's all we ha' left now, John--lay a light hand to her."

II

Up to old man Shepperd's the dance was on, and Bess Lowe was there; and
not long before the American captain blew through the door; and no
dreary passage of time before he spied Bess.

"Why, Bess, God bless you, how are you? And you ain't forgot? And do I
get a dance this evenin' or no? Tell me, do I, now? Ay, that's
you--hard-hearted as ever. Eyes to light a vessel to port, but never a
soft look in 'em."

"My eyes, Captain Leary?"

"Ay, your eyes, Bess. Eyes, Bess, that the likes of never looked across
the bay before--eyes that flash out from the dark like twin shore-lights
when a man's been weeks to sea."

"Oh, Captain Leary!" breathed Bess; and presently took to sighing, and
from sighing to smiling, and all at once burst out into such laughter
that the whole company took notice; whereat a huge, surly man in a
corner went into the back room.

"Gi' me one drink and I'll smash him into bits," the big man said to
Lackford, the trader, who was standing guard in the back room over the
little jug which Shepperd kept handy for his guests.

"What, now? No. Not now, please, not now. There'll be plenty of chances
for fighting in the morning. The crowd is only waiting for daylight to
make a move. They want you. Come on now, do, and get a good night's
sleep so's to be feeling good in the morning. Come on now. And you'll
have two hundred men at your back in the morning, remember; and
remember, too, that after you've put the American out of the way all the
girls in the bay'll fall to your hand."

The big man was diverted, and passed out with Lackford, meantime that
Leary, with an arm half around the girl's waist, was pleading: "The next
dance for me, hah, Bess?"

"Ay, captain--who could deny you?" and they went at it.

'Twas a shuffling across the floor, a whirling of buxom partners by
husky men, who never omitted to mark the measure with the thump of
boot-heels that jumped the dust from cellar to roof. Shouting, stamping,
joking, smiling, with quick breathing--such joy entirely it was, with
Tim Lacy, oilskinned and jack-booted, leading the swing across the
floor. Yes, and back again, although on him, even as on Leary, old
Shepperd looked with disapproving eye.

"A wonder, Tim Lacy, you wouldn't leave your gear on your vessel," he
snorted.

"Sure, an' I'm on my way to the vessel now, an' she'll be leavin' the
bay for the States in the mornin'."

"You