"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. Then they all gathered in the
stern, where the captain strove to increase the general cordiality by
entertaining them with descriptions of life among the pearl-divers of
the South Seas.
In this fashion the afternoon wore away. They had long since left San
Francisco behind, rounded Hunter's Point, and were now skirting the
San Mateo shore. Joe caught a glimpse, once, of a party of cyclists
rounding a cliff on the San Bruno Road, and remembered the time when
he had gone over the same ground on his own wheel. It was only a month
or two before, but it seemed an age to him now, so much had there been
to come between.
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