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She was no longer a baffling and alluring creature of a hundred chameleon moods; she was a lonely girl. Martin, who had been his body-servant while aboard the mystery schooner, opened the door, and bowed with decided pleasure at seeing his temporary master. He ventured congratulations that Schofield was free of the law's shadow. "Mrs. Mallaby is up-stairs, sir," he said, taking Code's hat.
The weather had been propitious, with a moderate sea and a good quartering wind. The Nettie had footed it properly, and Code's experienced eye had, on one occasion, seen her log her twelve knots in an hour. The fact had raised his estimation of her fifty per cent.
Schofield had taken a bundle of Code's clothing and gone to Castalia in the afternoon, she having overheard the conversation that took place between her mistress and Pete Ellinwood. When he had gained this information Burns hurried from the house and toward the spot on the beach between the wharfs where his dory lay.
Roscoe obeyed and added two more, so that all were placed within a small compass just outside Code's cell. From Elsa Mallaby's first entrance Nat had observed her with a certain flicker of fear and hatred in his eyes. She, on the other hand, greeted him with the same formal cordiality she had used toward the others.
As the line came over the starboard gunnel Code picked the fish off the hooks, passing the hooks to Pete, who baited them and threw them over the port gunnel. Thus they would work their way along the whole of the line. Many of the hooks that came to Code's hands still had the bait with which they were set. "Must be in the bait," he told Ellinwood. "The fish wouldn't touch it.
It was three days after Code's rescue by the Rosan and the first that he had felt any of his old strength coming back to him. For the first twenty-four hours after being revived he did nothing but sleep, and awoke to find Nellie Tanner beside his bunk nursing him. Since then it had been merely a matter of patience until his exhausted body had recuperated from the shock.
Now, for the first time, the consequences they might have in Code's life were made clear to her. "I I don't know," she faltered, unable to reply to his direct question. "But I know this, that all his life Code has been an honest man and one of my best friends. I grew up with him just as I did with you, and I resent such talk about him as much as I would if it were about you."
Who would ever think she'd squeal? Yes, and Schofield, the smug crook! They're the two that are doin' the damage to me." Nat's lifelong knowledge of Code's and Nellie's affection returned to him now with a more poignant pang of memory than he had ever experienced. With the hopeless egotism of a totally selfish nature, he laid his calamity in love to activity on Code's part.
Somehow the story of the solicitor and his visit went swiftly around the village, and since that time Code's mother had been the shrinking object of a host of polite but evidently pointed inquiries. To most of these there was really no adequate reply, and the good woman had grown more hurt and more shrinking with every hour of the day.
If it goes beyond this stage I will carry the disgrace of jail and a trial all my life. That devil has nearly finished me!" Code's voice broke, and the tears of helpless rage smarted in his eyes. "Steady on, now!" counseled Pete, looking with pity at the young skipper he worshiped.
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