"No; you can go an' keep a look-out in the bows," said the girl
serenely. "It'll prevent misunderstandings, too. Better take the
potatoes with you and peel them for dinner."

The mate complied, and the voyage proceeded in silence, the steering
being rendered a little nicer than usual by various nautical sparks
bringing their boats a bit closer than was necessary in order to obtain
a good view of the fair steersman.

After dinner, the tide having turned and a stiff head-wind blowing,
they brought up off Sheppey. It began to rain hard, and the crew of the
Osprey, having made all snug above, retired to the cabin to resume their
quarrel.

"Don't mind me," said Miss Cringle scathingly, as the mate lit his pipe.

"Well, I didn't think you minded," replied the mate; "the old man"--

"Who?" interrupted Miss Cringle, in a tone of polite inquiry.

"Captain Cringle," said the mate, correcting himself, "smokes a great
deal, and I've heard him say that you liked the smell of it."

"There's pipes and pipes," said Miss Cringle oracularly.

The mate flung his on the floor and crunched it beneath his heel, then
he thrust his hands in his pockets, and, leaning back, scowled darkly up
at the rain as it crackled on the skylight.

"If you are going to show off your nasty temper," said the girl
severely, "you'd better go forward. It's not quite the thing after all
for you to be down here--not that I study appearances much."

"I shouldn't think you did," retorted the mate, whose temper was rapidly
getting the better of him. "I can't think what your father was thinking
of to let a pret--to let a girl like you come away like this."

"If you were going to say pretty girl," said Miss Cringle, with calm
self-abnegation, "don't mind me, say it. The captain knows what he's
about. He told me you were a milksop; he said you were a good young man
and a teetotaller."

The mate, allowing the truth of the captain's statement as to his
abstinence, hotly denied the charge of goodness. "I can understand
your father's hurry to get rid of you for a spell," he concluded, being
goaded beyond all consideration of politeness. "His gout 'ud never get
well while you were with him. More than that, I shouldn't wonder if you
were the cause of it."

With this parting shot he departed, before the girl could think of a
suitable reply, and went and sulked in the dingy little fo'c'sle.

In the evening, the weather having moderated somewhat, and the tide
bein