qual of living down here on the Cape, with her own
folks, as you might say. Yes, Tunis, you'll be doing an errand of
mercy mebbe both ways."

CHAPTER V

LOOKING FOR IDA MAY

The _Seamew_ was put in commission in a very few days. Tunis Latham
had many friends in and about Big Wreck Cove, and he had little
difficulty in picking up a cargo, which was loaded right at the
port.

As for the schooner's crew, Tunis could have filled every billet
four times over had he so desired. But he had already picked his
crew with some care. Mason Chapin was mate, a perfectly capable
navigator who might have used his ticket to get a berth on a much
larger craft than the _Seamew_. But he had an invalid wife and
wished only to leave home on brief voyages. Johnny Lark was shipped
as cook, with a Portygee boy, Tony, to help him.

Forward, Horace Newbegin served as boatswain and Orion Latham was a
sort of supercargo and general handy man. He was Tunis' cousin,
several times removed. There were four Portygees to make up the
company, a full crew for a sailing vessel of the tonnage of the
_Seamew_. Yet every man was needed in handling her lofty canvas and
in loading and unloading freight.

With a well-stowed cargo below deck the schooner sailed even better
than she had in ballast. She slipped out of the cove through the
rather tortuous channel like an eel through the meshes of a broken
trap. In the dawn, and with a fresh outside breeze just ruffling the
sea into whitecaps, they broke out her upper sails and caught the
very last breath of the gale the canvas would draw.

Cap'n Ira, and even Prudence, had got up before daybreak to see the
schooner pass. They watched her, turn and turn about at the
spyglass, till she was blotted out by the distant fog bank.

"I swan," said the old man, "when she heaves into view again I hope
she'll have Ida May Bostwick aboard! That is what _I_ hope."

"The dear girl!" breathed Prudence.

It never crossed their simple minds that Ida May Bostwick might see
this chance they offered her in a different light from that in which
they looked at it. The old couple made their innocent plans for the
welcoming of the "grandniece," positive that a happy future was in
store for both Ida May and themselves.

In Tunis Latham's mind there was more uncertainty regarding the
mysterious Ida May Bostwick than there was in the minds of Cap'n
Ira and Prudence. Whenever he considered his "errand of mercy" the
captai