He did not notice her agitation, for his attention was fixed upon the maltreated eggs.
"I could cook once for a crew of haddockers good enough; but none of them was invalids. An egg is the loosest thing! I vum! how d'ye make 'em stay together, Lorny?"
But the almost breathless girl had that on her mind that precluded her taking any interest in culinary puzzles. She leaned against the door she had closed behind her, and gasped:
"What about Ralph? Have you heard anything more? Do you know if he is safe?"
"Why, I cal'late he is," the lightkeeper rejoined slowly, looking at her now with attention. "I don't know just why he put to sea out of Peehawket Cove 'stead o' going to New Bedford to jine the Nelly G.——"
"To join the Nelly G.?" repeated the young woman. "What for?"
"Going to the Banks, I cal'late. He let it be known that he was waiting outside o' Cape Fisher for the Nelly G. to come along."
"He is running away, then!" cried Lorna.
"What do you mean?" said Tobias, forgetting the eggs entirely. "You ain't got no reason, Lorny, to think so bad of Ralph. He didn't have nothing to do with that bank robbery—nossir!"
"You cannot prove that, Tobias Bassett," she cried wildly. "You—you don't know all—all that might have tempted him. And he being without money."