He didn't look up--only stared into his glass. She was silent for a full minute. Clancy said nothing. "Nobody's driving you away," she said again. At that Clancy looked at her. "There's no telling," he said at first, and then hastily, "Oh, no--of course nobody's driving me to sea." "Then what's your hurry?" I got up and went to the door then. I heard the sound of a scraping chair and then of Clancy standing up. A moment's quiet and then it was: "No, dear, I can't stay--nobody's driving me away, I know that. I'm sure you wouldn't--not with your heart. And you've a good heart if you'd only give it a chance. But I can't stay." "And why not? You won't, you mean. Well, I never thought you were _that_ kind of a man." "No? Well, don't go to giving me any moral rating. Don't go to over-rating me--or maybe you'd call it under-rating. But you see, it's my friend that's calling." "And you're going out in this gale?" "Gale. I'd go if it was a hundred gales. Good-by--and take care of yourself, dear." "And will you come back if you don't find him?" "Lord, Lord, how can I say? Can anybody say who's coming back and who isn't?" He went by me and out the door. She looked after him, but he never turned--only plunged out of the house and into the street and I right after him. XXXVIII THE DUNCAN GOES TO THE WEST'ARD Getting back to the vessel Clancy was pretty gloomy. "That's settled. We can't chase them as far to the east'ard as the big banks--a three hundred mile run to the nearest edge of it and tens of thousands of square miles to hunt over after we'd got there. And it would be child's work anyway to ask Maurice to leave her on the bank. Who'd take his place even if Dave would stand for it? 'Twould mean laying up a dory or taking his dory-mate too. Maurice wouldn't leave her anyway, even if he believed he'd never get home--no real fisherman would. And yet there it is--Dave in a devil of a mood, and a vessel according to all reports that won't live out one good easterly. And there's a crazy crew aboard her that won't make for the most careful handling of a vessel. Oh, Lord, I don't see anything for it, but, thank the Lord, Maurice has been behaving himself--and that in spite of how blue he must have been feeling. By this time he's cert'nly made up his mind he's with a pretty bad crowd, but maybe he's glad of a little excitement. What I don't understand is how Dave ever left old man Luce's place without breaking up the furniture before going away. Gen'rally that's his style. Maybe Maurice being along had something to do with it--a pretty able man in close quarters is Maurice. Yes, he must be glad of the excitement, but Lord, that won't save him from being lost. Oh, oh, and now what'll we do? Let's see, the Flamingo's on the way to the Banks, and that's the end of that chase. We've got to wait now and see that she comes home--or don't come home--one or the other. I told that girl that I was going to put out--put out if it blew a hundred gales.