Sure."
Corliss had stripped his heavy flannel shirt for freedom; and it was
plain, when Frona joined them, that she also had been shedding. Jacket
and skirt were gone, and her underskirt of dark cloth ceased midway
below the knee.
"You'll do," Del commended.
Jacob Welse looked at her anxiously, and went over to where she was
testing the grips of the several paddles. "You're not--?" he began.
She nodded.
"You're a guid girl," McPherson broke in. "Now, a've a wumman to home,
to say naething o' three bairns--"
"All ready!" Corliss lifted the bow of La Bijou and looked back.
The turbid water lashed by on the heels of the ice-run. Courbertin
took the stern in the steep descent, and Del marshalled Tommy's
reluctant rear. A flat floe, dipping into the water at a slight
incline, served as the embarking-stage.
"Into the bow with you, Tommy!"
The Scotsman groaned, felt Bishop breathe heavily at his back, and
obeyed; Frona meeting his weight by slipping into the stern.
"I can steer," she assured Corliss, who for the first time was aware
that she was coming.
He glanced up to Jacob Welse, as though for consent, and received it.
"Hit 'er up! Hit 'er up!" Del urged impatiently. "You're burnin'
daylight!"
CHAPTER XXV
La Bijou was a perfect expression of all that was dainty and delicate
in the boat-builder's soul.
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