her unspoken sympathy had begun to cheer
him, "reminds me why I'm here in Maquoit. Oh yes," he put in, hastily,
catching a queer look of disappointment on her face, "I did want to
see you. I looked forward to seeing you after all the others had turned
their backs on me. There's something wonderfully comforting in your
face, Polly, when you just look at me. You don't have to say a word."

"I do thank you, Boyd."

"I hear that Rowley is getting uneasy about his schooner--wants to
take it away from us. So I have sold my watch and all the other bits
of personal things I could turn into cash, and am here to give him the
money and tell him we're going back to fishing again."

"You'll give up the steamer?"

"Yes--and hopes and prospects and all. I've got to."

"But if you could win!"

"I'll stay down where I belong. I won't dream any more."

"Don't give up."

"There's nothing else to do. We poor devils need something besides our
bare hands."

The girl struggled mightily with her next question, but he did not note
her emotions, for his elbows were on his knees and he was staring at the
rag carpet.

"Will it cost a lot of money for what you want to do on the steamer?"

"We may need a lot before we can do it all. But I have been sitting up
nights planning the thing, Polly. I have gone over and over it. When I
was on board the steamer waiting for your father, I examined her as best
I could.. If I had a little money, I could make a start, and after I
started, and could show the doubters what could be done, I could raise
more money then. I am sure of it. Of course the first investment is the
most dangerous gamble, and that's why everybody is shy. But I believe
my scheme would work, though I can't seem to get anybody else to believe
it."

"Will I understand if you'll tell me?"

"I'd get a diver's outfit and material, and build bulk-heads in her,
both sides of the hole in her bottom. Then I'd have an engine and pumps,
and show that I could get the water out of her, or enough of it so that
she'd float."

"But the big hole, you wouldn't mend that?"

"I think we could brace the bulkheads so that we could hold the water
out of both ends of her and let the main hole in her alone."

"And she wouldn't sink?"

He was patient with the girl's unwisdom in the ways of the sea.

"Since you've been here at Maquoit, Polly, you have seen the
lobster-smacks with what they call 'wells' in them. All amidships is
full of water, y