H. Bedford-Jones

“ There was a scud of mist and gray slime that hid Garden from sight, so Bowery got out his compass and laid it between the feet of him. and laughed into Mary’s eyes.
"It’ll be storm by afternoon," said Mary, taking the tiller, her cheeks flushed with the sharp wind.
"Hear the fog whistle from Squaw Island driftin’ on the gale? Let her blow." Bowery’s rich laugh broke out.
"We'll be drinkin' coffee with old Nels, and if ye don’t like the weather he’ll take ye home in his big tug, Mary."
"Oh, will he?" She laughed back at him. "Speak for yourself. Eddie Bowery! I’m satisfied where I am." ”

“ He was not a good man to bother or disturb. One day a fish tug from Cheboygan came drifting past the harbor and Emmet McCann went out to her and brought her in with two battered men abroad, one of them with four ribs broken. Gisli Gislison had found them at one of his trap nets, robbing it of perch. There was some talk of getting the sheriff from the mainland, but nothing came of it.
Bowery and Big Joe made luck with their fishing, and the second September gale was well due to arrive, when Big Joe caught his foot between boat and wharf. ”

“ Not a man to he got to help me, neither."
"You mind yer eye, Bowery," growled Tom Boyle. "Fishin’ bass is agin the law and robbin’ other men’s net——"
"They’ve no right in our waters," said Bowery, "and as for the law, ain’t this Beaver Island? How about you slaughterin’ them mallard two weeks ago?"
Tom Boyle grinned at that and said no more. But after a little Mary spoke up, a flash in her gray eye. "Eddie, what about taking me to help you? I’ve not been on the lake all summer, and I can handle the boat or haul nets while you gaff! ”

“ On Sunday Big Joe sat with hie foot in a chair and a week's rest ahead.
In the afternoon Bowery was visiting at Tom Boyle’s farm, and told of the bad luck.
"It's not the week's layoff that I mind but the loss of [gear? game?] and a big haul we’d counted on Monday. We’ve had two traps out for a week up the Garden Island shore, and we left a new gill net out over Sunday, and if a storm comes up we’ll never see that net again. Besides which, some o’ them blasted Charlevoix men set a trap for bass near the wreck on Hog Island, and two boxes of fish from that trap would mean a hundred clear. ”

“ Gisli Gislison is the name of him. On the ocean in the war he was, so Mary Boyle was tellin’ me."
Bowery started at that. "And how does Mary know about it?"
"He’ll be takin’ her to the dance to-night, I guess," said Willie Boyle, who was Mary’s uncle. "It's a free country, ye know, Eddie."
Bowery came to his feet, all the laughing good-humor gone from the face of him. "Any man," said he, "who camps on Pismire, and fishes lonely, and don’t flag his nets, is crazy! I s'pose you buy his fish, James?"
His cousin James nodded. "Being the company’s agent, I play square. He gets fish too! ”

“ Dad’s goin’ to give us the Eleanor. Joe and I go half on the nets, and we’ll get in on the perch in a couple o' weeks. What’s that feller doing over here? Layin’ over?"
"Something like that," said Willie Boyle. "He’s got our trap nets here and there—nobody knows just where. He don’t flag ’em. He just seems to feel where they are."
"Huh?" Bowery stared, frowned perplexedly. "You don’t mean he’s fishin’ over here? Who’s with him?"
"Nobody," grunted Emmet McCann Island; "he’s runnin’ his own nets."
"I'll be blowed!" ejaculated Bowery, staring around. "The Steelhead is campin’ on Pismire. ”

“ Then he set the tiller, and laid old Nels against it, while he poured oil into the engine and screwed down the cups over the bearings.
He peered at the boat ahead, seeing that she was low in the water and steady as a rock.
"He’ll circle into the channel, knowing well that few men would follow him that way," Bowery muttered.
He came back to the tiller and headed in along the Garden shore. He knew that Gislison must travel two legs of a triangle, so he himself was taking the third leg across the shoals and through Stony Reef, though it was six years since he had taken a boat that scary way. ”

“ They landed on Pismire one night and warned Gislison off. He come over to the dance the next night and cleaned the whole of them—proper! He’s come over for the dance tonight, I guess."
*****
“HE ain’t a bad sort," spoke up old Dunlevy quaveringly. "When this lad come over first, in a west gale it was, his engine gone dead on him, and he wid a tarp rigged for’ard for a sail!"
"He's clever on his feet too," added Tight Gallegher. "D’ye mind when he stepped out wid Danny McCafferty an’ stepped him down and niver the same step twicet? Awe, clever he is! ”

“ He went leaping forward to the bow, where he stooped and threw out the lifebelts in a loose mass, then stood up on the prow watching the bowlder-strewn water ahead.
Straight for Stony reef they drove, a long line of shoal running out from Garden island and ending off to the left in two shallow sand spits where the waves burst high. ”

“ I was on the dock when the Menominee come in, and I went aboard her and struck the old man. 'Give me anything from mate to wheelin', but no lookout,' I tells him. He looks me over, sour and hard, and says: 'Gallegher, hey? ”