The Seiners Part 24

"I don't know that, either; but I hope it was a good roll, for he won about all Withrow lost."

"M-m--but aren't you in love with your old employer? But let's not mind common money matters. What do you think of the Johnnie Duncan for a vessel?"

"She's a dog--a dog."

"Isn't she! And the fastest, able-est and the handsomest vessel that ever sailed past Eastern Point, isn't she?"

"That's what she is."

"And who designed her?"

"Who? Let me see. Oh, yes, some local man."

"You don't know! Look up here. Who designed her!"

"Oh, yes. 'Twas a Gloucester man."

"A Gloucester man? Look up again.

Now--who--de--signed--the--John--nie--Dun--can!"

"Ouch, yes. A ver-y fine and a-ble--and handsome gen-tle-man--a wonderful man."

"That's a little better. And his name?"

"William Somers--William the Ill.u.s.trious--William the First--'First in war, first in peace, and first in the hearts of Gloucestermen'--and if you let me stand up, I'll do a break-down to show you how glad I am."

"Now you're showing something like appreciation. And now where do you suppose your friend Clancy is and your skipper?"

"Clancy? Lord knows. Maybe in a circle of admiring friends, singing whatever is his latest. 'Hove flat down' was the last I heard. If it was earlier in the day--about three in the morning--it would be pretty sure to be that."

"What a pity, and he such a fine man otherwise!"

"What's a pity?"

"Why, his getting drunk, as I hear he does very often."

"Gets drunk? Who gets drunk? Clancy? That's news to me. As long as I've known him I never saw him drunk yet. He gets mellow and loose--but drunk! Clancy drunk? Why, Nell!"

"Oh, well, all right, he's an apostle of temperance then. But Captain Blake--where is he?"

"I couldn't say--why?"

"I have a message for him."

"Did you try his boarding-house?"

"Yes. That is, Will did, and he wasn't there, hadn't been there at all, they said, since the afternoon before."

"That so? Where else did you try? Duncan's office?"

"We did, and no word of him there."

"Try Clancy's boarding-house?"

"Yes, and no word."

"Try--h-m--the Anchorage?"

"Oh, Joe, you don't think he's been loafing there since?"

"No, I don't. And yet after the way he got turned down yesterday, you know--there's no telling what a man might do."

"Well, Will looked in there, too."

"You fat little fox! Why didn't you say that at first? And no word?"

"No."

"Well, I don't know where he'd be then."

"Nor I, except--did you notice the wind has hauled to the northwest?"

"I did."

"Well. Do you know that old vessel that Mr. Withrow's been trying to get a crew for--the Flamingo?"

"M-h-h."

"Well, this morning early she went out--on a hand-lining trip to the east'ard, it is said. And Will says that he thinks--he doesn't know, mind you, because they won't tell him anything down to Withrow's--but he thinks that Maurice Blake's shipped in her."

"Wow! She won't last out one good breeze on the Banks."

"That is just what Will said. And it's too bad, for I had a message for him--a message that would make everything all right. I suppose you can guess?"

"Guess? H-m-m--I don't know as I want to."

"Well, don't get mad about it, anyway. How would you feel if you saw that horrid Minnie Arkell rush up and--Oh, you know what I mean.

However, I've been pleading with Alice since yesterday afternoon. For two hours I was up in her room last evening, and poor Will walking the veranda down below. I put Captain Blake's case as I thought a friend of his would put it--as you would put it, say--perhaps better in some ways--for I could not forget that he sailed the Johnnie Duncan yesterday, and her winning meant so much to Will. Yes, and I'm not forgetting Clancy and the rest of her crew--indeed, I'm not--I felt as though I could kiss every one of them."

"Well, here's one of them."

"Don't get saucy because your mother is standing by. Go and find Maurice Blake. Go ahead, won't you, Joe? Tell him that everything is all right. She is proud."

"That's a nice sounding word for it--pride. Stuck on herself is what I'd say."

"No, she isn't. You must allow a woman self-respect, you know."

"I guess so. And it must be her long suit, seeing she's always leading from it."