"A broken oar?"
"That's what it is. I found it only this morning in the hold, when I
was helping stow the last of the cargo. It was wedged in behind a
timber of her frame."
"Well? What of it?"
"Strike a match somebody. See what's burned into that handle?"
Their heads were clustered about the faint glimmer of the match
flame. But the light was sufficient to reveal what 'Rion pointed
out. Burned more or less unevenly were the letters M A R L I N B.
"What do you think of that?" exclaimed 'Rion. "Would that broken oar
be aboard of this dratted schooner if she wasn't the _Marlin B._
painted over and a new name give her? What do you fellows think of
it?"
There was silence in the group when the match flame died out. It was
finally the negro cook who made comment:
"Lawsy me!" he groaned. "Ef I had only de faith of Peter I'd up an'
walk ashore from dis here cussed schooner right now!"
CHAPTER XXV
TO LOVE AND BE LOVED
The girl whom Cap'n Ira Ball found in the kitchen of the old house
on Wreckers' Head when he hobbled out of his bedroom the next
morning was not the Ida May he had been wont to find of late, ready
with his shaving materials, hot water, and a clean and voluminous
checked apron to be tucked in about the neckband of his shirt.
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