CHAPTER I—THE MEETING     

 THE life-saving crew were giving an exhibition drill. A number of people, mostly women and children, were scattered about the beach (for since the failure of the lumber and salt, that had expanded Liddington into a city with four paved streets, the only important events were band concerts and crew drills). Four girls in white-and-pink dresses, which did not agree with their piled-up hats and fringed parasols, stood on the sand.     

T

       Hunch Badeau commanded a square-nosed lumber schooner, the Ed. C. Dean, which was just big enough to carry her two masts. He had come in that morning with a picked-up cargo of merchandise from Milwaukee, unloaded it, and now leaving Billy, the boy, in charge of the schooner, was lounging up the beach with Bruce Considine, who made up the rest of the crew. Hunch had been christened John, after a long line of John, and, earlier, Jean Badeau, the first of whom had probably appeared on the Lakes in a birch canoe. Hunch showed few traces of his ancestry, excepting his black hair and an easily aroused flash in his eyes. He was big, and he stooped a little, as if doorways and cabin ceilings were too low for him.     

       “There she is,” said Bruce, pointing toward the white-and-pink group.       “That's her—the little one. She ain't bigger 'n a minute.”      

       Badeau looked critically at the group, then walked toward them.     

       “Hold on a minute, Hunch.”      

       “What for? Come along. I ain't seen a girl in weeks.”      

       “Don't go over yet. I ain't told her about you.”      

       “That's nothing. I guess she knows who I am.”      

       They stood near the girls, but fixed their eyes on the drill. After a moment, Bruce glanced around at the little girl. She threw him a smile, and he said, “Hello, Marne.”      

       “Her father's boss of the bridge gang on the Pere Marquette,” he confided to Badeau, who was edging closer to the group.     

       “Wonder if they're going to do the upset 

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