"'O, Gib! Are you there?'

"'Aye, aye, sir.'

"'Have ye et your full o' th' lotus?' says Bull.

"'Hard tack an' salt horse for King Gibney,' I yells back. 'I
ain't no vegetarian no more, Bull. Do you need a smart mate?'

"I could hear Bull McGinty chucklin' to himself.

"'You young whelp,' says Bull. 'I knew you'd outgrow it. They all
do, when they're as young as you. I'll send the whaleboat ashore.
Kiss Pinky good-bye for me, too,' he adds.

"Two minutes later I heard the boat splash over the stern davits
an' the black boys raisin' a song as they lay to their work. I
turns to Pinky, takes her in my arms an' kisses her for the first
time in three weeks, an' she knows that th' jig is up. She might
'a' slipped a dirk in me, but she wasn't that kind. Women is
women, McGuffey, the world over. Pinky just kissed me half a
hundred times an' cries a little, holdin' on to me all th' time,
for naturally she don't like to see me go. Finally I have to make
her break loose, an' I climbs down over the bluff an' wades out
to my waist to meet the boat. I was aboard th' _Dashin' Wave_ in
two twos, shakin' hands with Bull McGinty, an' ten minutes later
we had th' anchor up an' th' sails shook out, an' standin' off
for the open sea. An' the last I ever saw of Mrs. Pinky Gibney
was a shadowy figger in th' moonlight standin' out on th' edge o'
Hakatuea Head. The last I hear of her was a sob."