Page:Rideout--Beached keels.djvu/252

238 heaven!" Gale concluded, and mopped his dirty beard. Captain Christy nodded. Thrusting a big forefinger through the rope-yarn ring at the apex of the finnan haddie, and swinging his purchase meditatively, he moved away.

"Hold her to it, cap'n," he assented gravely. "That's the course for all of us."

In a grass-grown lane among the side- streets he clicked a wooden gate behind him, traversed a gravel path between two rows of conch shells, and stood upon his own doorsteps. At the sound of his tread a woman's voice called fretfully from within the house:—

"So you 're back at last, after your gadding and gossiping? Time, I should say! Hope you 've enjoyed yourself, because I 've got a piece of news for you."

The captain shook his gray head wearily. On the iron bootscraper he cleaned his soles of imaginary dirt, and then entered the "front hall," stepping lightly on the checkered oil-cloth.

In the sitting-room, from her pillowed chair beside a window-sill lined with vials, his wife