SHEILA

OF BIG WRECK COVE

A Story of Cape Cod

BY JAMES A. COOPER

AUTHOR OF
"Tobias o' the Light," "Cap'n Jonah's Fortune"
"Cap'n Abe, Storekeeper," etc.

WITH FRONTISPIECE BY
R. EMMETT OWEN

A. L. BURT COMPANY
Publishers     New York

Published by arrangement with George Sully & Company
Printed in U.S.A.

COPYRIGHT, 1921 (AS A SERIAL)

COPYRIGHT, 1922, BY
GEORGE SULLY & COMPANY

CONTENTS

I. Cap'n Ira and Prue

II. The Captain of the Seamew

III. The Queen of Sheba

IV. At the Latham House

V. Looking for Ida May

VI. An Unsatisfactory Interview

VII. At the Restaurant

VIII. Sheila

IX. A Girl's Story

X. The Plot

XI. At Big Wreck Cove

XII. A New Hand at the Helm

XIII. Some Young Men Appear

XIV. The Harvest Home Festival

XV. An Invitation Accepted

XVI. Memories—and Tunis

XVII. Aunt Lucretia

XVIII. Ida May Thinks It Over

XIX. The Arrival

XX. The Lie

XXI. At Swords' Points

XXII. A Way Out

XXIII. A Call Unannounced

XXIV. Eunez Pareta

XXV. To Love and Be Loved

XXVI. Elder Minnett Has His Say

XXVII. Cap'n Ira Speaks Out

XXVIII. Gone

XXIX. On the Trail

XXX. The Storm

XXXI. Bitter Waters

XXXII. A Girl to the Rescue

XXXIII. A Haven of Rest

CHAPTER I

CAP'N IRA AND PRUE

Seated on this sunshiny morning in his old armchair of bent hickory, between his knees a cane on the head of which his gnarled hands rested, Captain Ira Ball was the true retired mariner of the old school. His ruddy face was freshly shaven, his scant, silvery hair well smoothed; everything was neat and trig about him, including his glazed, narrow-brimmed hat, his blue pilot-cloth coat, pleated shirt front as white as snow, heavy silver watch chain festooned upon his waist-coat, and blue-yarn socks showing between the bottom of his full, gray trouser legs and his well-blacked low shoes.

For Cap'n Ira had commanded passenger-carrying craft in his