--a very close observer would have
seen nothing in the girl's look or manner to suggest that so keen
an anxiety had touched her.

This should have been Sheila's happy day--and it was. For the first
time, the young captain of the _Seamew_ linked his interest with her
in a deliberate public appearance. Although she feared in secret the
result of that appearance at church with Tunis Latham, it
nevertheless thrilled her.

He harnessed Queenie after giving that surprised animal such a
curry-combing and polishing as she had not suffered in many a day.
Sheila rode with Prudence on the rear seat of the carryall.

"I'm berthed on the for'ard deck along o' you, Tunis," said the old
man, hoisting himself with difficulty into the front seat. "If the
afterguard is all ready, I be. Trip the anchor, boy, and set sail!"

As they passed down through Portygee Town the denizens of that part
of Big Wreck Cove were streaming to their own place of worship. It
was a saint's day, and the brown people--both men and women, ringed
of ears and garbed in the very gayest colors--gave way with smiles
and bows for the jogging old mare and the rumbling carryall. Some of
the _Seamew's_ crew were overtaken, and they swept off their hats to
Prudence and the supposed Ida May, grinning up at Tunis with more
than usual friendliness.

"Ah!" exclaimed Eunez Pareta to Johnny Lark, the _Seamew's_ cook.
"So you know she of the evil eye, eh?"

"What do you mean?" asked Johnny. "That pretty girl who rides behind
Captain Latham?"

"_Si!_"

"She has no evil eye," declared the cook stoutly.

"It is told me that she has," said the smiling girl. "And she has
put what you call the 'hoodoo' on that schooner. She come down in
her from Boston."

"What of it?" retorted the cook. "She is a fine lady--and a pretty
lady."

"So Tunis Latham think--heh?" demanded Eunez fiercely.

"And why not?" grinned Johnny.

"Bah! Has not all gone wrong with that _Seamew_ ever since she sail
in the schooner?" demanded the girl. "An anchor chain breaks; a rope
parts; you lost a topmast--yes? How about Tony? Has he not left and
will not return aboard the schooner for a price? Do you not find
calm where other schooners find fair winds? Ah!"

"Pooh!" ejaculated Johnny Lark. "Old woman's talk!"

"Not!" cried the girl hotly. "It is a truth. The saints defend us
from the evil eye! And Tunis Latham is under that girl's spell."

Johnny Lark tried to laugh again, but with less succ