ant taken down there," he added.
"Glad to, no trouble at all."

She looked at him rather oddly he thought.

"You are going all alone?" she asked.

"Um-hm. All alone. I'm goin' to have my own way this time in spite of
the Old Harry--and the doctor--and Judah."

"And you are sure there will be plenty of room?"

"What? With only me in the buggy? Yes, indeed. Room enough for two sea
chests and a pork barrel, as old Cap'n Bangs Paine used to say when I
sailed with him. Room and to spare."

"Room enough for--me?"

"For you? Why, do you mean----"

"I mean that if there _is_ room I should like to ride down with you very
much. I want to get to the hall early and I have these things to carry.
Mother and the rest of the Harbor people are going later, of course....
So, if you are sure that I and my bundles won't be nuisances----"

He was sure, emphatically and enthusiastically sure. But his surprise
was great and he voiced it involuntarily.

"I supposed, of course," he said, "that your passage was booked long
ago. I supposed George had attended to that."

Her answer was brief, but there was an air of finality about it which
headed off further questions.

"I am not going with him," she said.

So this was his second cause for good spirits, the fact that Elizabeth
Berry was to ride with him to the hall that evening. It was a very
slight inconsequential reason surely, but somehow he found it
sufficient. She was going with him merely because he and the Foam Flake
and the buggy furnished the most convenient method of transportation for
her and her packages, but she was going--and she was not going with
George Kent. There was a certain wicked pleasure in the last thought. He
was ashamed of it, but the pleasure was there in spite of the shame.
Kent had so much that he had not, but here was one little grain of
advantage to enter upon the Kendrick side of the ledger; Elizabeth Berry
was not going to the town hall with Kent, but with him.

He made but one protest and that only because his conscience goaded him
into making it.

"I don't know as I ought to let you, Miss Elizabeth," he said. "I'm
takin' a chance, I suppose, that perhaps you shouldn't take. This is my
first voyage under my own command since I ran on the rocks. I may strike
another reef, you can't tell."

She looked at him and smiled.

"I am not afraid," she said.

So, in spite of the gathering clouds and the falling barometer, Captain
Sears was cheerful as