r a suit of listless sails loomed up in the dark.
But even if the other craft likewise was tacking seaward, the
_Seamew_ passed it and dropped it behind.

Tunis paced the deck--Horry was at the wheel--and quite approved of
the feat his schooner was performing.

"If she can sail like this on only a breath of wind, what can she do
in a gale?" he said buoyantly in the old man's hearing.

"That's all right. She sails pretty. But I don't like that tug to
sta'bo'd," growled Horry. "It 'minds me too much of the _Marlin B._"

Captain Latham gave no heed.

The sun stretched red beams from the horizon and took the _Seamew_,
all dressed out at sunrise in her full suit of canvas, in his arms.
She danced as lightly over the whitecaps that had sprung up with the
breeze at dawn as though she had not a ton of ballast in her hold.
Yet she was pretty well down to her Plimsoll mark.

The girl's first glimpse through the cabin window at sea and sky was
a heartening one. If she had sought repose with doubt, uncertainty,
and some fear weighing upon her spirit, this beautiful morning was
one to revive her courage. She was fully dressed and prepared to go
on deck when Tunis tapped at the slide.

"Miss Bostwick," he called, "any time you are ready the boy will
come in and lay the table for breakfast."

She ran to the companionway, pushed back the door, and appeared
smiling in the frame of the doorway.

"Good morning, captain!"

Her cheerfulness was infectious. All night Tunis Latham, even while
lying in his hammock in the forecastle, had been ruminating in
anything but a cheerful mood. Determined as he was to carry his plan
through, and confident as he was of its being a good one and
eminently practical, he had been considering many chances which at
first blush had not appeared to him.

With his first look into her smiling countenance all those anxieties
seemed dissipated. He met her smile with one which transfigured his
own handsome face.

"May I come out on deck, captain?"

"We shall be honored by your company up here, Miss Bostwick."

She even made him a little face in secret for the formality of his
address, as she flashed past him. There was a dancing light in her
eye he had not seen before--at least, not in the openness of day.
There was something daring about her that was a revelation. He knew
at once that he need not fear her attitude when they reached the
point where she must carry on her part without his aid. She
di