"She ought to."

"But no word from me! Silence for weeks!"

Her voice was low, but she evidently had found courage. "I have not heard one word--not a letter has come to me--since I left my aunt's home."

"Do you feel sure that he loves you just the same? You don't need letters?"

"Oh no! I don't need letters."

"But in my case?"

"I could see that she loves you very much. She stood out before them all, Captain Mayo. That sort of a girl does not need letters."

"You have put new courage in me. I believe you understand just how a girl would feel. You know a Yankee! He expects to find a friend just where he left him, in the matter of affection."

"A girl does not need to be a Yankee to be that way in her love."

"I can't sneak around to her by the back way--I can't do that!" he cried. "I don't want to be ashamed of myself. I don't want to bring more trouble to her. Don't you think she will wait for me until I can come--and come right!"

"She will wait for you, sir. It's the nature of women to wait--when they love."

"But I cannot ask her to wait forever. That's why I must go away and try to make good." He set his teeth, and his jaw muscles were ridged.

"I believe a man can get what he goes after in the right spirit, Miss Polly." He swing off the porch and left her.

The fog was heavy on sh.o.r.e and sea that day, holding the _Ethel and May_ in port. He disappeared into the stifling mist, and the girl sat and stared into that vacancy for a long time.

Mayo rowed out to the schooner, which was anch.o.r.ed in the harbor roads.

He was carrying his accounts to Captain Candage.

Standing and facing forward as he rowed, he came suddenly upon a big steam-yacht which had stolen into the cove through the fog and was anch.o.r.ed in his course. She was the _Sprite_, and he had formed a 'longsh.o.r.e acquaintance with her skipper that summer, meeting him in harbors where the _Sprite_ and _Olenia_ had been neighbors in the anchorage. He stopped rowing and allowed the dory to drift. He noted that the blue flag was flying at the main starboard spreader, announcing the absence of the owner, and he understood that he could call for the skipper without embarra.s.sing that gentleman. One of the crew was putting covers on the bra.s.swork forward.

"Compliments to Captain Trott, and tell him that Captain Mayo is at the gangway."

The skipper appeared promptly, replying to the hail before the sailor had stirred. "Come aboard, sir."

"I'll not bother you that much, captain. I can ask my question just as well from here. Do you know of any good opening for a man of my size?"

The captain of the _Sprite_ came to the rail and did not reply promptly.

"I have left the _Olenia_ and I'm looking for something."

Captain Trott started for the gangway. "Oh, you needn't trouble to come down, sir."

"I'd rather, Captain Mayo." After he had descended he squatted on the platform at the foot of the ladder and held the dory close, grasping the gunwale. "What are you doing for yourself these days?"

Mayo had no relish for a long story. "I'm waiting to grab in on something," he replied.

Captain Trott did not show any alacrity in getting to the subject which Mayo had broached. "It has set in pretty thick, hasn't it? I have been ordered in here to wait for my folks; they're visiting at some big estate up-river."

"But about the chance for a job, captain!"

"Look here! What kind of a run-in did you have with the _Olenia_ owner?"

Mayo opened his mouth and then promptly closed it. He could not reveal the nature of the trouble between himself and his former employer.

"We had words," he said, stiffly.

"Yes, I reckon so! But the rest of it!"

"That's all."

"You needn't tell me any more than you feel like doing, of course," said Captain Trott. "But I have to tell _you_ that Mr. Marston has come out with some pretty fierce talk for an owner to make. He has made quite a business of circulating that talk. I didn't realize that you are of so much importance in the world, Mayo," he added, dryly.

"I don't know what he is saying."

"Didn't you leave him in the night--without notice, or something of the kind?"

"It was an accident."

"I hope you have a good story to back you up, Captain Mayo, for I have liked you mighty well ever since meeting you first. What is behind it?"

"I can't tell you."

"But you can tell somebody--somebody who can straighten the thing out for you, can't you?"

"No, Captain Trott."

"Well, you know what has happened in your case, don't you?" The skipper of the _Sprite_ exhibited a little testiness at being barred out of Mayo's confidence.

The young man shook his head.

"Marston claims that you mutinied and deserted him--slipped away in the night--threw up your job on the high seas--left him to work to New York with a short crew--the mate as captain."

"That's an infernal lie!"

"Then come forward and show him up."

"I cannot talk about the case. I have my reasons--good ones!"

"I'm sorry for you, Mayo. You are done in the yachting game, I'm afraid.

He'll blacklist you in every yacht club from Bar Harbor to Miami. I have heard my folks talking about it. He seems to have a terrible grudge--more than a big man usually bothers about in the case of a skipper."

Mayo set his oar against the edge of the platform and pushed off. The skipper called after him, but he was instantly swallowed up by the fog and did not reply.

On board the _Ethel and May_ his ragged but cheery crew were baiting up, hooking clams upon the ganging hooks, and coiling lines into tubs. The men grinned greeting when he swung over the rail. He scowled at them; he even turned a glowering look on Captain Candage when he met the latter on the quarter-deck.

"Yes, sir! I see how it is! You're getting cussed sick of this two-cent game here," said Candage, mournfully. "I don't blame ye. We ain't in your cla.s.s, here, Captain Mayo." He took the papers which the young man held out to him. "I suppose this is the last time we'll share, you and me. I'll miss ye devilish bad. I'd rather go for nothing and let you have it all than lose ye. But, of course, it ain't no use to argue or coax."