ch would have disturbed Tunis in
any event. The negro cook had deserted the _Seamew_ the moment after
she touched the Boston wharf. Although the other hands had remained
by the schooner until she had just now dropped anchor in the cove
below, he was not at all sure that they would sail with him for
another voyage.

Why these new men should be more troubled by the silly tattle of the
hoodoo than even the Portygees had been was a problem Tunis could
not solve. And seamen were so scarce just then in Boston that he had
been obliged to risk another voyage without engaging strangers to
man the _Seamew_. Besides, being a true Cape Codder, he disliked
hiring other than Cape men to work the schooner.

For one thing he could be grateful. Orion Latham had taken his chest
ashore this very day. And Zebedee Pauling had offered himself in
Orion's place on the wharf as Tunis had just now come ashore.

He had been glad to take on Zeb in place of his cousin. And from
young Pauling he had learned at least one piece of news connected
with affairs on Wreckers' Head. Zeb told him that the girl he had
brought to the Pauling house had talked with Elder Minnett and that
the elder had later taken her up to the Ball house, where she had
remained.

There was not much gossip about the matter it seemed. Nobody seemed
to know who the young woman was; nor did Zeb know what was going on
at the Ball homestead. It was with this slight information only that
Tunis now approached the old place. He saw Cap'n Ira hobbling into
the barn, but he saw nobody else about.

The day was gray, and a chill wind crept over the brown earth,
rustling the dead stalks of the weeds and curling little spirals of
dust in the road which rose no more than a foot or two, then fell
again, despairingly. In any event the young shipmaster must have
felt the oppression of the day and the lingering season. His spirits
fell lower, and he came to the Ball place with such a feeling of
depression that he hesitated about turning in at the gate at all.

As Cap'n Ira did not at once come out of the barn, the younger man
made his way there instead of going first to the kitchen door. He
shrank from meeting the real Ida May again. At any rate, he wanted
first to get the lay of the land from the old man.

He looked into the dim interior of the place and for a moment did
not see Cap'n Ira at all. The ghostly face of the Queen of Sheba
appeared at the opening over her manger. Tunis was abo