Page:Ballinger Price--The Happy Venture.djvu/177

Rh "No," Ken said, between his teeth. "No, Phil. Oh, no, no!" He got up and shook himself. "Go to bed, now, and sleep. The idea of sitting up with a beastly cold candle!"

He kissed her abruptly and unexpectedly and stalked out at the door, a weary, disheveled ﬁgure, in the ﬁrst pale, fog-burdened gleam of dawn.

It was some time after the Flying Dutchman parted her one insufficient mooring-rope before Kirk realized that the sound of the water about her had changed from a slap to a gliding ripple. There was no longer the short tug and lurch as she pulled at her painter and fell back; there was no longer the tide sound about the gaunt piles of the wharf. Kirk, a little apprehensive, stumbled aft and felt for the stern-line. It gave in his hand, and the slack, wet length of it flew suddenly aboard, smacking his face with its cold and slimy end. He knew, then, what had happened, but he felt sure that the boat must still be very near the wharf—perhaps drifting up to the rocky shore between the piers. He clutched the gunwale and shouted:

"Ken! Oh, Ken!"