Happily it was the former. She proved to be a good sailor.
"You was born for a sailor's bride, miss," Horry told her.
But he said it when nobody else was by to see the blush which
stained her cheek. And yet she did not look happy after the old
salt's observation. He hastened to interest her in another theme.
It was the tail of the afternoon watch. Because of the light and
shifting airs the _Seamew_, in spite of her wonderful sailing
qualities, had only then raised the northern extremity of the Cape
and, turning on her heel, was now running out to sea again on the
long leg of a tack into the southeast.
Horry hung to the spokes of the wheel while the skipper was helping
Orion make up the manifest. The steersman had jettisoned his usual
quid of tobacco when the girl approached him, and without that aid
to complacency Horry just had to talk.
"Did you see the wheel jerk then, miss? That tug to sta'bo'd is the
only fault I find with this here schooner. She's a right tidy craft,
and Cap'n Tunis is a good judge of sailing ships, as his father was
afore him.
"But although this _Seamew_ looks like a new craft, she isn't. Sure,
he knowed she wasn't new, Cap'n Tunis did, when he bought her up
there to Marblehead.
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