e his cousin's
business with the _Seamew_. If he talked like this before the more
or less superstitious Portygees, how long would Tunis manage to keep
a crew to work the schooner?

Had she dared she would have taken Orion to task there and then for
his unfaithfulness. The fellow was, as Cap'n Ira had once observed,
one of those yapping curs always envious of the braver dog's bone.

To the girl's disgust, too, Orion Latham showed plainly that he
considered that he, as an older acquaintance of the girl, could
presume upon that fact. He clung to her throughout the evening like
a mussel to duck grass. Of all the Big Wreck Cove youth, he was the
only one that she could not put in his place.

She did not think it wise to snub him so openly that Orion would
take offense. This course might do the captain of the _Seamew_ harm.
She foresaw trouble in the offing for Tunis, in any case, and she
did not wish to do anything that would spur Orion to further and
more successful attempts to harm his cousin's business.

There was another matter troubling Sheila's mind after Orion had
come to the harvest-home festival. Mason Chapin likewise appeared at
the church. But Tunis did not come. He knew, of course, of the
festival, and he had known when he sailed last for Boston that the
Balls and Ida May intended to go. It did seem as if Tunis might have
come, if for only a little while, before going home.

These thoughts made Sheila rather inattentive to other proposals,
and she found herself obliged to go down to supper with Orion, since
he had outsat and outtalked all the other young men who had hovered
about her. She was nice to Orion; the girl could scarcely be
otherwise, even to those she disliked, unless some very important
matter arose to disturb her, but she did not enjoy the remainder of
the evening, and she was glad when Cap'n Ira and Prudence were ready
to go home. It was full time, the girl thought.

Even then Orion Latham assumed altogether too much authority.
Sheila had been about to send little John-Ed around for Queenie and
the carryall, but Orion put the boy aside with a self-assured grin.

"Nobody ain't going to put you in the carriage, Ida May, but me," he
declared. "I'll get the old mare."

He seized his cap and went out. In a few minutes they had said
good-bye, and the old couple and the girl went out on the church
steps. Sheila saw the carryall standing before the door. A figure
stood at the old mare's head which