Jimmy saw the twinkle in her eyes, and understood it. "I hadn't. I'm afraid I wouldn't know a halibut when I saw it. There are, one believes, plenty of them, but so far very few people go fishing."
"Then you were probably killing the Americans' seals?"
"I wasn't. I am, I may mention, mate on board a lumber-carrying schooner."
His companion's nod might have meant anything. "I fancied," she said, "you had not gone to sea very often as a yacht-hand."
Jimmy, who was uncertain what she wished him to understand, pulled on leisurely, until, as they crept along the shore, a widening ripple that spread from beyond a point caught his eye, and, laying down the oars, he reached for the gun.
"I was told to bring back a duck for Miss Austerly if I could," he said. "You don't mind?"
Anthea Merril made a sign of indifference, and the dory slid on, until, as they opened up a little bay, Jimmy flung up the gun, for a slowly moving object swam in the midst of it. Then he felt a hand on his arm, and a voice said sharply, "Put it down!"
Jimmy did so before he saw the reason, and it was a moment later when he noticed a string of little fluffy bodies stretched out from the shore. The mother bird paddled toward them, and, disregarding her own danger, strove to drive them back among the boulders. Then he saw the curious gleam that was half anger and half compassion in his companion's eyes, and felt his face grow a trifle hot.
"I didn't know," he said. "It must be an unusually late brood. I never noticed them. I shouldn't like you to think I did."
"Open the gun, and take out the cartridges!" ordered his companion.