The captain sat at the head of the table while Ruth presided over the coffee urn at the foot. Tyke sat at the captain's right, and the two young men were placed one on either side of their hostess.
She wore a fetching breakfast cap, which did not prevent a rebellious wisp or two of golden hair from playing about her pink ears. Her cheeks were rosy, her eyes sparkling, and her demure little housewifely air as she poured the coffee was bewitching. The excitement of the start, the novelty of the quest on which they had embarked, and the presence of two young and attentive cavaliers put her on her mettle, and she was full of quaint sayings and witty sallies.
Her father gazed on her fondly, Tyke beamed approvingly, and Parmalee's admiration was undisguised. As for Drew, the havoc she had already made in his heart reached alarming proportions. He found himself picturing a home ashore, where every morning that face would be opposite to him at the breakfast table with that ravishing dimple coming and going as she smiled at him.
"How do you like your coffee?" she asked him, her slender fingers hovering over the cream jug and the sugar tongs.
"Two lumps of cream and plenty of sugar," he responded.
She laughed mischievously.
"We always try to please," she said; "but really our cream doesn't come in lumps."
He reddened.
"I surely did get that twisted," he said a little sheepishly. "Suppose we put it the other way around."
"I guess your mind was far away," she jested. "You must have been thinking of the treasure."