The boy returned, and followed his father, and five minutes later Captain March turned in at the gate. His face was no longer placid, but wore a look of annoyance. Medbury, watching him, saw him go away a moment later, hurrying toward the harbor, taking shorter steps than usual, and biting his bearded under lip in his perplexity.
"Seems kind o' mean to bother the old fellow," Medbury said to himself, looking troubled. He shook the feeling off as he added: "I guess it's for his good. Now he'll look up Davis; he's the only man he can get."
As he passed out of his gate, Annie called to him from her doorway. She was smiling.
"Thank you, Annie," he replied. "Don't tell about this."
"Not till it comes out all right," she promised.
John Davis was sitting in the shipyard watching the carpenters setting up a stern-post for a new vessel, and there the captain found him. Medbury, watching them, saw them go away together; but at the corner of the Shore Road and Main street they separated.
Half-way up High street, Medbury caught up with Davis.
"Just shipped with Cap'n Joel," Davis replied, not slacking his gait, but rather increasing it, as befitted a little man, sensitive as to his size, when walking with a long-legged companion.
"That's what I wanted to see you about," Medbury told him. "You're not going." He smiled, but he glanced uneasily at Davis out of the corners of his eyes.
Davis stopped and looked at him. He was a middle-aged man with a red beard and an uncertain temper, and now he stared at Medbury with flushing face. Then he broke into a laugh.
"I ain't, eh?" he demanded good-naturedly. "I'd like to know why not."
Medbury smiled and laid his hand on the other's shoulder.
"Because I want to go myself, John," he replied. "I've _got_ to go."
For a moment Davis stood grinning uncertainly; then he looked up.
"Where's the joke?" he asked. "Blamed if I see it."
"It's no joke," said Medbury, patiently. "I've _got_ to go. I can't tell why--just now; but some day I may."
Davis gazed up and down the street with an abstracted air; but all at once he drew himself together and exclaimed:
"Well, I'll be--" He broke off suddenly, and, turning sharply, began to walk back to the village.
"Where are you going?" asked Medbury, still standing in the road.