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The Unwelcome Mother
129
Peter: "We sea
folk do not take
kindly to the
cities. "
"I> everything about the sea hard and terrible?" Ellinor asked.
"No. little Ellinor," Mason replied, and his voice was almost tender. "There's the light of the moon on the waves in the quiet tropic nights, and there's the whip and the sting of the spray that makes a man of you if you've got it in you — and all the time, there's love at the end of the voyage."
"Love?" The word came tremulouslv.
"Yes — love." He came closer and took her by the arm. and she did not flinch. This hand that had killed another man was holding her. but the man was of the brotherhood of the sea. She was not afraid.
"I don't understand." she said.
"But you shall. You're one of us. I see it in your eyes. You've watched the storm come up, and the sun go down — you've seen the foam creeping along in ragged lines and the ships go staggering by. You'll know love, little Ellinor, like only us of the sea know it."
There was something hypnotic about the man. and she sat beside him on a rock while he talked and talked, and told her stories of distant lands, and always the burden of the tale was love and the sea. Her heart beat faster. For Ellinor this was a day of revelations.
"I've got to go," he said at last. "They'll send ashore at the first port and start a hunt for me. I'll come back one day. but now. before I go, you shall be my wife, by the law of the ring and the wave.".
Mason took from his pocket a key ring, slipped a curious gold band from his finger and a little ring from Ellinor's. Fastening the two upon the key ring he flung them out into the surf.
"Now you're mine," he said. "Whom the sea hath joined, only the sea can part." Gripping Ellinor's wrist, he stared out at the spot where the rings had disappeared. And a few minutes later he Sprang to his feet without another word, bounded away