nto the room.

She scrambled out of the high four-poster and shrugged her feet into
slippers. She crept to the window, holding the nightgown close at
the neck. She felt one of the tiny objects under the soft sole of
her slipper and stooped to secure it. It was a pebble.

More pebbles rattled on the window sill. She stepped forward then
with considerable bravery, and looked down. What she saw at first
startled her. A tall, misty, gray object stood below the window,
something quite ghostly in appearance, something which moved in the
dim light.

"Why, what--"

Then the thing stamped and blew a faint whinny. She saw a pale,
long face raised and two pointed ears twitching above it.

"A horse!"

A darker figure rose up suddenly from before the strange animal.

"Ida May!"

"Why, Captain Latham!"

"Cat's foot!" exclaimed the captain of the _Seamew_. "I thought I'd
never wake you up without disturbing the old folks. No need to ask
_you_ if you rested well."

"Oh, gloriously!" whispered the girl, beaming down upon him, but
keeping out of the full range of his vision.

"Sorry I had to wake you, but I'm due at the wharf right now to see
that the hands get those clams stowed aboard. We want to get away on
the morning tide. I brought Queenie home and thought I'd better tell
you."

"Queenie?"

"The Queen of Sheba, you know. I was telling you about Cap'n Ira's
old mare."

"Oh, yes! Wait. I'll dress and be right down."

"That's all right," said Tunis. "I'll wait."

She scurried into the clothes she had laid out before going to bed.
In five minutes she crept down the stairs into the kitchen and out
of the back door. Tunis, holding the sleepy mare by her rope bridle,
met her between the kitchen ell and the barn.

"You look as bright as a new penny," he chuckled. "But it's early
yet for you to be astir. I'll put Queenie in her stable and show you
where the feed is. Aunt Prue will like to have her back. She sets
great store by the old mare. She won't be much bother to you, Ida
May."

"Nothing will ever be a bother to me here, Captain Latham," said the
girl cheerfully.

"That's the way to talk," he said, with satisfaction. "Just you keep
on that tack, Ida May, and things will go swimmingly, I've no
doubt."

In ten minutes he was briskly on his way to the town. The girl
watched him from the back stoop as long as he was to be seen in the
morning mist. Then she went back into the house, made a more careful
toilet,