She hurried ahead of him to the beach, where her father was waiting with
his men. Captain Candage had borrowed a dory for the trip. He installed
himself in the stern with the steer-oar, and the young man and the girl
sat together on the midship seat. The skipper listened to their chat
with bland content.
"There's a fellow that's one of our kind, and he ain't trying to court
my girl," he had confided to Mr. Speed. "He is spoke for and she knows
it. And under them circumstances I believe in encouraging young folks to
be sociable."
It was still early morning when they arrived at the island, but the
state agent was there ahead of them. They saw him walking briskly about
among the scattered houses, puffing on his cigar.
He was making domiciliary visits and was transacting business in a loud
tone of voice. That business was paying over the money which the state
had allowed for "squatter improvements." In the case of the settlers on
Hue and Cry the sums were mere pittances; their improvements consisted
of tottering shacks, erected from salvaged flotsam of the ocean and
patched over and over with tarred paper.
There was only one building on the island which deserved the name of dwelling; from this their communicative caller of the
preceding evening was removing his scant belongings. His wife and
children were helping. He set down a battered table when he met Mayo and
his party.
"I'm the only citizen who can get away early and--as you might call
it--respectable, gents. I took my hundred and fifty and bought that
house-bo't out there." It was an ancient scow, housed over, and
evidently had grown venerable in service as a floating fish-market.
"They can't drive me off'n the Atlantic Ocean! The others 'ain't woke
up to a reelizing sense that they have got to go and that this all means
business! I'm getting away early or else they'd all be trying to climb
aboard my bo't like the folks wanted to do to Noah's ark when they see
that the flood wasn't just a shower." He lifted his table upon his head
and marched on, leading his flock.
All the population of the island was out of doors. The women and the
children were idling in groups; the men were listlessly following the
commissioner on his rounds. No spirit of rebelliousness was evident. The
men acted more like inquisitive sheep. They were of that abject variety
of poor whites who accept the rains from heaven and bow to the reign of
authority with the same unquestioning resignation.