"That's in too. The man who had it to-day had started, but he saw the storm coming, and turned back in time. He waited till the storm was over before he made a second venture, then he came only so far as the upper end of the island where he left his boat and some of his traps and footed it home."
Gwen was grateful for the generalization of the boat's occupant, but she could not resist asking, "Did you see the storm-tossed mariner, Mr. Williams?"
"No, but Cap'n Ben did, and he told me, so it's reliable information."
"Thank you, Daddy Lu," said Gwen with a flashing smile which was answered by as bright a one.
Miss Elliott looked from one to the other. "There!" she exclaimed suddenly, "I know who Mr. Williams reminds me of, Gwen. It is your grandfather Whitridge. Do you happen to have any relatives of that name, Mr. Williams?"
"Yes," he said after a pause, "I have some distant ones. My own people are all dead, but I believe there were some of the Whitridge line alive when I last heard."
"And you never told me you had relatives of my name," said Gwen reproachfully. "Why, we might be kin ourselves."
"Do you chance to have any relatives by the name of Williams?" asked the man steadily. He turned to Miss Elliott.
"No, not that I know of," she answered. "The connection is not on my side of the house, you see. It was my sister, Gwen's mother, who married a Whitridge. Those family likenesses are very puzzling," she went on. "They crop up in the most surprising manner. You have what I should call the Whitridge smile, and Gwen has the same."
"I am glad it is anything as pleasant as a smile," returned Mr. Williams. "You say I resemble your niece's grandfather. Is the gentleman still living?"