United States or Western Sahara ? Vote for the TOP Country of the Week !
"Ah-ha!" whispered Eunez, as he passed her to step outside the house again. She seized his arm and swung him around to face her, for she was strong. "You think she is pretty, Tunis?" she demanded. "Eh? What's eating on you, Eunez? I never stopped to think whether she was or not?" But he flushed, and she saw it.
"Ah!" exclaimed Eunez Pareta to Johnny Lark, the Seamew's cook. "So you know she of the evil eye, eh?" "What do you mean?" asked Johnny. "That pretty girl who rides behind Captain Latham?" "Si!" "She has no evil eye," declared the cook stoutly. "It is told me that she has," said the smiling girl. "And she has put what you call the 'hoodoo' on that schooner. She come down in her from Boston."
And as the young man passed the languishing Eunez with a cheerful nod and smile there flashed into his memory an entirely different picture, but one of a girl nevertheless. Somehow the memory of that girl in Scollay Square kept coming back to his mind. He had gone up by train for the Seamew and her crew, and naturally he had spent one night in Boston.
And Tunis Latham went on to the wharf where the Seamew tied up with a warmth at his heart which he had never experienced before. That another girl rose betimes on these mornings and waited and watched for him to pass, the young schooner captain never noticed. That Eunez Pareta should be lingering about the edge of Portygee Town as he came down from the Head made small impression on his mind.
She'll raise real trouble in the town 'fore she's well and safely married." "That is awful," murmured the old woman, casting another glance back at the girl and wondering why Eunez Pareta scowled so hatefully after them. Following service, as usual, there was social intercourse on the steps of the church and at the horse sheds back of it.
"You don't mind, do you, Eunez?" replied the young man, trying to assume his usual careless manner of speech. "You have the reputation of being pretty popular with the fellows yourself." "Ah!" she said again, tossing her head. "Who is this new girl I see you walk with last evening, Tunis?" "She is a stranger in Big Wreck Cove," was his noncommittal reply. "So I see.
He never particularly remarked her presence or her smile as being for him alone. It was that Eunez did not count in any of his calculations. "That girl at Cap'n Ball's place, Tunis," said the Portygee girl. "Does she like it up there?" "Oh, yes! She's getting on fine," was his careless response. "And will they keep her?" "Of course they will keep her." He laughed.
"Trying to make them think my beautiful Seamew was once the Marlin B.? Why, the poor fools, this broken oar came out of Mike Pareta's woodpile, or I'm a dog-fish! See that blue streak? I saw this broken oar at Pareta's house. Bet you anything Eunez had something to do with it, too. Though why she should want to harm me, who never said a cross word to her, I can't see."
"How about you, Zebedee?" demanded the captain of the Seamew. "I am not afraid of any foolish talk, anyway, Captain Latham. Had I been I wouldn't have applied for the berth. I had heard enough about it. Eunez Pareta, I believe, talked too much to the Portygees, and that is why you couldn't keep them. But I'm not a Portygee." "I'll say you're not," agreed Tunis.
They come and go for you, Tunis Latham. You are the fickle man, eh?" "Tut, tut, Eunez!" he laughed. "Those who live in glass houses should not throw stones. How about yourself? Didn't I see you going to church with Johnny Lark last Sunday? And then, in the afternoon, you had another cavalier along the beaches. Oh, I saw you!"
Word Of The Day