"Heh?" She had managed to startle him that time. "Why, Lorna, I don't know——"
"What has happened to him? I heard you say something about his going to sea. What do you mean?"
"Why, there's a story that he went out from Peehawket Cove in a catboat yesterday morning. But we don't know what he went for, or where he's gone."
"I heard you say it was an old tub. If he is out there and there is a storm coming up, what is going to become of him?"
"Oh, sugar! Ralph's a good sailor. You know he is. He wouldn't likely run into no danger. When he see the storm coming he'd run for it somewhere. Sure!"
"And where would he run, if he knew that the police were looking for him in every port up and down the Cape?" demanded the young woman.
She brought out the question pantingly and one hand clutched at her bosom. Tobias stared. That Lorna Nicholet should display such abundant emotion puzzled him.
"Good glory, Lorna!" he gasped. "Air all women alike? You talk about Ralph just the same as Heppy does about our money. Ain't a spark o' hope in either of your hearts, I don't believe. You talk like you was sure Ralph is mixed up in that burglary."
"He is, isn't he?" she demanded with sharpness. "At least," she supplemented, "he is accused."
"I never thought, Lorny," the lightkeeper rejoined gravely, "that you'd go back on an old friend this-a-way. Why! if Ralph's friends are going to believe such tommyrot about him, no wonder strangers—as ye might call 'em—air so fickle."