"But, Jack, where did you find her? I thought she was dead."
"Old woman, I can't stay to answer questions now. I've got to go back to my ship and steer her into harbor. I'll come back as soon as I can. And, in the meantime, don't you let her get away."
"I'll keep her all right," Meg replied, with one of her hideous grins, and then he went away, returning later to find her waiting for him on the steps outside.
"She has come to, and is almost crazy to get away, so I locked her in and came out here to wait for you," she said. He sat down close to her, and confided his story to her ears, ending with:
"I brought her over to my boat and told them all she was my crazy sister. Bill Skipper and his wife had seen her here four years ago, and so there was no one to contradict my story, and old Mother Skipper took care of her all the way, for she was sick and nearly died on the voyage."
"And what do you expect to do with her now?" grimly inquired old Meg.
A string of oaths broke from his lips, in the midst of which she distinguished an avowed determination to force Nita to become his wife.
"But you said she was married to that young swell."
"He's dead by now!" was the vicious reply. "And, whether he's dead or not, she shall marry me."