If ye means no treachery, lass, then I'll not be hurtin' ye."

She stood beside him; and as he stared at her by the yellow light of the
lantern all thought of treachery from that quarter faded away. His
heart warmed and got a trifle out of hand. He could scarcely believe his
senses, and for a moment forgot John Darling and the queer stories he
had heard of Chance Along. All he realized was that his eyes and the
lantern told him that the finest looking girl he had ever seen had come
down the drook, all of her own free will, to pay him a visit.

"The skipper caught him an' tied him up in the store," whispered Mary,
"an' now all the men in the harbor bes searchin' for the boat." Then she
told the story of Flora Lockhart, and disclosed a plan for outwitting
the skipper that had just come to her mind.

"Sure, ye bes a wonder," said George, who was as clay in her hands.
"Aye, we'll be putting the comather on to Black Denny Nolan, ye kin lay
to that! Sure, it be a grand idee altogether!"

So they unloaded the bully and hid everything among the bushes.

"Now you must lay low," cautioned Mary, "an' I'll bring yer bully back
to ye as soon as I kin--or maybe one o' the skipper's bullies in its
place. A