Dan'l shook his head slowly. "You're brave, Faith, and strong.... But the sea's stronger. I've sailed them long enough to know." She said steadfastly: "The _Sally Sims_ has got to come free. It's in my mind to get her off if we have to take every stick out of her and lift her off ourselves...." "If we could do it, I'd be with you," he told her. "But we can't, Faith." "We will," she said. He smiled, studied her for a moment, then leaned toward her, resting his hands on the desk. "Faith," he said softly, "you're a wonderful, brave woman." She looked at him with a weary flicker of lips and eyes that might have passed for a smile. "It's not that I'm brave, Dan'l," she said. "It's just that I'll not let Noll Wing's ship rot here when it should be bound home t'the other side of the world." "Noll Wing's ship?" he echoed. "Eh, Faith, but Noll Wing is dead and gone." She nodded. "Yes." "He's dead and gone, Faith," he repeated swiftly. "He's dead, and gone.... And but for Noll Wing, Faith, you'd have loved me, three year ago." She looked up, then, and studied him, and she said softly: "You'll mind, Dan'l, that Noll Wing is not but three weeks dead.... Even now." "Three weeks dead!" he cried. "Have I not seen? He's been a dead man this year past; a dead man that walked and talked and swore.... But dead this year past. You've been a widow for a year, Faith...." She shook her head. "So long as the _Sally_ lies here on the sand," she said, "I'm not Noll Wing's widow; I'm his wife. It was his job to bring her home; and so it is my job, too. And will be, till she's fast to the wharf at home." "Then you'll die his wife, Faith; for the _Sally_'ll never stir from here." "If she never does," said Faith, "I'll die Noll Wing's wife, as you say." He cried breathlessly: "What was Noll Wing that you should cling to him so, Faith?" "He was the man I loved," she said. His face blackened, and his fist banged the desk. "Aye; and but for him you'd have loved me. Loved me...." "I never told you that, Dan'l." "But 'twas true. I could see. You'd have loved me, Faith...." "Dan'l," she said slowly, "I'm in no mind to talk so much of love, this night." The man sat back in silence for a space, not looking at her; nor did she look at him. In the end, however, he shaped his words afresh. "Faith," he said softly, "we were boy and girl together, you and I. Grew up together, played together.... I loved you before you were more than a girl. Before you ever saw Noll Wing. Can you remember?" He was striving with all his might to win her; and Faith said gently: "Yes, Dan'l. I remember." "When I sailed away, last cruise but one, you kissed me, Faith. Do you mind?" She looked at him in honest surprise. "I kissed you, Dan'l?" "Yes. On the forehead...." She shook her head. "I don't remember ... at all."