Dick took it in his hands and nodded over it. “I think that would please her. She likes bright colors.” He drew a wallet from a hip pocket and disclosed a thick bundle of bills. “I shouldn't think you'd like to carry so much money on you, Captain, in your line of work.” “It isn't so much. They are most all ones.” But the jeweller, seeing a double X on the top, only smiled and remarked that it was a dark day. “Yes, too dark. I don't like it. Makes me think of the cyclone three years ago April, when the _Kate Howard_ went down off Lakeville. I spent three hours roosting on the topmast that day. It was black then, like this. If it keeps up, you 'll have to turn on your lights in here.” “Guess I will. It wouldn't hurt now. Well, good-by, Captain. Drop in again next time you run in here.” “All right. But there's no telling when that will be. I have to go where Captain Stenzenberger sends me, you know.” “You don't own your schooner yet, then?” “No; only a quarter of it. Well, good-by.” And he left the shop with the corals, securely wrapped, stowed in an inside pocket. The first big drops of rain were falling when he reached the schooner. The deck was deserted, but he found Roche and his wharf acquaintances settled comfortably in the cabin. Their talk stopped abruptly at the sight of his boots coming down the companionway. “Why isn't the load lashed down, Pete?” he asked, addressing Roche. “Why--oh, it was lookin' so bad, I thought we'd better wait till you come.” “Where's the tug? Don't Peters know we want him?” The loungers were silent. All looked at Roche. “Why, yes--sure. He ain't showed up yet, though.” “You ain't goin' to try to make it, are you, Cap'n?” asked a riverman. “Going to try? We _are_ going to make it, if that's what you mean.” One of the men rose. “I'm going up the wharf, Cap'n. If you like, I 'll speak to Peters.” “All right. I wish you would. And say, Pete, you take Pink and see that everything is down solid. I don't care to distribute those two-by-fours all down the east coast.” Roche went out, and the others got up one by one and took shelter in the lee of a lumber pile on the wharf. A little later, when he saw the tug steaming up the river, Roche shook the rain from his eyes and looked long at the black cloud billows that were rolling up from the northwest, then he slipped below and took a strong pull at his flask. The tug came alongside, and then Roche sought Dick. “Cap'n, what's the use?” he said in an agitated voice. “Don't you see we're runnin' our nose right into it? Why, if we was a three-hundred-footer, we'd have our hands full out there. I don't like to say nothin', but--” Smiley, his hat jammed on the back of his head, his shirt, now dripping wet, clinging to his trunk and outlining bunches of muscle on his shoulders and back, his light hair stringing down over his forehead, merely looked at him curiously. “You see how it is, Cap'n, I--”