One day, when August was more than half gone, Elsa called him on the wireless and announced that repairs on Captain Flint's boat, the Rebecca, were completed and the paint dry, and that the Rumfords were going to take their annual family cruise aboard of her. Alec was invited to go along and no answer but a favorable one would be accepted. Of course, there was nothing for Alec to do but put his work aside and say he would go. In his heart he was more than glad to put his work aside. Week after week he had stuck to it, holding himself with iron determination to his task. But now the zest was gone out of it. The long grind was wearing on his nerves. Joyously he looked forward to this holiday.
The next morning he did not put out in his boat, but went to the shipper's office to thank him for the invitation and to see if he could be of assistance in preparing for the cruise. But the instant Alec saw the shipper, he knew that something had gone wrong.
"Bagley's left us," blurted out the shipper, the moment he saw Alec. And there were tears in his voice, if not in his eyes.
"What do you mean, sir?" asked Alec.
"He's going to the Chesapeake next fall. Got a chance to go into partnership with a shipper there. Don't blame him a bit, but Gad! I hate to lose him. He's been with me seventeen years. Never worked anywhere but on the Bertha B. Started oystering on her as a deck-hand. Don't know what I'll do for another captain."
"You can get plenty of them," said Alec.
"Certainly," said the shipper, "but not plenty of Bagleys. Why, I could trust that man with my life."
"Take Hawley," said Alec.
"What!" cried the shipper. "Make a captain out of a fellow that was fired from the Bertha B less than a year ago for being drunk? You're crazy."
"You're foolish if you don't take him," urged Alec. "Why, Captain Rumford, that man's the very soul of honesty. I know him like a book. I'd trust him just as far as I would you, Captain, and that's saying all I know how to say. It's old John Barleycorn you have in mind. But Jim cut his acquaintance long ago. And you know as well as I do that there isn't a better sailor in the fleet."