It was five minutes before the squire, purple with shouting for order, could be heard above the noise. Then, with hand upraised, he shouted:
“All in favor of Schofield’s plan say ay!”
And the “ay” was the greatest vocal demonstration ever given in Freekirk Head.
CHAPTER VII
A STRANGER
The ensuing week was one such as the village had never beheld. A visitor to the island might have thought that war had been declared and that a privateering expedition was being fitted out.
On the railroad near Flag Point there was always some vessel being scraped or painted. Supplies brought over from St. John’s by the steamer Grande Mignon were stowed in lazarets and below. Rigging was overhauled, canvas patched or renewed, and bright, tawny ropes substituted for the old ones in sheet and tackle.
Every low tide was a signal for great activity among the vessels made fast alongside the wharfs, for the rise of the water was nearly twenty feet, and when it receded the ships stood upright on their keels and exposed their bottoms to scraper, calking mallet, and paint-brush.