the little cove, where once Tunis had reaped clams while
Cap'n Ira and the Queen of Sheba made their unfortunate slide down
the face of the bluff. The sea was so low now that Tunis could aid
the girl across the mouth of the tiny inlet on the sand bar which
defended it from the sea. There was but one channel over which she
need leap with his help.

The cabin captivated Sheila, especially when she learned it was no
longer occupied. It had a tight tin roof and a cement-pipe chimney
with a cap to keep the rain out. The window sashes had been carried
away and the door hung by a single hinge. However, the one-roomed
cabin was otherwise tight and dry.

"Sometimes fishing parties from the port come around here and camp
for a day or two," explained Tunis. "But Hosea Westcott used to live
here altogether. Even in the winter. He caught his own fish and
split and dried them; he dug clams and picked beach plums and sold
them in town, or swapped them for what he needed. Sometimes the
neighbors gave him a day's work."

"An old and lonely man, Tunis?" the girl murmured.

"That is what he was. All his immediate family was gone. So, when he
fell ill one winter and one of the coast guards found him here
almost starved and helpless, they took him away to the poor farm."

They went on around the end of the headland and walked up the beach
toward the port. Before they reached the path by which they intended
to mount to the summit of Wreckers' Head, they observed another
couple going in the same direction, following the edge of the water
on the firm strand. The woman was dressed in such brilliant hues
that she could be mistaken for nobody but a resident of Portygee
Town.

"That is the daughter of Pareta, who brought up your trunk when you
came here, Ida May," said Tunis carelessly.

"But do you see who the man is?" she said, with some surprise. "It
is your cousin."

"'Rion? So it is. Well," he added rather scornfully, "no accounting
for tastes. She's a decent-enough girl, I guess, but we don't mix
much with the Portygees. Although most of them are all right folks,
at that. But fooling around those girls sometimes starts trouble,
as 'Rion ought to know by this time."

As they climbed the path, Tunis aiding his companion at certain
places, the girl, looking down, thought they were being closely
watched by the other couple on the beach. There was nothing in this
to disturb her mind; a feeling of confidence had overcome her since
he