the grating. The girl turned toward them, her head up.

"Thank you," she said, and went below.

"That's over," said Lund, letting out whatever emotions he might have
repressed in a long breath. "Now, then, trim ship! Watch-off, get below.
We're goin' to drive her for all she's worth."

He took the wheel himself as the men jumped to the sheets and soon Lund
was getting every foot of possible speed out of the schooner. He was as
good a sailor as Simms, inclined to take more chances, but capable of
handling them.

The girl kept below and seldom came out of her cabin, Tamada serving her
meals in there. Rainey could see Lund's resentment growing at this
attitude that seemed to him normal enough, though it might present
difficulty later if persisted in. But the morning that they headed up
through Sequam Pass between the spouting reefs of Sequam and Amlia
Islands, she came on deck and went forward to the bows, taking in deep
breaths of the bracing air and gazing north to the free expanse of
Bering Strait. Rainey left her alone, but Lund welcomed her as she came
back aft.

"Glad to see you on deck again, Miss Peggy," he said. "You need sun and
air to git you in shape again."

His glance held vivid admiration of her as he spoke, a glance that ran
over her rounded figure with a frank approval that Rainey resented, but
to which the girl paid no attention. She seemed to have made up her mind
to a change of attitude.

"How far have we yet to go?" she asked.

"A'most a thousan' miles to the Strait proper," said Lund. "The
Nome-Unalaska steamer lane lies to the east. Runs close to the
Pribilofs, three hundred miles north, with Hall an' St. Matthew three
hundred further. Then comes St. Lawrence Isle, plumb in the middle of
the Strait, with Siberia an' Alaska closin' in."

He was keen to hold her in conversation, and she willing to listen,
assenting almost eagerly when he offered to point out their positions
on the chart, spread on the cabin table. Lund talked well, for all his
limited and at times luridly inclined vocabulary, whenever he talked of
the sea and of his own adventures, stating them without brag, but
bringing up striking pictures of action, full of the color and savor of
life in the raw. From that time on Peggy Simms came to the table and
talked freely with Lund, more conservatively with Rainey.

The newspaperman was no experienced analyst of woman nature, but he saw,
or thought he saw, the girl watching Lund c