place! I'll put her
out with my own hands!"

Somehow--it would be hard to say just how--Cap'n Ira was before her,
ere she could arrive at the stairway door.

"Avast!" he said throatily. "Don't take too much upon yourself,
young woman. You don't quite own these premises--yet."

"You ain't going to stand for her stayin' here any longer, are you?"
demanded the amazed Ida May.

"Whether or not she stays here is more my business and Prudence's
business than it is yours," said the old man. "But there's one thing
sure, and you may as well l'arn it first as last: you're not to
speak to her nor do anything else to annoy her. Understand?"

"You--you--"

"Heed what I tell ye!" said Cap'n Ira, grim-lipped and with flashing
eyes. "You interfere with that girl in any way and it won't be her
I'll put out o' the house. I'll put you out--night though it is--and
you'll march yourself down to the port and to the Widder Pauling's
alone. Understand me?"

There was silence again in the kitchen, save for Prudence's pitiful
sobbing.

* * * * *

In Tunis Latham's mind as he came up from the port four days later
was visioned no part of the tragedy which had occurred at the Ball
homestead during his absence on this last voyage to Boston. He had
suffered trouble enough during the trip even to dull the smart of
Sheila's renunciation of him before he had left the Head. Indeed, he
could scarcely realize even now that she had meant what she
said--that she could mean it!

So brief had been their dream of love--only since that recent Sunday
when they walked the beaches about the foot of Wreckers' Head--that
it seemed to the captain of the _Seamew_ it could not be so soon
over. If Sheila really and truly loved him, how could anything part
them?

When he considered her wild manner and her trenchant words when last
he had seen her, however, his heart sank. He had gained during the
few months of their acquaintance a pretty accurate idea of how firm
she could be--how unwavering in face of any difficulty. He realized
that her obstinacy, when her mind was once settled on a course of
action, was not easily overcome. She had declared that they could
not be lovers any longer; that the situation which had arisen
through the appearance of the real Ida May upon Wreckers' Head had
made her decision necessary; and she had refused to consider any
other outcome of this dreadful affair.

In his business there was much whi