s
far-scattered flock learned in time that life was sacred--even the life
of a half-dead stranger awash in the surf. They even learned to refrain
from stripping and breaking up a wrecked or grounded vessel that was
still manned by a protesting crew; and with the fear of the good priest
in their hearts (even though he was a hundred miles away), they would do
their best to bring the unfortunate mariners safely ashore and then
share the vessel with the hungry sea.

That even a deserted or unpeopled wreck should be common property may
not seem right to some people; but it seemed right to Father
McQueen--and surely he should know what was right and what was wrong! It
was sometime about the date of this story that a missionary of another
and perhaps less broad and human creed than Father McQueen's wrote to
his bishop in the spring, "Thanks to God and two wrecks we got through
the winter without starving."

Father McQueen did not hurry away from Chance Along. Six months had
passed since his last visit and so he felt that this section of his
flock demanded both time and attention. His way of knowing his people
was by learning their outward as well as their inner lives, their
physical and also their spiritual being. He was not slow to see and
understand the skipper's ambitions and something of his methods. He read
Black Dennis Nolan for a strong, active, masterful and relentless
nature. He heard of Foxey Jack Quinn's departure and of the fight at the
edge of the cliff that had preceded it. He heard also that Quinn had
robbed the skipper before departing; but exactly what he had robbed him
of he could not learn. He questioned Dennis himself and had a lesson in
the art of evasion. He found it no great task to comfort the woman and
children of the fugitive Jack. They were well fed and had the skipper's
word that they should never lack food and clothing. He was not surprised
to learn from the deserted wife that the man had been a bully at home as
well as abroad. For his own part, he had never thought very highly of
Foxey Jack Quinn. He visited every cabin in the harbor, and those that
sheltered old and sick he visited many times. He was keenly interested
in the work that the skipper was doing among the rocks in front of the
harbor, and did not fail to point out persistently and authoritatively
that chains and ropes designed to facilitate the saving of freights
would also facilitate the saving of human lives. The skipper agreed with