tune to be united to
such a woman as Mrs. Tobin. The captain was only acting in
self-defence in his dash by his home and the wife he had chosen. John
pictured to himself the state of affairs on the "Eb and Flo" had Mrs.
Tobin gone aboard and there found the runaway girl. Explanation, he
knew, would be useless, and it would be a very serious matter for the
captain and his fair passenger. In fact, he felt quite proud of the
captain's action, and considered him in the light of a hero. He pitied
him as well, for he knew that he would have to face his wife's sharp
tongue and searching questions upon his next visit home.

While the young man was thinking of these things, Mrs. Hampton was
talking with her visitor. The latter was sipping a cup of tea, and
nibbling at a piece of cake. She was becoming calmer under Mrs.
Hampton's soothing influence, and inclined to take a brighter view of
the situation.

"Keep up courage, Mrs. Tobin," John told her as he turned to leave the
room. "I must hurry away now. If I happen to see the captain I shall
tell him of your anxiety. You might, indeed, worry if your husband had
the habit of running off with some other woman. But he is too old and
steady for such nonsense." John knew how this would arouse the woman,
for jealousy was one of her chief characteristics.

"That is just what I do fear," Mrs. Tobin replied. "Sam'l was always a
little soft about women, and there are too many bad hussies in the
city. When a man is away from home as much as he is, you can never be
sure what he's up to. Why, even now he might have one of them brazen
creatures on board. No, there's no fool like an old fool when it comes
to women."

"But Eben's with him, isn't he? The captain wouldn't surely cut up any
capers with his son on board."

"Eben! H'm! Little good would he be. He lives in the clouds when he
isn't eating and sleeping. He wouldn't notice anything wrong with a
dozen hussies on board. I don't know what I'm going to do with that
boy."

"You are certainly worried about your family, Mrs. Tobin."

"Indeed I am, and no one knows it as well as I do. I'm not even
certain of Flo. She has notions of her own which don't at all agree
with my way of thinking."

John smiled broadly as he bade the woman good-bye, and left the house.
Mrs. Tobin amused him greatly, and he was thinking of the lively scene
that would take place when the captain came home.

CHAPTER XVI

MOKE THAN