"I wonder if it's the _Martha_ come back," Tudor hazarded.
"No, the sidelight is too low," Joan answered. "Besides, they've got the
sweeps out. Don't you hear them? They wouldn't be sweeping a big vessel
like the _Martha_."
"Besides, the _Martha_ has a gasoline engine--twenty-five horse-power,"
Tudor added.
"Just the sort of a craft for us," Joan said wistfully to Sheldon. "I
really must see if I can't get a schooner with an engine. I might get a
second-hand engine put in."
"That would mean the additional expense of an engineer's wages," he
objected.
"But it would pay for itself by quicker passages," she argued; "and it
would be as good as insurance. I know. I've knocked about amongst reefs
myself. Besides, if you weren't so mediaeval, I could be skipper and
save more than the engineer's wages."
He did not reply to her thrust, and she glanced at him. He was looking
out over the water, and in the lantern light she noted the lines of his
face--strong, stern, dogged, the mouth almost chaste but firmer and
thinner-lipped than Tudor's. For the first time she realized the quality
of his strength, the calm and quiet of it, its simple integrity and
reposeful determination. She glanced quickly at Tudor on the other side
of her.
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