h me, even if you
would."

Cai received the compliment with a somewhat guilty smile.

"They tell me too," she continued, "that you are standin' for the Parish
Council next month."

"Who told you?"

"Oh . . . a little bird!"

Cai did not guess at 'Bias under this description. "Well, you see, with
this here Diamond Jubilee in the offing, there's a feelin' abroad that
the town ought to sit up, as the sayin' is--"

"And you're the man to make it sit up!" said Mrs Bosenna gaily.

"Well now, I want you to help me."

Mrs Bosenna started, alert at once and on her guard; for the game of
fence she had chosen to play with these two demanded a constant
wariness.

But it seemed that for the moment Cai had no design to press his suit--
or no direct design.

"It's this way," he explained. "You know the stevedores, down at the
jetties, are givin' their usual Whit-Monday regatta--Passage Regatta, as
some call it? Well, they've made me President this year."

"More honours?"

"And I've offered a Cup; which seemed the proper thing to do, under the
circumstances. 'A silver cup, value 5 pounds, presented by the
President, Caius Hocken, Esquire': it'll look fine 'pon the bills, and
it's to go with the first prize of two guineas for sailin' boats not
exceedin' fourteen feet over-all. There's what they call a one-design
Class o' these in the harbour: which is good sport and worth
encouragin'. There's no handicap in it either: the first past the line
takes the prize--always the prettiest kind o' race to watch. Now the
favour I ask is that, when the time comes, you'll hand the Cup to the
winner."

"It--it'll look rather marked, won't it?" hesitated Mrs Bosenna.
She had as small a disinclination as any woman to find herself the
central figure in a show, and Cai (had he known it) was attacking one of
the weakest points in her siege-defences. But to accept this offer--or
(if you prefer it) to grant the favour--meant a move on the board which
might too easily lead to a trap. "Besides," she objected, "you can't do
that sort o' thing without a few words, and I've never made a public
speech in my life."

"You leave the speechifyin' to me," said Cai reassuringly: but it did
not reassure her at all. ("Good gracious!" she thought. "He's not the
sort to take advantage of it--but if he _did!_ . . . You can never trust
men.")

Cai, misinterpreting the frown on her brow, went on to assure her
further that he could manage a sp