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"Great God! what do they think? That I wrecked the poor old May

for the fun of the thing? That I enjoyed fighting for my life in

that sea and seeing the others drown with my very eyes? Don't

they suppose I will carry the remembrance of that all my life? My

Heaven, Elsa, that was six months ago and I have just begun to

sleep nights without the nightmare of it riding me!"

"Poor boy!"

Her voice calmed him like a touch on a restive horse, and yet he

unconsciously resented the fact that it did. "I haven't been

blind, Code, and I have heard and seen this thing growing. It is

hard for a fisherman to lose his ship and not suffer for it

afterward at the hands of inferior sailors. I've known you all my

life, Code, and I believe in you now just as I did that day in

school you took the whipping I should have got for passing you a

note.