"Good morning, Thora!" I said in reply to the greeting she had given.
"I hope your foot is mending," said she very gently.
"Yes," said I; and Captain Gordon turned to me as though he wondered at my sudden shyness.
Thora looked down at a daisy growing at her feet in the green turf, seeming to seek inspiration from its golden heart. Then she raised her eyes to me again and said softly--oh, so softly:
"I'm real glad, Halcro, that ye werena drowned when the Curlew was wrecked."
I was about to thank her for the part she had taken in my rescue when Captain Gordon interrupted. Said he:
"If that sinner, Carver Kinlay, had had his own way Halcro would have been drowned like the rest."
Thora's cheeks grew crimson.
"It is my father you speak of, sir," she said very bravely; "and I hope what ye say isna true."
"Your father! Carver Kinlay your father!" exclaimed the skipper incredulously. "Really, I beg your pardon, my girl."