longer, Martin Hallowell," he said. "We were not
born to work together and it is clear that we have come to the parting
of the ways. To-morrow we will make division of our holdings, for I
tell you plainly that I will have no more to do with you and your
dishonest schemes."

"It shall be as you say," Martin agreed, quick to press home an
advantage. "And since it was I who urged the building and launching of
the _Huntress_, it is only proper that she should fall to my share.
She shall sail this day week, as I have told you. And you, my dear
cousin, for your effort to stop her, shall soon be a most regretful
man."

He went out, this time closing the door very gently behind him. The
echoes of his vague threat seemed to hang in the great room long after
he was gone.

"What--what can he do?" questioned Cicely.

Her father, with a visible effort, answered cheerfully, "An angry man
loves to threaten, but we have naught to fear from him. And now," he
gathered the big ledger under his arm, "I must work for a little in
the countingroom and then we will go home."

Cicely, left alone, went back to fetch her letters and stopped for a
moment at one of the long windows to look down upon the harbor where
the _Huntress_ dipped and swayed at anchor, a stately, beautiful thing
that seemed to quiver with life as she rocked in the choppy seas, her
shimmering reflection, beginning to be colored by the sunset, rocking
and dancing with her.

"Oh, I must draw it," cried Cicely, catching up a sheet of fresh
paper. "If only the light holds and the ship does not swing round with
the tide!"

The minutes passed while she worked eagerly, but finally was forced to
lay down her pencil, unable to see more in the dusk. The door flew
open and some one came in with the impulsive rush that belonged only
to her brother Alan.

"What, Cicely, still here and trying to draw in the dark? Let me see
what you have done," he exclaimed. He lit a candle and examined the
paper. "I vow, that is good. Oh, Cicely, that _Huntress_ is a
wonderful ship!"

For some reason there was a cold clutch at Cicely's heart.

"Yes?" she answered faintly.

"I have just had such a talk with Cousin Martin," the boy went on
excitedly. "I did not quite understand the way of it, but he said that
he and my father were to divide, and that the _Huntress_ was to be his
own, entire. He wants me to go with her on her next voyage. He says
the war is not nearly done and that there wil