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Show BEN AMES WILLIAMS WILLIAMS W M U F E ATU P. E S CCTTL THE STORY SO FAR : After a chance meetlnc and swift courtship. Will McPhail Mc-Phail starts for Moose nay, leaving Robin Dale to wonder how a career girl could be so completely swept off her feet. She knows little of Will, except that he Is an engineer and that he has m brother named Angus, a dour Scot who hates women. Tired of the city and eager for adventure, Robin decides to take the next steamer up the St. Lawrence to Moose Bay. Driving to the port where she Is to take the boat, Robin meets a salmon fisherman, who turns out to be Angus McPhail. A letter from Will asks her to help heal Angus' heart, broken by an early misfortune. Now continue with the story. She wanted, in fact, to keep out of sight till they had docked; for Will would certainly be at the dock to meet Angus, and Will must not see her. The White Queen neared the dock, moving slow and slower. In spite of the fact that it was late Saturday afternoon, men seemed to be working work-ing everywhere. Robin, on the boat deck, kept herself her-self half-hidden for fear Will, waiting wait-ing on the dock to meet his brother, might see her. The White Queen drew alongside, and Robin saw that they were slowly approaching a landing stage for small boats. That was where those children meant to have their swim. Beyond the landing land-ing stage, a man in a bathing suit poised on the stringpiece of the wharf and dived rather poorly. A heaving line went unreeling through the air from the White Queen to the dock, was seized there and taken in, the hawser following. Robin suddenly wanted to say good-by good-by to Angus. The gangplank would come aboard on the deck below where she stood; and she went in to descend to that deck. Mr. Jen- talking with Mr. Lewis, but she suspected sus-pected he was waiting to intercept her, so she turned back and went toward the bow, adjusting her bathing bath-ing cap. She needn't go along the dock; she could just dive off the White Queen's rail. On the forward deck when she came out there, the fore hatch was open, the cargo derrick der-rick lifting some freight out of the hold, and the men stopped their work to look after her as she passed them. She had not realized there were so many men about till they all looked at her now. To get into the water as quickly as possible, she climbed on the low bulwark forward for-ward and took the air in a swan dive, arms wide, body beautifully arched, bright and slender in the sun. She met the water cleanly, and went deep, thrilling to the cool, sweet shock of it. She arched her back and glided toward the surface, letting her own buoyancy carry her up till her head emerged. As she came to the surface she felt, rather than heard, a heavy splintering crash. She felt its impact im-pact through the water. Then even with a bathing cap over her ears she heard sudden shouts, with excitement ex-citement and terror in them. The people along the stringpiece of the dock above her, silhouetted against the sky, suddenly whirled and disappeared. dis-appeared. They must have run toward to-ward the other side of the dock. Something had happened. A great surge of water came through the forest of piles under the dock and lifted Robin and let her down again. Bob and Helen Marston. and two or three older swimmers off the White Queen were- climbing out on the landing stage, running up to the dock level, disappearing. She swam swiftly toward the stage, swung herself her-self up on it, followed them. Men were packed along the opposite oppo-site side of the dock, their backs toward to-ward her, crowding, standing on tiptoe, tip-toe, trying to see over the shoulders of men in front, looking down at the water. She touched one of them. "What happened?" He told her, with only the briefest brief-est glance. "The crane fell over the side of the dock. Fellow in it. They're trying to get him out." He spoke almost with unction. "But he's done for, all right." A, - ST3 ""fig""', j" t $3:vw.w"- She took the air in a swan diva. CHAPTER III Robin wanted, in a friendly tenderness tender-ness tonight, to help heal those scars. Sitting on the edge of the narrow bunk, the letter in her hand, she remembered the lines of old pain around the Salmon Man's mouth, the dregs of stale suffering in his eyes. He was like a small boy who has been hurt in ways he does not understand. She remembered his tone when he spoke of Will, understood the deep affection in him for the younger man; and she decided that nothing must interfere with that trip they meant to make together. Certainly she would not rob Angus of that happiness. hap-piness. But if Will knew she had come to Moose Bay, he would insist in-sist on staying with her. That, simply, sim-ply, must not happen. Before she slept, she decided what to do. The White Queen was bound on a gypsy cruise around the Gulf of St. Law. rence. She would stay aboard, take the cruise, land at Rimouski on the return trip, and pick up her car and go on her way. Will need never know she had been so near him. Next morning she was one of the late breakfasters, and the small dining din-ing saloon was almost deserted; but before she had finished, Mr. Jenkins in his checked suit appeared and sat down' beside her. "Saw you on the dock last night," he reminded her. "Yes, I remember." He seemed nice enough by daylight, in this safe security, with the stewards about. He seemed even nicer when he said, surprisingly! "I'm afraid you found me annoying. annoy-ing. May I apologize? Some friends had been seeing me off. I was a little exuberant. I hope I didn't bother you?" She forgave him at once. "You weren't really annoying; just-friendly." just-friendly." "Too friendly," he insisted. "Let's forget last night, start fresh." He asked again whether she knew anyone any-one in Moose Bay, and why she happened hap-pened to be going there; and when she said she was an artist, he assured as-sured her she would find plenty of things to paint. She had made up her mind not to leave the ship at Moose Bay at all; but she need not tell Mr. Jenkins that. She finished her breakfast and left him busy with eggs and went on deck. There were twenty 1 or thirty passengers aboard the White Queen, most of them for the cruise, most of them feminine. She found a group on the afterdeck tossing soft little bags of sand at a perforated board and exclaiming ex-claiming delightedly over their scores. The purser, a pleasant young man named Lewis, was with them; and Robin spoke to him about abandoning her plan to land at Moose Bay and continuing the cruise. He was pleased; and he introduced her to the others in the group here. A sister and brother in their later teens. Bob and Helen Marston, were the youngest and the liveliest passengers aboard; and Helen urged Robin to join in their game; but Robin said: "Later, please? I've a letter to write first." The letter was to Will. Mr. Lewis could mail it at Moose Bay so that Will would receive it after the White Queen had gone. She told him about meeting Angus. "And he happened to mention that you and he were going off on this fine trip together, and I could tell how much he was looking forward ; to having you with him. I know if j you saw me you wouldn't go." They came in sight of Moose Bay in mid-afternoon. As the White Queen drew in toward the long dock, Robin saw through a fringe of trees a considerable town on the wooded shore, the houses all brightly paint-I paint-I ed, fresh and new. The dock itself j was impressive by its length, and I by the fact that three freighters lay ! there disgorging their cargoes. She ! was on the upper deck of the White j Queen, watching the rugged coast j black with spruce, when Bob and ; Helen Marslon came to the rail be- ! side her. They were in (paining ' suits, slim and young. "Bob and I are going swimming as soon as we dock. Miss Dale," : Helen explained. "The purser says j there's a landing stage we can j swim from; says it will be right : under the bow almost, when we ! tie up. Don't you want to come?" Robin swam well, and she was an expert diver. "That might be fun," she agreed. "Maybe I will." "We're all ready," the boy said. "You better go dress." : But Robin said she would wait till after the White Queen was tied up. j "I want to see what the place looks ; like as we come closer," she ex- ' ulained. i i I Robin went back toward the White Queen, sick and shaken. The day was so sunny and fine and fair, the sky so blue and beautiful; yet someone some-one had died. She dressed slowly, oppressed and miserable. She went to find Mr. Lewis. "Did they get the man out?" she asked. He said: "No. Not yet." The purser purs-er added: "He was Mr. McPhail's brother. Will McPhail." When Angus McPhail stepped oft the White Queen, he expected his brother Will to greet him. Will was not in sight; but Pat Donohoe was here. Pat was as ugly a man as you could meet in a nightmare, with red hair that stuck up in some places like sprouting grass; with a red face and a battered nose which suggested suggest-ed that it had met strange fists in its time and might again; with one ear half the size of the other; with a great scar on his upper lip a horse had kicked him there so that his mouth would not quite close. But he had a twinkling blue eye which made you forget the rest of his battered countenance; and he caught McPhail's hand and squeezed it to a pulp, and he took McPhail's heaviest bag and heaved it into an automobile which stood with the engine en-gine running, and he said: "Get in yourself, sorr. Here we go." "Where's Will?" "Waiting for you, be sure." So Angus got in, and the car picked its way through scattered groups of men, and past piles of freight, and around switching engines, en-gines, and then speeded up for the last half-mile run along the dock to the shore. There the rough new road slowed them down; they bounced and grunted; and Angus thought Pat was driving faster than he needed to. But he did not complain. com-plain. He wanted to see Will. Once he asked: "Why didn't Will meet me? All right, is he?" "Sure, sorr, he's fine. Busy, most like." "What's he doing now?" Pat chuckled. "Whatever they put him to, this thing and that. He'll make a hand, that lad." Angus nodded, pleased and happy. hap-py. He said: "I see they're unloading un-loading the rollers?" "Aye," Pat dolefully agreed. "That means the end of the job's in sight. I hate to see the rollers come. Another eighteen months and we'll be moving on somewheres else again." Pat would be engineer and navigator on this trip which Angus and Will meant to take; but he was a construction man by habit and by long love. "Here's the bunk-house, bunk-house, sorr. Like as not we'll find him here." But Will McPhail was not there. Angus, after one glance inside, said so; and Pat walked in and said in seeming surprise: "Sure he is not, at that I made sure he would be. We'll wait, sorr. He'll be coming in any minute now." But if Will was not here, other men were; and one of them volunteered volun-teered information. "McPhail? He was out on the pier half an houi ago, running the traveler." (TO BE COyTIM ED) kins came out of the smoking room as she passed the door; and he protested: pro-tested: "Thought you were getting off here?" "No, I've decided to stay aboard for the whole cruise. It seems like fun." He urged: "Say, you're making a mistake. You'd have a great time here. Stay over and let me show you the sights. You don't want to miss Moose Bay when you're so near." "I'm afraid I do," she said, smiling smil-ing a little. "I mean, I'm afraid I do want to miss it." She and Mr. Jenkins blocked the stairs; and here was Angus McPhail trying to pass. She spoke to him over Mr. Jenkins' Jen-kins' shoulder. "Goodby, Mr. McPhail. Thank you for telling me all about salmon. Have a fine trip!" She would have offered him her hand; but before she could do so, he said goodby, simply, neither smiling nor rebuffing her, and descended de-scended the stairs to the deck below. be-low. Robin, Mr. Jenkins following her, moved out on the upper deck in time to see Angus McPhail step on the dock. ' She looked for Will to meet him, but another man who seemed to be a workman Robin saw only his clothes, not his face hailed Angus; and Robin, not listening listen-ing to Mr. Jenkins' continued urgencies urgen-cies at her elbow, saw Angus and this man who had greeted him go toward a decrepit automobile, get in, and drive away along the dock toward the shore half a mile away, toward the town beyond. Robin had a moment's wonder why Will was not here. Maybe he was sick, or hurt, or something! Then she realized that Will was probably at work, too busy to come to meet the steamer. Mr. Jenkins was still urging her to change her mind. She said: "Excuse me. I'm going to have a swim here, so I'll have to change." She left him and went swiftly to her cabin. ' While she was dressing, one of the youngsters called outside out-side her door: "Ready, Miss Dale?" "In a minute." "The landing stage's right ahead of us. You can go along the dock and down to it that way. We'll go ahead. You come as soon as you're ready." "Right!" Robin agreed. "Don't wait for me." Her bathing suit was designed for swimming, reduced to its essentials; and since she was traveling with a minimum of luggage, she had no beach robe. She came out into the companionway and turned aft toward to-ward the gangplank and saw Mr. Jenkins standing there. He was |
