"I swan!" he said. "If we take that Queen of Sheby out at night, she'll near have a conniption. She'll think the world's come to an end. She ain't been out o' her stable at night since Hector was a pup--and Hector is a big dog now! How can you think of such a thing, Prudence?"

"Queenie won't mind, I guess," said his wife calmly. "I shouldn't be surprised if you was saying one word for her and a good many more'n one for yourself, Ira."

However, they went to the harvest-home festival. It was bound to be a very gay and enjoyable occasion, and Queenie did not stumble more than three times going down the hill into the port.

"That old critter would be the death of us, if she could do it without being the death of herself, too," fumed Cap'n Ira.

There were half a dozen young men almost fighting for the privilege of taking Queenie around to the sheds and blanketing her, the winner hopeful of a special smile and word from Sheila.

The decorated church was well filled when the trio from Wreckers'

Head entered, and most delicious odors rose from the bas.e.m.e.nt, where the tables were laid.

Sheila was immediately surrounded by her own little coterie of young people and was enjoying herself quietly when a newcomer, whose appearance created some little surprise at the door, approached the group of which the girl was the center.

"Why, here's Orion Latham!" exclaimed one girl. "I didn't know the _Seamew_ was in."

"We just made it by the skin of our teeth," Orion said, making it a point to shake hands with Sheila. "How are you, Miss Bostwick? I never did see such a Jonah of an old tub as that dratted schooner! I thought she never would get back this trip."

"I cal'late you wouldn't think she was Jonahed if the _Seamew_ was yours, 'Rion," snickered Andrew Roby.

"I wouldn't even take her as a gift," snarled Orion.

"Guess you won't get her that way--if any," chuckled Joshua Jones.

"Tunis, he knows which side o' the bread his b.u.t.ter's on. He's doin'

well. We cal'late--pa and me--to have all our freight come down from Boston on the _Seamew_."

Orion glowered at him.

"You'd better have a care, Josh," he growled. "That schooner is hoodooed, as sure as sure! She'll stub her nose some night on Lighthouse Point Reef, if she don't do worse. You can't scurcely steer her proper."

"Nonsense, 'Rion!" spoke up Zebedee Pauling. "I'd like to sail on her myself."

"Perhaps," Sheila interposed, rather flushed, and looking at Orion with unmistakable displeasure, "Orion will give up his berth to you, Zebedee. He seems so very sure that the schooner is unlucky. I came down from Boston in her, and I saw nothing about her save to admire."

"And if you found her all right, Miss Bostwick," struck in the gallant Joshua, "she's good enough for me. Of course, I heard tell some thought the _Seamew_ had a bad reputation--that she run under a fishing boat once and was haunted. But I cal'late that's all bosh."

"Yah!" growled Orion. "Have it your own way. But after the dratted schooner is sunk and you lose a mess of freight, Josh Jones, I guess you'll sing small."

"I've heard," said Andrew Roby gravely, "that it's mighty bad manners to bite the hand that feeds you. You never was overpolite, 'Rion Latham."

"Not only that, but he's clean reckless with his own livelihood,"

added Zebedee Pauling.

CHAPTER XV

AN INVITATION ACCEPTED

It was a small incident, of course; scarcely to be noted at all when it was over. Yet the impression left upon Sheila's mind was that Orion Latham was deliberately endeavoring to injure his cousin's business with the _Seamew_. If he talked like this before the more or less superst.i.tious Portygees, how long would Tunis manage to keep a crew to work the schooner?

Had she dared she would have taken Orion to task there and then for his unfaithfulness. The fellow was, as Cap'n Ira had once observed, one of those yapping curs always envious of the braver dog's bone.

To the girl's disgust, too, Orion Latham showed plainly that he considered that he, as an older acquaintance of the girl, could presume upon that fact. He clung to her throughout the evening like a mussel to duck gra.s.s. Of all the Big Wreck Cove youth, he was the only one that she could not put in his place.

She did not think it wise to snub him so openly that Orion would take offense. This course might do the captain of the _Seamew_ harm.

She foresaw trouble in the offing for Tunis, in any case, and she did not wish to do anything that would spur Orion to further and more successful attempts to harm his cousin's business.

There was another matter troubling Sheila's mind after Orion had come to the harvest-home festival. Mason Chapin likewise appeared at the church. But Tunis did not come. He knew, of course, of the festival, and he had known when he sailed last for Boston that the b.a.l.l.s and Ida May intended to go. It did seem as if Tunis might have come, if for only a little while, before going home.

These thoughts made Sheila rather inattentive to other proposals, and she found herself obliged to go down to supper with Orion, since he had outsat and outtalked all the other young men who had hovered about her. She was nice to Orion; the girl could scarcely be otherwise, even to those she disliked, unless some very important matter arose to disturb her, but she did not enjoy the remainder of the evening, and she was glad when Cap'n Ira and Prudence were ready to go home. It was full time, the girl thought.

Even then Orion Latham a.s.sumed altogether too much authority.

Sheila had been about to send little John-Ed around for Queenie and the carryall, but Orion put the boy aside with a self-a.s.sured grin.

"n.o.body ain't going to put you in the carriage, Ida May, but me," he declared. "I'll get the old mare."

He seized his cap and went out. In a few minutes they had said good-bye, and the old couple and the girl went out on the church steps. Sheila saw the carryall standing before the door. A figure stood at the old mare's head which she presumed to be Orion's.

"The chariot is ready, I cal'late," said Cap'n Ira. "Come on, Prudence."

Sheila helped the old woman into the rear seat and then aided Cap'n Ira as well. She got in quickly in front, but as she was about to gather up the reins the man holding Queenie's head came around swiftly and stepped in beside her to the driver's place.

"I swan! That you, Tunis?" exclaimed Cap'n Ira.

"Looks like it," the captain of the _Seamew_ said gravely. "All clear aft?"

"You can pay off, Tunis," returned the old man. "Tuck that robe around your knees, Prudence. This night air is as chill as a breath off the ice barrens."

Orion loafed into the lamplight by the steps before Queenie got into action. His scowl was unseen, but his voice was audible--as it was meant to be--to Sheila's ears.

"There he is--hoggin' everything, same as usual. How did I know he was hanging around outside here, waiting to drive her home? Just as though he owned her! Huh! He may be skipper aboard that dratted schooner, but that gives him no right to boss me ash.o.r.e. I won't stand it."

"Sit down to it, then, 'Rion," snickered one of the other young fellows. "I cal'late Tunis has got the inside course on all of us."

The girl said nothing to the captain of the _Seamew_ at first. It was Prudence who asked him why he had not been in the church.

"I could not get over here until just now," Tunis replied quietly.

Sheila wondered if he really had been detained on the schooner.

Perhaps he had refrained from coming to the festival for fear the good people of Big Wreck Cove would notice his attentions to her. He had never been publicly in her company since he had brought her down from Boston. Orion Latham's outburst there at the church door was the first cue people might have gained of anything more than a pa.s.sing acquaintanceship between the captain of the _Seamew_ and the girl who had come to live with the b.a.l.l.s.

These thoughts bore down the girl's spirits tremendously. The simple pleasure of the evening was quite erased from her memory. She remained speechless while old Queenie climbed the hill to the Head.

The desultory conversation between Cap'n Ira, Prudence, and the young shipmaster scarcely attracted the girl's attention. If Tunis looked at her curiously now and then, she did not see his glances.

And she merely nodded her understanding of his statement when Tunis said, speaking directly to her: