"I reckon my first hunch was the right one, sir!' I'll go along home. If
you hear anybody with a badge on inquiring for me tell him I'm fishing
on the Ethel and May."
"That's a mean job for you, son. But I guess I'd better not say anything
about it, seeing what I have shanghaied you into."
"It has not been your fault or mine, what has happened, sir. I am not
whining!"
"By gad! I know you ain't! But get ready to growl when the right time
comes, and keep your teeth filed! When it's our turn to bite we'll
make a bulldog grip of it!" He emphasized the vigor of that grip in his
farewell handshake.
But Mayo did not reflect with much enthusiasm on Captain Wass's
metaphorical summons to combat.
Returning to Maquoit, the young man decided that he was more like a
beaten dog slinking back with canine anxiety to nurse his wounds in
secret.
His experiences had been too dreadful and too many in the last few days
to be separated and assimilated. He had been like a man stunned by
a fall--paralyzed by a blow. Now the agonizing tingle of memory and
despair made his thoughts an exquisite torture. He tried to put Alma
Marston out of those thoughts. He did not dare to try to find a place
for her in the economy of his affairs. However, she and he had been down
to the gates of death together, and he realized that the experience
had had its effect on her nature; he believed that it had developed her
character as well. Insistently the memory of her parting words was with
him, and he knew, in spite of his brutal and furious efforts to condemn
her, that love was not dead and that hope still lived.
He swung aboard the Ethel and May one afternoon, after he had waited
patiently for her arrival with her fare.
"I have come back to fish with you, Captain Candage, until my troubles
are straightened out--if they ever are."
Captain Candage was silent, controlling some visible emotions.
"I have come back to be with folks who won't talk too much about those
troubles," he added, gloomily.
"Exactly," agreed the skipper. "Nothing is ever gained by stirring up
trouble after it has been well cooked. Swing the pot back over the fire,
I say, and let it simmer till it cools off of itself. I thought you
would come back."
"Why?"
"Well, I knew they had taken away your papers. Furthermore, Polly has
been saying that you would come back."