He looked up quickly, for it pleased him to hear her use his name.
"Indeed it is," he answered.

"Well, Dickory," said she, "I wish you would go and find Ben Greenway. I
should like to have him with me until my father comes back."

He turned, and then stopped for an instant. He said in a clear voice: "I
will go and get the shilling changed." And then he hurried away.

He was gone a long time, and Kate could not understand it. Surely the
Sarah Williams was not so big a ship that it would take all this time to
look for Ben Greenway. But he did come back, and his face seemed even
less ruddy than when she had last seen it. He came up close to her, and
began handling his fruit.

"I don't want to frighten you," he said, "but I must tell you about
things. I could not find Ben Greenway, and I asked one of the men about
him, feigning that he owed me for some fruit, and the man looked at
another man and laughed, and said that he had been sent for in a hurry,
and had gone ashore in a boat."

"I cannot believe that," said Kate; "he would not go away and leave me."

Dickory could not believe it either, and could offer no explanation.

Kate now looked anxiously over the water towards the town, but no father
was to be seen.

"Now let me tell you what I found out," said Dickory, "you must know it.