“What are you grinning about there?” roared Dick.
“I wasn't grinnin', Cap'n.”
“Oh, you wasn't. Get to work, then, and shut your mouths. You're a lot o' loafers, that's what you are. Hustle, now!” He lent a strong hand himself, glad to vent in work the explosives that were working in his head; and as he worked he muttered, “So we quit workin' when we're tired, do we?”
Meanwhile the mate was strolling in the forest a few hundred yards away with Estelle. He was looking closely at her, as they walked, from under heavy eyebrows. She was flushing a very little and studying the sand at her feet.
“Who's been giving you that kind o' talk about me?” he was asking.
“Why—I don't know as it was anybody especial.”
“You didn't believe it, did you?”
“N-no—but you see, you told me you were coming right back, and then you didn't—and I didn't know whether I was ever going to see you again or not. I thought—”
“Well, what was it you thought?”
“I thought you probably could have come if you'd wanted to!”