"Then you sign some papers when I get 'em drawn up, and I'll hand 'em
the money; but look-a-here, if I go chasing 'em with five thousand
dollars, I'll have 'em suspecting that I'm crazy, or something worse. It
ain't like Rufus Rowley to do a thing of this sort with his money."
"I know it," she confessed, softening her frank agreement with an
ingenuous smile. "But Captain Mayo is coming to you to-morrow morning on
business about the schooner, and you can put the matter to him in some
way. Oh, I know you're so keen and smart you can do it without his
suspecting a thing."
"I don't know whether you're complimenting me or sassing me, miss. But
I'll see it through, somehow."
She signed the papers giving him power of attorney, left her bank-book
with him, and went away into the night, her face radiant.
She threw a happy kiss at the dim anchor light which marked the location
of the Ethel and May in the harbor.
"I am helping you get the girl you love," she said, aloud.
She went on toward the widow's cottage. Her head was erect, but there
were tears on her cheeks.