ompany--Miss Foster said how proud she was to know me--me, who had
saved her cousin Johnnie's life. And then she asked me about the
vessel, and I told her, Maurice, that nothing like the Duncan ever
pushed salt water from out of her way before. 'Nothing with two sticks
in her,' says I, and I laid it on thick; 'and Maurice Blake,' says
I--and there, Maurice, I only spoke true catechism. 'Maurice Blake,'
says I, 'is the man to sail her.' She was glad, she said, to know
that, because her chum, Miss Buckley--Joe's cousin there--wanted that
particular vessel to be a success. And she herself was interested in
it. Never mind the reasons, she said. And she always did believe--and,
Maurice, listen now--she knew that Captain Blake would do the Johnnie
Duncan justice. And I said to her--well, Maurice, what I said you can
guess well enough. No, come to think, you can't guess, but I won't
tell you to your face. But thinking of it now, I mind, Maurice, the
time when we were dory-mates--you and me, Maurice--and the cold
winter's day our dory was capsized. And dark coming on and nothing in
sight, and I could see you beginning to get tired. But tired as you
were, Maurice, tired as you were and the gray look beginning to creep
over you, you says, 'Tommie, take the plug strap for a while, you.'"

"But you didn't take it, Tommie."

"No, I didn't take it--and why? I didn't take it--and why? Because,
though the mothers that bore us both were great women--all fire and
iron--'twas in me to last longer--you a boy and your first winter
fishing, and me a tough, hard old trawler. And you had all of life
before you, and I'd run through some hard years of mine. If I'd gone
'twould have been no great loss, but you, Maurice, innocent as a
child--how could I? I'd known men and women, good and bad--I'd lived
life and I'd had my chance and thrown it away--but at your age the
things you had to learn! Maybe I didn't think it all out like that,
but that was why I didn't take the plug strap. But, Maurice-boy, I
never forgot it. 'Take the plug strap, you, Tommie,' you says. We were
dory-mates, of course, but, Maurice-boy, I'll never forget it."

Clancy took off his hat and drew his hand across his forehead. "And
where were you bound when we stopped you, Maurice?"

"Oh, I don't know. To take a walk maybe."

"Sure, and why not? Let's all take a walk. Let's take a walk down to
the dock and have a look at the vessel. Too dark? So it is, but we can
see the sh