"Not here, Tunis," she whispered. "But if you dare take me--knowing what and who I am--I am all yours. Whenever you feel that you can take me I shall be ready. Can I say more, Tunis?" He looked at her solemnly. "I am the happiest man alive. I am the happiest man alive, Ida May!" he breathed. CHAPTER XVIII IDA MAY THINKS IT OVER The _Seamew_ sailed next day, short-handed. Not only had Tony, the boy, left, but one of the foremast hands did not put in an appearance. A grinning Portygee boy came to the wharf and announced that "Paul, he iss ver' seek." Tunis knew it would be useless to go after the man, just as it had been useless to go after Tony. He had been unable to ship another boy in Tony's place, and when he let it be known among the dock laborers and loungers about Luiz Wharf that there was a berth open in the _Seamew's_ forecastle, nobody applied for it. "What is the matter with those fellows?" the skipper asked Mason Chapin. "They were tumbling over each other a few weeks ago to join us, and now there isn't an offer." "Some Portygee foolishness," grumbled the mate. "I wonder," muttered Tunis. "You wonder if it's so?" queried the mate. "You know how silly these people are once they get a crazy notion in their heads." "What's the crazy notion, Mr. Chapin?" The mate flung up his hands and shrugged his shoulders. "A haunt--a jinx--_something_. The Lord knows!" "I wonder if it is a Portygee notion or something else," said Tunis Latham, his eyes fixed on the back of Orion, busy, for once, at the other rail. "Whatever it is, Captain Latham," said Mason Chapin with gravity, "I suggest you fill your berths at Boston." "Guess I'll have to. But the offscourings of the city docks! They will be worse than these Portygees." It was not a prospect he welcomed. He well knew the sort of dock rats he must put up with if he wished to make up his crew with city hands for a short trip. The sea tramps who are within reach of coasting skippers are the same kind of worthless material that shiftless farmers must depend upon in harvest time. Even the lack of one man forward, to say nothing of the cook's boy, made a considerable difference in the working of the schooner. 'Rion Latham loudly proclaimed that he was being imposed upon when he was forced to work with the captain's watch. He had shipped as supercargo and clerk, he had! This treatment was an imposition. "You know what you can do about it, 'Rion, if you like," the skipper said to him calmly, but aside. "I wouldn't want to feel that I was holding you to a job that you did not like. You can leave the _Seamew_ any time you want." "Huh! The rats will be doing that soon enough," growled 'Rion. But he did not say this where Captain Latham could hear. It was Horry Newbegin who heard him.