"Perhaps it was the attachment we all feel for our birthplace that made me steer south," he assented. "In a short time we ran into bad weather, and for what seemed an interminable time drifted with bare poles. To make sail was impossible. How we ever navigated down the coast, through the Straits, into the Gulf, I have no rational idea. All I can recall is that I took great care of little Jim and that anything else did not matter.
"One morning we fetched up here on this beach, so high that in low tide the Canby was on dry sand. Her bones are out there now, sacred to me."
"I would imagine so," said I absently, thinking of the scoundrel Ramund.
"But I did not feel that way the morning I came ashore, carrying little Jim in my arms," he continued. "It seemed as though the Canby had added the last drop, the dregs of misfortune, and had deserted me. I shook my fist at it, but resolved to fight on for little Jim, old Don's faithfulness being a ray of hope.
"We first made a house tent of the sails of the Canby, which we gradually built permanent. I took to sponging to provide for little Jim, and I guess you know and can understand the rest," he finished, struggling with the emotion his whole body expressed.
The sacred solemnity of this powerful, magnificent man, baring his very soul to me, impressed me profoundly. We remained silent until I could control my voice. Finally I asked:
"Howard, have you heard anything from the North since you came here?"
"No—not a word. I have not met a soul I ever saw before until you came. For years I didn't want to. And then a desire to see some one consumed me. You may think it strange but I was too big a coward—a downright coward. Somehow I always thought you would find me. I knew you went to the ends of the earth and sea, and that you would eventually come. That's why I didn't seem surprised the other day when I recognized you. When little Jim told me there was a salesman to sell me goods I never suspected, but I should have known you would not come with a brass band," he replied, greatly relieved at having unloaded a burden he had carried for fifteen years.