it, but the pause to say sweet nothings to the second
in command was fatal to his success. He had often before had occasion
to comment ruefully upon the pace of the quarry, and especially at such
times when he felt that he had strung his courage almost up to speaking
point. To-day he was just in time to see her vanish into the front
garden of a small house, upon the door of which she knocked with
expressive vigor. She disappeared into the house just as he reached the
gate.

"Damn the mate!" he said irritably--"and the boy," he added, anxious to
be strictly impartial.

He walked on aimlessly at a slow pace until the houses ended and the
road became a lane shaded with tall trees and flanked by hawthorn
hedges. Along this he walked a little way, and then, nervously fingering
a note in his jacket pocket, retraced his steps.

"I'll see her and speak to her anyway," he muttered. "Here goes."

He walked slowly back to the house, and, with his heart thumping, and a
choking sensation in his throat, walked up to the door and gave a
little whisper of a knock upon it. It was so faint that, after waiting
a considerable time, he concluded that it had not been heard, and raised
the knocker again. Then the door opened suddenly, and the knocker, half
detained in his grasp, slipped from his fingers and fell with a crash
that made him tremble at his hardihood. An elderly woman with white hair
opened the door. She repressed a start and looked at him inquiringly.

"Cap'n Jackson in?" inquired the skipper, his nerves thoroughly upset by
the knocker.

"Who?" said the other.

"Cap'n Jackson," repeated the skipper, reddening.

"There is no such man here," said the old woman. "Are you sure it is
Captain Jackson you want?" she added.

"I'm--I'm not sure," said Wilson truthfully.

The old woman looked at him eagerly. "Will you come in?" she said
slowly, and, without giving him time to refuse, led the way into the
small front room. The skipper followed her with the conscience of a
fox invited into a poultry yard, and bringing up in the doorway, gazed
uncomfortably at the girl who had risen at his entrance.

"This gentleman is inquiring for a Captain Jackson," said the old woman,
turning to the girl. "I thought he--he doesn't seem quite sure whether
it is Captain Jackson he wants--he may bring news," she concluded
incoherently.

"It's not likely, mother," said the girl, regarding the adventurous
mariner by no means favorably. "There i