you shouldn't come to any harm
through him, so I just left Freekirk Head the next morning on the
steamer, took a train to Halifax, and had the schooner pick me up
there. Off Halifax they told me that the _Nettie B._ was six hours
ahead of us and going hard, so we had to wing it out for all there was
in this one. I had provided all the naval fixings before, realizing
that we would probably have to use them some time, and that's all
there is to it."

"Well, Elsa, I'll say this--that I don't believe that there was ever a
schooner built that could outgame and outsail this one. She's a
wonder!"

For a while they talked of trite and inconsequential things. It was
very necessary that they become firmly grounded on their new footing
of genuine friendship before departing into personalities; and so, for
two days, they avoided any but the most casual topics.

As the weather was exceptionally warm, with a spicy salt breeze that
seemed to bear the very germ of life in its midst, they had breakfast
and luncheon on deck, dining below in the rosy little dining-room.

Thirty-six hours before they expected to catch the fishing fleet (it
had been maneuvered so that Code should be restored to the _Charming
Lass_ after dark), Elsa opened the subject of Code's trouble with Nat
Burns. It was morning, and his recent days of ease and mental
refreshment had made him see things clearly that had before been
obscured by the great strain under which he labored.

Code told her the whole thing from beginning to end, leaving out only
that part of Nat's cumulative scheme that had to do with Nellie
Tanner. He showed Elsa how his enemy had left no stone unturned to
bring him back home a pauper, a criminal, and one who could never
again lift his head among his own people even though he escaped years
in prison.

It was a brief and simple story, but he could see Elsa's face change
as emotions swept over it. Her remarks were few, but he suddenly
became aware that she was harboring a great and lasting hatred against
Nat. He did not flatter himself that it was on his own account, nor
did he ask the reason for it, but the knowledge that such a hatred
existed came to him as a decided surprise.

When he had finished his narrative she sat for some little time
silent.

"And you think, then," she asked at last, "that his motive for all
this is revenge, because his father happened to meet death on the old
_May?_"

"So far it has seemed to me that that c