The laughter that followed reassured Walter, but he was careful not to bring up the topic of names again. These were dangerous fellows and he had best keep in with them. They could do what they pleased so long as they left his preserves alone. The comforting thought made him watch the shore carefully—they had turned Bluff Point and were tacking into the Branch; and after a time he was rewarded by a flutter of something white on Phœbe’s porch. She had been watching for him, too; and was waving a welcome home. The breeze strengthened almost in answer to his own exultation, and shortly they were dropping sails before the Norris dock.
“Aye! aye! Captain Wells!” she called. “An’ how is everything for’ard?”
“Aw right!” he grinned.
“What’s your cargo—garden truck or cattle?” She pretended not to distinguish the men at first. “Ach! It’s the two gentlemen pirates out of the movies! Ahoy, you two! What’s the latest news of the police courts?”
Jawn put his hands together and megaphoned, “Woman arrested for speeding. Her tongue ran away with her head.”
“That joke is in Genesis,” she retorted. It is, no doubt, an aged masculine fling.
“Sure!” he called back as they stepped up on the dock. “If Eve had been deaf and dumb we’d all be in Paradise yet.”
“Ye devil!” she answered.
“You flatter the ould Boy,” said he.
“Ooh!” she shivered, “is he worse than you?”