David groaned.  “If I didn’t think as much.  I heard the mill going.  Ah!  Eve, my girl, your jawing-tackle is too well hung.  Eve is a good sister to me, Miss Lucy, and, where I am concerned, let her alone for making a mountain out of a mole-hill.  If you believe all she says, you are to blame.  The thing that went to my heart was to see my skipper run out his stunsel booms the moment he saw me overhauling him; it was a dirty action, and him an old shipmate.  I am glad now I couldn’t catch her, for if I had my foot would not have been on the deck two seconds before his carcass would have been in the Channel.  And pray, Eve, what has Miss Fountain got to do with that? the dirty lubber wasn’t bred at her school, or he would not have served an old messmate so.

“Belay all that, and let’s hear something worth hearing.  Now, Miss Lucy, you tell me—­oh, Lord, Eve, I say, isn’t the thundering old dingy room bright now?—­you spin me your own yarn, if you will be so good.  Here you are, safe and sound, the Lord be praised!  But I left you under the lee of that thundering island:  wasn’t very polite, was it? but you will excuse, won’t you?  Duty, you know—­a seaman must leave his pleasure for his duty.  Tell me, now, how did you come on?  Was the vessel comfortable?  You would not sail till the wind fell?  Had you a good voyage?  A tiresome one, I am afraid:  the sloop wasn’t built for fast sailing.  When did you land?”

To this fire of eager questions Lucy was in no state to answer.  “Oh, no, Mr. Dodd,” she cried, “I can’t.  I am choking.  Yes, Miss Dodd, I am the heartless, unfeeling girl you think me.”  Then, with a sudden dart, she took David’s hand and kissed it, and, both her hands hiding her blushing face, she fled, and a single sob she let fall at the door was the last of her.  So sudden was her exit, it left both brother and sister stupefied.

“Eve, she is offended,” said David, with dismay.

“What if she is?” retorted Eve; “no, she is not offended; but I have made her feel at last, and a good job, too.  Why should she escape? she has done all the mischief.  Come, you go to bed.”

“Not I; I have been long enough on my beam-ends.  And I have heard her voice, and have seen her face, and they have put life into me.  I shall cruise about the port.  I have gone to leeward of John Company’s favor, but there are plenty of coasting-vessels; I may get the command of one.  I’ll try; a seaman never strikes his flag while there’s a shot in the locker.”

“Here, put me up, Captain Kenealy!  Oh, do pray make haste! don’t dawdle so!” Off cantered Lucy, and fanned her pony along without mercy.  At the door of the house she jumped off without assistance, and ran to Mr. Bazalgette’s study, and knocked hastily, and that gentleman was not a little surprised when this unusual visitor came to his side with some signs of awe at having penetrated his sanctum, but evidently driven by an overpowering excitement.  “Oh, Uncle Bazalgette!  Oh, Uncle Bazalgette!”