He felt he must see Mary for a moment and speak to her. He left the cluster of men on the dune and hurried to the house.

He found her on the rug in the east living room. One or two of the crew were warming their hands and swallowing hot coffee in the other large room. The men came over, not more than two at a time, at intervals, to get thawed out.

“Tom,” he said, “has gone off in the buoy.”

“I know,” she answered. “I saw someone being hauled out and I knew it must be he.”

He hesitated, then told her.

“The worst of it is, I must go on the next trip. He practically asked me to. And I said I would.”

At that for the first time in all her life, so far as he could remember, she seemed panicky and likely,[283] for an instant, to collapse. He stepped hurried............