lly?" she asked. The two men, preparing food at the
table, raised their eyes with no surprise, and Captain Jared Brown
replied:

"Isterin'." Then with a huge clasp knife he opened a can of tomatoes,
raised it to his lips and drained the contents. Tomatoes were Jared's
only dissipation.

"Has he been gone all day?" Janet waited until the empty can was set
down.

"The better part of it." The man wiped his lips with the back of his
hand.

"Does he have a patrol to-night?"

"No! no!" Jared began to show an interest.

"I'm going to surprise him. Don't let on, Jared, if you see him. Who is
in the lookout?"

"John Thomas."

Janet went to the stairway.

"John Thomas!" she called up, "don't let on to Cap'n Billy that I'm
here."

"I don't report no derelicts!" shouted John from aloft. John Thomas was
an unsmiling humorist and the idol of the undemonstrative crew. He had
seen the girl's approach and was ready with his answer.

Then Janet went across the sand hill to Billy's little house. Inside all
was as neat and trim as a ship's cabin. Billy ate with the men at the
Station, but the tiny kitchen was ready for Janet whenever she came as,
also, was the orderly bedchamber beyond the living room. Billy kept to
his lean-to, when away from the government house. The rooms were too
stifling for the girl. She could not bear the loneliness that only
empty houses have; she went out and sat upon the sand dune on the ocean
side. It was never lonely in the big open world! Presently small things
caught and held her excited mind. Far out a sail was passing beyond the
bar, and away--where? Then a gull swooped low in wide free circles, and
passed--whither? Closer at hand, the stiff grass, stirred by the wind,
made perfect circles upon the white sand. Deeper and deeper the grass
cut until there were little ditches, and then the sand fell in, and the
patient grass, guided by the unseen power, began again. Janet's unrest
found peace in these small happenings. This was home. Safety and Billy
would soon come and gather her into the strong stillness of love!

"I told him I was afraid of the city folks; and he laughed!" she
whispered, "but they've caught, or they have nearly caught, Billy's poor
fish!" She flung her head up with an air of defiance. Whatever came, she
must meet it as Billy had taught her to meet the storms of childish
passion.

Suddenly she became aware of a sound behind her. She turned, and there
was Billy! The surpris