'Bias, stooping to unlatch the gate, heard the call which descended, as it were, straight from heaven, and gazed about him stupidly. He was aware of Mrs Bosenna in the pathway, advancing a step or two to make him welcome. She halted and laughed, with a glance up towards the roof. 'Bias's eyes slowly followed hers. "Lord!" he muttered, "what made ye masthead him up there? . . . Been misbehavin', has he? 'Tis the way I've served 'prentices afore now." "On the contrary, he has been behaving beautifully--" "Here, 'Bias!" called down Cai again. "Heft along the tall ladder half a dozen yards to the s'yth'ard, and stand by to help. I'm bringin' down this plaguy rose-bush, and I'll take some catchin' if I slip with it." "'Who ran and caught him when he fell?' 'His Bias,'" quoted Mrs Bosenna. "He has been doin' wonders up there, Captain Hunken. But if I were you--a man of your weight--" "I reckon," said 'Bias, stepping forward and seizing the ladder, which he lifted as though it had been constructed of bamboo, "I han't forgot all I learnt o' reefin' off the Horn." He planted the ladder and had mounted it in a jiffy. "Now, then, what's the programme?" he demanded. "You see this rose? Well, I got to collect it--I've tried the main stem, and it'll bend all right,--and then I got to slide down to you. After that we've to peg it out somewheres above the eaves, as Madam gives orders. See?" "I see. When you're ready, slide away." Just then William Skin came hurrying back with an armful of rick-spars: and within ten minutes the two rivals were hotly at work--yet cheerfully, intelligently, as though misunderstanding had never been,-- clipping out dead wood from the rose-bush, layering it, pegging it, driving in the spars,--while Mrs Bosenna called directions, and William Skin gazed, with open mouth. "This is better than ploughin', ma'am?" challenged Cai in his glee. "So much better," agreed the widow, smiling up, "that I've almost a mind to forgive the pair of you." "But I won't ask you to stay for dinner to-day," she said later, when the tangled mass of the Devoniensis had been separated, shoot from shoot, and pegged out to the last healthy-looking twig, and the two men stood, flushed but safe, on the pathway beside her. She stole a confidential little glance at Cai. "For I understand from Captain Hocken that you prefer to make your excuses separately. I have already forgiven _him_: and it's only fair to give Captain Hunken his turn." Who less suspicious than Cai? Had he been suspicious at all, what better reassurance than the sly pressure of her hand as he bade her good-day? . . . Poor 'Bias! Once past the gate, and out of sight, Cai felt a strange desire to skip! "Well, mistress, you are a bold one, I must say!" commented Dinah that night by the kitchen fire, where Mrs Bosenna enjoyed a chat and, at this season of the year, a small glass of hot brandy-and-water, with a slice of lemon in it, before going to bed.