Page:Rideout--Beached keels.djvu/147

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page has been proofread, but needs to be validated.
WILD JUSTICE
133

the open water rose like smoke, and drew slowly down with the tide. And through the smoke the heart in the boat and the heart on the shore were aching for each other across the growing distance.

The woman on the shore saw the boat pull under the stern of the gray Merry Andrew, and rise with a creak of tackle to the davits; saw the men going about the deck, black and small as ants; heard the chirrup of blocks on the headsails, fore and mainsail, and even, in the stillness, the clinking of the capstan pawls, till suddenly it was drowned in the half-hearted quaver of a chanty raised by Captain Harlow's Americans on board, heaving short:—

"Sometimes we 're bound for Liverpool,
Sometimes we 're bound for France;
But now we 're off for Sicily
For to give those girls a chance.

"Walk her round, boys-oh-boys,
We 're all bound to go.
Walk her round, my bully boys.
We 're all bound to go."

Then she saw the gray schooner wear round before a fair wind and tide, and, with the