Evening star., 1924-07-13

understood all he had seen in the
cave and had made a mental note Of
the way out. which gave him a hold
over Bendigo. On the other hand.
Robin, who suffered paroxysms Of
craving for safety in the intervals OF
deligbting in danger. knew IT was
safer to come in with Bendigo and
make something for himself snug
Cling than it would be for him to
think Of escaping from that muscular
father and daughter IL he declined.
AS for keast, it was true that since
his nephew Dan had been knock ed
on the head by a swing of the boom
he needed some one to take the lads
place. A bottle OF smuggled rum
sealed the bargain. and then, for the
first time in her life, Thomasin was
talked to as a woman. To her father
a partner; a mere fellow man to the
dark. silent Daniel, who now lay in
the lap of the tides; Stunned by the
envious villagers, and looked at ask
ance by the government men, Thorn
asin had never known OF the sphere
which began to be revealed to her
that evening.
For one thing she was plain, though
in certain lights or effects Of wind
she looked fine enough in a high
boned. rock-hewn way. Though she
was only twenty-five, hundreds of
nights Of exposure to wind and wet
had roughened her skin. but at the
opening OF her bodice, where a hint
of collar bones showed like a bar
white. The slim, brown haired Robin,
with his quick eyes, was a contrast
in looks and manners to any one she
had ever met, and mingled with her
awe and wonder Of him was the fierce
sense Of possession that had entered
into her when she passed her hands
over and oyer him in the cave
IL was stormy autumn that year.
and little was possible in the way of
business; but Thomasin, who up till
now had lived so whole e-heartedly for
her partnership with her father. 1t be-
came that time OF which at least the
mirage appears to every one once in
life. For her happiness she and Robin
repainted her other love, the Merry
maid, together; giving her new black
coat and white ribbon, and changing
the green of her upright stem to blue
The Merrymaid was constantly
adopting little DISCUSSES of the sort,
running sometimes under barked sails,
sometimes under white, and alternat-
ing between jib and a gaff-topsail
with a square head
Then, in the long winter evenings, the
keasts and Robin would sit by the
fire. Bendigo pulling at his clay pipe.
and Thomasin knitting a perpetual
gray stocking-surely as innocent and
law-abiding an interior as could have
been found-while Robin told them
tales of all he had seen and done.
He told of the thick yellow sea towards
the north of China, so distinct from the
blue sea around that it looked more
like vast shoal of sand, stretching
for mile upon mile. He told. too. of
the reddish dust, fine as mist, which
once fell for days over his ship when
he was far out at sea. His captain
said it was blown along the upper air
all the way from the Mongolian plains.
60 Robin talked and Thomasin lis
tened. and with the coming of
spring new portents woke in her blood
and stirred the air. Thomasin would
sometimes close her eyes for the hap
piness she dared not yet acknowledge;
yet those days of soft joy and beauty
were as nothing to the night of hard
work and danger that finally brought
her surging blood to acknowledge him
as lord.
They were running a cargo of thirty
barrels over from France-he, she and
her father. The Merrymaid. which
was sloop-rigged and of about twenty
tons burden, was quite enough for the
three to handle, laden as she was
with the corded tubs slung together
with the stones already attached; for
1t was proposed to sink the cargo and
then run on to harbor openly, a thing
frequently done when the preventive
men were known to be on the watch.
Robin was suffering from one of his
nerve-reculsions; he dared show no
sign of it, but as he sat in the bows
keeping a lookout through the dark
ness, he tod himself that if this trip
were brouCAt off in safety it would be
the last as far as he was concerned.
He could stand the portentous figure of
Bendigo looming at him through the
little cottage no more, and he knew
what to do. AS for Thomasin, he would
not lose her-a woman surely sticks
by her man. And if not, she would
never harm him. and there were other
women in the world.
Thomasin sat with her arm along
the tiller, keeping the Merrymaid on a
nor'west course so as to make the
Lizard light They were running under
their foresail and close-reefed main
sail only, for the southwest wind for
which they had waited was swelling
6t&N< ~