"Ah!" she said, "you believe in him. Still, skill and nerve will not do everything."
"They will do a great deal, and what flesh and blood can do, one can count on getting from the Shasta's skipper. I believe"—and he lowered his voice confidentially—"Jimmy will bring her back again. That's why I sent her up there less than half-insured. Premiums were heavy, and we wanted all our money. Still, if he does not, I know he will have made the toughest fight—and that will be some relief to me. You see, I'm fond of Jimmy—and I'm talking quite straight with you."
There was a hint of pain in the girl's face, and she realized that it was there, but his frankness had had its effect on her. It suggested a sympathy she did not resent, and she smiled at him gravely.
"Thank you!" she said. "There is another thing I want to ask, Mr. Jordan. If you get any news of the Shasta, will you come and tell me?"
"Within the hour," said Jordan, and Anthea, who thanked him, rose and turned away.
Jordan, however, sat still, gazing straight in front of him thoughtfully, for, though she had perhaps not intended this, the girl's manner had impressed him. He fancied that he knew what she was feeling, and that she had in a fashion taken him into her confidence. It was also a confidence that he would at any cost have held inviolable. Then he rose with a little dry smile.
"She is clear grit all through," he said. "And her father is the ——— rogue in all this Province."
CHAPTER XXIV
JORDAN KEEPS HIS PROMISE
Right sunshine streamed down on the Inlet, and there was an exhilarating freshness in the morning air; but Anthea Merril sat somewhat listlessly on the veranda outside her father's house, looking across the sparkling water toward the snows of the north. She had done the same thing somewhat frequently of late, and, as had happened on each occasion, her thoughts were fixed on the little vessel that had apparently vanished in the fog-wrapped sea. Anthea had grown weary of waiting for news of her.