, his hands in his pockets and his brows knit. His
mind had gone off again to this other vastly important thing.

She noticed it with a twinge of vexation. She vastly preferred the
personal.

"What was it old Jed Martin said to you this afternoon?" he asked.

"That if the opinions of old sailors were of any account Nat Burns
could get up a pretty good case against you for the loss of the _May
Schofield_."

"I suppose he meant his own opinion. He's an old sailor now, but if he
lives to be a hundred and fifty he'll never be a good one. I could
beat his vessel if I was on a two-by-four with a pillow-case for a
mains'l. I can't understand why he has turned against me."

"It isn't only he, it's--"

"I know it!" he burst out passionately. "It's the whole island of
Grande Mignon from Freekirk Head to Southern Cross. Not a man nor
woman but has turned against me since that awful day.

"Great God! what do they think? That I wrecked the poor old _May_ for
the fun of the thing? That I enjoyed fighting for my life in that sea
and seeing the others drown with my very eyes? Don't they suppose I
will carry the remembrance of that all my life? My Heaven, Elsa, that
was six months ago and I have just begun to sleep nights without the
nightmare of it riding me!"

"Poor boy!"

Her voice calmed him like a touch on a restive horse, and yet he
unconsciously resented the fact that it did. "I haven't been blind,
Code, and I have heard and seen this thing growing. It is hard for a
fisherman to lose his ship and not suffer for it afterward at the
hands of inferior sailors. I've known you all my life, Code, and I
believe in you now just as I did that day in school you took the
whipping I should have got for passing you a note.

"You haven't heard the last of the _May Schofield_, and you won't
until you lay the ghost that has come out of its grave. But whatever
you do or wherever you are, I want you to remember that I stand ready
to help you in every way I can. All this"--she swept her arm about the
richly furnished room--"is worthless to me now that Jim is gone,
unless I can do some good for those I like. Please, Code, will you
feel free to call on me if you need help?"

The flush that had receded returned with a flood of color that made
his face beneath its fair hair appear very dark.

"Really, Elsa," he stammered, "that's awfully handsome of you, but I
hope things won't go so far as that. I can never forget what you have
said."