As he pressed on down the Shell Road in the face of the gale, he glanced in passing up the Petty lane. He saw no sign of life about the house; but had he been a few minutes earlier he would have seen Tom Petty, fresh from Cap'n Abe's store, black-browed and passion-inflamed, stamp up the porch steps and burst into the kitchen where his mother was cooking dinner and his father sat reading the Paulmouth _Argus_. But Helmford did meet Cap'n Jonah as he issued from the store and was about to head homeward. "Well, well!" was the master mariner's greeting, "you're a fine feller. Where have you been keepin' yourself? And why in tarnation did you cut your cable and put to sea as you did? Do you s'pose you ain't got any friends--or don't you want any?" "Why, Cap'n Jonah," said Helmford, leading the old man into the shelter of one of Cap'n Abe's sheds, "I had no intention of ignoring you. I fancied you would hear all about it from the Pettys and--and Miss Pearl." "Pearly? What does she know about it? She says you never told her you were goin' to leave. And Sarah Petty's ne'er mentioned your name from that day to this." "Didn't Miss Pearl tell you of what happened yonder on the road, when she was coming home from church?" "The night before you slipped your moorings? Nary a word," declared Cap'n Jonah, emphatically. Helmford was rather taken aback. If Pearl had not told the old seaman of the incident perhaps she did not want it mentioned to him. Just how much the girl might be attached to Tom Petty, rough and uncouth as he was, Helmford did not know. "Come now!" exclaimed Cap'n Jonah. "Let's hear the whole on't. I thought that gal was keepin' something back, but I didn't know what 'twas. You an' she didn't have no quarrel?" "Pearl and I? Certainly not!" replied Helmford indignantly. Then he smiled grimly. "But I did have a brief set-to with Tom Petty." "Whatever!" ejaculated Cap'n Jonah. "And you let that lout put you out?" "I put myself out. I did not care to remain and quarrel with him continually--as I should." "'Hem! Ye-as. I expect there might ha' been bad blood 'twixt you. Over Pearly, of course." "Now, Cap'n Hand," interrupted Helmford emphatically. "I will not discuss Miss Pearl's private affairs at all. It is not my business to do so. You have told me that you intend making her the beneficiary of your will. Whatever my personal regard may be for Miss Pearl that fact, in itself, would preclude my being a rival of Tom Petty's for her favor----" "Hoity-toity!" ejaculated Cap'n Jonah. "The kettle _has_ b'iled over for a fac'! Air you another loony feller like Life Truitt? Afraid of a woman if she has a little tad of money?" "At least, I respect myself--and Miss Pearl--too much to have it said that I address her because she expects to possess your fortune, Cap'n Jonah, when you are gone. Tom Petty has already accused me of that." "And what did you say to him?" demanded the old man.