Her relief was only partial; she was already experienced enough in his vocation to know that the excuse was a feeble one.

He could easily have "fetched" the bluff in tacking out of the Gate and have signaled to her to board him in her own boat.

The next day she locked up her house, rowed round the Point to the Embarcadero, where the Bay steamboats occasionally touched and took up passengers to San Francisco.

Captain Simmons had not seen her husband this last trip; indeed, did not know that he had gone out of the Bay.

Mrs.Bunker was seized with a desperate idea.