who had been persecuted, unfairly accused of stealing, sent to a
place worse than prison, afterward branded with the stigma of
"jailbird"; that girl whom Tunis Latham had befriended, had rescued
from a situation which she could not think of now without a feeling
of creeping horror.

Was she going to give over without a fight to this new claimant a
place which had been and still was her only refuge? It could not be
expected that she would do this. She had had no warning of this
catastrophe. There had been no opportunity to prepare for a
situation which must have shocked her terribly in any case. But if
she had only had time--

Time? Time for what? To run away? Or to prepare the Balls, for
instance, for the coming of this new claimant? And who knew this
girl who said she was Ida May Bostwick? Sheila Macklin was fully
aware of the history of Sarah Honey, of her marriage which had quite
cut her off from her Cape Cod friends, and of the little that was
known at Big Wreck Cove about her daughter, who, since babyhood, had
never been seen here.

How was one to be sure if this were really the right Ida May? If one
girl could make the claim and carry it through so easily, why not
another? How could this girl, crying in the rocking-chair, prove her
statement that she was Mrs. Ball's niece?

These thoughts seethed in Sheila Macklin's brain. She must keep
cool! She must hold herself down, keep control of her own mind, and
keep the whip hand of this girl before her.

And, then, there was Tunis to think of. The appearance of the real
Ida May Bostwick wrecked all her happiness, of course, with Tunis.
Sheila could not let him continue his association with her. Yet what
course should she pursue to save him? That suddenly became the first
consideration in Sheila Macklin's mind.

How to do this? How to save Tunis from being overwhelmed by the
result of his own ill-considered deed? Impulse and love on Tunis
Latham's part had brought about this terrible situation. Not that
the girl blamed him in the least. Her thought was to protect the
captain of the _Seamew_ from being sucked into the whirlpool which
she clearly beheld beside her path.

Save Tunis! It must be done. This little, inconsequential,
weak-minded, loose-lipped girl must not be allowed to wreck Tunis
Latham's life. If people came to accept as true the tale the girl
could relate, Tunis' reputation would be smirched utterly in the
opinion of all Big Wreck Cove folk.

Muc