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"Oh!" she cried; "oh, if you choose!" Still his body crept closer, and his face closer. And her strength was going. "There's but one price to pay," he said hoarsely, "there's but one price to pay, and that's you you. I cal'late you'll marry me now." Delirious at the touch of her, he did not hear the door open. Her senses were strained for that very sound.
You wa'n't up in the night, was you?" "No. Slept like a top all through." "Humph! . . . Well, that's good; sleep's a good thing. Cal'late I'll turn in and get a little myself." He moved toward the living room. At the door he paused and asked another question. "How'd you er guess there was fog last night?" he inquired. "Oh, that was easy; everything grass and bushes were so wet this morning.
A hand crank to make the fourth highest-power foghorn on the coast blow! I lost my patience. 'No ma'am, says I, 'a crank ain't necessary. I just put my mouth to the touch-hole, I says, 'and breathe natural and she chirrups. She believed it, too. I cal'late I'll catch thunder from Cap'n Jeth if he finds out what I told her, but I can't help it; there's limits, by Godfreys domino, limits!"
"Hum," he drawled, "I can't quite make it, Sam. . . . There's a place where she narrows way down here and I can't get my fingers through it." "Is that so? Then we'd better give up lookin' for the band, I cal'late. Didn't amount to anything, anyhow. Tell me more about what you did when you found the money. You must have been surprised." "Eh? . . . Land sakes, I was.
He strode up and down the deck. "You say the word, skipper," rumbled Pete loyally, "an' we crack on every stitch fer the north pole!" Code smiled. "Curse me if I don't like to see a man smile when he's in trouble," announced Pete roundly. "Skipper, you'll do. You're young, an' these things come hard, but I cal'late we'll drop all this talk about sailin' away to furrin parts.
"It'll be night 'fore long; thar ain't much daylight left him to travel in." Alice caught her breath. "But you think he'll come, don't you, Mr. Holt?" "Yes, marm, I do," he answered, laying down his axe. "'T ain't hardly possible he won't; I cal'late they'll both git in 'fore dark. It won't do to borry trouble 'fore it comes.
But you've got me on my beam ends. And yet you knew ME." "Of course I did. Everybody knows the man that brought the packet home." Nat Hammond sniffed impatiently. "Um hm!" he grunted. "I cal'late everybody does, and knows a lot more about that foolishness than I do myself. If ever a craft was steered by guess and by godfrey, 'twas that old hooker of Zach's t'other night.
"He ain't so bad on looks, if that's what you're driving at." "Father says he must be very strong, too." "I cal'late he ain't lacking on that p'int, neither," agreed the Captain, blinking his swollen eyelids. Elizabeth laughed heartily. "Oh! By the way, what did you and your handsome minister do to Father last night?" "Is your pa ailing, too?"
I cal'late if Sam Hunniwell knew of that he'd say 'twas characteristic. . . . Hum. . . . Sho! . . . I read once about a feller that found where the great seal of England was hid and he used it to crack nuts with. I guess likely that feller must have been my great, great, great granddad." Major Grover looked surprised. "I've read that story," he said, "but I can't remember where."
"No," Ellis told him; "he's goin' on Cap'n Abe Larkins' boat. They're loadin' up now. They cal'late to get off in a day or two." Jim Taylor nodded, and, having despatched the business with Ellis, he turned to wait upon a customer, for this was store and post-office as well. Mary was surprised to find that every one, young and old was called by the first name; it seemed to her a queer custom.
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