d her that he loved her. It is not
the habit of men who rove the seas to keep those they love constantly
supplied with literature or confectionery, or to waste too many words
in the language of devotion.

He admitted frankly to himself that he had always hoped to marry her
when he had acquired the quarter interest in Bill Boughton's fishstand
that had been promised him, but he had not told her so, nor did he
know that she would accept him. The idea had been one to be thought of
only at times of quietness and confidence in his future such as come
to every man.

But he had not reckoned on Nat Burns. He had not realized quite to
what an extent Burns had made progress. He recalled, now that it was
brought forcibly home to him, that Nat had been constantly at the
Tanners' for the last four or five months. But Code had thought
nothing of this, for Nat had paid similar court at times to others of
the girls of Freekirk Head. He was, in fact, considered the village
beau.

And Nellie herself had told him nothing. There had been a modest
shyness about her in their relations that had kept him at an
exasperating and piquant distance.

Well, everything was over now, he told himself. He could take his
defeat since Nellie did not care for him.

Then he suddenly recalled Burns's actions and manner of speaking
during the harrowing moments of the fire.

"I wonder if Nat really loves her?" he asked himself. "And if not, why
did he become engaged?"

CHAPTER V

STARTLING NEWS

The home-coming of Captain Bijonah Tanner and his wife did not provide
the thrill looked for by the more morbid inhabitants of Freekirk Head.
In the excitement of the fire all hands had forgotten that cable
communication between Mignon and the mainland was unbroken.

The operator, in the pursuance of his duty, had sent word of the fire
to Eastport, and then concocted some cable despatches for Boston and
Portland papers that left nothing to be desired from the viewpoint of
sensationalism. In his zeal for filling space and eking out his
slender income, the operator left nothing standing on Grande Mignon
except the eternal rocks and the lighthouse.

It was such an account that Bijonah Tanner fed upon that morning in
the tiny cabin of the _Rosan_, and half an hour after he had read it
he was under way. Special mention had been made of Code Schofield's
rescue of little Bige, with a sentence added that the Tanner place had
been wiped out.

With thei