lly conceal his splendid figure. Agnes sprang
forward eagerly.

"Si, where have you been? Why have you never I been up to see us for
so long?"

Young Si made no verbal reply. He merely lifted his cap with formal
politeness and turned on his heel.

"Well, I never!" exclaimed Agnes, as soon as she recovered her powers
of speech. "If that is how Young Si is going to treat his friends! He
must have got offended at something. I wonder what it is," she added,
her curiosity getting the better of her indignation.

When they came out they saw the solitary figure of Young Si far adown,
crossing the dim, lonely shore fields. In the dusk Agnes failed to
notice the pallor of her companion's face and the unshed tears in her
eyes.

* * * * *

"I've just been down to the Point," said Agnes, coming in one sultry
afternoon about a week later, "and Little Ev said as there was no
fishing today he'd take us out for that sail tonight if you wanted to
go."

Ethel Lennox put her drawing away listlessly. She looked pale and
tired. She was going away the next day, and this was to be her last
visit to the shore.

About an hour before sunset a boat glided out from the shadow of the
Point. In it were Ethel Lennox and Agnes, together with Little Ev, the
sandy-haired, undersized Pointer who owned the boat.

The evening was fine, and an off-shore breeze was freshening up
rapidly. They did not notice the long, dark bank of livid cloud low in
the northwest.

"Isn't this glorious!" exclaimed Ethel. Her hat was straining back
from her head and the red rings of her hair were blowing about her
face.

Agnes looked about her more anxiously. Wiser in matters of sea and
shore than her companion, there were some indications she did not
like.

Young Si, who was standing with Snuffy their skids, lowered his
spyglass with a start.

"It is Agnes Bentley and--and--that boarder of theirs," he said
anxiously, "and they've gone out with Little Ev in that wretched,
leaky tub of his. Where are their eyes that they can't see a squall
coming up?"

"An' Little Ev don't know as much about managing a boat as a cat!"
exclaimed Snuffy excitedly. "Sign 'em to come back."

Si shook his head. "They're too far out. I don't know that the squall
will amount to very much. In a good boat, with someone who knew how to
manage it, they'd be all right. But with Little Ev--" He began walking
restlessly up and down the narrow platform.