With no idea that he was making the genial captain any trouble, Helmford paid Sarah Petty for the week in advance (a custom that pleased her vastly) and, assured that he had secured better lodgings than he had expected to find, the young man departed. From the sitting-room window, behind the lace curtains, Pearl watched him go. She hoped he would return. He was entirely different from the young men whom she saw daily at the store or at the Mariner's Chapel when she went to service. Helmford was out of quite another world from that with which Pearl Holden was familiar. Her gaze followed him down the lane and out to the Shell Road, the glare of which swallowed him up. CHAPTER VII GETTING ACQUAINTED Joseph Helmford overtook Cap'n Jonah making his way by easy stages down the Shell Road toward that landmark, A. Silt's general store. It was for the most part a drab landscape in this direction, for the crops were out of the few cultivated fields and the sand lots lacked even the color vouchsafed them in summer. The white shaft of the lighthouse on the Neck stood out against a tumbled mass of slate colored clouds on the horizon. That cloudbank foretold wind if not rain storms. The ocean was restive over Gull Rocks, that danger spot of all danger spots along the hook of the Cape. Seldom a winter passed that one unfortunate craft did not beat its life out upon the treacherous reef. The bones of many such, like the ribs of prehistoric monsters, were outthrust from the sands along the Neck. To the left lay the crescent length of The Beaches. The Shell Road curved beyond Cap'n Abe's store and climbed to the bluffs that overhung The Beaches, bordered with the more or less ornate summer dwellings of city visitors. "It's a purty sight," observed Cap'n Jonah, "even on a lowering day like this. So Sarah's took you on, has she?" he added more briskly. "She'll be signing on a full crew before long, I don't dispute." "I shall be glad to be one of your family, Captain," Helmford made reply. "I dunno how you'll like it, but we'll hope for the best," Cap'n Jonah observed, dryly. "But, le's see! Who's this in one o' them rattle-te-bang gas-buggies? She looks like a steam tug makin' heavy weather of it." "Dr. Ambrose," said Helmford, quickly. "And his sister, Miss Sue. I have an idea the doctor has been over to the new Tapp house on the point. There's been an interesting event there recently, and instead of sending for a specialist from Boston or the like, the young couple were satisfied to have Doctor Ambrose officiate at the mundane appearance of what Cap'n Abe calls 'the last Tapp'--meaning the latest Tapp." "Whatever!" ejaculated Cap'n Jonah. "I hear you sayin' something, but I'll be keelhauled if I know what 'tis! 'Hem! So this is the doctor, is it?"