take up their abode in the new huts; Nick at Squid Beach, and Foxey Jack
at the Cove, had to keep a sharp look-out for ships during bad weather
and at night. Should either of them remark any signs of a vessel in
distress he was to return to Chance Along at top speed, and report the
same. Nick Leary and Foxey Jack Quinn were older men than the skipper by
a few years, and the fathers of families--of half-starved families. Nick
was a mild lad; but Foxey Jack had a temper as hot as his hair.

"What bes yer idee, skipper?" asked Nick.

Dennis explained it briefly, having outlined his plans several times
before.

"An' how long does we have to stop away?" asked Nick.

"Five days. Yer watch'll be five days, an' then I'll be sendin' out two
more lads," replied the skipper.

Foxey Jack Quinn stood, without a word, his vicious face twisted with a
scowling sneer. Both men departed, one for the beach to the north and
the other for the Cove to the south, each carrying a kettle and bag of
provisions, a blanket and tarnished spy-glass. Black Dennis Nolan turned
to other work connected with the great scheme of transferring the
activities of Chance Along from the catching of fish to the catching of
maimed and broken ships. He set some of the old men and women to
splicing ropes, stronger and more active folk to drilling a hole in the
face of the cliff, near to the top of it and just to the right of the
entrance to the narrow harbor. Others, led by the skipper himself, set
to work at drilling holes in several of the great rocks that lay in the
green tide beyond the mouth of the harbor, their heavy crowns lifting