money should go all one way. The Medway Lathams, them 'Rion belongs
to, is all as sore as carbuncles about Tunis getting it. But I tell
Tunis as long as the court says the money should be his, let 'Rion
and all them yap like the hungry dogs they be. Tunis has got the
marrer bone."

"Does seem a pity," the old woman said, still watching the white
splotch against the background of gray and blue. "Families ought to
be at peace."

"Peace! I swan!" snorted Cap'n Ira. "'Rion Latham is about as much
given to peace as a wild tagger. But he knows which half of his
biscuit's buttered. He'll sail with Tunis as long as Tunis pays him
wages."

The captain continued to study the approaching schooner while
Prudence went back to her household tasks.




CHAPTER II

THE CAPTAIN OF THE SEAMEW


Tunis Latham's _Seamew_, tacking for the channel into Big Wreck
Cove, wings full-spread, skimming the heaving blue of the summer
sea, looked like a huge member of the tern family. From Wreckers'
Head and the other sand bluffs guarding this roadstead from the