“No, indeed! I never set eyes on the poor man before. It’s just one of our local proverbs. Our fisher people here have a saying that those who are rescued from the sea can never find their heart’s happiness until they have evened the tally by saving a life.” 

 “Then you’ve had your own shipwreck adventure?” asked Dick. 

 “Twenty years ago I was washed to shore in just such a storm. Father Johnston was nearly killed, getting me. The only name I could tell them was Helga. They adopted me. Ah, they have been good to me, they and Petit Père.” 

 “Haynes? He’s a full-size man!” declared Colton warmly. “‘Save Helga!’ he called to me, when he saw me floundering in.” 

 “Yes, I knew he would come after me,” said the girl simply; “but I didn’t know you would come after him. So there’s the chain,” she added gaily. “I went in to clear off my debt and win my heart’s happiness—though I do hope it isn’t the Portuguese man. Petit Père went in to get me. And you,” she paused and looked him between the eyes, “I think you came after us because you couldn’t help it; because that is the sort of man you are. Why,” she cried with a ring of laughter, “you’re actually blushing!” 

 “I’m not used to the praises of full-blown heroines,” retorted Dick. “I wondered what you meant when you said that the children of the sea dream the sea’s dreams?” 

 “As for the dreams,” began Helga. She did not conclude the sentence, but said gravely, “Yes, I’m a true sea-waif.” 

 “I’d like to adopt you for a sister,” said Dick, smiling, but with such an honesty of admiration that it was the girl’s turn to blush. 

 “Haven’t you any of your own?” she asked. 

 “‘I am all the sisters of my father’s house,’” he misquoted cheerily. 

 “And all the brothers too?” she capped the perversion. 

 “No; I’ve a brother a year younger than I. There may be in this universe,” he continued reflectively, “people who don’t like Everard. If there are, they live in Mars. Everybody on this old earth—and he seems to know pretty much all of ’em—takes to him like a duck to water. He’s a wonder, that youth!” 

 “Everard?” said the girl. There was a quick and subtle change in her tone. “Is Everard Colton your brother? I should never have guessed it. You don’t resemble 

 Prev. P 31/120 next