Of the latter he could not seem to tire, and poured forth question after question concerning her.

So peculiar and artless were some of them that Joe could hardly forbear to smile.
"Now tell me about yours," he said when he at last had finished.
'Frisco Kid seemed suddenly to harden, and his face took on a stern look which the other had never seen there before.

He swung his foot idly to and fro, and lifted a dull eye aloft to the main-peak blocks, with which, by the way, there was nothing the matter.
"Go ahead," the other encouraged.
"I have n't no home." The four words left his mouth as though they had been forcibly ejected, and his lips came together after them almost with a snap.
Joe saw he had touched a tender spot, and strove to ease the way out of it again.

"Then the home you did have." He did not dream that there were lads in the world who never had known homes, or that he had only succeeded in probing deeper.
"Never had none." "Oh!" His interest was aroused, and he now threw solicitude to the winds.
"Any sisters ?" "Nope." "Mother ?" "I was so young when she died that I don't remember her." "Father ?" "I never saw much of him.

He went to sea--anyhow, he disappeared." "Oh!" Joe did not know what to say, and an oppressive silence, broken only by the churn of the _Dazzler's_ forefoot, fell upon them.
Just then Pete came out to relieve at the tiller while they went in to eat.
Both lads hailed his advent with feelings of relief, and the awkwardness vanished over the dinner, which was all their skipper had claimed it to be.
Afterward 'Frisco Kid relieved Pete, and while he was eating Joe washed up the dishes and put the cabin shipshape.