Poor Man's Rock

se in C

owing up along the western side of Squitty Island and turned into Cradle Bay, which lies under the lee of Point Old. He was a young man, almost boyish-looking. He had o

e at a white cottage-roofed house with wide porches sitting amid an acre square of bright green lawn on a gentle

n't built yesterday, either. F

e. It stood out bold against the grass and the deeper green of the forest behind. Back of it ope

gs bobbed in the bay, but there was no craft save a white

now." He

ny cruiser, seventy feet or more over all, rounded the point and headed into the bay. The smooth sea parted with a whistling sound where her brass-shod stem split

ozen, men and women, clustered on her flush afterdeck. He could hear the clatter of their tongues, low ri

e man in the rowboat smiled. The air was very still. Sounds carry over

e observed ironicall

eemed, had not so muc

tself from the group and waved

gged his shoulders and pulled out and along

ry round and pink of face, very well dressed, and by the manner in which he spoke to the

id his rowboat a

," he sai

nd-faced one addressed a youth in

. A girl in white duck and heavy blu

all go too, p

nodded and

the sea wall. The boy in the jersey sprang out, reached a steadyin

will you?" the stout person made further reque

id not speak, but made for the dinghy, followed by the hand from the yacht. They turne

this was done. Then the girl turn

" he sai

d a silver dollar in it, swung on his heel and followed his daughter,

ishment to anger and broke at last into a smile of sheer amusement. He jiggled the coin, st

heaved this silver dollar out into

only sta

, do you, Smith?" the man

bserved. "Ain't you

. You take it

clinking on the slatted floor and the youth sal

me a guy hands me money

with the patch over his eye. His fa

k y',

look replaced the amused smile as his glance rested a second on the rich man's toy of polished mahogany

nd he did not at the moment care. He met he

he said simply. "I hope you aren't offended. I

be offended? When a roughneck does something for you, it's pro

ankly. "I feel sure you resent being tipped for an

a ten-dollar bill when they pass the heavenly gates," he observed. "But it really do

wo years. We stay here a

y curiosity, but you see I used to know this place rather well.

from overseas?"

oked at him with

question. "I merely happened to get a splinter of w

y are you not in uniform?" she

covered up with overalls and mackinaw. W

he took his bag in hand and climbed the rise that lifted to the backbone of Point Old. Halfway up he turned to look brie

eer," he

dull gray. The skies were hidden behind drab clouds. The air was clammy, cold

ve clear vision for many miles of shore and sea, drew a dee

ith a doubtful expression, then his uncovered eye came back to the long sweep of the Gulf, to the brown cliffs spreading away in a ragged line along a kelp-strewn shore. He put do