Page:Frank Packard - Greater Love Hath No Man.djvu/240

. "You hang 'raound a spell an' I'll think it over."

The "spell" dragged on to half an hour, from that to an hour, and became an hour and a half. The casks were lowered and stowed in the hold; the decks took on more semblance of order; the mainsail, with many a protesting creak, was hoisted; a little knot of people, some women amongst them, assembled to say good-bye—and Jonah Sully was still "thinkin' it over."

Varge, as he saw that the final preparations for getting under way were being made, moved quietly to the extreme end of the wharf by the schooner's bows. When the Mary K. Jones sailed he would sail with her. As she moved out and the stern cleared the end of the wharf where he had taken his position, he would jump for it, that was all there was to it—they would have some difficulty in putting him ashore again!

There was a sudden shouting of good-byes from the little crowd; the moorings were cast off, and, fended along, the schooner began to slip past the wharf. Jonah Sully was at the wheel—he looked vacantly at Varge as the stern went by.

A foot, two, four—six feet of clear water lay between the schooner's stern and the end of the wharf—and then, with a leap, Varge landed on the vessel's deck.

Jonah Sully screwed around his head, lifted one hand from the spokes of the wheel, tilted back his sou'wester, tilted it forward again, and then pulled thoughtfully at his beard.

"I reckon," said the skipper of the Mary K. Jones, that mabbe if you're serious 'baout comin', I dunno as I've got any objections."