cefully late?" Without waiting for his answer, as he handed
her aboard she exclaimed:

"Oh! and what a crowd of boats! . . . I never felt so nervous in all my
life."

"There's no need," said Cai--who himself, two minutes before, had been
desperately nervous. He seated himself beside her and took the tiller.
"Push her out, port-oars! Ready?--Give way, all! . . . There's no
need," he assured her, sinking his voice; "I never saw ye look a
properer sight. Maybe 'tis the bunch o' ribbon sets 'ee off--'Tis the
first time ye've worn colour to my recollection."

"Dead black never suited me."

"I wouldn' say that. . . . But," added Cai upon a happy thought,
"if that's so, you know where to find excuse to leave off wearin' it."

"Hush!" she commanded. "How can you talk so with all these hundreds of
eyes upon us?"

"I don't care." Cai's voice rose recklessly.

"Oh, hush! or the crew'll hear us?"

"I don't care, I tell you."

"But I do--I care very much. . . . You don't pay me compliments when
we're alone," she protested, changing the subject slightly.

"I mean 'em all the time."

"Well, since compliments are flyin' to-day, that's a fine new hat you're
wearin'. And I like the badge in your buttonhole: red with gold
letters--it gives ye quite a smart appearance. What's the writin' on
it?"

"'President.' 'Tis the only red-and-gold badge in the show.
Smart? I tell 'ee I'm feelin' smart."

It was indeed Cai's day--his hour, rather--of triumph. He had played a
winning stroke, boldly, under the public eye: and a hundred comments of
the sightseers, as he steered through the press of boats to the
Committee Ship, testified to his success. Though he could not hear, he
felt them.

--"Well!"

--"Proper cuttin'-out expedition, as you might call it."

--"And she with a great bunch o' ribbons pinned on her,
that no-one shan't miss the meanin' of it."

--"Well, I always favoured Cap'n Hocken's chance, for my
part. An', come to think, 'tis more fitty 't should
happen so. When all's said an' done, t'other's a foreigner,
as you might say, from the far side o' the Duchy: an' if old
Bosenna's money is to go anywhere, why then, bein' Troy-earned,
let it go to a Troy man."

--"But 'tis a facer for Cap'n Hunken, all the same. Poor chap,
look at 'en."

--"Where? . . . I don't see 'en."

--"Why, forward there, on the Committee Ship: leanin' up ag