half believed it must be you that they sent me for--until I came
face to face with that other girl."

Her face dimpled suddenly; her eyes shone. The look she gave him
passed through Tunis Latham like an electric shock. He trembled. He
would have drawn her closer.

"Not here, Tunis," she whispered. "But if you dare take me--knowing
what and who I am--I am all yours. Whenever you feel that you can
take me I shall be ready. Can I say more, Tunis?"

He looked at her solemnly. "I am the happiest man alive. I am the
happiest man alive, Ida May!" he breathed.

CHAPTER XVIII

IDA MAY THINKS IT OVER

The _Seamew_ sailed next day, short-handed. Not only had Tony, the
boy, left, but one of the foremast hands did not put in an
appearance. A grinning Portygee boy came to the wharf and announced
that "Paul, he iss ver' seek."

Tunis knew it would be useless to go after the man, just as it had
been useless to go after Tony. He had been unable to ship another
boy in Tony's place, and when he let it be known among the dock
laborers and loungers about Luiz Wharf that there was a berth open
in the _Seamew's_ forecastle, nobody applied for it.

"What is the matter with those fellows?" the skipper asked Mason
Chapin. "They were tumbling over each other a few weeks ago to join
us, and now there isn't an offer."

"Some Portygee foolishness," grumbled the mate.

"I wonder," muttered Tunis.

"You wonder if it's so?" queried the mate. "You know how silly
these people are once they get a crazy notion in their heads."

"What's the crazy notion, Mr. Chapin?"

The mate flung up his hands and shrugged his shoulders.

"A haunt--a jinx--_something_. The Lord knows!"

"I wonder if it is a Portygee notion or something else," said Tunis
Latham, his eyes fixed on the back of Orion, busy, for once, at the
other rail.

"Whatever it is, Captain Latham," said Mason Chapin with gravity, "I
suggest you fill your berths at Boston."

"Guess I'll have to. But the offscourings of the city docks! They
will be worse than these Portygees."

It was not a prospect he welcomed. He well knew the sort of dock
rats he must put up with if he wished to make up his crew with city
hands for a short trip. The sea tramps who are within reach of
coasting skippers are the same kind of worthless material that
shiftless farmers must depend upon in harvest time.

Even the lack of one man forward, to say nothing of the cook's boy,
made a considerable di