ame astern again to where she
sat.

"You'll need to let me take her," said I; "there's a squall behind us."

"What of that?" said she. "Can I not steer through a squall?"

"No, Miss Kit," said I; "it takes a man to send her through when the
weather gets up. Pull the wrap well about you, and make up your mind
for a wetting."

She sniffed a little at my tone.

"I see you are captain of this ship," said she.

"Ay, ay; and I've a valuable freight aboard," said I.

Whereat she gave it up, and sat with her hair waving in the wind and her
sailor's wrap about her shoulders.

It was a nasty, sudden squall, with a shower of hail and half a cap of
wind in it. Luckily it was straight behind us. Had we been crossing
it, it would have caught us badly. As it was, although it gave us a
great toss, and now and then sent a drenching wave over our backs and
heads, we were in no real peril. Our only difficulty was that, unless
it eased off before we came within reach of Knockowen, we should have to
cross it to get home. But that was far enough away yet.

Miss Kit, who for all her pretty bragging had had little commerce in the
mighty deep, sat still for a while, startled by the sudden violence of
the wind and the onslaught of the waves behind us. But as soon as she
discovered that all the harm they did was to wet her pretty head and
drench her boxes, and when, moreover, she satisfied herself by a chance
glance or two at my face that there was nothing to fear, she began to
enjoy the novel experience, and even laughed to see how the boat tore
through the water.

"Why can't we go on like this, straight out to the open sea?" said she.

"We could do many a thing less easy," said I. "It's well Knockowen's no
nearer the open sea than it is."

"Why?"

"If it was as far as Kilgorman," said I, "we'd meet the tide coming in,
and then it would be a hard sea to weather."

"Kilgorman!" said she, catching at the name; "were you ever there,
Barry?"

"Once," said I guiltily, "when I should not have been. And I suffered
for it."

"How? what happened?"

"Indeed, Miss Kit; it's not for the likes of you to hear; and his honour
would be mad if he knew of it."

"You think I'm a tell-tale," said she. "I'm your mistress, and I order
you to tell me."

"Faith, then, I saw a ghost, mistress!"

She laughed, and pleasant the sound was amid the noise of the storm.

"You won't make me believe you're such a fool as that," said she. "