“Pet Salt, the time will come when you shall pay!”
Nan’s voice drowned their laughter for a moment. She stood there on the shingle, the waves lapping up to her feet and the newly risen sun lighting her wrinkled face where two tears sparkled on her yellow cheeks, but her eyes were bright and hard.
Then she turned away and strode off, holding her head high, and as she went the wind carried after her the sound of their derisive laughter.
And it was not until she reached her cabin that she remembered she had said no word to Pet of the business on which she had set out, Anny’s marriage.
CHAPTER XIX
“PET SALT, are you sure all this is so? I wouldn’t wed with him if I could help it.”
Anny spoke anxiously, her little face white with apprehension.
She and Pet Salt were alone together on the deck of Ben’s old boat. The tide was well up and the waves leaped against the stern with a gurgling sound.
It was late in the evening, the wind was rising, and the sun was setting over the Island in a blaze of red and green light.
On board the Pet there was the customary muddle: empty kegs, rotting sail-cloth, torn fishing nets, and derelict baskets lay strewn about the decaying deck in endless confusion.