When he considered her wild manner and her trenchant words when last he had seen her, however, his heart sank.  He had gained during the few months of their acquaintance a pretty accurate idea of how firm she could be—­how unwavering in face of any difficulty.  He realized that her obstinacy, when her mind was once settled on a course of action, was not easily overcome.  She had declared that they could not be lovers any longer; that the situation which had arisen through the appearance of the real Ida May upon Wreckers’ Head had made her decision necessary; and she had refused to consider any other outcome of this dreadful affair.

In his business there was much which would have disturbed Tunis in any event.  The negro cook had deserted the Seamew the moment after she touched the Boston wharf.  Although the other hands had remained by the schooner until she had just now dropped anchor in the cove below, he was not at all sure that they would sail with him for another voyage.

Why these new men should be more troubled by the silly tattle of the hoodoo than even the Portygees had been was a problem Tunis could not solve.  And seamen were so scarce just then in Boston that he had been obliged to risk another voyage without engaging strangers to man the Seamew.  Besides, being a true Cape Codder, he disliked hiring other than Cape men to work the schooner.

For one thing he could be grateful.  Orion Latham had taken his chest ashore this very day.  And Zebedee Pauling had offered himself in Orion’s place on the wharf as Tunis had just now come ashore.

He had been glad to take on Zeb in place of his cousin.  And from young Pauling he had learned at least one piece of news connected with affairs on Wreckers’ Head.  Zeb told him that the girl he had brought to the Pauling house had talked with Elder Minnett and that the elder had later taken her up to the Ball house, where she had remained.

There was not much gossip about the matter it seemed.  Nobody seemed to know who the young woman was; nor did Zeb know what was going on at the Ball homestead.  It was with this slight information only that Tunis now approached the old place.  He saw Cap’n Ira hobbling into the barn, but he saw nobody else about.

The day was gray, and a chill wind crept over the brown earth, rustling the dead stalks of the weeds and curling little spirals of dust in the road which rose no more than a foot or two, then fell again, despairingly.  In any event the young shipmaster must have felt the oppression of the day and the lingering season.  His spirits fell lower, and he came to the Ball place with such a feeling of depression that he hesitated about turning in at the gate at all.

As Cap’n Ira did not at once come out of the barn, the younger man made his way there instead of going first to the kitchen door.  He shrank from meeting the real Ida May again.  At any rate, he wanted first to get the lay of the land from the old man.