to be cast ashore. Tier upon tier of barrels
of clams were stored under the open sheds, ready to be packed away
in the _Seamew's_ hold. Orion loudly acclaimed against a malign
fate.

"Hi golly! Ain't we goin' to have no spare time at all? This running
in a coasting packet is plain slavery; that's what it is! A man
don't have a chance even to go home and change his socks 'tween
trips."

"Have a clean pair in your duffel bag; then you won't have to go
home for 'em, 'Rion," advised Tunis. "We've got to make hay while
the sun shines. There'll be loafing enough to cut into the profits
by and by when bad weather breaks."

Orion grunted pessimistically. Little in this world ever just suited
Orion.

"She's a hoodooed packet. I said it from the first," he muttered to
Horry. "You know well enough what she was before they gave her a
lick of paint and a new name. We'll all pay high yet for sailin' in
her."

"I wouldn't let Cap'n Tunis hear me say that 'nless I was seekin' a
new berth," rejoined the old mariner.

Tunis left the mate and Horry to carry on while he took the
passenger ashore, meaning to spend the night himself at home with
Aunt Lucretia. He stopped to get Eunez Pareta's father to harness up
his old horse and transfer Miss Bostwick's trunk and bag to the Ball
homestead. Eunez was in evidence--as she always was when Tunis came
by--a bird of paradise indeed. Her languishing glances at Tunis
flashed in their change to suspicious glares at the girl waiting in
the roadway.

"You have a guest, Tunis Latham?" she asked with a composure which
scarcely hid her jealousy and doubt.

"I'm taking her up to the Balls'. She's Mrs. Ball's niece, Eunez,"
Tunis said good-naturedly. He was always friendly with these
Portygees. That was why he got along so well with them and they
liked to work for him. Many of the Big Wreck Cove folk looked upon
them even now as "furriners" who had to be shouted at if one would
make them understood.

"What does she come for?" asked Eunez sharply.

"They need her up there. Mrs. Ball is feeble and so is the captain.
She is going to live with them right along."

"Ah-ha!" whispered Eunez, as he passed her to step outside the house
again. She seized his arm and swung him around to face her, for she
was strong. "You think she is pretty, Tunis?" she demanded.

"Eh? What's eating on you, Eunez? I never stopped to think whether
she was or not?"

But he flushed, and she saw it. Eunez smiled in a