"I ain't sartin 'bout that last p'int. You see, I ain't so young no
more. I'm getting up in years, and ship-owners ain't hiring none but
young men."

"Nonsense! There you go again. As long as you think and talk like
Methuselah there ain't no owner going to take a chance on you for fear
you'd forget the name of the port he'd ordered you to. You get that idea
out of your head along with the notion that Jim Fox is going to help
you, and you'll get a ship. The very best there is afloat, too."

"It's mighty kind of you to say that, Clemmie. I cal'late the notion
about Jim is purty well shook out. That's one thing I wanted to talk to
you about. You know the old place here had been sort of run down for a
good many year. I'd always held to the idea that some day I'd come back
here after I'd got rich, remodel the home, and get the best woman in all
the world to ship side by side with me as best mate. I've told you all
that afore, many the time, Clemmie."

Miss Pipkin barely nodded. The suggestion of moisture gathered in her
eyes as she gazed at the tragic face before her.

"Well, I'm back, and it looks like it was for good and all, but I ain't
got no money, and I don't see no way to get any unless I rob somebody.
And the law won't let me do that. The trouble is that I'm up to my
gunwales in debt."

"In debt!" To Miss Pipkin's mind there was no greater calamity in the
world than to be in debt. She, too, had suffered a like fate many years
ago.

"Yes. In bad, too. Jim come up to my house last spring just afore the
minister took up his new quarters here, and he says to me: 'Here's some
money to repair your place with. There'll be no interest on it. It's
because of my civic pride in the affairs of Little River that I make
you this liberal offer.' Well, it did look too good to be true, but I
couldn't see nothing wrong, and he promised me on his word to see that I
got a ship, the very next one his company was to send out. I ain't much
up on them legal papers. I ain't had nothing to do with any kind of
papers for years 'cepting owners' orders. I took his word for 'em being
straight. I wouldn't have took a cent of the money if them papers had
been straight as the Bible, but he promised me so fair and square to
place me that I fell for him hard. You know he's one of the owners of
the Atlantic Coastwise Trading Company. Well, I went right down to the
city next day, and for several days I hung round. Then, they told me
another fel