girl beside him would
fit into the needs of the old couple living there alone on Wreckers'
Head. It was an idle thought, of course. He had no plan, or scheme,
or definite suggestion in his mind. It was only a wish, a keen
longing for an impossible conjunction of circumstances which would
have enabled him to present Sheila Macklin to Cap'n Ira and Prudence
and say:

"This is the girl you sent me for."

"Just what will you do now that you have lost that job, Miss
Macklin?" Tunis asked abruptly.

"Oh, after I am rested, I will go home!"

He had a sudden flash of the memory of that stark lodging house
where Ida May Bostwick lived, and he felt assured this girl's home
could be no better. But he did not mention this thought.

"I did not mean it just that way," he told her, smiling. "First you
and I will go and get supper somewhere. I did not half finish mine,
and you have had none at all."

"I don't know about that," she interposed. "It is generous of you.
But ought I to accept?"

"You need not question that. We are going to be friends, Miss
Macklin. Is it necessary for me to bring you references?"

"It may be necessary for me to obtain a sponsor," she said, quite
seriously. "You do not know a thing about me, Captain Latham."

"You know nothing about me, except what I have told you." And he
laughed.

"And what I read in your countenance," she said soberly.

He grinned at her, but rather ruefully.

"I never knew my thoughts were advertised in my face."

"Oh, no! Not that! But your character is. Otherwise I would not be
sitting here with you."

"I guess that's all right then," he declared with satisfaction.
"Well, let's call it a draw. If you take me at face value, I'll take
you at the same rating. Anyhow, we can risk going to supper
together."

"Well, somewhere to a quiet place. Don't take me where you are
known, Captain Latham."

"No?" He was puzzled again. "But, then, I am not known anywhere in
Boston."

"All the better. I ought not to lend myself in any way to making you
possible future trouble."

"I do not understand you, Miss Macklin."

He sat up suddenly on the bench to look at her more sharply. There
was an underlying, but important, meaning to her speech.

"I know you do not understand," she rejoined gently. She sighed. "I
must make you clearly see just who I am and the risk you run in
associating with me."

"The risk I run!"

He uttered the words in both amazement and ridicule.

"You