"That from now on you shave every day, and from now on we're—friends."
"I'll promise that!" said Stirling, heartily. "We two are going to see this thing through—as friends. You can trust me! We'll stand guard—watch and watch."
[CHAPTER XXX—IN SWIFT SALUTE]
"You're not going to kill anybody?" Helen Marr asked, after a moment's pause.
"Not unless they try to harm you," Stirling replied.
The girl raised her chin and thrust out her right hand. "I was always a wild creature," she said. "Father died soon after I was born, and mother let me run wild in Concord. Then uncle came from across the sea. He always liked me; once he took me to England on a voyage. It was a Boston ship he owned an interest in. I can reef and steer. I had a sloop in Maine—all one summer."
"Can you handle a rifle?"
"Yes. Only I don't want to kill anybody."
Stirling stepped to a gun rack on the starboard side of the cabin, went over the rifles racked there, and picked out a light gun which Marr had brought North for shooting seals.
"We'll load this," he said, laying it across the table. "It's yours in case of trouble. The revolutionists are getting into deep ice and the time is coming when they will call on me. I may have to take command of the ship. Otherwise——"