e."

She hurried to join him. Her motions when she was on her feet were
birdlike, yet there was the same unsteadiness in her walk as in
Cap'n Ira's. Only, at the moment, he did not see it, for his eye was
glued to the telescope.

"What do you see, Ira?" she asked.

"Clap this glass to your eye," said her husband. He steadied the
telescope, having pointed it for her. "See that suit of sails? Ain't
they grand? And the taper of them masts? She's a bird!"

"Why, what schooner is it?" asked Prudence. "I never saw her before,
did I? She's bearing in for the cove."

"I cal'late she is," agreed Cap'n Ira. "And I cal'late by the
newness of that suit of sails and her lines and all that she's Tunis
Latham's new craft that he went up to Marblehead last week to bring
down here and put into commission."

"The _Seamew!_" cried Prudence, in a pleased voice. "Isn't she a
pretty sight?"

"She's a sightly craft. Looks more like a racing yacht than a cargo
boat. Still and all, Tunis has got judgment. And he's put nigh every
cent he's got, all Peke Latham left him, into this schooner. And she
not new."

"I hope Tunis has made no mistake," sighed Prudence, releasing the
glass for Ira to look through once more. "There has been trouble
enough over Peleg Latham's money."

"More trouble than the money amounted to. Split the family wide
open. 'Rion Latham was saying to me he believed Peke never meant the
money should go all one way. The Medway Lathams, them 'Rion belongs
to, is all as sore as carbuncles about Tunis getting it. But I tell
Tunis as long as the court says the money should be his, let 'Rion
and all them yap like the hungry dogs they be. Tunis has got the
marrer bone."

"Does seem a pity," the old woman said, still watching the white
splotch against the background of gray and blue. "Families ought to
be at peace."

"Peace! I swan!" snorted Cap'n Ira. "'Rion Latham is about as much
given to peace as a wild tagger. But he knows which half of his
biscuit's buttered. He'll sail with Tunis as long as Tunis pays him
wages."

The captain continued to study the approaching schooner while
Prudence went back to her household tasks.

CHAPTER II

THE CAPTAIN OF THE SEAMEW

Tunis Latham's _Seamew_, tacking for the channel into Big Wreck
Cove, wings full-spread, skimming the heaving blue of the summer
sea, looked like a huge member of the tern family. From Wreckers'
Head and the other sand bluffs guarding this roadste