So there's the _Orion_ and _Sirius_ thing, only, in telling it at the Sailor's Haven the other night, our old stevedore didn't say anything of Rose's part in it. He probably didn't see what that had to do with it. However, he said enough to convince the lecturer, who was a pretty fair-minded kind, that perhaps he would have to reconstruct his views about sailors' superstitions. And perhaps there is something in it; but it's a poor case won't stand hearing both sides of the evidence. "Hoodoo ships!" It's a fascinating phrase, but--Oliver Sickles it was who held the wheel of the _Orion_, and it was Drislane to the wheel of the _Sirius_, when they came together. [Illustration: It was Drislane she had, his head cuddled on her knees till the tug came and got us.] LEARY OF THE "LIGONIER" It was a gloomy house, set in the shadow of a rocky bluff, and made more gloomy within by the close-drawn curtains. Since the news had come of the loss of John Lowe's son, no man in all Placentia Bay could say he had seen those curtains raised; and, so ran the gossip, John Lowe being what John Lowe was, a long time again before those curtains would be raised. John Lowe sat reading his black-typed, double-columned page by the table, and over by the stove John Lowe's second wife sat rocking herself. John Lowe's daughter came in, removed her shawl, and took a chair on the other side of the stove. Her stepmother spoke a word; but no word of greeting did her father offer until his chapter was finished, and then he no more than half turned, while his harsh voice asked: "Has he come into the bay yet?" "He has. Tim Lacy, that shipped wi' him out o' here, was to Shepperd's to-day--and he'll be to Shepperd's to-night, Tim says." "Tim Lacy. Another o' his kin. And what would be bringin' him to Shepperd's to-night?" "It will be a dance to-night." "Oh, the dancin'! No fear but you'll know o' the dancin'. An' he'll be there, the drinkin', murderin'----" "It's no' right, father, to be speakin' like that o' a man you never set eyes on." "An' how come it you know him, girl? Where was it you had truck wi' him? Where?" "I never had truck wi' him. But I see him. Who could help seein' him--he was in an' out o' Shepperd's his last time in." "Well, take care you see him no more. An'--" A step outside the door caused John Lowe to pause. "Ah-h--" John Lowe almost smiled. His wife glanced at the clock. "It will be the trader," she explained. "Aye, an' now we'll ha' the news--now we'll ha' the news." A knock followed the step, and, following the knock, the door opened and in stepped the expected trader. No wild daredevil, no sail carrier this, but a smooth, passionless man of business. And he got right down to business.