myself, but I guess I know what it means
to set out on a work hoping and yearning to make good. Will it make good
for you to go back to Elas Peterman and say the feller at Sachigo is
coming right along down by the _Myra_ to-morrow, and would be pleased to
death to talk this proposition right out in the offices of the
Skandinavia? Will it?"

Nancy's eyes lit. Their hazel depths were wells of thankfulness.

"Why, surely," she said. "You mean you're going to sail to-morrow?"

Bull laughed and his laugh was infectious. The girl was smiling her
delight.

"That's so. I need to cross the Atlantic. I wasn't going till the
_Myra's_ next trip. I'll go to-morrow an' stop over in Quebec to see
your people. It just means hurrying my choreman packing my stuff while I
show you around to-morrow. That kind of fixes things, and if you'll hand
me that pleasure I'd just love to show you around some this afternoon.
There's a heap to see, and I don't fancy you missing any of it." He
passed round the desk, and picked up the girl's coat and held it out
invitingly. "Will you come right along?"

There was no denying him. Nancy looked up into his smiling eyes. She
felt there was a lot she wanted to say, ought to say, on the business
matter in hand. But it was impossible. And in her heart she was
thankful.

"Why, I'd just love to," she said, and stood up from her chair.

Very tenderly, very carefully the man's hands helped her into her coat.
And somehow Nancy was very glad the hands were big, and strong,
and--yes--clumsy.

CHAPTER IX

ON THE OPEN SEA

The _Myra_ laboured heavily. With every rise and fall of her high bows a
whipping spray lashed the faces of those on deck. The bitter
north-easterly gale churned the ocean into a white fury, and the sky was
a-race with leaden masses of cloud. There was no break anywhere. Sky and
sea alike were fiercely threatening, and the wind howled through the
vessel's top gear.

Bull Sternford had been sharing the storm with the sturdy skipper on
the bridge. He had been listening to the old man's talk of fierce
experience on the coast of Labrador. It had all been interesting to the
landsman in view of the present storm, but at last he could no longer
endure the exposure of the shelterless bridge.

"It's me for the deck and a sheltered corner," he finally declared,
preparing to pass down the iron "companion."

And the Captain grinned.

"I don't blame you," he bellowed in the shriek of t