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| author | Roger Frank <rfrank@pglaf.org> | 2025-10-15 04:44:49 -0700 |
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| committer | Roger Frank <rfrank@pglaf.org> | 2025-10-15 04:44:49 -0700 |
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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6833f05 --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,3 @@ +* text=auto +*.txt text +*.md text diff --git a/14563-0.txt b/14563-0.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..494b690 --- /dev/null +++ b/14563-0.txt @@ -0,0 +1,10329 @@ +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 14563 *** + +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 + + +[Frontispiece: "Come here and look at this craft, Prudence." +Page 11 (_Sheila of Big Wreck Cove._)] + + + + + + +CONTENTS + + +CHAPTER + 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 day, and +was a bit of a dandy still. The niceties of maritime full dress were +as important to his mind now that he had retired from the sea to +spend his remaining days in the Ball homestead on Wreckers' Head as +when he had trod the quarter-deck of the old _Susan Gatskill_, or +had occupied the chief seat at her saloon table. + +"I don't know what's to become of us," repeated Cap'n Ira, wagging a +thoughtful head, his gaze, as that of old people often is, fixed +upon a point too distant for youthful eyes to see. + +"I can't see into the future, Ira, any clearer than you can," +rejoined his wife, glancing at his sagging, blue-coated shoulders +with some gentle apprehension. + +She was a frail, little, old woman, one of those women who, after a +robust middle age, seem gradually to shrivel to the figure of what +they were in their youth, but with no charm of girlish lines +remaining. Her face was wrinkled like a russet apple in February, +and it had the colorings of that grateful fruit. She sat on the +stone slab which served for a back door stoop peeling potatoes. + +"I swan, Prue, you cut me in two places this mornin' when you shaved +me," said Cap'n Ira suddenly and in some slight exasperation. "And I +can't handle that dratted razor myself." + +"Maybe you could get John-Ed Williams to come over and shave you, +Ira." + +"John-Ed's got his work to do. Then again, how're we going to pay +him for such jobs? I swan! I can't afford a vally, Prue. Besides, +you need help about the house more than I need a steward. I can get +along without being shaved so frequent, I s'pose, but there's times +when you can't scurce lift a pot of potatoes off the stove." + +"Oh, now, Ira, I ain't so bad as all that!" declared his wife +mildly. + +"Yes, you be. I am always expecting you to fall down, or hurt +yourself some way. And as for looking out for the Queen of Sheby--" + +"Now, Ira, Queenie ain't no trouble scurcely." + +"Huh! She's more trouble than all our money, that's sure. And she's +eating her head off." + +"Now, don't say that," urged his wife in that soothing tone which +often irritated Cap'n Ira more than it mollified him. + +He tapped the metal top of the huge knob of his cane and the spring +cover flew open. Ira took a pinch of snuff, inhaled it, closed the +cover of the box, delicately brushed a few flecks of the pungent +powder from his coat lapel and shirt front, and then, burying his +nose in a large silk handkerchief, vented a prodigious: + +"_A-choon!_" + +Prudence uttered a surprised squeak, like a mouse being stepped on, +jerked herself to a half-standing posture, and the potatoes rolled +to every point of the compass. + +"Goodness gracious gallop!" she ejaculated, quite shaken out of her +usual calm. "I should think, Ira, as many times as I've told you +that scares me most into a conniption, that you'd signal me when +you're going to take snuff. I--I'm all of a shake, I be." + +"I swan! I'm sorry, Prue. I oughter fire a gun, I allow, before +speakin' the ship." + +"Fire a gun!" repeated the old woman, panting as she scrambled for +the potatoes. "That's what I object to, Ira. You want to speak +_this_ ship 'fore you shoot that awful noise. I never can get used +to it." + +"There, there!" he said, trying to poke the more distant potatoes +toward her with his cane. He could not himself stoop; or, if he did, +he could only sit erect again after the method of a ratchet wheel. +"I won't do so again, Prudence. I be an onthoughtful critter, if +ever there was one." + +Prudence had recovered the last potato. She stopped to pat his ruddy +cheek, nor was it much wrinkled, before she returned to peeling the +potatoes. + +"I know you don't mean to, Iry," she crooned. Married couples like +the Balls, where the man has been at home only for brief visits +between voyages, if they really love each other, never grow weary of +the little frills on connubial bliss usually worn shabby by other +people before the honeymoon is past. "I know you don't mean to. But +when you sneeze I think it's the crack o' doom." + +"I'm sorry about them potatoes," repeated Cap'n Ira. "I make you a +lot of extry work, Prue. Sometimes I feel, fixed as I be in health, +I oughter be in the Sailors' Snug Harbor over to Paulmouth. I do, +for a fact." + +"And what would become of me?" cried the old woman, appalled. + +"Well," returned Cap'n Ira, "you couldn't be no worse off than you +be. We'd miss each other a heap, I know." + +"Ira!" cried his wife. "Ira, I'd just _die_ without you now that +I've got you to myself at last. Those long years you were away so +much, and us not being blessed with children--" + +Ira Ball made a sudden clucking sound with his tongue. That was a +sore topic of conversation, and he always tried to dodge it. + +"It did seem sometimes," pursued Prudence, wiping her eyes with a +bit of a handkerchief that she took from her bosom, "as though I +wasn't an honestly married woman. I know that sounds awful"--and she +shook her head--"but it was so, you only getting home as you did +between voyages. But I was always looking forward to the time when +you would be home for good." + +"Don't you s'pose I looked forward to casting anchor?" he demanded +warmly. "Seemed like the time never would come. I was always trying +to speculate a little so as to make something besides my skipper's +pay and share. That--that's why I got bit in that Sea-Gold +proposition. That feller's prospectus did read mighty reasonable, +Prudence." + +"I know it did, Ira," she agreed cordially. "I believed in it just +as strong as you did. You warn't none to blame." + +"Well, I dunno. It's mighty nice of you to say so, Prue. But they +told me afterward that I might have knowed that a feller couldn't +extract ten dollars' wuth of gold from the whole Atlantic Ocean, not +if he bailed it dry!" + +"We've got enough left to keep us, Ira." + +"Just about. Just about. That is just it. When I was taken down with +this rheumatiz and the hospital doctors in New York told me I could +never think of pacing my own quarter no more, we had just enough +left invested in good securities for us to live on the int'rest." + +"And the old place, here, Ira," added his wife cheerfully. + +"Which ain't much more than a shelter," he rejoined rather bitterly. +"And just as I say, it isn't fit for two old folks like us to live +alone in. Why, we can't even raise our own potatoes no more. And I +never yet heard of pollack swimmin' ashore and begging to be split +and dried against winter. No, sir!" + +"The Lord's been good to us, Ira. We ain't never suffered yet," she +told him softly. + +"I know that. We ain't suffering for food and shelter. But, I swan, +Prue, we be suffering for some young person about the house. Now, +hold on! 'Twarn't for us to have children. That warn't meant. We've +been all through that, and it's settled. But that don't change the +fact that we need somebody to live with us if we're going to live +comfortable." + +"Oh, dear, if my niece Sarah had lived! She used to stay with me +when she was a gal and you was away," sighed Prudence. + +"But she married and had a gal of her own. She brought her here that +time I was home after my first v'y'ge on the _Susan Gatskill_. A +pretty baby if ever there was one." + +"Ida May Bostwick! Bostwick was Sarah's married name. I heard +something about Ida May only the other day." + +"You did?" exclaimed Cap'n Ira, much interested. + +"Yes, Ira. Annabell Coffin, she who was a Cuttle, was visiting his +folks in Boston, and she learned that Sarah Bostwick's daughter was +working behind the counter in some store there. She has to work for +her livin', poor child." + +"I swan!" ejaculated the captain. + +Much as he had been about the world, Cap'n Ira looked upon most +mundane affairs with the eyes of the true Cape man. Independence is +bred in the bone of his tribe. A tradesman or storekeeper is, after +all, not of the shipmaster caste. And a clerk, working "behind the +counter" of any store, is much like a man before the mast. + +"It does seem too bad," sighed Prudence. "She was a pretty baby, as +you say, Ira." + +"Sarah was nice as she could be to you," was the old man's +thoughtful comment. + +"Yes. But her husband, Bostwick, was only a mechanic. Of course, he +left nothing. Them city folks are so improvident," said Prudence. "I +wish't we was able to do something for little Ida May, Ira. Think of +her workin' behind a counter!" + +"I am a-thinkin'," growled the old captain. "See here, Prue. What's +to hinder us doin' something for her?" + +Prudence looked at him, startled. + +"Why, Iry, you say yourself we can scurce help ourselves." + +"It's a mighty ill wind that don't blow fair for some craft," +declared the ancient mariner, nodding. "We do need help right here, +Prudence, and that gal of Sarah Bostwick's could certainly fill the +bill. On the other hand, she'd be a sight better off here on the +Cape, living with us, getting rosy and healthy, and having this old +place and what we've got left when we die, than she would be slavin' +behind a counter in any city store. What d'you think?" + +"Ira!" exclaimed his wife, clasping her hands, potato knife and all. +"Ira! I think that's a most wonderful idea. It takes you to think up +things. You're just wonderful!" + +Cap'n Ira preened himself like the proud old gander he was. He +heaved himself out of the chair by the aid of his cane, a present +from one grateful group of passengers that had sailed in his charge, +on the _Susan Gatskill_. + +"Well, well!" he said. "Let's think of it. Let's see, where's my +glass? Here 'tis." + +He seized the old-fashioned collapsible spyglass, which he favored +rather than the newer binoculars, and started off to "pace the +quarter," as he called the path from the back door to the grassy +cart track which joined the road at the lower corner of the Ball +premises. This highway wandered down from the Head into the fishing +village along the inner beach of Big Wreck Cove. Prudence watched +Ira with fond but comprehending eyes. She saw how broken he was, how +stumbling his feet when he first started off, and the swaying +locomotion that betrayed that feebleness of both brain and body that +can never be denied. + +Somewhere on the Head in the old days the wreckers had kept their +outlook for ships in distress. Those harpies of the coast had +fattened on the bones of storm-racked craft. It was one of those +battered freighters that, nearly two centuries before, had been +driven into the cove itself, to become embalmed in Cape history as +"the big wreck." + +The Balls and the Lathams, the Honeys and the Coffins of that +ancient day had "wracked" the stranded craft most thoroughly. But +they had not overlooked the salvation of her ship's company of +foreigners. She had been a Portuguese vessel, and although the Cape +Codder, then, as now, was opposed to "foreigners," refuge was +extended to the people saved from the big wreck. + +Near the straggling settlement at the cove a group of shacks had +sprung up to shelter the "Portygees" from the stranded-vessel. As +her bones were slowly engulfed in the marching sands, through the +decades that passed, the people who had come ashore from the big +wreck had waxed well to do, bred families of strong, handsome, brown +men and black-eyed, glossy-haired women who flashed their white +teeth in smiles that were almost startling. Now one end of "the +port," as the village of Big Wreck Cove was usually called by the +natives, was known as Portygee Town. + +Wreckers' Head boasted of several homes of retired shipmasters and +owners of Cap'n Ira's ilk. These ancient sea dogs, on such a day as +this, were unfailingly found "walking the poop" of their front +yards, or wherever they could take their diurnal exercise, +binoculars or spyglass in hand, their vision more often fixed +seaward than on the land. + +Cap'n Ira had scarcely put the glass to his eye for a first squint +at his "position" when he exclaimed: + +"I swan! That's a master-pretty sight. I ain't seen a prettier in +many a day. Come here and look at this craft, Prudence." + +She hurried to join him. Her motions when she was on her feet were +birdlike, yet there was the same unsteadiness in her walk as in +Cap'n Ira's. Only, at the moment, he did not see it, for his eye was +glued to the telescope. + +"What do you see, Ira?" she asked. + +"Clap this glass to your eye," said her husband. He steadied the +telescope, having pointed it for her. "See that suit of sails? Ain't +they grand? And the taper of them masts? She's a bird!" + +"Why, what schooner is it?" asked Prudence. "I never saw her before, +did I? She's bearing in for the cove." + +"I cal'late she is," agreed Cap'n Ira. "And I cal'late by the +newness of that suit of sails and her lines and all that she's Tunis +Latham's new craft that he went up to Marblehead last week to bring +down here and put into commission." + +"The _Seamew!_" cried Prudence, in a pleased voice. "Isn't she a +pretty sight?" + +"She's a sightly craft. Looks more like a racing yacht than a cargo +boat. Still and all, Tunis has got judgment. And he's put nigh every +cent he's got, all Peke Latham left him, into this schooner. And she +not new." + +"I hope Tunis has made no mistake," sighed Prudence, releasing the +glass for Ira to look through once more. "There has been trouble +enough over Peleg Latham's money." + +"More trouble than the money amounted to. Split the family wide +open. 'Rion Latham was saying to me he believed Peke never meant the +money should go all one way. The Medway Lathams, them 'Rion belongs +to, is all as sore as carbuncles about Tunis getting it. But I tell +Tunis as long as the court says the money should be his, let 'Rion +and all them yap like the hungry dogs they be. Tunis has got the +marrer bone." + +"Does seem a pity," the old woman said, still watching the white +splotch against the background of gray and blue. "Families ought to +be at peace." + +"Peace! I swan!" snorted Cap'n Ira. "'Rion Latham is about as much +given to peace as a wild tagger. But he knows which half of his +biscuit's buttered. He'll sail with Tunis as long as Tunis pays him +wages." + +The captain continued to study the approaching schooner while +Prudence went back to her household tasks. + + + + +CHAPTER II + +THE CAPTAIN OF THE SEAMEW + + +Tunis Latham's _Seamew_, tacking for the channel into Big Wreck +Cove, wings full-spread, skimming the heaving blue of the summer +sea, looked like a huge member of the tern family. From Wreckers' +Head and the other sand bluffs guarding this roadstead from the +heave of the Atlantic rollers, the schooner with her yachtlike lines +was truly a picture to please the most exacting mariner. + +On her deck paced the young captain whose personal affairs had been +a subject of comment between Cap'n Ira Ball and his wife. He was a +heavy-set, upstanding, blue-jerseyed figure, lithe and as spry on +his feet as a cat. Tunis Latham was thirty, handsome in the bold way +of longshore men, and ruddy-faced. He had crisp, short, sandy hair; +his cheeks, chin, and lip were scraped as clean as his palm; his +eyes were like blue-steel points, but with humorous wrinkles at the +outer corners of them, matched by a faint smile that almost always +wreathed his lips. Altogether he was a man that a woman would be +sure to look at twice. + +The revelation of the lighter traits of his character counteracted +the otherwise sober look of Tunis Latham. His sternness and fitness +to command were revealed at first glance; his softer attributes +dawned upon one later. + +As he swayed back and forth across the deck of the flying _Seamew_, +rolling easily in sailor gait to the pitching of the schooner, his +sharp glance cast alow and then aloft betrayed the keen perception +and attentive mind of the master mariner, while his surface +appearance merely suggested a young man pridefully enjoying the +novelty of pacing the deck of his first command. For this was the +maiden trip of the _Seamew_ under this name and commanded by this +master. + +She was not a new vessel, but neither was she old. At least, her +decks were not marred, her rails were ungashed with the wear of +lines, and even her fenders were almost shop-new. Of course, any +craft may have a fresh suit of sails; and new paint and gilding on +the figurehead or a new name board under the stern do not bespeak a +craft just off the builder's ways. Yet there was an appearance about +the schooner-yacht which would assure any able seaman at first +glance that she was still to be sea-tried. She was like a maiden at +her first dance, just venturing out upon the floor. + +An old salt hung to the _Seamew's_ wheel as the bonny craft sped +channelward. Horace Newbegin was a veritable sea dog. He had sailed +every navigable sea in all this watery world, and sailed in almost +every conceivable sort of craft. And he had sailed many voyages +under Tunis Latham's father, who had owned and commanded the +four-master _Ada May_, which, ill-freighted and ill-fated at last, +had struck and sunk on the outer Hebrides, carrying to the bottom +most of the hands as well as the commander of the partially insured +ship. + +This misfortune had kept Tunis Latham out of a command of his own +until he was thirty; for Cape Cod boys that come of masters' +families and are born navigators usually tread their own decks years +before the age at which Tunis was pacing that of the _Seamew_ on +this summer day. + +"How does she handle now, Horry?" asked the skipper, wheeling +suddenly to face the old steersman. + +"Thar's still that tug to sta'bo'd, Captain Tunis," growled the old +man. + +"But you keep her full on her course." + +"Spite o' that? In course. But I can feel her tuggin' like a big +bluefish trying to bolt with hook and sinker. Never did feel that +same tug to sta'bo'd but once before on any craft. I told you that." + +Tunis Latham nodded. The old man's keen eyes tried to read the +skipper's face. He could scan the signs in sea and sky at a glance, +but he confessed that the captain of the _Seamew_ revealed no more +of his inner thoughts than had the mahogany countenance of the older +Captain Latham with whom Horry Newbegin had so long sailed. + +"Well," the steersman said finally, "I've told ye all I can tell ye. +That other schooner that had a tug to sta'bo'd like this, the +_Marlin B._, got a bad name from the Georges to Monomoy P'int. You +know that." + +"Cat's foot!" ejaculated Tunis cheerfully. "The _Marlin B._ was sold +for a pleasure yacht and taken half around the world. A Chilean +guano millionaire bought her the year after the Sutro Brothers took +her off the Banks." + +"Ye-as. That's what Sutro Brothers says," and the old man wagged his +head doubtfully. "But there's just as much difference in ships, as +there is in men. Ain't never been two men just per_zact_-ly alike. +No two craft ever sailed or steered same as same, Captain Tunis. I +steered the _Martin B._ out o' Salem on her second trip, without +knowing what she'd been through, you can believe, on her first." + +"Well, well!" Tunis broke in sharply. "Just keep your mind on what +you are doing now, Horry. You're supposed to be steering the +_Seamew_ into Big Wreck Cove. Don't undertake to shave a piece off +the Lighthouse Point reef." + +The steersman did not answer. From long experience with these +Lathams, Horace Newbegin knew just how much interference or advice +they would stand. + +"And, by gum, that ain't much!" he growled to himself. + +He took the beautifully sailing schooner in through the channel in a +masterly manner. He knew that more ancient skippers than Cap'n Ira +Ball, up there on Wreckers' Head, would be watching the _Seamew_ +make the cove, and old Horry Newbegin wanted them to say it was well +done. + +Half an hour later the anchor was dropped fifty yards off Portygee +Town. Captain Tunis ordered the gig lowered to take him ashore and, +after giving the mate some instructions regarding stowage and the +men's shore leave, he was rowed over to Luiz Wharf. 'Rion Latham, a +red-headed, pimply faced young man, sidled up to Horace Newbegin. + +"Well, what do you think of the hoodoo ship, Horrors?" he hoarsely +whispered. + +Newbegin stared at him unwaveringly, and the red-haired one repeated +the question. The old salt finally batted one eye, slowly and +impressively. + +"D'you know what answer the little boy got that asked the quahog the +time o' day?" he drawled. "Not a word. Not a derned word, 'Rion." + +Landing at the fish wharf, Tunis Latham walked up the straggling +street of the district inhabited for the most part by smiling brown +men and women. Fayal and Cape Cod are strangely analogous, +especially upon a summer's day. The houses he passed had one room; +they were little more than shacks. But there were gay colors +everywhere in the dress of both men and women. It was believed that +these Portygee fishermen would have their seines dyed red and yellow +if the fish would swim into them. + +A young woman sitting upon a doorstep, nursing a little, bald, +brown-headed baby, dropped a gay handkerchief over her bared bosom +but nodded and smiled at the captain of the _Seamew_ with right good +fellowship. He knew all these people, and most of them, the young +women at least, admired Tunis; but he was too self-centered and +busied with his own thoughts and affairs to comprehend this. + +At the corner of one of the houses a girl stood--a tall, +lean-flanked, but deep-bosomed creature, as graceful as a well-grown +sapling. Her calico frock clung to the lines of her matured figure +as though she had just stepped up out of the sea itself. Around her +head she had banded a crimson bandanna, but it allowed the escape of +glossy black hair that waved prettily. Her lips were as red as +poppies, full, voluptuous; her eyes were sloe-black and as soft as a +cow's. Fortunately for the languishing girl's peace of mind--she had +placed herself there at the corner of the house to wait for Tunis +since the moment the _Seamew_ had dropped anchor--she did not know +that the young captain had noticed her only as "that cow" as he +swung by on his way to the road that wound up the slope of Wreckers' +Head. + +Neither Eunez Pareta--nor any other girl of the port, Portygee or +Yankee--had ever made Tunis Latham's heart flutter. He was not +impervious to the blandishments of all feminine beauty. As Cap'n Ira +Ball would have said, Tunis was "a general admirer of the sect." And +as the young man passed the languishing Eunez with a cheerful nod +and smile there flashed into his memory an entirely different +picture, but one of a girl nevertheless. Somehow the memory of that +girl in Scollay Square kept coming back to his mind. + +He had gone up by train for the _Seamew_ and her crew, and naturally +he had spent one night in Boston. Coming up out of the North End +after a late supper, he had stopped upon one side of the square to +watch the passing throng, some hurrying home from work, some +hurrying to theaters and other places of amusement, but all +hurrying. Nowhere did he see the slow, but carrying, stride of a man +used to open spaces. And the narrow-skirted girls could scarcely +hobble. + +A narrow skirt, however, had not led Tunis Latham to give particular +note to one certain girl in the throng. She had stepped through the +door of a cheap but garish restaurant. Somebody had thrown a peeling +on the sidewalk, and she had slipped on it. Tunis had leaped and +caught her before she measured her length. She looked up into his +face with startled, violet eyes that seemed, in that one moment, to +hold in them a fascination and power that the Cape man had never +dreamed a woman's eyes could possess. + +"You're all right, ma'am," he said, confused, setting her firmly on +her feet. + +"My skirt!" She almost whispered it. There seemed to be not a +shyness, but a terrified timidity in her voice and manner. Tunis saw +that the shabby skirt was torn widely at the hem. + +"Let's go somewhere and get that fixed," he suggested awkwardly. + +"Thank you, sir. I will go back into the restaurant. I work there. I +can get a pin or two." + +He had to let her go, of course. Nor could he follow her. He lacked +the boldness that might have led another man to enter the restaurant +and order something to eat for the sake of seeing what became of the +girl with the violet eyes and colorless velvet cheeks. There had +been an appeal in her countenance that called Tunis more and more as +he dreamed about her. + +And standing there on Scollay Square dreaming about her had done the +young captain of the _Seamew_ positively no good! She did not come +out again, although he stood there for fully an hour. At the end of +that time he strolled up an alley and discovered that there was a +side door to the restaurant for the use of employees, and he judged +that the girl, seeing him lingering in front, had gone out by this +way. It made him flush to his ears when he thought of it. Of course, +he had been rude. + +Marching up the winding road by the Ball homestead, Tunis Latham +revisioned this adventure--and the violet-eyed girl. Well, he +probably would never see her again. And in any case she was not the +sort of girl that he would ever take home to Aunt Lucretia. He was +headed toward home now, to the old brown house in the saucer-like +valley some distance beyond Cap'n Ira's. + +As he came within hail of the old homestead in which the Balls had +been born and had died--if they were not lost at sea--for many +generations, the captain of the _Seamew_ became suddenly aware that +something was particularly wrong there. He heard somebody shouting. +Was it for help? He hastened his stride. + +Quite unexpectedly the hobbling figure of Cap'n Ira appeared in the +open barn door. He saw Tunis. He waved his cane in one hand and +beckoned wildly with the other. Then he disappeared. + +The young captain vaulted the fence and ran across the ill-tended +garden adjoining the Balls' side yard. Again he heard Cap'n Ira's +hail. + +"Come on in here, Tunis!" + +"What's the matter, Cap'n Ira?" + +"That dratted Queen of Sheby! I knowed she'd be the death of one of +us some day. I swan! Tunis Latham, come here! I can't get her out, +and you know derned well Prudence can't stand on her head that a way +without strangling. Lend us a hand, boy. This is something awful! +Something awful!" + +Tunis Latham, much disturbed by the old man's words and excited +manner, pushed into the dimly lit interior of the barn. + + + + +CHAPTER III + +THE QUEEN OF SHEBA + + +The barn was a roomy place, as well built as the Ball house itself, +and quite as old. The wagon floor had a wide door, front and rear. +The stables were on either side of this floor and the mows were +above. In one mow was a small quantity of hay and some corn fodder, +but the upper reaches were filled only with a brown dusk. + +The pale face of a gray mare was visible at the opening over one of +the mangers. She was the sole recognized occupant of the stable. In +a dark corner Tunis Latham saw a huge grain box, for once the Ball +farm had supported several span of oxen and a considerable dairy +herd, its cover raised and its maw gaping wide. There was something +moving there in the murk, something fluttering. + +"Come here, boy!" gasped Cap'n Ira, hurrying across the barn door. +"I'm so crippled I can't git her up, and she's dove clean to the +lower hold, tryin' to scrape out a capful o' oats for that dratted +Queen of Sheby." + +"Aunt Prue!" shouted Tunis, reverting to the title he had addressed +her by in his boyhood. "It's never her?" + +A muffled voice stammered: + +"Get me out! Get me out!" + +"Heave hard, Tunis! All together now!" gasped Cap'n Ira, as the +younger man reached over the old woman's struggling heels and seized +her around the waist. + +"Up she comes!" continued the excited old man, as though he were +bossing a capstan crew starting one of the _Susan Gatskill's_ +anchors. + +Tunis Latham set Prudence Ball on her feet, but the old woman was +forced to lean against the stalwart young man for a minute. She +addressed her husband in some heat. + +"Goodness gracious gallop! Why don't you sing a chantey over me, I +want to know? You'd think I was a bale of jute being snaked out of a +ship's hold. Good land!" + +"There, there, Prudence!" exclaimed Cap'n Ira. "You're safe, after +all! It--it was something awful!" + +"I cal'late it was," rejoined the old woman rather bitterly. "And I +didn't get them oats, after all." + +"I'll 'tend to all that, Aunt Prue," said Tunis. + +"If it hadn't been for that dratted Queen of Sheby"--Cap'n Ira +glared malevolently at the rather surprised-looking countenance of +the gray mare in her box--"you wouldn't have got into that jam." + +"If it hadn't been for you taking that dose of snuff when I was +expecting nothing of the kind, I wouldn't have dove into that feed +box, Ira, and you know it very well." + +"I swan!" admitted her husband in a feeble voice. "I forgot again, +didn't I?" + +"I don't know as you forgot, but I know you mighty near sneezed your +head off. You'll be the death of me some day, Ira, blowin' up that +way. I wonder I didn't jump clean through the bottom of that feed +box when I was just reaching down to get a measure of oats." + +"Aunt Prue," Tunis interposed, "why do you keep the little tad of +feed you have to buy for Queenie in this big old chest?" + +"There!" Cap'n Ira hastened to rejoin, glad likewise to turn the +trend of conversation. "That's all that dratted boy's doings, little +John-Ed Williams. Who else would have ever thought of dumping a +two-bushel bag of oats into a twenty-bushel bin? We always put feed +in that covered can yonder, so as to keep shet of the rats. But that +boy, when he brought the oats, dumped 'em into the box before I +could stop him. He's got less sense than his father; and you know, +Tunis, John-Ed himself ain't got much more wit than the law allows." + +"But if you hadn't sneezed--" began Prudence again. + +"You take her into the house, Cap'n Ira," said Tunis. "I'll feed +Queenie. What do you give her--this measure full of oats? And a hank +of that hay?" + +"And a bunch of fodder. Might as well give her a dinner while you're +about it," grumbled the old man, leading his tottering wife toward +the door. "As I say, that old critter is eatin' her head off." + +"Well, she long ago earned her keep in her old age," Tunis said, +laughing. + +He could remember when the Queen of Sheba had come to the Ball barn +as a colt. Many a clandestine bareback ride had he enjoyed. He fed +the mare and petted her as if she were his own. Then he scraped the +oats out of the bin and poured them into the galvanized-iron can, so +that Cap'n Ira could more easily get at the mare's feed. + +He went to the house afterward to see if there was any other little +chore he could do for the old couple before going on to his own +home. + +"You can't do much for us, Tunis, unless you can furnish me a new +pair of legs," said Cap'n Ira. "I might as well have timber ones as +these I've got. What Prue and me needs is what you've got but can't +give away--youth." + +"You ought to have somebody living with you to help, Cap'n Ira," +said the young man. + +"I cal'late," said the other dryly, "that we've already made that +discovery, Tunis. Trouble is, we ain't fixed right to increase the +pay roll. I'd like to know who you'd think would want to sign up on +this craft that even the rats have deserted?" + +"Never mind, Ira. Don't be downhearted," Prudence said, now +recovered from her excitement. "Perhaps the Lord has something good +in store for us." + +Cap'n Ira pursed his lips. + +"I ain't doubting the Lord's stores is plentiful," he returned +rather irreverently. "The trouble is for us poor mortals to get at +'em. Well, Tunis, I certainly am obliged to you." + +The flurry of excitement was over. But Ira Ball was a determined +man. It was in his mind that the trouble of taking care of the old +mare was too great for Prudence, and he could not do the barn chores +himself. They really had no use for the gray mare, for nowadays the +neighbors did all their errands in town for them, and the few +remaining acres of the old farm lay fallow. + +Nor, had he desired to sell the mare, would anybody be willing to +pay much for the twenty-two-year-old Queenie. In truth, Ira Ball was +too tender-hearted to think of giving the Queen of Sheba over to a +new owner and so sentence her to painful toil. + +"She'd be a sight better off in the horse heaven, wherever that +is," he decided. But he was careful to say nothing like this in his +wife's hearing. "Women are funny that way," he considered. "She'd +rather let the decrepit old critter hang around eatin' her head off, +like I say, than mercifully put her out of her misery." + +Stern times call for stern methods. Cap'n Ira Ball had seen the +tragic moment when he was forced to separate a bridegroom from his +bride with a sinking deck all but awash under his feet. What had to +be done had to be done! Prudence could no longer be endangered by +the stable tasks connected with the old mare. He could not relieve +her. They could scarcely afford a hired hand merely to take care of +Queenie. + +He remained rather silent that evening, and even forgot to praise +Prue's hot biscuit, of which he ate a good many with his creamed +pollack. The sweet-tempered old woman chatted as she knitted on his +blue-wool hose, but she scarcely expected more than his occasional +grunted acknowledgment that he was listening. She always said it was +"a joy to have somebody besides the cat around to talk to." The +loneliness of shipmasters who sail the seven seas is often mentioned +in song and in story; the loneliness of their wives at home is not +usually marked. + +They went to bed. Old men do not usually sleep much after second +cock-crow, and it was not far from three in the morning when Cap'n +Ira awoke. Like most mariners, he was wide awake when he opened his +eyes. He lay quietly for several moments in the broad bed he +occupied alone. The half-sobbing breathing of the old woman sounded +from her room, through the open door. + +"It's got to be done," Cap'n Ira almost audibly repeated. + +He got out of the bed with care. It was both a difficult and a +painful task to dress. When he had on all but his boots and hat he +tiptoed to a green sea chest in the corner, unlocked it, and from +beneath certain tarpaulins and other sea rubbish drew out something +which he examined carefully in the semidarkness of the chamber. He +finally tucked this into an inner pocket of the double-breasted +pilot coat he wore. It sagged the coat a good deal on that side. + +He crept out of the chamber, crossed the sitting room, and went into +the ell-kitchen with his shoes in his hand. When he opened the back +door he faced the west, but even the sky at that point of the +compass showed the glow of the false dawn. Down in the cove the +night mist wrapped the shipping about in an almost opaque veil. Only +the lofty tops of craft like the _Seamew_ were visible, black +streaks against the mother-of-pearl sky line. + +The captain closed the kitchen door softly behind him. He sat down +on a bench and painfully pulled on his shoes and laced them. When he +tried to straighten up it was by a method which he termed, "easy, +by jerks." He sat and recovered his breath after the effort. + +Then, taking his cane, he hobbled off to the barn. The big doors +were open, for it had been a warm night. The pungent odor from +Queenie's stall made his nostrils wrinkle. He stumbled in, and the +pale face of the old mare appeared at the opening above her manger. +She snorted her surprise. + +"You'll snort more'n that afore I'm done with you," Cap'n Ira said, +trying to seem embittered. + +But when he unknotted the halter and backed her out of the stable, +quite involuntarily he ran a tender hand down her sleek neck. He +sighed as he led her out of the rear door. + +The old mare hung back, stretching first one hind leg and then the +other as old horses do when first they come from the stall in the +morning. + +"Come on, you old nuisance!" exploded Cap'n Ira under his breath, +giving an impatient tug at the rope. + +He did not look around at her, but set his face sternly toward the +distant lot which had once been known as the east meadow. It was no +longer in grass. Wild carrots sprang from its acidulous soil. The +herbage would scarcely have nourished sheep. There were patches of +that gray moss which blossoms with a tiny red flower, and there was +mullein and sour grass. Altogether the run-down condition of the +soil could not be mistaken by even the casual eye. + +The hobbling old man and the hobbling old mare, making their way +across the bare lot, made as drab a picture in the early morning as +a Millet. At a distance their moving shapes would have seemed like +shadows only. There was no other sign of life upon Wreckers' Head. + +A light but keen and salty breath blew in from the sea. Cap'n Ira +faced this breeze with twitching nostrils. The old mare's lower lip +hung down in depression. She groaned. She did not care to be led out +of her comfortable stall at this unconscionably early hour. + +"Grunt, you old nuisance!" muttered Cap'n Ira bitterly. "You don't +even know what a dratted, useless thing you be, I swan!" + +There was a depression in the field. When the heavy spring and fall +rains came the water ran down into this sink and stood, sometimes a +foot or two deep over several acres. In some past time of heavy +flood the water had washed out to the edge of the highland +overlooking the ocean beach. There it had crumbled the brink of the +Head away, the water gullying year after year a deeper and broader +channel, until now the slanting gutter began a hundred yards back +from the brink. + +The recurrent downpours, aided by occasional landslips, had made a +slanting trough to the beach itself, which was all of two hundred +feet below the brink of Wreckers' Head. Many such water-worn gullies +are to be found along the face of the Cape headlands, up which the +fishermen and seaweed gatherers freight their cargoes from the +shore. There was no wheel track here; merely a trough of sliding +sand, treacherous under foot and almost continuously in motion. As +the gully progressed seaward, the banks on either hand became more +than forty feet high, the trough itself being scarcely half as wide. + +Determinedly Cap'n Ira led the old mare into and down the slope of +this gully. + +It was steep. He went ahead haltingly, trying to steady his +footsteps with the cane, which sank deeply into the sand, making +orifices which, in the pale light of the dawn, seemed to startle the +mare. She held back, scuffling and snorting. + +"Come on, drat ye!" adjured the captain. "You needn't blow your +nose. You ain't been taking snuff." + +The sand was so light and dry that it seemed to be on the move all +about them. There was a stealthy sound to the whispering particles, +too, as though they breathed. "Hush.' Hush-sh-sh!" The old man was +made nervous by it. He began to glance back over his shoulder at the +faintly objecting mare. When Queenie slipped a little and scrambled +in the unstable sand he uttered such an exclamation as might have +been wrung from him at time of stress upon his quarter-deck. + +"I swan! I'd rather be keelhauled than do this," burst from his lips +finally. + +But they were well into the gully now. The walls on either hand +towered far above their heads. He halted, and the mare stood still, +again blowing softly through her nostrils. + +The old man, with shaking hands, took from under his coat the heavy +article that had sagged his pocket. It was a black, old-fashioned, +seven-chambered revolver, well oiled and as grim-looking as a rifled +cannon on a battleship. He produced three greased cartridges, broke +the weapon, inserted the cartridges, then closed it and spun the +cylinder. It was not an unfamiliar weapon, this. Its mere grim +appearance, stuck into Cap'n Ira's waistband, had once quelled +mutiny aboard the _Susan Gatskill_. + +While he was thus engaged he had not even glanced around at the old +mare. Suddenly he felt a touch upon his shoulder, then upon the +sleeve of his coat. He felt a creepy chill the length of his spine. +It seemed as if the hand of Prudence had been laid softly upon him. + +"I swan!" he gulped, shaking himself. "I'm as flighty as a gal. What +th'--" He looked back. Queenie was nuzzling his arm questioningly. +Her ears were cocked forward; her surprised face was almost +ridiculously human in its expression. + +Cap'n Ira groaned again. He shuddered. But his gnarled hand gripped +the hard-rubber butt of the revolver with the desperation of the +deed he had screwed his courage to do. Better the old mare should be +put out of the way than that she should fall into hands that would +misuse her. And he feared what other accident might happen if +Prudence continued to take care of the animal. + +"I swan! It's a wrench," admitted Cap'n Ira, swerving to point the +muzzle of the revolver at the gray mare. + +He looked all about again. Yes, the position was right. If she fell +here, a man with a shovel could easily pry down tons of sand from +either bank upon her in a few minutes. The burial might be done by +himself without any other soul knowing what had become of Queenie. + +He cocked the old revolver. + +Suddenly the Queen of Sheba gave a snort of alarm. She looked back +over her withers. The light in the cut between the sand banks was +dim. Was somebody coming? + +To tell the truth, Cap'n Ira had a vision of Prudence, having missed +him, getting out of her bed and traveling down through the lots +after him and the old mare. The idea shook him to his marrow, or was +it the weight of the heavy weapon that made his hand so unsteady? + +"I swan!" His oft-repeated ejaculation was almost a prayer. + +At the moment he felt the sand giving under his feet. The old mare +uttered again her terrified snort. He saw dimly the path behind them +moving--a swift, serpentlike slide. Heavy as the mare was, she felt +the landslip, too. + +Cap'n Ira was not a man who easily lost his self-possession. He had +been through too much to show the white flag when danger menaced. He +realized that peril threatened now. + +He turned squarely about and, cocked pistol in one hand and +huge-knobbed cane in the other, he started away from the spot at a +cripple's gallop. The whole trough of the gully of sand seemed to be +in motion. Behind him the old mare scrambled and whistled with fear, +quite as unable to keep her feet as was the captain. + +For, before he had gone far, Cap'n Ira found himself seated on the +moving plane of sand. He glanced fearfully behind him. The Queen of +Sheba was seated on her tail, her forefeet braced against nothing +more stable than the avalanche itself, and she was sailing down the +slope behind him like a winged Pegasus! + +"My soul and body!" ejaculated Cap'n Ira. "We're certainly on our +way." + + + + +CHAPTER IV + +AT THE LATHAM HOUSE + + +The Latham house stood in the middle of the shallow valley behind +Wreckers' Head. The fields surrounding it were arable and well kept. +The house was not as old as the Ball house and was of an entirely +different style of architecture. Whereas the Ball house was +low-roofed and sprawling, squatting like a huge and ugly toad on the +gale-swept Head, the house Tunis Latham's grandfather had built was +three-story, including the mansard roof, painted a tobacco brown, +and it was surrounded by wry-limbed cedars which could grow here +because they were sheltered from the gales. + +It was a gloomy-looking house even in midsummer, standing like a +grim figure menaced by the tortured limbs of the trees surrounding +it, stark and alone. No other human habitation was in view from its +site. The Latham who had built the twelve-room house had built on +hope. He desired and expected to fill the great house with a breed +of Lathams that would do honor to the Cape on sea and on land. But +his young wife had died the next year, after giving birth to her +second child. + +Tunis Latham's father, Randall Latham, had been the elder Latham's +sole hope of perpetuating the family name and filling the big, ugly +brown house behind Wreckers' Head with tow-headed little Lathams, +for the other child was a girl. + +It was said that Medford Latham had seldom spoken to or of his +daughter, Lucretia. She must have led a very lonely and repressed +life while she was a little girl. Medford Latham did not go to sea, +for he had business that kept him on shore. + +Medford Latham lived long enough to see Randall grow up, walk his +own quarter-deck, and marry a maiden from the port who promised to +be able to fulfill his hopes of a flourishing houseful of children. +She bore Tunis while young Captain Randall Latham was away, and he +came back in time to christen the boy with the name of the most +colorful city he had touched on the trip, not an uncommon practice +of seagoing fathers on the Cape. But Mrs. Randall Latham, watching +her husband's ship bear off to seaward in the face of a keen gale, +caught a severe cold, and when Captain Randall returned the next +time he came not to a cradle in the great living room of the big, +brown house, but to an already-sodden grave in the family plot on +the west side of the saucerlike valley. + +Lucretia Latham had grown to be a tall, large-boned, silent, and +quick-stepping woman--a woman of understanding and infinite +tenderness, although this tenderness was exhibited in deeds, not +words. + +The big, quiet-faced woman, who had never had a lover and on whom no +man had ever looked with admiration, seemed to the casual observer +cold and uncompromising. She might speak to the dog, call the fowls +to their meals, but she never otherwise spoke unless she was forced +to. When he was little, Tunis had found in her arms and against her +breast a refuge from all hurt and fear, but it was a wordless +comfort Aunt Lucretia gave him. + +When he walked over from the cove that afternoon, after seeing the +anchor of the _Seamew_ over-side for the first time in this +roadstead, Tunis found his Aunt Lucretia much as usual. She watched +him approach from the side porch, a warm smile of greeting on her +rather gaunt face. He knew that she must have watched the _Seamew_ +skim by, making for the channel into the cove; for he had written +her when to expect him. But she would say nothing about it unless he +forced the gates of her silence by some direct question which +demanded more than a "yes" or a "no." + +Lucretia folded him in her arms, however, and patted his broad +shoulder with little love pats as he put his arms about her. Her +kiss for him was as warm on his lips as a girl's. They understood +each other pretty well, these two; for Tunis had caught something of +her muteness, living so long alone with her. + +He went to wash and change his shirt. Then he sat down in one of the +huge porch chairs and rocked quietly, waiting for supper. He could +see into the kitchen, which was the family dining room as well, and +when he saw his Aunt Lucretia take the coffee-pot from the stove and +put it on the square Dutch tile by her own place, Tunis knew it was +the only call to supper there would be. + +He rose and went in, taking his place at the head of the table. His +aunt's head was bowed and her lips moved soundlessly. He respected +her whispered grace and always felt that he could add nothing to it +in thankfulness or reverence if he uttered an orison himself. During +the cheerful and plentiful meal the young captain of the _Seamew_ +related certain matters he thought would interest the woman +regarding his purchase of the schooner and the voyage down to the +Cape. He told her he was sure the _Seamew_ was fast enough for a +Boston market boat. + +"Speed is what is wanted now to compete with the Old Colony," Tunis +declared. "We've got fish and clams and cranberries in season, and +some vegetables, that have to be shaken up and jounced together and +squashed on those jolting steam trains. I'll lay down a crate of +lobsters at the T-wharf without a hair being ruffled. I know how to +stow a cargo." + +She nodded both her understanding and her belief that Tunis was +right. The legacy he had received from the estate of Peleg Latham, +Medford Latham's brother, had enabled Tunis to buy this beautiful +schooner. Undoubtedly an eye for the beauty of the craft had more +than a little drawn the young man into her purchase. Yet there was a +foundation of solid sense under his streak of romance. + +In this day a man must serve a long apprenticeship before he gets a +command unless he owns the craft on which he is skipper. To own a +schooner of the size of the _Seamew_ is not enough. One must be a +good merchant as well as a good skipper. + +The coast trade from port to port along the North Atlantic shore +must be fostered and coaxed like a stumbling baby. The tentacles of +the hated railroad reach to many of the Cape ports. Yet everybody +knows that a cargo properly stowed in a seaworthy craft reaches +market in much the better condition than by rail, though perhaps it +is some hours longer on the way. + +There were docks, too, at which Tunis Latham could pick up +well-paying freights which would have to be carted over bad roads to +the nearest railway station. And there were always full or part +cargoes to be had at Boston for certain single consignees along the +Cape, which would pay a fair profit on the upkeep of the schooner. +Medford Latham had lost almost all his fortune before he died so +unhappily, leaving only the homestead and small farm to his son. The +son, Captain Randall Latham, had lost the ship _Ada May_ and every +cent he possessed. Tunis had only his great uncle's legacy to begin +on, and he had waited for that until he was thirty. + +In the morning the young man arose early, for the tide was then low, +and started forth with basket and clam hoe on his arm. Aunt Lucretia +had promised him, by a smiling nod, a mess of fritters for dinner if +he would supply the necessary clams. Alongshore the soft clam is the +only clam used for fritters; the tough, long-keeping quahog is +shipped to the less-enlightened "city trade." + +It was not yet sunrise, but as Tunis walked down through one of +those cuts in the edge of the headland, following a well-defined +cart track, he saw the rose-glow of the sun's round face staining +the mist on the eastern horizon. + +He came down upon the hard sand of the beach and walked toward a +tiny cove into which the mud flats extended and on which he knew the +clams were plentiful and ripe. Glistening pools of black water, +showing where other diggers had raided the flat, were interspersed +with trembling patches of black sand. When Tunis began to cross the +flat the sand before his boots became alive with tiny, shooting +geysers of clean water. He set to work. + +And while he was thus engaged he heard suddenly a shrill outcry and +a most mysterious sound up in one of the gullies toward the summit +of Wreckers' Head. Here thousands of tons of sand had run out of the +cut in the steep bank and formed a dykelike way to the beach itself. +More and more sand was slipping down this way all the time. A strong +man could scarcely make his way up the incline, the sand was so +unstable. + +Tunis stood and stared up the slope. There shot into view, carried +rapidly upon the forefront of the avalanche, a white-haired old man +who waved a stick in one hand and a cocked pistol in the other, +while from his mouth came shrill cries of excitement, if not of +alarm. + +But it was what followed Cap'n Ira Ball--whom Tunis immediately +recognized--that caused the captain of the _Seamew_ such utter +surprise. Sitting on her rump, pawing at the sliding sand with her +front hoofs, and whistling her terror and amazement, the Queen of +Sheba appeared flying after the harassed old man. + +It was a scene to surprise more than to entertain the beholder. The +avalanche promised disaster to the participants in it. Tons upon +tons of sand, undulating and sinuous in appearance, traveled faster +and yet faster behind the old gray mare and the gray old sea +captain. The smoke of the slide hid all that lay behind them, and +these wreaths of sand dust threatened a higher wave that might, at +any moment, entirely overwhelm both the equine and the human victim +of the catastrophe. + +Tunis dropped his clam hoe and started for the dyke of sand on the +crest of which the old man and the old mare were sliding like +naughty children down a woodshed roof. + +"Hey, Tunis! Tunis!" bawled the captain. "Take her off'n me! She'll +be afoul my hawser in another second, I do believe." + +It was evident that he spoke of the Queen of Sheba, but Tunis could +not see how the mare was intentionally threatening Cap'n Ira's peace +of mind or safety of body. She was, however, "close aboard" Cap'n +Ira as he tobogganed down the sandy way. + +"Stern all!" shouted the old man, throwing another startled, +backward glance at the Queen of Sheba. "Drat the derned old critter! +Don't she know nothin' at all? Tunis! Do you see what's goin' to +happen?" + +While the young man had been running toward the ridge of sand, the +avalanche bearing Cap'n Ira and the Queen of Sheba on its bosom +swept down the slope of the huge windrow, but not altogether along +its spine. The mass slid over one pitch of the ridge, and suddenly, +following on the heels of Cap'n Ira's final question, the old man +was shot to the beach, several tons of loose sand and the snorting +mare almost on top of him. + +In fact, he would have been overwhelmed, and perhaps seriously hurt, +had not Tunis Latham arrived at the spot at just the time Cap'n Ira +did, and suddenly pulled out the old man. + +"What are you doing? Trying to run a race with Queenie?" demanded +the captain of the _Seamew_. + +The mare had come down right side up, more by good luck than by good +management. She stood deep in the sand, her naturally surprised +expression vastly enhanced. In all her twenty-two years Queenie had +never before gone through such an experience. + +"I swan!" ejaculated Cap'n Ira. "Ain't this the beatenest you ever +heard of, Tunis?" + +Tunis stared from the old mare to the old mariner, especially at the +cocked revolver in the captain's hand. He pointed at the tightly +gripped weapon. + +"What's that for, Cap'n Ira?" he asked. + +"I--I--well, I swan!" stammered Cap'n Ira, now looking, himself, at +the old seven-chambered revolver as though he had never seen it +before. "I cal'late it does look sort o' funny to you, Tunis, to +see me come sailing down this way, armed like a pirate." + +"I wouldn't call it exactly funny. But it is surprising," admitted +Tunis. "And Queenie looks as surprised as anybody." + +"Yes, she does, for a fact," agreed Cap'n Ira, squinting across the +heap of loose sand at the gray mare. "I kind o' wonder what she's +thinking about." + +"I'm wondering hard enough myself," put in Tunis pointedly. + +"I swan!" murmured Cap'n Ira reflectively. + +He carefully lowered the hammer of the pistol, his cane stuck +upright in the sand before him. Then he put the weapon back in the +inside pocket of his coat. He tapped the knob of his cane for a +pinch of snuff before he said another word. His mighty "A-choon!" +startled the Queen of Sheba almost as it startled Prudence. + +"Avast!" exclaimed Cap'n Ira. "Did you ever see such a scary old +lubber, Tunis?" + +"But what's it all about?" again demanded the younger man, seizing +the rope halter and aiding the mare to flounder out upon the firmer +sand below high-water mark. "What are you doing up so early? And +what were you going to do with Queenie?" + +"I swan!" groaned Cap'n Ira again. "I don't wonder that you ask me +that. It don't really seem reasonable that a sane man would get in +such a jam, does it? Me and the Queen of Sheby sailin' down that +sand pile. Tunis! We'll never be able to get up it in this world." + +"No. You must come along to our road, and get up that way," his +young friend told him. "It is longer, but easier. But tell me how +you came down that gully, you and Queenie?" + +"I'm sort of ashamed to tell you, Tunis, and that's a fact," the old +captain said, wagging his head. "And don't you ever tell Prudence." + +"I'll not say a word to Aunt Prue," promised the captain of the +_Seamew_. + +"Yet," grumbled the old man, "that dratted Queen of Sheby is too +much for Prudence. You see yourself only yesterday how she is like +to come to her death because of the mare." + +"I know that you should have somebody living with you, Cap'n Ira," +urged Tunis. "But what does _this_ mean?" + +"I--I can't scurcely tell you, Tunis. I swan! I was goin' to murder +the old critter." + +"What do you mean?" gasped Tunis in apparent horror. "Not Aunt +Prue?" + +"What's the matter with you?" snapped Cap'n Ira. "I mean that old +mare. I was going to murder her in cold blood, only the sand slide +wrecked my plans." + +"If you had killed her, Aunt Prue would have had hard work to +forgive you. Come on now. I'll lead Queenie up to our barn. Let her +stay there for a spell. I tell you, Cap'n Ira, you and Aunt Prue +must have somebody to live with you." + +"Who?" + +"Get a girl from the port." + +"Huh! One o' them Portygees? They're as dirty and useless in the +kitchen as their men folks are aboard ship." + +"Oh, they are not all like that!" objected the captain of the +_Seamew_. "I've got a good crew of 'em aboard my schooner." + +"You think so. Wait till you get in a jam. And the men ain't so bad +as the gals. All hussies." + +"I don't know, then, what you'll do." + +"I do," interrupted the old man, hobbling along the hard sand beside +Tunis and the horse. "It's just like I told Prudence yesterday. I +know just what we've got to do whether you or Prue or anybody else +knows," and he was very emphatic. + +"Let's hear your plan, Cap'n," said Tunis. + +"It's like this," went on Cap'n Ira. "Prudence ain't got but one +living relative, a grandniece, that's kin to her. That Ida May +Bostwick we must have come and live with us, and that's all there is +about it." + +Tunis stared. He said: + +"Never heard of her. She doesn't live anywhere around here, does +she?" + +"No, no! Lives to Boston." + +"Boston!" + +Why was it Tunis Latham felt that his heart skipped a beat? Memory +of that pale, violet-eyed girl who worked in the restaurant on +Scollay Square flashed across his mind like a shooting star. Indeed, +he was so confused that he heard only a little at first of Cap'n +Ira's rambling explanation. Then he caught: + +"And if you will go to that address--Prue's got the street and +number--and see Ida May Bostwick and tell her about us, you'd be +doing us a kindness, Tunis." + +"Me?" exclaimed the startled captain of the _Seamew_. + +"Yes, you. The gal won't bite you. You're going to Boston next week, +you say. Will you do it?" + +"Sure I will, Cap'n Ira," said the young man heartily. "It's a good +move, and I'll say all I can to get the girl to come down here." + +"That's the boy! You're going on an errand of mercy; that's as sure +as sure. Prue and me need that gal. And maybe she needs us. I don't +know what sort of a place she works at, but no city job for a gal +can be the equal of living down here on the Cape, with her own +folks, as you might say. Yes, Tunis, you'll be doing an errand of +mercy mebbe both ways." + + + + +CHAPTER V + +LOOKING FOR IDA MAY + + +The _Seamew_ was put in commission in a very few days. Tunis Latham +had many friends in and about Big Wreck Cove, and he had little +difficulty in picking up a cargo, which was loaded right at the +port. + +As for the schooner's crew, Tunis could have filled every billet +four times over had he so desired. But he had already picked his +crew with some care. Mason Chapin was mate, a perfectly capable +navigator who might have used his ticket to get a berth on a much +larger craft than the _Seamew_. But he had an invalid wife and +wished only to leave home on brief voyages. Johnny Lark was shipped +as cook, with a Portygee boy, Tony, to help him. + +Forward, Horace Newbegin served as boatswain and Orion Latham was a +sort of supercargo and general handy man. He was Tunis' cousin, +several times removed. There were four Portygees to make up the +company, a full crew for a sailing vessel of the tonnage of the +_Seamew_. Yet every man was needed in handling her lofty canvas and +in loading and unloading freight. + +With a well-stowed cargo below deck the schooner sailed even better +than she had in ballast. She slipped out of the cove through the +rather tortuous channel like an eel through the meshes of a broken +trap. In the dawn, and with a fresh outside breeze just ruffling the +sea into whitecaps, they broke out her upper sails and caught the +very last breath of the gale the canvas would draw. + +Cap'n Ira, and even Prudence, had got up before daybreak to see the +schooner pass. They watched her, turn and turn about at the +spyglass, till she was blotted out by the distant fog bank. + +"I swan," said the old man, "when she heaves into view again I hope +she'll have Ida May Bostwick aboard! That is what _I_ hope." + +"The dear girl!" breathed Prudence. + +It never crossed their simple minds that Ida May Bostwick might see +this chance they offered her in a different light from that in which +they looked at it. The old couple made their innocent plans for the +welcoming of the "grandniece," positive that a happy future was in +store for both Ida May and themselves. + +In Tunis Latham's mind there was more uncertainty regarding the +mysterious Ida May Bostwick than there was in the minds of Cap'n +Ira and Prudence. Whenever he considered his "errand of mercy" the +captain of the _Seamew_ had a flash of that girl with the violet +eyes who worked in the restaurant on Scollay Square. The Balls did +not know where Ida May worked. Prudence only had obtained the +lodging-house address of her young relative from Annabell Coffin, +"she who was a Cuttle." + +Of course, it was merely a faint and tenuous possibility that Ida +May was a waitress. Still fainter was the chance that she would +prove to be the girl with the violet eyes that Tunis Latham +remembered so distinctly. The Balls knew that she worked in a store, +and all stores were the same to them. There might be a few hundred +thousand other girls in Boston besides that particular girl whom he +had saved from falling on the square. + +Nevertheless, when the _Seamew_ had unloaded and been warped to a +berth in an outer tier of small craft to await her turn to load +barrels and box shooks for a concern at Paulmouth, Captain Tunis +started up into the city. He knew his way about Boston as well as +any one not a native, and his first objective point was that +restaurant on Scollay Square. + +It was the dogwatch when Tunis Latham entered the eating place, but +the dogwatch here was not at the same time of day as aboard ship. +The captain's first startled glance about the room assured him that +there was not a girl employee in sight, not even at the cashier's +desk, and very few customers. + +He ordered a late but hearty breakfast of the unshaven waiter in +half-spoiled apron and coat who lounged over his table. + +"I thought they used to have girl waiters in this place?" the +captain said when the man brought the tableware and glass of water. + +"On from 'leven till eight. You're too early if you got a jane in +your eye, bo," was the ribald reply. "The boss is a good guy." He +sneered in the direction of the black-haired, coarse-looking man in +the cashier's cage. "He hires them girls for five dollars less a +week than he'd have to pay union waiters, and he asks no questions." +He closed his recital with a wink so full of meaning that Tunis' +palm itched to slap him. + +But the guest's wind-bitten face betrayed no confusion nor further +interest. The waiter judged he had mistaken his man, after all, and +sheered off until the ordered viands were ready at the slide. + +He hesitated to question that coarse man, even to mention Ida May +Bostwick's name to him. The waiter had misinterpreted his first +remark about the waitresses. The proprietor might hold any question +he asked regarding Ida May against the record of the violet-eyed +girl, if by any wild possibility that should be her name. There was +time still, he thought, to find her at her lodgings before she +started for the restaurant, if she worked here. + +So Tunis paid his check and strode forth. The lodging of Ida May +Bostwick was not in this neighborhood, of course, not even in the +West End. In fact, it was in the South End, in one of those streets +running more or less parallel to lower Shawmut Avenue. He took a car +in the subway and got off near the address Prudence Ball had given +him. + +To the mind of the Cape man, used as he was to the open spaces of +both sea and land, these dingy blocks of brick houses, three and +four stories in height, all quite alike in smoke and squalor and +even in the pattern of the net curtains at their parlor windows, +made as dreary a picture as he had ever imagined. He thought of that +pale, slender, violet-eyed girl coming back to this ugly block at +night, after long hours at the restaurant, having to look forward to +nothing more beautiful, in all probability, inside the house where +she lodged. Who would not be glad, overjoyed, indeed, to get away +from such an environment? + +He found the number. The house was no worse and no better than its +neighbors. By stains on the blistered bricks beside the door frame +he gathered that scraps of paper advertising empty rooms had often +been pasted there. He rang the bell at the top of the rail-guarded +steps. After a time he rang again. + +He could hear the bell jangle somewhere in a distant part of the +house. Nobody came in answer to his summons, not even after his +third ring. At length the creaking, iron-barred gate in the area +warned him that the main door at which he rang was not in use at +that hour of the day. A woman in a house dress as ugly as the street +itself, and with untidy gray hair and a bar of smut on her cheek, +craned her neck from this opening to look up at him. + +"There's no use your ringing. I ain't got an empty room, young man," +she announced. + +He descended spryly into the area before she could close the gate. +Her near-sighted scowl misjudged him again, for she added: + +"Nor I don't want to buy anything." + +"One moment, ma'am," he cried. "I have nothing for sale. I'd like to +see somebody who lodges here." + +"Who?" asked the woman, peering at him curiously. + +"Miss Bostwick." + +"You'll have to come this evening." + +"Oh! She has--has gone to work already?" + +"My stars! Do you know what time it is, young man?" demanded the +lodging-house keeper. "It's after ten o'clock." + +Already Tunis Latham's hopes began to sink. + +"Then--then she goes to work early?" + +"Lemme tell you, them that works for Hoskin & Marl have to show up +by eight or they lose their jobs." + +"And she will not be in until evening?" he repeated. + +"'Bout seven. She gets her supper before she comes home. I don't +give meals." + +"Where is this place she works at?" asked the captain of the +_Seamew_, with a suppressed sigh. + +"Guess you are a stranger in town, aren't you?" said the curious +landlady. "I thought everybody knew Hoskin & Marl's. It's on Tremont +Street. The big department store." + +"Oh! Miss Bostwick works there?" + +"In the laces. You can't know her very well, young man." + +"I come from her folks down on the Cape," he thought it his duty to +explain. "I've a message for her." + +"On the Cape? My stars! I never knowed she had any country +relatives. Are they rich? They ain't died and left her a fortune, +have they?" were the eager questions. + +"The ones I speak of are still alive," Tunis said gravely, backing +up the steps to the sidewalk. "Thank you, ma'am. I'll go to that +store and speak to her there. Thank you." + +Before she could evolve another question, Tunis had escaped. He +walked smartly away, not only to outdistance the lodging-house +keeper's voice, but because he was confused and disappointed. Ida +May Bostwick could not work in a department store and in an eating +house as well. Of course not! And now that this point was an +established fact in his mind, he admitted that he had been utterly +foolish to imagine for a moment that he had already met her, that +she was the violet-eyed girl in whom he had taken an interest. + +Right at the start he had known that a girl working in an eating +house like that was not the sort of person he could introduce to +Aunt Lucretia. And so why had he imagined that she would prove to be +the great-niece of Prudence Ball? It was ridiculous! + +Of course, this Ida May came of good Cape stock. At least, on one +side of her family. The Honeys were as good as the Lathams or the +Balls. + +Thus condemning his foolish fancies he strode downtown again. He +knew where Hoskin & Marl's was. He had been in the place. When he +reached the department store he marched straight in, meaning to have +an immediate interview with the girl at the lace counter. + + + + +CHAPTER VI + +AN UNSATISFACTORY INTERVIEW + + +Tunis Latham suffered all the timidity of the average man when he +got into the maze of that department store. There is a psychological +reason for the haberdashery goods, the line for the mere male, being +placed always within sight of a principal exit. The catacombs of +Rome would be no more terrifying in prospect for a man than a +venture into the farther intricacies of Hoskin & Marl's. + +The captain of the _Seamew_ could box the compass with the next +seafarer, but he lost all idea of the points on the card before he +had been three minutes in the store, and he had to hail a +floor-walker to get his bearings. + +"Lace counter? Right this way, sir. Yes, sir. Just over there. +Our--er--Miss Bostwick will serve you, sir. Forward!" + +The wind and sun had heightened Tunis Latham's naturally florid +complexion to about as deep a red as can easily be imagined, but he +felt the back of his neck and his ears burning as he approached the +counter to which he was directed. A girl had detached herself from a +group at the farther end, and now came toward him. All that he first +saw clearly, however, was a pair of eyes staring at him from behind +the counter. They were not violet eyes. + +The girl who owned those twinkling, needle-sharp eyes was nothing +like that girl he had been thinking of so much since his previous +visit to Boston. She was rather small, dressed in the extreme mode +in a cheap way, wearing a tawdry gilt chain, several rings, and a +wrist watch. There was something about her which reminded Tunis very +strongly of the girls of Portygee Town, although she was a +pronounced blonde. + +Her hair was really her only attractive possession. Those sharp +brown eyes did not please Tunis Latham at all. And there was a +certain smart boldness in her manner, too, which caused him a +distinct feeling of repugnance. + +He plunged into his errand with all the boldness that a bashful man +usually displays when he finally gets his courage to the sticking +point. + +"You are Miss Bostwick?" he asked. + +"What kind of lace--goodness! Who are you?" asked the girl, her +stilted, saleslady manner changing to amazement with surprising +suddenness. + +"I live at Big Wreck Cove. I guess you've heard of it," said Tunis. + +"Big Wreck Cove? Do tell!" Her eyes danced. "You're from down on the +Cape, then. I guess you want some lace for your wife. What kind did +she send you for?" + +Tunis brushed this aside bluntly. + +"I don't want any lace," he told her. "I come from your aunt, Mrs. +Ira Ball." + +"My aunt? Fancy!" + +"She has heard about you," went on Tunis. "I guess she thought a +heap of your mother. She--she'd like to see you, Mrs. Ball would." + +The girl patted her hair into place with a languid hand. Her lips +parted in a teasing smile. This "hick" really amused her. + +"Just to think! Would she?" she drawled. "Is she in town?" + +"Who? Mrs. Ball? I should say not. She's down at Big Wreck Cove, I +tell you." + +"Oh, really? I thought by the way you spoke she was outside--in her +car." She tossed her head with that same tantalizing smile, almost a +grimace. "What did you want to tell me?" + +Tunis realized that he could not talk to her here, after all. The +idle girls at the end of the counter were already whispering, and +their smiles were poignant javelins of ridicule. The captain of the +_Seamew_ knew that he was far beyond his depth. + +"Where can I talk to you?" he asked. + +"I get away for my lunch hour in a few minutes. I could talk to you +then. But us girls ain't supposed to entertain our friends at the +counter." She flashed him another amused and quite comprehending +glance. + +"I've a message for you from Aunt Prue and the captain. Captain Ira +Ball. He's her husband," explained Tunis jerkily. + +"Oh, really? Mr. Judson is coming this way." She flirted open a card +of cheap lace lying on the counter. "Won't this do, sir?" + +"Cat's foot! I don't want any lace," growled the captain of the +_Seamew_. + +"And I don't want to lose my job," rejoined the girl sharply. + +"Where'll I meet you so we can talk?" + +"At twelve forty-five," hissed the girl out of the corner of her +mouth, beginning to wind up the lace again. "Back entrance to the +store." Then, aloud: "Sorry, sir. We haven't any cheaper quality in +that pattern." + +He knew she was ridiculing him. He was cognizant, however, of the +department head's hard stare and the amused glances of the other +saleswomen. He strode out of the store, and on the sidewalk halted +to mop his face and neck with a blue-bordered handkerchief. + +"She's as sassy as a chipmunk. I declare! What would Cap'n Ira and +Aunt Prue do with a girl like her around the house? And the way +she's dressed!" + +In his mind the idea germinated that he would be doing a far better +thing if he did not go around to the employees' door and wait for +Ida May Bostwick. What sort of life would she lead the two old +people down there on Wreckers' Head? He actually shrank from being a +party to such an arrangement. + +Not for a moment did he think that Miss Bostwick might not jump at +the chance to change her place of residence from a South End lodging +house to the Ball homestead overlooking Big Wreck Cove and the sea. +He had seen that she was afraid of her boss in the store. The rules +there must be very strict. He had noted that everything about the +girl, her apparel and her ornaments, was cheap and tawdry. She must +be both poor and unhappy. Why should she not jump at the chance of +bettering herself? + +What would Cap'n Ira say when he caught his first glimpse of that +painted and powdered face? How could good Aunt Prue take to her +heart the bold, jeering shopgirl, evidently born and bred as far +from the old standards of Cape Cod breeding as could be imagined? No +matter how fine a girl Sarah Honey was, her daughter was of a cheap +city type. + +But Tunis Latham did not stand in the position of a judge. He had +not been told to use his powers of observation before placing the +Balls' offer before Ida May Bostwick. He had no discretion in the +matter at all. + +So he went around to the street behind Hoskin & Marl's at the +required time and spent five or ten minutes backed up against a +blank wall under the sharp scrutiny of every girl who hurried out of +the big store on her way to lunch. Ida May came, at last. + +Tunis Latham in his go-ashore uniform and cap was no unsightly +figure. A stern tranquillity of countenance lent him dignity. He +attracted a certain respect wherever he went, but, as has been said, +there was nothing harsh in his appearance. + +The girl gave him an appraising scrutiny as she walked toward him. +While covering those few yards she made up her mind about Tunis on +several points. One was that she would not lunch this noon at any +cafeteria or automat! + +"Really," she said, with downcast glance, as the man got into step +beside her, "I don't feel that I know you well enough to talk to you +at all, Mister--Mister--" + +"My name's Tunis Latham. I'm owner and skipper of the schooner +_Seamew_. I live right handy to your uncle and aunt." + +"Goodness! You don't mean I've got an uncle and aunt down there on +the Cape? I never heard of them." + +"They are your great-uncle and great-aunt. Aunt Prue must have been +your mother's own aunt." + +"So you are my Cousin--er--Tunis?" + +His face flamed and he did not look at her. + +"That doesn't follow," he said. "Aunt Prue is my aunt only in a +manner of speaking. But she is your blood relation." + +"Yes? I suppose she's a dear old soul?" + +"They are mighty nice folks," Tunis replied stoutly. "As nice as any +in all Barnstable County." + +"But--er--sort of simple?" + +The girl asked it with a perfectly innocent countenance. Tunis +flashed her a look that showed comprehension. + +"Just about as simple as I am," he said. + +"Oh!" + +"Where'll we go to eat?" he asked cheerfully, considering that he +had the best of it so far. + +They came out upon Tremont Street and now started downtown. He +desired to get no nearer to that eating house on Scollay Square. At +least, not with his present companion. + +"There's the Barquette," said Miss Bostwick, with the air of one +used daily to the grandeur of such hostelries. + +But Tunis had seen her lodgings! However, her airs amused him, and +Tunis Latham was no penny-squeezer. He headed straight in for the +dining room, where a gloriously appareled negro head waiter +appraised him as being "all right," and Ida May got by, without +knowing it, upon the captain's substantial appearance. + +While the waiter was away, Tunis bluntly put his errand before her. +He felt it his duty to make the offer as attractive as possible. But +he did not make small the fact that the Balls were old and needed +her services. + +"Goodness! What do they want me for--a nurse?" she demanded tartly. + +The question put Tunis on his mettle. He explained that Cap'n Ira +and his wife were comfortably "fixed," as Cape people considered +comfort, with a home free and clear of all encumbrances, and +investments that yielded a sufficient support. Ida May, as he +understood it, would share their home and their means. + +"And you want I should go down to that place and live on pollack and +potatoes till them folks die, for the sake of just a _home_?" she +demanded, her brown eyes snapping. + +"_I_ don't want you to do anything," he pointed out coolly enough. +"I am merely repeating their offer. They are your folks." + +"And I know all about what it is down there," the girl said quickly. +"My mother came from there. She was glad enough to get away, too, I +warrant. Why should I give up a good job and the city to live in +such a dead-and-alive hole?" + +"That is for you to decide," Tunis replied, not without secret +relief. + +He could not understand her attitude. He remembered that South End +lodging house with secret horror. But evidently Ida May Bostwick was +wedded to the tawdry conveniences and gayeties of city life. Tunis +could not wholly understand why any sane person should assume this +attitude; in fact, he suspected a good deal of it was put on. How +could a girl, even one as inconsequential and flighty as Ida May +evidently was, hold in contempt the offer he had brought her from +Cap'n Ira and his wife? + +But he had done all that could be expected of him. All, indeed, that +he thought wise. Disappointed as the old couple would be by Ida +May's refusal, Tunis felt that to urge her to reconsider the matter +would not be in the best interests of her elderly relatives. They +needed a young companion there on Wreckers' Head, needed one very +sorely, but not such a person as Ida May Bostwick. + +"Then, that will be your final answer, Miss Bostwick?" he said +slowly, as Ida May played with her ice. + +"Say! I wouldn't go down to that hole for a million," scoffed the +girl. "I guess you wouldn't stand it yourself, only you're off on +your ship most of the time." + +"I like the Cape," he said briefly. + +"Never lived in the city, did you?" + +"I never did." + +"Then you don't know any better," she told him confidently. "And you +don't really look like such a dead one, at that." + +"Thank you." + +She smiled saucily into his rather grim face. Then she opened her +bag and deliberately powdered her nose before rising from the table. + +"Thanks for a pleasant hour," she drawled. "You tell Auntie and +Uncle Josh to get a girl from the poor farm or somewhere to do their +chores and tuck 'em in nights. _Me_, I don't mean to live out of +sight of movie signs and electric lights. I'd like to see myself!" + +She was both rude and common. Tunis was glad to get out of the +dining room. Ida May attracted altogether too much attention. And +she had quite openly eyed his well-lined wallet when he paid the +waiter. To a girl like Ida May, all was fish that swam into her net. +Crude as she considered him, Tunis Latham was a man with some money. +And he evidently knew how to spend it. + +"When you're in town I'd be glad to see you any time, Mr. Latham. Or +do I say captain?" + +She smiled up at the big, broad-shouldered fellow bravely as she +trotted along in the skirt that made her hobble like a cripple. The +captain of the _Seamew_ did not respond very cordially, and quite +overlooked her personal question. + +"I don't expect to spend much time in Boston," he said. "Thank you. +Then I shall report to Aunt Prue and Cap'n Ira that you will not +consider their offer at all?" + +"I should say not!" She laughed lightly. "You don't know, I guess, +what we girls expect nowadays, if we give up our independence." + +"Independence!" snorted Tunis. + +"That's what I said," rejoined Ida May tartly. "When the store +closes my time's my own. I can do as I please. And I've got nobody +to please but myself. Oh, you don't understand at all, Captain +Latham!" + +He said no more. Nor did he escort her farther than the corner. +There he lifted his cap and took her offered hand. Although it was +beringed and the nails were stained and polished, Tunis could not +help noticing that Ida May's hand was not altogether clean. + +"Well, au revoir, captain!" she said lightly. "I hope I see you +again." + +He bowed silently and watched her depart. The sunshine glinted +gloriously upon her fluffy hair. + +"Fool's gold," he muttered. + + + + +CHAPTER VII + +AT THE RESTAURANT + + +The captain of the _Seamew_ found himself facing an unpleasant +problem. How could he make the Balls, either Cap'n Ira or Prudence, +understand the kind of girl Ida May was? How could he even bring +them to understand that nothing he could have said would have ever +made Ida May Bostwick see the situation in its true light? + +Why, the old couple could never be made to believe that a girl in +her sane senses would turn down cold such a proposition as they had +made. They would suspect that he had failed to put it to her in the +proper light. His "errand of mercy," as Cap'n Ira had called it, had +seemed so reasonable for both sides! + +Tunis realized that he had not overurged the matter to the girl. But +there was a reason for that. The difficulty would be in explaining +to the Balls just how unsuitable Ida May was. They would never +believe that the daughter of Sarah Honey could be such a cheap and +inconsequential person as she had actually proved to be. + +"It's going to hit 'em 'twixt wind and water, and hit 'em hard," +muttered the captain of the _Seamew_. "One thing that girl said was +right, I guess. They'd better get somebody from the poor farm, +rather than take her into their house. Such a creature would be +happier with the Balls, and make them happier. But it's pretty tough +when those of your own blood go back on you." + +The experience had left a bad taste in Tunis Latham's mouth. He +hoped heartily that he would never see Ida May Bostwick again. He +never intended to if he could help it. To take his mind off the +fiasco entirely, he hopped on to a car and rode out to the art +museum and spent the afternoon in the quiet galleries where the +masters, little and great, are hung. + +He came downtown at nightfall, threading the paths of the public +gardens and the common malls of Charles and Beacon Streets, with a +feeling of immense calm in his soul. Tunis Latham possessed keenly +contrasting attributes of character. On the one hand he was of a +rather practical mind and thought; on the other, his love of beauty +and appreciation of nature's greater forces might have made of him +an artist under more liberal conditions of birth and breeding. + +Ida May Bostwick had rasped all the finer feelings of the captain +of the _Seamew_. He was happy to be able to get her out of his mind. +In fact, he had put aside thought of any girl. Romance no longer +enmeshed his cogitations. He was utterly calm, unruffled, serene, as +he descended by the twists and turns of certain streets beyond the +State House and came out finally upon the now lighted and bustling +square. + +He halted, like a pointer dog, before the eating place where he had +had breakfast. + +Tunis Latham felt a certain shock. That girl with the violet eyes +had been farthest from his thought at the moment, and for some hours +now. He had lumped together the whole girl question and had +relegated it to the back of his mind. + +And perhaps he was cured. He looked at it more sensibly after the +first moment. It was not thought of the girl that had brought him +here. Habit is strong in most of us. The urge of a healthy appetite +was more likely what had caused him to halt before the restaurant +door. + +It was after seven. Following his walk from the Back Bay it was +little wonder that he was hungry. But should he enter this place? +There were several other restaurants in sight of about the same +standard. Tunis Latham did not make a practice of patronizing places +similar to the Barquette when he ate alone. + +To pass on and enter another restaurant would be to confess +weakness. He really cared nothing about that girl with the violet +eyes. She very probably was no better and no worse than Ida May +Bostwick. All these city shopgirls were about of a pattern. He had +allowed sentiment to sway him for a few hours. But sentiment had +received a jolt during his interview with the girl from the lace +department of Hoskin & Marl's. + +"Cat's foot!" ejaculated the captain of the _Seamew_. "I guess I'm +not afraid to take another look at that girl, if she's in here. +Probably two looks will be about all I want," and he grinned rather +wryly as he approached the door. + +The place was well patronized at this hour; and the "lady help" was +much in evidence, flying back and forth from tables to slide and +"dealing 'em off the arm" with a rapidity and dexterity that was +most amazing, Tunis thought. There was even a girl in the cashier's +cage, while the black-haired man he had paid his check to that +forenoon was walking about with a sharp eye for everything that went +on. + +The Cape man started down the room for an empty seat. Somebody was +ahead of him and he backed away. A soft voice, a voice that thrilled +Tunis Latham before he saw the speaker at all, said just behind him: + +"There is a seat here, sir." + +He knew it was she of the violet eyes before he turned about. It +seemed to the seaman the voice matched the beautiful eyes of which +he had thought so often during the past few days. They must belong +together! + +He turned to look at her. She was gathering up the soiled dishes +from a table at which was an empty seat. First of all, Tunis secured +it. Then he glanced keenly at the girl. + +Would she remember him? Had his face and appearance been +photographed upon her memory as her face had been printed on his? +She did not look at him then. She was busy clearing the enameled top +of the table and wiping off the coffee stains and the wet rings made +by the water glass. + +She had black hair and a great deal of it, deep black, glossy, fine +of texture, and very well brushed. Black hair and those velvety +violet eyes, the long, black lashes of which were a most delicate +fringe! The brows were boldly dashed on against her smooth, almost +colorless, but perfect skin. Tunis had never before seen any +feminine loveliness the equal of this girl, this waitress in a cheap +restaurant! Yet a casual glance would scarcely have discovered much +attractive about the girl. Had he not looked so deep into her violet +eyes at the instant of their first meeting, perhaps the captain of +the _Seamew_ would never have given her the second glance. There was +a timidity about her, a shrinking in her very attitude, that would +naturally displease even an observant person. + +Her nose, mouth, and chin, were only ordinarily well formed. Nothing +remarkable at all about them. But the texture of her skin, it seemed +to the man, was the finest he had ever beheld. Her figure was +slight, but supple. Every line, accentuated by the common black +dress she wore, was graceful. Her throat was bare and she wore no +ornament. His sharp gaze flashed to her left hand. It was guiltless +of any band. He had begun to flush at the thought which prompted +this last observation, and grabbed at a stained bill of fare to +cover his sudden confusion. + +She moved away with the piled-up dishes. His gaze followed her +covertly. Even her walk was graceful, not at all the hobble or the +jerky pace or the slouch of the other waitresses. + +By and by she came back. She brought tableware and a glass of water. +She placed them meticulously before him. Then, for the first time it +seemed, she looked at Tunis Latham. She halted, her hand still upon +the water glass. She quivered all over. The water slopped upon the +table. + +"Oh, is it you, sir?" she said in that timid, breathless whisper he +so well remembered. + +"Good evening," Tunis rejoined. "I hope you are well?" + +"Oh, yes, sir! Quite well. What will you have, sir?" + +She no longer looked at him. Her gaze was roving about her tables, +but more often fixed upon the broad, alpaca-coated shoulders of the +restaurant proprietor at the front of the room. + +Tunis ordered almost at random. She repeated the viands named. There +was a tiny tendril of her hair that curled low upon her neck at one +side, caressing the pale satin sheen of the skin. He felt an +overpowering desire to lean forward and press his lips to the tiny +curl! + +As though she comprehended his secret wish, a wave of color stained +her throat and cheeks from the line of her frock to her hair. It +poured up under the pallor of the skin, transfiguring her expression +ravishingly. Instead of her countenance being rather wan and weary +looking, in a moment it became as vivid as a freshly opened flower. + +She turned swiftly, departing with his order. Tunis was conscious of +a hoarse voice at his elbow. He glanced aside. His neighbor in the +next chair was a little, common man, with a little, common face, on +which was a little, common leer. + +"A pip, I'll tell the world," was the neighbor's comment. "Whadjer +s'pose brought her into this dump?" + +"The necessity for earning her living," replied Tunis, without +looking again at the man. + +"With a face like that?" suggested the man, and fell wordless +again, but not silent, as he attacked his soup. + +If there was an opportunity to speak to the girl again, Tunis could +scarcely do so, he thought, for her own sake. It would attract the +attention not only of the fellow beside him, but of others. + +He felt an overpowering desire, however, to talk with her. His +recently born determination to have nothing more to do with any girl +had melted like snow in July. That feeling, which had come through +his experience with Ida May Bostwick, seemed a sacrilege when he +considered this girl. + +The man beside him, noisily finishing his soup, ordered +apple-meringue pie when the waitress returned with Tunis' order. The +latter noted that her fingers still trembled when she placed his +food before him. When she brought the pie she reached for the man's +check and punched another hole in it. Tunis was careful not to raise +his own eyes to her face. But all the time he was trying to invent +some way by which he might further his acquaintance with her. + +He must be back at the _Seamew_ that night. Tomorrow the cargo would +come aboard and, wind and tide being ordinarily favorable, the +schooner would put to sea as soon as the hatches were battened down. +He could not continue to come here to the restaurant for his meals +and so grasp the frail chance of bolstering his acquaintance with +the girl. Indeed, he felt that such an obvious course would utterly +wreck any chance he might naturally have of knowing her better. + +The timidity she evinced was nothing put on. It was real. Its cause +he could not fathom, but to Tunis Latham it seemed that this girl +with the violet eyes was a gentle girl, if not gently bred, and that +she shrank from contact with the rougher elements of life. How she +came to be working in this place was not of moment to him. It would +not have mattered to Tunis Latham where he had met her or under what +circumstances; he only knew that there was a mysterious charm about +her which attracted and held his heart captive. + +"Will you have anything more, sir?" The low, yet penetrating voice +was in his ear. She hovered over his chair and her near presence +thrilled him. He had not much more than played with the food. Now he +replied briefly, without thinking: + +"Apple-meringue." + +"Yes, sir." + +His neighbor pushed back his chair and got up noisily. He picked up +his check, glanced at it, and snorted. + +"Hey!" he said to the girl returning with Tunis' pie. "What's this +for?" + +"Yes, sir?" + +"You've rung me up an extry nickel. What's the idea?" + +"Fifteen cents for meringue, sir." + +"Huh? Who had meringue? I had apple pie, plain apple pie. It's ten +cents. This feller"--indicating Tunis--"ordered apple-meringue; not +me." + +He held out the check for correction belligerently. + +"You ordered apple-meringue, sir, and I brought it. You ate it. The +check is correct." + +Low and timid as the voice was, gently as the words were spoken, +Tunis sensed an undercurrent of firmness and determination in the +girl's character that he had not before suspected. + +"Say, you don't put nothing like that over on me!" exclaimed the man +loudly. + +Tunis moved in his chair. He saw the black-haired man at the front +of the restaurant swing about to face down the room. He had heard +this unseemly disturbance. + +"I will call the manager." + +"And so will I--I'll call him good!" sneered the patron. "He knows +that you crooks in here over-charge. He puts you up to it. That's +why he hires jailbirds and--" + +Tunis had got up, pushed back his chair with his foot, and as the +girl uttered a horrified gasp at the rough speech, he seized the +man. His grip on the back of the fellow's coat between his shoulders +brought a startled grunt from lips parted to continue his +blackguardism. + +"Hey! What d'ye mean?" roared the fellow, as Tunis twisted him into +the aisle. + +"You dog!" said the captain of the _Seamew_ in a low voice. "Down on +your knees and ask the lady's pardon for that speech!" + +The black-haired man started toward them. His coarse face had a +smile on it as vicious as the snarl of a tiger. He put up his hand +in a gesture of command. + +"Beg her pardon!" repeated Tunis, and by the great weight of his +hand crushed the squalling patron of the restaurant to his knees +before the terrified girl. + +"Stop that! What do you mean?" cried the manager of the restaurant, +still several yards away. + +The patrons of the place had been thinning out for the last few +minutes. Most of those remaining were near the front. Some of the +waitresses were already seated at a table next to the kitchen slide, +eating their suppers. + +"Take him off me!" roared the man squirming on the floor under Tunis +Latham's hand. "That thief of a girl set him on me. This is a nice +thing, be overcharged and then assaulted!" + +He was talking for the benefit of the black-haired man. The latter +swooped down upon them. His face was purple with wrath and his fat +jowls trembled. + +"Let him up! Do you hear me?" he exclaimed. + +"He insulted this lady," said Tunis, indicating the waitress. "You +just heard him repeat it. He'll beg her pardon or I'll wring his +neck." + +"What do you mean?" cried the restaurant man. "What's the girl to +you? One of her friends, are you? Well, you are doing her no good +with me, I assure you." + +The captain of the _Seamew_ flung the little man face down upon the +floor and held him there with his foot while he reached with both +hands for the proprietor. He got him. The latter uttered a squeak +like a captured rat. + +"You're another of the same breed, are you?" Tunis demanded. "You'll +beg her pardon, too, or I'll crack the heads of the two of you +together! Come!" + +He stood the man on his feet before the waitress with such force +that his teeth rattled. He stooped and yanked the other to an +upright posture likewise. The shrinking girl, Tunis noticed, was not +weeping. She looked at all he did as though she approved. The other +girls were shrieking. The cashier had run to the door and cried into +the street for the police. But that violet-eyed girl, timid as she +naturally was, did not open her lips. + +"She's a plucky little lady," thought Tunis Latham. "But somebody's +got to stand up for her." + + + + +CHAPTER VIII + +SHEILA + + +The captain of the _Seamew_ held the two struggling, cursing men as +though they were small boys. His eyes flamed a question at the girl. +She understood and nodded, if ever so faintly. + +"I ought to send both of you to the hospital," said Tunis in a grim +voice. "But I'm satisfied if you beg her pardon and let her go." +This to the restaurant proprietor. + +The man opened his lips to emit something besides an apology, +although the smaller man was already quelled. But the look in Tunis +Latham's face made the black-haired man pause. + +"Well, she can't cause a disturbance here. But I meant no offense." + +The smaller man hastened to add: + +"So help me! I was that mad I didn't know what I said. I didn't mean +nothing." + +Tunis nodded solemnly. + +"Get your coat and hat, miss," he said. "I guess it won't be a +pleasant place for you to work in after this." + +She slipped away. Tunis let the men go. They both stepped away from +him, panting, relaxing their shoulders, eyeing the young captain +with as much curiosity as apprehension. + +Suddenly there was an added commotion at the front door. Tunis saw a +policeman enter. The coarse-featured proprietor of the restaurant +instantly recovered all his courage. + +"This way, officer! This way!" he cried. "Here's the man." + +At that moment Tunis felt a tug at his coat. He flashed a glance +over his shoulder. It was the girl. She wore a little hat pulled +down over all that black hair, and she was buttoning a shabby +jacket. There was a way out by the alley; he well knew it. Nor was +he anxious of appearing before either a police lieutenant or a +magistrate for creating a disturbance in the place. + +"Run along. I'll be right behind you," he whispered. + +The policeman was some distance, and several tables away. Tunis +looked to see if all was clear. The girl was just passing through +the swinging door into the kitchen. Tunis stepped back, turned +suddenly, while the restaurant proprietor was making ready to +address the policeman, and leaped for the rear exit. + +"There he goes!" squealed the patron who had been the cause of the +trouble. + +But nobody stopped Tunis Latham. At a flash, when he got into the +kitchen, he saw the girl opening the outer door. The way was clear. +He crossed the room in several quick strides and caught up with her. +The startled chef and his assistants merely stared. + +The alley was empty, but they walked swiftly away from the square. +The arc lamp on the corner which they approached sputtered +continuously, like soda water bubbling out of a bottle. He looked +down at her curiously in the flickering illumination from this lamp +and found the girl looking up at him just as curiously. + +"That was an unwise thing to do. You might have been arrested," she +said, ever so gently. Then she added: "And it has cost me my job." + +"That is the only thing that worries me," he rejoined promptly. + +"You need not mind, sir. I really am not sorry. I could not have +stood it much longer. And Mr. Sellers paid yesterday." + +"So they don't owe you much on account, then," Tunis said soberly. +"I came away without paying for my dinner. I'll pay the worth of my +check to you; that'll help some." + +For the first time she laughed. Once he had sat all afternoon in a +gully back of Big Wreck Cove in the pine woods and listened to the +cheerful gurgle of a spring bubbling from under a stone. That +silvery chuckle was repeated in this girl's laugh With all her +timidity and shyness, she was naturally a cheerful body. That laugh +was quite involuntary. + +"I think I may be able to get along," she said, with that quiet tone +of finality which Tunis felt would keep the boldest man at a +distance. "It is difficult, however, to get a position without +references." + +"I'll go back and wring one out of him--when the cop has gone," +grinned Tunis. + +"I don't think a reference from Mr. Sellers would do me much good," +she sighed. "But at the time I took the place I was quite +desperate." + +The captain of the _Seamew_ made no comment. They were walking up +the hill through a quiet street. Of course, there was no pursuit. +But the young man began to feel that he might have done the girl +more harm than good by espousing her cause in the restaurant. +Perhaps he had been too impulsive. + +"You--you can find other and more pleasant work, I am sure," he said +with hesitation. "I hope you will forgive me for thrusting myself +into your concerns, but I really could not stand for that man +backing up your customer instead of you. He did order meringue pie. +I heard him." + +She smiled, and he caught the faint flicker of it as it curved her +lips and made her eyes shine for an instant. Minute following +minute, she was becoming more attractive. His voice trembled when he +spoke again: + +"I--I hope you will forgive me." + +"You did just what I should have expected my brother to do, if I had +a brother," she replied frankly. "But few girls who work at Sellers' +have brothers." + +"No?" Something in her voice, rather than in the words, startled +Tunis. + +"Let me put it differently," she said, still with that gentle +cadence which ameliorated the bitterness of her tone. "Girls who +have brothers seldom fall into Sellers' clutches. You see, he is a +last resort. He does not demand references, and he poses as a +philanthropist." + +Tunis felt confused, in a maze. He could not imagine where the girl +was tacking. He was keenly aware, however, that there was a mystery +about her being employed at all in Sellers' restaurant. + +They came out at last upon the brow of the hill overlooking the +Common. The lamps glimmered along Tremont Street through an +opalescent haze which was stealing over the city from the bay. +Without question they went down the steps side by side. There was a +bench in a shadow and, without touching her, Tunis steered the +girl's steps toward it. + +She sat down with an involuntary sigh of weariness. She had been on +her feet most of the time since eleven o'clock. She relaxed in +contact with the back of the bench, and he could see the contour of +her throat and chin thrown up in relief against the background of +shadow. The whole relaxed attitude of her slim body betrayed +exhaustion. + +"I hope you will not blame me too severely," Tunis stammered. + +"I don't blame you." + +"I fear you will after you have taken time to think it over. +But--but perhaps there may be some way in which I can repair the +damage I have done." + +She looked at him levelly, curiously. + +"You are a seaman, are you not?" + +"I'm Tunis Latham. I own the schooner _Seamew_, and command her. We +are going to run back and forth from Boston to the Cape--Cape Cod." + +"Oh! I could scarcely fill a position on your schooner, Captain +Latham." + +She smiled again. It was a weary smile, however, not like the former +flash of amusement she had shown. Her head drooped as her mind sank +into unhappy retrospection. Tunis looked aside at her with a great +hunger in his heart to take all her trouble--no matter what it +was--upon his own mind and give her the freedom she needed. What or +who the girl was did not matter. Even what she had done, or what +she had not done meant little to Tunis Latham. + +She was the one girl in all this world who had ever interested him +beyond a passing moment, and he was convinced that she alone would +ever interest him. The cheap environment of their meeting meant +nothing. If she was free, her own mistress, and he could get her, he +meant to make this girl his wife. + +"You didn't tell me your name," he said directly. "Won't you? I have +been frank with you." + +"Why, so you have," said the girl. There might have been a strata of +laughter underlying the words; yet her face was sober enough. "If +you really wish to know, Captain Latham, my name is Macklin." + +"_Miss_ Macklin?" he asked, a positive tremor in his voice. + +"Certainly. Sheila Macklin, spinster." + +Tunis drew a long breath. That was enough! He would take his chance +in the game with any other man as long as she was not promised. But +there was no use in spoiling everything by being too precipitate. +The captain of the _Seamew_ might be simple, but he was not the man +to ruin a thing through impulsiveness. That exhibition in the +restaurant was hooked up with wrath. + +There had been an undercurrent of thought in his mind ever since he +had met this girl for the second time, and it was quite a natural +thought, comparing her with Ida May Bostwick. If Sheila Macklin had +only been Ida May, after all! It was a ridiculous idea. Not a +feature or betrayed trait of character was like any that the +disappointing great-niece of Prudence Ball possessed. This girl +sitting beside Tunis on the bench and Ida May Bostwick were as +little alike as though they were inhabitants of two different +worlds. + +He had begun to imagine, too, how well this girl beside him would +fit into the needs of the old couple living there alone on Wreckers' +Head. It was an idle thought, of course. He had no plan, or scheme, +or definite suggestion in his mind. It was only a wish, a keen +longing for an impossible conjunction of circumstances which would +have enabled him to present Sheila Macklin to Cap'n Ira and Prudence +and say: + +"This is the girl you sent me for." + +"Just what will you do now that you have lost that job, Miss +Macklin?" Tunis asked abruptly. + +"Oh, after I am rested, I will go home!" + +He had a sudden flash of the memory of that stark lodging house +where Ida May Bostwick lived, and he felt assured this girl's home +could be no better. But he did not mention this thought. + +"I did not mean it just that way," he told her, smiling. "First you +and I will go and get supper somewhere. I did not half finish mine, +and you have had none at all." + +"I don't know about that," she interposed. "It is generous of you. +But ought I to accept?" + +"You need not question that. We are going to be friends, Miss +Macklin. Is it necessary for me to bring you references?" + +"It may be necessary for me to obtain a sponsor," she said, quite +seriously. "You do not know a thing about me, Captain Latham." + +"You know nothing about me, except what I have told you." And he +laughed. + +"And what I read in your countenance," she said soberly. + +He grinned at her, but rather ruefully. + +"I never knew my thoughts were advertised in my face." + +"Oh, no! Not that! But your character is. Otherwise I would not be +sitting here with you." + +"I guess that's all right then," he declared with satisfaction. +"Well, let's call it a draw. If you take me at face value, I'll take +you at the same rating. Anyhow, we can risk going to supper +together." + +"Well, somewhere to a quiet place. Don't take me where you are +known, Captain Latham." + +"No?" He was puzzled again. "But, then, I am not known anywhere in +Boston." + +"All the better. I ought not to lend myself in any way to making you +possible future trouble." + +"I do not understand you, Miss Macklin." + +He sat up suddenly on the bench to look at her more sharply. There +was an underlying, but important, meaning to her speech. + +"I know you do not understand," she rejoined gently. She sighed. "I +must make you clearly see just who I am and the risk you run in +associating with me." + +"The risk I run!" + +He uttered the words in both amazement and ridicule. + +"You do not quite understand, Captain Latham," she repeated in the +same gentle tone. + +There was no raillery in her voice now. She was altogether serious. +Her eyes, luminous, yet darkly unfathomable, were held full upon his +face. He felt rather than saw that she was under a mental strain. +The revelation she was about to make throbbed in her voice when she +spoke again. + +"You do not quite understand. Sellers gives girls work in his +restaurant who could by no possibility offer proper references, +girls from the Protectory, from homes, as they are called; some, +even, who have served jail sentences. I had been two years in the +St. Andrew's School for Girls when I went to work for Sellers." + + + + +CHAPTER IX + +A GIRL'S STORY + + +There was a ringing in Tunis Latham's ears. As you make Paulmouth +Harbor coming from seaward, on a thick day you hear the insistent +tolling of the bell buoy over Bitter Reef. That was the distant, but +incessant sound that the captain of the _Seamew_ seemed to hear as +he sat on that bench on Boston Common beside this strange girl. + +Without being a prig, Tunis Latham was undeniably a good man. +Whether he was altogether a wise man was perhaps a subject for +argument. At least, his future conduct must settle that point. + +But for the moment, when Sheila Macklin had made her last statement, +it seemed that every atom of thought and all ability to consider +matters logically were drained out of the man's mind. That mind was +perfectly blank. What the girl had said seemed mere sound, sound +without meaning. He could not grasp its significance. + +And yet he knew it was tragic. It was something that had made the +girl what she was. It explained all Tunis had been unable heretofore +to understand about Sheila Macklin. That timidity, that whispering +shyness, the shrinking from observation and from any attention, were +all explained. She had suffered persecution and punishment, harsh +and undeserved, that made her recoil from contact with other more +fortunate people. She felt herself outcast, ostracized, and was +unable to defend herself from malign fortune. + +Gradually Tunis regained his usual self-control. + +If Sheila had said anything following the bare statement that she +had spent two years in the St. Andrew's Reformatory for Women, he +had not comprehended it. Nor could he have told how long he sat +silent on the bench getting control of his voice and of his tongue. +When he did speak he said quite casually: + +"And what kind of a place is that--er--school, Miss Macklin?" + +"You can imagine. It harbors the weak-minded, the vicious, and the +unfortunate runaway girls, thieves' consorts, and women of the +streets. It is, I think, a little like hell, if there really is such +a place, Captain Latham." + +The poignancy of expression in her voice and words made the man +tremble. And yet she did not speak bitterly nor angrily. Her feeling +was beyond all passion. It was the expression of a soul that had +suffered everything and could no longer feel. That was just it, +Tunis told himself. It explained her attitude, even the tone of her +voice. She had endured and seen so much misery and heartache that +there seemed nothing left for her to experience. + +"Can you bear to tell me what misfortune took you to that place?" he +asked gently, yet fighting down all the time that desire to roar +with rage. + +"Why do you not say 'crime,' Captain Latham?" she asked in that same +low, strained voice. + +"Because I know that crime and you could not be associated, Miss +Macklin," he said hoarsely. + +At that she began suddenly to weep. Not aloud, but with her hands +pressed over her eyes and her shoulders, shaking with long, +shuddering sobs which betrayed how the horror of past thoughts and +experiences controlled her when once she gave way. Tunis Latham +could have behaved like a madman. That berserk rage that had seized +him in the restaurant welled up in his heart now. He gripped the +back of the bench till the slat cracked. But there was no opponent +here upon whom he could vent his violence that he longed to express. + +"Don't cry! For God's sake, don't cry!" he whispered hoarsely. "I +know it was all a mistake. It must have been a mistake. How could +anybody have been so wicked, so utterly senseless, as to believe +you guilty of--of--what did they accuse you of?" + +"Stealing," whispered the girl. + +"'Stealing?' What nonsense!" + +He put a wealth of disdain into the words. She sat up straighter. +She dropped her hands from her face and looked at him. Dark as it +was on the bench, he could see that her expression was one of +wonder. + +"Do--do you really feel that way about it, Captain Latham?" + +"It is ridiculous!" he acclaimed heartily. + +She sighed. Her momentary animation fell and she spoke again: + +"It did not seem ridiculous to the police or to the magistrate. I +worked in a store. A piece of sterling silverware disappeared. Other +pieces had previously been stolen. The police traced the last +missing piece to a pawnshop. The pawnbroker testified that a girl +pawned it. His identification of me was close enough to satisfy the +judge." + +"My God!" + +"I was what they call a first offender. At least, I had no police +record. Ordinarily I might have been let go under suspended sentence +or been put on probation. But I had nobody to say a good word for +me. I had been in Boston only a year, and I could not let people +where I came from know about my trouble. Even if the judge had +given me a jail sentence, I could have shortened it by good +behavior. He did what he thought was best, I suppose. He considered +me a hardened young criminal. He sent me to the St. Andrew's School +until I was twenty-one--two years. Two long, long years. + +"Six months ago I got out and Sellers gave me a job. Now, that is +all, Captain Latham. You will readily see my position. I do not want +to go anywhere with you to eat where your friends are likely to see +you." + +He uttered a sudden, stinging, harsh sound; then he removed his cap +and bent toward her. + +"But what you have said--Why, were they all crazy? Couldn't they see +that such a thing would be impossible for you? Impossible!" + +She put a hand gently on his arm to quiet his excitement, for others +were passing. Her eyes glowed up into his for an instant. Her lips +parted in a happier smile than he had seen on them before. + +"Then you will not get up from this bench, Captain Latham, and +excuse yourself? I should not blame you if you did so." + +"Do you think I'm that kind of a fellow?" he demanded bluntly. + +"I--I told you I thought I had quite read your character in your +face. But that is no reason why I should take advantage of your +kindness to do you harm." + +"Harm? How do you mean, 'harm?'" + +"Sheila Macklin is a creature from a reformatory. She has been +sentenced by a magistrate. She was arrested by the police. She was +accused by her employers of theft, and the theft was proved. If any +of your friends should see you with me, and I should be identified +as the Sheila Macklin who was sentenced for stealing--" + +"Cat's foot!" ejaculated Tunis with a sudden reversion to his usual +cheerful manner. "Are you going through the rest of your life +feeling like that?" + +"Why shouldn't I? I am always expecting somebody to see and +recognize me. Even in Sellers' place. That man this evening, when he +called me 'jailbird'--" + +"I wish I had wrung his neck!" exclaimed the captain of the _Seamew_ +heartily. + +"I appreciate your kindness." Her eyes twinkled. For a moment he +caught a glimpse of what Sheila Macklin must have been before +tragedy had come into her life. "You are a good, kind man, Captain +Latham." + +"You just look on me as though I were your brother," he said +sturdily. "You are not going to be alone any more, not really. If +you had had friends before, when it happened, somebody to speak for +you, I am sure nothing like what did happen to you could have +happened." + +"I come of respectable people," she said quietly. "But they are all +dead. I was an orphan before I came to Boston. The friends I had in +the little inland town I came from would not have understood. They +did not approve of my coming to the city at all. Oh, I wish I had +not come!" + +"And now you ought not to stay here. Should you?" + +"What can I do? I must support myself. I cannot go back. I could not +explain those two years. Yet I am always expecting somebody to make +inquiry for Sheila Macklin. And then I cannot conceal my story +longer." + +He nodded thoughtfully. It seemed that, once she had opened the dam +of speech, she was glad to talk about herself and her trouble. + +"I do hate the city. I have been so unhappy here. If I were only a +man I would start right out into the country. I would tramp until I +found a place to work. You don't know what it means to be a girl, +Captain Latham, and be in trouble." + +"I guess all city girls aren't alike after all," he said with a +short laugh. Then he looked at her keenly again. "Do you know what +sort of an errand brought me up into the city from T-Wharf to-day?" + +"What errand? I cannot imagine." + +"There are two old people down on the Cape that I am much interested +in. They live near my home." + +He told her quietly, yet with earnestness, about Cap'n Ira and +Prudence. He described their home and their need of some young +person to live with them, somebody who would not only help them, but +who would love to help them. Then he related, perhaps rather tartly, +his experience with Ida May Bostwick. + +"What a foolish girl!" she breathed. "And she would not accept a +chance like that?" + +"Lucky for Cap'n Ira and for Aunt Prue that she won't take up with +their offer," he said grimly. "But I dread taking back word to them +about her. It will be hard to make them understand. And then, they +need the help a good girl could give them." + +"Captain Latham, if I only had a chance like that!" she exclaimed. +"I'd work my fingers to the bone for a home like that, for shelter, +and kindness, and--and--oh, well, some girls have all the best of +it, I guess!" + +She sighed. It was half a sob. He saw her hands clasp tightly before +her in the dusk. The gesture was like a prayer. He knew that her +pale face was flushed with earnestness. He cleared his throat. + +"You have the chance, if you want it, Miss Macklin," he said. + + + + +CHAPTER X + +THE PLOT + + +There was a long minute of utter silence following Tunis Latham's +last words. Then the girl's whisper, tense, yet shaking like a +frightened child's: + +"You do not know what you are saying." + +"I know exactly what I am saying," he replied. + +"They--they would not have me." + +"They will welcome you--gladly." + +"Never! I am a stranger. They must be told all about me. They could +never welcome Sheila Macklin." + +He knew that. He knew it only too well. She was just the sort of +girl to make Cap'n Ira Ball and Prudence happy, to bring to their +latter years the comfort and joy the old couple should have. But the +Puritanism which, after all, ingrained their characters would never +allow the Balls to welcome a girl with the stain Sheila Macklin bore +upon her name. Tunis remembered clearly how scornfully Cap'n Ira +had spoken of the possibility of their taking in a girl from the +poor farm. Pride of family and of name is inbred in their class of +New Englanders. + +The old people wanted a girl whom they could love and look upon as +their own. They would welcome nobody else. They had set their minds +and hearts upon Ida May Bostwick. The fact that Ida May failed to +come up to their expectations, that she was perfectly worthless and +inconsequential, did not open the way for another girl to be +substituted for Ida May. Possibly Tunis might be successful in an +attempt to interest the Balls in Sheila Macklin's case. But the girl +did not want charity, not charity as the word is used in its general +and harsher sense. + +Should she carry with her wherever she went this name which had been +so smirched--the identity of Sheila Macklin, the ghost of whose past +misfortune might rise to shame her at any time--the girl could never +be happy. Did Tunis Latham succeed in getting the Balls to take +Sheila in and give her a home, this story that so bowed her down +would continually threaten its revelation, like a pirate ship +hovering in the offing! + +And there was, too, a deeper reason why he could not introduce +Sheila Macklin to Big Wreck Cove folk. It was no reason he could +give the girl at this time. In some ways the captain of the _Seamew_ +was wise enough. He felt that this was no time to put forward his +personal and particular desires. Enough that she had admitted him +to her friendship and had given him her confidence. + +She had accepted him in all good faith in a brotherly sense. He +dared not spoil his influence with her by revealing a deeper +interest. + +"We may as well look at this thing calmly and sensibly," Tunis said, +answering her statement of what was indubitably a fact. "It is quite +true my old neighbors would not accept you as Sheila Macklin. But +they need you; no other kind of a girl would so suit their need. And +you could not help loving them; nor they you, once they learned to +know you." + +"I am sure I should love them," breathed Sheila. + +"Then, as you are just the person they want and their home is just +the place you need for shelter, I am going to take you back with +me." + +"Oh, Captain Latham! We--we can't do it. My name--somebody will some +time be sure to hear about me, and the dreadful secret will come +out." + +"No, it won't," said Tunis doggedly. "There will be no secret, not +such as you mean, to come out." + +She gazed upon him in open-eyed surprise, her lips parted, her face +aglow. + +"You mean--" + +"We'll leave Sheila Macklin sitting on this bench, if you will +agree. She need never be traced from this point. Let her drop out of +the ken of the whole world that knew her. The name can only bring +you harm; it has brought you harm. Through it you are threatened +with trouble, with disaster. Your whole future is menaced through +that name and the stain upon it." + +She looked at him still, scarcely breathing. Latham did not realize +the power he held over this girl at the moment. He was to her a +living embodiment of the All Good. Almost any suggestion, no matter +how reckless, he might have made, would have found an echo in her +heart and the will to do it. + +To few is vouchsafed that knowledge which makes all clear before the +mental vision. Tunis Latham's perspicacity did not compass this +thing. He did not grasp the psychological moment, as we moderns call +it, and consummate there and then the only reasonable and righteous +plan that it was given him to complete. + +The captain of the _Seamew_ was a young man very much in love. He +did not question this fact at all. But in his wildest imaginings he +could never have believed that the girl beside him on this bench +returned his passion, that she would even listen to his +protestations of affection. Not for a long time, at least. + +Nor had he ever considered marriage as possible in any case when +there was not love on both sides. Although he commiserated Sheila +Macklin's situation most deeply, he could not dream of those depths +of despair into which the girl's heart had sunk before he came upon +the scene of action. He did not understand that she was at that +bitterly desperate point where she would grasp at any means of +rescue which promised respectability. + +He almost feared to put before her the proposition he did have in +his mind. In the dusk, even, those violet eyes seemed to look to the +very bottom of his soul. Fortunate for him that its clarity was +visible to the girl at that moment. + +He bent closer. His lips almost brushed her ear. He whispered +several swift sentences into it. She listened. Some of that glow of +exaltation drained out of her countenance, but it registered no +disagreement. They sat for some time thereafter, talking, planning, +this desperate young girl and the captain of the _Seamew_. + + * * * * * + +"What do you know about this?" Orion Latham growled. "The mate +bunkin' in with cooky and the skipper slingin' a hammock in the +fo'c's'le while the whole cabin's to be given up to a girl. A woman +aboard! Never knew no good to come of that on any craft. What is +this schooner, a passenger packet?" + +"You was sayin' she was already hoodooed," chuckled Horace Newbegin. +"I cal'late a gal sailing one trip won't materially harm the +_Seamew_ nor her crew." + +"Who is she? That's what I want to know," said the supercargo, who +seemed to consider the matter a personal affront. + +"Skipper says she's going to live with Cap'n Ira Ball. She's some +kin of his wife's. And they need somebody with 'em, up there in that +lonesome place," said the ancient seaman reflectively. "That's what +the skipper was doin' all day yesterday, lookin' this gal up and +making arrangements for her going back to the _Seamew_. He's gone up +town to get her now. We'll get away come the turn of the tide, if +he's back in time." + +The taxicab with Tunis and the girl arrived in season for the tide. +It was quite dark on the dock to which the _Seamew_ was still +moored. The Captain hailed, and two of the hands were sent up for +the trunk. Tunis carried the girl's hand bag. + +Every member of the crew was loitering on deck, even Johnny Lark and +Tony, the boy, to get a glimpse of the mysterious passenger. They +saw only a slender, graceful, quick-stepping figure, her face +veiled, her hands neatly gloved. Just how she was dressed and what +she really looked like only daylight would reveal. + +Tunis went below with her and remained until the men brought down +the trunk. It was a small trunk and brand-new, as was the bag. Had +one observed, the hat she wore, and even her simple frock, were +likewise just out of the shop. At least the girl who was going with +the _Seamew_ to Big Wreck Cove seemed to have made certain +preparations for a new life. + +The captain came out on deck and closed the slide. The commercial +tug was puffing in toward the _Seamew's_ berth. + +"Come alive, boys!" said Captain Latham, taking instant command of +the deck. "Cast off those lines! Get that tug hawser inboard, Horry. +Mr. Chapin, will you see that those lines are coiled down properly? +Keep the deck shipshape. Make less work for your watch when we get +under canvas. + +"Lay aft here with your men now, Horry. Tail on to those mainsheets. +All together! Get away on her so we can cast loose as soon as +possible from that smoky scuttle butt." + +He referred to the tug. He stepped aft to take the wheel himself. +The mainsail was going up smartly. The old boatswain and the +Portygees swung upon the lines with vehemence. There was not more +than a capful of wind; but once let the canvas fill, and the +schooner would get steerageway. + +"I'd rather take my chance through the channel under sail than +depend on that tug," the captain added. "Like a puppy dragging +around an old rubber boot. Lively there! Ready to cast off, Mr. +Chapin." + +The schooner was freed of the "puffing abomination," the smoke of +which sooted the _Seamew's_ clean sails. The heavy hawser splashed +overboard and the schooner staggered away rather drunkenly at +first, tacking among the larger craft anchored out there in the +harbor. + +The wind was not a very helpful one and soon after midnight it fell +almost calm. There were only light airs to urge the _Seamew_ on. Yet +she glided through the starlit murk in a ghostly fashion as though +some monstrous submarine hand forced her seaward. + +The water chuckled and gurgled under her bow, flashing in ripples +now and then. There was no phosphorescence, no glitter or sparkle. +The schooner moved on as through a tideless sea. Now and then a +clutter of spars or a suit of listless sails loomed up in the dark. +But even if the other craft likewise was tacking seaward, the +_Seamew_ passed it and dropped it behind. + +Tunis paced the deck--Horry was at the wheel--and quite approved of +the feat his schooner was performing. + +"If she can sail like this on only a breath of wind, what can she do +in a gale?" he said buoyantly in the old man's hearing. + +"That's all right. She sails pretty. But I don't like that tug to +sta'bo'd," growled Horry. "It 'minds me too much of the _Marlin B._" + +Captain Latham gave no heed. + +The sun stretched red beams from the horizon and took the _Seamew_, +all dressed out at sunrise in her full suit of canvas, in his arms. +She danced as lightly over the whitecaps that had sprung up with the +breeze at dawn as though she had not a ton of ballast in her hold. +Yet she was pretty well down to her Plimsoll mark. + +The girl's first glimpse through the cabin window at sea and sky was +a heartening one. If she had sought repose with doubt, uncertainty, +and some fear weighing upon her spirit, this beautiful morning was +one to revive her courage. She was fully dressed and prepared to go +on deck when Tunis tapped at the slide. + +"Miss Bostwick," he called, "any time you are ready the boy will +come in and lay the table for breakfast." + +She ran to the companionway, pushed back the door, and appeared +smiling in the frame of the doorway. + +"Good morning, captain!" + +Her cheerfulness was infectious. All night Tunis Latham, even while +lying in his hammock in the forecastle, had been ruminating in +anything but a cheerful mood. Determined as he was to carry his plan +through, and confident as he was of its being a good one and +eminently practical, he had been considering many chances which at +first blush had not appeared to him. + +With his first look into her smiling countenance all those anxieties +seemed dissipated. He met her smile with one which transfigured his +own handsome face. + +"May I come out on deck, captain?" + +"We shall be honored by your company up here, Miss Bostwick." + +She even made him a little face in secret for the formality of his +address, as she flashed past him. There was a dancing light in her +eye he had not seen before--at least, not in the openness of day. +There was something daring about her that was a revelation. He knew +at once that he need not fear her attitude when they reached the +point where she must carry on her part without his aid. She +displayed an innocent boldness that must dissipate suspicion in the +mind of the keenest critic. + +Tunis introduced Mason Chapin to her, who quite evidently liked the +girl at once. Orion Latham lounged aft to meet her, his pale eyes +betraying surprise as well as admiration. + +"Hi golly!" said the supercargo. "I guess you come honest by the +Honey side of your family tree, Miss Bostwick, though you don't +favor them much in looks." + +"'Rion is given to flattery," said the captain dryly. + +Horace Newbegin touched his forelock. He had been a naval man in his +prime and knew what was expected when a lady trod the deck. The +Portygees were all widely asmile. Indeed, the entire company of the +_Seamew_ was cheered by the girl's presence. + +At breakfast time, which was served by Tony to the guest and the +mate as well as Captain Latham, her sweet laughter floated out of +the cabin and caught the attention of everybody on deck. Horry +grinned wryly upon Orion. + +"How 'bout this schooner being hoodooed?" he rumbled in his deep +bass. "Lemme tell you, boy, I'd sail to ary end o' the world with +that gal for mascot. This won't be no Jonah ship while she's +aboard." + +"Hi golly! Tunis Latham has all the luck," whined Orion. "Taking her +down to live with Cap'n Ball and Prudence! Huh! She won't live with +'em long." + +"Why not?" demanded the old salt. + +"Can't you see what he's up to?" sneered Orion. "Aunt 'Cretia will +be takin' a back seat 'fore long. 'Latham's Folly' will be getting a +new mistress." + +"Latham's Folly" was a name Medway Latham's big brown house behind +Wreckers' Head had gained soon after it was built. Such a huge house +for so limited a family had suggested the term to the sharp-tongued +Cape Codders. + +Horry Newbegin turned the idea and his quid over several times, then +commented: + +"Well, the skipper wouldn't be doing so bad at that!" + + + + +CHAPTER XI + +AT BIG WRECK COVE + + +The girl had never been to sea before, not even on a pleasure boat +down the harbor. The delights of a sail to Nantasket were quite +unknown to her. Naturally this voyage out through the bay and into +the illimitable ocean was sure to be either a delight or a most +unpleasant experience. + +Happily it was the former. She proved to be a good sailor. + +"You was born for a sailor's bride, miss," Horry told her. + +But he said it when nobody else was by to see the blush which +stained her cheek. And yet she did not look happy after the old +salt's observation. He hastened to interest her in another theme. + +It was the tail of the afternoon watch. Because of the light and +shifting airs the _Seamew_, in spite of her wonderful sailing +qualities, had only then raised the northern extremity of the Cape +and, turning on her heel, was now running out to sea again on the +long leg of a tack into the southeast. + +Horry hung to the spokes of the wheel while the skipper was helping +Orion make up the manifest. The steersman had jettisoned his usual +quid of tobacco when the girl approached him, and without that aid +to complacency Horry just had to talk. + +"Did you see the wheel jerk then, miss? That tug to sta'bo'd is the +only fault I find with this here schooner. She's a right tidy craft, +and Cap'n Tunis is a good judge of sailing ships, as his father was +afore him. + +"But although this _Seamew_ looks like a new craft, she isn't. Sure, +he knowed she wasn't new, Cap'n Tunis did, when he bought her up +there to Marblehead. Only trouble is, he didn't seem to go quite +deep enough into her antecedents, as the feller said. He bought her +on the strength of her condition and the way she sailed on a trial +trip." + +"Well, isn't that all right?" asked his listener. "How would one go +about buying a ship?" + +"Huh--ship? Well, a schooner ain't a ship, Miss Bostwick. +Howsomever, buying a schooner is like buying a race horse. You want +to know _his_ pedigree. They said the _Seamew_ had been brought up +from the Gulf to sell. And maybe she was. But she is Yankee built, +every timber and rope of her. She warn't built down South none." + +"Shouldn't that make the bargain all the more satisfactory?" +queried the girl, smiling. + +"Ordinarily, yes, ma'am. But it looks like they was hidin' +something. It looks like, too, she was built for sailing and +fishing, not to be a cargo boat." + +"I think she is beautiful." + +"She is sightly, I grant ye," said Horace. "But there's something to +be considered 'sides looks when a man is putting his money into a +craft. As I say, her pedigree oughter be looked up. What was the +schooner before they changed the slant of them masts, painted her +over, and put a new name under her stern?" + +"I don't understand you at all, Mr. Newbegin," said the girl, +staring at him with a strange look dawning in her own countenance. + +He bent toward her, after casting a knowing glance aloft. His +weather-bitten face was preternaturally solemn. + +"Ye can't help havin' your suspicions 'bout ships or folks that are +sailin' under cover. There's got to be some reason for a man +changing his name and trying to get by on one that ain't his'n. Same +with a schooner like this." + +"Oh!" + +"There is such things as hoodooed ships, Miss Bostwick, just like +there is hoodooed folks," he said hoarsely, without seeming to +notice her shrinking from him and her changed countenance. + +"Oh! Is there?" she inquired faintly. + +"Surest thing you know," acclaimed the old seaman with his most +impressive manner. "There was a hoodooed schooner sailed out o' +Salem some years back, the _Marlin B._ She had the same tug to +sta'bo'd that I feel when I'm steerin' of this here schooner." + +The girl was recovering from her momentary excitement. She saw that +Newbegin had no ulterior meaning in his speech. He shook his head +and cast a wary glance toward the companionway to see that the +skipper was not appearing from below. + +"Listen here, Miss Bostwick," he said hoarsely. "It's a mighty +curious thing. I had just come back from a v'y'ge to New Guinea, and +I thinks I'd like a trip to the Banks, not having been fishin' since +I was a boy. I went to Sutro Brothers in Salem and got me a berth on +the _Marlin B._ I marked that every man aboard her, skipper and all, +warn't Salem men, nor yet from Gloucester nor Marblehead. But I +didn't suspicion nothing. + +"Tell you, Miss Bostwick, them that goes down to the sea in ships +runs against more than natur's wonders. There's mysteries that ain't +to be explained, scurce to be spoke of. I dunno why we shouldn't +believe in spirits and ghosts and dead men come alive. The Bible's +full of such, ain't it? + +"Well, then! And what I tell you is as sure, as sure. I took the +_Marlin B._ out of that harbor, being at the wheel. It was +February, and a nasty snow squall come up and smothered us complete +and proper. That schooner was a hummer; she sailed just so pretty as +this one. She did for a fact. But I felt that tug to sta'bo'd. Do +you know, Miss Bostwick, as I was tellin' Cap'n Tunis, there ain't +never two craft just alike, no more than there is two men." + +"Is that so?" she said. + +"Ships is almost human. I never did see two so much alike as this +_Seamew_ and the _Marlin B._ Well, to continue, as the feller said, +we was smothered in that snow squall for 'bout ten minutes. At the +wheel there I heard off to windward the rushing sound of another +craft. She was a tall ship, too, and she had as much canvas spread +as we had. She came down on us like a shot. + +"I shouted to the mate, but he had heard it too. He yelled for all +hands on deck. We both knowed the _Marlin B._ was due to be run +under unless a miracle intervened. It was a moment I ain't likely to +forget, for we stood there, the whole ship's company, hanging on by +backstay and rail, peering out into the smother of the snow, while +the amazing rush of that unknown craft deafened us. + +"Then out of her upper works--I swear I could see the tangle of +ropes and slatting canvas--came a voice that rang in my ears for +many a day, no matter how the others heard it. It shouted: + +"We're the spirits of them ye run under! We're the spirits of them +ye run under!" + +"My soul and body, Miss Bostwick, but I was scairt!" confessed the +old salt. "That rushing sound and the voices crashed on through our +rigging and went down wind in a most amazing style. It was a ghost +warning like nothing I'd ever heard before or since. And it struck +the whole crew the same way. We begun to question what the _Marlin +B._ was. She was a new schooner and had made but one trip to the +Banks previous to this one we was on. We began to ask why her +original crew had not stayed with her. + +"You can't fool sailormen, Miss Bostwick," continued the old man, +shaking his head with great solemnity. "They sees too much and they +knows too much. Sutro Brothers had got rid of the _Marlin B.'s_ +first crew and picked up strangers, but murder will out. The story +come to us through the night and in the snow squall. We couldn't +stand for no murder ship. We made the skipper put back." + +"Why, wasn't that mutiny?" gasped the girl. + +"He was glad enough to turn back hisself. Even if he lost his ticket +he would have turned back. Then we learned what it meant. On her +first trip for fish, returning to Salem, the _Marlin B._ run under a +smaller fishing craft and every soul aboard of her was lost. And it +stands to reason that every time that murder schooner went out of +the harbor and came to the spot where she'd run the other craft +down, those uneasy souls would rise up and denounce the _Marlin B._" + +"Oh!" gasped the girl, startled, for Tunis Latham and Orion stood +behind her. + +"Your tongue's hung in the middle and wags both ends, Horry," +growled the young skipper. "You trying to scare Miss Bostwick out of +her wits? What you poor, weak-minded, misguided fellows heard that +time in the snow squall was a flock of black gulls coming down +with the wind. And somebody aboard of the _Marlin B._ was a +ventriloquist. Your whole crew weren't ignorant of the accident that +happened on her first trip. Somebody had it in for Sutro Brothers, +and made much of little, same as usual." + +"Oh, they _did_?" muttered Horry. + +"Anyway," said Captain Latham, "that's neither here nor there. We +aren't sailing the _Marlin B._, for she's in Chilean waters, owned +by a South American millionaire. You can stow that kind of talk, +Horry--anyway, while Miss Bostwick is aboard." + +They were until late in the evening beating into Paulmouth Harbor, +but the heavens were starlit and the air as soft as spring. The +tolling of the bell buoy over Bitter Reef was mellow and soothing; +they heard it for a long time before the _Seamew_ made the short leg +of the final tack and went rushing in past the danger mark under +the urge of a sudden puff of the fitful breeze. + +"The old bell is welcoming us, Ida May," Captain Latham said to the +girl who reclined in a canvas chair which the cook had raked out of +the lazaret for her use. "I've beat my way in here when it hasn't +sounded so cheerful." + +"I am wondering what sort of welcome I shall receive when we get +to--Wreckers' Head, do you call it?" she asked softly. + +"That'll be all right, too," he told her with confidence. "Just wait +and see." + +They dropped anchor near the Main Street dock in order that they +should be able to warp the schooner in to unload her cargo in the +morning. Tunis allowed shore leave, late as the hour was. But he sat +beside the passenger on the _Seamew's_ deck, and they talked. It was +surprising how much those two found to talk about! Perhaps a good +deal of their inconsequential chatter was to hide the anxiety each +felt in secret as to the future. + +However, that talk was a memorable one for both Tunis Latham and the +girl posing as Ida May Bostwick. Two young people can tell a great +deal to each other under certain circumstances in the mid-watch of a +starlit night. The lap, lap of the wavelets whispering against the +schooner's hull, the drone of the surf on a distant bar, and the +sounds of insect life from the shore were accompaniments to their +long talk. + +Orion Latham, tumbling over the forward rail from a waterside +dinghy, whispered hoarsely in Johnny Lark's ear: + +"What do you know about that? There they are, billin' and cooin', +just where we left 'em when we went ashore. Wouldn't it sicken you?" + +But Johnny only grinned and chuckled, shaking the tiny gold rings in +his ears till they sparkled in the faint light. He had a girl +himself in Portygee Town, at Big Wreck Cove. + +The creaking of the hawsers and the "heave hos" of the crew as they +warped the _Seamew_ in to the wharf awoke the girl passenger in the +cabin. There was little fancy about the schooner's after house, but +it was comfortable. + +There was a tarry smell about the place that rather pleased the +girl. The lamp over the round table vibrated in its gimbals, but did +not swing. There were several prints upon the walls of the cabin, +prints which showed the rather exceptional taste of the _Seamew's_ +master, for they had been tacked up since she had come into Tunis +Latham's possession. + +There was, too, a somewhat faded photograph on a background of +purple velvet, boxed in with glass, screwed to the forward +stanchion. It was the photograph of an overhealthy-looking young +woman, with scallops of hair pasted to her forehead undoubtedly +with quince-seed pomatum, her basque wrinkled across her bust +because of the high-shouldered cut of it. But it had been in the +extreme mode when it was made and worn, in the eighties. + +The brooch which fastened the lace collar had been painted yellow by +the "artist photographer" of that day, and even the earrings she +wore had been touched up, or perhaps painted on with the air brush. + +This was Tunis Latham's mother, the girl who had seemed so promising +an addition to the family in the opinion of Medway Latham, the +builder of "Latham's Folly." The rather blowzy prettiness of Captain +Randall Latham's young wife had been translated into real beauty in +her son; for Tunis had got his physique and open, bold physiognomy +from his mother. + +The girl lying in an upper berth, a close cap tied over her neatly +braided hair, parted the cretonne curtains to look at these +ornaments hung about the cabin. She realized that the photograph, so +strangely contrasting with the prints of some of the world's +masterpieces, was a sort of shrine to Tunis Latham. He revered the +mother whom he had told the girl he could not remember of ever +having seen. His love and admiration for that unknown mother had +helped make the captain of the _Seamew_ what he was. + +He was a good man, a safe man for any girl to trust. And yet he was +lending himself to a species of masquerade which, if ever it became +known, would bring upon his head both derision and scorn. He risked +this contumely cheerfully and with a reckless disregard for what +might arise through the plans they had made while sitting beside +each other on that bench on Boston Common. + +He would not admit the point of his own risk. He would not consider +it when they had talked, only the night before, on the deck of the +schooner. He scouted every possibility of any harm coming to him +through their attempt to replace the girl in a firm niche in society +and give the Cap'n Ira Balls what they needed of companionship and +care. + +The girl sat up in the berth and let her bare legs dangle a moment +before dropping to the rug. In her bare feet she padded to the +photograph of Captain Randall Latham's young wife. + +The girl stood before the old photograph, her hands clasped, her +gaze raised to the pictured face, as a votary might stand before the +Madonna. There were tears in the girl's violet eyes. At that moment +she was uplifted, carried out of herself by the wealth of feeling in +her heart. Her lips moved. + +"I promise," she said softly, "I promise you that I will never do +anything that will hurt him. I promise you that I will never let him +do anything that may harm him. He has given me my chance. I promise +before you and God that he shall not be sorry, ever, that he has +raised me out of the dust." + +She stood on tiptoe and pressed her lips to the glass which covered +the photograph. + +The wind held fair, a quartering offshore blow, and the schooner, +having discharged her cargo, just past noon spread her upper sails, +caught a gentle breeze of old Boreas, and shot out of the harbor and +so to the southward with a following wind which brought her to the +mouth of Big Wreck Cove long before nightfall. + +Upon the bluff of Wreckers' Head was to be dimly seen the sprawling +Ball homestead. Tunis pointed it out to the passenger. + +"That is where you are going to be happy, Ida May," he said to her +softly. + +"I wonder," murmured the girl. + +He looked down into her rapt face. The violet eyes were fixed upon +the old house and the brown-and-green fields immediately surrounding +it. Perhaps Cap'n Ira and Prudence were out there now, watching from +the front yard the white-winged _Seamew_ threading so saucily the +crooked passage into the cove, the sand bars on one hand and the +serried teeth of the Lighthouse Point Reef on the other. + +Inside the cove the schooner's canvas was reduced smartly to merely +a topsail and jib, the wind in which carried her close enough to +Luiz Wharf for a line to be cast ashore. Tier upon tier of barrels +of clams were stored under the open sheds, ready to be packed away +in the _Seamew's_ hold. Orion loudly acclaimed against a malign +fate. + +"Hi golly! Ain't we goin' to have no spare time at all? This running +in a coasting packet is plain slavery; that's what it is! A man +don't have a chance even to go home and change his socks 'tween +trips." + +"Have a clean pair in your duffel bag; then you won't have to go +home for 'em, 'Rion," advised Tunis. "We've got to make hay while +the sun shines. There'll be loafing enough to cut into the profits +by and by when bad weather breaks." + +Orion grunted pessimistically. Little in this world ever just suited +Orion. + +"She's a hoodooed packet. I said it from the first," he muttered to +Horry. "You know well enough what she was before they gave her a +lick of paint and a new name. We'll all pay high yet for sailin' in +her." + +"I wouldn't let Cap'n Tunis hear me say that 'nless I was seekin' a +new berth," rejoined the old mariner. + +Tunis left the mate and Horry to carry on while he took the +passenger ashore, meaning to spend the night himself at home with +Aunt Lucretia. He stopped to get Eunez Pareta's father to harness up +his old horse and transfer Miss Bostwick's trunk and bag to the Ball +homestead. Eunez was in evidence--as she always was when Tunis came +by--a bird of paradise indeed. Her languishing glances at Tunis +flashed in their change to suspicious glares at the girl waiting in +the roadway. + +"You have a guest, Tunis Latham?" she asked with a composure which +scarcely hid her jealousy and doubt. + +"I'm taking her up to the Balls'. She's Mrs. Ball's niece, Eunez," +Tunis said good-naturedly. He was always friendly with these +Portygees. That was why he got along so well with them and they +liked to work for him. Many of the Big Wreck Cove folk looked upon +them even now as "furriners" who had to be shouted at if one would +make them understood. + +"What does she come for?" asked Eunez sharply. + +"They need her up there. Mrs. Ball is feeble and so is the captain. +She is going to live with them right along." + +"Ah-ha!" whispered Eunez, as he passed her to step outside the house +again. She seized his arm and swung him around to face her, for she +was strong. "You think she is pretty, Tunis?" she demanded. + +"Eh? What's eating on you, Eunez? I never stopped to think whether +she was or not?" + +But he flushed, and she saw it. Eunez smiled in a way which might +have puzzled Tunis Latham had he stopped to consider it. But he +joined the girl who was waiting for him, and they went on up the +road and out of the town without his giving a backward glance or +thought to the fiery Portygee girl. + +When they mounted to the windswept headland the visitor looked about +with glowing eyes, breathing deeply. The flush of excitement rose in +her cheek. He knew that as far as the physical aspect of the place +went, she was more rejoiced than ever she had expected to be. + +"Beautiful--and free," she whispered. + +"You've said it, now, Ida May," he agreed. "From up here it looks +like the whole world was freer and a whole lot brighter. It is a +great outlook." + +"And is that the house?" the girl asked, for in approaching the Ball +homestead from this angle it looked different from its appearance as +viewed standing on the deck of the inbound _Seamew_. + +"That is the Ball house, and Aunt Prue taking in her wash," Tunis +replied. "I suppose she had John-Ed Williams' wife over to wash for +her, but Myra will have gone home before this to get the supper. +Tush! Aunt Prue ought not to try to do that." + +The fresh wind blowing over the headland filled every garment on the +lines like ballooning sails. The frail, little old woman had to +stand on tiptoe to get each article unpinned from the line. The +wind wickedly sought to drag the linen from her grasp. + +Cap'n Ira, hobbling around from the front of the house, hailed his +wife in some rancor: + +"I don't see why you have to do that. Don't we pay that woman for +washing them clothes? And ain't she supposed to take 'em down off'n +the halyards? I swan! You'll be inter that basket headfirst, yet, +like ye was inter the grain chist. Look out!" + +"They wasn't all dry when Myra Williams went home, Ira. And I don't +dare leave 'em out all night. Half of 'em would blow over the edge +of the bluff. The wind is terrible strong." + +It was much too strong for her frail arms, that was sure. The +captain turned in anger to look for help about the open common. He +saw the two figures briskly moving up the road toward the house. + +"I swan! Who's this here?" he exclaimed. "Tunis Latham, and--and Ida +May!" + +His face broadened into a delighted smile. He had seen the _Seamew_ +come in, and had prayerfully hoped her master had brought the girl +that he believed would be their salvation. This person with the +captain of the _Seamew_ could only be Ida May Bostwick! + +At the moment Prudence was taking down her own starched, blue house +dress from the line. It was hung like a pirate in chains by its +sleeves, was blown out as round as a barrel, and was as stiff as a +board. Just as the pins came out an extra heavy puff of wind +shrieked around the corner of the house, as though it had been lying +in wait for just this opportunity. + +The dress was whipped out of Aunt Prue's hands. She herself, as +Cap'n Ira had warned her, was cast, face downward, into the +half-filled clothes basket. The blue dress was whirled high in the +air, skirt downward. Before the old man was warned by Prudence's +muffled scream that something had gone wrong, the starched dress +plumped down over his head and shoulders, and he was bound fast and +blinded in its folds. + +"Drat the thing! What did I tell ye?" bawled Cap'n Ira. "Take this +here thing off'n me! Want to make me more of an old Betty than I be +a'ready--a-dressin' me in women's clothes? I swan!" + + + + +CHAPTER XII + +A NEW HAND AT THE HELM + + +Tunis ran to the old man's rescue, but it was the girl who lifted +Prudence from out the laundry-basket. + +"Drat the thing!" ejaculated Cap'n Ira, fighting off the starched +dress. "Feel like I was being smothered by a complete suit of sails. +That you, Tunis?" + +"Yes, Cap'n Ira. You're all right now. Hold on! Don't let's mess up +Aunt Prue's wrapper more than can be helped. 'Vast there!" + +"I swan! Don't it beat all what a pickle we get into? We ain't no +more fit to be alone, me an' Prue, than a pair o' babies. For the +lan's sake, Tunis! Who is that?" + +He was staring at the girl, who led forward the trembling old woman, +her strong, young arms about the thin shoulders. Prudence was +tearful but smiling. + +"This is the girl you sent me for," said the captain of the +_Seamew_. + +The girl was smiling, too. To the delight of the young man there was +no suspicion of fear or shyness in her expression. Her eyes were +luminous. Her smile he thought would have ravished the heart of a +misogynist. + +"I swan!" murmured Cap'n Ira, almost prayerfully. + +"Ain't she pretty, Ira?" cried Prudence, almost girlish herself in +her new happiness. "Just like Sarah Honey was when she was Ida May's +age. And ain't it sweet, her coming to us this way? She's brought +her trunk. She's going to stay." + +"And I know I shall be happy here, Uncle Ira," said the girl, giving +him her hand. + +Cap'n Ira's smile was as ecstatic as that of his wife. He looked +sidewise at Tunis, a glance of considerable admiration. + +"It takes you to do it, Tunis. I couldn't have brought home a nicer +lookin' gal myself. I swan!" + +"Now, you hesh your foolin', Ira," cried his wife, while the younger +man's blush admitted unmistakably his feelings. "Don't you mind him, +Ida May. Come into the house, now, and you, too, Tunis. We'll have +supper in a jiffy." + +"No," said the captain of the _Seamew_. "I must be getting on. Aunt +Lucretia will be expecting me, for, of course, she saw the schooner +heading in for the cove. Good night, Ida May." He shook hands with +her quietly. "I know you will be happy here, with your own folks." + +The girl looked deep into the young man's eyes; nor did she free her +hand from his clasp immediately. At one side stood the two old +people, both smiling, and not a little knowingly and slyly at each +other, while the captain of the _Seamew_ and the girl bade each +other good night. Cap'n Ira whispered in his wife's ear: + +"Look at that now! How long d'you think we'll be able to keep Ida +May with us? I cal'late we'd better build our boundary fence a great +sight higher and shut him out o' walkin' across this farm." + +But Prudence only struck at him with a gently admonitory hand. Tunis +and Ida May had taken down the remainder of the wash and the former +carried it into the house before he started on for his own home. + +The girl, walking behind the old couple into the homelike kitchen, +sensed the warming hospitality of the place. It was just as though +she had known all this before, as though, in some past time, she had +called the Ball homestead _home_. + +"Lay off your hat and coat, Ida May, on the sitting-room lounge," +said Prudence. "We'll have supper before I show you upstairs. Me and +Ira sleep down here, but there's a nice, big room up there I've +fixed up for you." + +"Before you were sure I could come?" the girl asked in some wonder. + +"She's got faith enough to move mountains, Prudence has," broke in +Cap'n Ira proudly. "At least, I cal'late she's got enough to move +this here Wreckers' Head if she set out to." And he chuckled. + +"But you believed Ida May would come, too. You said so, Ira," cried +his wife. + +"I swan! I had to say it to keep up with you," he returned. +"Otherwise you'd have sailed fathoms ahead of me. However, if you +hadn't come, gal, neither of us could have well said to the other +them bitterest of all human words: 'I told you so!'" + +"How could you suppose I would not come?" asked the girl gayly. "Who +would refuse such a generous offer?" + +"I knowed you'd see it that way," said Prudence happily. + +"But there might have been circumstances we could not foresee," +Cap'n Ira said. "You--you didn't have many friends where you was +stopping?" + +"No _real_ friends." + +"Well, there is a difference, I cal'late. No young man, o' course, +like Tunis Latham, for instance?" + +"Now, Ira!" admonished Prudence. + +But Ida May only laughed. + +"Nobody half as nice as Captain Latham," she said with honesty. + +"Well, I cal'late he would be hard to beat, even here on the Cape," +agreed the inquisitive old man. + +He took a pinch of snuff and prepared to enjoy it. Suddenly +remembering his wife's nervousness, he shouted in a high key: + +"Looker--out--Prue! _A-choon!_" + +"Good--Well, ye did warn me that time, Ira, for a fact. But if I +had a cake in the oven 'stead of biscuit, I guess 'twould have fell +flat with that shock. I do wish you could take snuff quiet. Look an' +see, will you, Ida May, if those biscuits are burning?" + +The girl opened the oven door to view briefly the two pans of +biscuit. + +"They are not even brown yet, Aunt Prue. But soon." + +"The creamed fish is done. I hope you like salt fish, Ida May?" + +"I adore it!" + +"Lucky you do," put in Cap'n Ira. "I can't say that I think it is +actually 'adorable.' But then, I ain't been eatin' it as a steady +shore diet much more'n sixty-five year." + +"Don't you run down your victuals, Ira," said his wife. + +"No, I don't cal'late to. But if I may be allowed to express my +likes and dislikes, I got to be honest and say that there's victuals +I eat that would have suited me better for a steady diet than +pollack and potatoes. And now we don't even have the potatoes, +'cause we can't raise 'em no more." + +"But you have land. I see a garden," said Ida May briskly. + +"Yes, it's land," said Cap'n Ira, in the same pessimistic way. "But +it ain't had a coat of shack fish for three years and this spring +not much seaweed. Besides that, after the potatoes are planted, who +is to hoe 'em and knock the bugs off?" + +"Oh!" commented Ida May, with a small shudder. + +He grinned broadly. + +"There's a whole lot o' work to farming. I'd rather plow the sea +than plow the land, and that's no idle jest! Never could see how a +man could be downright honest when he says he likes to putter with a +garden. Why, it's working in one place all the time. When he looks +up from his job, there's the same old reefs and shoals he's been +beatin' about for years. No matter how often he shoots the sun, the +computation's bound to be just the same. He's there, or thereabout." + +"That's the way with most longshoremen, Ida May," said Prudence, +sighing. "They make awful poor farmers if they are good seamen. +Can't seem to combine the two trades." + +"I cal'late that's so," agreed Cap'n Ira, his eyes twinkling. +"They'd ought to examine all the babies born on the Cape first off, +and them that ain't web-footed ought to be sent to agricultural +school 'stead of to the fishing. But that ain't why our potato +crop's a failure this year. And as far as I see, talking won't cure +many fish, either." + +"Can't I help?" asked Ida May in her gentle voice. "You know, I've +come here to work. I don't expect to play lady." + +"Well, I don't know. It ain't the kind of work you are used to." + +"I've been used to work all my life, and all kinds of work," +interposed the girl bravely. + +"But you seem so eddicated," Prudence said. + +"Getting an education did not keep me from learning how to use my +hands." + +"Well, Sarah Honey was a right good housekeeper," granted Prudence. + +At that the girl fell suddenly silent, as she did whenever Sarah +Honey's name was mentioned. And yet she knew she must get used to +such references to her presumed mother. Prudence frequently recalled +incidents which had happened when Sarah Honey visited the Ball house +before she was married. + +They had supper, a plentiful meal if there was not much variety. +Prudence had made a "two-egg cake" and opened a jar of beach-plum +preserves to follow the creamed fish and biscuits. + +"I must learn to make biscuit as good as these," said Ida May. + +"I expect you are more used to riz bread. City folks are. But on +the Cape we don't have that much. Our men folks want hot bread at +every meal. We pamper 'em," said Prudence. + +"I'm pampered 'most to death, that's a fact," grumbled Cap'n Ira. + +Ida May briskly cleared the table and washed the dishes. She would +not allow Prudence even to wipe them. + +"I'm sitting here like a lady, Ira," said the little old woman. +"This child will work herself to death if we let her." + +"A willin' horse always does get driv' too fast," commented Cap'n +Ira. + +"A new broom sweeps clean," laughed the girl, rinsing out the +dishcloths and hanging them on the line behind the stove. + +They went outside in the gloaming and sat in a sheltered nook where +they could watch the lights twinkling all along the coast to the +southward, the revolving lantern at Lighthouse Point, the steady +beacon on Eagle's Head, and now and then the flash of the great one +of Monomoy Point so far away. It was peaceful, quiet, assuring, and, +the girl thought, heavenly! She thought for a moment of Sellers' +restaurant and the little room she had occupied on Hanover Street. +_This_ was contentment. + +Old Pareta had brought her trunk and bag and carried them up to the +big, well-furnished room she was to occupy. By and by Prudence went +up with her to see that she was made comfortable there, and to watch +her unpack, for the old woman was not without curiosity regarding +the "city fashions." + +One window of the room looked to the north. Through this Ida May saw +the steady beam of a lamp shining from a house down in what seemed +to be a depression behind the Head. She asked Prudence what that +was. + +"That must be a light at 'Latham's Folly,' Tunis' house, you know," +said the little old woman, likewise peering through the window. +"Shouldn't be surprised if 'twas right in his room. He sleeps this +end of the house. Yes, that's what it is." + +"So Captain Latham lives just there?" the girl said softly. + +"When he's ashore. He and his Aunt Lucretia. They are the only +Lathams left of their branch of the family." + +Afterward, when Ida May had come upstairs to go to bed, she looked +to the northward again. The light was still there. She knelt by the +open window in her nightgown and watched the light for a long time. +When it finally was extinguished she crept into bed. + +She heard the nasal tones of the two old people below, for her door +on the stairs was open. She heard, too, the occasional cry of a +night fowl and, in the distance, the barking of an uneasy watchdog. + +But after all, and in spite of the many, many thoughts which +shuttled to and fro in her mind, she did not lie awake for long. It +was a clear and sparkling night; there were no foghorns to disturb +her dreams with their raucous warnings, and the surf along the +beaches below the Head merely scuffed its way up and down the strand +with a soothing "Hush! Hush-sh!" + +At dawn, however, there came a noise which roused the newcomer to +Wreckers' Head. She awoke with a start. Something had clattered upon +her window sill, that window looking toward the north. She sat +upright in bed to listen. The clatter was repeated. In the dim, gray +light she saw several tiny objects bounding into the room. + +She scrambled out of the high four-poster and shrugged her feet into +slippers. She crept to the window, holding the nightgown close at +the neck. She felt one of the tiny objects under the soft sole of +her slipper and stooped to secure it. It was a pebble. + +More pebbles rattled on the window sill. She stepped forward then +with considerable bravery, and looked down. What she saw at first +startled her. A tall, misty, gray object stood below the window, +something quite ghostly in appearance, something which moved in the +dim light. + +"Why, what--" + +Then the thing stamped and blew a faint whinny. She saw a pale, +long face raised and two pointed ears twitching above it. + +"A horse!" + +A darker figure rose up suddenly from before the strange animal. + +"Ida May!" + +"Why, Captain Latham!" + +"Cat's foot!" exclaimed the captain of the _Seamew_. "I thought I'd +never wake you up without disturbing the old folks. No need to ask +_you_ if you rested well." + +"Oh, gloriously!" whispered the girl, beaming down upon him, but +keeping out of the full range of his vision. + +"Sorry I had to wake you, but I'm due at the wharf right now to see +that the hands get those clams stowed aboard. We want to get away on +the morning tide. I brought Queenie home and thought I'd better tell +you." + +"Queenie?" + +"The Queen of Sheba, you know. I was telling you about Cap'n Ira's +old mare." + +"Oh, yes! Wait. I'll dress and be right down." + +"That's all right," said Tunis. "I'll wait." + +She scurried into the clothes she had laid out before going to bed. +In five minutes she crept down the stairs into the kitchen and out +of the back door. Tunis, holding the sleepy mare by her rope bridle, +met her between the kitchen ell and the barn. + +"You look as bright as a new penny," he chuckled. "But it's early +yet for you to be astir. I'll put Queenie in her stable and show you +where the feed is. Aunt Prue will like to have her back. She sets +great store by the old mare. She won't be much bother to you, Ida +May." + +"Nothing will ever be a bother to me here, Captain Latham," said the +girl cheerfully. + +"That's the way to talk," he said, with satisfaction. "Just you keep +on that tack, Ida May, and things will go swimmingly, I've no +doubt." + +In ten minutes he was briskly on his way to the town. The girl +watched him from the back stoop as long as he was to be seen in the +morning mist. Then she went back into the house, made a more careful +toilet, and when Cap'n Ira came hobbling into the kitchen an hour +later breakfast was in preparation on the glowing stove. + +"I swan! This is comfort, and no mistake," chuckled the old man, +rubbing his chin reflectively. "You're going to be a blessing in +this house, Ida May." + +"I hope you'll always say so, Uncle Ira," returned the girl, smiling +at him. + +"I cal'late. Now I'll get washed, but that derned shavin'." + +"You sit down in that rocker and I'll shave you," she said briskly. +"Oh, I can do it! I shaved my own father when he was sick last--" + +She stopped, turned away, and fell silent. It was the first time +she had spoken of either of her parents, but Cap'n Ira did not +notice her sudden confusion. He prepared for the ordeal, making his +own lather and opening the razor. + +"I can't strop it, Ida May," he groaned. "That's one of the things +that's beyont my powers." + +She came to him with a clean towel which she tucked carefully in at +the neckband of his shirt. Practically she lathered his face and +rubbed the lather into the stubble with brisk hands. He grunted +ecstatically, lying back in the chair in solid comfort. He eyed her +manipulation of the razor on the strop with approval. + +For the first time in many a morning he was shaved neatly and with +dispatch. When Prudence came feebly into the room, he hailed her +delightedly. + +"You've lost your job, old woman!" he cried. + +"And ain't there a thing for me to do?" queried Prudence softly, yet +smiling. + +"Just sit down at the table, auntie," said the girl. "The coffee is +made. How long do you want your eggs boiled? The water is bubbling." + +"Eggs!" exclaimed Cap'n Ira. "I thought them hens of Prue's had give +up layin' altogether." + +"I found some stolen nests in the barn," returned Ida May. "They +have been playing tricks on you." + +It was near noon when Ida May from an upper window saw the _Seamew_ +beating out of the cove on her return trip to Boston. She watched +the schooner as long as the white sails were visible. But her heart +was not wholly with the beautiful schooner. A great content filled +her soul. Afterward she bustled about, straightening up the house, +her cheerful smile always ready when the old folks spoke. They +watched her with such a feeling of thankfulness as they could not +openly express. + +After dinner she started on the ironing and proved herself to be as +capable in that line as in everything else. + +"Maybe she's been a shopgirl, Ira," Prudence observed in private to +her husband; "but Sarah Honey didn't neglect teaching her how to +keep any man's home neat and proper." + +"Sh!" admonished Cap'n Ira. "Don't put no such ideas in the gal's +head." + +"What ideas?" the old woman asked wonderingly. + +His eyes twinkled and he rewarded himself with a generous pinch of +snuff before repeating his bon mot: + +"If you don't tell her she'll make some man a good wife, maybe she +won't never know it! Looker out, Prudence! _A-choon!_" + + + + +CHAPTER XIII + +SOME YOUNG MEN APPEAR + + +A house plant brought out into the May sunshine and air expands +almost immediately under the rejuvenating influences of improved +conditions. Its leaves uncurl; its buds develop; it turns at once +and gratefully to the business of growing which has been restricted +during its incarceration indoors. + +So with Sheila Macklin--she who now proclaimed herself Ida May +Bostwick and who was gladly welcomed as such by the old people at +the Ball homestead on Wreckers' Head. After the girl's experiences +of more than three years since leaving her home town, the +surroundings of the house on the headland seemed an estate in +paradise. + +As for the work which fell to her share, she enjoyed it. She felt +that she could not do too much for the old people to repay them for +this refuge they had given her. That Cap'n Ira and Prudence had no +idea of the terrible predicament in which she had been placed +previous to her coming made no difference to the girl's feeling of +gratitude toward them. She had been serving a sentence in purgatory, +and Tunis Latham's bold plan had opened the door of heaven to her. + +The timidity which had so marked her voice and manner when Tunis had +first met her soon wore away. With Cap'n Ira and Prudence she was +never shy, and when the captain of the _Seamew_ came back again he +found such a different girl at the old house on Wreckers' Head that +he could scarcely believe she was the Sheila Macklin who had told +him her history on the bench on Boston Common. + +"I swan, Tunis," hoarsely announced Cap'n Ira, "you done a deed that +deserves a monument equal to that over there to Plymouth. Them +Pilgrim fathers--to say nothing of the mothers--never done no more +beneficial thing than you did in bringing Ida May down here to stay +along o' Prudence and me. And I cal'late Prue and me are more +thankful to you than the red Indians was to the Pilgrims for coming +ashore in Plymouth County and so puttin' the noses of Provincetown +people out o' joint." + +He chuckled. + +"She's as sweet as them rose geraniums of Prue's and just as sightly +looking. Did you ever notice how that black hair of hers sort of +curls about her ears, and them ears like little, tiny seashells ye +pick up 'long shore? Them curls just lays against her neck that +pretty! I swan! I don't see how the young fellers kept their hands +off her where she come from. Do you?" + +"Why, you old Don Juan!" exclaimed Tunis, grinning. "Ain't you +ashamed of yourself?" + +"Me? Aha! I've come to that point of age and experience, Tunis, +where whatever I say about the female sect can't be misconstrued. +That's where I have the advantage of you." + +"Uh-huh!" agreed Tunis, nodding. + +"Now, if you begun raving about that gal's black hair--An' come to +think of it, Tunis, her mother, Sarah Honey's hair was near 'bout +red. Funny, ain't it?" + +"The Bostwicks must have been dark people," said Tunis evenly. + +But he remembered in a flash the "fool's gold" which had adorned in +rich profusion the head of the girl in the lace department of Hoskin +& Marl's. + +"Well, the Honeys warn't. None I ever see, leastways," announced +Cap'n Ira. "Howsomever, Ida May fits her mother's maiden name in +disposition, if ever a gal did. She's pure honey, Tunis; right from +the comb! And she takes to everything around the house that handy." + +Prudence was equally enthusiastic. And Tunis Latham could see for +himself many things which marked the régime of the newcomer at the +Ball homestead as one of vast improvement over that past régime of +the old couple, who had been forced to manage of late in ways which +troubled their orderly souls. + +"Catch as catch can," was Cap'n Ball's way of expressing the +condition of the household and other affairs before the advent of +Ida May. Now matters were already getting to be "shipshape," and no +observer could fail to note the increased comfort enjoyed by Cap'n +Ira and Prudence. + +Nor need Tunis feel anxious, either, regarding the girl's state of +mind or body. She was so blithe and cheerful that he could scarcely +recall the picture of that girl who had waited upon him in the cheap +restaurant on Scollay Square. Here was a transformation indeed! + +Nor had Ida May's activities been confined wholly to the house and +the old folks' comfort. He noted that the wire fence of the chicken +run was handily repaired; that Aunt Prue's few languishing flowers +had been weeded; and that one end of the garden was the neater for +the use of hoe and rake. + +It was too late in the season, of course, for much new growth in the +vegetable beds; but the half-hearted attention of John-Ed, junior, +had never brought about this metamorphosis, Tunis well knew. He went +on to the Latham house, feeling well pleased. Aside from all other +considerations, he was glad to know that his Machiavellian plan had +brought about these good results. + +He did not have much time to spend with Sheila, for the _Seamew's_ +freighting business was good. He never remained ashore but one night +between trips, and he spent that evening with his Aunt Lucretia, +whose enjoyment of his presence in the house was none the less keen +because inarticulate. + +But when he started off across the fields for the port in the early +morning he saw Sheila's rising light, and she was at the back door +to greet him when he went past. They stole a little time to be +together there, whispering outside the door so as not to awaken +Cap'n Ira and Prudence. And Tunis Latham went on to the wharf where +the _Seamew_ tied up with a warmth at his heart which he had never +experienced before. + +That another girl rose betimes on these mornings and waited and +watched for him to pass, the young schooner captain never noticed. +That Eunez Pareta should be lingering about the edge of Portygee +Town as he came down from the Head made small impression on his +mind. He never particularly remarked her presence or her smile as +being for him alone. It was that Eunez did not count in any of his +calculations. + +"That girl at Cap'n Ball's place, Tunis," said the Portygee girl. +"Does she like it up there?" + +"Oh, yes! She's getting on fine," was his careless response. + +"And will they keep her?" + +"Of course they will keep her." He laughed. "Who wouldn't, if they +got the chance?" + +"_Si?_" Eunez commented sibilantly. + +Naturally, many people besides Eunez Pareta in and about Big Wreck +Cove were interested in the coming of the stranger to Cap'n Ira +Ball's. Those housewives who lived on Wreckers' Head and in the +vicinity were able more easily to call at the Ball homestead for the +express purpose of meeting and becoming acquainted with "Sarah +Honey's daughter." And they did so. + +"I'd got into the way of thinking," remarked Cap'n Ball dryly, "that +most folks--'ceptin' John-Ed and his wife--had got the notion we'd +dried up here, Prue and me, and blowed away. Some of 'em ain't never +come near in six months. I swan!" + +"Now, Ira," admonished his wife, "do have charity." + +"Charity? Huh! I'll take a pinch of snuff instead. That's a warnin', +Prudence! _A-choon!_" + +Not until the second Sunday after the _Seamew_ had brought Ida May +from Boston did Big Wreck Cove folk in general get a "good slant," +as they expressed it, at the Balls' visitor. There was an ancient +carryall in the barn, and on the Saturday previous little John-Ed +was caught and made to clean this vehicle, rub up the green-molded +harness, and give the Queen of Sheba more than "a lick and a +promise" with the currycomb and brush. + +At ten o'clock on Sunday morning Sheila herself backed the gray mare +out of her stable and harnessed her into the shafts of the carryall. + +"For a city gal, you are the handiest creature!" sighed Prudence, +marveling. + +The girl only smiled. She was now used to such comments. They did +not make her heart flutter as had any reference to her past life at +first. + +The bell in the steeple of the green-blinded, white-painted church +on the farther edge of the port was tinkling tinnily as the girl +drove the old mare down the hill, with Cap'n Ira and Prudence in the +rear seat of the carriage. + +"We ain't felt we could undertake churchgoing for months, Ida May," +the old woman said. "And I miss Elder Minnett's sermons." + +"So do I," agreed her husband, with his usual caustic turn of +speech. "I swan! I can sleep better under the elder's preaching than +I can to home." + +"If you go to sleep to-day, Ira, I shall step on your foot," warned +his wife. + +"You'd better take care which one you step on," rejoined Cap'n Ira. +"I got a corn on one that jumps like an ulcerated tooth. If you +touch that I shall likely surprise you more'n I do when I take +snuff." + +The Portygees had a chapel devoted to their faith. The carriage +passed that on the way to the Congregational Church. A girl, very +dark as to features, very red as to lips, and dressed in very gay +colors in spite of her destination, was mounting the chapel steps. +She halted to stare particularly at the quietly dressed girl driving +the gray mare. + +"Ain't that Pareta's girl, Ira?" asked Prudence. + +"I cal'late." + +"What a bold-looking thing she's grown to be! But she's pretty." + +"As a piney," agreed Cap'n Ira. "I reckon she sets all these +Portygee boys by the ears. I hear tell two of 'em had a knife fight +over her in Luiz's fish house some time ago. She'll raise real +trouble in the town 'fore she's well and safely married." + +"That is awful," murmured the old woman, casting another glance back +at the girl and wondering why Eunez Pareta scowled so hatefully +after them. + +Following service, as usual, there was social intercourse on the +steps of the church and at the horse sheds back of it. Particularly +did the women gather about Aunt Prudence and Sheila. As for the men, +both young and old, the newcomer's city ways and unmistakable beauty +gave them much to gossip about. Several of the younger masculine +members of Elder Minnett's congregation came almost to blows over +the settlement of who should take the fly cloth off Queenie, back +her around, and lead her out to the front of the church when the +time came to drive back to the Head. + +In addition, Cap'n Ira found himself as popular with the young men +as he was wont to be in the old days when he was making up his crew +at the port for the _Susan Gatskill_. + +"Prudence," he said to his wife, but quite loud enough for the girl +to hear as they drove sedately homeward, "I cal'late I shall have to +buy me some shot and powder and load up the old gun I put away in +the attic, thinking I wouldn't never go hunting no more." + +"Goodness gracious gallop!" ejaculated his wife. "What for? I +cal'late you _won't_ go hunting at your time of life!" + +"I dunno. I may be forced to load it up for protection. But maybe +rock salt will do instead of shot," said Cap'n Ira, still with +soberness. "A feller has got a right to protect himself and his +family." + +"Against what, I want to know?" + +"I can see the Ball place is about to be overrun with a passel of +young sculpins that are going to be more annoying than a dose of +snuff in your eye. That's right." + +"Why, how you talk!" + +"Didn't ye see 'em all standing around as we drove away from the +church, casting sheep's eyes? And they're hating each other already +like a hen hates dishwater. I swan!" + +"For the land's sake!" + +"No. For Ida May's sake," chuckled Cap'n Ira. "That's who I've got +to defend with a shotgun." + +The girl flushed rosily, but she laughed, too. + +"You can leave them to me, Uncle Ira. I shall know how to get rid of +them." + +"Maybe they won't come," said Prudence. + +"They won't? I swan!" snorted her husband. "They all see she's +more'n half Honey. Couldn't keep 'em away any more than you can +flies." + +It was quite as Cap'n Ira prophesied. The path from Big Wreck Cove +across the fields to the Head, a path which had become grass-grown +of late years, was soon worn smooth. It was a shorter way from the +town than the wagon road. + +The errands invented by the youthful and more or less unattached +male inhabitants of the port to bring them by this path through the +Ball premises were most ingenious indeed. Early on Monday morning, +while Sheila was hanging out her first lineful of clothes, Andrew +Roby, clam basket and hoe on arm, appeared as the first of a long +line of itinerant pedestrians who more or less bashfully bade Cap'n +Ira good day as he sat in his armchair in the sun. + +"What's the matter?" asked the old man soberly. "All the clams give +out down to the cove? I heard they was getting scarce. You got to +come clean over here to the beaches, I cal'late, to find you a mess +for dinner, Andy?" + +"Well--er--Cap'n Ira, mother was wishing for some big chowder +clams," said young Roby, his eyes squinting sidewise at the slim +figure of Sheila on tiptoe to reach the line. + +"Ye-as," considered the old man. "You got that cat still, Andy?" + +"The _Maybird?_ Oh, yes, sir!" + +"And there's a fair wind. She'd have taken you in half the time to +the outer beaches, and saved your legs," said the caustic speaker. +"But exercise is good for you, I don't dispute." + +A match, one might think, could easily have been touched off at +Andrew's face. He had not much more to say, and went on without +having the joy of more than a nod and smile from the busy Sheila. + +Then came Joshua Jones. Joshua usually was to be found behind his +father's counter, the elder Jones being proprietor of one of the +general stores in Big Wreck Cove. Joshua was a bustling young man +with a reddish ruff of hair back of a bald brow, "side tabs" of the +same hue as his hair before each red and freckled ear, and a nose a +good deal like an eagle's beak. In fact, the upper part of his +face--Cap'n Ira had often remarked it--was of noble proportions, +while the lower part fell away surprisingly in a receding chin which +seemed saved from being swallowed completely only by a very +prominent Adam's apple. + +"I swan!" the captain had said judiciously. "It's more by good luck +than good management that Josh's chin didn't fall into his stomach. +Only that knob in his neck acts like a stopper." + +But when the lanky young storekeeper appeared on this occasion, +Cap'n Ira hailed him cheerfully before Joshua could reach the back +door. + +"Hi, Josh! You ain't goin' for clams, too, be ye?" + +"No, no, Cap'n Ira!" cried young Jones cheerfully. "I'm looking to +pick up some eggs regular. We want to begin to ship again, and eggs +seem to be staying in the nests. He, he! Has Mrs. Ball got any to +spare?" + +"I don't cal'late she has. You see," said Cap'n Ira soberly, "we got +another mouth to feed eggs to now. Did you know we had Ida May +Bostwick visiting us? A young lady from Boston. Prue's niece, once +removed." + +"Why--I--I--ahem! I saw her at church, Cap'n Ira," faltered Joshua. + +"Did ye, now?" rejoined Cap'n Ira, in apparent wonder. "I didn't +suppose you would ever notice her, you not being much for the +ladies, Joshua." + +"Oh, I ain't so blind!" giggled the young man, peering in through +the kitchen door, where Sheila was stepping briskly from tubs to +sink and back again. + +"That's a fortunate thing," agreed the old man. "But you've got a +long v'y'ge before you, if you cal'late to go to all the houses on +the Head to pick up eggs. Good luck to you, Joshua!" + +Josh found himself passed along like a country politician in line at +a presidential reception. His legs got to working without volition, +it seemed, and he was several rods away before he realized that he +had not spoken to the girl at all. + +Zebedee Pauling, whose ancestor had been an admiral and was never +forgotten by the Pauling family--Paulmouth was said to have been +named in their honor--arrived at the Ball back door just as the +family was finishing the usual "picked-up" washday dinner. Zebedee +took off his cap with a flourish, and his grin advertised to all +beholders the fact that he felt shy but pleased at his own courage +in appearing thus on the Head. + +"Why, Zeb!" exclaimed Prudence. "We haven't seen you up here for a +dog's age. Won't you set?" + +"Oh, no'm, no'm! I was just stopping by and thought I'd ask how are +you all, Aunt Prue." + +He bobbed and smiled, but kept his gaze fixed upon Sheila to the +exclusion of the two old people. But Cap'n Ira was never to be +overlooked. + +"You're going to be mighty neighborly, now, Zeb," he said. "We shall +see you often." + +"Er--I don't know, Cap'n Ira," stammered Zebedee, rather taken +aback. + +The old man rose and hobbled toward the door with the aid of his +cane, fumbling in his pocket meanwhile. + +"Here, Zeb," he said, producing a dime. "You're a willin' friend, I +know. I'm running low on snuff. Get me a packet, will ye? American +Affection is my brand. Just slip it in your pocket and bring it +along with you when you come by to-morrow." + +"But--but I don't know as I shall be up this way to-morrow, Cap'n +Ira. Though maybe I shall." And he glanced again at the smiling +girl. + +"Course you will, or next day at the latest," said the old man +stoutly. "I can see plainly that you ain't going to neglect Prue and +me no more. And I shall want that snuff." + +"Well--er--Cap'n--" + +"If you don't come," pursued the perfectly sober captain, "you can +hand the snuff to Andy Roby, or to Josh Jones, or to 'most any of +the boys. They'll be up this way pretty near every day, I shouldn't +wonder." + +Zebedee took the hint and the dime. + +He was no "slow coach" if he was longshore bred. He got the chance +of carrying another heavy basket of clothes out to the lines for +Sheila, who rewarded him with a smile, and then he nodded to the old +man as he left. + +"I'll bring that snuff myself, Cap'n Ira," he assured him. + +"Don't it beat all?" queried the captain, shaking his head +reflectively, as he resumed his seat. "Don't it beat all? For old +folks, Prue, we do certainly seem to be popular." + +"Oh, you hesh!" exclaimed his wife. + +But Sheila giggled delightedly. The way Cap'n Ira handled the +several visitors who thereafter came to Wreckers' Head continued to +amuse the girl immensely. Nor did the visits cease. The Ball +homestead was no longer a lonely habitation. Somebody was forever +"just stopping by," as the expression ran; and the path from the +port was trodden brown and sere as autumn drew on apace. + + + + +CHAPTER XIV + +THE HARVEST HOME FESTIVAL + + +It was not that Sheila Macklin had no graver moments. There were +nights when, in spite of her healthful weariness of body, arising +from the work of the household, she lay awake for long hours of +restless, anxious thought. And sometimes her pillow was wet with +tears. Yet she was not of a lachrymose disposition. She could not +invent imaginary troubles or build in her mind gibbets on which +remorse and sorrow might hang in chains. + +Indeed, how could she be sorrowful? Why should she feel remorse? She +had taken another girl's name and claim of parentage, and she filled +a place which the other girl might have had. But the rightful owner +of the name had scorned this refuge. The real Ida May Bostwick had +no appreciation of what the Balls had to offer, and she had been +unwilling even to open communication with her relatives down on the +Cape. + +Besides, Tunis Latham always cheered the girl who was playing an +imposter's part with the declaration that she had done just +right--that without her presence on Wreckers' Head Cap'n Ira and his +wife would be in a very bad way, indeed. + +She could see that this was so. Her coming to them had been as great +a blessing in their lives as it had been in her own. + +She fully realized that Cap'n Ira and his wife would not have +admitted her to their home and to their hearts had she come in her +own person and identity. This was not so much because of their +strict morality as because of their strict Puritanism. For a puritan +may not be moral always, but he must be just. And justice of that +character is seldom tempered by mercy. What they might have forgiven +the real Ida May they could scarcely be expected to forgive a +stranger. + +In spite of this situation, the Balls were being blessed by the +presence of a girl in their household who had been tainted with a +sentence to a reformatory. Even now, when she knew they loved her +and could scarcely imagine what they would do without her, Sheila +Macklin was quite convinced that a whisper about these hidden +miseries would turn Cap'n Ball, and even Prudence, against her. + +Therefore she was careful, putting a guard upon her tongue and +almost keeping watch upon her secret thoughts. She never allowed +herself to lapse into reverie in their presence for fear the old +people might suspect that she had a past that would not endure open +discussion. + +And, deliberately and with forethought, the intelligent girl went +about strengthening her position with the Balls and making her +identity as Ida May Bostwick unassailable. She had a retentive +memory. Nothing Aunt Prudence ever said in her hearing about Sarah +Honey, her ways when she was young, or what the old woman knew or +surmised about her dead niece's marriage and her life thereafter, +escaped the girl. She treasured it all. + +When visitors were by--especially the neighboring women who likewise +remembered Sarah Honey--the masquerader often spoke in a way to +reduce to a minimum any suspicion that she was not the rightful Ida +May. Even a visit from Annabell Coffin--"she who was a Cuttle"--went +off without a remark being made which would yield a grain of doubt. + +Mrs. Coffin had heard of Ida May while she visited "his folks" in +Boston, in a most roundabout way. She did say to the girl, however: + +"Let's see, Ida May, didn't they tell me that you worked for a spell +in one of them great stores? I wish you could see 'em, Aunt Prue! +The Marshall & Denham department store on Washington Street covers +acres--_acres_! Was it there that you worked, Ida May?" + +"No," replied Ida May calmly. + +"What store did you work in?" + +"Hoskin & Marl's," said the girl, still unruffled. + +"To be sure. That's what Esther Coffin said she heard, I remember. +But I never got to that store. Couldn't go to all of 'em. It tired +me to death, just going around Marshall & Denham's." + +This and similar incidents were building blocks in the structure +which she was raising. Nor did she consider it a structure of +deceit. The foundation only was of doubtful veracity. These people +had accepted her as somebody she was not, it was true; but she +gained nothing thereby that the real Ida May would not have had to +win for herself. + +With Tunis approving and encouraging her, how could the girl spend +much time in doubt or any at all in despair? She felt that she was a +much better girl--morally as well as physically--in this environment +than she had been for many, many months. Instead of being conscience +wrung in playing the part of impostor and living under an assumed +name and identity, she felt a sense of self-congratulation. + +And when in the company of the captain of the _Seamew_ she felt +almost exalted. There was a pact between them that made their tie +more than that of sister and brother. Yet, of love they never +spoke--not during those first weeks on Wreckers' Head. He never +failed to talk with Sheila as he came up from the town when the +schooner lay at her moorings in the cove or was docked ready to +discharge or take aboard freight. Business remained good, but all +was not plain sailing for the young shipmaster. He confided in the +girl many of his perplexities. When he went away again, rain or +shine, the girl did not fail to be up and about when he passed the +Ball homestead. He knew that she did this purposely--that she was on +the watch for him. Her reason for doing so was not so clear to the +young man, but he appreciated her interest. + +Was he overmodest? Perhaps. He might have gained courage regarding +the girl's attitude toward him had he known that, on the nights he +was at home, she sat in her darkened, upper room and watched the +lamp he burned until it was extinguished. On the other hand, Tunis +Latham's brotherly manner and cheerful kindness were a puzzle to +Sheila. She knew that he had been kinder to her than any other man +she had ever met. But what was the root of that kindness? + +There were many pleasant thoughts in Sheila's heart just now; nor +did she allow the secret of her past to leave its acid scars upon +her soul. She was the life and joy of the old house on the Head; she +was the center of amusement when she went into company at the church +or elsewhere. She managed, too, to be that marvelous specimen of +beautiful womankind who can attract other girls as well as men. + +For one thing, the girl played no favorites. She treated them all +alike. None of the young men of Big Wreck Cove could honestly crow +because Ida May Bostwick had showed him any special favor. + +And none of them suspected that Tunis Latham had the inside track +with the girl from the city. At least, this was unsuspected by all +before the occasion of the "harvest-home festival"--that important +affair held yearly by the ladies' aid of the Big Wreck Cove church. + +For the first time in more than a year, Cap'n Ira and Prudence +ventured to town in the evening. Church socials, in the past, and +while Cap'n Ira was so much at sea, had been Prudence Ball's chief +relaxation. She was naturally of a social disposition, and the +simple pleasure of being with and of a party of other matrons of the +church was almost the height of Prudence's mundane desire. + +When Cap'n Ira heard her express the wish to go to the harvest-home +festival he took an extra pinch of snuff. + +"I swan!" he said. "If we take that Queen of Sheby out at night, +she'll near have a conniption. She'll think the world's come to an +end. She ain't been out o' her stable at night since Hector was a +pup--and Hector is a big dog now! How can you think of such a thing, +Prudence?" + +"Queenie won't mind, I guess," said his wife calmly. "I shouldn't be +surprised if you was saying one word for her and a good many more'n +one for yourself, Ira." + +However, they went to the harvest-home festival. It was bound to be +a very gay and enjoyable occasion, and Queenie did not stumble more +than three times going down the hill into the port. + +"That old critter would be the death of us, if she could do it +without being the death of herself, too," fumed Cap'n Ira. + +There were half a dozen young men almost fighting for the privilege +of taking Queenie around to the sheds and blanketing her, the winner +hopeful of a special smile and word from Sheila. + +The decorated church was well filled when the trio from Wreckers' +Head entered, and most delicious odors rose from the basement, where +the tables were laid. + +Sheila was immediately surrounded by her own little coterie of young +people and was enjoying herself quietly when a newcomer, whose +appearance created some little surprise at the door, approached the +group of which the girl was the center. + +"Why, here's Orion Latham!" exclaimed one girl. "I didn't know the +_Seamew_ was in." + +"We just made it by the skin of our teeth," Orion said, making it a +point to shake hands with Sheila. "How are you, Miss Bostwick? I +never did see such a Jonah of an old tub as that dratted schooner! I +thought she never would get back this trip." + +"I cal'late you wouldn't think she was Jonahed if the _Seamew_ was +yours, 'Rion," snickered Andrew Roby. + +"I wouldn't even take her as a gift," snarled Orion. + +"Guess you won't get her that way--if any," chuckled Joshua Jones. +"Tunis, he knows which side o' the bread his butter's on. He's doin' +well. We cal'late--pa and me--to have all our freight come down from +Boston on the _Seamew_." + +Orion glowered at him. + +"You'd better have a care, Josh," he growled. "That schooner is +hoodooed, as sure as sure! She'll stub her nose some night on +Lighthouse Point Reef, if she don't do worse. You can't scurcely +steer her proper." + +"Nonsense, 'Rion!" spoke up Zebedee Pauling. "I'd like to sail on +her myself." + +"Perhaps," Sheila interposed, rather flushed, and looking at Orion +with unmistakable displeasure, "Orion will give up his berth to you, +Zebedee. He seems so very sure that the schooner is unlucky. I came +down from Boston in her, and I saw nothing about her save to +admire." + +"And if you found her all right, Miss Bostwick," struck in the +gallant Joshua, "she's good enough for me. Of course, I heard tell +some thought the _Seamew_ had a bad reputation--that she run under +a fishing boat once and was haunted. But I cal'late that's all +bosh." + +"Yah!" growled Orion. "Have it your own way. But after the dratted +schooner is sunk and you lose a mess of freight, Josh Jones, I guess +you'll sing small." + +"I've heard," said Andrew Roby gravely, "that it's mighty bad +manners to bite the hand that feeds you. You never was overpolite, +'Rion Latham." + +"Not only that, but he's clean reckless with his own livelihood," +added Zebedee Pauling. + + + + +CHAPTER XV + +AN INVITATION ACCEPTED + + +It was a small incident, of course; scarcely to be noted at all when +it was over. Yet the impression left upon Sheila's mind was that +Orion Latham was deliberately endeavoring to injure his cousin's +business with the _Seamew_. If he talked like this before the more +or less superstitious Portygees, how long would Tunis manage to keep +a crew to work the schooner? + +Had she dared she would have taken Orion to task there and then for +his unfaithfulness. The fellow was, as Cap'n Ira had once observed, +one of those yapping curs always envious of the braver dog's bone. + +To the girl's disgust, too, Orion Latham showed plainly that he +considered that he, as an older acquaintance of the girl, could +presume upon that fact. He clung to her throughout the evening like +a mussel to duck grass. Of all the Big Wreck Cove youth, he was the +only one that she could not put in his place. + +She did not think it wise to snub him so openly that Orion would +take offense. This course might do the captain of the _Seamew_ harm. +She foresaw trouble in the offing for Tunis, in any case, and she +did not wish to do anything that would spur Orion to further and +more successful attempts to harm his cousin's business. + +There was another matter troubling Sheila's mind after Orion had +come to the harvest-home festival. Mason Chapin likewise appeared at +the church. But Tunis did not come. He knew, of course, of the +festival, and he had known when he sailed last for Boston that the +Balls and Ida May intended to go. It did seem as if Tunis might have +come, if for only a little while, before going home. + +These thoughts made Sheila rather inattentive to other proposals, +and she found herself obliged to go down to supper with Orion, since +he had outsat and outtalked all the other young men who had hovered +about her. She was nice to Orion; the girl could scarcely be +otherwise, even to those she disliked, unless some very important +matter arose to disturb her, but she did not enjoy the remainder of +the evening, and she was glad when Cap'n Ira and Prudence were ready +to go home. It was full time, the girl thought. + +Even then Orion Latham assumed altogether too much authority. +Sheila had been about to send little John-Ed around for Queenie and +the carryall, but Orion put the boy aside with a self-assured grin. + +"Nobody ain't going to put you in the carriage, Ida May, but me," he +declared. "I'll get the old mare." + +He seized his cap and went out. In a few minutes they had said +good-bye, and the old couple and the girl went out on the church +steps. Sheila saw the carryall standing before the door. A figure +stood at the old mare's head which she presumed to be Orion's. + +"The chariot is ready, I cal'late," said Cap'n Ira. "Come on, +Prudence." + +Sheila helped the old woman into the rear seat and then aided Cap'n +Ira as well. She got in quickly in front, but as she was about to +gather up the reins the man holding Queenie's head came around +swiftly and stepped in beside her to the driver's place. + +"I swan! That you, Tunis?" exclaimed Cap'n Ira. + +"Looks like it," the captain of the _Seamew_ said gravely. "All +clear aft?" + +"You can pay off, Tunis," returned the old man. "Tuck that robe +around your knees, Prudence. This night air is as chill as a breath +off the ice barrens." + +Orion loafed into the lamplight by the steps before Queenie got +into action. His scowl was unseen, but his voice was audible--as it +was meant to be--to Sheila's ears. + +"There he is--hoggin' everything, same as usual. How did I know he +was hanging around outside here, waiting to drive her home? Just as +though he owned her! Huh! He may be skipper aboard that dratted +schooner, but that gives him no right to boss me ashore. I won't +stand it." + +"Sit down to it, then, 'Rion," snickered one of the other young +fellows. "I cal'late Tunis has got the inside course on all of us." + +The girl said nothing to the captain of the _Seamew_ at first. It +was Prudence who asked him why he had not been in the church. + +"I could not get over here until just now," Tunis replied quietly. + +Sheila wondered if he really had been detained on the schooner. +Perhaps he had refrained from coming to the festival for fear the +good people of Big Wreck Cove would notice his attentions to her. He +had never been publicly in her company since he had brought her down +from Boston. Orion Latham's outburst there at the church door was +the first cue people might have gained of anything more than a +passing acquaintanceship between the captain of the _Seamew_ and the +girl who had come to live with the Balls. + +These thoughts bore down the girl's spirits tremendously. The +simple pleasure of the evening was quite erased from her memory. She +remained speechless while old Queenie climbed the hill to the Head. + +The desultory conversation between Cap'n Ira, Prudence, and the +young shipmaster scarcely attracted the girl's attention. If Tunis +looked at her curiously now and then, she did not see his glances. +And she merely nodded her understanding of his statement when Tunis +said, speaking directly to her: + +"The _Seamew's_ going to lie here over Sunday this time, Ida May." + +"That'll be nice for you, Tunis," Aunt Prue put in. "You can go to +church. You don't often have that privilege. Seafarin' is an awful +godless life." + +Queenie sprang ahead gallantly at the sound of a hearty sneeze from +Cap'n Ira, just then, and they were soon at home. Tunis jumped out +and aided the old woman and then the captain to alight. Sheila got +out on the other side of the carriage. She would have preferred to +run on into the house, but she could not really do that. Queenie +must be unharnessed and put in her stable and given a measure of +oats to munch. Of course, Tunis would offer to do this, but she +could not leave him to attend to it without a word. + +"I'll help you with Queenie, Ida May," said the captain of the +_Seamew_. + +That settled it. She had to remain outside while Cap'n Ira and +Prudence went into the house. Tunis led the old mare toward the +barn. A lantern, burning very dimly, was in a box just outside the +big door, and Sheila got this and held it while Tunis busied himself +with the buckles. + +"I didn't mean to interfere," the man said, suddenly breaking the +silence between them. "But as I was coming this way, of course, I +expected to ride along with you. So--" + +"What do you mean, Captain Latham?" the girl asked wonderingly. + +"Orion said you sent him out to get Queenie." + +"Why, I--" + +"Of course, you didn't know I was there. I had just reached the +church. But 'Rion is so fresh--" + +"He took it upon himself to go," said the girl calmly. "I did not +send him. I guess you know how your cousin is." + +"He is too fresh. I'd like to punch him," growled Tunis, to the +girl's secret delight. It sounded boyish, but real. "I don't know +that I can stand him aboard the _Seamew_ much longer. He attends to +everybody's business but his own." + +"He means you no good, Captain Latham," she said frankly. "To-night +he was repeating that silly story about the _Seamew_ being haunted." + +"Cat's-foot!" ejaculated Tunis. "I wish I'd fired old Horry Newbegin +for starting _that_." + +"But 'Rion keeps it up." + +"If he believed she was hoodoed, you wouldn't get him aboard with a +wire cable," growled Tunis. + +"It would be better for you and for the success of your business, +Captain Latham, if 'Rion was really afraid of going aboard the +_Seamew_," she said with confidence. + +"Well, I don't see how I can fire him. He's my cousin--in a way. And +there is enough ill feeling in the family now. Gran'ther Peleg left +all his money to me, and it made Orion and his folks as sore as can +be." + +"You are inclined to be too kind. I am not sure it is always wise to +be too easy." + +"Like chopping off the dog's tail an inch at a time, so's not to +hurt him so much, eh?" he chuckled. + +"Something like that." + +"Well, I'm almost tempted to give 'Rion his walking ticket. I've +reason enough. He can't even keep a manifest straight." + +"Does he even try?" + +"And that also is in my mind," acknowledged Tunis. "I'm pretty well +fed up on 'Rion, I do allow. But I don't know what Aunt 'Cretia +would say." Then he laughed again. "Just about what she usually +says, I guess; nothing at all. But she abhors family squabbles. + +"That reminds me, Ida May. This being the first Sunday I've been +home since you came here, I want you should go over with me after +church to-morrow and have dinner at our house." + +"Oh, Captain Latham! I--" + +"And don't you guess you could employ some other term when speaking +to me, Ida May?" he interrupted. "I get 'captained' almost enough +aboard the schooner and up to Boston. Just plain 'Tunis' for those +that are my friends suits me a sight better." + +"I shall call you 'Tunis,' if you like," she said composedly. "But +about taking dinner with you--I am not so sure." + +"Why not?" he demanded. + +"Your aunt has never called here since I have been on the Head." + +"She don't call anywhere. She never did that I can remember. She +goes to church on Sunday sometimes. Occasionally she has to go to +town to buy things. Once in a dog's age she leaves anchor and gets +as far as Paulmouth. But other times she's never off the place." + +"I--I feel hesitant about doing what you ask, Captain--Tunis, I +mean." + +"Why?" + +"You know well enough," said Sheila. "If anything should turn up--if +the truth should come out--" + +"Now, are you still worrying about that, Ida May?" + +"Don't you think of it--Tunis?" + +"Not a bit! We're as safe as a church. That girl will never show up +here on Wreckers' Head. Of course not!" + +He seemed absolutely confident. In the dim illumination of the +lantern she looked very closely into his face. Then it was not fear +of exposure that kept Tunis Latham silent. She moved closer to him, +looking up into his countenance, holding the lantern so that her own +face was in the shadow. + +"Who suggested my coming to dinner, Tunis? You, or your Aunt +Lucretia?" + +"If you knew my aunt! Well! She seldom says a word. But when I have +anything to say, I talk along just as though she answered back like +an ordinary person would. I can tell if she's interested." + +"Yes?" + +"She's been interested in you from the start, I know. She showed it +in her look the very first time I spoke of you--that day I brought +you here to Wreckers' Head." + +"But--but you have never spoken of this before. She did not come to +call." + +"I'll tell you," said Tunis earnestly. "I wanted to be sure. Aunt +'Cretia knew your--er--Sarah Honey very well." + +"Oh." + +"Just about as well as Mrs. Ball did. When she was staying here +with Aunt Prue, she used to run over to our place a lot. + +"You don't remember it," continued Tunis, grinning suddenly; "but +you were taken over there when you were a baby." + +"Oh, don't! Don't!" cried the girl. "Let us not speak so lightly--so +carelessly. Suppose--suppose--" + +"Suppose nothing!" exclaimed Tunis. "Don't have any fears. She +wanted to know just how you looked--every particular. Oh, she has +ways of showing what she wants without getting what you'd call +voluble! I told her about your hair--your eyes--everything. I know +from the way she looked that she accepts the fact of your being the +real Ida May without more question than Cap'n Ira and Aunt Prue." + +She was silent, thinking. Then she sighed. + +"I will accept the invitation, Tunis. But I feel--I feel that all is +not for the best. But what must be must be. So--oh, I'll go!" + + + + +CHAPTER XVI + +MEMORIES--AND TUNIS + + +The benison of that most beautiful season of all the year, the +autumn, lay upon Wreckers' Head and the adjacent coast on that +Sunday morning. Alongshore there is never any sad phase of the fall. +One reason is the lack of deciduous trees. The brushless hills and +fields are merely turned to golden brown when the frosts touch them. + +The sea--ever changing in aspect, yet changeless in tide and +restraint--was as bright and sparkling as at midsummer. Along the +distant beaches the white ruffle of the surf seemed to have just +been laundered. The green of the shallows and the blue of the deeper +sea were equally vivid. + +When she first arose Sheila Macklin looked abroad from that favorite +north window of her bedroom, and saw that all the world was good. If +she had felt secret misgivings and the tremor of a nervous +apprehension, these feelings were sloughed away by this promising +morning. The fear she had expressed to Tunis Latham the evening +before did not obsess her. She continued placid and outwardly +cheerful. Whatever threatened in the immediate future, she +determined to meet it with as much composure as she could summon. + +Nobody but Sheila Macklin knew wholly what she had endured since +leaving her childhood's home. When Tunis Latham had come so +dramatically into her life she had been almost at the limit of her +endurance. To him, even, she had not confessed all her miseries. To +escape from them she would have embraced a much more desperate +expedient than posing as Ida May Bostwick. + +The ethics of the situation had not really impressed her at first. +The desire to get away from her unfortunate environment, from the +city itself, and to go where nobody knew her history, not even her +name, was the main thought at that time in the girl's mind. Tunis +Latham's confident assurances that she would be accepted without +question by Cap'n Ball and Prudence caused her to put aside all fear +of consequences at the moment. It was a desperate stroke, but she +had been in desperate need, and she had carried the matter through +boldly. + +Now that she seemed so securely established in the Ball household +and was accepted by all the community of Big Wreck Cove as the real +Ida May, it seemed foolish to give way to anxiety. Discovery of the +imposture was remote. + +Yet, as she had hinted to Tunis, she had an undercurrent of +feeling--a more-than-faint apprehension--that all was not right. +Something was lurking in the shadows of the future which menaced +their peace and security. + +She was ever mindful of the fact that Tunis had gone sponsor for her +identity as Ida May. Should her imposture be revealed, her first +duty would be to protect him. How could she do this? What tale could +she concoct to make it seem that he was as much duped as were Cap'n +Ball and Prudence? + +This seemed impossible. She saw no way out. He had met the real Ida +May Bostwick, and then had deliberately introduced Sheila Macklin as +the girl he had been sent for! If the truth were revealed, what +explanation could be offered? + +Had she allowed her mind to dwell upon this phase of the affair she +would surely have revealed to those about her, unobservant as they +might be, that she had a secret cause for worry. She must drive it +into the back of her mind--ignore it utterly. + +And this she did on this beautiful Sabbath morning. When Tunis came +up to the Head to accompany the Balls to church--Aunt Lucretia did +not attend service on this day--a very close observer would have +seen nothing in the girl's look or manner to suggest that so keen +an anxiety had touched her. + +This should have been Sheila's happy day--and it was. For the first +time, the young captain of the _Seamew_ linked his interest with her +in a deliberate public appearance. Although she feared in secret the +result of that appearance at church with Tunis Latham, it +nevertheless thrilled her. + +He harnessed Queenie after giving that surprised animal such a +curry-combing and polishing as she had not suffered in many a day. +Sheila rode with Prudence on the rear seat of the carryall. + +"I'm berthed on the for'ard deck along o' you, Tunis," said the old +man, hoisting himself with difficulty into the front seat. "If the +afterguard is all ready, I be. Trip the anchor, boy, and set sail!" + +As they passed down through Portygee Town the denizens of that part +of Big Wreck Cove were streaming to their own place of worship. It +was a saint's day, and the brown people--both men and women, ringed +of ears and garbed in the very gayest colors--gave way with smiles +and bows for the jogging old mare and the rumbling carryall. Some of +the _Seamew's_ crew were overtaken, and they swept off their hats to +Prudence and the supposed Ida May, grinning up at Tunis with more +than usual friendliness. + +"Ah!" exclaimed Eunez Pareta to Johnny Lark, the _Seamew's_ cook. +"So you know she of the evil eye, eh?" + +"What do you mean?" asked Johnny. "That pretty girl who rides behind +Captain Latham?" + +"_Si!_" + +"She has no evil eye," declared the cook stoutly. + +"It is told me that she has," said the smiling girl. "And she has +put what you call the 'hoodoo' on that schooner. She come down in +her from Boston." + +"What of it?" retorted the cook. "She is a fine lady--and a pretty +lady." + +"So Tunis Latham think--heh?" demanded Eunez fiercely. + +"And why not?" grinned Johnny. + +"Bah! Has not all gone wrong with that _Seamew_ ever since she sail +in the schooner?" demanded the girl. "An anchor chain breaks; a rope +parts; you lost a topmast--yes? How about Tony? Has he not left and +will not return aboard the schooner for a price? Do you not find +calm where other schooners find fair winds? Ah!" + +"Pooh!" ejaculated Johnny Lark. "Old woman's talk!" + +"Not!" cried the girl hotly. "It is a truth. The saints defend us +from the evil eye! And Tunis Latham is under that girl's spell." + +Johnny Lark tried to laugh again, but with less success. Many little +things had marred the fair course of the _Seamew_ and her captain's +business. He, however, shook his head. + +"Not that pretty girl yonder," he said, "has brought bad luck to the +_Seamew_. No, no!" + +"What, then?" asked Eunez, staring sidewise at him from eyes which +seemed almost green. + +"See!" said Johnny, seizing her wrist. "If the _Seamew_ is a Jonahed +schooner, it is because of something different. Yes!" + +"Bah!" cried Eunez, yet with continued eagerness. "Tell me what it +may be if it is not that girl with the evil eye?" + +"Ask 'Rion Latham," whispered Johnny. "You know him--huh?" + +The Portygee girl looked for a moment rather taken aback. Then she +said, tossing her head: + +"What if I do know 'Rion?" + +"Ask him," repeated Johnny Lark. "He is cousin of our captain. He +knows--if anybody knows--what is the trouble with the _Seamew_." And +he shook his head. + +Eunez stared at him. + +"You know something you do not tell me, Juan?" + +"Ask 'Rion Latham," the cook said again, and left her at the door of +the church. + + * * * * * + +Those swains who had been "cluttering the course"--to quote Cap'n +Ira--did not interfere in any way with the Balls' equipage on this +Sunday at the church. There was none who seemed bold enough to +enter the lists with Tunis Latham. He put Queenie in the shed and +backed her out again and brought her around to the door when the +service was ended without having to fight for the privilege. + +'Rion Latham, however, was the center of a group of young fellows +who were all glad to secure a smile and bow from the girl, but who +only sheepishly grinned at Tunis. 'Rion was not smiling; there was a +settled scowl upon his ugly face. + +"I cal'late," said Cap'n Ira, as they drove away, "that 'Rion must +have eat sour pickles for breakfast to-day and nothing much else. +Yet he seemed perky enough last night at the sociable. I wonder +what's got into him." + +"I'd like to get something out of him," growled Tunis, to whom the +remark was addressed. + +"What's that?" + +"Some work, for one thing," said the captain of the _Seamew_. "He's +as lazy a fellow as I ever saw. And his tongue's too long." + +"Trouble is," Cap'n Ira rejoined, "these trips you take in the +schooner are too short to give you any chance to lick your crew into +shape. They get back home too often. Too much shore leave, if ye ask +me." + +"I'd lose Mason Chapin if the _Seamew_ made longer voyages. And I +have lost one of the hands already--Tony." + +"I swan! What's the matter with him?" + +"His mother says Tony is scared to sail again with the _Seamew_. +Some Portygee foolishness." + +"I told you them Portygees warn't worth the grease they sop their +bread in," declared Cap'n Ira. + +The two on the rear seat of the carryall paid no attention to this +conversation. + +"I'm real pleased," said the old woman, "that you are going to +dinner with Lucretia Latham, Ida May. Your mother thought a sight of +her, and 'Cretia did of Sarah Honey, too. Sarah was one of the few +who seemed to understand Lucretia. She's so dumb. I declare I can't +never get used to her myself. I like folks lively about me, and I +don't care how much they talk--the more the better. + +"Lucretia Latham might have got her a good man and been happily +married long ago, if it hadn't been that when a feller dropped in to +call on her she sat mum all the evening and never said no more than +the cat. + +"I remember Silas Payson, who lived over beyond the port, took quite +a shine to Lucretia, seeing her at church. Or, at least, we thought +he did. Silas began going down to Latham's Folly of an evening, now +and then, and setting up with Lucretia. But after a while he left +off going and said he cal'lated he'd join the Quakers over to +Seetawket. Playing Quaker meeting with just one girl to look at +didn't suit, noway." And the old woman laughed placidly. + +"Tunis says he understands his aunt," ventured the girl. + +"Tunis has had to put up with her. But he can say nothing a good +deal himself, if anybody should ask ye. That's the only fault I've +found with Tunis. I've heard Ira talk at him for a straight hour in +our kitchen, and all the answer Tunis made was to say 'yes' twice." + +The girl did not find the captain of the _Seamew_ at all +inarticulate later, as they crossed the old fields of the Ball place +and walked down the slope into the saucerlike valley where lay +Latham's Folly. She had never known Tunis to be more companionable +than on this occasion. He seemed to have gained the courage to +talk on more intimate topics than at any time since their +acquaintanceship had begun. + +"I guess you know," he observed, "that most all the money Uncle Peke +left me--after what the lawyers got--I put into that schooner. +There's a mortgage on her, too. You see, although the old place will +come to me by and by, Aunt Lucretia has rights in it while she +lives. It's sort of entailed, you know. I could not raise a dollar +on Latham's Folly, if I wanted to. So I am pretty well tied up, you +see. + +"But the schooner is doing well. That is, I mean, business is good, +Ida May. Other things being equal, I will make more money with her +the way I am doing now than I could in any other business. My line +is the sea; I know that. I am fitted for it. + +"And if I had invested Uncle Peke's legacy and kept on fishing, or +tried for a berth in a deep bottom somewhere, I would not get ahead +any faster or make so much money. Besides, long voyages would take +me away from home, and, after all, Aunt Lucretia is my only kin and +she would miss me sore." + +"I am sure she would," said the girl with sympathy. + +"But all ain't plain sailing," added the young skipper wistfully. "I +am running too close to the reefs right now to crow any." + +"But I am sure you will be successful in the end. Of course you +will!" + +"That's mighty nice of you," he said, smiling down into her vivid +face. "With you and Aunt Lucretia both pulling for me, I ought to +win out, sure enough. + +"You can't fail to like her," he added. "If you just get the right +slant on her character, I mean, Ida May. Hers has been a lonely +life. Not that there has not almost always been somebody in the +house with her. But she has lived with her own thoughts. She reads a +great deal. There is not one topic I can broach of which she has +not at least a general knowledge. I was sent away to school, but +when I came home vacations I brought my books and she read them all. + +"And she is a splendid listener." He laughed. "You'll find that out +for yourself, I fancy. And I know she likes people to talk to +her--when they have anything to say. Tell her things; that is what +she enjoys." + +In spite of his assurances, Sheila Macklin approached the old, brown +house behind the cedars with much secret trepidation. Although Aunt +Lucretia had a neighbor's girl come in to help her almost daily, she +had preferred to prepare the dinner on this occasion with her own +hands. And, perhaps, she did not care to have the neighbor's child +around when the supposed Ida May came to the house for the first +time. + +They saw her watching from the side door--a tall, angular figure in +a black dress. Her hair was done plainly and in no arrangement to +soften the gaunt outline of her face, but there was much of it, and +Sheila longed to make a change in that grim coiffure. + +The woman smiled so warmly when she saw the two approach that almost +instantly the girl forgot the grim contour of Aunt Lucretia's face. +That smile was like a flash of sunshine playing over one of those +barren, brown fields through which they had passed so quickly on +the way down from the Ball house. + +"This is Ida May, Aunt Lucretia," said Tunis, as they reached the +porch. + +The smiling woman stretched forth a hand to the girl. Her eyes, +peering through the spectacles, were very keen, and when their gaze +was centered upon the girl's face it seemed that Aunt Lucretia was +suddenly smitten by some thought, or by some discovery about the +visitor, which made her greeting slow. + +Yet that may have been her usual manner. Tunis did not appear to +observe anything extraordinary. But Sheila thought Aunt Lucretia had +been about to greet her with a kiss, and then had thought better of +it. + + + + +CHAPTER XVII + +AUNT LUCRETIA + + +There was nothing thereafter in Aunt Lucretia's manner--surely not +in her speech--to lead Sheila to fear the woman did not accept her +at face value. Why should she suspect a masquerade when nobody else +did? The girl took her cue from Tunis and placidly accepted his +aunt's manner as natural. + +Aunt Lucretia put the dinner on the table at once. They ate, when +there was special company, in the dining room. The meal was generous +in quantity and well cooked. It was evident that, like most country +housewives, Lucretia Latham took pride in her table. Had the visitor +come for the meal alone she would have been amply recompensed. + +But the woman seldom uttered a word, and then only brief questions +regarding the service of the food. She listened smilingly to the +conversation between Tunis and the visitor, but did not enter into +it. It was difficult for the girl to feel at ease under these +circumstances. + +Especially was this so after dinner, when she asked to help Aunt +Lucretia clear off the table and wash and dry the dishes. The woman +made no objection; indeed, she seemed to accept the girl's +assistance placidly enough. But while they were engaged in the +task--a time when two women usually have much to chatter about, if +nothing of great importance--Aunt Lucretia uttered scarcely a word, +preferring even to instruct her companion in dumb show where the +dried dishes should be placed. + +Yet, all the time, the girl could not trace anything in Aunt +Lucretia's manner or look which actually suggested suspicion or +dislike. Tunis seemed eminently satisfied with his aunt's attitude. +He whispered to Sheila, when they were alone together: + +"She certainly likes you, Ida May." + +"Are you sure?" the girl asked. + +"Couldn't be mistaken. But don't expect her to tell you so in just +so many words." + +Later they walked about the dooryard and out-buildings--Tunis and +the visitor--and Aunt Lucretia watched them from her rocking-chair +on the porch. What her thoughts were regarding her nephew and the +girl it would be hard to guess, but whatever they were, they made +her face no grimmer than usual, and the light in her bespectacled +eyes was scarcely one of dislike or even of disapproval. Yet there +was a strange something in the woman's look or manner which +suggested that she watched the visitor with thoughts or feelings +which she wished neither the girl nor Tunis to observe. + +Late in the afternoon the two young people started back for the Ball +house, taking a roundabout way. They did not even follow the patrol +path, well defined along the brink of Wreckers' Head as far as the +beach. Instead, they went down by the wagon track to the beach +itself, intending to follow the edge of the sea and the channel +around to a path that led up the face of the bluff to the Ball +homestead. It was a walk the girl had never taken. + +The reaction she experienced after having successfully met and +become acquainted with Aunt Lucretia put Sheila in high spirits. +Tunis had never seen her in quite this mood. Although she was always +cheerful and not a little gay about the Ball homestead, she suddenly +achieved a spirit of sportiveness which surprised the captain of the +_Seamew_. But he wholly liked and approved of this new mood. + +She had made herself a new fall frock and a pretty, close-fitting +hat--something entirely different, as he had noticed, from the +styles displayed by the other girls of Big Wreck Cove. And he was +observant enough to see that this outfit was more like what the +girls in Boston wore. + +She ran ahead to pick up a shell or pebble that gleamed at the +water's edge from a long way off. She escaped a wetting from the +surf by a scant margin, and laughed delightedly at the chance she +took. Back against the foot of the bluff certain brilliant flowers +grew--fall blossoms that equaled any in Prudence Ball's garden--and +the girl gathered these and arranged them in an attractive bouquet +with a regard for color that delighted her companion. + +They came, finally, in sight of a cabin back under the bank on the +far side of the little cove, where once Tunis had reaped clams while +Cap'n Ira and the Queen of Sheba made their unfortunate slide down +the face of the bluff. The sea was so low now that Tunis could aid +the girl across the mouth of the tiny inlet on the sand bar which +defended it from the sea. There was but one channel over which she +need leap with his help. + +The cabin captivated Sheila, especially when she learned it was no +longer occupied. It had a tight tin roof and a cement-pipe chimney +with a cap to keep the rain out. The window sashes had been carried +away and the door hung by a single hinge. However, the one-roomed +cabin was otherwise tight and dry. + +"Sometimes fishing parties from the port come around here and camp +for a day or two," explained Tunis. "But Hosea Westcott used to live +here altogether. Even in the winter. He caught his own fish and +split and dried them; he dug clams and picked beach plums and sold +them in town, or swapped them for what he needed. Sometimes the +neighbors gave him a day's work." + +"An old and lonely man, Tunis?" the girl murmured. + +"That is what he was. All his immediate family was gone. So, when he +fell ill one winter and one of the coast guards found him here +almost starved and helpless, they took him away to the poor farm." + +They went on around the end of the headland and walked up the beach +toward the port. Before they reached the path by which they intended +to mount to the summit of Wreckers' Head, they observed another +couple going in the same direction, following the edge of the water +on the firm strand. The woman was dressed in such brilliant hues +that she could be mistaken for nobody but a resident of Portygee +Town. + +"That is the daughter of Pareta, who brought up your trunk when you +came here, Ida May," said Tunis carelessly. + +"But do you see who the man is?" she said, with some surprise. "It +is your cousin." + +"'Rion? So it is. Well," he added rather scornfully, "no accounting +for tastes. She's a decent-enough girl, I guess, but we don't mix +much with the Portygees. Although most of them are all right folks, +at that. But fooling around those girls sometimes starts trouble, +as 'Rion ought to know by this time." + +As they climbed the path, Tunis aiding his companion at certain +places, the girl, looking down, thought they were being closely +watched by the other couple on the beach. There was nothing in this +to disturb her mind; a feeling of confidence had overcome her since +her experience with Aunt Lucretia. Her present environment was so +far from the scenes of her old pain and misery that it seemed +nothing actually could disturb her again. + +The peacefulness of the scene impressed Tunis as well. When they +came up finally upon the brink of the headland they saw a spiral of +smoke rising from one of the chimneys of the distant Ball homestead. +The man pointed to it and, smiling down upon her, repeated a verse +he had read somewhere which he knew expressed the hope she held: + + "I knew by the smoke that so gracefully curled + Above the green elms that a cottage was near; + And I said, 'if there's peace to be found in the world, + A heart that was humble might hope for it here.'" + +"That is pretty near right, don't you think, Ida May?" + +"It is, indeed! Oh, it is!" she cried. "And my heart _is_ humble, +Tunis. I feel that God has been very good to me--and you," she added +softly. + +"I've been mighty good to myself," he responded. "Ida May, there +never was a girl just like you, I guess. Anyway, I never saw such a +one. I--I don't know just how to put it, but I feel that you are the +only girl in the world I can ever feel the same toward." + +"Tunis!" + +He took her hand, looking so hungrily into her face that she, +blushing, if not confused, could not bear his gaze, and the long +lashes drooped to veil the violet eyes. + +"You understand me, Ida May?" whispered the captain of the _Seamew_ +eagerly. "I don't know, fixed as I am, that I've any right to talk +to you like this. But--but I can't wait any longer!" + +She allowed her hand to remain in his warm clasp, and now she looked +up at him again. + +"Have you thought of what all this may mean, Tunis?" she asked. + +"You bet I have. I haven't been thinking of much else--not since the +first time I saw you." + +"What? You felt--felt that you could like me that night when we sat +on the bench so long on the Common?" + +"My Godfrey, Ida May!" he exclaimed. "Since that time you slipped on +the sidewalk in front of that restaurant and I caught you. That's +when I first knew that you were the most wonderful girl in the +world!" + +"Oh, Tunis! Do you mean that?" + +"I certainly do," he said stoutly. + +"That--that you thought _that_? At very first sight?" + +"I couldn't get you out of my mind. I went about in a sort of dream. +Why, Ida May, when Cap'n Ira and Aunt Prue talked so much about +wanting that other girl down here, all I could think of was you! I +half believed it must be you that they sent me for--until I came +face to face with that other girl." + +Her face dimpled suddenly; her eyes shone. The look she gave him +passed through Tunis Latham like an electric shock. He trembled. He +would have drawn her closer. + +"Not here, Tunis," she whispered. "But if you dare take me--knowing +what and who I am--I am all yours. Whenever you feel that you can +take me I shall be ready. Can I say more, Tunis?" + +He looked at her solemnly. "I am the happiest man alive. I am the +happiest man alive, Ida May!" he breathed. + + + + +CHAPTER XVIII + +IDA MAY THINKS IT OVER + + +The _Seamew_ sailed next day, short-handed. Not only had Tony, the +boy, left, but one of the foremast hands did not put in an +appearance. A grinning Portygee boy came to the wharf and announced +that "Paul, he iss ver' seek." + +Tunis knew it would be useless to go after the man, just as it had +been useless to go after Tony. He had been unable to ship another +boy in Tony's place, and when he let it be known among the dock +laborers and loungers about Luiz Wharf that there was a berth open +in the _Seamew's_ forecastle, nobody applied for it. + +"What is the matter with those fellows?" the skipper asked Mason +Chapin. "They were tumbling over each other a few weeks ago to join +us, and now there isn't an offer." + +"Some Portygee foolishness," grumbled the mate. + +"I wonder," muttered Tunis. + +"You wonder if it's so?" queried the mate. "You know how silly +these people are once they get a crazy notion in their heads." + +"What's the crazy notion, Mr. Chapin?" + +The mate flung up his hands and shrugged his shoulders. + +"A haunt--a jinx--_something_. The Lord knows!" + +"I wonder if it is a Portygee notion or something else," said Tunis +Latham, his eyes fixed on the back of Orion, busy, for once, at the +other rail. + +"Whatever it is, Captain Latham," said Mason Chapin with gravity, "I +suggest you fill your berths at Boston." + +"Guess I'll have to. But the offscourings of the city docks! They +will be worse than these Portygees." + +It was not a prospect he welcomed. He well knew the sort of dock +rats he must put up with if he wished to make up his crew with city +hands for a short trip. The sea tramps who are within reach of +coasting skippers are the same kind of worthless material that +shiftless farmers must depend upon in harvest time. + +Even the lack of one man forward, to say nothing of the cook's boy, +made a considerable difference in the working of the schooner. 'Rion +Latham loudly proclaimed that he was being imposed upon when he was +forced to work with the captain's watch. He had shipped as +supercargo and clerk, he had! This treatment was an imposition. + +"You know what you can do about it, 'Rion, if you like," the skipper +said to him calmly, but aside. "I wouldn't want to feel that I was +holding you to a job that you did not like. You can leave the +_Seamew_ any time you want." + +"Huh! The rats will be doing that soon enough," growled 'Rion. + +But he did not say this where Captain Latham could hear. It was +Horry Newbegin who heard him. + +"It strikes me, young feller, that if I quarreled with my victuals +and drink the way you do, I'd get me another berth and get shet of +all this." And the old salt wagged his head. "I don't get you at +all, 'Rion." + +"You wait," growled the younger man. "I'll leave at the right time. +And if things go as I expect, everybody else will leave him flat, +too." + +"You're taking a chance talking that way," admonished the old man. +"It's just as much mutiny as though you turned and hit the skipper +or the mate." + +"It is, is it? I'll show him!" + +"Show who?" asked Horry, in some wonder at the other's spitefulness. + +"That dratted cousin of mine. Thinks he owns the earth and sea, as +well as this hoodooed tub of a schooner. Gets the best of +everything. But he won't always. He never ought to have got the +money to buy this old tub." + +"You said you wouldn't have her for a gift," chuckled the old man. + +"But that don't make it any the more right that he should have her. +And she is hoodooed. You know she is, Horry." + +The old mariner was silent. 'Rion craftily went on: + +"Look what a number of things have happened since he put this derned +schooner into commission. We broke an anchor chain in Paulmouth +Harbor, didn't we? And the old mud hook lies there to this day. Did +you ever see so many halyards snap in your life, and in just a +capful of wind? Didn't we have a tops'l carried away--clean--in that +squall off Swampscott? And now the hands are leaving her." + +"Guess you know something about that," growled Horry. + +'Rion grinned. + +"Maybe I do. I don't say 'no' and I don't say 'yes.' However, we've +all got to work like dogs to make up for being short-handed." + +"Nobody is kicking much but you," said the older man. + +"That's all right. I've got pluck enough not to stand being imposed +upon. Them Portygees--well, there's no figuring on what they will +do." + +"I can see you are bent on making them do something that will raise +trouble," Newbegin said, shaking his head once more. + +"What do you expect? You know the _Seamew_ is hoodooed. Huh! +_Seamew_! That ain't no more her rightful name than it is mine." + +"I wouldn't say that." + +"I would!" snapped 'Rion. "She's the _Marlin B._, out o' Salem. No +matter what he says, or anybody else. She's the murder ship. If he +sailed her over that place outside o' Salem Harbor where those poor +fellows was drowned, they'd rise again and curse the schooner and +all aboard her." + +The old man shuddered. He turned his face away and spat reflectively +over the rail. The tug of the steering chains to starboard was even +then thrilling the cords of his hands and arms with an almost +electric shock. 'Rion watched him slyly. He knew the impression he +was making on the old man's superstitious mind. He played upon it as +he did upon the childish minds of some of the Portygee seamen. + +So Captain Tunis Latham did not arrive in Boston in a very calm +frame of mind. Although he had no words with 'Rion, and really no +trouble with the crew in general, he felt that trouble was brewing. +And the worst of it was, it was trouble which he did not know how to +avert. + +It was not so easy to fill the empty berth in the forecastle, even +from the offscourings of the docks. It was a time when dock labor +was at a premium. And short voyages never did interest good +sailormen. In addition, knowing that the _Seamew_ sailed from her +home port, decent seafarers wanted to know what was the matter with +her that the captain could not fill his forecastle at that end. + +These men wondered about Captain Latham, too. They judged that +infirmities of temper must be the reason his men did not stay with +the schooner. He was, perhaps, a driver--too quick with his fist or +the toe of his boot. Questions along this line were bound to breed +answers--and answers from those members of the _Seamew's_ crew who +were not friendly to the skipper. + +In some little den off Commercial Street 'Rion Latham had +forgathered with certain dock loiterers, and, after that, word went +to and fro that the _Seamew_ was haunted. If she ever sailed off +Great Misery Island, the crew of a run-under Salem fishing smack +would rise up to curse the schooner's company. And that curse would +follow those who sailed aboard her--either for'ard or in the +afterguard--for all time. In consequence of this the only man who +applied for the empty berth aboard the _Seamew_ was more than a +little drunk and so dirty that Captain Latham would not let him +come over the rail. + +Nor could the young shipmaster give much time to looking up hands. +He had freight ready for his return trip. It must be got aboard, +stowed properly, and advantage taken of the tide and a fair wind to +get back to the Cape. He had not been in the habit of going up into +the city at all of late. If that girl behind the lace counter of +Hoskin & Marl's had expected to see Tunis Latham again, she had been +disappointed. Her warm invitation to him to call on her--possibly to +take her again to lunch--had borne only Dead Sea fruit. He had +accepted her decision regarding the Balls and Cape Cod as final and +irrevocable. At least, he had had no intention of ever going back +and discussing the suggestion again. + +The possibility of the real Ida May Bostwick changing her mind and +reconsidering her refusal to communicate with the Balls or visit +Wreckers' Head never once entered Tunis' mind, if it had Sheila +Macklin's. He had seen how scornfully the cheap little shop-girl had +refused the kind offer extended to her by her old relatives. He +could not have imagined her thinking of the old people and their +home and Big Wreck Cove in any different way. + +He was quite right in this. Ida May Bostwick never would have looked +upon these several matters differently. The thing was settled. Born +and bred in the city, she could not conceive of any sane girl like +herself deliberately burying herself down on the Cape, to "live on +pollock and potatoes," as she had heard it expressed, and be the +slave of a pair of old fogies. + +Not for her! She would not think of it. Indeed, this phase of the +offer Tunis had brought her really made Ida May Bostwick angry. What +did he think she was, anyway? In fact, she was inclined to think +that that seafaring person had almost insulted her. Although she had +deliberately spoken of him as her "Cousin Tunis" to the girls who +were her confidantes in the store and to her landlady, who was +likewise curious about him, Ida May Bostwick was much pleased by the +thought of him. + +Then she began to compare Tunis with the young men she knew in +Boston. She knew that the young men she got acquainted with were +either very light minded or downright objectionable. If any of them +contemplated marriage at all, they knew it could not be undertaken +upon the meager salaries they were paid. Marriage meant teamwork, +with the girl working down-town just as hard as ever, and then +working at night when she went home, and on Sundays, even if she and +her bridegroom lived only in a furnished room and did light +housekeeping. + +Ida May Bostwick had a brain explosion one day when she considered +these all-too-evident facts. She said: + +"I bet _that_ fellow wouldn't expect his wife to stand behind a lace +counter and take the sass of floorwalkers and buyers, as well as +lady customers, all day long. Not much! He's a regular guy, if he is +a hick. My gracious! Don't I wish he'd come back! If I ever get my +claws on him again--" + +Just what she might do to Tunis under those circumstances she did +not even explain to herself. But she began to think of Tunis a good +deal. He was a good-looking man, too. And he spent freely. Ida May +Bostwick remembered the lunch at Barquette's. + +It was true that Sarah Honey had been all Prudence Ball and Aunt +Lucretia Latham and other Wreckers' Head folk believed her to be. +But she died when Ida May was small, and the girl had been brought +up wholly under the influence of the Bostwicks. That family had +lacked refinement and breeding and graciousness of manner to a +degree that would have amazed and shocked Sarah Honey's relatives +down on the Cape. + +Not that the girl thought of Tunis Latham's refinement with any +wistfulness. She thought of his well-filled wallet, that he was +something more than a common sailor, that he undoubtedly owned a +good home, even if it was down at Big Wreck Cove, and that he seemed +"soft" and "easy." + +"A girl might wind him right around her finger, if she went at it +right," Ida May Bostwick finally decided. "Some girl will. I wonder +how long it would take to get him to sell out down there and live up +here in town? My mother came from that awful hole, and she caught a +city fellow. I bet I could do this, if it was worth my while. My +goodness! Why not? + +"There's property there, too. I wonder how much those old creatures +are worth. And how long they will live. He spoke like they needed +somebody because they were sick. Ugh! I don't like folks when they +are sick. Ma was _awful_. I can remember it. And there was pa, when +he was cripped with rheumatism before he died." + +This phase of the matter fairly staggered Ida May Bostwick. She put +the faint glimmerings of the idea out of her mind--or tried to. Yet +that summer she kept delaying her vacation until all the other girls +had come back and related all their adventures--those that had +actually happened and those that they had imagined. + +"Ain't you going to take any time off, Ida May?" they asked. + +At last she said she expected to visit her folks "down on the Cape." + +"You remember that nice-looking farmer that came in to speak to me +that time and took me to lunch at Barquette's?" she asked Miss +Leary. + +"I know you _said_ he took you there." + +"Well, he did, smarty! He's my cousin--of course, not too close." +And Ida May giggled. "Well, we've been corresponding." + +"I hope it's all perfectly proper," grinned Miss Leary. + +Ida May Bostwick stuck out her tongue. But she laughed. + +"I've got a good mind," she said to her friend, "to go down and see +that fellow's folks. They're well fixed, I guess. And the store pays +you for one week of your vacation. I wouldn't lose much, even if it +did turn out to be a dead-and-alive hole." + + + + +CHAPTER XIX + +THE ARRIVAL + + +There was a driving road down past Latham's Folly and on across +certain sand flats and by cranberry bogs to a small settlement where +Prudence had a stepsister still living. This old woman lived with +her granddaughter's husband's kinsfolk, who were so distantly +related to Cap'n Ira's wife that the relationship could scarcely be +followed. + +"It takes us Cape Codders," remarked Cap'n Ira, "to study out the +shoals and channels of kinship. It's 'cause we're such good +navigators that we're able to do it." + +"And now that we've got Ida May to harness up Queenie for us and +look after the house while we're gone, and you feel so much spryer +yourself, Ira, I don't see why we can't visit our folks a little," +Prudence said. + +He agreed, and they set off in high fettle just before noon, +expecting to return before dark. Sheila was upstairs dusting when, +not long after the noon hour, she saw from one of the windows the +spread canvas of the _Seamew_--there was no mistaking the +schooner--making through the channel into the cove. + +"Tunis is coming! Tunis is coming! Tunis is coming soon!" + +Her heart sang the refrain over and over again. She fairly danced +about the household tasks she had set herself to do while the old +couple were absent. Now and again she ran to some point where she +could watch the _Seamew_. The memory of Tunis' kisses were on her +lips and in her heart. In the dusk of the previous Monday morning, +when he was on his way to the port to take command of his schooner, +the young shipmaster had held her in his arms at the back door +there, and had told her over and over again of his love for her. +Thought of that moment was an exquisite memory to the girl. + +She saw the schooner drop anchor off Portygee Town, with all its +canvas rattling down in windrows of white. She even saw the little +gig launched. Tunis was coming ashore. He would soon be up the hill. +His long strides would soon bring him to her side again--open-eyed, +ruddy-faced, a veritable sea god among men! + +She ran out a dozen times to gaze down the road and wonder what kept +him. Then she turned her back on the road and spent the next half +hour in beating the dust out of all the parlor and sitting room +sofa pillows and one or two of the covered chairs. + +Peace, like the sunshine itself, lay over all of Wreckers' Head. +Here and there a spiral of smoke rose from a chimney, and fowl +wandered about the well-reaped fields. But not much other life was +visible. The fall haze gave to distant objects a dimmer outline, +softening the sharp lineaments of the more rugged landscape. Color +and form took on new beauty. + +It was all so lovely, so peaceful, that it was impossible that the +girl should have dreamed of what was approaching. Since she had come +her mind had not been so far from apprehension of disaster. Since +Sunday, when she had wandered with Tunis along the shore, it had +seemed to the young woman that no harm could assail her. She was +secure, sheltered, impregnably fortified both in Tunis' love and in +the situation she had gained with the Balls and in the community. + +She knew, at last, that somebody was on the road, but she would not +look. She heard the latch of the gate and the creak of its hinges. +Somebody was behind her. How softly Tunis stepped! She thought that +he was approaching her quietly, believing he could surprise her. In +a moment she would feel his arms about her and would surprise him by +laying her head back against his breast and putting up her lips to +be kissed. + +But, as he delayed, she turned her head ever so slyly. It was not +the heavily shod feet of Tunis Latham she saw. What she saw was a +pair of the very lightest of pearl-gray shoes, wonderful of arch and +heel. Above were slim ankles and calves incased in fiber-silk hose +the hue of the shoes. + +She flashed a glance at the face of the stranger, and her gaze was +immediately held by a pair of fixed brown eyes. There were green +glints in the eyes--sharp, suspicious gleams that warned Sheila, +before the other uttered a word, to set watch and ward upon her own +lips. Not that she suspected who the stranger was. + +"Good afternoon," was her greeting. + +"Is this where the Balls live?" was the demand, with a note in the +voice which betokened both weariness and vexation. + +"Yes." + +The girl set down her bag and gave a sigh of relief. + +"Well, I am glad! I thought I'd never get here. I never did hear of +such a hick place! No taxi, of course, and not even a hack or any +other carriage to be hired. I've walked _miles_. And such a rough +road!" + +The parlor settee and easy-chairs had just been brought outdoors +for their weekly beating and dusting. Sheila pointed to a seat. + +"Do sit down," she urged. "It is a long walk from the port." + +"You said it! And after riding over from Paulmouth in that dinky old +stagecoach, too," went on the stranger, as though holding Sheila +responsible for some measure of her discomfort. "Say, ain't the +folks home?" She cast a sour look around the premises. "Gee! It's a +lonesome place in winter, I bet." + +"Did you wish to see Mrs. Ball?" asked Sheila, eying the visitor +with nothing more than curiosity. + +"I guess so. She is Mrs. Prudence Ball, isn't she?" + +"Yes. Mrs. Ball and the captain have gone away for the day. I am +ever so sorry. You wished to see her particularly?" + +"I guess I did." The stranger looked her over with more interest. +"Say, how old are the Balls?" + +The abrupt question drew a more penetrating look from Sheila. The +visitor certainly was not Cape bred. Her smart cheapness did not +attract Sheila at all. There was something so unwholesome about her +that the observer had difficulty in suppressing a shudder. Yet her +prettiness was orchidlike. But there are poisonous orchids. + +"They are quite old people," Sheila said, finally answering the +question. "Cap'n Ira is over seventy and Prudence is not far from +that age. You--you are not acquainted with them?" + +"I never saw 'em. But I've heard a lot about 'em," said the +stranger, with a light laugh. "They are sort of relations of mine." + +"You are a relative?" asked the girl. Even then she had no thought +of who this newcomer was. "Cap'n Ira's relative? Or Mrs. Ball's, if +I may ask?" + +"Well, I guess it is the old woman's. But I'm kind of curious to see +'em first, you know, before I make any strong play in the +relationship game. Gee! Is this the parlor furniture?" + +"Some of it," was the wondering rejoinder. + +"Looks like the house, don't it? Down at the heel and shabby. Say, +have they got much money, after all--them Balls? You're a neighbor, +I suppose? You must know 'em well." + +"I live here," said the other girl rather sternly. + +"Huh? You mean around here?" + +"I live here with Cap'n Ira and Mrs, Ball," was the further +explanation. + +"You _do_? You?" + +Her voice suddenly became shrill. It rose half an octave with +surprise. Her gaze, which had merely been insolent, now became +suspicious. She scrutinized Sheila closely. + +"I didn't know the Balls had anybody living with 'em," she resumed +at length. "You ain't been here long, have you?" + +"Oh, for some time," was the cheerful rejoinder. + +"They hire you?" + +"Not--not exactly. You see, I am sort of related to them, too." + +"A relation of this old Cap'n Ira?" + +"Of Mrs. Ball." + +"Huh! Say, what's you name?" + +"My name is Bostwick," was the composed reply. "You did not mention +yours, did you?" + +"_Bostwick?_" + +"They call me Ida May Bostwick," said Sheila, demurely smiling, and +even then without a suspicion of the vortex into which she was being +drawn. + +"_Ida May Bostwick!_" + +The visitor rose out of her seat as though a spring had been +released under her. Her eyes flattened, distended, and sparked like +micaceous rock in the dark. Her hands clenched till the pointed, +highly polished nails bit into the palms. + +"What do you say? _You_ are Ida May Bostwick?" + +At that moment Sheila Macklin saw the light. It smote upon her brain +like a shaft from a great searchlight; a penetrating, cleaving beam +that might have laid bare her very soul before the accusing +stranger. She staggered, retreating, shrinking, but only for a +moment. + +The pallor that had come into her face left it. Color rose softly +under the exquisite skin and there came a haughty uplift of her +chin. She stared back into the blazing, greenish-brown eyes of the +other, her own eyes unafraid, challenging. + +"Do you doubt me?" she demanded, with as much composure as though a +secure position and a conscience quite at ease were hers. "Who are +you? In what way are you interested in my name or in my identity?" + +"Why, you--you--" The visitor was for the moment stricken +speechless. But it was the speechlessness of rage--of wild and +uncontrollable fury. Then she caught her breath. "You dirty cheat, +you! You stand there and tell me you are Ida Bostwick? You've got +gall--you certainly _have_ got gall! + +"I'd like to know who the devil you are? Comin' right here, wormin' +your way into a place that don't belong to you, gettin' on the soft +side of my aunt an' uncle, I s'pose, and thinkin' to grab all they +got when they die. Oh, I know _your_ kind, miss! + +"But I'll show you up. I'll let 'em know what's what and who's who. +They must be precious soft to take a girl like you in and think +she's Ida Bostwick. How _dare_ you?" + +She stamped her foot. She advanced upon the other threateningly. But +the girl she had accused did not retreat. The flush of outrage and +that haughty expression were still upon her countenance. She spoke +very firmly but in a voice so low that it contrasted the more +sharply with the enraged squall of her opponent. She asked: + +"Who are _you_, if you please?" + +"You've cheek to ask me. I'd ought to spit on you, so I had! But +I'll tell you who I am--and it'll hold you for a while, I guess. I +am Ida May Bostwick. You know full and well you are makin' out to +these rich relations of mine that you are me. I'll show you up, +miss! I'll have you whipped--or jailed--or something. The gall of +you!" + +The other girl heard her with unchanging face. Somehow, that steady, +unshrinking look gave Ida May Bostwick pause. It was she who +recoiled. + + + + +CHAPTER XX + +THE LIE + + +The girl who had seized upon the chance of becoming Ida May +Bostwick, and so escaping the horror and despair that enshrouded +Sheila Macklin like a filthy mantle, stood after the first blast as +firm as a rock under the torrent of vituperation and rage which +poured from the other girl's lips. + +The real Ida May--weak, save in venomous hate, unstable as water, as +shallow as a pool of glass--could have joined issue in a +hair-pulling, face-scratching brawl. She was of that breed and +up-bringing. + +Sheila Macklin's very dignity held Ida May Bostwick at arm's length. +With all right and title to the name and place Sheila had usurped, +the new arrival was awed by the impostor's look. Following that +first--and merely instantaneous--expression of horrified surprise at +Ida May's announcement of her identity, this girl, who was so secure +in the confidence of the Balls and the community, proceeded to look +down at the claimant of her achieved position with utter calmness. + +It made the real Ida May almost afraid. Certain as she was of her +own name and the assertion of her own personality, the bold and +unshaken opposition confronting her in the very look of the impostor +abashed Ida May Bostwick. After her first outbreak she was silenced. + +"Do you really know what you are saying?" the girl in possession +asked. "Are you aware that I am Ida May Bostwick? There certainly +cannot be two girls of the same name, both related to Mrs. Prudence +Ball. That is too ridiculous." + +The other gasped. Though red and white by turn, from impotence and +rage, her fury was quelled under the look of the more composed young +woman. + +"There are twenty people almost within call who know me and who can +swear to my name and my assertions that I am Miss Bostwick," went on +Sheila, with a calmness which both frightened and daunted the other. +"Just why you should come here and make such a preposterous claim I +cannot understand. Where do you come from? Who are you--really?" + +Ida May stared, flaccid, helpless. For the time being all her rage, +her rudeness, her amazement, even, drained out of her. For this +impostor to face her down in this way; for her to claim Ida May's +name and identity with such utter calm--such sangfroid; for Sheila +to stand before her and deliberately declare that what Ida May had +known to be her own all her life long--her name and distinctive +character--was actually another's--all this was so monstrous a thing +that Ida May was stunned. + +Suppose--suppose something had really happened to her mind? People +did go mad, Ida May had heard. She had rather a vague idea as to +what insanity was like, but she felt her mind slipping. + +The sure and unafraid expression of the other girl's countenance +gave Ida May no help at all. She was sure that her opponent had not +lost her mind. She was just a wicked, bad, horrid girl who had +somehow got something that belonged to Ida May Bostwick, and meant +to keep it if she could. + +Self-pity filled the visitor's mind in place of the fury she had +expended in her first outburst. She dared not attack the other with +tooth and nail, for she saw now that this girl was as much her +superior in physical strength as she was in strength of character. + +Therefore, Ida May fell back upon tears. She blubbered right +heartily, and, being really weary after her walk from the port, she +fell back into the spring rocker, which squeaked almost as +protestingly as she did, put her beringed hands before her face, and +gave herself to grief. + +Sheila Macklin's expression did not change. She revealed no sympathy +for Ida May Bostwick. If she felt sympathy, it was for that girl +who had been persecuted, unfairly accused of stealing, sent to a +place worse than prison, afterward branded with the stigma of +"jailbird"; that girl whom Tunis Latham had befriended, had rescued +from a situation which she could not think of now without a feeling +of creeping horror. + +Was she going to give over without a fight to this new claimant a +place which had been and still was her only refuge? It could not be +expected that she would do this. She had had no warning of this +catastrophe. There had been no opportunity to prepare for a +situation which must have shocked her terribly in any case. But if +she had only had time-- + +Time? Time for what? To run away? Or to prepare the Balls, for +instance, for the coming of this new claimant? And who knew this +girl who said she was Ida May Bostwick? Sheila Macklin was fully +aware of the history of Sarah Honey, of her marriage which had quite +cut her off from her Cape Cod friends, and of the little that was +known at Big Wreck Cove about her daughter, who, since babyhood, had +never been seen here. + +How was one to be sure if this were really the right Ida May? If one +girl could make the claim and carry it through so easily, why not +another? How could this girl, crying in the rocking-chair, prove her +statement that she was Mrs. Ball's niece? + +These thoughts seethed in Sheila Macklin's brain. She must keep +cool! She must hold herself down, keep control of her own mind, and +keep the whip hand of this girl before her. + +And, then, there was Tunis to think of. The appearance of the real +Ida May Bostwick wrecked all her happiness, of course, with Tunis. +Sheila could not let him continue his association with her. Yet what +course should she pursue to save him? That suddenly became the first +consideration in Sheila Macklin's mind. + +How to do this? How to save Tunis from being overwhelmed by the +result of his own ill-considered deed? Impulse and love on Tunis +Latham's part had brought about this terrible situation. Not that +the girl blamed him in the least. Her thought was to protect the +captain of the _Seamew_ from being sucked into the whirlpool which +she clearly beheld beside her path. + +Save Tunis! It must be done. This little, inconsequential, +weak-minded, loose-lipped girl must not be allowed to wreck Tunis +Latham's life. If people came to accept as true the tale the girl +could relate, Tunis' reputation would be smirched utterly in the +opinion of all Big Wreck Cove folk. + +Much as Sheila Macklin felt that her own happiness with Tunis was +now impossible--a flash of Aunt Lucretia made this realization the +more poignant--he must be sheltered from any folly regarding this +thing. She knew well his impulsive, generous nature. Who had a +fuller knowledge of it than she? + +She must think and act for herself, without any conference with +Tunis. But she must do the only thing, after all, that would balk +this wretched girl from the city--for a time, at least. + +The real Ida May Bostwick had no friends here and no acquaintances +among the people of Big Wreck Cove. It would be no easy matter for +her to establish either credit or the fact of her identity in the +community. It would take time and perhaps be very difficult for Ida +May to bring forward conclusive evidence that would convince the +Balls, or anybody else, of her real personality and prove that the +girl in possession was an impostor. + +All the latter had to do was to maintain her already-accepted +standing, deny the true Ida May's claim, and demand that the latter +show proof of her apparently preposterous statement. At least, some +considerable delay must ensue through Sheila's course before the +girl could convince anybody that she only claimed what was her own. + +Nor need the battle end there. Ida May Bostwick might find it very +difficult to prove to the satisfaction of all concerned that she was +the actual niece of Prudence Ball. The very fact that Tunis had +brought Sheila and introduced her as the girl he had been sent for +was proof so strong that it could not be lightly denied. + +That phase of the matter--that Tunis was as deep in the conspiracy +as she was herself--made Sheila Macklin desperate. She grasped at +this only salvation--straw as it was!--for his sake more than for +her own. + +Later, when she was able to think and plan and plot again, she would +evolve some method of rescuing Tunis from the results of his own +impulsiveness and her weakness in accepting his suggestion as a way +out of her personal difficulties. She should have known better! She +should have scouted the idea at its inception! + +She saw that this position in which she was placed was far and away +more serious than that she had been in when she sat with Tunis upon +the Boston Common bench. She had thought at that time that it needed +little more to make her condition too desperate to bear. She would +now, she felt, give life itself for the privilege of being back +there and able to refuse the reckless plan of escape the captain of +the _Seamew_ had submitted to her. + +She did not for a breath's length blame Tunis for the misfortune +that had overtaken her--overtaken them both, indeed. She had +accepted his plan with open eyes. In her desperation she had even +foreseen the possibility of this outcome. She must blame nobody but +herself. + +But all these thoughts were futile. No use in considering for a +single moment past situations and possibilities. She was confronted +by a grim and adamant present! And that grim present was in the +person of a girl with tear-streaked face who looked up at her, +sobbing. + +"You're the meanest girl I ever heard of. I'll pay you for this. +Think of the gall of you comin' here and tellin' my rich relations +you was me. I never heard of such a thing! It beats the movies, and +and I thought they was just lies. Gee, but you must be a regular +crook! I expect the very clothes you got on my aunt bought and gave +you. I'll put you where you belong!" + +"And suppose I put you where you seem to belong?" interrupted the +girl in possession. "There is such a place as an insane hospital in +this county, I believe. I think you must have either escaped from +such a place, or that you belong in one." + +"Oh!" gasped the other girl, staring up at her amazedly and not a +little terrified by Sheila's emphatic speech. + +"If you really are some distant relative of the family," the latter +continued, "Mrs. Ball may wish to see you. Come into the house and I +will make you a cup of tea. You need it. And you can wait for Mrs. +Ball and the captain to return, if you like." + +Ida May darted to her feet again. + +"A cup of tea of _your_ making!" she cried. "You'd put poison in it! +You must be a wicked girl--anybody can see that. I wouldn't put +anything bad past you. I guess them stories in the movies ain't so +much lies, after all. + +"I want nothing from you, whoever you are, only my name back and the +chance you have grabbed off here. I'll go to the neighbors about it. +I'll tell 'em what you've done. I guess I can find somebody to +believe me." + +Her abrupt halt warned Sheila that there was somebody approaching. +Before she could turn to see who it was, the other girl ejaculated: + +"My goodness! What is it--a junk wagon? Look at that horse, will +you! Say! who's these folks? What a pair of old dubs!" + +Cap'n Ira and Prudence had returned somewhat earlier than Sheila had +expected. Old Queenie came up the lane and turned in at the open +gateway beyond the garden. + +The new girl tugged excitedly at Sheila's arm. + +"Say! Who are they?" she demanded huskily. + +"This is Cap'n Ball and Mrs. Ball," was the reply, and the girl in +possession hurried forward to help them out of the carriage. + +"Ahoy, Ida May!" the captain hailed cheerfully. "What's the good +word?" + +He prepared to climb down. The girl assisted Prudence first. + +"Who's that with you, Ida May?" asked the old woman. Then, with +keener eyes than the captain, she observed the change in the girl's +face. "What's happened? Something has gone wrong, Ida May, I know. +What is it?" + +"That--that girl--" + +Sheila almost choked. How could she prevaricate to the good old +woman who had been so kind to her? + +"Who is she, Ida May?" + +"She says she is your niece," whispered the girl. + +"My niece? Land's sake! I ain't got no niece but you, Ida May. Say, +Ira, do you know this young woman? She ain't none o' your relations, +is she?" + +Cap'n Ira came to the ground finally with a thump of his cane. He +straightened up and started at the new arrival. + +"Red-headed, I swan!" he muttered. "Never was a Ball that I know of +with that color topknot. And she looks like one o' these sandpipers +ye see along shore. Look at that hat!" + +"Ida May says she claims to be our niece," Prudence told him. + +"I swan! I told you we was gettin' mighty popular." + +Sheila, her limbs now trembling so that she feared she would fall, +took Queenie by the head and backed the carriage around. The old +mare would have to be put in her stall and the carryall run under +cover. But the girl was fearful of moving out of earshot. + +Cap'n Ira and Prudence approached the real Ida May. The latter had +been staring at them, marveling. Unlike Sheila, almost everything +that Ida May Bostwick thought was advertised upon her face. + +"My goodness!" considered Ida May. "What a pair of hicks!" + +"You was lookin' for somebody named Ball, I cal'late?" Cap'n Ira +said within Sheila's hearing as she led the gray mare away. + +She could not catch the reply. Whatever the real Ida May said, she +could not stand by to deny it. Besides, the matter must rest for the +present on the evidence, and she did not know yet how much proof Ida +May might be able to advance to strengthen her case. If it rested +upon mere assertion, then Sheila need merely deny its truth and hold +her own! + +And, frightened as she was, that was exactly what Sheila intended to +do. For the sake of Tunis, as well as for her own salvation, she +must stand up against the new girl and hold by her own first +claim--that she was the girl the Balls had sent Tunis for. + + + + +CHAPTER XXI + +AT SWORDS' POINTS + + +Sheila Macklin got Queenie to the stable and unharnessed her. She +ran the carryall into the barn and then closed the big door for the +night, although the sun was still an hour high. She stopped to fling +grain to the poultry, too. These chores she did with the thought in +her mind that she might never do them again for Cap'n Ira and +Prudence. + +If that girl could prove her claim, if she could satisfy the old +people that they had been cheated by Sheila and Tunis Latham, they +might be indignant enough to put her right out--to-night! + +The trio had disappeared into the house. She heard voices from the +sitting room. But she wanted to return the furniture to the front +room and finish the task which the real Ida May's coming had +interrupted. + +She had been strong enough when she carried the chairs and the +settee into the yard, but she could scarcely get them back again. +The strength seemed to have deserted her arms. She staggered in with +the last article of furniture and set it in place. + +The murmur of voices from the room across the hall was steady. What +were they saying? What had Ida May told them? How were the Balls +taking it? Could that cheap, little thing convince the old people +that she was their niece and that the girl they had come to love and +trust was an impostor? Sheila Macklin's heart bled for Cap'n Ira and +Prudence! + +If she must go and they took this other girl in her place, would +they be happy? And they had been happy during these last months! +Would they not miss her if she left them to the mercy of this new +claimant? + +Yes, Sheila loved Cap'n Ira and Prudence. She loved them as though +they were her very own! Not since her father had died had the girl +been so fond of anybody--except Tunis, of course. And what would +Tunis say when he came? + +What would he expect her to do? To admit the truth of Ida May's +claim and give up without a battle? If she did this, she would +expose him as well as herself to infamy. It was a situation that +would have appalled a person of much stronger character than Sheila +Macklin, and she was no weakling. + +No! She could not give up--not without a struggle. As she had first +decided, she must confront the new girl boldly and deny, if she +could, any claim Ida May Bostwick put forward. She must do this for +Tunis even more than for herself. + +She arose determinedly. With this thought, strength surged back into +her limbs as well as into her mind. For a time she had been weak, +undecided. Once more she gathered her energies to oppose the sea of +adversity which threatened to overwhelm her. + +She crossed the hall and opened the sitting room door. Cap'n Ira sat +in his usual chair, leaning forward, with his hands clasped over the +knob of his cane. Prudence, with a wondering look on her face, sat +beside him, and just as far from the new girl as the length of the +room would allow. The latter had been speaking with her usual +vehemence, and she did not even glance at Sheila when the latter +came quietly into the room. + +"Oh, Ida May!" gasped Prudence, and almost ran to her. "Do you know +what she is saying? I never heard of such a thing!" + +"I tell you she _ain't_ Ida Bostwick," cried the other. "Don't you +dare call her that. I'll--" + +"Hoity-toity, young woman! Avast there!" said the captain gruffly. +"We won't get to the rights of this by quarreling. Wait!" + +He looked at Sheila, and his weatherhued countenance was as kindly +of expression as usual. + +"You know what this young woman says?" he asked. + +Sheila nodded, but she held Prudence closely. The old woman was +sobbing. + +"This won't do, you know," said Cap'n Ira. "I swan! It beats my +time. I expect you've got friends somewhere, young woman, and you +ought to be given into their charge. I'm real sorry for you, but +what you say don't sound sensible. Ain't you made a mistake? I +cal'late you heard about us and Ida May--" + +"I tell you," cried the girl, starting to her feet again, the brown +eyes flashing spitefully, "that that thing there is an impostor. +She's got my place. She's took my name. Why, I'll--I'll have her +arrested. Ain't there no police in this awful place?" + +"There's a constable all right," said Cap'n Ira calmly. "But I +wouldn't want to call him in. Not just now, anyway. It looks to me +you wanted a doctor more than you wanted a constable." + +"You think I'm crazy!" gasped Ida May. + +"Well, it looks as though you was a leetle off your course," the old +man told her calmly. "You don't talk with sense, to say the least. +Making the claim you do would make most anybody think you was a +little flighty. Yes, a little flighty, to say the least." And he +wagged his head. + +"Look here," he pursued soothingly. "Have you been sick, perhaps? +You ain't quite yourself, be ye? I knowed a feller once that +thought he was the angel Gabriel and went around with a tin fish +horn, tooting it at all hours of the day and night. But no graves +opened for him and nobody was resurrected. They finally put him in +the booby hatch, poor feller." + +"I'm your niece, I tell you," interrupted Ida May, pointing at +Prudence, who shrank from her immediately in undeniable fear. "My +mother was Sarah Honey before she was married. I guess there must be +enough people in this Big Wreck Cove place who knew her and remember +her to prove who I am." + +"I wouldn't try to do that," said Cap'n Ira thoughtfully. "Telling +such a thing as this among the neighbors would be the surest way of +getting into trouble. That's right. If Prudence--Mrs. Ball--don't +know ye, do you think strangers would be likely to back you up? +Don't you think it would be better to sit down quietly and rest a +while? Maybe you'd better stay with us overnight." + +"Oh, Ira!" gasped his wife. "I wouldn't scurce dare have her stay. +She--she's out of her head. She might do something." + +"I'll do something fast enough!" cried Ida May, stamping her foot. +"I'll do something to that hussy!" + +"You hear her, Ira?" murmured Prudence, trying to draw Sheila away +from the enraged girl. + +"Threatening damage never broke no bones yet," said the captain +calmly. + +"I'll do _her_ some damage," declared Ida May bitterly. "If none of +you won't listen to me, I'll find somebody that will. I'll--" + +She halted suddenly in her wild and angry speech. Her face changed +as if by magic. The flush died in it and the expression of her +sparkling eyes became subdued. A simpering look overspread Ida May +Bostwick's countenance that warned the other girl, at least, that +another person had entered the house. + +Before Sheila could turn to look toward the kitchen door, Ida May +cried: + +"Oh, Cousin Tunis! If you ain't my cousin exactly, I guess you are +pretty near. And ain't I glad you've come! Do you know what this +awful girl is saying--what she is doing here? And these old fools +won't believe me! I never heard of such a thing. Just you tell them +who I am, and I guess they'll make her pack up and get out in a +hurry." + +In the doorway stood the captain of the _Seamew_. The two old people +welcomed his appearance with a satisfaction that could not be +mistaken. + +"I swan, Tunis, you come at a mighty handy time," declared Cap'n +Ira. + +"Oh, Tunis! Take that girl away," cried Prudence faintly, pointing +at Ida May. + +The most difficult thing Sheila Macklin had ever done in all her +life was what she did now. To act and speak a deliberate falsehood +before Tunis Latham! + +She disengaged herself from Prudence, and before the simpering Ida +May could speak again Sheila ran to him. In her face was, for the +moment, all the fear and horror of the situation which she felt. It +was a warning to him, and he was acute enough to understand it even +before she spoke. + +"Oh, Tunis! This girl must be beside herself. She says her name is +Ida May Bostwick and that she is Mrs. Ball's niece." + +Involuntarily Tunis had stretched forth his hands to welcome Sheila. +He drew her closer without giving the Balls any attention +whatsoever. One flashing glance he gave to the girl he held so +gently--a look which was both a promise and a reassurance. Then he +gazed over her head at the smirking Ida May. + +"What's the matter here?" he demanded. + +"Matter enough," said Cap'n Ira, not without marking, however, the +attitude of the two young people he and Prudence loved. He even +nudged his wife, who now stood close beside him. "Matter enough. +That gal there, Tunis, seems to have lost her top-hamper. Leastways, +some of it is mighty loose." + +"Tunis Latham!" gasped the new claimant. "You know who I am. Tell +that girl--" + +She halted again, realizing the young man's expression of +countenance and his attitude with the other girl. She was quick +enough of comprehension to see that this other girl had the +advantage of her with the captain of the _Seamew_ as well as with +her relatives. + +In Ida May's own artful mind she had decided that a smart girl could +easily "twist that fellow around her finger." This girl who had +usurped her name and identity had already succeeded in doing just +that! The girl from Hoskin & Marl's halted, the wrathful flush came +back into her pretty, insipid face, and she almost screamed: + +"What's got into you folks? Are you all crazy? Why, that fellow +knows who I am well enough! I bet he brought that girl here himself +and palmed her off on you." She turned to blaze at Cap'n Ira and +Prudence. "He picked her up somewhere--some low creature! But I'll +show them both up; that's what I'll do. I'll make them both sorry +for cheating me. I guess you folks have got a heap of money, and +that fellow and that girl are trying to get it all. But they won't. +I'll have my rights or--" + +"Belay that!" exclaimed Cap'n Ira suddenly. "We won't listen to no +more such talk. Whatever we have got--Prudence and me--and whoever +you be, young woman, I cal'late we'll do about as we please with it. +I think you have broke loose from them that had you in charge. And +they ought to be hunting for you. Leastways, I guess you'd better +be sent back to 'em." + +"I'm her niece, I tell you!" reiterated Ida May, pointing at +Prudence, who shrank again from the vehement girl. + +Then she whirled on Tunis. She clasped her hands. Into her rage was +distilled some fear because of Cap'n Ira's grim words. + +"You got to help me," she said to the younger man. "You know who I +am, and you daren't deny it!" + +No man can pace the quarter-deck--even of a packet of no greater +importance than the _Seamew_--without having developed the sterner +side of his character. And Tunis Latham came of a long line of +shipmasters who had handled all sorts and conditions of men. If a +skipper does not command the respect of his crew, he'll not get far! + +The grim mask that had settled upon the countenance of the captain +of the _Seamew_ might have stayed the tongue of a more courageous +person than Ida May Bostwick. His severe look and manner appalled +her. + +"See here, young woman, I don't like your tone; nor do I understand +what you mean. Who do you say this is, Ida May?" he added more +gently, looking down into Sheila's face again. + +"She--" + +"_I'm_ Ida May Bostwick. You know I am!" wailed the visitor. +"Why--why, you must remember me, Tunis Latham. Don't you call her by +my name. I won't stand it." + +"Mad as a hatter! Mad as a hatter!" muttered Cap'n Ira to Prudence. + +"There's something the matter with her, is there?" proceeded Tunis +thoughtfully, eying the claimant as though she was indeed an utter +stranger. "How did she get here? What does she want?" + +"She wants a strait-jacket, I cal'late," said Cap'n Ira. "I don't +know what is best to do about her. Prudence says she won't have her +in the house overnight. 'Twould be too bad to have to put her in the +town lockup." + +"You _dare_ to!" shrieked Ida May, with courage born of desperation. + +Tunis put Sheila tenderly aside. He crossed the room to the other +girl. He showed no manner of sympathy for her, but he spoke quietly. + +"This won't do, you know. Mr. and Mrs. Ball don't want you here. You +have no claim on them--none at all. Even if you chanced to be a +relation, they have not got to take you in if they don't want to." + +"They've taken that other girl in!" cried Ida May wildly. + +"That is their business. They want her. They don't want you. You +have no more standing here than you would have if you went into the +house of the governor of the State and demanded recognition there." + +"What a wicked man you are!" gasped Ida May. "And--and I thought you +was a simp!" + +Tunis did not even change color. He addressed her as though he +believed she was not right in her mind. Sheila watched him, not now +in fear, but in wonder. She had thought she must battle with this +girl for Tunis' name and reputation. But the captain of the _Seamew_ +had seized the reins of affairs himself and was likely to do much +better in the emergency than Sheila could ever dream of doing. + +"Come, now," said Tunis Latham calmly. "I do not know where you +belong or where you came from last. But you cannot stay here. Cap'n +Ira and Aunt Prue do not want you. If you have any friends near--" + +"I've got friends all right! You'll find out that I've got 'em!" +gasped the girl threateningly. + +"You know anybody in Big Wreck Cove?" + +"No, I don't. I've just come here. But I mean to stay here till I +get my rights. I'll show you all!" + +"You can't show us anything to-night," interposed Tunis firmly. +"Whatever you mean to try to do cannot be done right now, you know. +You will have to sleep somewhere, and I shall have to do one of two +things--no, one of three things." + +She looked at him wonderingly, but she was listening. + +"I will take you back to the port. You cannot go home--wherever you +live--to-night. In the morning you can go over with Ben Craddock on +the stage to Paulmouth." + +"I won't!" The girl's determination was roused. There was a stubborn +streak in her character that would make her a bitter antagonist. +Tunis, as well as Sheila, realized this. + +"All right," said the captain of the _Seamew_ calmly. "Then I'll get +you a place to stay down in the port. Or I shall have to see the +justice of the peace and have you committed for your own safety." + +"You don't dare!" cried Ida May again. + +"You tempt me too far, young woman," he said sternly, "and you'll +find just how much I dare. Will you come along with me now and +behave yourself?" + +"That's the ticket, Tunis," muttered Cap'n Ira. "Put her where she +belongs." + +"So my own folks turn me out, do they?" cried Ida May, hatefully, +staring at the two old people. "If anybody is crazy it is those +two," and she pointed to the Balls. "Take in a drab like that girl +and throw _me_ out. Why, I believe I've seen her before. Somehow, +she looks familiar," she added, her sharp gaze fixed on Sheila +again. "Well, wherever it was, she was up to no good, I'll be +bound." + +"Are you coming with me willingly, and now?" put in Tunis more +harshly. "You are taking a chance, young woman, in talking this +way." + +"Oh, she's got _you_ going. That's plain to be seen! I thought you +was a nice fellow. But I guess you're like other sailors. I always +heard they was a bad lot--running after women--" + +"Will you come without any more words?" interrupted Tunis grimly. + +"I'll have to go back to the town, I suppose. But remember! This +ain't the end of this," she weakly blustered. + +"This your bag?" said Tunis calmly, picking up Ida May's satchel. +"All right. We'll go." + +He did not attempt to look at Sheila again, nor at Cap'n Ira and +Prudence. He walked behind Ida May, but rather hustled her out of +the door. She might have cast back some final defiance, but he gave +her no chance. + +It was almost twilight when they went out at the kitchen door. They +left the trio in the sitting room speechless for the moment. But +Sheila Macklin's speechlessness arose through different thoughts +from those of the Balls. + +The girl left behind realized that this almost unexpected outcome +was but the momentary triumph of falsehood. + + + + +CHAPTER XXII + +A WAY OUT + + +"Ida May, you'd better sit down. You look like you'd had a stroke," +declared the captain. + +"Why wouldn't she, the dear child?" cried Prudence. "What do you +suppose is the matter with that girl? Is she crazy?" + +"Crazy ain't no name for it," her husband rejoined. "Her top-hamper +is all askew, I cal'late. I never see the beat." + +But just now Sheila could not endure any discussion of the strange +girl. She rose as quickly as she had seated herself. + +"I must fix supper," she said briskly. "You sit still, Aunt +Prudence. You're flustered, I can see. There is nothing for you to +do." + +"That's right," put in Cap'n Ira. "Get a bite ready against Tunis +comes back. He'll want something fillin' after handling that crazy +gal." + +He winked at Prudence and nudged her. The outstanding incident for +the old man was the unmistakable signs Tunis and Sheila had given +that they were in love with each other. + +"What did I tell ye when that gal first come here?" whispered Cap'n +Ira hoarsely, when the girl had left the room. "I knowed that the +hull generation here on the Cape hadn't been struck blind, not by a +jugful! And it's evident to my mind, Prudence, that Tunis Latham has +had his eyes pretty wide open from the first." + +"Oh! I hope--it can't be that Ida May would leave us," murmured +Prudence. "I don't mean to be selfish." + +"Looks like we could get another gal easy enough if we wanted her," +remarked the old man, with some bitterness. "I swan, Prue! S'pose +Ida May had turned out to be the sort of a gal that flyaway critter +is? We are blessed; we certainly are." And he treated himself to a +liberal pinch of snuff. + +Sheila did not wish to hear the two old people talk about the real +Ida May Bostwick. When Tunis took the girl away it was an enormous +relief. Of that she was quite sure. The malevolent attitude of the +frustrated Ida May was sufficient to frighten anybody. + +Shelia was positive enough that, as Ida May had promised, the matter +was not ended. That venomous girl would not be content to leave Big +Wreck Cove without making a further attempt--perhaps many--to +establish herself in her right identity and in what she considered +her rightful place with the Balls. + +Supper was late that evening. They were only just seated at the +table when Tunis returned. + +"Come on, boy," said Cap'n Ira. "There's a place set for you. Tell +us what you did with that crazy girl." + +Sheila was busy between the stove and the table and did not come to +the side of the captain of the _Seamew_ as he took the chair +indicated. He was not smiling as usual, but neither did he seem +alarmed. He replied to the questions of the old people with +tranquillity. + +"I did not advise her to go to the Burchell House," Tunis said. "You +know what a talker Sally Burchell is. I remember that Mrs. Pauling +took boarders in the summer, and I went to her with that girl." + +"You mean Zeb's mother?" asked Prudence. "Well, she'll take care of +her, I guess. And Zeb is strong and willing. If she gets crazy in +the night, they ought to be able to hold her." + +A faint smile flickered for a moment about Tunis Latham's stern +lips. + +"I don't guess she will act up so very bad with strangers." + +"I swan! We was strangers enough to her, it would seem," exclaimed +Cap'n Ira. + +"But she seems to consider that you ought not to be," Tunis pointed +out. + +"Never heard of such a thing!" muttered the old man. + +"I would have been glad to get her out of town this very night," +Tunis observed quietly. "But it could not be done. She is convinced +that she has what she calls 'rights,' and she proposes to remain and +fight for them." + +"I swan!" + +"You will have to be firm with her. I explained to Zeb's mother what +we thought was the matter with her. And I'll try to find her +friends. She says she comes from Boston." + +"Goodness gracious gallop!" exclaimed the old woman, more angry than +frightened now. "She certainly can't stay here and tell those awful +things she was saying about Ida May." + +"I don't really see how we are going to stop her, right at first," +Tunis rejoined. "Of course, if she continues to come up here and +bother you, you can have her arrested." + +"Oh!" gasped Sheila. + +"Now, gal," said Cap'n Ira firmly, "don't you let your tender heart +deceive you. That crazy critter ain't worth worrying about. She +shan't be hurt. But I won't have her coming round here frightening +you and Prudence. No, sir!" + +"Quite right," said Tunis, agreeing. + +"Oh, Tunis!" murmured the girl. + +"But she will make talk. No doubt she will make talk," said Prudence +in a worried tone. "We ought to stop her, somehow, from telling such +things about our Ida May." + +"Does she want money?" asked Cap'n Ira gruffly. "She talked as +though she did." + +"I think to offer her money would be the very worst possible way of +shutting her up," said Tunis. "She wants to come here and live and +be accepted as your niece." + +"I never did!" gasped Prudence. + +"She says nothing else will suit her. She seems to think she can +prove what she had claimed. I think the best thing to do is to let +her try it." + +Sheila could not eat. She merely stared from one to the other of the +three and listened to the discussion. In no way could she see a +shadow of escape from ultimate disaster; yet she saw that Tunis was +determined to fight it out on this line, to deny the stranger's +claim and hold to what had already been gained for the girl in +possession! + +"Well," Prudence said, with a sigh, "I can see plainly it is going +to stir up a puddle of muddy water. Unless she says or does +something that makes the authorities take her and put her away, +there will be them that will believe her--or half believe her." + +"Let 'em talk," growled Cap'n Ira. "'Twon't be the first time Big +Wreck Cove folks got a mouthful to chew." + +"But it will hurt Ida May," said Prudence, her voice trembling, as +she squeezed the girl's hand and held it. + +"'Sticks and stones may break my bones, but names will never hurt +me,'" began Cap'n Ira. Then he broke off in anger when he saw the +girl's face, and exclaimed: "But, I swan! They'll keep you dodging, +and that's a fact! Ought to be some way of shutting her up, Tunis." + +"I don't know how that is going to be done. Not just at first, +anyway. Perhaps something will turn up. And, anyway, she hasn't +begun to talk yet." + +"It's like being tied down to one o' them railroad tracks and +waiting for the fast express to come along and crunch ye," grumbled +the old man. "I know how Ida May feels. But you keep a stiff upper +lip, my gal. You've got plenty of friends that won't listen to any +such crazy notions as that other gal's got in her noodle." + +In this manner the old folks comforted themselves in part. But +nothing that was said could comfort Sheila. Tunis smoked a pipe with +Cap'n Ira after supper, while the girl cleared off the table and +washed and dried the dishes. Then he got her outside just after he +had bidden Cap'n Ira and Prudence good night. + +They walked away silently from the kitchen door into the deep murk +of a starless night. The moaning of a rising sea upon the outer +reefs was the requiem of Sheila's hopes. One thing, she saw clearly, +she must do. If she remained and fought for her place with the +Balls, she must stand alone. Whether or not she held her place, she +must not allow Tunis to be linked with her in this situation. As she +slipped deeper and deeper into the morass, she could not cling to +him and drag him as well into infamy and disgrace. + +Away from the house, fully out of earshot from the kitchen, she +halted. Tunis had taken her hand in his warm, encouraging grasp. She +let it remain, but she did not return his pressure. + +"Dear, this is dreadful," he whispered, "I know. But leave it to me. +I'll find some way out." + +"There is no way out, Tunis," she said confidently. + +"Cat's-foot! Don't say that," he cried in exasperation. "There is +always a way out of every jam." + +"This girl will do one of two things," said Sheila firmly. "Either +she will prove her claim, or she will give up and go back to Boston. +You know that." + +"She'll fight hard, I guess" he admitted. + +"Either way, Tunis," the girl pursued, "there is bound to be much +doubt cast upon my character--upon _me_. If the truth becomes known, +I am utterly lost. If it is hushed up, I must go on living a +lie--if I stay here." + +"Don't talk that way!" he exclaimed gruffly. "Of course you'll stay +here. If not with the Balls, then with me." + +"Stop!" she begged him. "Wait! I am going to state the matter +plainly as it is. We can no longer dodge it. This is the _truth_ +which we have been trying to ignore. I have not been foolish only; I +have been wicked. And my greatest sin was in allowing you to link +yourself with me so closely." + +"What do you mean?" he gasped. + +"Just what I say. It was wrong for me to allow you to be friendly +with me before the Balls and other people. I should not have gone to +your house last Sunday. I should not have allowed you to introduce +me to your Aunt Lucretia." + +"Ida May!" + +"That is not my name," she whispered. "Let there be no further +mockery between you and me, Tunis. I have been wicked; _we_ have +been wicked. We must pay for what we have done. There is no escaping +that. I must not keep you as my lover, Tunis. I was wrong--oh! so +wrong--last Sunday. Reckless, wicked, drifting with a current, I +scarcely knew where." + +"My dear girl--" + +"Now I see the rocks ahead, Tunis. I can shut my eyes to them no +longer. Disaster is at hand. You shall not be overwhelmed, as I may +be overwhelmed at any time. I will not have your ruin on my +conscience!" + +"My ruin?" he repeated. "Ridiculous! My dear girl, you are talking +like a mad woman. You cannot snap the tie that binds us. You cannot +shoulder all the responsibility for this situation. The sin is as +much mine as yours, if it is a sin. I'm in it as deep as you are." + +"You must not be," she cried. "You can escape. You _shall_ escape." + +"Suppose I refuse to do so?" And he said it confidently. + +"Tunis, I have thought of a way out for you," she cried suddenly. + +"I don't want to hear it." + +"But you must hear it!" + +"I will not accept it." + +"You cannot help yourself," she told him firmly. "Oh, I know what I +am about! You may be angry; you will perhaps be laughed at a bit. +But to be laughed at is better than to be scorned." + +"What under the sun do you mean, girl?" he exclaimed, both startled +and horrified by her determined words. "Do you think I would desert +you in the middle of the current and swim ashore?" + +"But I will desert you. I am determined to desert you. I refuse to +cling to you, a millstone about your neck to drag you down. Ah, +Tunis, whether or not that girl makes her claim good, what you and +I had hoped for cannot be! An explanation must be made of your part +in this frightful affair. That, in itself, must separate you and +me." + +"What explanation? There is no such explanation that can be made. I +glory in the fact that we are together in this, Sheila, and whatever +comes of it, we stand or fall together!" + +"Ah, Tunis, you _are_ a man! I knew that before. But nothing you can +say will bend my determination. I withdraw all I said to you Sunday +and on Monday morning before you went away. I positively withdraw +all I promised you. It cannot be, Tunis. We cannot look forward to +any happiness when we began so unwisely." + +"'Unwisely?' What do you mean?" demanded the captain of the +_Seamew_. "Chance threw us together. _Providence_, I tell you! I +needed you fully as much as you needed me. And surely these poor old +folks needed you, Sheila. Consider what you have been to them." + +"It makes no difference in our association, Tunis," she said, +shaking her head. + +"Why, that night we talked upon that bench on Boston Common, had I +dared propose such a thing, I would have said: 'Come and marry me +now.' I would, indeed, Sheila." + +The girl clenched her hands and drew in a breath. She raised her +face to his, and in the darkness Tunis Latham saw it shine with a +light from within. A great and desperate longing filled her voice +when she cried: + +"Oh, why didn't you do just that, Tunis Latham? I would have said +'yes.' And all this--_this_ need not have been." + +Swiftly she caught him around the neck, pressed her lips fiercely to +his, while the tears rained down her face, wetting his face as well. +Then she was gone. He heard her sobbing wildly in the dark. He was +alone. + + + + +CHAPTER XXIII + +A CALL UNANNOUNCED + + +Cap'n Ira and Prudence did not see Sheila again that evening, for +she slipped in by the kitchen door after they had gone into the +sitting room and went up to her own chamber. They heard her mount +the stairs and marked the tread of her light feet overhead. + +The girl was not thinking of the old people just then. Their need +entered into her determination to remain if she could. But this +night was one time when Sheila Macklin thought almost altogether of +herself and her personal difficulties. + +Her present and acknowledged love for the young captain of the +_Seamew_ had been of no mushroom growth. She might not say, as Tunis +did, that she had fallen in love at first sight. But very soon after +meeting the young shipmaster from Big Wreck Cove she had appreciated +his full value and realized that he was far and away the best man +she had ever met. + +Indeed, in that moment when Tunis Latham had caught Sheila in his +arms as she had slipped in front of the restaurant on Scollay +Square, the girl's mind had been stabbed through by such a poignant +feeling, such a desire to know more about him, that she was actually +frightened by the strength of this concern. + +She knelt before her north window with the frosty air breathing in +like a balm upon her fevered body, and strained her eyes for a +glimpse of the light that always burned in Tunis' window when he was +at home. It was a long time before she saw it. For Tunis Latham had +walked about the fields a long time after she left him, and it was +late when he finally entered the big brown house behind the cedars. + +Aunt Lucretia, who had been expecting him, after she had seen the +_Seamew_ heading for the cove that afternoon, was still sitting in +the kitchen when her nephew entered. Composed as the man's features +were, there was still an expression upon them which startled the +woman. It brought her out of her chair, even if it did not bring an +audible question to her lips. + +"I was delayed, Aunt 'Cretia," he said. "No; nothing new about the +_Seamew_ or about business. It's--there's trouble up to the Balls'." + +He knew her first thought would be for the health of the two old +people, and he had to explain a little more. + +"They are all right--Cap'n Ira and Aunt Prue. It's about Sh--Ida +May." + +"Tunis! Nothing has happened to the girl?" + +He must take Aunt Lucretia into his confidence--at least, to some +extent. Just how much could he tell her? How much dared he tell her? + +From somebody, he felt sure, she would hear about this other girl +who had appeared to claim kinship with the Balls and demand that +Sheila give over to her the place she had with Cap'n Ira and +Prudence. For Ida May Bostwick was going to talk. Tunis knew that +well enough. Although he had warned her sternly that evening against +talking, he knew well enough that after the girl had recovered from +her first fright she would spit out the venomous tale that she had +already concocted in her mind about Sheila and himself. + +He could not bring himself to confess to Aunt Lucretia all the truth +about his first meeting and subsequent association with Sheila. +Indeed, he hoped he would never be obliged to tell it. + +But he must tell Aunt Lucretia nothing but the truth. He did this by +beginning at the coming of the real Ida May Bostwick to the Ball +house that afternoon and her claim to Sheila's place with the +family. As he told the story, Aunt Lucretia gazed upon him so +fixedly, so intently, that the captain of the _Seamew_ was +disturbed. He could not understand her expression. + +Perhaps he told the story haltingly of how Ida May had been turned +out and he had taken her back to the port and housed her with Mrs. +Pauling. He made few comments, however; he left Aunt Lucretia to +draw her own conclusions. It was not until he had quite finished +that she spoke again. + +"That crazy girl, is she--" + +"I don't know that she's crazy," said Tunis gruffly. + +"It would seem so. Does she look like Ida May?" + +Tunis started. The question seemed to probe into a matter that he +had not before considered. But he shook his head negatively. + +"Nothing like her," he said. "Reddish hair. Brown eyes--or kind of +brown. When she's maddest there are green lights in 'em. Not nice +eyes at all." + +Aunt Lucretia nodded and said no more upon that point. What her +question had dealt with in her own mind, Tunis could not guess. She +watched his face, now pale and sadly drawn. Then she placed a firm +hand upon his arm to arouse his attention. + +"Tunis! This--this girl at Cap'n Ira's is something to you?" + +"My God! Aunt 'Cretia, she's _everything_ to me," he groaned, his +reticence breaking down. + +"Is she a good girl, Tunis?" + +"As good as gold. On my honor, there was never a nobler or better +girl. I--I love her!" The words burst from him now in a great gush +of emotion. These Lathams, when they did break up, often ran over. +"I can't tell you the hold she has on me. If I lose her through this +or any other cause, I'm done for! + +"She thinks she isn't good enough for me. She is afraid of this girl +who claims her place. She fears that I am going to be looked down on +if I have anything more to do with her. And I tell you, if she was +not the girl I know her to be, I would still cling to her. I must +have her. I tell you, I must!" + +Tears came to his eyes. His voice, hoarse and broken, carried to the +woman's heart the knowledge that the one and overpowering passion of +the man's life was rampant within him. What or whoever the girl at +the Ball homestead might be, Tunis Latham was bound to her by ties +which could not be broken. + +She did the thing most generous; quite in accordance with her +unselfish disposition. She stepped nearer to her nephew and put her +arms about his neck. She kissed him. She gave no further evidence of +doubt or disapproval. Indeed, when he left her to go to his room, he +was assured that, however the world might look upon him, Aunt +Lucretia was his supporter. + +The girl in the Ball house saw the glimmer of his lamp that night +for a very few minutes. There was a day's work before him, and +Tunis Latham, like other hard-working men, must have his sleep. + +Sheila kept the night watches alone. She went to bed, but the lids +of her eyes could not close. Sleep was as far from her as heaven +itself. She went over the entire happenings of the previous +afternoon and evening with care, giving to each incident its +rightful importance, judging the weight of each word said, each look +granted her. Did the Balls suspect her in the least? Had the story +Ida May Bostwick told made any real impression upon their minds? + +No! She finally told herself that thus far she was secure. Ida May +must bring something besides assertion to influence the minds of the +two old people. And if she had had documentary proof in her +possession yesterday, the new claimant would have shown it. + +Nobody carries about with him birth certificate or memoranda of +identification and relationship. If Ida May had been warned of what +she was to meet at the old house on Wreckers' Head, without doubt +she would have tried to equip herself in some such way for the +interview. + +It might be very difficult for the girl to obtain any evidence that +would assure the Balls of her actual relationship to them. Sheila +had foreseen this possibility from the first. She was still quite +determined to hold on, to make the other girl do all the talking +and all the proving. She herself would rest upon the foundation of +her establishment in the place Ida May Bostwick claimed. + +The latter certainly could not know Sheila's true history. Sheila +was as much a stranger to Ida May as she had been to the Balls when +Tunis had brought her to Wreckers' Head. + +And then, suddenly, a thought seared through the girl's mind. +Something that Ida May Bostwick had said just before Tunis hurried +her out of the house! + +"I believe I've seen her before. Somehow, she looks familiar." + +These two sentences, spoken in Ida May's sneering way, had made +little impression on the excited Sheila at the time they were +spoken. But now they made the girl's heart beat wildly. + +Suppose it were true! Suppose Ida May should really remember who +Sheila was? It was not impossible that the girl from the lace +counter of Hoskin & Marl's knew of Sheila's disgrace. + +Sleep was not within her reach. The long hours of the night dragged +past. Dimly dawn crept along the dark line of the horizon, circling +all her world as far as Sheila could see it from her bed. But it was +still dark below her north window when she caught the sound of a +familiar step, the crunch of gravel under Tunis' boot. + +She lay shaking for a moment, holding her breath. She heard the tiny +pebbles rattle upon the window sill. For the first time she had not +been downstairs to greet Tunis on his way to the port. Could she let +him go now without a word? + +But she must! She must be firm. + +Nevertheless, she slipped softly out of bed. The pebbles rattled +again. She caught up a dark veil from her bureau and wrapped it +about her face. She crept to the north window. The veil would mask +her face so that he could not distinguish it in the shadow. + +But she could look down upon him. She saw him standing there so +firmly--so determinedly. His was no nature to give over easily +anything he had set his heart on. All the more reason why Sheila +should not appear to weaken. + +She crouched there breathlessly as he tossed up more pebbles. Then +she heard him sigh. Then he turned slowly away, and his feet dragged +off along the path, and he went out of sight. + +The girl crept back into bed. She hid her face in the pillow and dry +sobs racked her frame. This was the hardest of all the hard things +she had to do. She had wounded Tunis to the heart! + + + + +CHAPTER XXIV + +EUNEZ PARETA + + +Tunis Latham went down the track toward the port as the dull dawn +glimmered behind him in a frame of mind so dismal and despairing +that more than Sheila Macklin would have pitied the captain of the +_Seamew_. Against the tide of emotions which now surged in his heart +he scarcely had the energy to battle. + +Never had he felt less like approaching his usual tasks as commander +and owner of the schooner and facing the trials he knew would meet +him upon this coming trip to Boston. Freight was waiting upon Luiz +Wharf, and he would be able to pick up the remainder of his cargo at +Hollis, which, with the wind as it was now, he could reach that +afternoon by four o'clock. Given good luck, he would warp into the +T-wharf next day before nightfall. + +The uncertain point which troubled him most was the matter of the +crew of the _Seamew_. The Portygees remaining with him--even Johnny +Lark, the cook--had been in a most unhappy temper all the way back +from Boston on the last trip. Tunis could depend upon Mate Chapin, +Boatswain Newbegin, and 'Rion Latham himself to stick by the +schooner. For, in spite of his quarreling and long tongue about a +hoodoo, Tunis thought that his cousin was a man above any real fear +of the very superstitions he talked about. + +But four men could not safely work the schooner to Boston, nor in +season to keep his contract with the consignees of freight which the +_Seamew_ carried. Troubled as he had been at Boston, and delayed, +Tunis wished now that he had remained there even longer while he +made search for and engaged a proper crew for the schooner. He had +better, perhaps, have paid the fare of the Portygees back to Big +Wreck Cove and so saved quarreling with them. + +When he had been about to leave the schooner the afternoon before, +the foolish fellows had sent a spokesman to him asking if he was +sure the _Seamew_ was not the old _Marlin B._, the Salem fishing +craft which had been acclaimed "the murder ship" from the Banks to +the Cape by all coasting seamen several years before. To answer this +question rasped the pride of the owner of the _Seamew_. For a seaman +to ask a question of one of the officers--a question of such a +nature--was flaunting authority in any case. + +Although Captain Latham considered the question ridiculous and +utterly unworthy of a serious answer, he had replied to it. + +He had told the sailor that to the best of his knowledge and belief +the old _Marlin B._ was several thousand miles away from the Cape at +that time, and that the _Seamew_ was herself and no other. In any +case, he had said he had no personal fear of sailing in the schooner +as long as he could keep a decent crew of seamen aboard her, but +that he would stand for no more foolishness from his present crew. + +Tunis had spoken quite boldly. But, to tell the truth, he did not +know where or how he was to sign another crew and a cook if the +Portygees deserted the schooner. Not at Big Wreck Cove. He had heard +too many whispers about the curse upon his schooner from people of +all classes in the port. Even Joshua Jones, who was supposed to be a +pretty hard-headed merchant, had been influenced by the story 'Rion +Latham had first told about the _Seamew_. He and his father had +hesitated to give Tunis an order for another lot of freight now +waiting on the dock at Boston. They wanted to be sure that the +schooner was not going to sail from the latter port undermanned. +Whether or not the Joneses believed in the hoodoo, they did know +that if the _Seamew_ sailed without a proper crew their insurance on +the freight would be invalid. + +So the farther Tunis walked down toward the wharves, the more these +thoughts assailed and overcame his mind, to the exclusion even of +the tragic happenings back there on the Head the night before. He +could not consider Ida May Bostwick--not even Sheila--now. The +schooner, with her affairs, was a harsh mistress. His all was +invested in the _Seamew_, and business had not been so good thus far +that he could withdraw with a profit. Far from that! There were +financial reefs and shoals on either hand, and that fact the young +skipper knew right well. + +As he drew near to Portygee Town, he glanced toward the open door of +Pareta's cottage and saw the girl, Eunez, seated upon the step. She +did not come out to meet him, as had been her wont, but she hailed +him as he approached--though in a sharper tone than usual. + +"So Captain Tunis Latham has still another girl? He is a lion with +the ladies, it is plain to be seen. Ah!" + +"You don't mind, do you, Eunez?" replied the young man, trying to +assume his usual careless manner of speech. "You have the reputation +of being pretty popular with the fellows yourself." + +"Ah!" she said again, tossing her head. "Who is this new girl I see +you walk with last evening, Tunis?" + +"She is a stranger in Big Wreck Cove," was his noncommittal reply. + +"So I see. They come and go for you, Tunis Latham. You are the +fickle man, eh?" + +"Tut, tut, Eunez!" he laughed. "Those who live in glass houses +should not throw stones. How about yourself? Didn't I see you going +to church with Johnny Lark last Sunday? And then, in the afternoon, +you had another cavalier along the beaches. Oh, I saw you!" + +The color flashed into her dark cheek, and her black eyes reflected +some unexplained anger. Beside her, leaning against the house wall, +was the handle end of a broken oar. Tunis chanced to mark that there +was a streak of dull blue paint on it. + +"You have sharp eyes. Tunis Latham," hissed the girl. "Not all of +the Lathams are too proud to walk with Eunez Pareta--or too proud to +think of her. But _you_--bah!" + +She got up suddenly, turned her back upon him, and entered the +cottage. Tunis walked on, just a little puzzled. + +Horry Newbegin sat on the rail of the schooner smoking, and +evidently looking anxiously for the appearance of the skipper. There +was no smoke rising from the galley chimney. + +"What's the matter with cooky?" demanded Tunis briskly. + +"The dratted Portygee's gone off to Paulmouth. He left word that he +couldn't sail with us this trip." + +"Then he'll never sail on the _Seamew_ again," declared the skipper +grimly. + +"And _that_ won't bother him none," said the boatswain gloomily. + +"I'll get breakfast for all hands," said Tunis. "I'm not above that. +Where are the hands?" + +"As far as I know, Cap'n Tunis, they are where Johnny Lark is. +Haven't shown up, and don't mean to," said Horry doggedly. + +Tunis Latham cursed his delinquent crew soundly. The rage which +flamed into his eyes, added to the pallor of his face, made an ugly +mask indeed. It was not often that he gave way to such an outburst, +but Horry had seen the same deadly anger displayed on occasion by +Captain Randall Latham. + +"Where's Mr. Chapin?" + +"He was here before you, Cap'n Tunis. He's gone up to town to see if +he can drum up some hands." + +"Where's 'Rion?" + +"He says he'll be here by the time you get ready to wheel the stuff +aboard." And the old man pointed with his pipe-stem toward the open +door of the shed. + +"Ha!" ejaculated Tunis. "Feared I'd set him to work, eh? Well, +they're all dogs together--the whole litter of 'em. I'll make the +coffee. Tell me when Mr. Chapin comes. I suppose we can hire enough +hands to get the freight aboard." + +"But we can't work the schooner with three men, Cap'n Tunis; nor +yet with four." + +"Don't I know that? I'll get a crew if I have to shanghai them," +promised Tunis grimly. + +Mason Chapin came along with half a dozen fellows after a while. One +was a negro who could cook. But there was no breakfast worthy of the +name served aboard the _Seamew_ that morning. They were late already +in getting to work. + +It was the middle of the forenoon before the schooner left port. +There was a crew, such as it was. But Mason Chapin had been obliged +to promise them extra pay to get them aboard the schooner at all. + +When 'Rion Latham slipped aboard finally, half the loading of the +cargo had been accomplished. Tunis himself was keeping tally. The +skipper beckoned his cousin to him. + +"'Rion," he said, "you certainly are about as useless a fellow as I +ever had anything to do with. These Portygees who have left me in +the lurch have some excuse for their actions. They are ignorant and +superstitious. You know mighty well that the stuff you have been +repeating about the schooner being cursed is nothing but lies and +old-women's gossip! You've done it to make trouble. I ought to have +had booted you overboard at the start." + +"Aw--you--" + +"Close your hatch!" ejaculated Tunis. "And keep it closed. I'm +talking, and I won't take any of your slack in return. I am not +married to you, thanks be! I think you've got pretty near enough of +me, and I'm sure I have of you, 'Rion. I give you warning--" + +"Oh! You do?" snarled 'Rion, his ugly face aflame. + +"Yes. I give you _fair_ warning. When the _Seamew_ gets back here to +Big Wreck Cove again, you're through! You can take your dunnage +ashore now if you like, but you go without pay if you do. Or you can +do your work properly on this trip and return. _Then_ you get +through. Take your choice." + +He expected 'Rion would leave the _Seamew_ then and there. Tunis +half hoped, indeed, that he would do so. But to his surprise, Orion +suddenly snatched the book and pencil out of the skipper's hand and, +growling that "he'd stay the voyage out," shuffled away to the rail +and began taking tally of the barrels and cases being hauled aboard. + +Working smartly, the new crew got the _Seamew_ under sail and out of +the cove two hours later. The wind held in a favorable quarter, and +they reached Hollis betimes. There they finished the schooner's +loading, and about dark went out to sea on a long tack and got +plenty of sea room before they made the short leg of it. + +Supper was the first good meal they had had aboard that day. After +everything was cleaned up, the black cook joined the crew forward. +In whispers the men talked over both the skipper and his schooner. +The story of the curse was known to everybody in Big Wreck Cove by +this time, and none of these new men was ignorant of it. They had, +however, merely used it as a means of getting more pay than ordinary +seamen were getting in such vessels. + +"'Tain't nothing as I can see," one of the older men said, "that is +likely to hurt us. It's a curse on the schooner, not on us folks +that warn't aboard her when she run under that other boat. And as +long as we keep away from the spot where the poor devils was +drowned, we ain't likely to see no ha'nts." + +The cook's eyes rolled tremendously. + +"You thinks likely this yere is that _Marlin B._?" + +"Bah!" exclaimed one, whose name was Carney. "It's only talk. Maybe +she ain't that schooner at all. Mr. Chapin says she ain't." + +"Is that so?" sneered the voice of 'Rion Latham behind them. "You +fellows don't want to believe what the skipper and the mate say. It +ain't to their benefit for you to believe the truth. Look here!" + +"What's that?" asked Carney, looking at the article Orion pushed +forward in the dark. "A broken oar?" + +"That's what it is. I found it only this morning in the hold, when I +was helping stow the last of the cargo. It was wedged in behind a +timber of her frame." + +"Well? What of it?" + +"Strike a match somebody. See what's burned into that handle?" + +Their heads were clustered about the faint glimmer of the match +flame. But the light was sufficient to reveal what 'Rion pointed +out. Burned more or less unevenly were the letters M A R L I N B. + +"What do you think of that?" exclaimed 'Rion. "Would that broken oar +be aboard of this dratted schooner if she wasn't the _Marlin B._ +painted over and a new name give her? What do you fellows think of +it?" + +There was silence in the group when the match flame died out. It was +finally the negro cook who made comment: + +"Lawsy me!" he groaned. "Ef I had only de faith of Peter I'd up an' +walk ashore from dis here cussed schooner right now!" + + + + +CHAPTER XXV + +TO LOVE AND BE LOVED + + +The girl whom Cap'n Ira Ball found in the kitchen of the old house +on Wreckers' Head when he hobbled out of his bedroom the next +morning was not the Ida May he had been wont to find of late, ready +with his shaving materials, hot water, and a clean and voluminous +checked apron to be tucked in about the neckband of his shirt. + +All was in readiness as usual, but the girl herself was smileless, +heavy-eyed, and slack of step. That she had suffered both in body +and mind since the day before, the least observant person in the +world would have easily comprehended. + +"I swan, Ida May!" gasped the old man. "Whatever's happened to you?" + +"I did not sleep well, Uncle Ira," she told him faintly. + +"Sleep? Why you look as though you'd been standing double watch for +a week of Sundays! I never see the beat! Has that crazy gal coming +here set ye all aback this way?" + +"I--I am afraid so." + +"'Tis a shame. I won't stand to have that gal come here again. +Prudence has been starting and crying out all night, too. She's as +much upset as you be. I cal'late you don't feel like shaving of me +this morning, Ida May." + +"Oh, yes, I do, Uncle Ira! Don't mind how I look." + +"But I do mind," he grumbled. "Folks' looks is a great p'int. I've +always held to it. Talk about a singed cat being better than it +looks--I doubt it!" + +"People of my complexion always look worse after a sleepless night," +explained Sheila, trying to smile at him. + +"That's a pity, too. And I feel the need of being spruced up a good +deal myself this morning, Ida May," he continued. "D'you see how +straggly my hair is gettin'? Do you think you could trim it a mite?" + +"Why, of course I can, Uncle Ira," she rejoined cheerfully. + +"I swan! You be a likely gal, Ida May," said the old man, both +reflectively and gratefully. "What would Prue and me do without you? +And no other girl but just you would have begun to fill the bill o' +lading. That's as sure as sure! See now," he went on, with emphasis, +"suppose you'd been such a one as that half-crazy critter that come +here yesterday! Where'd Prudence and me been with her in the house? +Well!" + +"She--she may not be as bad as she seemed under those particular +circumstances," Sheila said hesitatingly. "If she had come here--had +come here first and you and Aunt Prue had not known me at all--" + +"I swan! Don't say no more! Don't say no more, I tell ye!" gasped +Cap'n Ira. "It's bad luck to talk such a way; I do believe it is. +Come on, Ida May. You tackle my hair and let's see what you can do +with it. I know right well you'll make it look better than Prudence +used to do." + +Cap'n Ira was talking for effect, and the result he wished to +achieve was bringing a smile to Sheila's face and a brighter light +into her eyes, the violet hues of which were far more subdued than +he desired. His success was not marked, but he changed to some +degree the forlorn expression of the girl's countenance, so that +when Prudence appeared in the midst of the operation of shaving, +Sheila could greet the old woman with a tremulous smile. + +"You deary-dear!" crooned Prudence, with her withered arms about the +strong, young frame of the girl, drawing her close. "I know you've +suffered this night. That mad girl was enough to put us all out o' +kilter. But don't let any thought of her bother you, Ida May. Your +uncle and I love you, and if forty people said you didn't belong +here, we should keep you just the same. Ain't that so, Ira?" + +"Sure is," declared the captain vigorously. "No two ways about it. +We couldn't get along without Ida May, and I cal'late, the way +things look, that I'd better get that high fence I spoke of built +around this place at once. We're likely to have somebody come here +and carry the gal off almost any time. I can see that danger as +plain as plain!" + +Prudence laughed, yet there was a catch in her voice too. She kissed +the girl's tear-wet face tenderly. Sheila's heart throbbed so that +she could scarcely go on with the task of shaving Cap'n Ira. How +could she continue to live this lie before two people who were so +infinitely kind to her and who loved her so tenderly? + +And the girl loved them in return. It was no selfish thought which +held Sheila Macklin here in the old house on Wreckers' Head. She had +put aside all concern for her own personal comfort or ease. Had it +not been for her desire to shield Tunis and continue to aid and +comfort Cap'n Ira and Prudence, she might quickly and quietly have +left the place and thus have escaped all possibility of punishment +for the deception she had practiced. + +Yes, had these other considerations not been involved, she would +have run away! Although she chanced to have no money just at this +time, she would have left the Ball homestead and Wreckers' Head and +the town itself and walked so far away that nobody who knew her +would ever see her again. She had thought of doing this even as far +back as the time when she was so lonely and miserable in Boston. +Now, she would willingly have become a tramp for the purpose of +getting out of the affliction which enmeshed her. + +She could not, nevertheless, yield to this temptation. If she ran +away from the Balls and Big Wreck Cove, she would tacitly admit the +truth of all Ida May Bostwick's claims, and possibly involve Tunis +in the wreckage. Therefore she held to her determination of keeping +her place here until she was actually driven forth. + +As a last resort, having now worked out the detail of that plan in +her mind, she believed she could save Tunis from much calumny if it +became positively necessary for her to depart under this cloud and +abandon her place to the real Ida May. The latter must, however, +come with positive proof of her identity--evidence sufficient to +convince Cap'n Ira and Prudence--before Sheila Macklin would release +her grasp upon what she had obtained by trickery and deceit. + +Not for a moment did the girl try to excuse to herself what she had +done. In spite of the Balls' need of her, and in spite of Tunis' +love, Sheila did not try to deceive herself with any sophistry about +the end justifying the deed. Such thinking could not satisfy her +now. + +Sheila's eyes were opened. She beheld before her both the wide and +the narrow way. If she took the pleasanter path, it was with a full +knowledge of what she did. Yet would it be the pleasanter path? She +doubted this. If she continued to fight for a place which was not +hers by right, she must walk for all time in a slippery way. This +claim of the real Ida May might be perennial; the girl might return +again and again to the attack. For years--as long as the Balls lived +and Sheila remained with them--she must be ever on the alert to +defend her position with them. + +And after the good old people died--what then? Their property here +on the Head and their money would no more belong to Sheila Macklin +than it did now. She shrank in horror from the thought of swindling +the real Ida May out of anything which might legally be hers when +the Balls were gone. Of course, Cap'n Ira and Prudence could will +their property to whom they pleased. Still, Ida May was Prudence's +niece! + +As the day dragged on, Ida May did not appear, but the old folks +talked about her continually, until Sheila thought she must cry +aloud to them to stop. + +"The poor thing must be half-witted, of course," Mrs. Ball said +ruminatively. "Can't be otherwise. But she must have known +something about Sarah Honey and her folks." + +"Seems likely," agreed Cap'n Ira. + +"Now, you know, Ira, Sarah was an orphan and I was her mother's only +relation--and only that in a kind of a left-handed way, for I wasn't +really her aunt. That branch of the Honeys--Sarah's father's +folks--had all died out. Sarah lived about--kinder from pillar to +post as you might say--till she went to Boston and met Mr. Bostwick. +Isn't that so, Ida May?" + +"Yes. So I understand," agreed the girl faintly. + +"Now, you don't remember your mother much, Ida May," pursued +Prudence confidently. "You was too young when she died. And you +being brought up among the Bostwicks, you didn't know much about us +down here on the Cape. But don't you remember any neighbor that +lived near you there in Boston that had a gal something like this +crazy one that come here?" + +"I swan!" ejaculated Cap'n Ira. "You're coming out strong, old +woman, I do say." + +Sheila could only shake her head. + +"Why, see," said Prudence, encouraged by her husband's commendation, +"there might have been a neighbor woman that Sarah--your mother, you +know, Ida May--was close acquainted with. Maybe she used to talk +with this neighbor a good deal about her young days, and how she +lived down here. You know women often gossip that way." + +"I'll say they do!" put in Cap'n Ira, tapping the knob of his cane. + +"Well, now," said the old woman, greatly interested in her own idea, +and a little proud of it, "suppose that neighbor had a little girl +who heard all these things Sarah Bostwick might have said. And if +that child's brain wasn't just right--if she was a little +weak-minded, poor thing--what's more reasonable than that she +treasured it all up in her mind and after years, in one of her +spells of weak-mindedness, she got the idea _she_ was Ida May +Bostwick, and determined to come here and visit us!" + +"I swan, Prudence!" exclaimed Cap'n Ira. "It's like a story-book--a +reg'lar novel." + +"Well, it might be," said his wife, smiling quite proudly. + +"Only after all, that gal didn't seem so very weak-minded," muttered +Cap'n Ira. "She seemed more mean and ugly than weak." + +Sheila had thought somewhat along this line herself. At least, she +knew how weak the real Ida May's story must sound to most people in +the neighborhood, unless the claimant had actual proof of birth and +name to bolster her attempt to win the Balls. There was but a +tenuous thread connecting Ida May with Big Wreck Cove, or any other +part of Cape Cod. The Bostwicks--the girl's immediate family, at +least--were dead. + +These facts, already gathered by Sheila from Aunt Prudence's +conversation with the neighboring women, were the foundation on +which she had built her desperate hope of keeping up the deception +and thwarting the other girl, no matter how bitterly the latter +might press her claim. + +Nor was she, Sheila felt, depriving Ida May of anything which the +latter, if she obtained it, would actually prize. The shallow girl +was not the sort of person to appreciate the kindness of the two old +people or give them any comfort and sympathy in return. Why, both +Cap'n Ira and Prudence already shrank from the new claimant! + +This fact, however, did not cause Sheila, the imposter, to lose +sight of the point that Cap'n Ira and his wife could both be very +stern in attitude and speech toward the evildoer. They made no +compromises with evil. + +Even the old man, philosophical as he was and wont to look upon most +human frailities with a lenient if not a humorous eye, would not +excuse actual crime. And something very like a crime had been +committed. + +The day passed without any reappearance of Ida May upon Wreckers' +Head, but just after nightfall and while the supper dishes were +being cleared away, Zebedee Pauling knocked at the kitchen door. All +three of the Ball household looked upon the young fellow +expectantly when he stepped in. + +"I was just passing by and thought I'd look in and see how you all +were," said Zeb, with his usual shy manner and apologetic smile. + +"Come in and set down, Zeb," said the captain eagerly. "I cal'late +you've got some news for us." + +"I don't know," said Zeb thoughtfully, "but what you've got some +news that might satisfy mom and me. That is, about that girl Tunis +brought to the house." + +"What about her, Zeb?" queried Prudence anxiously. + +"Mom and I would be glad to know what you know about her," said +Zebedee. "She--she 'pears to have a--a great imagination." + +"I shouldn't wonder," Cap'n Ira snorted. + +"She don't act crazy, but she certainly talks crazy," the visitor +went on emphatically. "Why, she says the most ridiculous things +about--about Miss Bostwick!" He bowed and blushed as he spoke the +name and looked penitently toward Sheila. "Why, she declares _her_ +name is Bostwick!" + +"That's what she done up here," said Cap'n Ira grimly. "I cal'late +she means to kick up a fuss. Is she still stopping with your mother, +Zeb?" + +"Yes. She paid a week's board money down. I expect mom wouldn't have +taken her, or it, if Tunis hadn't brought her." + +"That wasn't Tunis' fault," snapped the old man. "He had to get +shet of her somehow. We expect she'll try to make trouble." + +"Oh, as for that," said Zeb, with some relief, "I don't see, even if +she is your niece, why she should expect you to take her in if you +don't want to!" + +"She ain't," said Cap'n Ira flatly. "You can take that from me, +Zeb." + +"Not any relation at all?" + +"None at all, as far as we know," declared the captain. + +"Then what does she want to talk the way she does, for?" cried the +young man. "I told mom she was crazy, and now I know she is." + +"I guess likely," agreed the old man, taking upon himself the burden +of the explanation. "None of us up here ever saw the gal before. +Neither Prudence nor me nor Ida May. She's loony!" + +"I told mom so," reiterated Zeb, with a great sigh of relief. "I +know what she said must be a pack of foolishness. But you know how +mom is. I--" + +"She's soft. I know," returned Cap'n Ira. + +"She's so tender-hearted," explained Zeb. "The girl talks so. She's +talked mom not into believing in her, but into kind of listening and +sympathizing with her. And now, to-night, she's took her to see +Elder Minnett." + +"What? I swan! To see the elder!" ejaculated Cap'n Ira. "What she +needs is a doctor, not a minister. What do you think of that, +Prudence?" + +"I hope Elder Minnett will be able to put her in better mind," +sighed his wife. "That girl must have a very wicked heart, indeed, +if she isn't really crazy." + + + + +CHAPTER XXVI + +ELDER MINNETT HAS HIS SAY + + +Another night counted among the interminable nights which have +dragged their slow length across the couch of sleeplessness. To +Sheila, lying in the four-poster--a downy couch, indeed, for a quiet +conscience--the space of time after she blew out her lamp and until +the dawn passed like the sluggish coils of some Midgard serpent. An +eternity in itself. + +She came down to her daily tasks again with no change in her looks, +although her voice had the same placid, kindly tone which had +cheered the old people for these many weeks. But they both were +worried about her. + +"Maybe she's been working too hard, Prudence," ventured the old man. +"Can it be so, d'ye think?" + +"She says she likes to work. She's a marvel of a housekeeper, Ira. I +don't mean to put too much on her, but I can't do much myself, spry +as I do feel this fall. And she won't let me, anyway." + +"I know, I know," muttered Cap'n Ira. "She's with you like she is +with me. Always running to help me, or to pick up something I let +fall, or to fetch and carry. A kinder girl never breathed. I swan! +What should we do without her, Prue? That Tunis--" + +"Sh!" Prudence begged him. "Don't chaff no more about that, Ira." + +"Why not?" he asked. "Though I don't feel much like chaffing when I +think of them getting married. 'Tis a pretty serious business for +us, Prudence." + +"I had a chance to hint about it last night when you went outside +with Zebedee," whispered his wife, "I spoke about Tunis. She--she +says she'll never leave us to marry Tunis or any other man." + +"What's that?" ejaculated Cap'n Ira. "He wouldn't agree to come and +live here, I reckon. What would become of his Aunt 'Cretia? I don't +guess there's any fear of her getting married, is there?" + +"No, no! Don't be funnin'! But Ida May said just that--in so many +words." + +"She's mad with him, do you cal'late? They had a tiff!" cried her +husband. "And they were like two turtledoves the night that other +gal come here. It don't seem possible. I swan! _That's_ why she's so +on her beam ends, I bet a cake!" + +"It may be. She wouldn't say much. I didn't understand, though, +that they had quarreled. Only that she'd made up her mind that she +wouldn't marry." + +"Oh, she'll change her mind!" said Cap'n Ira, wagging his head. + +"Do you think so? Not so easy. You'd ought to know by this time how +firm Ida May can be." + +"The Lord help Tunis then," said Cap'n Ira emphatically. "But his +loss is our gain. Ain't no two ways about that." + +Sheila's secret thoughts were not calculated to calm her soul. Her +determination braced her body as well as her mind to go about her +daily tasks with her usual thoroughness, but she could not confront +the old people with even a ghost of her usual smile. So she kept out +of their way as much as possible and communed alone with her bitter +thoughts. + +The uncertainty of what Ida May was doing and saying down there in +Big Wreck Cove was not all that agitated Sheila. Her conscience, so +long lulled by her peaceful existence here with the two old people, +was now continually censuring her. + +Sin brings its own secret punishment, though the sinner may hide the +effects of the punishment for a long time. But Sheila could not now +conceal the effect of the mental pain and the remorse she suffered. + +Of one thing she might be sure. The neighbors had not as yet heard +about the real Ida May or heard her story. Otherwise some of the +women living on the Head would have been in to hear the particulars +from Prudence. + +But that afternoon the throaty chug of Elder Minnett's little +car--it had created almost a scandal in Big Wreck Cove when he +bought it--was heard mounting the road to the Head. + +"I swan!" commented Cap'n Ira, who sat at the sunny sitting-room +window, for it was a cold day. "Here comes that tin wagon of the +elder's. But he's alone. Get on your best bib and tucker, Prudence, +for there ain't any doubt but what he's headin' in this way." + +"Oh, dear me!" fluttered his wife. "I wonder what he's going to say. +Make the tea strong, Ida May. The elder likes it so it'll about bear +up an egg. And open a jar of that quince jam. I wish we had fresh +biscuits, although them you made for dinner were light as feathers." + +"I'll make some now. There's a hot oven," replied the girl. + +"No, no," interposed Cap'n Ira firmly. "I want you should sit in +here with us and hear all the elder's got to say." + +"Perhaps, Uncle Ira, he will want to talk to you and Aunt Prue +privately." + +"There won't be no private talk about you, Ida May," snorted the +captain, his keen eyes sparkling. "Not much! If he's got anything to +say to your aunt and me, he's got to say it in your hearing." + +The elder was a tall and bony man with a stiff brush of gray beard +and bushy hair to match, which seemed as uncompromising as his +doctrinal discourses in the pulpit. He was an old-fashioned +preacher, but not wholly an old-fashioned thinker. + +Sheila had thought, on the few occasions when she had met him away +from his pulpit, that there was an undercurrent of humanity in him +quite equal to that in Cap'n Ira Ball, but his personal appearance +and rather gruff manner made it difficult for one to be sure of the +measure of his tenderness. + +How Elder Minnett appeared in the sick room or in the house of +sorrow, she did not know. She could not very well imagine his being +tender at any time with the sinner at whom he thundered from the +pulpit. Secretly she trembled at the old clergyman's approach. + +"Well, Elder!" was the warm greeting of Prudence at the front door +when the rattling automobile came to a wheezing halt before the +gate. "Do tell! Ira said he see you coming up the road, and I was +determined you shouldn't drive by without speaking. Do come in." + +"I propose to, Sister Ball," was the grim-lipped reply. + +He came into the house and took the proffered chair in the sitting +room. They spoke of the weather, of the tide, and of the clam +harvest. The farm crops back of Big Wreck Cove did not interest +Cap'n Ira. + +"Well," said the elder finally, clearing his throat, "I've come up +here on an errand you can possibly guess, Cap'n Ira and Sister +Ball." + +"Maybe we can and maybe we can't," observed the captain with a +countenance quite as wooden as the elder himself displayed. + +"I come on behalf of that young woman who was here to see you the +other day." + +"It's my opinion you'd done better to have gone to the insane asylum +folks about her," rejoined Cap'n Ira. + +"Now, Ira!" said Prudence softly. + +"Seeing it as you do, Cap'n Ira," the elder remarked quite equably, +"I conclude that you might think that. But you formed your judgment +in the heat of--well, not anger, of course--but without sufficient +reflection." + +"Humph!" grunted Cap'n Ira noncommittally. + +"I have talked with that young woman on two occasions," said the +elder. + +"With what young woman?" interrupted Cap'n Ira. + +"With the girl staying at the Widow Pauling's. The girl who claims +to be your niece." + +"You'd better talk with the other young woman," said Cap'n Ira +sternly. "Ida May! Just you come in here and sit down. You are as +much interested as we be, I guess. _This_ is Ida May Bostwick, +Elder Minnett," he added, as Sheila entered. + +"Yes, yes. I have had the pleasure," said the elder, bowing gravely +without offering to shake hands. He turned abruptly to Prudence. +"You are quite convinced in your own mind, Sister Ball, that the +young woman at the Pauling's is not your niece?" + +"Why, Elder Minnett," returned Prudence, "how _can_ she be? Ida May +is Sarah Honey's only child, and Sarah was only distantly related to +me. There never was another girl in the family--not like that one +that came here the other day, for sure!" And the old woman shook her +head emphatically. + +"That girl you got down there at the port, Elder, is crazy--crazy as +a loon," put in Cap'n Ira harshly. + +"I am not so sure of that," the clergyman said shortly. + +"I swan! Beg your pardon, Elder. No offense. But you don't mean to +say that she seems sane and sensible to you?" + +"Sane--yes! As for being sensible, that is another thing," confessed +Elder Minnett. + +"Huh! What do you mean by that?" asked Cap'n Ira curiously. + +"She has told her story in full to me, and told it twice alike," +said the grim-visaged minister, looking at Sheila as he answered the +query. "An insane person is not so likely to do that, I believe. But +she is not what I would call a sensible young woman. Not at all." + +"I should say not!" gasped Prudence. + +"But I have heard her, and I have reflected on what she has said. I +do not see, if she is an impostor, how she could have made up that +story." + +"Then she _must_ be loony," muttered Cap'n Ira. + +"I presume she told the same story to you that she did to me," +pursued Elder Minnett. "I do not understand Tunis Latham's part in +it, but the rest of her story seems quite reasonable." + +"Reasonable?" repeated Prudence, with some warmth. "Do you call it +reasonable to say what she did about Ida May?" + +"In speaking of the young woman's reasonableness I mean in regard to +the personal details she gave me. What she said in her anger to, or +of, other people has no influence whatsoever on my judgment." + +"Well, it has on mine!" exclaimed Cap'n Ira. "I'd have drove out a +dozen gals that spoke as she did to Prudence and Ida May--crazy or +not!" + +"You would be wrong, Cap'n Ball," said the elder severely. + +"Well, let's have the p'ints the girl makes!" growled the old +shipmaster. "I will listen to 'em." + +Elder Minnett bowed formally and began Ida May's story, checking off +the several assertions she had made when she was at the Ball house +far more clearly than the girl herself had done. As Sheila +listened, her heart sank even lower. It was so very reasonable! How +could the Balls fail to be impressed? + +But Cap'n Ira and Prudence listened with more of a puzzled +expression in their countenances than anything else. It seemed +altogether wild and improbable to them. Why! There sat Ida May +before them. There could not be two Ida May Bostwicks! + +"Say!" exclaimed Cap'n Ira suddenly, after Elder Minnett had +concluded, "that girl says she worked at Hoskin & Marl's?" + +"Yes." + +"Why, ain't that where you worked, Ida May?" + +"Yes," was Sheila's faint admission. + +"You never see her there, did you?" + +"I do not remember of having seen her until she came here," the girl +said quite truthfully. + +"Ought to be some way of proving up that," muttered Cap'n Ira. + +"I have written to Hoskin & Marl, at the other young woman's +instigation, and have asked about her," said Elder Minnett. + +"Well, I never!" gasped Prudence, and her withered, old face grew +pink. + +"I hope you will not take offense," said the visitor evenly. "You +must understand that the young woman has come to me in trouble, and +it is my duty to aid her if I can--in any proper way. That is my +office. _Any_ young woman"--he looked directly at Sheila again as he +said it--"will find in me an adviser and a friend whenever she may +need my help." + +"We all know how good you are, Elder Minnett," Prudence hastened to +say. "But that girl--" + +"That girl," he interrupted, "is a human being needing help. I have +advised her. Now I want to advise you." + +"Out with it, Elder," said Cap'n Ira. "Good advice ain't to be +sneezed at--not as I ever heard." + +"I have the other young woman's promise that she will tell her story +to nobody else--nobody at all--until I can hear from those whom she +says are her employers. But with the understanding that you will do +your part." + +"What's that?" asked Cap'n Ira quickly. + +"She wants to come up here and stay with you. She says she is sure +you are her relatives. She says if you will let her come, she +will be able to prove to you that she is the real niece you +expected--whom you sent for last summer." + +"Why, she's crazy!" again cried Cap'n Ira. + +"I--I am almost afraid of her," murmured Prudence, looking from +Sheila to her husband. + +"I assure you, Sister Ball, she is not insane. She is harmless." + +"She didn't talk as though she was when she was here--not by a +jugful," declared Cap'n Ira bitterly. + +"That was because she was angry," explained Elder Minnett +patiently. "You must not judge her by her appearance when she came +here the other day and found--as she declares--another girl in her +rightful place." + +"I swan!" exclaimed the old shipmaster, bursting out again. "I won't +stand for that. Her rightful place, indeed! Why, if she was forty +times Prudence's niece and we didn't want her here, what's to make +us take her, I want to know?" + +"Do you think we ought to, Elder?" questioned Prudence faintly. + +"I think, under all the circumstances, that it is your Christian +duty. Know the girl better. See if there is not something in her +that reminds you--" + +"Avast there!" shouted Cap'n Ira, pounding with his cane on the +floor. "That's going a deal too far. 'Christian duty,' indeed! How +about our duty to Ida May setting there, and to ourselves? Prudence +is afraid of that crazy gal in the first place." + +"I give you my word she is not insane." + +"That's your opinion," said the captain grimly. "I wouldn't back it +with my word, Elder, unless I was prepared to go the whole v'y'ge. +Do you mean to say that you accept that gal's story as true--in all +partic'lars?" + +"I don't say that." + +"Then I shall stick to my opinion. She's as loony as she can be. And +I am plumb against insulting our Ida May by letting the girl come +up here. What do you say, Prudence?" + +The old woman was much perturbed. Elder Minnett was a minister of +the gospel. To be told by him that it was her Christian duty to take +a certain course bore much weight with Prudence Ball. + +But when she looked at Sheila, sitting there so pale and silent, and +realized that on her head all this was falling, the old woman rose +up, burst into tears, and threw herself into the girl's arms. + +"No, no!" she sobbed. "Don't let her come here, Ira. We don't want +her. We don't want anybody but Ida May whom we love so dear, and who +we know loves us. We can't do it, Elder Minnett! Why, if they should +come and tell me--and prove it--that Ida May wasn't our niece and +that other girl was, I couldn't bear the creature 'round. No, I +couldn't. I couldn't forgive anybody that would separate us from +this dear, dear girl!" + +Cap'n Ira had got upon his feet and was leaning forward on his cane. +With a shaking finger he drew the elder's attention to the two +women, rocking in each other's arms. + +"You hear that? You see that?" demanded the captain brokenly, the +tears starting from his own eyes and finding gutters down his +cleanly shaved cheeks. "That's your answer, Elder! You have some +idea how Prudence and I longed for young company in this house, and +somebody to help and comfort us. _And we got her._ + +"Ida May come to us like the falling of manna in the wilderness for +them spent and wandering Israelites. She has been to us more than +ever we dared hope for. If she was our own child and had growed up +here on Wreckers' Head our own born daughter, I couldn't think no +more of her. + +"And you come here and ask us to give countenance for a moment to a +half-witted girl that says she belongs here in Ida May's place, and +claiming Ida May's name. More than that, she saying that our own +girl that we love so is a liar and an impostor and altogether +bad--such as she must be if she had fooled us so. I swan! Elder, I +should think you'd have more sense." And Cap'n Ira concluded +abruptly and with a return to his usual self-control. + +The silence which ensued was only broken by the old woman's sobs. +Cap'n Ira, frankly wiping his own eyes with the great silk +handkerchief which he usually flourished when he took snuff, strode +across the room and patted Prudence's withered shoulder. He said +nothing, nor did the elder. It was Sheila who broke the silence at +last. + +She had stood up. Now she put Prudence tenderly into Cap'n Ira's +arms. She gave him, too, such a thankful, beaming glance that the +old man was almost staggered. For he had not seen one of those +smiles for more than two days. + +"Elder Minnett," Sheila said, and her voice was quite steady, "I +think it is my place to speak." + +"Yes?" was the noncommittal response of the grim old minister. + +"I should not think for a moment of doubting your judgment in such a +matter. If you say Cap'n Ira and Mrs. Ball should receive this--this +girl here while the matter is being examined, I hope they will agree +with you and allow her to come." + +"Why, Ida May!" gasped Prudence. + +"That gal's an angel! She ain't nothing but an angel!" marveled +Cap'n Ira. + +"But I think," said Sheila, "that the girl should be made to promise +that while she is here, and if she comes here, that she will not +speak to anybody outside this room at the present time of the claim +she makes--especially as it seems to affect Captain Latham." + +"I swan! That's so! He's got a wage and share in this thing, ain't +he? And he ain't here to defend himself, if we be." + +The elder nodded slowly. His gaze did not leave Sheila's face. + +"I think I can promise that in her name. Indeed, I had already +extracted such a promise before I would undertake to come up here. I +have warned Mrs. Pauling not to repeat a word the girl said to her. +And Zebedee is a prudent young man." + +"I told Zeb myself to keep his hatch battened," growled Cap'n Ira. +"But, I swan, Ida May! I don't see how you can bear to have the +crazy critter here. And Prudence--" + +"If Ida May says she is willing," sighed the old woman, glad to be +able to set a course not opposed to her minister's advice. + +"Thank you, young woman," Elder Minnett said, speaking grimly enough +to Sheila. "Those who have nothing to fear can afford to be +generous. You have done right." + +The subject was dropped--to the relief of all of them. Tea was +poured from the marble-topped, black-walnut table, and Sheila passed +biscuit, jam, cakes, and other delicacies. She performed her part of +the ceremony with apparent calm. She did not speak to the elder +again, nor he to her, save when she ran out to carry forgotten +gloves to him when he had climbed into the automobile. + +The grim old man shot her through with the keenest of keen glances +as he accepted the gloves. + +"I don't think, young woman," he said softly, "that you are likely +to put poison in that other girl's tea--as she says she's afraid you +will." + +Then he drove away. + + + + +CHAPTER XXVII + +CAP'N IRA SPEAKS OUT + + +Wrung as Sheila's heart had been by the expression of the old +woman's utter confidence in her and by Cap'n Ira's warm words of +approbation spoken before the elder, it was nevertheless for Tunis +Latham's sake that she had abetted the minister's desire and had +agreed that the real Ida May Bostwick should come to the Ball house +on Wreckers' Head. + +By extracting a promise from Ida May that she would talk to nobody +for the present--especially about the connection of the captain of +the _Seamew_ with Ida May's affairs--Sheila believed she had entered +a wedge which might open the way for the young man to escape from a +situation which threatened both his reputation and his peace of +mind. + +To save Tunis! She was fairly obsessed by that thought. Her vow +before the picture of Tunis' mother in the _Seamew's_ cabin must be +in Sheila's view to the very end. She had a sufficient share of +that vision of the Celt to be deeply impressed by a promise made as +that had been made--though in secret. It was a sacred pledge. + +It was no easy matter for any of the Ball household to consider the +coming of Ida May with serenity. Prudence, at heart, shrank from the +claimant on her hospitality almost as much as Sheila did. If Cap'n +Ira hid his perturbation better than the others, he nevertheless +hobbled about with a very solemn countenance. + +"I swan!" he muttered within Sheila's hearing. "It's most like there +was a corpse in the house. This ain't no way to live. I do wish +Elder Minnett could have minded his own business and let well enough +alone. Let the girl talk, and other folks, too. Trying to stop +gossip is like trying to put your finger on a drop of quicksilver. +There won't be no good come o' that girl being here. That's as sure +as sure." + +The elder's car came wheezing up the hill again about the middle of +the forenoon. He did not alight himself, but Ida May needed the +presence of nobody to lend her assurance. She hopped out of the car +with her bag and flaunted her cheap finery through the gate and in +at the front door. + +Her reception at this end of the house marked the unmistakable fact +that Prudence and Cap'n Ira received her as a stranger rather than +in a confidential way. + +"Well, Aunt Prue! For you are my aunt whatever you may say," was +Ida May's prologue. "And you are my uncle," she added, her +greenish-brown eyes flashing a glance at the grimly observant +captain. "I must say it's pretty shabby treatment I've got from you +so far. But I don't blame you--not at all. I blame that girl and +Tunis Latham." + +"Avast there!" put in Cap'n Ira so sternly and with so threatening a +tone of voice and visage that even Ida May was silenced. "We've let +you come here, my girl, because Elder Minnett asked us to; and not +at all because our opinion of you is changed. Far from it. You're +here on sufferance and you'd best be civil spoken while you remain. +Ain't that the ticket, Prudence?" + +His wife nodded, in full accord with his statement of the situation, +although she could not bear to look so sternly on any person as +Cap'n Ira now looked at Ida May. + +"Well! I like that!" sniffed the girl, tossing her head, but she +actually shrank from the captain. + +"Furthermore, as regards Tunis Latham, you was to say nothing about +him outside of this house if you was let come here. And I warn you, +we don't care to hear nothing in his disfavor _in_ this house." + +"Oh! I can see he's a favorite with you," muttered Ida May. + +"Then trim your sails according," admonished the old man. "In +addition, you mentioned the young woman we already got here in a way +we don't like none too well. I want to impress on your mind that it +was only through her saying she was agreeable to your coming here +that we agreed to the elder's request and let you come." + +"She did, eh?" cried Ida May, flouncing in her chair. "Well, I don't +thank her." + +"No. I cal'late you ain't of a thanking disposition," said Cap'n +Ira. "But you like enough won't drop your bread butter-side down. +That's all." + +Ida May, startled by his speech, stared with less impudence at the +old man. For his part, the captain watched her pretty closely, and +he had met and judged too many people in his day not to form +gradually, as the hours passed, a decided opinion regarding Ida May. + +Nor did he cling to his first impression--the one made in haste and +some vexation, when she had first tried to thrust herself into the +Ball household and demanded the place filled by Sheila Macklin. This +girl certainly was not insane. But with all her apparent smartness, +Cap'n Ira easily saw that she was not intelligent--that she had +scarcely ordinary understanding. Beside the newcomer's shallow +nature and even more shallow endowments, Sheila seemed to be from a +different world. + +"I swan!" whispered Cap'n Ira to Prudence some time later. "The +difference between them two girls! They ain't to be spoke of in the +same county, I declare. Look at that one, Prudence," he said, with a +side glance at the newcomer. "Ain't she a sight with them thin and +flashy clothes?" + +"I can't see anything about her that looks like any of the Honeys, +let alone Sarah." + +"Huh! No. Only that her hair's sorter red," returned Cap'n Ira, +"like Sarah's was." + +The visitor proved her position in the household by sitting idly in +a rocking-chair looking over some pictures which were on the table +or staring out of the window. She offered to do nothing for +Prudence. But, of course, Ida May was not very domestic. Living in a +furnished room and working behind the counter in a department store +does not develop the domestic virtues to any appreciable degree. + +She did not see Sheila until dinner was on the table and she was +called to the meal with Cap'n Ira and the old woman. The stiff, +little bow with which Ida May favored the girl in possession was +returned by the latter quite as formally. + +Sheila had regained complete control of voice and face now. Although +she did not actually address Ida May, her manner was such that there +was no restraint put upon the company. It was the newcomer's manner, +if anything, that curtailed the usual friendly intercourse at the +Ball table. + +Ida May possessed some powers of observation. She would have said +herself that she was able to "put two and two together." The way the +meal had been cooked, the way it was served, and the work entailed +in doing both these things, were matters not overlooked by the +visitor. + +She knew that Prudence had given neither thought nor attention to +getting the dinner. The girl the Balls had received in Ida May's +name and supposed identity had done it all herself. It seemed to be +expected of her! + +She saw, before the day was over, that Sheila was a very busy person +indeed. That she not only did the housework, but that she waited +upon Prudence and Cap'n Ira "hand and foot." She did it with such +unconcern that the new girl could be sure these tasks were quite +what was expected of her. + +"Why," exclaimed Ida May to herself, "she's just hired help! Is +_that_ what they wanted me for when they sent Tunis Latham up to +Boston after me? I'd like to see myself!" + +She had foreseen something of this kind when she had refused so +unconditionally to come down here to the Cape. And her observation +of the house and its furnishings, as well as the appearance of the +old couple, had confirmed her suspicion that her belief in the Balls +"being pretty well fixed" was groundless. + +After her interview with Elder Minnett, although she had refrained +from detailing her story and her spiteful comments about Sheila and +Tunis Latham to the Paulings, she had not ceased to question Zebedee +and his mother about the financial condition of the Balls. + +She had learned that a couple of thousand dollars would probably buy +all the real property the old people owned on Wreckers' Head. There +was a certain invested sum which secured them a fair living. Beyond +that, the Big Wreck Cove people knew of no wealth belonging to +either Cap'n Ira or Prudence. + +Ida May already considered that she had come down here to the Cape +on a fool's errand. She would like to make herself solid, however, +with the old folks so as to benefit when they were dead and gone, if +that were possible. But to make herself a kitchen drudge for them? +She would like to see herself! + +There was a phase of the situation which held Ida May to the course +she had set sail upon, and one which would hold her to it to the +bitter end. Her spitefulness and determination to be revenged upon +this unknown girl who had usurped the place originally offered her +by the Balls, and who had stolen her name as well, was quite +sufficient to cause a person of Ida May Bostwick's character to +fight for her rights. + +She would be revenged on Tunis, too. Or, at least, she would make +him, as well as the other girl, suffer for the slight he had put +upon her. + +Had she not preened her feathers and strutted her very best on the +occasion when he interviewed her at Hoskin & Marl's and taken her +out to lunch? And to no end at all! He had been quite unimpressed by +Ida May's airs and graces. + +Yet he would take up with this other girl--a mere nobody. Worse than +a nobody, of course. She must be both a bad and a cunning woman to +have done what it was plain she had done. She had wound Tunis Latham +around her finger, and had hoodwinked the old people in the bargain! + +Ida May saw the other girl waiting on Prudence and Cap'n Ira; she +observed her tenderness toward them and their delight in her +ministrations; and these things which she regarded with her +green-glinting eyes made her taste the bitterness of wormwood. She +hated Sheila more and more as the day wore on; and she scorned the +old people both for what she considered this niggardliness and for +their simplicity, as well, in being fooled by this other girl. + +For, of course, to Ida May's mind, Sheila's kindness and the love +shown for the Balls on her part was all put on. It could not be +otherwise. Ida May Bostwick could not, in the first place, imagine +any sane girl "falling for the two old hicks." + +Prudence could seldom show herself other than kindly toward any +person whether she exactly approved of that person or not. So she +chatted cheerfully at Ida May, if not with her. She was quite as +insistent as Cap'n Ira, however, in keeping away from the vexing +question of the identity of the two girls. + +Right at the first the question had been raised: where should the +visitor be put to sleep? Ida May was prepared to object strenuously +if any slight was put upon her, such as being given some little, +tucked-up attic room away from the rest of the family. Had she +dared, she would have demanded the use of the room the false Ida May +occupied; only she was not sure, after seeing the position Sheila +seemed to hold in the household, that she cared to be put to sleep +in the room of the "hired help." + +But Sheila herself settled that question. + +"The guest room is ready. Aunt Prue," she said to Prudence. "I +cleaned it this week and the little stove is set up in there if it +should grow cold overnight. All the bed needs is aired sheets. I'll +get them out of the press." + +So Prudence took Ida May to the guest chamber, which was beyond the +parlor. A black-walnut set, which had been the height of +magnificence when Cap'n Ira and Prudence were married, filled the +shade-drawn room with shadows. There was an ingrain carpet on the +floor of a green groundwork with pale-yellow flowers on it, of a +genus known to no botanist. The tidies on the chair backs were so +stiff with starch that it would be a punishment to lay one's head +against them. + +On a little marble-topped table between the windows was something +made of shells and seaweed in a glass-topped case. It looked to Ida +May like a dead baby in a coffin. + +"Of all the junk!" she muttered to herself when Prudence left her to +arrange the contents of her bag as she chose. "And that girl likes +it here! Well, I'll show her who's who and what's what! + +"I'd like to know where I ever saw her face before? I bet it was +somewhere she'd no business to be--just as she has sneaked in here +where she doesn't belong. The nasty, hateful thing! + +"If Bessie Dole or Mayme Leary could only see this dump!" she added, +looking over the room again. "Anyhow, I've made 'em give me the best +they've got. I'll show 'em how to treat a _real_ relation that comes +to see 'em." + +Supper time came and passed no more cheerfully than had the midday +meal. The society of the old people was anything but enlivening for +Ida May. In desperation she began to talk, and out of sheer +perverseness she lighted upon the subject of the establishment of +Hoskin & Marl. + +Now Prudence found this topic of interest, for since Annabel +Coffin--she who was a Buttle--had dilated upon those great marts of +trade in Boston, the old woman had been vastly curious. Sheila had +never cared to talk of her experiences as saleswoman behind the +counter. + +"They tell me they sell most everything you could name in those +stores," Prudence said reflectively. "Heaps of dry goods, I suppose. +Let me see, what did you sell, my dear?" + +"I'm in the laces," said Ida May. "But Hoskin & Marl sell lots +besides dry goods." + +"Oh, yes! Annabel did say something about automobiles and--and +plasters; didn't she, Ira?" + +"Goodness knows," rejoined her husband with a groan. "Annabel Coffin +said so much the last time she was here that my head buzzes now when +I think of her." + +"Now, you hesh!" said Prudence. "Never can interest a man in such +things. So you sold laces, did you, my dear? Oh, Ida May!" she +exclaimed suddenly to Sheila, sitting on the other side of the +table. "Ida May, what did you say you sold in that store? You worked +for Hoskin & Marl, didn't you?" + +"Ye-es. I--I was in the silverware and jewelry department," +stammered Sheila, the question coming so unexpectedly that she could +not exercise consideration before making answer. + +"Now, is that so?" cried Prudence. "That must have been nice. To +handle all them pretty things. But lace is pretty, too," she added, +turning quickly to the guest again. "I expect you find it so." + +The old woman was startled into silence by the expression she saw +upon Ida May's face. The latter was glaring across the table at +Sheila. No other word could so express the intense and malevolent +look in those greenish-brown eyes and on that sharp countenance. + +Sheila's gaze was enthralled as well by Ida May's sudden emotion. +She half rose from her chair. But her strength left her limbs again, +and she fell back into the seat. + +"What's the matter, Ida May?" demanded Cap'n Ira, in wonder and +alarm. + +The real Ida May sprang up with a shriek. She shook her hand at +Sheila and for a moment could not articulate. Then she said: + +"I know her now! I knew I'd seen that creature before and I thought +I'd remember what and who she is. And she dares come down here and +sneak her way into honest people's houses! The gall of her!" + + + + +CHAPTER XXVIII + +GONE + + +"Looker here, girl!" exclaimed Cap'n Ira sternly. Putting his hand +upon Ida May's shoulder, he forced her down into her chair again. +His own eyes gleamed angrily, and his countenance expressed his +wrath. "What was you told on coming here? Didn't you promise to keep +a taut line on all that foolishness? I won't stand for it. No, +Prudence!" he exclaimed, as his wife tried to interfere. "I won't +stand for it. She must either keep away from that business, or I'll +put her right out of the house. Leastways, it being night, I'll send +her to her room." + +"Do you think you can boss me like that?" cried Ida May hotly, so +angry herself that she forgot her fear of him. "I'm not your slave, +nor your hired help, like that creature." She pointed scornfully at +Sheila. "And you'll just listen to something I've got to say. If you +don't, I'll go out to-morrow and tell everybody in this hick town. +I'll hire a hall to tell 'em in!" + +"Won't--won't you be good, deary?" begged Prudence, before her +husband could make any rejoinder to this defiance. "You know you +promised Elder Minnett you would be if we let you come here." + +"I don't want to stay here. I've seen enough of this place and you +all! And I would be ashamed to stay any longer than I can help with +folks that take in such a girl as she is." + +Again Ida May's little claw indicated Sheila, who stared, +speechless, helpless, at least for the time being. The harassed girl +could fight for herself no longer. She knew that she was on the +verge of betrayal. She could not stem the tide of Ida May's venom. +The latter must make the revelation which had threatened ever since +she had come to Wreckers' Head. There was no way of longer +smothering the truth. It would come out! + +"Look here," Cap'n Ira said, his curiosity finally aroused, "the +elder says you ain't crazy! But it looks to me--" + +"I'm not crazy, I can tell you," snapped Ida May, taking him up +short. "But I guess you and Aunt Prue must be. Why, you don't even +know the name of this girl you took in instead of me--in my rightful +place. But I can tell you who she is--and what she's done. I +remember her now. I knew I'd seen her before--the hussy!" + +"Belay that!" exclaimed Cap'n Ira. + +But he said it faintly. He was looking at the other girl now, and +something in her expression and in her attitude made him lose +confidence. His voice died in his throat. Ida May Bostwick had the +upper hand at last--and she kept it. + +"Look at her," she exulted, the green lights in her brown eyes +glinting like the sparkling eyes of a serpent. "Look at her. She +knows that I know. She's come down here and fooled you all, but she +can't fool you any longer. And that Tunis Latham! Why, it can't be +possible he knew what she was from the first!" + +"See here," said Cap'n Ira shakily. "What do you mean? What are you +getting at--or trying to? If you got anything to say about Ida May, +get it out and be over with it." + +"Oh, Ira! Don't! Stop her!" wailed Prudence. + +Like the old man, Prudence finally realized that there was something +wrong--something very wrong, indeed--with the girl they had known +for months as Ida May and whom they had learned to love so dearly. + +Nobody looking at Sheila could doubt this for a moment. Her tortured +expression of countenance, the wild light in her eyes, her trembling +lips, advertised to the beholders that the last bastion of her +fortress was taken, that the wall was breached and into that breach +now marched the triumphant phrases of the real Ida May's bitter, +gloating speech. + +"Look at her!" repeated the latter. "She can't deny it now. She +knows I know her and what she is. Why, Aunt Prue--and you, Captain +Ball--have been fooled nice, I must say. And that Tunis Latham! +Well, he can't be much!" + +"Don't--don't say anything against Tunis!" + +It was not a voice at all like the usual mellow tones of Sheila +Macklin which uttered those faint words. Hoarse, strained, +uncertain, there was yet a note of command in the phrase which had +its influence on the wildly excited Ida May. + +"I'll say what I've got to say about _you_, miss!" she exclaimed +with exultation. "And you--nor they--shan't stop me. You're the girl +that was arrested in the store for stealing. It must have been +two--why, it must have been more than three years ago. I hadn't +worked there but a little while. No wonder I didn't remember you at +first." + +Cap'n Ira vented a groan and caught at his wife's hand. She was +sobbing frantically. She still murmured her plea for the captain to +stop the awful revelation Ida May was bent on making. But the latter +gave no heed and the captain himself was speechless. + +"And I can't remember her name even now," went on Ida May, flashing +a look at the Balls. Their pitiful appearance made no impression +upon her. "But that don't matter. I guess they've got your record at +Hoskin & Marl's. You worked there all right; sure you worked there, +in the jewelry section. You stole something. I saw the store +detective, Miss Hopwell, take you up to the manager's office. I +never heard what they did to you, but they did a plenty, I bet." + +She turned confidently again to the horrified captain and his wife. + +"Just see how she looks. She don't deny it. How she managed to work +that Tunis Latham into bringing her down here, I don't know. She +pulled the wool over his eyes all right. + +"Why, she's a thief! She was arrested! I guess you can see now that +I'm not crazy--far from it. She won't dare say again that she is Ida +May Bostwick. I--guess--not!" + +The malevolent exultation of the girl was fearful to behold. But +neither Cap'n Ira nor Prudence now looked at Ida May. Leaning +against her husband, the tears coursing over her withered cheeks, +Prudence joined Cap'n Ira in gazing at the other girl. + +She rose slowly to her feet. Something like strength came back to +her; even into her voice, as Sheila again spoke. Nor did she look at +Ida May, but fixed her feverish gaze upon the two old people. + +"What--what she says is true--as far as I am concerned. But--but +Tunis did not know. It is not his fault. I was desperate. I heard +what he said to--to Miss Bostwick. I chanced to overhear it. I was +desperate; I hated the city. I was willing to take a chance for the +sake of getting among people who would be kind to me--who were +good." + +"Bah!" exclaimed Ida May raucously. "You're not fit to go among good +people!" + +Sheila did not heed her. She spoke slowly--haltingly, but what she +said held the old people silent. + +"Tunis is not to blame. I told him this--this girl"--she pointed to +Ida May, but did not look at her--"was not the right Miss Bostwick. +I said that I was the girl he wanted to see. I made him think so. I +tricked him. Don't listen to her!" she added wildly, as the enraged +Ida May would have interposed. "Tunis thought she had talked to him +just for a joke. I made him believe that. I--I would have done +anything then to get away from the city and to come down here. +Perhaps he was at fault because he did not take more time to find +out about me--to be sure I was the right girl. But he cannot be +blamed for anything else. I tell you, it was all my fault." + +"I don't believe it!" snapped Ida May. + +But Cap'n Ira put her aside with his hand, and there was returned +firmness in his voice. + +"Is this the truth? Are you what she says you are?" he asked. + +"Oh, don't, Ira!" gasped his sobbing wife. "She--" + +"We've got to learn the straight of it," said the old man sternly. +"If we've been bamboozled, we've got to know it. Now's the time for +her to speak." + +Sheila was still gazing at him. She nodded, indicating that his +question was already answered. + +"You--you mean to say you stole--like she says?" + +"I was arrested in Hoskin & Marl's. They accused me of stealing. +Yes." + +She said no more. She turned, when he did not speak again, and +walked slowly to the stairway door. She opened it and went up, +closing the door behind her. + +It was Ida May who moved first when she was gone. She jumped up once +more and started for the stairway. + +"I'll tell her what's what!" she ejaculated. "The gall of her to +come here and say she was me and get my rightful place! I'll put her +out with my own hands!" + +Somehow--it would be hard to say just how--Cap'n Ira was before her, +ere she could arrive at the stairway door. + +"Avast!" he said throatily. "Don't take too much upon yourself, +young woman. You don't quite own these premises--yet." + +"You ain't going to stand for her stayin' here any longer, are you?" +demanded the amazed Ida May. + +"Whether or not she stays here is more my business and Prudence's +business than it is yours," said the old man. "But there's one thing +sure, and you may as well l'arn it first as last: you're not to +speak to her nor do anything else to annoy her. Understand?" + +"You--you--" + +"Heed what I tell ye!" said Cap'n Ira, grim-lipped and with flashing +eyes. "You interfere with that girl in any way and it won't be her +I'll put out o' the house. I'll put you out--night though it is--and +you'll march yourself down to the port and to the Widder Pauling's +alone. Understand me?" + +There was silence again in the kitchen, save for Prudence's pitiful +sobbing. + + * * * * * + +In Tunis Latham's mind as he came up from the port four days later +was visioned no part of the tragedy which had occurred at the Ball +homestead during his absence on this last voyage to Boston. He had +suffered trouble enough during the trip even to dull the smart of +Sheila's renunciation of him before he had left the Head. Indeed, he +could scarcely realize even now that she had meant what she +said--that she could mean it! + +So brief had been their dream of love--only since that recent Sunday +when they walked the beaches about the foot of Wreckers' Head--that +it seemed to the captain of the _Seamew_ it could not be so soon +over. If Sheila really and truly loved him, how could anything part +them? + +When he considered her wild manner and her trenchant words when last +he had seen her, however, his heart sank. He had gained during the +few months of their acquaintance a pretty accurate idea of how firm +she could be--how unwavering in face of any difficulty. He realized +that her obstinacy, when her mind was once settled on a course of +action, was not easily overcome. She had declared that they could +not be lovers any longer; that the situation which had arisen +through the appearance of the real Ida May upon Wreckers' Head had +made her decision necessary; and she had refused to consider any +other outcome of this dreadful affair. + +In his business there was much which would have disturbed Tunis in +any event. The negro cook had deserted the _Seamew_ the moment after +she touched the Boston wharf. Although the other hands had remained +by the schooner until she had just now dropped anchor in the cove +below, he was not at all sure that they would sail with him for +another voyage. + +Why these new men should be more troubled by the silly tattle of the +hoodoo than even the Portygees had been was a problem Tunis could +not solve. And seamen were so scarce just then in Boston that he had +been obliged to risk another voyage without engaging strangers to +man the _Seamew_. Besides, being a true Cape Codder, he disliked +hiring other than Cape men to work the schooner. + +For one thing he could be grateful. Orion Latham had taken his chest +ashore this very day. And Zebedee Pauling had offered himself in +Orion's place on the wharf as Tunis had just now come ashore. + +He had been glad to take on Zeb in place of his cousin. And from +young Pauling he had learned at least one piece of news connected +with affairs on Wreckers' Head. Zeb told him that the girl he had +brought to the Pauling house had talked with Elder Minnett and that +the elder had later taken her up to the Ball house, where she had +remained. + +There was not much gossip about the matter it seemed. Nobody seemed +to know who the young woman was; nor did Zeb know what was going on +at the Ball homestead. It was with this slight information only that +Tunis now approached the old place. He saw Cap'n Ira hobbling into +the barn, but he saw nobody else about. + +The day was gray, and a chill wind crept over the brown earth, +rustling the dead stalks of the weeds and curling little spirals of +dust in the road which rose no more than a foot or two, then fell +again, despairingly. In any event the young shipmaster must have +felt the oppression of the day and the lingering season. His spirits +fell lower, and he came to the Ball place with such a feeling of +depression that he hesitated about turning in at the gate at all. + +As Cap'n Ira did not at once come out of the barn, the younger man +made his way there instead of going first to the kitchen door. He +shrank from meeting the real Ida May again. At any rate, he wanted +first to get the lay of the land from the old man. + +He looked into the dim interior of the place and for a moment did +not see Cap'n Ira at all. The ghostly face of the Queen of Sheba +appeared at the opening over her manger. Tunis was about to call +when he saw the old man straining upon the lower rungs of the ladder +to reach the loft to pitch down a bunch of fodder. Queenie whinnied +softly. + +"Hello, Cap'n Ira!" Tunis hailed. "What are you doing that for?" He +hastened to cross the barn floor to his aid. "Where's Ida May that +she lets you do this?" + +"Ida May?" The old man repeated the name with such disgust that +Tunis was all but stunned and stopped to eye Cap'n Ira amazedly. +"D'ye think she'd take a step to save me a dozen? Or lift them +lily-white hands of hers to keep Prudence from doing all the work +she has to do? I swan!" + +"What do you mean?" demanded Tunis. "You sound mighty funny, Cap'n +Ira. Hasn't Ida May been doing all and sundry for you for months? Is +she sick?" + +"I--I don't mean _that_ gal," quavered Cap'n Ira. "I mean the real +Ida May." + +He half tumbled off the ladder into Tunis Latham's arms. He clung to +the young man tightly, and, although it was dark in the barn, Tunis +could have sworn that there were tears on the old man's cheeks. + +"Don't you know we've got the right Ida May with us at +last--Prudence's niece that has come here to visit for a while and +play lady? Yes, you was fooled; we was bamboozled. That--that other +gal, Tunis, is a real bad one, I ain't no doubt. She pulled the wool +over your eyes and made a monkey of most everybody, it seems. She--" + +"Who are you talking about?" cried Tunis, in his alarm almost +shaking the old man. + +"I'm telling you the girl you brought down here, thinking she was +Ida May Bostwick, turned out to be somebody else. I don't know who. +Anyway, she ain't no relation of Prudence or me. I ain't blaming you +none, boy; she told us we musn't blame you, for you didn't know the +truth about her, either." + +"Cap'n Ira, where is she?" demanded the younger man hoarsely. + +"She ain't here. She's gone. She left four nights ago--after Ida May +had remembered what she'd done in that big store in Boston. Oh, she +admitted it--" + +"You mean to tell me she's gone? That you don't know where she is?" +almost shouted Tunis. + +"Easy, boy! Remember I got some feeling yet in them arms you was +squeezing. It ain't our fault she went. She left us in the +night--stole out with just a bundle of clothes and things. Left, +Prudence says, every enduring thing she'd got since she come +here--that we give her." + +Tunis groaned. + +"Yes, she's gone. And she's left that other dratted girl in her +place. I swan, Tunis, I'd just as leave have the figgerhead of the +old _Susan Gatskill_ sittin' by our kitchen stove as to have that +useless critter about. She ain't no good to Prudence and me--not at +all!" + + + + +CHAPTER XXIX + +ON THE TRAIL + + +There was but a single idea in Sheila Macklin's mind when she left +those three people in the kitchen and mounted to her room. Indeed, +there was scarcely left to the sadly distracted girl another sane +thought. + +She must leave the house before she could be further questioned. She +hoped that she had said enough to exonerate Tunis. If she said more, +it might be to raise some doubt in the minds of Cap'n Ira and +Prudence as to Tunis' ignorance of her true reputation. She must +escape any cross-examination--on that or any other topic. + +She believed that the captain of the _Seamew_ possessed sufficient +caution to keep secret the particulars of their first meeting until +he had heard from the old people the few false details she had left +in their minds. She had done all she could to make Tunis' reputation +secure in the eyes of those who must know any particulars of his +connection with her. She had kept her vow to the dead woman whom the +young shipmaster had, throughout his life, so revered--his mother. + +She did not light her bedroom lamp until she knew by the sounds from +below that the family had retired for the night. Then, stepping +softly, she went over her small possessions and made a bundle of +those which she had brought with her when she came from Boston. The +articles of apparel purchased with money given her by the Balls she +left in the closet or in the bureau drawers. + +This done, she did not lie down on the bed, but sat by the north +window staring out into the starlit dark. There was no lamp to watch +in the window of Latham's Folly to-night. Tunis was far away. Had +she been prepared for this unexpected catastrophe, she would have +been far, far away from Wreckers' Head before Tunis returned. + +As it chanced, she possessed very little money--scarcely more than +enough to take her to Paulmouth. There she would be no better off +than she was at Big Wreck Cove. Sheila was not, in truth, quite +accountable for her actions at this time. To get away from the Ball +house was her only really clear thought. What followed must fall as +fate directed. + +At the first faint gleam of dawn in the sky, and as the distant +stars paled and disappeared, the girl crept down the stairs with +her bundle, her shoes in her hand, and went out by the kitchen door. +She heard only the deep breathing of the old captain from across the +sitting room and now and then the sobbing breath of Prudence, like +the breathing of a hurt child that has fallen asleep in pain and +half wakes to a realization of it. + +As she turned to close the outer door softly behind her, the girl's +heart throbbed in response to the old woman's sorrow. While she sat +on the bench to lace her shoes the cat, old Tabby, came rubbing and +purring about her skirts. Muffled, as though from a great distance, +a rooster vented a questioning crow as though he doubted that it was +yet time to announce the birth of another day. + +She went to the barn to feed Queenie for the last time. That +outraged old creature displayed her surprised countenance at the +opening above her manger and blew sonorously through her nostrils. +Perhaps the gray mare remembered how she had been aroused at a +similar hour once before, and by Cap'n Ira himself. That experience +must have been keen in the Queen of Sheba's memory if she had any +memory at all. + +But the troubled girl gave the mare less attention than usual, +throwing down some fodder and pouring a measure of corn into the +manger. The mare turned to that with appetite. Corn came not amiss +to Queenie, no matter at what hour it was vouchsafed her. Her sound +old teeth did not stop crunching the kernels as Sheila went out of +the barn. + +From the shed she secured an ax and a spade, as well as a basket. +In spite of her condition of mind she knew exactly what she wanted +to do--and she did it. Had she thought out her intention for +months she could have gone about the matter no more directly and +practically. Yet, had one stopped Sheila and asked her what she +was about--exactly what her intentions were--the query would have +found her unprepared with an answer. + +Both her physical and mental condition precluded Sheila from going +far from the Ball homestead. What she had been through during these +past few days had drained out of her physical vigor as well as all +intellectual freshness. + +When Cap'n Ira Ball had led the feebly protesting Queen of Sheba +across these empty fields to her intended sacrifice, the two had +made no more dreary picture against the dim dawn than did Sheila +now. She carried the bundle she had made slung over one shoulder by +a length of rope. The spade, ax, and basket balanced her figure on +the other side; she bent forward as she walked and, from a distance, +Prudence herself would have looked no older or more decrepit than +did the girl now leaving the Ball premises. + +She did not follow the same course that the captain and Queenie had +followed on that memorable occasion, but took a path that led to a +cart track to the beach behind John-Ed Williams' house. Nobody was +astir anywhere on Wreckers' Head but herself. + +In an hour she arrived at the objective point toward which she had +been headed from the first. Why and how she had thought of this +refuge it would be hard to tell. Least of all could Sheila have +explained her reason for coming here. It was in her mind, it was +away from all other human habitations, and she did not think anybody +would have the right to drive her from it. + +The cabin formerly occupied by Hosea Westcott was well above the +tide, was, or could be made, perfectly dry, was roughly, if not +comfortably furnished, and offered the girl a shelter in which she +thought she would be safe. + +To one who had spent such weary months in a narrow room in a Hanover +Street lodging house, going in and out with speech with scarcely any +one save the person to whom she paid her weekly dole of rent, there +could be no loneliness in a place like this, where the surf soughed +continually in one's ear, a hundred feathered forms flashed by in an +hour, sails dotted the dimpling sea, and the strand itself was +spread thick with many varieties of nature's wonders. + +During the summer and early fall, Sheila had become a splendid +oarswoman. In a skiff belonging to little John-Ed which was drawn up +on the sands not far from the cabin she had paddled out through the +narrow neck of the tiny cove's entrance and pulled bravely through +the surf and out upon the sea beyond. She had learned more than a +bit of sea lore, too, from Cap'n Ira and Tunis. And regarding the +edible shellfish to be found along the beaches, she was well +informed. + +If an old man such as Hosea Westcott, feeble and spent, no doubt, +could pick up a living here, why could not she? Sheila did not fear +starvation. Indeed, she did not even look forward to such a +possibility. She did not fear work of any kind. With every salt +breath she drew, strength, like the tide itself, flowed into her +body. Although her mind remained in a partially stunned condition, +her muscles soon recovered their vigor. + +Of course the girl's presence here in the abandoned cabin, her +taking up a hermit life on the shore, could not remain unknown to +the neighbors on Wreckers' Head for long. Yet at this season of the +year the men were all busy elsewhere and the women almost never came +down to the beaches. It is a remarkable fact that most longshore +women have little interest in the beauties or wonders to be found +along the beaches, even in the sea itself. Perhaps this is because +the latter is such a hard mistress to their menfolk. + +Nevertheless, Sheila could not hide herself away from +everybody--not even on that first day. The Balls made no outcry when +they found that she had disappeared. And no near-port fishing craft +came by. But the smoke from the chimney of the cabin, when she had +swept and made comfortable its interior and built a fire of +driftwood in the rusty pot stove, attracted at least one sharp eye. + +Down the bank, along with a small avalanche of sand and gravel, +plunged little John-Ed and his freckled face appeared at the +doorway. + +"By the great jib boom!" he cried. "What you doing here? Playing +castaway?" + +"Yes, John-Ed," said Sheila. "That is it exactly. I am a castaway." + +He stared at her. She could not take this boy into her confidence. +But already little John-Ed was a henchman of hers, in spite of the +fact that Sheila often had made him work. + +"I am going to stay here for a while," she told him. "But I would +rather nobody but you knew about it." + +"By the great jib boom!" exploded the boy for a second time. "Not +even Cap'n Ira and Aunt Prudence?" + +"Not even them," sighed the girl. + +"I bet it's because you don't want to stay there while that other +girl is visitin' them. Ain't that it? She's a snippy thing!" + +"You must not say so to anybody," urged Sheila. "It will not be +wrong for you to say nothing about my being here to your father and +mother. Do you understand?" + +"I can keep a secret, all right," he assured her proudly. + +"I believe you can. And do you think you could get off to go down to +the store for me this evening?" + +"Going down anyway for mom," he assured her. + +Sheila had a dollar and a little change besides. She had already +planned just what the dollar would buy in the way of necessaries. +There were cooking utensils in the cabin sufficient for her modest +needs. She gave little John-Ed the dollar and her list and warned +him to hide her purchases safely until the next morning and bring +them to her on his way to school. + +"What you going to eat to-night?" he asked her bluntly. + +"I dug some clams at low water and caught a big horseshoe crab." + +"Cousin Phineas brought us more squeteague than we can eat. Mom told +me to cut one up for the hens. I'll bring it down to you in a +little. It's a fresh one." + +In spite of her refusal, he did this, and brought along, too, a box +of sweet crackers which he had bought and hidden away in his bedroom +closet in preparation for some time when he might wake up in the +night and feel that he was on the verge of famine. + +"Though I never did wake up in the night that I can remember, 'cept +that time I had the toothache," he observed. + +And in this way Sheila began her hermit life in the fisherman's +cabin. + +But Sheila was not without a practical design as to her future. In +her determination to accept no further aid from the Balls she had +crippled her finances. Back in the inland town where she had spent +her girlhood, and where Dr. Macklin had served the community so +long, there were those who, in disapproving Sheila's venture into +the city, at least had a sense of justice. Some of these critical +friends whom the young woman had shrunk from appealing to +heretofore, still owed for Dr. Macklin's services; and Sheila felt +that in this present tragic emergency she must attempt the +collection of these old debts. + +She wrote letters praying that money might be sent her by express to +Paulmouth, but with the orders addressed under cover to "John-Ed +Williams, Jr." at the Big Wreck Cove post office. She explained her +design to her juvenile confidant and little John-Ed was made +immensely proud of such mark of her trust. She could have found no +more faithful adherent than the boy, and with him the secret of her +dwelling on the lonely shore and in her hermit-like state was safe. + +But her presence there could not be hidden for long; of that she was +well aware. Little John-Ed, however, told nobody of her whereabouts +until the day Tunis Latham came back from Boston and learned that +the girl he loved had stolen away from her home in the Ball house. + +Coming out of the rear door of the barn, fresh from the interview +with the old captain which had so shocked him, Tunis saw a small boy +astride the low stone fence that marked the rear boundary of the +Ball farm. The captain of the _Seamew_ was in no mood to bandy words +with little John-Ed Williams, but the sharp tooth of his troubled +thought fastened upon one indubitable fact: if there is anything odd +going on in a community, the small boy of that community knows all +about it--or, at least, as much about it as it is possible to know. + +Tunis could not have walked up to any adult person on Wreckers' Head +and asked the question which he put to little John-Ed on the spur of +the moment: + +"Where is she?" + +He did not have to utter Sheila's name. Indeed, he was doubtful by +what name it would be wise to call her. But he did not have to be +plainer with little John-Ed. He saw in the sly expression of the +boy's eyes that he knew whom he meant. But he shook his head. + +"You know where she went," was the schooner captain's accusation. +"Where is she?" + +"I--I can't tell you," stammered the boy. "I promised not." + +A promise is a promise, especially to a small boy who scorns to +"snitch." Tunis thought a moment. + +"Show me," he said, and his voice had in it that tone which made the +foremast hands jump to obey when a squall was coming. + +The boy got promptly off the wall. + +"All right," he said gruffly. "But don't you tell her I showed you, +Cap'n Tunis Latham." + +"Trust me," agreed the captain of the _Seamew_, and followed after +little John-Ed with such tremendous strides that the latter had to +run to keep ahead of him. + +Tunis was led to that point on the bluff from which a curl of smoke +from the cabin chimney could be seen. He halted almost in +horror--stricken to the heart when he understood. + +"Alone?" he muttered. + +"Yep," was the reply. "She's playing she's a castaway. Nobody but me +knows it." + +Then, fearing he had said too much, John-Ed ran away. + +Tunis descended the bluff by a perilous path--he would not delay to +go around by the cart track--and came in plain view of the cabin. +The door hinge had been repaired, and the door now swung freely. A +strip of cotton cloth had been tacked over the gaping window. There +was that neatness about the abandoned cabin which must always be +associated in his mind with Sheila Macklin, even had he not seen her +sitting pensively upon a driftwood timber by the door. + +The ax had been doing good service, for there was a great +heap of wood cut into stove lengths. The fragrant odor of +something--chowder, perhaps--simmering on the stove, floated +through the open door. + +It was the coarse sand crunching under his boots which aroused her. +She did not start at his approach, but raised her eyes languidly. He +wondered if she had expected him. She must have seen the _Seamew_ +pass several hours earlier as they headed in toward the channel. + +"My God, Sheila!" he exclaimed with bitterness, but without anger. +"You can't stay here." + +"I must--for a while. No. Don't talk about it, please, Tunis." Her +gesture had a finality to it which silenced the objections rising to +his lips. "Nothing you can say will change my determination. And you +must not come here again." + +"What will people say?" he gasped. + +The violet eyes blazed suddenly while she surveyed him. This was not +the girl he had known before. At least, she was not the same as +when he had seen her last. Even at that previous interview her look +and manner had not so reminded him of the girl he had sat beside on +the bench on Boston Common. + +She was alone again. The flower of her nature that had expanded +while she lived her all too brief and happy life with the Balls was +now withered. She was hopeless again; she had become once more the +Sheila Macklin that he had met under such wretched circumstances at +that past time. But in spite of her helplessness and her +wretchedness, there was something in the girl's expression which +convinced Tunis Latham before he again spoke that nothing he could +say would in any degree change her determination. + +"That confounded girl never should have been allowed to come back to +the house up there," he cried almost wildly. "Why did Elder Minnett +want to interfere? It was not his business! No one need have known +the truth." + +"Don't you see, Tunis, that just because it was the truth it was +sure to become known? At least, the main points in the whole matter +were sure to come out. But if you are careful, if you are wise, +nobody need know more of your share in the transaction than I have +told already." + +"Cap'n Ira asked me if it was true. He told me what you said. +Sheila, you ruined your own reputation with the old folks to save +me. Girl--" + +"Did I have any reputation to lose, Tunis?" she interrupted, yet +speaking softly. "I could not save myself. I have tried to save you. +Don't be ill-advised; don't be foolish. Say nothing, and it will all +blow over--for you." + +"You think I'll accept such a sacrifice on your part?" he demanded +fiercely. + +"I am making no sacrifice. Nothing I can do or say; nothing you can +do or say; nothing anybody can do or say; will change my situation. +We need not both be ruined in the eyes of the community. Soon I will +get away. They will forget me. It will all blow over. You need not +suffer." + +"What do you think I am?" he cried again. "Am I the sort of a +fellow, you think, to shelter myself behind you?" + +"Shelter your Aunt Lucretia. Shelter your business prospects. +Shelter the good name of your mother's son. You can do me absolutely +no good by telling any different story from the one I was forced to +tell. Let it be, Tunis." + +She said it wearily. She dropped her eyes again, looking away from +him. But when he would have stepped nearer and caught her to him, +she leaped up and with look and tone warded him away. + +"Don't touch me! Be at least so kind, Tunis. Make it no harder for +me than you can help." + +"You are breaking my heart, Sheila!" + +"Mine is already broken," she told him. "And I do not blame you, +Tunis. It is the punishment for my own sins. I attempted to escape +from my overwhelming troubles in a wrong way. I see it now. I know +it to be so. I must go somewhere else and build again--if I may. But +never again upon a foundation of trickery and deceit. Oh! Never! +Never!" + +She stepped around the big block on which she had been sitting, +entered the cabin, and closed the door behind her. She left him +standing there hopeless, miserable, almost distraught by all the +entanglements of this tragedy that had come upon them. + + + + +CHAPTER XXX + +THE STORM + + +Captain Tunis Latham, pacing the deck of the _Seamew_, had come to a +conclusion which was by no means complimentary to his own +self-respect. During his manifold duties and the business bothers +connected with the sailing of the undermanned schooner, his mind had +seized upon and grappled with a train of ideas which brought him +logically to the decision that he was playing a weak and piffling +part. + +Strong in most things, Tunis Latham had allowed his better sense to +be throttled and his purpose balked in the thing which meant more to +him than the schooner, his business success, or anything else in +life. The broader the rift grew between Sheila and himself, the +clearer he saw that without her he was a ship without a rudder and +that nothing could come of his life save wreck and disaster. + +She had renounced him for his own good, as she believed, and he had +tacitly consented to her ruling. He might be slow of thought +regarding such things, but once having made up his mind--and it was +made up now--he was of the kind that obstacles do not frighten. + +Not only did he realize that by bowing to the girl's will he had +been weak, but he was determined to take matters in the future into +his own hands. He should not have allowed Sheila, in the first +place, to shoulder the responsibility of handling the emergency of +the appearance of the real Ida May Bostwick at Big Wreck Cove. + +Sheila, in an attempt to save his reputation, to save his +self-respect in the eyes of the home folks and of the world in +general, had uttered a direct falsehood and cut herself off from him +and from those who loved her. This was too much for any decent man +to stand. Was he a coward? Would he shelter himself--as he had told +her--behind her skirts? + +Tunis believed that Cap'n Ira and Prudence, when once the shock of +the girl's revelation was past, loved her so dearly that they would +forgive Sheila if they knew all the truth--if they knew the girl as +he knew her. He was not so sure of Aunt Lucretia. He had feared to +tell her the night before that Sheila had gone to live in the old +fisherman's cabin, in spite of the sympathy Lucretia had previously +shown him. But he believed his silent aunt fully appreciated the +better qualities of the girl she had seen on but one occasion, and +that she would, in time, admit that Sheila was more than worthy of +her nephew's love. + +In any event he had his own life to make or mar. Without Sheila he +knew it would be utterly fruitless and without an object. Rather +than lose Sheila he would sell the schooner, cut himself off from +friends and home, and, with her, face the world anew. He was +determined, if Sheila left Big Wreck Cove, that he would go with +her. Nobody--not even the girl herself--could shake this +determination now born in the mind of the captain of the _Seamew_. + +Sheila had borne his reputation upon her heart from the beginning, +but he should have at first thought of her good name and the opinion +the world must needs hold of Sheila Macklin. She had been unfairly +accused. She had been abused, ill-treated, punished for a sin which +was not hers. It was not enough that he had tried to help her hide +away from those who knew of her persecution. The only right thing to +do--the only sane course, and the one which should have been pursued +from the start--was to attempt to disprove the accusation under +which the girl had suffered and set her right not only before Big +Wreck Cove folk, but before the whole world. + +The poignant feeling of sin committed, with which Sheila herself was +now burdened, did not influence Tunis Latham. It was the logic of +the idea which convinced him that they had been totally wrong in +what they had done. He should have married Sheila on the night they +had met in Boston and set about first of all tracing back her +trouble and disproving the flimsy evidence which must have convicted +her of stealing from Hoskin & Marl's. + +He told himself it was not piety, but hard common sense which +suggested this as the only and practical way to handle the matter. +It was, in truth, the awakened hope in a loving heart. + +Tunis had been able to keep scarcely enough of his crew to handle +the _Seamew_ in fair weather; and the barometer was falling, with +every indication in sea and sky of the approach of bad weather. He +feared the few hands he had would desert when they reached Boston. +Zebedee Pauling was a young host in himself--far and away a better +seaman than Orion Latham, as well as a better fellow. But the +schooner could not be sailed with good will. + +Tunis' mind, however, remained fixed upon Sheila's troubles rather +than upon his own; and as soon as the schooner docked, he went up +into the town and wended his way directly to the great department +store in which he had once interviewed the troublesome Ida May +Bostwick. + + * * * * * + +The cargo was out, and the _Seamew_ had already been warped into +another wharf where freight was awaiting her when the skipper +returned to the water front that afternoon. The three men remaining +of the forecastle crew were still at work, assisted by Zebedee and +Horry Newbegin. They had not had a regular cook for two trips now. + +But a new complication had arisen. Mason Chapin stood at the rail +waiting his return, and a taxicab had been summoned. The mate +carried a bag. + +"A telegram from Doctor Norris. My wife's worse, Mr. Latham. I've +got to go back just as fast as steam will get me there," was his +greeting to the skipper of the _Seamew_. + +This was according to the agreement Mason Chapin had made in the +beginning. His wife was sorely ill, and surely Tunis would not stand +between a man and his sick wife! + +But it left a very serious situation upon the schooner when the mate +drove away in the taxicab. Six men, forward and aft, to handle a +suit of sails which equaled those of any seagoing racing yacht. If +it had not been for the freight--some of which was perishable--the +master of the _Seamew_ would have laid up until he could have got +together a more numerous crew at least. + +But instead of going to the seamen's employment offices, Tunis had +to turn to himself, while the heavier pieces of freight were lowered +down the hatchway of the schooner. It was near evening when the +hatch was battened down and a small tug snaked them out of the dock +and from among the greater shipping, and gave them a whistled +blessing in midstream. + +All hands and the skipper tailed on to the sheets and got her canvas +spread. Then the skipper went below to the galley and prepared +supper. Tunis Latham could be no stickler for quarter-deck etiquette +on this voyage, that was sure. + +But although the hands growled, and even Horry looked sour, Tunis +seemed strangely excited; indeed, he looked less woebegone than he +had for many a day. Something seemed to have given him a new zest in +life. He even spoke to the hands cheerfully, and they were a trio of +as surly dogs as ever quarreled with their food and a ship's +officers. + +"I'll lay up at the cove until I get a decent crew this time, if I +lose all my existing contracts," Tunis said to Zebedee. "I'll find a +bunch of men who are not afraid of their shadows. Huh! Hoodooed, is +she? I'll show 'em that she can sail, even if Davy Jones himself +sits on her bowsprit!" + +There was wind enough, in all good conscience. They discovered that +before they were out of the bay. It had shifted into the northeast, +and the _Seamew_ went roaring away on her course under reefed +canvas, heeling over to it like a racing yacht. + +But the long tacks to seaward which the gale enforced made it +impossible for the schooner to beat back to Hollis where the first +of her freight must be discharged until after breakfast the next +morning. By that time the three foremast hands who had been obliged +to work double watches were fairly stewing in their own rage. + +Tunis had to see his consignees while the freight was being +discharged; when he got back to the wharf there was nobody aboard +the schooner save Horry and Zebedee. The latter had a broken oar in +his hand and he and the ancient seaman seemed to be in a condition +of utter amazement. + +"What's to do now?" demanded the skipper. + +"They've gone, Cap'n Latham," stammered Zebedee. "Say they won't put +foot on the _Seamew's_ deck again. That--that confounded 'Rion--" + +"What's the matter with Orion now?" exclaimed Tunis. "I hoped I was +well rid of him. Has he turned up here at Hollis?" + +"Look at this," said Zebedee, shaking the broken oar. "Here's what +it seems 'Rion found in the hold two trips back. So those fellows +say. He left it with 'em. And they say the schooner is a murder ship +and they won't try to work her no further." + +Tunis seized the piece of oar. Along one side was a streak of faint +blue paint. He knew immediately where he had seen that broken oar +before--leaning against the door frame of Pareta's cottage in +Portygee Town, when he had last talked with the old man's daughter. + +"What in thunder!" + +He had turned it over and saw the straggling letters burned into +the wood: MARLIN B. Newbegin looked at Tunis with an expression +which betrayed a great perturbation of soul. The old man could +scarcely show pallor under the mahogany of his face, but it was +plain that superstition had him by the throat. + +"So this is the thing that rotten 'Rion played them with, is it?" +Tunis demanded. "Trying to make them think my beautiful _Seamew_ was +once the _Marlin B._? Why, the poor fools, this broken oar came out +of Mike Pareta's woodpile, or I'm a dog-fish! See that blue streak? +I saw this broken oar at Pareta's house. Bet you anything Eunez had +something to do with it, too. Though why she should want to harm me, +who never said a cross word to her, I can't see." + +"She and your cousin are mighty thick," Zebedee said reflectively. +"That's a fact." + +"Thicker than they ought to be for the girl's good, I guess," agreed +Tunis. Then he said to Horry: "What's the matter with you, old man? +Do you want to desert me, too, all along of a broken oar with some +silly letters burned into it?" + +The ancient mariner had got a grip upon himself. The simple +explanation that punctured the bubble of superstition so +convincingly might not have altogether satisfied Horry. But he was a +true and just man. + +"I never deserted your father, Cap'n Randall Latham, not even when +his ship sunk under him," the old man declared. "I was saved from +that wreck by chance, not because I tried to be. And I ain't likely +to desert his son." + +"How about you, Zebedee?" demanded the captain of the _Seamew_. + +"I am not afraid of any foolish talk, anyway, Captain Latham. Had I +been I wouldn't have applied for the berth. I had heard enough about +it. Eunez Pareta, I believe, talked too much to the Portygees, and +that is why you couldn't keep them. But I'm not a Portygee." + +"I'll say you're not," agreed Tunis. "But we're left in something of +a fix. This freight for Josh Jones and his father is needed. Some +other stuff consigned to Big Wreck Cove ought to be there by +to-night. And I can't get a man for love or money here to help us +out. I tried while I was uptown." + +Zeb showed no hesitation. He shrugged his blue-jerseyed shoulders. + +"Don't you cal'late we can beat down there under a reefed mainsail +and jib? It'll take time, but she's the sweetest sailing craft I was +ever in in my life," he said. + +"She's certainly all right, 'cept for that pull to sta'bbo'd," +muttered Horry. + +"Humph! Three men to sail a schooner of this tonnage. And this isn't +any capsize wind at that," murmured the captain of the _Seamew_. +"But it's got to be done. Come! Will you risk it with me?" + +They looked aloft and then at each other. There was little save +reflection in their several glances. Men of this caliber do not +hesitate over a risk of life or ship. Cautious as Tunis Latham was, +his agreement with those he had contracted with called for a prompt +fulfillment of the details of the pact. Nor did the prospect of the +rising gale and rising sea cause any of the trio to blanch. It was +not a long run to Big Wreck Cove. Properly manned, the _Seamew_ +should make it prettily in three or four hours. In addition, there +was little but an open roadstead before the port of Hollis. The +breakwater was scarcely strong enough to fend off the waves in a +real gale. And they knew that a gale was coming. + +This was no place for a schooner of the _Seamew's_ size to ride out +the storm. She might easily drag her anchors and go ashore on the +Hollis sands that in the past had buried many a good ship. So the +trio of Cape men nodded grimly to each other and took the better +chance. + + + + +CHAPTER XXXI + +BITTER WATERS + + +Ah, yes! youth, and romance linked with a self-scrutiny born of her +New England ancestry if not of her father's Celtic blood, had +brought Sheila Macklin to her dreadful pass. One might have said, if +one were hardened enough, that had the young woman "possessed an +ounce of sense" she would not have made herself penniless, an +outcast, and so suffered because she could not escape quickly from +an environment well-nigh poignant enough to turn her brain. + +She was days in recovering from the shock of the appearance of the +real Ida May Bostwick at the Ball homestead. And those hours of +torture that had followed had eaten like acid into Sheila's soul. + +She had by no means recovered herself when Tunis had his brief +interview with her. Had she not shut herself away from him--refused +to even discuss the situation with the troubled skipper of the +_Seamew_--she must have broken down, given way to that womanly +weakness born of love for the man of her choice. + +For Sheila knew how Tunis Latham suffered. She felt that her course +was right; nevertheless she fully appreciated how keen the blow of +her decision fell upon the partner in her sin. + +A sin it was--almost, it seemed to her now, an unpardonable crime. +To seize upon another girl's identity; to usurp another's chance; to +foist herself upon the unsuspecting and kindly souls at the Ball +homestead in a way that raised for them a happiness that was merely +a phantom--the thought of it all was now a draught of which the +dregs were very, very bitter. + +Over and over again she recalled all that Ida May Bostwick had said +to and of her. It was all true! Coarse and unfeeling as the shopgirl +was, Sheila lashed her troubled soul with the thought that what Ida +May had said was deserved. Neither circumstances nor the fact that +Tunis had suggested the masquerade excused the transgression. + +The days of her waiting on fate, alone in the cabin under Wreckers' +Head, gave no surcease to her mental castigation. Her sin loomed the +more huge as the hours dragged their slow length by. + +And yet, with it all, Sheila's keenest anguish came through her +renunciation of Tunis' love. She could see no possible way of +holding to that if she would purge herself of the fault she had +committed. + +And above the stain of her false position since she had come to the +Cape was the overcloud of that accusation which had first warped +Sheila Macklin's life and humbled her spirit. She believed that she +could never escape the shame of that prosecution and punishment for +a crime she had not committed. + +She believed that, no matter where she might go nor how blamelessly +she might live, the fact that she had been sentenced to a woman's +reformatory would crop up like the ugly memory of a horrid dream to +embitter her existence. Was her life linked with Tunis Latham's, he +must suffer also from that misfortune. + +And so Sheila Macklin waited from hour to hour, from day to day, +dully and in a brooding spirit, for release from a situation which +must in time embitter her whole nature. + + * * * * * + +From the cabin at the foot of the seaward bluff of Wreckers' Head, +the coming of the black gale out of the northeast was watched +anxiously by Sheila, from the very break of this day. Tunis might be +on the sea. She doubted if the threat of bad weather would hold the +_Seamew_ in port. + +There was no rain--just a wind which tore across the waste of waters +within view of her station, scattering their crests in foam and +spoondrift, and rolling them in huger and still huger breakers on +the strand. It was a magnificent sight, but a terrifying one as +well. The girl watched almost continually for a white patch against +the black of the storm which might mark a sailing craft in peril. + +Steam vessels went past, several of them. They, surely, were in +little danger, were their hulls ordinarily sound and their engines +perfect. All the fishing craft had made for cover the night before. +The New York-Boston steamers would keep to the inside passage in +this gale. + +Sheila had made all taut and trim inside the cabin. She had plenty +of firewood and sufficient provisions to last her for a time. + +About noon she heard the crunch of footsteps on the sand. It was +little John-Ed who first appeared before her eyes. He thrust a +letter into Sheila's hand. + +"Dad brought it up from the port this morning, and I got it away +from him. Say," he continued, evidently much disturbed, "he's coming +here." + +"Who is coming here--your father?" + +"No, no! Not dad. I--I couldn't help it. I didn't tell him. I said +you wanted to play alone here at being shipwrecked, and I was just +like you said--your man Friday." + +"Who do you mean?" asked Sheila, greatly agitated. "Not--" + +"I bet 'twas that Tunis Latham told him you was here," continued +John-Ed. "Anyway, don't blame me. All I done was to help him down +the path." + +He disappeared. Sheila stepped to the door. Cap'n Ira was laboring +over the sands toward the cabin, leaning on his cane, his coat +flapping in the wind and his cap screwed on so tightly that a +hurricane could not possibly have blown it away. + +But in addition and aside from the buffeting he had suffered from +the wind, the old man looked much less trim and taut than Sheila had +ever before seen him. He had not been shaved for at least three +days; a button hung by a thread upon his coat; there was a coffee +stain on the bosom of his shirt. + +He looked so miserable, and so faint, and so buffeted about, that +the girl cried out, running from the door of the cabin to meet him. +The sweat of his hard effort stood on his brow, and he panted for +breath. + +"I swan! Ida May--er--well, whoever you be, gal, let me set down! +I'm near spent, and that's a fact." + +"Oh, Cap'n Ball, you should not have done this!" cried the girl, +letting him lean upon her and aiding him as rapidly as possible to +the cabin door. "You should not have done this. You--you can do +nothing for me. You can do no good by coming here." + +"Humph! P'r'aps not. Mebbe you're right. Let me set down on that +box, gal," he muttered. + +He eased himself down upon the rough seat against the wall. He +removed the cap with an effort and took his huge handkerchief from +its crown. He mopped his brow and face and finally heaved a huge +sigh. + +"I swan! That was a pull," he said. "So you're settled here. Gone to +housekeeping on your own hook, have ye?" he said. + +"Just for a little while, Cap'n Ira. Only--only until I can get +away. I--I have been expecting some money--payment of one of my +father's old bills." + +She slit the envelope of the letter little John-Ed had just brought +her. Inside was a pale-blue slip--a money order. + +"Yes," she said. "I can get away now. I must go somewhere to earn my +living, and as far away from here as I can get." + +"So you think on traveling, do you?" said the old man. "You ain't +content with Big Wreck Cove and the Head?" + +"Oh, Cap'n Ira!" she cried. "You know I can't stay here. Winter is +coming. Besides, the people here--" + +"Ain't none of 'em asked ye to come an' live with them?" + +"Cap'n Ball!" + +"Ain't ye seen Tunis?" + +The girl hid her face from him. She put her hands over her eyes. Her +shoulders shook with her sobbing. Cap'n Ira took a reflective pinch +of snuff. + +"I cal'late," he said, after wiping his eyes, "that it ain't Tunis' +fault that you are going away any more than it is mine and +Prudence's. You just made up your mind to go." + +"Cap'n Ball!" she exclaimed faintly, and again raised her eyes to +his. "Can--can I help it? _Now?_" + +"I don't know," he said, pursing his lips. "I don't know, gal, as +anybody is driving you away from Wreckers' Head and them that loves +ye here." + +She was speechless. She gazed at him with drenched eyes, her face +quivering uncontrollably. A hand pressed tightly to her breast +seemed endeavoring to still the wild fluttering there. + +"I don't know," he repeated, "that we got much to offer a gal like +you, and that's a fact. We learned to know you pretty well while you +stayed with us, Prue and me did. Somehow, we can't just seem to get +the straight of what you told us that night you left. It--it ain't +possible that you made some mistake, is it? Mebbe you was talking +about some other gal?" + +"Oh, Cap'n Ball!" she sighed. "I am able to tell you nothing that +will change your opinion of me." + +"Well, I don't know. I don't know. What you did say," he observed in +that same reflective, gentle tone, "didn't seem to change our +opinion much. Not mine and Prudence's." + +"Cap'n Ball!" + +"No," he went on, wagging his head. "You committing such a fault as +you say you was accused of, and you coming down here as you did, +through a trick--somehow those facts, if they be facts, don't seem +to have much effect on our opinion. Me and the old woman feel that +somehow--we don't know how--what you told us that night and what you +done for us before that night don't fit together nohow." + +She stared at him without understanding. He cleared his throat and +mopped his brow again with the big silk handkerchief. + +"No, gal, we can't understand how anybody as good and loving as you +have been to us can be at heart as bad as--as other folks might try +to make out. Fact is, we know you can't be bad." + +"What--what do you mean, Cap'n Ball?" she asked faintly. + +"I swan! I tell ye what I'm getting at," burst out the old man. "We +want you to come back. Prudence, she wants you to come back. I swan! +I want you to come back. Why, even that dratted Queen of Sheby needs +you, Ida May--or, whatever your name is! We've got to have you!" + +"Prudence can't scurcely get around the house. And that niece of +hers sits there like a stick or a stun, not willin' to scurce lift +her hand to help. Thank the Lord _she's_ goin' home to-day. Her +visit's come to an end. She don't like it down here. She says we're +all a set of--er--hicks, I believe she calls us. + +"Howsomever, we're all high and dry on the reefs, gal, and it seems +likely you're the only one can get us off. You ain't got to go away +from here, if you don't want to. I've made it pretty average plain +to that Bostwick gal that no matter what happens, she's got no +expectations as far as Prudence and me are concerned. It was money +and nothing but money she was after. Her being Prudence's niece in +kind of a far-fetched way don't make it our duty--not even our +Christian duty, as Elder Minnett calls it--to keep a gal in the +house that we don't want, nor yet die at her convenience and leave +her our money. And so I'll tell the elder if he undertakes to put +his spoon in the dish again." + +Sheila was listening to words that she had never expected to hear +from the old captain. Could this be true? Were Cap'n Ira and +Prudence, in spite of what they knew about her--what she had told +them and Ida May had told them--desirous of having her back? Was +there a chance, no matter what the real Ida May Bostwick could say, +for Sheila to return and take up her peaceful life with the Balls? + +Could this be real? Indeed, was it right for her to do this? Tunis-- + +She arose and walked to the open door, looking out almost blindly +at first upon the gale-smitten sea. It was like her heart--so tossed +about and fretted by winds of opinion. What should she do? Which way +should she turn? Not to save Sheila Macklin from trouble or +disgrace. Not even to save Tunis from possible scorn. The question +that assailed her now was only: _Was it right?_ + +Suddenly, out upon the mountainous waves, she spied a sail. It was +reefed, flattened down, almost tri-cornered. The two sticks of the +schooner and the jaunty bowsprit pointing skyward heaved again into +view. She stood so long gazing at the craft that Cap'n Ira spoke +again. + +"What d'ye say, gal?" he asked anxiously. + +"Look--look here, Cap'n Ira!" she exclaimed. "Can it be the +_Seamew_? Is she trying to head in for the channel? Oh! Are they in +danger out there?" + +The old man rose with his usual difficulty and hobbled to the door, +leaning on his cane. He peered out over her shoulder, and his keen +and experienced eyes saw and identified the laboring vessel almost +at once. + +"I swan! That is the _Seamew_, Ida May," he exclaimed. "Tut, tut! +What's Tunis got himself into such a pickle for? 'Tain't reasonable +he should--being as good a seaman as he is. + +"My, my! Why don't he get some cloth on her? He can't have lost all +his upper canvas. Don't he know he needs tops'ls to beat up aslant +of this gale and get into the shelter of the Head? I swan! If +there's men enough there to man her proper, why don't they do the +right thing?" + +"Oh, Cap'n Ball," gasped the girl, "perhaps there are not enough men +with him. Perhaps his crew has deserted again." + +"I swan!" rejoined the old man. "What did he set sail for, then? +Ain't he got a mite of sense? But, I tell ye, Ida May, if he don't +get more canvas on her, and get under better way, he'll never make +that channel in this world." + +"Oh!" + +"The schooner's sure to go on the outer reef. She never can claw off +the land now. Without help--if that's his trouble--Tunis Latham will +never get that schooner into Big Wreck Cove. And God help him and +them that's with him!" added the captain reverently. + + + + +CHAPTER XXXII + +A GIRL TO THE RESCUE + + +On shore the gale seemed a stiff and dangerous blow. At sea, even +with a stanch deck under one's feet, the wind proved to have passed +the hurricane mark long since. The captain of the _Seamew_ felt that +the elements had conspired bitterly to assail his schooner. Before +they were a mile beyond the end of the Hollis breakwater, Tunis knew +that he had the fight of his seagoing experience on his hands. + +When they were fairly out of the semi-shelter of the point behind +which Hollis lay, Tunis and his two companions realized very quickly +just what they had to contend with. They had spread a handbreadth of +mainsail, but the jib was blown out of the boltropes by one big +swoop of wind and carried down to leeward, looking like a giant's +shirt. + +"Still feel that tug to sta'bbo'd," grumbled Horry. "Just like--" + +"Belay that!" commanded Tunis. "I begin to believe that's bad luck, +anyway. If you hadn't got on to that tack when we first put the +schooner into commission, those Portygees wouldn't have even +remembered the _Marlin B._ And _that_ schooner thousands of miles +away from these seas!" + +"I cal'late 'Rion Latham would have found something else to harp on +then," said Zebedee. "He was bound to ruin you if he could." + +Quickly the gale increased instead of abating, and it was utterly +impossible for the trio to get topsails on her. She needed the pull +of upper canvas if she was to tack properly for the mouth of the +channel into Big Wreck Cove. + +They fought for two hours to bring this much-desired object to pass, +hoping for a lull or a shifting of the gale which might aid them. +The yellow sands of Wreckers' Head were plainly in view all that +time. To give up the attempt and run before the gale was a folly of +which Tunis Latham had no intention of being guilty if it could +possibly be avoided. Manned as she was, the schooner might never be +worked back to a landfall if they did so. + +The keen old eyes of Horace Newbegin first spied the thing which +promised hope. From his station at the wheel he shouted something +which the younger men did not catch, but his pointing arm drew their +gaze shoreward. + +Coming out from the Head was an open boat. Four figures pulled at +the oars while another held the steering sweep. The daring crew was +heading the boat straight on for the pitching schooner! + +"The coast guard!" the old man was now heard to shout. "God bless +them fellers!" + +But Tunis knew it was not the lifeboat from the distant station. He +knew the boat, if he could not at first identify those who manned +it. It was an old lifeboat that had been stored in a shed below +John-Ed Williams' place, and these men attempting their rescue were +some of the neighbors from Wreckers' Head. + +They came on steadily, the steersman standing at his post and +handling the long oar as though it was a feather's weight. His huge +figure soon identified him. It was Captain John Dunn, who, like Ira +Ball, had left the sea, and he had left his right forearm, too, +because of some accident somewhere on the other side of the globe. +But with the steel hook screwed to its stump and the good hand +remaining to him, Captain Dunn handled that steering oar with more +skill than most other men with two good hands could have done. + +How the four at the oars pulled the heavy boat! Tunis sought to +identify them as well. He saw John-Ed Williams--in a place at last +where he was forced to keep up his end, though he was notably a lazy +man. Ben Brewster had the oar directly behind John-Ed. + +The third figure Tunis could not identify--not at once. The man at +the bow oar was Marvin Pike, who pulled a splendid stroke. So did +that unknown oarsman. They were all bravely tugging at the heavy +oars. Tunis had faith in them. + +Zebedee suddenly plunged across the pitching deck and reached the +rail where Tunis stood. Discipline--at least seagoing etiquette--had +been somewhat in abeyance aboard the _Seamew_ during the last few +hours. Zeb caught the skipper by the arm. + +"See her?" he bawled into the ear of the surprised Tunis. + +"What's that?" + +"See her hair? It's a girl! As I'm a living sinner, it's a girl! +Pulling number three oar, Captain Latham! Did you ever?" + +Clinging to a stay, the captain of the _Seamew_ flung himself far +over the rail as the schooner chanced to roll. He could look down +into the approaching lifeboat. He saw the loosened, dark locks of +the girl who was pulling at number three oar. On the very heels of +Zeb's words the captain was confident of the girl's identity. + +"Sheila!" + +His voice could not have reached her ear because of the rush and +roar of the wind and sea, but, as though in answer to his shout, the +girl glanced back and up, over her shoulder. For a moment Tunis got +a flash of the face he so dearly loved. + +What a woman she was! She lacked no more in courage than she did in +beauty and sweetness of disposition. What other girl along all this +coast--even one born of the Cape strain--would have dared take an +oar in that lifeboat in face of such dire peril as this? + +"Good Lord, Cap'n Latham!" shrieked Zeb. "That's Miss Bostwick!" + +Tunis straightened up, squared his shoulders, and looked at Zebedee +proudly. He wanted Zeb to know--he wanted the whole world to know, +if he could spread the news abroad--that the girl pulling number +three oar was the girl he loved, and was going to marry! + + * * * * * + +An hour later the _Seamew_, her topsails drawing full and her lower +canvas properly handled, drove on like the bird she was through the +channel into the cove, trailing the old lifeboat behind her. The +skipper had taken the wheel himself, but that "tug to sta'bbo'd" did +not disturb his equanimity as it sometimes did Horry's. + +Sheila, muffled in oilskins and sea boots, but with her wet hair +flowing over her shoulders, stood beside the skipper. No matter how +satisfied and confident Tunis might appear, the girl was still in an +uncertain state of mind. + +"And so," she said to him anxiously, "I do not know what to tell +them. Cap'n Ira seemed so poorly and so unhappy. And he says Aunt +Prue is almost ill. + +"But it was Cap'n Ira who told me what to do when we saw the +_Seamew_ in danger; how to get the men together and how to launch +the boat! Oh, it was wonderful! He was not too overcome to be +practical and realize your need, Tunis." + +"Trust Cap'n Ira," agreed the young man. "And what other girl could +have done what you did, Sheila? Hear what Cap'n John Dunn says? You +ought to be a sailor's daughter. _I_ can tell him you are going to +be a sailor's wife." + +"No, no! Oh, Tunis! It can't--" + +"No 'can't' in the dictionary," interrupted the captain of the +_Seamew_. "You and I are going to have one big talk, Sheila, after I +take you up home." + +"Up home?" she repeated. + +"You are going back to Cap'n Ira's. You know you are. That other +girl has beat it for Boston, you say, and there's not a living +reason why you shouldn't return to the Balls. Besides, they need +you. I could see that with half an eye when I went away the other +morning. The old man hobbling around the barn trying to catch an old +hen was a sight to make the angels weep." + +"Poor, poor Cap'n Ira!" she murmured. + +"And poor Aunt Prudence--and poor _me_!" exclaimed Tunis. "What do +you think is going to happen to me? If you go away, I shall have to +sell all I own in the world and follow you." + +"Tunis!" she cried, almost in fear. "You wouldn't." + +"I certainly would. I am going to have you, one way or another. +Nobody else shall get you, Sheila. And you can't go far enough or +fast enough to lose me." + +"Don't!" she said faintly. "You cannot be in earnest. Do you know +what it means if you and I have any association whatsoever? Oh! I +thought this was all over--that you would not tear open the wound--" + +"I don't mean to hurt you, Sheila," he said softly. But he was +smiling. "I have got something to tell you that will, I believe, put +an entirely different complexion on your affairs." + +"What--what can you mean?" she burst out. "Oh, tell me!" + +"I'll tell you a little of it now. Just enough to keep you from +thinking I am crazy. The rest I will not tell you save in the Balls' +sitting room before Cap'n Ira and Aunt Prue." + +"Tunis!" she murmured with clasped hands. + +"Yesterday I spent two hours in the manager's office of Hoskin & +Marl's. They have been looking for you for more than six months. +Naturally, there was no record of you after you left that--that +school when your time was out. They didn't seem to guess you'd have +got work in that Seller's place." + +"What do you mean? What did they want me for?" gasped the girl. + +"Near as I could find out from the old gentleman who seemed to be in +charge there at the store, they wanted to find you to beg your +pardon. He cried, that manager did. He broke down and cried like a +baby--especially after I had told him a few things that had happened +to you, and some things that might have happened if you hadn't found +such good friends in Cap'n Ira and Prudence. That's right. He was +all broke up." + +The girl stood before him, straight as a reed. She rocked with the +pitching of the schooner, but it seemed as though her feet were +glued to the planks. She could not have fallen! + +"They--they know--" + +"They know they sent to jail the wrong girl. The woman that stole +the goods is dead, and before she died she wrote 'em all about it +from the sanitarium where the firm sent her. They are sending you +papers signed by the judge, the prosecuting attorney, even the +pawnbroker and the store detective, and--and a lot of other folks. +Why, Sheila, you are fully exonerated." + +She began suddenly to weep, the great tears raining down her face, +although she still stood erect and kept her gaze fixed upon him. + +"Six months! As long as I have been down here! Oh, Tunis! While we +were making up our plot on that bench on Boston Common and planning +to lie to these dear, good people down here--and everybody; while we +were beginning this coil of deceit and trouble, I might have gone +back there to the store and found all this out. And--and I would +never have needed to lie and deceive as I have done." + +"Huh! Yes. I cal'late that's so, Sheila," he said. "But how about +me? Where would I have come in, if you had found out that your name +had been cleared and Hoskin & Marl were anxious to do well by you? +Seems to me, Sheila, there must be some compensation in that +thought. There is for me, at any rate." + +She flashed him a look then that cleaved its way to Tunis Latham's +very soul. His tale did not remove from her heart all its burden. +She was still penitent for the falsehood she had told in direct +words to Cap'n Ira and Prudence about her first meeting with Tunis. +But that prevarication, at least, had been for no purpose of self +gain. + +And so Sheila looked at her lover for just that passing moment with +all the passion which filled her heart for him. Had Tunis not been +steering the _Seamew_ through a pretty tortuous channel at just that +moment there is no knowing what he would have done--spurred by +Sheila's look! + + + + +CHAPTER XXXIII + +A HAVEN OF REST + + +Wreckers' Head so shelters the cove from the northeast that the +schooner could be brought safely in to Luiz Wharf, instead of +dropping her anchor in deep water. Half the port, and all of +Portygee Town, crowded nearby wharves and streets to welcome Tunis +Latham's schooner; for news of her peril and the way in which help +had reached the _Seamew_ had come down from the Head as on the wings +of the wind itself. + +There was one face on the wharf Tunis Latham sought out with grim +persistency as the schooner was made fast. He had purposely placed +Sheila in Zebedee Pauling's care. Tunis kept, directly under his +hand, the broken oar which had helped to make so much of his recent +trouble. When the _Seamew_ was safe, her skipper leaped ashore. And +he carried the broken oar with him. + +Orion, grinning and sneering by turns, saw his cousin coming. It +must have been preternatural sagacity which caused him to see and +recognize the broken oar. Having seen it, he jumped for the head of +the wharf. + +Tunis leaped away on his cousin's trail. The crowd parted to let +them through, and then joined in a streaming, excited tail to their +kite of progress. Most of the spectators lived in Portygee Town. +Some of them had been members of the _Seamew's_ deserting crews. +They were afraid of Tunis Latham, but they had little sympathy for +Orion. + +The skipper caught up with him in the middle of the road and almost +opposite the Pareta cottage. Orion had picked up a cobblestone as he +reached the street and, finding himself about to be overtaken, he +turned and threw the missile at Tunis' head. The latter dodged it +and, with a single, savage blow of the oar felled his cousin to the +roadway. + +"You unmitigated scoundrel!" Tunis roared. "I ought to take your +life. Because of you I nearly lost my own to-day--and the lives of +two other men and my schooner into the bargain. You villain!" + +As Orion tried to scramble up, the skipper of the _Seamew_ made +another pass at him with the oar, and the fellow fell again. + +"Don't hit me! Don't hit me again, Tunis! Remember I'm your cousin. +I--I haven't done a thing--true an' honest, I haven't!" + +The listeners gathered closer. Tunis Latham's face displayed such +rage that the Portygees expected him to continue his attack with the +oar. But instead he shook it before their eyes--and Orion's. + +"See it?" he demanded of the bystanders. "That's the scurvy trick +the dog played me. Found this broken oar in somebody's woodpile, +burned the name of the _Marlin B._ into the handle, and foisted it +on a fool crew to prove that my schooner was once called by that +name. I ought to pound him to death!" + +Suddenly a brilliant figure whirled into the midst of the crowd and +reached the angry skipper and his victim. Eunez, her black eyes +ablaze, her face ruddy with anger, planted herself before Tunis +Latham, hands on hips, confronting him boldly. One glance at the +prostrate Orion assured her that, although there was blood upon his +face, he was not much hurt. She tossed her head and snapped her +fingers under the nose of the captain of the _Seamew_. + +"So now, Tunis Latham! It is that you have waked up! Of a gr-r-reat +smartness are you, eh?" she cried. "You scorn us all, and tr-r-reat +us as you would dogs. Heh! All you shipmasters are alike. + +"But _you_--we put the laugh on you, eh? That oar in your hand--ha, +ha! Do not lay the blame altogether upon your cousin. _I_ burned +those letters into that wood with my curling irons. Fooled by a +girl, eh, Tunis Latham? Ah! Learn your lesson, Captain Latham! We +Portygee women are not to be scorned by _any_ schooner captain. No!" + +She snapped her fingers again in his face and turned away, swaying +her hips and tossing her head as she disappeared into her father's +cottage. When Tunis looked around for his cousin, he found that that +facile young man, taking advantage of the girl's intervention, had +slipped away. + + * * * * * + +A winter hurricane had pounced upon the Cape and torn at it with +teeth and claws, as though seeking to dismember it--to wrench the +forty-mile curved claw of the Cape from the remainder of Barnstable +County. + +The driven snow masked everything--earth, houses, trees, and the +shivering bushes; it clung to these objects, iced upon them like +frosting. No craft ventured out of Big Wreck Cove, least of all the +_Seamew_, although she had a cargo in her hold and a complete and +satisfied crew in her forecastle. + +Tunis Latham was speaking of the latter fact to Aunt Lucretia in the +warm and homelike kitchen of Latham's Folly. + +"Zeb is a good fellow. He has got together a bunch of hands that +aren't afraid of ghosts or bogies. You couldn't make those Portygees +or some of the other hands we had see the ridiculousness of their +fear of the _Seamew_--bless her! But with this bunch Zeb has got +together I wouldn't fear to sail around the Horn." + +His aunt looked startled at the suggestion and shook her head. + +"I know you wouldn't want I should go for such a long voyage, Aunt +Lucretia," he replied. "And I don't want to myself. But I couldn't +be content here if I didn't see the prospect bright before me of +getting Ida--I mean, of getting Sheila." + +His aunt looked at him again not unkindly, but said not a word. + +"I've told you all about it, Aunt Lucretia," the skipper of the +_Seamew_ pursued. "Everything. If Sheila did wrong to come down here +as she did, I did a greater wrong in encouraging her to come and in +tempting her with the chance of escaping from the mess she was in. +And she's paid--we've both paid--for our folly. + +"As for folks talking, if that Bostwick girl wants to keep her job +with Hoskin & Marl's she'll keep her mouth shut about Sheila. She +understands that. And Hoskin & Marl--everybody, in fact that was +connected with that awful thing that happened to Sheila--have done +all in their power to make amends." + +For the first time his aunt's lips opened. + +"The poor child!" she said. + +"I want more than your sympathy for Sheila, auntie," he urged +earnestly. "I want your approval of what Sheila and I mean to +do--in time. Of course, I must be better established first and be +making money enough to support a--a family. And Sheila would not +think of leaving the old people up there. They need her so sorely." + +"But you may as well know, first as last, Aunt Lucretia, that I mean +to marry Sheila. I know it was wrong in me to try to palm her off on +you as somebody she wasn't--to try to fool you--" + +"You did not fool me, Tunis; not for a moment," she told him softly. + +He stared at her in amazement. + +"No," went on his usually inarticulate aunt. "The moment I first +looked into her face I knew she was not Sarah Honey's daughter. That +baby's eyes were brown when Sarah brought her here years ago; and no +brown eyes could change to such a beautiful violet-blue as--as +Sheila's. I knew you and she were trying to deceive me, but I could +not help loving the dear girl from my first sight of her." + +That was a very long speech indeed for Aunt Lucretia to make. She +put her arms about Tunis Latham's neck and said all the rest she +might have said in a loving kiss. + +Driving as the storm was, there remained something that took the +skipper of the _Seamew_ out into the welter of it. With the wet snow +plastering his back he climbed out of the saucerlike valley to the +rear premises of the Ball place. He even gave a look in at the barn +to make sure that all the chores were done for the night. The gray +ghost of the Queen of Sheba's face was raised a moment from her +manger while she looked at him inquiringly, blowing softly through +her nostrils the while. + +"You're all right, anyway," said Tunis, chuckling as he closed the +barn door. "You've got a friend for life." + +He went on to the kitchen door. Inside he could hear the bustle of +Sheila's swift feet, the croon of Prudence's gentle voice, and then +a mighty "A-choon!" as Cap'n Ira relieved his pent-up feelings. + +"Don't let them fish cakes burn, gal," the old man drawled. "If +Tunis ain't here mighty quick he can eat his cold. Oh! Here he +is--right to the nick o' time, like the second mate's watch comin' +to breakfast." + +Tunis had shaken his peacoat free of the clinging snow and now +stamped his sea-boots on the rug. He smiled broadly and confidently +at Sheila and she returned it so happily that her whole face seemed +to irradiate sunshine. Prudence nudged Cap'n Ira's elbow. + +"Ain't it a pretty sight, Ira?" she whispered. + +"She looks 'most as sweet as you did, Prue, when I took you to the +altar," sighed the old man windily. "I swan! Women is most alike, +young an' old. All but that dratted Ida May Bostwick. _She_ was a +caution to cats." + +"Now you hush, Ira. She's our own rel'tive and we ought not to speak +ill of her." + +"Ha!" blew Cap'n Ira, reminding Tunis of the old mare when she +snorted. "Ha! Maybe she is. But even so I want none o' her. An' I +told Elder Minnett so. I got kinder of an idee that the elder won't +be so brash, puttin' his spoon into other folks' porridge again." + +"Hush, Ira! Don't be irreverent. Remember he's a minister." + +"So he is. So he is," concluded Cap'n Ira. "They say charity covers +a multitude of sins; and I expect the call to be a preacher covers a +multitude of sinners." He chuckled mellowly again. "But sometimes +I've thought that the 'call' some of our preachers hear 'stead o' +being the voice of God is some other noise they mistook for it. +Well, there, Prudence, I won't say no more. But you must allow that +Elder Minnett's buttin' in, as the boys say, come pretty nigh +bustin' everything to flinders. + +"Come, Tunis. Do sit down or that gal won't be able to dish up +supper, and I'm as hungry as a wolf. Pull up your chair, Prudence. +Ain't this livin', I want to know?" He shuddered luxuriously at the +howl and rattle of the wind without. "Now, folks: 'For that with +which we are about to be blessed make us truly thankful. Amen.' Put +your teeth in one o' them biscuit, Tunis. I want to recommend 'em +to you. Ain't none better on this endurin' Cape--no, sir. We got the +best cook on the Head. If you are ever lucky enough to get one ha'f +as good, Tunis--" + +"Now, you be still, Ira," admonished Prudence, smiling comfortingly +at the blushing girl. + +"You better sing small, Cap'n Ira," said the skipper of the _Seamew_ +hoarsely. "It's mebbe just because we're good-natured and forbearing +that you are keeping your cook for a while." + +"Ha! So that's the way the wind blows, eh?" croaked Cap'n Ira. "You +talk big, young man. But we know Sheila better than you do, p'r'aps. +Don't we, Prue?" + +His little old wife, with her winter-apple face wrinkled in a smile +of utter confidence, leaned nearer Sheila to pat her hand. The girl +seized the wrinkled claw suddenly and pressed it with both of +hers--pressed it gratefully and with a full-charged heart. + +"Don't be disturbed. Don't fear," she whispered so that the old +woman only might not hear. "I will not leave you." + +The two men looked deeply into each other's eyes and with a great +understanding. They are not demonstrative, these Cape men, not as a +rule; but Cap'n Ira and Tunis Latham understood all entailed in that +promise so softly given, and they subscribed to it. Sheila was to +have her way. + +Hours later Tunis lit the lamp in his bedroom and then stood before +his window, gazing out into the driving snow. Almost immediately he +saw the gleam of another lamp, far up the slope, showing from that +north window of Sheila's chamber in the old Ball house. + +This was the signal they had agreed upon--their good-night symbol +whenever he was at home. He stood there a long time, looking out. + +Although the wintry wind raved across Wreckers' Head and the snow +scurried wildly before it, there was springtime in the hearts of +Tunis Latham and Sheila--the springtime of their hopes. + + +THE END + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's Sheila of Big Wreck Cove, by James A. Cooper + +*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 14563 *** diff --git a/14563-h/14563-h.htm b/14563-h/14563-h.htm new file mode 100644 index 0000000..cfe4027 --- /dev/null +++ b/14563-h/14563-h.htm @@ -0,0 +1,12768 @@ +<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN" + "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd"> +<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"> +<head> +<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" + content="text/html; charset=UTF-8" /> +<meta content="pg2html (binary v0.17)" + name="generator" /> +<title>The Project Gutenberg eBook of + Sheila of Big Wreck Cove, + by James A. Cooper +</title> +<style type="text/css"> +/*<![CDATA[*/ + <!-- + body { margin-left: 15%; margin-right: 15%; font-size: 100%;} + p { text-indent: 1.5em; + margin-top: .75em; + text-align: justify; + margin-bottom: .75em; } + h1,h2,h3,h4,h5,h6 { text-align: center; } + hr { width: 20%; } + hr.long {width: 65% } + hr.full { width: 100%; } + .note {text-indent: 0; text-align: center; font-size: 90%; } + .caption {text-indent: 0; text-align: center; + font-size: 90%; margin-top: 0.5em; margin-bottom: 2em;} + .poem { margin-left: 15%; text-indent: -.5em; text-align: left; } + .toc {text-align: center; text-indent: 0; font-size: 90%; + font-variant: small-caps; margin-bottom: .25em; margin-top: .25em; } + center { padding: 0.8em;} + pre {font-size: 8pt; } + a:link {color: blue; text-decoration: none; } + link {color: blue; text-decoration: none; } + a:visited {color: blue; text-decoration: none; } + a:hover {color: red } +/*]]>*/ + // --> +</style> +</head> +<body> +<div>*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 14563 ***</div> + +<div style="height: 8em;"><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /></div> + +<a name="image-0001"><!--IMG--></a> +<center> +<img src="images/fp.jpg" width="277" height="450" alt="Come here and look at this craft, Prudence." /> +</center> + + +<p class="caption">"Come here and look at this craft, Prudence."<br /> +<i><a href="#p11">Page 11</a></i>...............(<i>Sheila of Big Wreck Cove.</i>) +</p> + +<hr class="long" /> + +<h1> +SHEILA +</h1> +<h1> + OF BIG WRECK COVE +</h1> +<h3> +<i>A Story of Cape Cod</i> +</h3> +<p><br /></p> +<h2> +B<small>Y</small> JAMES A. COOPER +</h2> +<p class="note"> +A<small>UTHOR OF</small><br /> +<i>"Tobias o' the Light," "Cap'n Jonah's Fortune"<br /> +"Cap'n Abe, Storekeeper," etc.</i> +</p> +<p><br /></p> +<p class="note"> +W<small>ITH</small> F<small>RONTISPIECE BY</small> <br /> +R. EMMETT OWEN +</p> +<p><br /></p> + +<h5> +A. L. BURT COMPANY<br /> +Publishers New York +</h5> +<p class="note"> +<small>Published by arrangement with George Sully & Company<br /> +Printed in U.S.A.</small> +</p> +<hr class="long" /> +<p><br /></p> +<p class="note"> +C<small>OPYRIGHT, 1921 (AS A SERIAL)</small><br /><br /> + +C<small>OPYRIGHT, 1922, BY</small> <br /> + GEORGE SULLY & COMPANY +</p> +<p><br /></p> + + +<hr class="long" /> +<h3>CONTENTS</h3> + + +<p class="toc"><a href="#2HCH0001"> +I. Cap'n Ira and Prue +</a></p> +<p class="toc"><a href="#2HCH0002"> +II. The Captain of the Seamew +</a></p> +<p class="toc"><a href="#2HCH0003"> + III. The Queen of Sheba +</a></p> +<p class="toc"><a href="#2HCH0004"> +IV. At the Latham House +</a></p> +<p class="toc"><a href="#2HCH0005"> +V. Looking for Ida May +</a></p> +<p class="toc"><a href="#2HCH0006"> +VI. An Unsatisfactory Interview +</a></p> +<p class="toc"><a href="#2HCH0007"> +VII. At the Restaurant +</a></p> +<p class="toc"><a href="#2HCH0008"> +VIII. Sheila +</a></p> +<p class="toc"><a href="#2HCH0009"> +IX. A Girl's Story +</a></p> +<p class="toc"><a href="#2HCH0010"> +X. The Plot +</a></p> +<p class="toc"><a href="#2HCH0011"> +XI. At Big Wreck Cove +</a></p> +<p class="toc"><a href="#2HCH0012"> +XII. A New Hand at the Helm +</a></p> +<p class="toc"><a href="#2HCH0013"> +XIII. Some Young Men Appear +</a></p> +<p class="toc"><a href="#2HCH0014"> +XIV. The Harvest Home Festival +</a></p> +<p class="toc"><a href="#2HCH0015"> +XV. An Invitation Accepted +</a></p> +<p class="toc"><a href="#2HCH0016"> +XVI. Memories—and Tunis +</a></p> +<p class="toc"><a href="#2HCH0017"> +XVII. Aunt Lucretia +</a></p> +<p class="toc"><a href="#2HCH0018"> +XVIII. Ida May Thinks It Over +</a></p> +<p class="toc"><a href="#2HCH0019"> +XIX. The Arrival +</a></p> +<p class="toc"><a href="#2HCH0020"> +XX. The Lie +</a></p> +<p class="toc"><a href="#2HCH0021"> +XXI. At Swords' Points +</a></p> +<p class="toc"><a href="#2HCH0022"> +XXII. A Way Out +</a></p> +<p class="toc"><a href="#2HCH0023"> +XXIII. A Call Unannounced +</a></p> +<p class="toc"><a href="#2HCH0024"> +XXIV. Eunez Pareta +</a></p> +<p class="toc"><a href="#2HCH0025"> +XXV. To Love and Be Loved +</a></p> +<p class="toc"><a href="#2HCH0026"> +XXVI. Elder Minnett Has His Say +</a></p> +<p class="toc"><a href="#2HCH0027"> +XXVII. Cap'n Ira Speaks Out +</a></p> +<p class="toc"><a href="#2HCH0028"> +XXVIII. Gone +</a></p> +<p class="toc"><a href="#2HCH0029"> +XXIX. On the Trail +</a></p> +<p class="toc"><a href="#2HCH0030"> +XXX. The Storm +</a></p> +<p class="toc"><a href="#2HCH0031"> +XXXI. Bitter Waters +</a></p> +<p class="toc"><a href="#2HCH0032"> +XXXII. A Girl to the Rescue +</a></p> +<p class="toc"><a href="#2HCH0033"> +XXXIII. A Haven of Rest +</a></p> +<p><br /></p> + +<hr class="long" /> + + + <a name="2HCH0001"><!-- H2 anchor --></a> + +<div style="height: 4em;"><br /><br /><br /><br /></div> + +<h2> + CHAPTER I +</h2> +<h3> + CAP'N IRA AND PRUE +</h3> +<p> +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. +</p> +<p> +For Cap'n Ira had commanded passenger-carrying craft in his day, and +was a bit of a dandy still. The niceties of maritime full dress were +as important to his mind now that he had retired from the sea to +spend his remaining days in the Ball homestead on Wreckers' Head as +when he had trod the quarter-deck of the old <i>Susan Gatskill</i>, or +had occupied the chief seat at her saloon table. +</p> +<p> +"I don't know what's to become of us," repeated Cap'n Ira, wagging a +thoughtful head, his gaze, as that of old people often is, fixed +upon a point too distant for youthful eyes to see. +</p> +<p> +"I can't see into the future, Ira, any clearer than you can," +rejoined his wife, glancing at his sagging, blue-coated shoulders +with some gentle apprehension. +</p> +<p> +She was a frail, little, old woman, one of those women who, after a +robust middle age, seem gradually to shrivel to the figure of what +they were in their youth, but with no charm of girlish lines +remaining. Her face was wrinkled like a russet apple in February, +and it had the colorings of that grateful fruit. She sat on the +stone slab which served for a back door stoop peeling potatoes. +</p> +<p> +"I swan, Prue, you cut me in two places this mornin' when you shaved +me," said Cap'n Ira suddenly and in some slight exasperation. "And I +can't handle that dratted razor myself." +</p> +<p> +"Maybe you could get John-Ed Williams to come over and shave you, +Ira." +</p> +<p> +"John-Ed's got his work to do. Then again, how're we going to pay +him for such jobs? I swan! I can't afford a vally, Prue. Besides, +you need help about the house more than I need a steward. I can get +along without being shaved so frequent, I s'pose, but there's times +when you can't scurce lift a pot of potatoes off the stove." +</p> +<p> +"Oh, now, Ira, I ain't so bad as all that!" declared his wife +mildly. +</p> +<p> +"Yes, you be. I am always expecting you to fall down, or hurt +yourself some way. And as for looking out for the Queen of Sheby—" +</p> +<p> +"Now, Ira, Queenie ain't no trouble scurcely." +</p> +<p> +"Huh! She's more trouble than all our money, that's sure. And she's +eating her head off." +</p> +<p> +"Now, don't say that," urged his wife in that soothing tone which +often irritated Cap'n Ira more than it mollified him. +</p> +<p> +He tapped the metal top of the huge knob of his cane and the spring +cover flew open. Ira took a pinch of snuff, inhaled it, closed the +cover of the box, delicately brushed a few flecks of the pungent +powder from his coat lapel and shirt front, and then, burying his +nose in a large silk handkerchief, vented a prodigious: +</p> +<p> +"<i>A-choon!</i>" +</p> +<p> +Prudence uttered a surprised squeak, like a mouse being stepped on, +jerked herself to a half-standing posture, and the potatoes rolled +to every point of the compass. +</p> +<p> +"Goodness gracious gallop!" she ejaculated, quite shaken out of her +usual calm. "I should think, Ira, as many times as I've told you +that scares me most into a conniption, that you'd signal me when +you're going to take snuff. I—I'm all of a shake, I be." +</p> +<p> +"I swan! I'm sorry, Prue. I oughter fire a gun, I allow, before +speakin' the ship." +</p> +<p> +"Fire a gun!" repeated the old woman, panting as she scrambled for +the potatoes. "That's what I object to, Ira. You want to speak +<i>this</i> ship 'fore you shoot that awful noise. I never can get used +to it." +</p> +<p> +"There, there!" he said, trying to poke the more distant potatoes +toward her with his cane. He could not himself stoop; or, if he did, +he could only sit erect again after the method of a ratchet wheel. +"I won't do so again, Prudence. I be an onthoughtful critter, if +ever there was one." +</p> +<p> +Prudence had recovered the last potato. She stopped to pat his ruddy +cheek, nor was it much wrinkled, before she returned to peeling the +potatoes. +</p> +<p> +"I know you don't mean to, Iry," she crooned. Married couples like +the Balls, where the man has been at home only for brief visits +between voyages, if they really love each other, never grow weary of +the little frills on connubial bliss usually worn shabby by other +people before the honeymoon is past. "I know you don't mean to. But +when you sneeze I think it's the crack o' doom." +</p> +<p> +"I'm sorry about them potatoes," repeated Cap'n Ira. "I make you a +lot of extry work, Prue. Sometimes I feel, fixed as I be in health, +I oughter be in the Sailors' Snug Harbor over to Paulmouth. I do, +for a fact." +</p> +<p> +"And what would become of me?" cried the old woman, appalled. +</p> +<p> +"Well," returned Cap'n Ira, "you couldn't be no worse off than you +be. We'd miss each other a heap, I know." +</p> +<p> +"Ira!" cried his wife. "Ira, I'd just <i>die</i> without you now that +I've got you to myself at last. Those long years you were away so +much, and us not being blessed with children—" +</p> +<p> +Ira Ball made a sudden clucking sound with his tongue. That was a +sore topic of conversation, and he always tried to dodge it. +</p> +<p> +"It did seem sometimes," pursued Prudence, wiping her eyes with a +bit of a handkerchief that she took from her bosom, "as though I +wasn't an honestly married woman. I know that sounds awful"—and she +shook her head—"but it was so, you only getting home as you did +between voyages. But I was always looking forward to the time when +you would be home for good." +</p> +<p> +"Don't you s'pose I looked forward to casting anchor?" he demanded +warmly. "Seemed like the time never would come. I was always trying +to speculate a little so as to make something besides my skipper's +pay and share. That—that's why I got bit in that Sea-Gold +proposition. That feller's prospectus did read mighty reasonable, +Prudence." +</p> +<p> +"I know it did, Ira," she agreed cordially. "I believed in it just +as strong as you did. You warn't none to blame." +</p> +<p> +"Well, I dunno. It's mighty nice of you to say so, Prue. But they +told me afterward that I might have knowed that a feller couldn't +extract ten dollars' wuth of gold from the whole Atlantic Ocean, not +if he bailed it dry!" +</p> +<p> +"We've got enough left to keep us, Ira." +</p> +<p> +"Just about. Just about. That is just it. When I was taken down with +this rheumatiz and the hospital doctors in New York told me I could +never think of pacing my own quarter no more, we had just enough +left invested in good securities for us to live on the int'rest." +</p> +<p> +"And the old place, here, Ira," added his wife cheerfully. +</p> +<p> +"Which ain't much more than a shelter," he rejoined rather bitterly. +"And just as I say, it isn't fit for two old folks like us to live +alone in. Why, we can't even raise our own potatoes no more. And I +never yet heard of pollack swimmin' ashore and begging to be split +and dried against winter. No, sir!" +</p> +<p> +"The Lord's been good to us, Ira. We ain't never suffered yet," she +told him softly. +</p> +<p> +"I know that. We ain't suffering for food and shelter. But, I swan, +Prue, we be suffering for some young person about the house. Now, +hold on! 'Twarn't for us to have children. That warn't meant. We've +been all through that, and it's settled. But that don't change the +fact that we need somebody to live with us if we're going to live +comfortable." +</p> +<p> +"Oh, dear, if my niece Sarah had lived! She used to stay with me +when she was a gal and you was away," sighed Prudence. +</p> +<p> +"But she married and had a gal of her own. She brought her here that +time I was home after my first v'y'ge on the <i>Susan Gatskill</i>. A +pretty baby if ever there was one." +</p> +<p> +"Ida May Bostwick! Bostwick was Sarah's married name. I heard +something about Ida May only the other day." +</p> +<p> +"You did?" exclaimed Cap'n Ira, much interested. +</p> +<p> +"Yes, Ira. Annabell Coffin, she who was a Cuttle, was visiting his +folks in Boston, and she learned that Sarah Bostwick's daughter was +working behind the counter in some store there. She has to work for +her livin', poor child." +</p> +<p> +"I swan!" ejaculated the captain. +</p> +<p> +Much as he had been about the world, Cap'n Ira looked upon most +mundane affairs with the eyes of the true Cape man. Independence is +bred in the bone of his tribe. A tradesman or storekeeper is, after +all, not of the shipmaster caste. And a clerk, working "behind the +counter" of any store, is much like a man before the mast. +</p> +<p> +"It does seem too bad," sighed Prudence. "She was a pretty baby, as +you say, Ira." +</p> +<p> +"Sarah was nice as she could be to you," was the old man's +thoughtful comment. +</p> +<p> +"Yes. But her husband, Bostwick, was only a mechanic. Of course, he +left nothing. Them city folks are so improvident," said Prudence. "I +wish't we was able to do something for little Ida May, Ira. Think of +her workin' behind a counter!" +</p> +<p> +"I am a-thinkin'," growled the old captain. "See here, Prue. What's +to hinder us doin' something for her?" +</p> +<p> +Prudence looked at him, startled. +</p> +<p> +"Why, Iry, you say yourself we can scurce help ourselves." +</p> +<p> +"It's a mighty ill wind that don't blow fair for some craft," +declared the ancient mariner, nodding. "We do need help right here, +Prudence, and that gal of Sarah Bostwick's could certainly fill the +bill. On the other hand, she'd be a sight better off here on the +Cape, living with us, getting rosy and healthy, and having this old +place and what we've got left when we die, than she would be slavin' +behind a counter in any city store. What d'you think?" +</p> +<p> +"Ira!" exclaimed his wife, clasping her hands, potato knife and all. +"Ira! I think that's a most wonderful idea. It takes you to think up +things. You're just wonderful!" +</p> +<p> +Cap'n Ira preened himself like the proud old gander he was. He +heaved himself out of the chair by the aid of his cane, a present +from one grateful group of passengers that had sailed in his charge, +on the <i>Susan Gatskill</i>. +</p> +<p> +"Well, well!" he said. "Let's think of it. Let's see, where's my +glass? Here 'tis." +</p> +<p> +He seized the old-fashioned collapsible spyglass, which he favored +rather than the newer binoculars, and started off to "pace the +quarter," as he called the path from the back door to the grassy +cart track which joined the road at the lower corner of the Ball +premises. This highway wandered down from the Head into the fishing +village along the inner beach of Big Wreck Cove. Prudence watched +Ira with fond but comprehending eyes. She saw how broken he was, how +stumbling his feet when he first started off, and the swaying +locomotion that betrayed that feebleness of both brain and body that +can never be denied. +</p> +<p> +Somewhere on the Head in the old days the wreckers had kept their +outlook for ships in distress. Those harpies of the coast had +fattened on the bones of storm-racked craft. It was one of those +battered freighters that, nearly two centuries before, had been +driven into the cove itself, to become embalmed in Cape history as +"the big wreck." +</p> +<p> +The Balls and the Lathams, the Honeys and the Coffins of that +ancient day had "wracked" the stranded craft most thoroughly. But +they had not overlooked the salvation of her ship's company of +foreigners. She had been a Portuguese vessel, and although the Cape +Codder, then, as now, was opposed to "foreigners," refuge was +extended to the people saved from the big wreck. +</p> +<p> +Near the straggling settlement at the cove a group of shacks had +sprung up to shelter the "Portygees" from the stranded-vessel. As +her bones were slowly engulfed in the marching sands, through the +decades that passed, the people who had come ashore from the big +wreck had waxed well to do, bred families of strong, handsome, brown +men and black-eyed, glossy-haired women who flashed their white +teeth in smiles that were almost startling. Now one end of "the +port," as the village of Big Wreck Cove was usually called by the +natives, was known as Portygee Town. +</p> +<p> +Wreckers' Head boasted of several homes of retired shipmasters and +owners of Cap'n Ira's ilk. These ancient sea dogs, on such a day as +this, were unfailingly found "walking the poop" of their front +yards, or wherever they could take their diurnal exercise, +binoculars or spyglass in hand, their vision more often fixed +seaward than on the land. +</p> +<p> +Cap'n Ira had scarcely put the glass to his eye for a first squint +at his "position" when he exclaimed: +</p> +<p> +"I swan! That's a master-pretty sight. I ain't <a name="p11"></a> seen a prettier in +many a day. Come here and look at this craft, Prudence." +</p> +<p> +She hurried to join him. Her motions when she was on her feet were +birdlike, yet there was the same unsteadiness in her walk as in +Cap'n Ira's. Only, at the moment, he did not see it, for his eye was +glued to the telescope. +</p> +<p> +"What do you see, Ira?" she asked. +</p> +<p> +"Clap this glass to your eye," said her husband. He steadied the +telescope, having pointed it for her. "See that suit of sails? Ain't +they grand? And the taper of them masts? She's a bird!" +</p> +<p> +"Why, what schooner is it?" asked Prudence. "I never saw her before, +did I? She's bearing in for the cove." +</p> +<p> +"I cal'late she is," agreed Cap'n Ira. "And I cal'late by the +newness of that suit of sails and her lines and all that she's Tunis +Latham's new craft that he went up to Marblehead last week to bring +down here and put into commission." +</p> +<p> +"The <i>Seamew!</i>" cried Prudence, in a pleased voice. "Isn't she a +pretty sight?" +</p> +<p> +"She's a sightly craft. Looks more like a racing yacht than a cargo +boat. Still and all, Tunis has got judgment. And he's put nigh every +cent he's got, all Peke Latham left him, into this schooner. And she +not new." +</p> +<p> +"I hope Tunis has made no mistake," sighed Prudence, releasing the +glass for Ira to look through once more. "There has been trouble +enough over Peleg Latham's money." +</p> +<p> +"More trouble than the money amounted to. Split the family wide +open. 'Rion Latham was saying to me he believed Peke never meant the +money should go all one way. The Medway Lathams, them 'Rion belongs +to, is all as sore as carbuncles about Tunis getting it. But I tell +Tunis as long as the court says the money should be his, let 'Rion +and all them yap like the hungry dogs they be. Tunis has got the +marrer bone." +</p> +<p> +"Does seem a pity," the old woman said, still watching the white +splotch against the background of gray and blue. "Families ought to +be at peace." +</p> +<p> +"Peace! I swan!" snorted Cap'n Ira. "'Rion Latham is about as much +given to peace as a wild tagger. But he knows which half of his +biscuit's buttered. He'll sail with Tunis as long as Tunis pays him +wages." +</p> +<p> +The captain continued to study the approaching schooner while +Prudence went back to her household tasks. +</p> +<a name="2HCH0002"><!-- H2 anchor --></a> + +<div style="height: 4em;"><br /><br /><br /><br /></div> + +<h2> + CHAPTER II +</h2> +<h3> + THE CAPTAIN OF THE SEAMEW +</h3> +<p> +Tunis Latham's <i>Seamew</i>, tacking for the channel into Big Wreck +Cove, wings full-spread, skimming the heaving blue of the summer +sea, looked like a huge member of the tern family. From Wreckers' +Head and the other sand bluffs guarding this roadstead from the +heave of the Atlantic rollers, the schooner with her yachtlike lines +was truly a picture to please the most exacting mariner. +</p> +<p> +On her deck paced the young captain whose personal affairs had been +a subject of comment between Cap'n Ira Ball and his wife. He was a +heavy-set, upstanding, blue-jerseyed figure, lithe and as spry on +his feet as a cat. Tunis Latham was thirty, handsome in the bold way +of longshore men, and ruddy-faced. He had crisp, short, sandy hair; +his cheeks, chin, and lip were scraped as clean as his palm; his +eyes were like blue-steel points, but with humorous wrinkles at the +outer corners of them, matched by a faint smile that almost always +wreathed his lips. Altogether he was a man that a woman would be +sure to look at twice. +</p> +<p> +The revelation of the lighter traits of his character counteracted +the otherwise sober look of Tunis Latham. His sternness and fitness +to command were revealed at first glance; his softer attributes +dawned upon one later. +</p> +<p> +As he swayed back and forth across the deck of the flying <i>Seamew</i>, +rolling easily in sailor gait to the pitching of the schooner, his +sharp glance cast alow and then aloft betrayed the keen perception +and attentive mind of the master mariner, while his surface +appearance merely suggested a young man pridefully enjoying the +novelty of pacing the deck of his first command. For this was the +maiden trip of the <i>Seamew</i> under this name and commanded by this +master. +</p> +<p> +She was not a new vessel, but neither was she old. At least, her +decks were not marred, her rails were ungashed with the wear of +lines, and even her fenders were almost shop-new. Of course, any +craft may have a fresh suit of sails; and new paint and gilding on +the figurehead or a new name board under the stern do not bespeak a +craft just off the builder's ways. Yet there was an appearance about +the schooner-yacht which would assure any able seaman at first +glance that she was still to be sea-tried. She was like a maiden at +her first dance, just venturing out upon the floor. +</p> +<p> +An old salt hung to the <i>Seamew's</i> wheel as the bonny craft sped +channelward. Horace Newbegin was a veritable sea dog. He had sailed +every navigable sea in all this watery world, and sailed in almost +every conceivable sort of craft. And he had sailed many voyages +under Tunis Latham's father, who had owned and commanded the +four-master <i>Ada May</i>, which, ill-freighted and ill-fated at last, +had struck and sunk on the outer Hebrides, carrying to the bottom +most of the hands as well as the commander of the partially insured +ship. +</p> +<p> +This misfortune had kept Tunis Latham out of a command of his own +until he was thirty; for Cape Cod boys that come of masters' +families and are born navigators usually tread their own decks years +before the age at which Tunis was pacing that of the <i>Seamew</i> on +this summer day. +</p> +<p> +"How does she handle now, Horry?" asked the skipper, wheeling +suddenly to face the old steersman. +</p> +<p> +"Thar's still that tug to sta'bo'd, Captain Tunis," growled the old +man. +</p> +<p> +"But you keep her full on her course." +</p> +<p> +"Spite o' that? In course. But I can feel her tuggin' like a big +bluefish trying to bolt with hook and sinker. Never did feel that +same tug to sta'bo'd but once before on any craft. I told you that." +</p> +<p> +Tunis Latham nodded. The old man's keen eyes tried to read the +skipper's face. He could scan the signs in sea and sky at a glance, +but he confessed that the captain of the <i>Seamew</i> revealed no more +of his inner thoughts than had the mahogany countenance of the older +Captain Latham with whom Horry Newbegin had so long sailed. +</p> +<p> +"Well," the steersman said finally, "I've told ye all I can tell ye. +That other schooner that had a tug to sta'bo'd like this, the +<i>Marlin B.</i>, got a bad name from the Georges to Monomoy P'int. You +know that." +</p> +<p> +"Cat's foot!" ejaculated Tunis cheerfully. "The <i>Marlin B.</i> was sold +for a pleasure yacht and taken half around the world. A Chilean +guano millionaire bought her the year after the Sutro Brothers took +her off the Banks." +</p> +<p> +"Ye-as. That's what Sutro Brothers says," and the old man wagged his +head doubtfully. "But there's just as much difference in ships, as +there is in men. Ain't never been two men just per<i>zact</i>-ly alike. +No two craft ever sailed or steered same as same, Captain Tunis. I +steered the <i>Martin B.</i> out o' Salem on her second trip, without +knowing what she'd been through, you can believe, on her first." +</p> +<p> +"Well, well!" Tunis broke in sharply. "Just keep your mind on what +you are doing now, Horry. You're supposed to be steering the +<i>Seamew</i> into Big Wreck Cove. Don't undertake to shave a piece off +the Lighthouse Point reef." +</p> +<p> +The steersman did not answer. From long experience with these +Lathams, Horace Newbegin knew just how much interference or advice +they would stand. +</p> +<p> +"And, by gum, that ain't much!" he growled to himself. +</p> +<p> +He took the beautifully sailing schooner in through the channel in a +masterly manner. He knew that more ancient skippers than Cap'n Ira +Ball, up there on Wreckers' Head, would be watching the <i>Seamew</i> +make the cove, and old Horry Newbegin wanted them to say it was well +done. +</p> +<p> +Half an hour later the anchor was dropped fifty yards off Portygee +Town. Captain Tunis ordered the gig lowered to take him ashore and, +after giving the mate some instructions regarding stowage and the +men's shore leave, he was rowed over to Luiz Wharf. 'Rion Latham, a +red-headed, pimply faced young man, sidled up to Horace Newbegin. +</p> +<p> +"Well, what do you think of the hoodoo ship, Horrors?" he hoarsely +whispered. +</p> +<p> +Newbegin stared at him unwaveringly, and the red-haired one repeated +the question. The old salt finally batted one eye, slowly and +impressively. +</p> +<p> +"D'you know what answer the little boy got that asked the quahog the +time o' day?" he drawled. "Not a word. Not a derned word, 'Rion." +</p> +<p> +Landing at the fish wharf, Tunis Latham walked up the straggling +street of the district inhabited for the most part by smiling brown +men and women. Fayal and Cape Cod are strangely analogous, +especially upon a summer's day. The houses he passed had one room; +they were little more than shacks. But there were gay colors +everywhere in the dress of both men and women. It was believed that +these Portygee fishermen would have their seines dyed red and yellow +if the fish would swim into them. +</p> +<p> +A young woman sitting upon a doorstep, nursing a little, bald, +brown-headed baby, dropped a gay handkerchief over her bared bosom +but nodded and smiled at the captain of the <i>Seamew</i> with right good +fellowship. He knew all these people, and most of them, the young +women at least, admired Tunis; but he was too self-centered and +busied with his own thoughts and affairs to comprehend this. +</p> +<p> +At the corner of one of the houses a girl stood—a tall, +lean-flanked, but deep-bosomed creature, as graceful as a well-grown +sapling. Her calico frock clung to the lines of her matured figure +as though she had just stepped up out of the sea itself. Around her +head she had banded a crimson bandanna, but it allowed the escape of +glossy black hair that waved prettily. Her lips were as red as +poppies, full, voluptuous; her eyes were sloe-black and as soft as a +cow's. Fortunately for the languishing girl's peace of mind—she had +placed herself there at the corner of the house to wait for Tunis +since the moment the <i>Seamew</i> had dropped anchor—she did not know +that the young captain had noticed her only as "that cow" as he +swung by on his way to the road that wound up the slope of Wreckers' +Head. +</p> +<p> +Neither Eunez Pareta—nor any other girl of the port, Portygee or +Yankee—had ever made Tunis Latham's heart flutter. He was not +impervious to the blandishments of all feminine beauty. As Cap'n Ira +Ball would have said, Tunis was "a general admirer of the sect." And +as the young man passed the languishing Eunez with a cheerful nod +and smile there flashed into his memory an entirely different +picture, but one of a girl nevertheless. Somehow the memory of that +girl in Scollay Square kept coming back to his mind. +</p> +<p> +He had gone up by train for the <i>Seamew</i> and her crew, and naturally +he had spent one night in Boston. Coming up out of the North End +after a late supper, he had stopped upon one side of the square to +watch the passing throng, some hurrying home from work, some +hurrying to theaters and other places of amusement, but all +hurrying. Nowhere did he see the slow, but carrying, stride of a man +used to open spaces. And the narrow-skirted girls could scarcely +hobble. +</p> +<p> +A narrow skirt, however, had not led Tunis Latham to give particular +note to one certain girl in the throng. She had stepped through the +door of a cheap but garish restaurant. Somebody had thrown a peeling +on the sidewalk, and she had slipped on it. Tunis had leaped and +caught her before she measured her length. She looked up into his +face with startled, violet eyes that seemed, in that one moment, to +hold in them a fascination and power that the Cape man had never +dreamed a woman's eyes could possess. +</p> +<p> +"You're all right, ma'am," he said, confused, setting her firmly on +her feet. +</p> +<p> +"My skirt!" She almost whispered it. There seemed to be not a +shyness, but a terrified timidity in her voice and manner. Tunis saw +that the shabby skirt was torn widely at the hem. +</p> +<p> +"Let's go somewhere and get that fixed," he suggested awkwardly. +</p> +<p> +"Thank you, sir. I will go back into the restaurant. I work there. I +can get a pin or two." +</p> +<p> +He had to let her go, of course. Nor could he follow her. He lacked +the boldness that might have led another man to enter the restaurant +and order something to eat for the sake of seeing what became of the +girl with the violet eyes and colorless velvet cheeks. There had +been an appeal in her countenance that called Tunis more and more as +he dreamed about her. +</p> +<p> +And standing there on Scollay Square dreaming about her had done the +young captain of the <i>Seamew</i> positively no good! She did not come +out again, although he stood there for fully an hour. At the end of +that time he strolled up an alley and discovered that there was a +side door to the restaurant for the use of employees, and he judged +that the girl, seeing him lingering in front, had gone out by this +way. It made him flush to his ears when he thought of it. Of course, +he had been rude. +</p> +<p> +Marching up the winding road by the Ball homestead, Tunis Latham +revisioned this adventure—and the violet-eyed girl. Well, he +probably would never see her again. And in any case she was not the +sort of girl that he would ever take home to Aunt Lucretia. He was +headed toward home now, to the old brown house in the saucer-like +valley some distance beyond Cap'n Ira's. +</p> +<p> +As he came within hail of the old homestead in which the Balls had +been born and had died—if they were not lost at sea—for many +generations, the captain of the <i>Seamew</i> became suddenly aware that +something was particularly wrong there. He heard somebody shouting. +Was it for help? He hastened his stride. +</p> +<p> +Quite unexpectedly the hobbling figure of Cap'n Ira appeared in the +open barn door. He saw Tunis. He waved his cane in one hand and +beckoned wildly with the other. Then he disappeared. +</p> +<p> +The young captain vaulted the fence and ran across the ill-tended +garden adjoining the Balls' side yard. Again he heard Cap'n Ira's +hail. +</p> +<p> +"Come on in here, Tunis!" +</p> +<p> +"What's the matter, Cap'n Ira?" +</p> +<p> +"That dratted Queen of Sheby! I knowed she'd be the death of one of +us some day. I swan! Tunis Latham, come here! I can't get her out, +and you know derned well Prudence can't stand on her head that a way +without strangling. Lend us a hand, boy. This is something awful! +Something awful!" +</p> +<p> +Tunis Latham, much disturbed by the old man's words and excited +manner, pushed into the dimly lit interior of the barn. +</p> +<a name="2HCH0003"><!-- H2 anchor --></a> + +<div style="height: 4em;"><br /><br /><br /><br /></div> + +<h2> + CHAPTER III +</h2> +<h3> + THE QUEEN OF SHEBA +</h3> +<p> +The barn was a roomy place, as well built as the Ball house itself, +and quite as old. The wagon floor had a wide door, front and rear. +The stables were on either side of this floor and the mows were +above. In one mow was a small quantity of hay and some corn fodder, +but the upper reaches were filled only with a brown dusk. +</p> +<p> +The pale face of a gray mare was visible at the opening over one of +the mangers. She was the sole recognized occupant of the stable. In +a dark corner Tunis Latham saw a huge grain box, for once the Ball +farm had supported several span of oxen and a considerable dairy +herd, its cover raised and its maw gaping wide. There was something +moving there in the murk, something fluttering. +</p> +<p> +"Come here, boy!" gasped Cap'n Ira, hurrying across the barn door. +"I'm so crippled I can't git her up, and she's dove clean to the +lower hold, tryin' to scrape out a capful o' oats for that dratted +Queen of Sheby." +</p> +<p> +"Aunt Prue!" shouted Tunis, reverting to the title he had addressed +her by in his boyhood. "It's never her?" +</p> +<p> +A muffled voice stammered: +</p> +<p> +"Get me out! Get me out!" +</p> +<p> +"Heave hard, Tunis! All together now!" gasped Cap'n Ira, as the +younger man reached over the old woman's struggling heels and seized +her around the waist. +</p> +<p> +"Up she comes!" continued the excited old man, as though he were +bossing a capstan crew starting one of the <i>Susan Gatskill's</i> +anchors. +</p> +<p> +Tunis Latham set Prudence Ball on her feet, but the old woman was +forced to lean against the stalwart young man for a minute. She +addressed her husband in some heat. +</p> +<p> +"Goodness gracious gallop! Why don't you sing a chantey over me, I +want to know? You'd think I was a bale of jute being snaked out of a +ship's hold. Good land!" +</p> +<p> +"There, there, Prudence!" exclaimed Cap'n Ira. "You're safe, after +all! It—it was something awful!" +</p> +<p> +"I cal'late it was," rejoined the old woman rather bitterly. "And I +didn't get them oats, after all." +</p> +<p> +"I'll 'tend to all that, Aunt Prue," said Tunis. +</p> +<p> +"If it hadn't been for that dratted Queen of Sheby"—Cap'n Ira +glared malevolently at the rather surprised-looking countenance of +the gray mare in her box—"you wouldn't have got into that jam." +</p> +<p> +"If it hadn't been for you taking that dose of snuff when I was +expecting nothing of the kind, I wouldn't have dove into that feed +box, Ira, and you know it very well." +</p> +<p> +"I swan!" admitted her husband in a feeble voice. "I forgot again, +didn't I?" +</p> +<p> +"I don't know as you forgot, but I know you mighty near sneezed your +head off. You'll be the death of me some day, Ira, blowin' up that +way. I wonder I didn't jump clean through the bottom of that feed +box when I was just reaching down to get a measure of oats." +</p> +<p> +"Aunt Prue," Tunis interposed, "why do you keep the little tad of +feed you have to buy for Queenie in this big old chest?" +</p> +<p> +"There!" Cap'n Ira hastened to rejoin, glad likewise to turn the +trend of conversation. "That's all that dratted boy's doings, little +John-Ed Williams. Who else would have ever thought of dumping a +two-bushel bag of oats into a twenty-bushel bin? We always put feed +in that covered can yonder, so as to keep shet of the rats. But that +boy, when he brought the oats, dumped 'em into the box before I +could stop him. He's got less sense than his father; and you know, +Tunis, John-Ed himself ain't got much more wit than the law allows." +</p> +<p> +"But if you hadn't sneezed—" began Prudence again. +</p> +<p> +"You take her into the house, Cap'n Ira," said Tunis. "I'll feed +Queenie. What do you give her—this measure full of oats? And a hank +of that hay?" +</p> +<p> +"And a bunch of fodder. Might as well give her a dinner while you're +about it," grumbled the old man, leading his tottering wife toward +the door. "As I say, that old critter is eatin' her head off." +</p> +<p> +"Well, she long ago earned her keep in her old age," Tunis said, +laughing. +</p> +<p> +He could remember when the Queen of Sheba had come to the Ball barn +as a colt. Many a clandestine bareback ride had he enjoyed. He fed +the mare and petted her as if she were his own. Then he scraped the +oats out of the bin and poured them into the galvanized-iron can, so +that Cap'n Ira could more easily get at the mare's feed. +</p> +<p> +He went to the house afterward to see if there was any other little +chore he could do for the old couple before going on to his own +home. +</p> +<p> +"You can't do much for us, Tunis, unless you can furnish me a new +pair of legs," said Cap'n Ira. "I might as well have timber ones as +these I've got. What Prue and me needs is what you've got but can't +give away—youth." +</p> +<p> +"You ought to have somebody living with you to help, Cap'n Ira," +said the young man. +</p> +<p> +"I cal'late," said the other dryly, "that we've already made that +discovery, Tunis. Trouble is, we ain't fixed right to increase the +pay roll. I'd like to know who you'd think would want to sign up on +this craft that even the rats have deserted?" +</p> +<p> +"Never mind, Ira. Don't be downhearted," Prudence said, now +recovered from her excitement. "Perhaps the Lord has something good +in store for us." +</p> +<p> +Cap'n Ira pursed his lips. +</p> +<p> +"I ain't doubting the Lord's stores is plentiful," he returned +rather irreverently. "The trouble is for us poor mortals to get at +'em. Well, Tunis, I certainly am obliged to you." +</p> +<p> +The flurry of excitement was over. But Ira Ball was a determined +man. It was in his mind that the trouble of taking care of the old +mare was too great for Prudence, and he could not do the barn chores +himself. They really had no use for the gray mare, for nowadays the +neighbors did all their errands in town for them, and the few +remaining acres of the old farm lay fallow. +</p> +<p> +Nor, had he desired to sell the mare, would anybody be willing to +pay much for the twenty-two-year-old Queenie. In truth, Ira Ball was +too tender-hearted to think of giving the Queen of Sheba over to a +new owner and so sentence her to painful toil. +</p> +<p> +"She'd be a sight better off in the horse heaven, wherever that +is," he decided. But he was careful to say nothing like this in his +wife's hearing. "Women are funny that way," he considered. "She'd +rather let the decrepit old critter hang around eatin' her head off, +like I say, than mercifully put her out of her misery." +</p> +<p> +Stern times call for stern methods. Cap'n Ira Ball had seen the +tragic moment when he was forced to separate a bridegroom from his +bride with a sinking deck all but awash under his feet. What had to +be done had to be done! Prudence could no longer be endangered by +the stable tasks connected with the old mare. He could not relieve +her. They could scarcely afford a hired hand merely to take care of +Queenie. +</p> +<p> +He remained rather silent that evening, and even forgot to praise +Prue's hot biscuit, of which he ate a good many with his creamed +pollack. The sweet-tempered old woman chatted as she knitted on his +blue-wool hose, but she scarcely expected more than his occasional +grunted acknowledgment that he was listening. She always said it was +"a joy to have somebody besides the cat around to talk to." The +loneliness of shipmasters who sail the seven seas is often mentioned +in song and in story; the loneliness of their wives at home is not +usually marked. +</p> +<p> +They went to bed. Old men do not usually sleep much after second +cock-crow, and it was not far from three in the morning when Cap'n +Ira awoke. Like most mariners, he was wide awake when he opened his +eyes. He lay quietly for several moments in the broad bed he +occupied alone. The half-sobbing breathing of the old woman sounded +from her room, through the open door. +</p> +<p> +"It's got to be done," Cap'n Ira almost audibly repeated. +</p> +<p> +He got out of the bed with care. It was both a difficult and a +painful task to dress. When he had on all but his boots and hat he +tiptoed to a green sea chest in the corner, unlocked it, and from +beneath certain tarpaulins and other sea rubbish drew out something +which he examined carefully in the semidarkness of the chamber. He +finally tucked this into an inner pocket of the double-breasted +pilot coat he wore. It sagged the coat a good deal on that side. +</p> +<p> +He crept out of the chamber, crossed the sitting room, and went into +the ell-kitchen with his shoes in his hand. When he opened the back +door he faced the west, but even the sky at that point of the +compass showed the glow of the false dawn. Down in the cove the +night mist wrapped the shipping about in an almost opaque veil. Only +the lofty tops of craft like the <i>Seamew</i> were visible, black +streaks against the mother-of-pearl sky line. +</p> +<p> +The captain closed the kitchen door softly behind him. He sat down +on a bench and painfully pulled on his shoes and laced them. When he +tried to straighten up it was by a method which he termed, "easy, +by jerks." He sat and recovered his breath after the effort. +</p> +<p> +Then, taking his cane, he hobbled off to the barn. The big doors +were open, for it had been a warm night. The pungent odor from +Queenie's stall made his nostrils wrinkle. He stumbled in, and the +pale face of the old mare appeared at the opening above her manger. +She snorted her surprise. +</p> +<p> +"You'll snort more'n that afore I'm done with you," Cap'n Ira said, +trying to seem embittered. +</p> +<p> +But when he unknotted the halter and backed her out of the stable, +quite involuntarily he ran a tender hand down her sleek neck. He +sighed as he led her out of the rear door. +</p> +<p> +The old mare hung back, stretching first one hind leg and then the +other as old horses do when first they come from the stall in the +morning. +</p> +<p> +"Come on, you old nuisance!" exploded Cap'n Ira under his breath, +giving an impatient tug at the rope. +</p> +<p> +He did not look around at her, but set his face sternly toward the +distant lot which had once been known as the east meadow. It was no +longer in grass. Wild carrots sprang from its acidulous soil. The +herbage would scarcely have nourished sheep. There were patches of +that gray moss which blossoms with a tiny red flower, and there was +mullein and sour grass. Altogether the run-down condition of the +soil could not be mistaken by even the casual eye. +</p> +<p> +The hobbling old man and the hobbling old mare, making their way +across the bare lot, made as drab a picture in the early morning as +a Millet. At a distance their moving shapes would have seemed like +shadows only. There was no other sign of life upon Wreckers' Head. +</p> +<p> +A light but keen and salty breath blew in from the sea. Cap'n Ira +faced this breeze with twitching nostrils. The old mare's lower lip +hung down in depression. She groaned. She did not care to be led out +of her comfortable stall at this unconscionably early hour. +</p> +<p> +"Grunt, you old nuisance!" muttered Cap'n Ira bitterly. "You don't +even know what a dratted, useless thing you be, I swan!" +</p> +<p> +There was a depression in the field. When the heavy spring and fall +rains came the water ran down into this sink and stood, sometimes a +foot or two deep over several acres. In some past time of heavy +flood the water had washed out to the edge of the highland +overlooking the ocean beach. There it had crumbled the brink of the +Head away, the water gullying year after year a deeper and broader +channel, until now the slanting gutter began a hundred yards back +from the brink. +</p> +<p> +The recurrent downpours, aided by occasional landslips, had made a +slanting trough to the beach itself, which was all of two hundred +feet below the brink of Wreckers' Head. Many such water-worn gullies +are to be found along the face of the Cape headlands, up which the +fishermen and seaweed gatherers freight their cargoes from the +shore. There was no wheel track here; merely a trough of sliding +sand, treacherous under foot and almost continuously in motion. As +the gully progressed seaward, the banks on either hand became more +than forty feet high, the trough itself being scarcely half as wide. +</p> +<p> +Determinedly Cap'n Ira led the old mare into and down the slope of +this gully. +</p> +<p> +It was steep. He went ahead haltingly, trying to steady his +footsteps with the cane, which sank deeply into the sand, making +orifices which, in the pale light of the dawn, seemed to startle the +mare. She held back, scuffling and snorting. +</p> +<p> +"Come on, drat ye!" adjured the captain. "You needn't blow your +nose. You ain't been taking snuff." +</p> +<p> +The sand was so light and dry that it seemed to be on the move all +about them. There was a stealthy sound to the whispering particles, +too, as though they breathed. "Hush.' Hush-sh-sh!" The old man was +made nervous by it. He began to glance back over his shoulder at the +faintly objecting mare. When Queenie slipped a little and scrambled +in the unstable sand he uttered such an exclamation as might have +been wrung from him at time of stress upon his quarter-deck. +</p> +<p> +"I swan! I'd rather be keelhauled than do this," burst from his lips +finally. +</p> +<p> +But they were well into the gully now. The walls on either hand +towered far above their heads. He halted, and the mare stood still, +again blowing softly through her nostrils. +</p> +<p> +The old man, with shaking hands, took from under his coat the heavy +article that had sagged his pocket. It was a black, old-fashioned, +seven-chambered revolver, well oiled and as grim-looking as a rifled +cannon on a battleship. He produced three greased cartridges, broke +the weapon, inserted the cartridges, then closed it and spun the +cylinder. It was not an unfamiliar weapon, this. Its mere grim +appearance, stuck into Cap'n Ira's waistband, had once quelled +mutiny aboard the <i>Susan Gatskill</i>. +</p> +<p> +While he was thus engaged he had not even glanced around at the old +mare. Suddenly he felt a touch upon his shoulder, then upon the +sleeve of his coat. He felt a creepy chill the length of his spine. +It seemed as if the hand of Prudence had been laid softly upon him. +</p> +<p> +"I swan!" he gulped, shaking himself. "I'm as flighty as a gal. What +th'—" He looked back. Queenie was nuzzling his arm questioningly. +Her ears were cocked forward; her surprised face was almost +ridiculously human in its expression. +</p> +<p> +Cap'n Ira groaned again. He shuddered. But his gnarled hand gripped +the hard-rubber butt of the revolver with the desperation of the +deed he had screwed his courage to do. Better the old mare should be +put out of the way than that she should fall into hands that would +misuse her. And he feared what other accident might happen if +Prudence continued to take care of the animal. +</p> +<p> +"I swan! It's a wrench," admitted Cap'n Ira, swerving to point the +muzzle of the revolver at the gray mare. +</p> +<p> +He looked all about again. Yes, the position was right. If she fell +here, a man with a shovel could easily pry down tons of sand from +either bank upon her in a few minutes. The burial might be done by +himself without any other soul knowing what had become of Queenie. +</p> +<p> +He cocked the old revolver. +</p> +<p> +Suddenly the Queen of Sheba gave a snort of alarm. She looked back +over her withers. The light in the cut between the sand banks was +dim. Was somebody coming? +</p> +<p> +To tell the truth, Cap'n Ira had a vision of Prudence, having missed +him, getting out of her bed and traveling down through the lots +after him and the old mare. The idea shook him to his marrow, or was +it the weight of the heavy weapon that made his hand so unsteady? +</p> +<p> +"I swan!" His oft-repeated ejaculation was almost a prayer. +</p> +<p> +At the moment he felt the sand giving under his feet. The old mare +uttered again her terrified snort. He saw dimly the path behind them +moving—a swift, serpentlike slide. Heavy as the mare was, she felt +the landslip, too. +</p> +<p> +Cap'n Ira was not a man who easily lost his self-possession. He had +been through too much to show the white flag when danger menaced. He +realized that peril threatened now. +</p> +<p> +He turned squarely about and, cocked pistol in one hand and +huge-knobbed cane in the other, he started away from the spot at a +cripple's gallop. The whole trough of the gully of sand seemed to be +in motion. Behind him the old mare scrambled and whistled with fear, +quite as unable to keep her feet as was the captain. +</p> +<p> +For, before he had gone far, Cap'n Ira found himself seated on the +moving plane of sand. He glanced fearfully behind him. The Queen of +Sheba was seated on her tail, her forefeet braced against nothing +more stable than the avalanche itself, and she was sailing down the +slope behind him like a winged Pegasus! +</p> +<p> +"My soul and body!" ejaculated Cap'n Ira. "We're certainly on our +way." +</p> +<a name="2HCH0004"><!-- H2 anchor --></a> + +<div style="height: 4em;"><br /><br /><br /><br /></div> + +<h2> + CHAPTER IV +</h2> +<h3> + AT THE LATHAM HOUSE +</h3> +<p> +The Latham house stood in the middle of the shallow valley behind +Wreckers' Head. The fields surrounding it were arable and well kept. +The house was not as old as the Ball house and was of an entirely +different style of architecture. Whereas the Ball house was +low-roofed and sprawling, squatting like a huge and ugly toad on the +gale-swept Head, the house Tunis Latham's grandfather had built was +three-story, including the mansard roof, painted a tobacco brown, +and it was surrounded by wry-limbed cedars which could grow here +because they were sheltered from the gales. +</p> +<p> +It was a gloomy-looking house even in midsummer, standing like a +grim figure menaced by the tortured limbs of the trees surrounding +it, stark and alone. No other human habitation was in view from its +site. The Latham who had built the twelve-room house had built on +hope. He desired and expected to fill the great house with a breed +of Lathams that would do honor to the Cape on sea and on land. But +his young wife had died the next year, after giving birth to her +second child. +</p> +<p> +Tunis Latham's father, Randall Latham, had been the elder Latham's +sole hope of perpetuating the family name and filling the big, ugly +brown house behind Wreckers' Head with tow-headed little Lathams, +for the other child was a girl. +</p> +<p> +It was said that Medford Latham had seldom spoken to or of his +daughter, Lucretia. She must have led a very lonely and repressed +life while she was a little girl. Medford Latham did not go to sea, +for he had business that kept him on shore. +</p> +<p> +Medford Latham lived long enough to see Randall grow up, walk his +own quarter-deck, and marry a maiden from the port who promised to +be able to fulfill his hopes of a flourishing houseful of children. +She bore Tunis while young Captain Randall Latham was away, and he +came back in time to christen the boy with the name of the most +colorful city he had touched on the trip, not an uncommon practice +of seagoing fathers on the Cape. But Mrs. Randall Latham, watching +her husband's ship bear off to seaward in the face of a keen gale, +caught a severe cold, and when Captain Randall returned the next +time he came not to a cradle in the great living room of the big, +brown house, but to an already-sodden grave in the family plot on +the west side of the saucerlike valley. +</p> +<p> +Lucretia Latham had grown to be a tall, large-boned, silent, and +quick-stepping woman—a woman of understanding and infinite +tenderness, although this tenderness was exhibited in deeds, not +words. +</p> +<p> +The big, quiet-faced woman, who had never had a lover and on whom no +man had ever looked with admiration, seemed to the casual observer +cold and uncompromising. She might speak to the dog, call the fowls +to their meals, but she never otherwise spoke unless she was forced +to. When he was little, Tunis had found in her arms and against her +breast a refuge from all hurt and fear, but it was a wordless +comfort Aunt Lucretia gave him. +</p> +<p> +When he walked over from the cove that afternoon, after seeing the +anchor of the <i>Seamew</i> over-side for the first time in this +roadstead, Tunis found his Aunt Lucretia much as usual. She watched +him approach from the side porch, a warm smile of greeting on her +rather gaunt face. He knew that she must have watched the <i>Seamew</i> +skim by, making for the channel into the cove; for he had written +her when to expect him. But she would say nothing about it unless he +forced the gates of her silence by some direct question which +demanded more than a "yes" or a "no." +</p> +<p> +Lucretia folded him in her arms, however, and patted his broad +shoulder with little love pats as he put his arms about her. Her +kiss for him was as warm on his lips as a girl's. They understood +each other pretty well, these two; for Tunis had caught something of +her muteness, living so long alone with her. +</p> +<p> +He went to wash and change his shirt. Then he sat down in one of the +huge porch chairs and rocked quietly, waiting for supper. He could +see into the kitchen, which was the family dining room as well, and +when he saw his Aunt Lucretia take the coffee-pot from the stove and +put it on the square Dutch tile by her own place, Tunis knew it was +the only call to supper there would be. +</p> +<p> +He rose and went in, taking his place at the head of the table. His +aunt's head was bowed and her lips moved soundlessly. He respected +her whispered grace and always felt that he could add nothing to it +in thankfulness or reverence if he uttered an orison himself. During +the cheerful and plentiful meal the young captain of the <i>Seamew</i> +related certain matters he thought would interest the woman +regarding his purchase of the schooner and the voyage down to the +Cape. He told her he was sure the <i>Seamew</i> was fast enough for a +Boston market boat. +</p> +<p> +"Speed is what is wanted now to compete with the Old Colony," Tunis +declared. "We've got fish and clams and cranberries in season, and +some vegetables, that have to be shaken up and jounced together and +squashed on those jolting steam trains. I'll lay down a crate of +lobsters at the T-wharf without a hair being ruffled. I know how to +stow a cargo." +</p> +<p> +She nodded both her understanding and her belief that Tunis was +right. The legacy he had received from the estate of Peleg Latham, +Medford Latham's brother, had enabled Tunis to buy this beautiful +schooner. Undoubtedly an eye for the beauty of the craft had more +than a little drawn the young man into her purchase. Yet there was a +foundation of solid sense under his streak of romance. +</p> +<p> +In this day a man must serve a long apprenticeship before he gets a +command unless he owns the craft on which he is skipper. To own a +schooner of the size of the <i>Seamew</i> is not enough. One must be a +good merchant as well as a good skipper. +</p> +<p> +The coast trade from port to port along the North Atlantic shore +must be fostered and coaxed like a stumbling baby. The tentacles of +the hated railroad reach to many of the Cape ports. Yet everybody +knows that a cargo properly stowed in a seaworthy craft reaches +market in much the better condition than by rail, though perhaps it +is some hours longer on the way. +</p> +<p> +There were docks, too, at which Tunis Latham could pick up +well-paying freights which would have to be carted over bad roads to +the nearest railway station. And there were always full or part +cargoes to be had at Boston for certain single consignees along the +Cape, which would pay a fair profit on the upkeep of the schooner. +Medford Latham had lost almost all his fortune before he died so +unhappily, leaving only the homestead and small farm to his son. The +son, Captain Randall Latham, had lost the ship <i>Ada May</i> and every +cent he possessed. Tunis had only his great uncle's legacy to begin +on, and he had waited for that until he was thirty. +</p> +<p> +In the morning the young man arose early, for the tide was then low, +and started forth with basket and clam hoe on his arm. Aunt Lucretia +had promised him, by a smiling nod, a mess of fritters for dinner if +he would supply the necessary clams. Alongshore the soft clam is the +only clam used for fritters; the tough, long-keeping quahog is +shipped to the less-enlightened "city trade." +</p> +<p> +It was not yet sunrise, but as Tunis walked down through one of +those cuts in the edge of the headland, following a well-defined +cart track, he saw the rose-glow of the sun's round face staining +the mist on the eastern horizon. +</p> +<p> +He came down upon the hard sand of the beach and walked toward a +tiny cove into which the mud flats extended and on which he knew the +clams were plentiful and ripe. Glistening pools of black water, +showing where other diggers had raided the flat, were interspersed +with trembling patches of black sand. When Tunis began to cross the +flat the sand before his boots became alive with tiny, shooting +geysers of clean water. He set to work. +</p> +<p> +And while he was thus engaged he heard suddenly a shrill outcry and +a most mysterious sound up in one of the gullies toward the summit +of Wreckers' Head. Here thousands of tons of sand had run out of the +cut in the steep bank and formed a dykelike way to the beach itself. +More and more sand was slipping down this way all the time. A strong +man could scarcely make his way up the incline, the sand was so +unstable. +</p> +<p> +Tunis stood and stared up the slope. There shot into view, carried +rapidly upon the forefront of the avalanche, a white-haired old man +who waved a stick in one hand and a cocked pistol in the other, +while from his mouth came shrill cries of excitement, if not of +alarm. +</p> +<p> +But it was what followed Cap'n Ira Ball—whom Tunis immediately +recognized—that caused the captain of the <i>Seamew</i> such utter +surprise. Sitting on her rump, pawing at the sliding sand with her +front hoofs, and whistling her terror and amazement, the Queen of +Sheba appeared flying after the harassed old man. +</p> +<p> +It was a scene to surprise more than to entertain the beholder. The +avalanche promised disaster to the participants in it. Tons upon +tons of sand, undulating and sinuous in appearance, traveled faster +and yet faster behind the old gray mare and the gray old sea +captain. The smoke of the slide hid all that lay behind them, and +these wreaths of sand dust threatened a higher wave that might, at +any moment, entirely overwhelm both the equine and the human victim +of the catastrophe. +</p> +<p> +Tunis dropped his clam hoe and started for the dyke of sand on the +crest of which the old man and the old mare were sliding like +naughty children down a woodshed roof. +</p> +<p> +"Hey, Tunis! Tunis!" bawled the captain. "Take her off'n me! She'll +be afoul my hawser in another second, I do believe." +</p> +<p> +It was evident that he spoke of the Queen of Sheba, but Tunis could +not see how the mare was intentionally threatening Cap'n Ira's peace +of mind or safety of body. She was, however, "close aboard" Cap'n +Ira as he tobogganed down the sandy way. +</p> +<p> +"Stern all!" shouted the old man, throwing another startled, +backward glance at the Queen of Sheba. "Drat the derned old critter! +Don't she know nothin' at all? Tunis! Do you see what's goin' to +happen?" +</p> +<p> +While the young man had been running toward the ridge of sand, the +avalanche bearing Cap'n Ira and the Queen of Sheba on its bosom +swept down the slope of the huge windrow, but not altogether along +its spine. The mass slid over one pitch of the ridge, and suddenly, +following on the heels of Cap'n Ira's final question, the old man +was shot to the beach, several tons of loose sand and the snorting +mare almost on top of him. +</p> +<p> +In fact, he would have been overwhelmed, and perhaps seriously hurt, +had not Tunis Latham arrived at the spot at just the time Cap'n Ira +did, and suddenly pulled out the old man. +</p> +<p> +"What are you doing? Trying to run a race with Queenie?" demanded +the captain of the <i>Seamew</i>. +</p> +<p> +The mare had come down right side up, more by good luck than by good +management. She stood deep in the sand, her naturally surprised +expression vastly enhanced. In all her twenty-two years Queenie had +never before gone through such an experience. +</p> +<p> +"I swan!" ejaculated Cap'n Ira. "Ain't this the beatenest you ever +heard of, Tunis?" +</p> +<p> +Tunis stared from the old mare to the old mariner, especially at the +cocked revolver in the captain's hand. He pointed at the tightly +gripped weapon. +</p> +<p> +"What's that for, Cap'n Ira?" he asked. +</p> +<p> +"I—I—well, I swan!" stammered Cap'n Ira, now looking, himself, at +the old seven-chambered revolver as though he had never seen it +before. "I cal'late it does look sort o' funny to you, Tunis, to +see me come sailing down this way, armed like a pirate." +</p> +<p> +"I wouldn't call it exactly funny. But it is surprising," admitted +Tunis. "And Queenie looks as surprised as anybody." +</p> +<p> +"Yes, she does, for a fact," agreed Cap'n Ira, squinting across the +heap of loose sand at the gray mare. "I kind o' wonder what she's +thinking about." +</p> +<p> +"I'm wondering hard enough myself," put in Tunis pointedly. +</p> +<p> +"I swan!" murmured Cap'n Ira reflectively. +</p> +<p> +He carefully lowered the hammer of the pistol, his cane stuck +upright in the sand before him. Then he put the weapon back in the +inside pocket of his coat. He tapped the knob of his cane for a +pinch of snuff before he said another word. His mighty "A-choon!" +startled the Queen of Sheba almost as it startled Prudence. +</p> +<p> +"Avast!" exclaimed Cap'n Ira. "Did you ever see such a scary old +lubber, Tunis?" +</p> +<p> +"But what's it all about?" again demanded the younger man, seizing +the rope halter and aiding the mare to flounder out upon the firmer +sand below high-water mark. "What are you doing up so early? And +what were you going to do with Queenie?" +</p> +<p> +"I swan!" groaned Cap'n Ira again. "I don't wonder that you ask me +that. It don't really seem reasonable that a sane man would get in +such a jam, does it? Me and the Queen of Sheby sailin' down that +sand pile. Tunis! We'll never be able to get up it in this world." +</p> +<p> +"No. You must come along to our road, and get up that way," his +young friend told him. "It is longer, but easier. But tell me how +you came down that gully, you and Queenie?" +</p> +<p> +"I'm sort of ashamed to tell you, Tunis, and that's a fact," the old +captain said, wagging his head. "And don't you ever tell Prudence." +</p> +<p> +"I'll not say a word to Aunt Prue," promised the captain of the +<i>Seamew</i>. +</p> +<p> +"Yet," grumbled the old man, "that dratted Queen of Sheby is too +much for Prudence. You see yourself only yesterday how she is like +to come to her death because of the mare." +</p> +<p> +"I know that you should have somebody living with you, Cap'n Ira," +urged Tunis. "But what does <i>this</i> mean?" +</p> +<p> +"I—I can't scurcely tell you, Tunis. I swan! I was goin' to murder +the old critter." +</p> +<p> +"What do you mean?" gasped Tunis in apparent horror. "Not Aunt +Prue?" +</p> +<p> +"What's the matter with you?" snapped Cap'n Ira. "I mean that old +mare. I was going to murder her in cold blood, only the sand slide +wrecked my plans." +</p> +<p> +"If you had killed her, Aunt Prue would have had hard work to +forgive you. Come on now. I'll lead Queenie up to our barn. Let her +stay there for a spell. I tell you, Cap'n Ira, you and Aunt Prue +must have somebody to live with you." +</p> +<p> +"Who?" +</p> +<p> +"Get a girl from the port." +</p> +<p> +"Huh! One o' them Portygees? They're as dirty and useless in the +kitchen as their men folks are aboard ship." +</p> +<p> +"Oh, they are not all like that!" objected the captain of the +<i>Seamew</i>. "I've got a good crew of 'em aboard my schooner." +</p> +<p> +"You think so. Wait till you get in a jam. And the men ain't so bad +as the gals. All hussies." +</p> +<p> +"I don't know, then, what you'll do." +</p> +<p> +"I do," interrupted the old man, hobbling along the hard sand beside +Tunis and the horse. "It's just like I told Prudence yesterday. I +know just what we've got to do whether you or Prue or anybody else +knows," and he was very emphatic. +</p> +<p> +"Let's hear your plan, Cap'n," said Tunis. +</p> +<p> +"It's like this," went on Cap'n Ira. "Prudence ain't got but one +living relative, a grandniece, that's kin to her. That Ida May +Bostwick we must have come and live with us, and that's all there is +about it." +</p> +<p> +Tunis stared. He said: +</p> +<p> +"Never heard of her. She doesn't live anywhere around here, does +she?" +</p> +<p> +"No, no! Lives to Boston." +</p> +<p> +"Boston!" +</p> +<p> +Why was it Tunis Latham felt that his heart skipped a beat? Memory +of that pale, violet-eyed girl who worked in the restaurant on +Scollay Square flashed across his mind like a shooting star. Indeed, +he was so confused that he heard only a little at first of Cap'n +Ira's rambling explanation. Then he caught: +</p> +<p> +"And if you will go to that address—Prue's got the street and +number—and see Ida May Bostwick and tell her about us, you'd be +doing us a kindness, Tunis." +</p> +<p> +"Me?" exclaimed the startled captain of the <i>Seamew</i>. +</p> +<p> +"Yes, you. The gal won't bite you. You're going to Boston next week, +you say. Will you do it?" +</p> +<p> +"Sure I will, Cap'n Ira," said the young man heartily. "It's a good +move, and I'll say all I can to get the girl to come down here." +</p> +<p> +"That's the boy! You're going on an errand of mercy; that's as sure +as sure. Prue and me need that gal. And maybe she needs us. I don't +know what sort of a place she works at, but no city job for a gal +can be the equal of living down here on the Cape, with her own +folks, as you might say. Yes, Tunis, you'll be doing an errand of +mercy mebbe both ways." +</p> +<a name="2HCH0005"><!-- H2 anchor --></a> + +<div style="height: 4em;"><br /><br /><br /><br /></div> + +<h2> + CHAPTER V +</h2> +<h3> + LOOKING FOR IDA MAY +</h3> +<p> +The <i>Seamew</i> was put in commission in a very few days. Tunis Latham +had many friends in and about Big Wreck Cove, and he had little +difficulty in picking up a cargo, which was loaded right at the +port. +</p> +<p> +As for the schooner's crew, Tunis could have filled every billet +four times over had he so desired. But he had already picked his +crew with some care. Mason Chapin was mate, a perfectly capable +navigator who might have used his ticket to get a berth on a much +larger craft than the <i>Seamew</i>. But he had an invalid wife and +wished only to leave home on brief voyages. Johnny Lark was shipped +as cook, with a Portygee boy, Tony, to help him. +</p> +<p> +Forward, Horace Newbegin served as boatswain and Orion Latham was a +sort of supercargo and general handy man. He was Tunis' cousin, +several times removed. There were four Portygees to make up the +company, a full crew for a sailing vessel of the tonnage of the +<i>Seamew</i>. Yet every man was needed in handling her lofty canvas and +in loading and unloading freight. +</p> +<p> +With a well-stowed cargo below deck the schooner sailed even better +than she had in ballast. She slipped out of the cove through the +rather tortuous channel like an eel through the meshes of a broken +trap. In the dawn, and with a fresh outside breeze just ruffling the +sea into whitecaps, they broke out her upper sails and caught the +very last breath of the gale the canvas would draw. +</p> +<p> +Cap'n Ira, and even Prudence, had got up before daybreak to see the +schooner pass. They watched her, turn and turn about at the +spyglass, till she was blotted out by the distant fog bank. +</p> +<p> +"I swan," said the old man, "when she heaves into view again I hope +she'll have Ida May Bostwick aboard! That is what <i>I</i> hope." +</p> +<p> +"The dear girl!" breathed Prudence. +</p> +<p> +It never crossed their simple minds that Ida May Bostwick might see +this chance they offered her in a different light from that in which +they looked at it. The old couple made their innocent plans for the +welcoming of the "grandniece," positive that a happy future was in +store for both Ida May and themselves. +</p> +<p> +In Tunis Latham's mind there was more uncertainty regarding the +mysterious Ida May Bostwick than there was in the minds of Cap'n +Ira and Prudence. Whenever he considered his "errand of mercy" the +captain of the <i>Seamew</i> had a flash of that girl with the violet +eyes who worked in the restaurant on Scollay Square. The Balls did +not know where Ida May worked. Prudence only had obtained the +lodging-house address of her young relative from Annabell Coffin, +"she who was a Cuttle." +</p> +<p> +Of course, it was merely a faint and tenuous possibility that Ida +May was a waitress. Still fainter was the chance that she would +prove to be the girl with the violet eyes that Tunis Latham +remembered so distinctly. The Balls knew that she worked in a store, +and all stores were the same to them. There might be a few hundred +thousand other girls in Boston besides that particular girl whom he +had saved from falling on the square. +</p> +<p> +Nevertheless, when the <i>Seamew</i> had unloaded and been warped to a +berth in an outer tier of small craft to await her turn to load +barrels and box shooks for a concern at Paulmouth, Captain Tunis +started up into the city. He knew his way about Boston as well as +any one not a native, and his first objective point was that +restaurant on Scollay Square. +</p> +<p> +It was the dogwatch when Tunis Latham entered the eating place, but +the dogwatch here was not at the same time of day as aboard ship. +The captain's first startled glance about the room assured him that +there was not a girl employee in sight, not even at the cashier's +desk, and very few customers. +</p> +<p> +He ordered a late but hearty breakfast of the unshaven waiter in +half-spoiled apron and coat who lounged over his table. +</p> +<p> +"I thought they used to have girl waiters in this place?" the +captain said when the man brought the tableware and glass of water. +</p> +<p> +"On from 'leven till eight. You're too early if you got a jane in +your eye, bo," was the ribald reply. "The boss is a good guy." He +sneered in the direction of the black-haired, coarse-looking man in +the cashier's cage. "He hires them girls for five dollars less a +week than he'd have to pay union waiters, and he asks no questions." +He closed his recital with a wink so full of meaning that Tunis' +palm itched to slap him. +</p> +<p> +But the guest's wind-bitten face betrayed no confusion nor further +interest. The waiter judged he had mistaken his man, after all, and +sheered off until the ordered viands were ready at the slide. +</p> +<p> +He hesitated to question that coarse man, even to mention Ida May +Bostwick's name to him. The waiter had misinterpreted his first +remark about the waitresses. The proprietor might hold any question +he asked regarding Ida May against the record of the violet-eyed +girl, if by any wild possibility that should be her name. There was +time still, he thought, to find her at her lodgings before she +started for the restaurant, if she worked here. +</p> +<p> +So Tunis paid his check and strode forth. The lodging of Ida May +Bostwick was not in this neighborhood, of course, not even in the +West End. In fact, it was in the South End, in one of those streets +running more or less parallel to lower Shawmut Avenue. He took a car +in the subway and got off near the address Prudence Ball had given +him. +</p> +<p> +To the mind of the Cape man, used as he was to the open spaces of +both sea and land, these dingy blocks of brick houses, three and +four stories in height, all quite alike in smoke and squalor and +even in the pattern of the net curtains at their parlor windows, +made as dreary a picture as he had ever imagined. He thought of that +pale, slender, violet-eyed girl coming back to this ugly block at +night, after long hours at the restaurant, having to look forward to +nothing more beautiful, in all probability, inside the house where +she lodged. Who would not be glad, overjoyed, indeed, to get away +from such an environment? +</p> +<p> +He found the number. The house was no worse and no better than its +neighbors. By stains on the blistered bricks beside the door frame +he gathered that scraps of paper advertising empty rooms had often +been pasted there. He rang the bell at the top of the rail-guarded +steps. After a time he rang again. +</p> +<p> +He could hear the bell jangle somewhere in a distant part of the +house. Nobody came in answer to his summons, not even after his +third ring. At length the creaking, iron-barred gate in the area +warned him that the main door at which he rang was not in use at +that hour of the day. A woman in a house dress as ugly as the street +itself, and with untidy gray hair and a bar of smut on her cheek, +craned her neck from this opening to look up at him. +</p> +<p> +"There's no use your ringing. I ain't got an empty room, young man," +she announced. +</p> +<p> +He descended spryly into the area before she could close the gate. +Her near-sighted scowl misjudged him again, for she added: +</p> +<p> +"Nor I don't want to buy anything." +</p> +<p> +"One moment, ma'am," he cried. "I have nothing for sale. I'd like to +see somebody who lodges here." +</p> +<p> +"Who?" asked the woman, peering at him curiously. +</p> +<p> +"Miss Bostwick." +</p> +<p> +"You'll have to come this evening." +</p> +<p> +"Oh! She has—has gone to work already?" +</p> +<p> +"My stars! Do you know what time it is, young man?" demanded the +lodging-house keeper. "It's after ten o'clock." +</p> +<p> +Already Tunis Latham's hopes began to sink. +</p> +<p> +"Then—then she goes to work early?" +</p> +<p> +"Lemme tell you, them that works for Hoskin & Marl have to show up +by eight or they lose their jobs." +</p> +<p> +"And she will not be in until evening?" he repeated. +</p> +<p> +"'Bout seven. She gets her supper before she comes home. I don't +give meals." +</p> +<p> +"Where is this place she works at?" asked the captain of the +<i>Seamew</i>, with a suppressed sigh. +</p> +<p> +"Guess you are a stranger in town, aren't you?" said the curious +landlady. "I thought everybody knew Hoskin & Marl's. It's on Tremont +Street. The big department store." +</p> +<p> +"Oh! Miss Bostwick works there?" +</p> +<p> +"In the laces. You can't know her very well, young man." +</p> +<p> +"I come from her folks down on the Cape," he thought it his duty to +explain. "I've a message for her." +</p> +<p> +"On the Cape? My stars! I never knowed she had any country +relatives. Are they rich? They ain't died and left her a fortune, +have they?" were the eager questions. +</p> +<p> +"The ones I speak of are still alive," Tunis said gravely, backing +up the steps to the sidewalk. "Thank you, ma'am. I'll go to that +store and speak to her there. Thank you." +</p> +<p> +Before she could evolve another question, Tunis had escaped. He +walked smartly away, not only to outdistance the lodging-house +keeper's voice, but because he was confused and disappointed. Ida +May Bostwick could not work in a department store and in an eating +house as well. Of course not! And now that this point was an +established fact in his mind, he admitted that he had been utterly +foolish to imagine for a moment that he had already met her, that +she was the violet-eyed girl in whom he had taken an interest. +</p> +<p> +Right at the start he had known that a girl working in an eating +house like that was not the sort of person he could introduce to +Aunt Lucretia. And so why had he imagined that she would prove to be +the great-niece of Prudence Ball? It was ridiculous! +</p> +<p> +Of course, this Ida May came of good Cape stock. At least, on one +side of her family. The Honeys were as good as the Lathams or the +Balls. +</p> +<p> +Thus condemning his foolish fancies he strode downtown again. He +knew where Hoskin & Marl's was. He had been in the place. When he +reached the department store he marched straight in, meaning to have +an immediate interview with the girl at the lace counter. +</p> +<a name="2HCH0006"><!-- H2 anchor --></a> + +<div style="height: 4em;"><br /><br /><br /><br /></div> + +<h2> + CHAPTER VI +</h2> +<h3> + AN UNSATISFACTORY INTERVIEW +</h3> +<p> +Tunis Latham suffered all the timidity of the average man when he +got into the maze of that department store. There is a psychological +reason for the haberdashery goods, the line for the mere male, being +placed always within sight of a principal exit. The catacombs of +Rome would be no more terrifying in prospect for a man than a +venture into the farther intricacies of Hoskin & Marl's. +</p> +<p> +The captain of the <i>Seamew</i> could box the compass with the next +seafarer, but he lost all idea of the points on the card before he +had been three minutes in the store, and he had to hail a +floor-walker to get his bearings. +</p> +<p> +"Lace counter? Right this way, sir. Yes, sir. Just over there. +Our—er—Miss Bostwick will serve you, sir. Forward!" +</p> +<p> +The wind and sun had heightened Tunis Latham's naturally florid +complexion to about as deep a red as can easily be imagined, but he +felt the back of his neck and his ears burning as he approached the +counter to which he was directed. A girl had detached herself from a +group at the farther end, and now came toward him. All that he first +saw clearly, however, was a pair of eyes staring at him from behind +the counter. They were not violet eyes. +</p> +<p> +The girl who owned those twinkling, needle-sharp eyes was nothing +like that girl he had been thinking of so much since his previous +visit to Boston. She was rather small, dressed in the extreme mode +in a cheap way, wearing a tawdry gilt chain, several rings, and a +wrist watch. There was something about her which reminded Tunis very +strongly of the girls of Portygee Town, although she was a +pronounced blonde. +</p> +<p> +Her hair was really her only attractive possession. Those sharp +brown eyes did not please Tunis Latham at all. And there was a +certain smart boldness in her manner, too, which caused him a +distinct feeling of repugnance. +</p> +<p> +He plunged into his errand with all the boldness that a bashful man +usually displays when he finally gets his courage to the sticking +point. +</p> +<p> +"You are Miss Bostwick?" he asked. +</p> +<p> +"What kind of lace—goodness! Who are you?" asked the girl, her +stilted, saleslady manner changing to amazement with surprising +suddenness. +</p> +<p> +"I live at Big Wreck Cove. I guess you've heard of it," said Tunis. +</p> +<p> +"Big Wreck Cove? Do tell!" Her eyes danced. "You're from down on the +Cape, then. I guess you want some lace for your wife. What kind did +she send you for?" +</p> +<p> +Tunis brushed this aside bluntly. +</p> +<p> +"I don't want any lace," he told her. "I come from your aunt, Mrs. +Ira Ball." +</p> +<p> +"My aunt? Fancy!" +</p> +<p> +"She has heard about you," went on Tunis. "I guess she thought a +heap of your mother. She—she'd like to see you, Mrs. Ball would." +</p> +<p> +The girl patted her hair into place with a languid hand. Her lips +parted in a teasing smile. This "hick" really amused her. +</p> +<p> +"Just to think! Would she?" she drawled. "Is she in town?" +</p> +<p> +"Who? Mrs. Ball? I should say not. She's down at Big Wreck Cove, I +tell you." +</p> +<p> +"Oh, really? I thought by the way you spoke she was outside—in her +car." She tossed her head with that same tantalizing smile, almost a +grimace. "What did you want to tell me?" +</p> +<p> +Tunis realized that he could not talk to her here, after all. The +idle girls at the end of the counter were already whispering, and +their smiles were poignant javelins of ridicule. The captain of the +<i>Seamew</i> knew that he was far beyond his depth. +</p> +<p> +"Where can I talk to you?" he asked. +</p> +<p> +"I get away for my lunch hour in a few minutes. I could talk to you +then. But us girls ain't supposed to entertain our friends at the +counter." She flashed him another amused and quite comprehending +glance. +</p> +<p> +"I've a message for you from Aunt Prue and the captain. Captain Ira +Ball. He's her husband," explained Tunis jerkily. +</p> +<p> +"Oh, really? Mr. Judson is coming this way." She flirted open a card +of cheap lace lying on the counter. "Won't this do, sir?" +</p> +<p> +"Cat's foot! I don't want any lace," growled the captain of the +<i>Seamew</i>. +</p> +<p> +"And I don't want to lose my job," rejoined the girl sharply. +</p> +<p> +"Where'll I meet you so we can talk?" +</p> +<p> +"At twelve forty-five," hissed the girl out of the corner of her +mouth, beginning to wind up the lace again. "Back entrance to the +store." Then, aloud: "Sorry, sir. We haven't any cheaper quality in +that pattern." +</p> +<p> +He knew she was ridiculing him. He was cognizant, however, of the +department head's hard stare and the amused glances of the other +saleswomen. He strode out of the store, and on the sidewalk halted +to mop his face and neck with a blue-bordered handkerchief. +</p> +<p> +"She's as sassy as a chipmunk. I declare! What would Cap'n Ira and +Aunt Prue do with a girl like her around the house? And the way +she's dressed!" +</p> +<p> +In his mind the idea germinated that he would be doing a far better +thing if he did not go around to the employees' door and wait for +Ida May Bostwick. What sort of life would she lead the two old +people down there on Wreckers' Head? He actually shrank from being a +party to such an arrangement. +</p> +<p> +Not for a moment did he think that Miss Bostwick might not jump at +the chance to change her place of residence from a South End lodging +house to the Ball homestead overlooking Big Wreck Cove and the sea. +He had seen that she was afraid of her boss in the store. The rules +there must be very strict. He had noted that everything about the +girl, her apparel and her ornaments, was cheap and tawdry. She must +be both poor and unhappy. Why should she not jump at the chance of +bettering herself? +</p> +<p> +What would Cap'n Ira say when he caught his first glimpse of that +painted and powdered face? How could good Aunt Prue take to her +heart the bold, jeering shopgirl, evidently born and bred as far +from the old standards of Cape Cod breeding as could be imagined? No +matter how fine a girl Sarah Honey was, her daughter was of a cheap +city type. +</p> +<p> +But Tunis Latham did not stand in the position of a judge. He had +not been told to use his powers of observation before placing the +Balls' offer before Ida May Bostwick. He had no discretion in the +matter at all. +</p> +<p> +So he went around to the street behind Hoskin & Marl's at the +required time and spent five or ten minutes backed up against a +blank wall under the sharp scrutiny of every girl who hurried out of +the big store on her way to lunch. Ida May came, at last. +</p> +<p> +Tunis Latham in his go-ashore uniform and cap was no unsightly +figure. A stern tranquillity of countenance lent him dignity. He +attracted a certain respect wherever he went, but, as has been said, +there was nothing harsh in his appearance. +</p> +<p> +The girl gave him an appraising scrutiny as she walked toward him. +While covering those few yards she made up her mind about Tunis on +several points. One was that she would not lunch this noon at any +cafeteria or automat! +</p> +<p> +"Really," she said, with downcast glance, as the man got into step +beside her, "I don't feel that I know you well enough to talk to you +at all, Mister—Mister—" +</p> +<p> +"My name's Tunis Latham. I'm owner and skipper of the schooner +<i>Seamew</i>. I live right handy to your uncle and aunt." +</p> +<p> +"Goodness! You don't mean I've got an uncle and aunt down there on +the Cape? I never heard of them." +</p> +<p> +"They are your great-uncle and great-aunt. Aunt Prue must have been +your mother's own aunt." +</p> +<p> +"So you are my Cousin—er—Tunis?" +</p> +<p> +His face flamed and he did not look at her. +</p> +<p> +"That doesn't follow," he said. "Aunt Prue is my aunt only in a +manner of speaking. But she is your blood relation." +</p> +<p> +"Yes? I suppose she's a dear old soul?" +</p> +<p> +"They are mighty nice folks," Tunis replied stoutly. "As nice as any +in all Barnstable County." +</p> +<p> +"But—er—sort of simple?" +</p> +<p> +The girl asked it with a perfectly innocent countenance. Tunis +flashed her a look that showed comprehension. +</p> +<p> +"Just about as simple as I am," he said. +</p> +<p> +"Oh!" +</p> +<p> +"Where'll we go to eat?" he asked cheerfully, considering that he +had the best of it so far. +</p> +<p> +They came out upon Tremont Street and now started downtown. He +desired to get no nearer to that eating house on Scollay Square. At +least, not with his present companion. +</p> +<p> +"There's the Barquette," said Miss Bostwick, with the air of one +used daily to the grandeur of such hostelries. +</p> +<p> +But Tunis had seen her lodgings! However, her airs amused him, and +Tunis Latham was no penny-squeezer. He headed straight in for the +dining room, where a gloriously appareled negro head waiter +appraised him as being "all right," and Ida May got by, without +knowing it, upon the captain's substantial appearance. +</p> +<p> +While the waiter was away, Tunis bluntly put his errand before her. +He felt it his duty to make the offer as attractive as possible. But +he did not make small the fact that the Balls were old and needed +her services. +</p> +<p> +"Goodness! What do they want me for—a nurse?" she demanded tartly. +</p> +<p> +The question put Tunis on his mettle. He explained that Cap'n Ira +and his wife were comfortably "fixed," as Cape people considered +comfort, with a home free and clear of all encumbrances, and +investments that yielded a sufficient support. Ida May, as he +understood it, would share their home and their means. +</p> +<p> +"And you want I should go down to that place and live on pollack and +potatoes till them folks die, for the sake of just a <i>home</i>?" she +demanded, her brown eyes snapping. +</p> +<p> +"<i>I</i> don't want you to do anything," he pointed out coolly enough. +"I am merely repeating their offer. They are your folks." +</p> +<p> +"And I know all about what it is down there," the girl said quickly. +"My mother came from there. She was glad enough to get away, too, I +warrant. Why should I give up a good job and the city to live in +such a dead-and-alive hole?" +</p> +<p> +"That is for you to decide," Tunis replied, not without secret +relief. +</p> +<p> +He could not understand her attitude. He remembered that South End +lodging house with secret horror. But evidently Ida May Bostwick was +wedded to the tawdry conveniences and gayeties of city life. Tunis +could not wholly understand why any sane person should assume this +attitude; in fact, he suspected a good deal of it was put on. How +could a girl, even one as inconsequential and flighty as Ida May +evidently was, hold in contempt the offer he had brought her from +Cap'n Ira and his wife? +</p> +<p> +But he had done all that could be expected of him. All, indeed, that +he thought wise. Disappointed as the old couple would be by Ida +May's refusal, Tunis felt that to urge her to reconsider the matter +would not be in the best interests of her elderly relatives. They +needed a young companion there on Wreckers' Head, needed one very +sorely, but not such a person as Ida May Bostwick. +</p> +<p> +"Then, that will be your final answer, Miss Bostwick?" he said +slowly, as Ida May played with her ice. +</p> +<p> +"Say! I wouldn't go down to that hole for a million," scoffed the +girl. "I guess you wouldn't stand it yourself, only you're off on +your ship most of the time." +</p> +<p> +"I like the Cape," he said briefly. +</p> +<p> +"Never lived in the city, did you?" +</p> +<p> +"I never did." +</p> +<p> +"Then you don't know any better," she told him confidently. "And you +don't really look like such a dead one, at that." +</p> +<p> +"Thank you." +</p> +<p> +She smiled saucily into his rather grim face. Then she opened her +bag and deliberately powdered her nose before rising from the table. +</p> +<p> +"Thanks for a pleasant hour," she drawled. "You tell Auntie and +Uncle Josh to get a girl from the poor farm or somewhere to do their +chores and tuck 'em in nights. <i>Me</i>, I don't mean to live out of +sight of movie signs and electric lights. I'd like to see myself!" +</p> +<p> +She was both rude and common. Tunis was glad to get out of the +dining room. Ida May attracted altogether too much attention. And +she had quite openly eyed his well-lined wallet when he paid the +waiter. To a girl like Ida May, all was fish that swam into her net. +Crude as she considered him, Tunis Latham was a man with some money. +And he evidently knew how to spend it. +</p> +<p> +"When you're in town I'd be glad to see you any time, Mr. Latham. Or +do I say captain?" +</p> +<p> +She smiled up at the big, broad-shouldered fellow bravely as she +trotted along in the skirt that made her hobble like a cripple. The +captain of the <i>Seamew</i> did not respond very cordially, and quite +overlooked her personal question. +</p> +<p> +"I don't expect to spend much time in Boston," he said. "Thank you. +Then I shall report to Aunt Prue and Cap'n Ira that you will not +consider their offer at all?" +</p> +<p> +"I should say not!" She laughed lightly. "You don't know, I guess, +what we girls expect nowadays, if we give up our independence." +</p> +<p> +"Independence!" snorted Tunis. +</p> +<p> +"That's what I said," rejoined Ida May tartly. "When the store +closes my time's my own. I can do as I please. And I've got nobody +to please but myself. Oh, you don't understand at all, Captain +Latham!" +</p> +<p> +He said no more. Nor did he escort her farther than the corner. +There he lifted his cap and took her offered hand. Although it was +beringed and the nails were stained and polished, Tunis could not +help noticing that Ida May's hand was not altogether clean. +</p> +<p> +"Well, au revoir, captain!" she said lightly. "I hope I see you +again." +</p> +<p> +He bowed silently and watched her depart. The sunshine glinted +gloriously upon her fluffy hair. +</p> +<p> +"Fool's gold," he muttered. +</p> +<a name="2HCH0007"><!-- H2 anchor --></a> + +<div style="height: 4em;"><br /><br /><br /><br /></div> + +<h2> + CHAPTER VII +</h2> +<h3> + AT THE RESTAURANT +</h3> +<p> +The captain of the <i>Seamew</i> found himself facing an unpleasant +problem. How could he make the Balls, either Cap'n Ira or Prudence, +understand the kind of girl Ida May was? How could he even bring +them to understand that nothing he could have said would have ever +made Ida May Bostwick see the situation in its true light? +</p> +<p> +Why, the old couple could never be made to believe that a girl in +her sane senses would turn down cold such a proposition as they had +made. They would suspect that he had failed to put it to her in the +proper light. His "errand of mercy," as Cap'n Ira had called it, had +seemed so reasonable for both sides! +</p> +<p> +Tunis realized that he had not overurged the matter to the girl. But +there was a reason for that. The difficulty would be in explaining +to the Balls just how unsuitable Ida May was. They would never +believe that the daughter of Sarah Honey could be such a cheap and +inconsequential person as she had actually proved to be. +</p> +<p> +"It's going to hit 'em 'twixt wind and water, and hit 'em hard," +muttered the captain of the <i>Seamew</i>. "One thing that girl said was +right, I guess. They'd better get somebody from the poor farm, +rather than take her into their house. Such a creature would be +happier with the Balls, and make them happier. But it's pretty tough +when those of your own blood go back on you." +</p> +<p> +The experience had left a bad taste in Tunis Latham's mouth. He +hoped heartily that he would never see Ida May Bostwick again. He +never intended to if he could help it. To take his mind off the +fiasco entirely, he hopped on to a car and rode out to the art +museum and spent the afternoon in the quiet galleries where the +masters, little and great, are hung. +</p> +<p> +He came downtown at nightfall, threading the paths of the public +gardens and the common malls of Charles and Beacon Streets, with a +feeling of immense calm in his soul. Tunis Latham possessed keenly +contrasting attributes of character. On the one hand he was of a +rather practical mind and thought; on the other, his love of beauty +and appreciation of nature's greater forces might have made of him +an artist under more liberal conditions of birth and breeding. +</p> +<p> +Ida May Bostwick had rasped all the finer feelings of the captain +of the <i>Seamew</i>. He was happy to be able to get her out of his mind. +In fact, he had put aside thought of any girl. Romance no longer +enmeshed his cogitations. He was utterly calm, unruffled, serene, as +he descended by the twists and turns of certain streets beyond the +State House and came out finally upon the now lighted and bustling +square. +</p> +<p> +He halted, like a pointer dog, before the eating place where he had +had breakfast. +</p> +<p> +Tunis Latham felt a certain shock. That girl with the violet eyes +had been farthest from his thought at the moment, and for some hours +now. He had lumped together the whole girl question and had +relegated it to the back of his mind. +</p> +<p> +And perhaps he was cured. He looked at it more sensibly after the +first moment. It was not thought of the girl that had brought him +here. Habit is strong in most of us. The urge of a healthy appetite +was more likely what had caused him to halt before the restaurant +door. +</p> +<p> +It was after seven. Following his walk from the Back Bay it was +little wonder that he was hungry. But should he enter this place? +There were several other restaurants in sight of about the same +standard. Tunis Latham did not make a practice of patronizing places +similar to the Barquette when he ate alone. +</p> +<p> +To pass on and enter another restaurant would be to confess +weakness. He really cared nothing about that girl with the violet +eyes. She very probably was no better and no worse than Ida May +Bostwick. All these city shopgirls were about of a pattern. He had +allowed sentiment to sway him for a few hours. But sentiment had +received a jolt during his interview with the girl from the lace +department of Hoskin & Marl's. +</p> +<p> +"Cat's foot!" ejaculated the captain of the <i>Seamew</i>. "I guess I'm +not afraid to take another look at that girl, if she's in here. +Probably two looks will be about all I want," and he grinned rather +wryly as he approached the door. +</p> +<p> +The place was well patronized at this hour; and the "lady help" was +much in evidence, flying back and forth from tables to slide and +"dealing 'em off the arm" with a rapidity and dexterity that was +most amazing, Tunis thought. There was even a girl in the cashier's +cage, while the black-haired man he had paid his check to that +forenoon was walking about with a sharp eye for everything that went +on. +</p> +<p> +The Cape man started down the room for an empty seat. Somebody was +ahead of him and he backed away. A soft voice, a voice that thrilled +Tunis Latham before he saw the speaker at all, said just behind him: +</p> +<p> +"There is a seat here, sir." +</p> +<p> +He knew it was she of the violet eyes before he turned about. It +seemed to the seaman the voice matched the beautiful eyes of which +he had thought so often during the past few days. They must belong +together! +</p> +<p> +He turned to look at her. She was gathering up the soiled dishes +from a table at which was an empty seat. First of all, Tunis secured +it. Then he glanced keenly at the girl. +</p> +<p> +Would she remember him? Had his face and appearance been +photographed upon her memory as her face had been printed on his? +She did not look at him then. She was busy clearing the enameled top +of the table and wiping off the coffee stains and the wet rings made +by the water glass. +</p> +<p> +She had black hair and a great deal of it, deep black, glossy, fine +of texture, and very well brushed. Black hair and those velvety +violet eyes, the long, black lashes of which were a most delicate +fringe! The brows were boldly dashed on against her smooth, almost +colorless, but perfect skin. Tunis had never before seen any +feminine loveliness the equal of this girl, this waitress in a cheap +restaurant! Yet a casual glance would scarcely have discovered much +attractive about the girl. Had he not looked so deep into her violet +eyes at the instant of their first meeting, perhaps the captain of +the <i>Seamew</i> would never have given her the second glance. There was +a timidity about her, a shrinking in her very attitude, that would +naturally displease even an observant person. +</p> +<p> +Her nose, mouth, and chin, were only ordinarily well formed. Nothing +remarkable at all about them. But the texture of her skin, it seemed +to the man, was the finest he had ever beheld. Her figure was +slight, but supple. Every line, accentuated by the common black +dress she wore, was graceful. Her throat was bare and she wore no +ornament. His sharp gaze flashed to her left hand. It was guiltless +of any band. He had begun to flush at the thought which prompted +this last observation, and grabbed at a stained bill of fare to +cover his sudden confusion. +</p> +<p> +She moved away with the piled-up dishes. His gaze followed her +covertly. Even her walk was graceful, not at all the hobble or the +jerky pace or the slouch of the other waitresses. +</p> +<p> +By and by she came back. She brought tableware and a glass of water. +She placed them meticulously before him. Then, for the first time it +seemed, she looked at Tunis Latham. She halted, her hand still upon +the water glass. She quivered all over. The water slopped upon the +table. +</p> +<p> +"Oh, is it you, sir?" she said in that timid, breathless whisper he +so well remembered. +</p> +<p> +"Good evening," Tunis rejoined. "I hope you are well?" +</p> +<p> +"Oh, yes, sir! Quite well. What will you have, sir?" +</p> +<p> +She no longer looked at him. Her gaze was roving about her tables, +but more often fixed upon the broad, alpaca-coated shoulders of the +restaurant proprietor at the front of the room. +</p> +<p> +Tunis ordered almost at random. She repeated the viands named. There +was a tiny tendril of her hair that curled low upon her neck at one +side, caressing the pale satin sheen of the skin. He felt an +overpowering desire to lean forward and press his lips to the tiny +curl! +</p> +<p> +As though she comprehended his secret wish, a wave of color stained +her throat and cheeks from the line of her frock to her hair. It +poured up under the pallor of the skin, transfiguring her expression +ravishingly. Instead of her countenance being rather wan and weary +looking, in a moment it became as vivid as a freshly opened flower. +</p> +<p> +She turned swiftly, departing with his order. Tunis was conscious of +a hoarse voice at his elbow. He glanced aside. His neighbor in the +next chair was a little, common man, with a little, common face, on +which was a little, common leer. +</p> +<p> +"A pip, I'll tell the world," was the neighbor's comment. "Whadjer +s'pose brought her into this dump?" +</p> +<p> +"The necessity for earning her living," replied Tunis, without +looking again at the man. +</p> +<p> +"With a face like that?" suggested the man, and fell wordless +again, but not silent, as he attacked his soup. +</p> +<p> +If there was an opportunity to speak to the girl again, Tunis could +scarcely do so, he thought, for her own sake. It would attract the +attention not only of the fellow beside him, but of others. +</p> +<p> +He felt an overpowering desire, however, to talk with her. His +recently born determination to have nothing more to do with any girl +had melted like snow in July. That feeling, which had come through +his experience with Ida May Bostwick, seemed a sacrilege when he +considered this girl. +</p> +<p> +The man beside him, noisily finishing his soup, ordered +apple-meringue pie when the waitress returned with Tunis' order. The +latter noted that her fingers still trembled when she placed his +food before him. When she brought the pie she reached for the man's +check and punched another hole in it. Tunis was careful not to raise +his own eyes to her face. But all the time he was trying to invent +some way by which he might further his acquaintance with her. +</p> +<p> +He must be back at the <i>Seamew</i> that night. Tomorrow the cargo would +come aboard and, wind and tide being ordinarily favorable, the +schooner would put to sea as soon as the hatches were battened down. +He could not continue to come here to the restaurant for his meals +and so grasp the frail chance of bolstering his acquaintance with +the girl. Indeed, he felt that such an obvious course would utterly +wreck any chance he might naturally have of knowing her better. +</p> +<p> +The timidity she evinced was nothing put on. It was real. Its cause +he could not fathom, but to Tunis Latham it seemed that this girl +with the violet eyes was a gentle girl, if not gently bred, and that +she shrank from contact with the rougher elements of life. How she +came to be working in this place was not of moment to him. It would +not have mattered to Tunis Latham where he had met her or under what +circumstances; he only knew that there was a mysterious charm about +her which attracted and held his heart captive. +</p> +<p> +"Will you have anything more, sir?" The low, yet penetrating voice +was in his ear. She hovered over his chair and her near presence +thrilled him. He had not much more than played with the food. Now he +replied briefly, without thinking: +</p> +<p> +"Apple-meringue." +</p> +<p> +"Yes, sir." +</p> +<p> +His neighbor pushed back his chair and got up noisily. He picked up +his check, glanced at it, and snorted. +</p> +<p> +"Hey!" he said to the girl returning with Tunis' pie. "What's this +for?" +</p> +<p> +"Yes, sir?" +</p> +<p> +"You've rung me up an extry nickel. What's the idea?" +</p> +<p> +"Fifteen cents for meringue, sir." +</p> +<p> +"Huh? Who had meringue? I had apple pie, plain apple pie. It's ten +cents. This feller"—indicating Tunis—"ordered apple-meringue; not +me." +</p> +<p> +He held out the check for correction belligerently. +</p> +<p> +"You ordered apple-meringue, sir, and I brought it. You ate it. The +check is correct." +</p> +<p> +Low and timid as the voice was, gently as the words were spoken, +Tunis sensed an undercurrent of firmness and determination in the +girl's character that he had not before suspected. +</p> +<p> +"Say, you don't put nothing like that over on me!" exclaimed the man +loudly. +</p> +<p> +Tunis moved in his chair. He saw the black-haired man at the front +of the restaurant swing about to face down the room. He had heard +this unseemly disturbance. +</p> +<p> +"I will call the manager." +</p> +<p> +"And so will I—I'll call him good!" sneered the patron. "He knows +that you crooks in here over-charge. He puts you up to it. That's +why he hires jailbirds and—" +</p> +<p> +Tunis had got up, pushed back his chair with his foot, and as the +girl uttered a horrified gasp at the rough speech, he seized the +man. His grip on the back of the fellow's coat between his shoulders +brought a startled grunt from lips parted to continue his +blackguardism. +</p> +<p> +"Hey! What d'ye mean?" roared the fellow, as Tunis twisted him into +the aisle. +</p> +<p> +"You dog!" said the captain of the <i>Seamew</i> in a low voice. "Down on +your knees and ask the lady's pardon for that speech!" +</p> +<p> +The black-haired man started toward them. His coarse face had a +smile on it as vicious as the snarl of a tiger. He put up his hand +in a gesture of command. +</p> +<p> +"Beg her pardon!" repeated Tunis, and by the great weight of his +hand crushed the squalling patron of the restaurant to his knees +before the terrified girl. +</p> +<p> +"Stop that! What do you mean?" cried the manager of the restaurant, +still several yards away. +</p> +<p> +The patrons of the place had been thinning out for the last few +minutes. Most of those remaining were near the front. Some of the +waitresses were already seated at a table next to the kitchen slide, +eating their suppers. +</p> +<p> +"Take him off me!" roared the man squirming on the floor under Tunis +Latham's hand. "That thief of a girl set him on me. This is a nice +thing, be overcharged and then assaulted!" +</p> +<p> +He was talking for the benefit of the black-haired man. The latter +swooped down upon them. His face was purple with wrath and his fat +jowls trembled. +</p> +<p> +"Let him up! Do you hear me?" he exclaimed. +</p> +<p> +"He insulted this lady," said Tunis, indicating the waitress. "You +just heard him repeat it. He'll beg her pardon or I'll wring his +neck." +</p> +<p> +"What do you mean?" cried the restaurant man. "What's the girl to +you? One of her friends, are you? Well, you are doing her no good +with me, I assure you." +</p> +<p> +The captain of the <i>Seamew</i> flung the little man face down upon the +floor and held him there with his foot while he reached with both +hands for the proprietor. He got him. The latter uttered a squeak +like a captured rat. +</p> +<p> +"You're another of the same breed, are you?" Tunis demanded. "You'll +beg her pardon, too, or I'll crack the heads of the two of you +together! Come!" +</p> +<p> +He stood the man on his feet before the waitress with such force +that his teeth rattled. He stooped and yanked the other to an +upright posture likewise. The shrinking girl, Tunis noticed, was not +weeping. She looked at all he did as though she approved. The other +girls were shrieking. The cashier had run to the door and cried into +the street for the police. But that violet-eyed girl, timid as she +naturally was, did not open her lips. +</p> +<p> +"She's a plucky little lady," thought Tunis Latham. "But somebody's +got to stand up for her." +</p> +<a name="2HCH0008"><!-- H2 anchor --></a> + +<div style="height: 4em;"><br /><br /><br /><br /></div> + +<h2> + CHAPTER VIII +</h2> +<h3> + SHEILA +</h3> +<p> +The captain of the <i>Seamew</i> held the two struggling, cursing men as +though they were small boys. His eyes flamed a question at the girl. +She understood and nodded, if ever so faintly. +</p> +<p> +"I ought to send both of you to the hospital," said Tunis in a grim +voice. "But I'm satisfied if you beg her pardon and let her go." +This to the restaurant proprietor. +</p> +<p> +The man opened his lips to emit something besides an apology, +although the smaller man was already quelled. But the look in Tunis +Latham's face made the black-haired man pause. +</p> +<p> +"Well, she can't cause a disturbance here. But I meant no offense." +</p> +<p> +The smaller man hastened to add: +</p> +<p> +"So help me! I was that mad I didn't know what I said. I didn't mean +nothing." +</p> +<p> +Tunis nodded solemnly. +</p> +<p> +"Get your coat and hat, miss," he said. "I guess it won't be a +pleasant place for you to work in after this." +</p> +<p> +She slipped away. Tunis let the men go. They both stepped away from +him, panting, relaxing their shoulders, eyeing the young captain +with as much curiosity as apprehension. +</p> +<p> +Suddenly there was an added commotion at the front door. Tunis saw a +policeman enter. The coarse-featured proprietor of the restaurant +instantly recovered all his courage. +</p> +<p> +"This way, officer! This way!" he cried. "Here's the man." +</p> +<p> +At that moment Tunis felt a tug at his coat. He flashed a glance +over his shoulder. It was the girl. She wore a little hat pulled +down over all that black hair, and she was buttoning a shabby +jacket. There was a way out by the alley; he well knew it. Nor was +he anxious of appearing before either a police lieutenant or a +magistrate for creating a disturbance in the place. +</p> +<p> +"Run along. I'll be right behind you," he whispered. +</p> +<p> +The policeman was some distance, and several tables away. Tunis +looked to see if all was clear. The girl was just passing through +the swinging door into the kitchen. Tunis stepped back, turned +suddenly, while the restaurant proprietor was making ready to +address the policeman, and leaped for the rear exit. +</p> +<p> +"There he goes!" squealed the patron who had been the cause of the +trouble. +</p> +<p> +But nobody stopped Tunis Latham. At a flash, when he got into the +kitchen, he saw the girl opening the outer door. The way was clear. +He crossed the room in several quick strides and caught up with her. +The startled chef and his assistants merely stared. +</p> +<p> +The alley was empty, but they walked swiftly away from the square. +The arc lamp on the corner which they approached sputtered +continuously, like soda water bubbling out of a bottle. He looked +down at her curiously in the flickering illumination from this lamp +and found the girl looking up at him just as curiously. +</p> +<p> +"That was an unwise thing to do. You might have been arrested," she +said, ever so gently. Then she added: "And it has cost me my job." +</p> +<p> +"That is the only thing that worries me," he rejoined promptly. +</p> +<p> +"You need not mind, sir. I really am not sorry. I could not have +stood it much longer. And Mr. Sellers paid yesterday." +</p> +<p> +"So they don't owe you much on account, then," Tunis said soberly. +"I came away without paying for my dinner. I'll pay the worth of my +check to you; that'll help some." +</p> +<p> +For the first time she laughed. Once he had sat all afternoon in a +gully back of Big Wreck Cove in the pine woods and listened to the +cheerful gurgle of a spring bubbling from under a stone. That +silvery chuckle was repeated in this girl's laugh With all her +timidity and shyness, she was naturally a cheerful body. That laugh +was quite involuntary. +</p> +<p> +"I think I may be able to get along," she said, with that quiet tone +of finality which Tunis felt would keep the boldest man at a +distance. "It is difficult, however, to get a position without +references." +</p> +<p> +"I'll go back and wring one out of him—when the cop has gone," +grinned Tunis. +</p> +<p> +"I don't think a reference from Mr. Sellers would do me much good," +she sighed. "But at the time I took the place I was quite +desperate." +</p> +<p> +The captain of the <i>Seamew</i> made no comment. They were walking up +the hill through a quiet street. Of course, there was no pursuit. +But the young man began to feel that he might have done the girl +more harm than good by espousing her cause in the restaurant. +Perhaps he had been too impulsive. +</p> +<p> +"You—you can find other and more pleasant work, I am sure," he said +with hesitation. "I hope you will forgive me for thrusting myself +into your concerns, but I really could not stand for that man +backing up your customer instead of you. He did order meringue pie. +I heard him." +</p> +<p> +She smiled, and he caught the faint flicker of it as it curved her +lips and made her eyes shine for an instant. Minute following +minute, she was becoming more attractive. His voice trembled when he +spoke again: +</p> +<p> +"I—I hope you will forgive me." +</p> +<p> +"You did just what I should have expected my brother to do, if I had +a brother," she replied frankly. "But few girls who work at Sellers' +have brothers." +</p> +<p> +"No?" Something in her voice, rather than in the words, startled +Tunis. +</p> +<p> +"Let me put it differently," she said, still with that gentle +cadence which ameliorated the bitterness of her tone. "Girls who +have brothers seldom fall into Sellers' clutches. You see, he is a +last resort. He does not demand references, and he poses as a +philanthropist." +</p> +<p> +Tunis felt confused, in a maze. He could not imagine where the girl +was tacking. He was keenly aware, however, that there was a mystery +about her being employed at all in Sellers' restaurant. +</p> +<p> +They came out at last upon the brow of the hill overlooking the +Common. The lamps glimmered along Tremont Street through an +opalescent haze which was stealing over the city from the bay. +Without question they went down the steps side by side. There was a +bench in a shadow and, without touching her, Tunis steered the +girl's steps toward it. +</p> +<p> +She sat down with an involuntary sigh of weariness. She had been on +her feet most of the time since eleven o'clock. She relaxed in +contact with the back of the bench, and he could see the contour of +her throat and chin thrown up in relief against the background of +shadow. The whole relaxed attitude of her slim body betrayed +exhaustion. +</p> +<p> +"I hope you will not blame me too severely," Tunis stammered. +</p> +<p> +"I don't blame you." +</p> +<p> +"I fear you will after you have taken time to think it over. +But—but perhaps there may be some way in which I can repair the +damage I have done." +</p> +<p> +She looked at him levelly, curiously. +</p> +<p> +"You are a seaman, are you not?" +</p> +<p> +"I'm Tunis Latham. I own the schooner <i>Seamew</i>, and command her. We +are going to run back and forth from Boston to the Cape—Cape Cod." +</p> +<p> +"Oh! I could scarcely fill a position on your schooner, Captain +Latham." +</p> +<p> +She smiled again. It was a weary smile, however, not like the former +flash of amusement she had shown. Her head drooped as her mind sank +into unhappy retrospection. Tunis looked aside at her with a great +hunger in his heart to take all her trouble—no matter what it +was—upon his own mind and give her the freedom she needed. What or +who the girl was did not matter. Even what she had done, or what +she had not done meant little to Tunis Latham. +</p> +<p> +She was the one girl in all this world who had ever interested him +beyond a passing moment, and he was convinced that she alone would +ever interest him. The cheap environment of their meeting meant +nothing. If she was free, her own mistress, and he could get her, he +meant to make this girl his wife. +</p> +<p> +"You didn't tell me your name," he said directly. "Won't you? I have +been frank with you." +</p> +<p> +"Why, so you have," said the girl. There might have been a strata of +laughter underlying the words; yet her face was sober enough. "If +you really wish to know, Captain Latham, my name is Macklin." +</p> +<p> +"<i>Miss</i> Macklin?" he asked, a positive tremor in his voice. +</p> +<p> +"Certainly. Sheila Macklin, spinster." +</p> +<p> +Tunis drew a long breath. That was enough! He would take his chance +in the game with any other man as long as she was not promised. But +there was no use in spoiling everything by being too precipitate. +The captain of the <i>Seamew</i> might be simple, but he was not the man +to ruin a thing through impulsiveness. That exhibition in the +restaurant was hooked up with wrath. +</p> +<p> +There had been an undercurrent of thought in his mind ever since he +had met this girl for the second time, and it was quite a natural +thought, comparing her with Ida May Bostwick. If Sheila Macklin had +only been Ida May, after all! It was a ridiculous idea. Not a +feature or betrayed trait of character was like any that the +disappointing great-niece of Prudence Ball possessed. This girl +sitting beside Tunis on the bench and Ida May Bostwick were as +little alike as though they were inhabitants of two different +worlds. +</p> +<p> +He had begun to imagine, too, how well this girl beside him would +fit into the needs of the old couple living there alone on Wreckers' +Head. It was an idle thought, of course. He had no plan, or scheme, +or definite suggestion in his mind. It was only a wish, a keen +longing for an impossible conjunction of circumstances which would +have enabled him to present Sheila Macklin to Cap'n Ira and Prudence +and say: +</p> +<p> +"This is the girl you sent me for." +</p> +<p> +"Just what will you do now that you have lost that job, Miss +Macklin?" Tunis asked abruptly. +</p> +<p> +"Oh, after I am rested, I will go home!" +</p> +<p> +He had a sudden flash of the memory of that stark lodging house +where Ida May Bostwick lived, and he felt assured this girl's home +could be no better. But he did not mention this thought. +</p> +<p> +"I did not mean it just that way," he told her, smiling. "First you +and I will go and get supper somewhere. I did not half finish mine, +and you have had none at all." +</p> +<p> +"I don't know about that," she interposed. "It is generous of you. +But ought I to accept?" +</p> +<p> +"You need not question that. We are going to be friends, Miss +Macklin. Is it necessary for me to bring you references?" +</p> +<p> +"It may be necessary for me to obtain a sponsor," she said, quite +seriously. "You do not know a thing about me, Captain Latham." +</p> +<p> +"You know nothing about me, except what I have told you." And he +laughed. +</p> +<p> +"And what I read in your countenance," she said soberly. +</p> +<p> +He grinned at her, but rather ruefully. +</p> +<p> +"I never knew my thoughts were advertised in my face." +</p> +<p> +"Oh, no! Not that! But your character is. Otherwise I would not be +sitting here with you." +</p> +<p> +"I guess that's all right then," he declared with satisfaction. +"Well, let's call it a draw. If you take me at face value, I'll take +you at the same rating. Anyhow, we can risk going to supper +together." +</p> +<p> +"Well, somewhere to a quiet place. Don't take me where you are +known, Captain Latham." +</p> +<p> +"No?" He was puzzled again. "But, then, I am not known anywhere in +Boston." +</p> +<p> +"All the better. I ought not to lend myself in any way to making you +possible future trouble." +</p> +<p> +"I do not understand you, Miss Macklin." +</p> +<p> +He sat up suddenly on the bench to look at her more sharply. There +was an underlying, but important, meaning to her speech. +</p> +<p> +"I know you do not understand," she rejoined gently. She sighed. "I +must make you clearly see just who I am and the risk you run in +associating with me." +</p> +<p> +"The risk I run!" +</p> +<p> +He uttered the words in both amazement and ridicule. +</p> +<p> +"You do not quite understand, Captain Latham," she repeated in the +same gentle tone. +</p> +<p> +There was no raillery in her voice now. She was altogether serious. +Her eyes, luminous, yet darkly unfathomable, were held full upon his +face. He felt rather than saw that she was under a mental strain. +The revelation she was about to make throbbed in her voice when she +spoke again. +</p> +<p> +"You do not quite understand. Sellers gives girls work in his +restaurant who could by no possibility offer proper references, +girls from the Protectory, from homes, as they are called; some, +even, who have served jail sentences. I had been two years in the +St. Andrew's School for Girls when I went to work for Sellers." +</p> +<a name="2HCH0009"><!-- H2 anchor --></a> + +<div style="height: 4em;"><br /><br /><br /><br /></div> + +<h2> + CHAPTER IX +</h2> +<h3> + A GIRL'S STORY +</h3> +<p> +There was a ringing in Tunis Latham's ears. As you make Paulmouth +Harbor coming from seaward, on a thick day you hear the insistent +tolling of the bell buoy over Bitter Reef. That was the distant, but +incessant sound that the captain of the <i>Seamew</i> seemed to hear as +he sat on that bench on Boston Common beside this strange girl. +</p> +<p> +Without being a prig, Tunis Latham was undeniably a good man. +Whether he was altogether a wise man was perhaps a subject for +argument. At least, his future conduct must settle that point. +</p> +<p> +But for the moment, when Sheila Macklin had made her last statement, +it seemed that every atom of thought and all ability to consider +matters logically were drained out of the man's mind. That mind was +perfectly blank. What the girl had said seemed mere sound, sound +without meaning. He could not grasp its significance. +</p> +<p> +And yet he knew it was tragic. It was something that had made the +girl what she was. It explained all Tunis had been unable heretofore +to understand about Sheila Macklin. That timidity, that whispering +shyness, the shrinking from observation and from any attention, were +all explained. She had suffered persecution and punishment, harsh +and undeserved, that made her recoil from contact with other more +fortunate people. She felt herself outcast, ostracized, and was +unable to defend herself from malign fortune. +</p> +<p> +Gradually Tunis regained his usual self-control. +</p> +<p> +If Sheila had said anything following the bare statement that she +had spent two years in the St. Andrew's Reformatory for Women, he +had not comprehended it. Nor could he have told how long he sat +silent on the bench getting control of his voice and of his tongue. +When he did speak he said quite casually: +</p> +<p> +"And what kind of a place is that—er—school, Miss Macklin?" +</p> +<p> +"You can imagine. It harbors the weak-minded, the vicious, and the +unfortunate runaway girls, thieves' consorts, and women of the +streets. It is, I think, a little like hell, if there really is such +a place, Captain Latham." +</p> +<p> +The poignancy of expression in her voice and words made the man +tremble. And yet she did not speak bitterly nor angrily. Her feeling +was beyond all passion. It was the expression of a soul that had +suffered everything and could no longer feel. That was just it, +Tunis told himself. It explained her attitude, even the tone of her +voice. She had endured and seen so much misery and heartache that +there seemed nothing left for her to experience. +</p> +<p> +"Can you bear to tell me what misfortune took you to that place?" he +asked gently, yet fighting down all the time that desire to roar +with rage. +</p> +<p> +"Why do you not say 'crime,' Captain Latham?" she asked in that same +low, strained voice. +</p> +<p> +"Because I know that crime and you could not be associated, Miss +Macklin," he said hoarsely. +</p> +<p> +At that she began suddenly to weep. Not aloud, but with her hands +pressed over her eyes and her shoulders, shaking with long, +shuddering sobs which betrayed how the horror of past thoughts and +experiences controlled her when once she gave way. Tunis Latham +could have behaved like a madman. That berserk rage that had seized +him in the restaurant welled up in his heart now. He gripped the +back of the bench till the slat cracked. But there was no opponent +here upon whom he could vent his violence that he longed to express. +</p> +<p> +"Don't cry! For God's sake, don't cry!" he whispered hoarsely. "I +know it was all a mistake. It must have been a mistake. How could +anybody have been so wicked, so utterly senseless, as to believe +you guilty of—of—what did they accuse you of?" +</p> +<p> +"Stealing," whispered the girl. +</p> +<p> +"'Stealing?' What nonsense!" +</p> +<p> +He put a wealth of disdain into the words. She sat up straighter. +She dropped her hands from her face and looked at him. Dark as it +was on the bench, he could see that her expression was one of +wonder. +</p> +<p> +"Do—do you really feel that way about it, Captain Latham?" +</p> +<p> +"It is ridiculous!" he acclaimed heartily. +</p> +<p> +She sighed. Her momentary animation fell and she spoke again: +</p> +<p> +"It did not seem ridiculous to the police or to the magistrate. I +worked in a store. A piece of sterling silverware disappeared. Other +pieces had previously been stolen. The police traced the last +missing piece to a pawnshop. The pawnbroker testified that a girl +pawned it. His identification of me was close enough to satisfy the +judge." +</p> +<p> +"My God!" +</p> +<p> +"I was what they call a first offender. At least, I had no police +record. Ordinarily I might have been let go under suspended sentence +or been put on probation. But I had nobody to say a good word for +me. I had been in Boston only a year, and I could not let people +where I came from know about my trouble. Even if the judge had +given me a jail sentence, I could have shortened it by good +behavior. He did what he thought was best, I suppose. He considered +me a hardened young criminal. He sent me to the St. Andrew's School +until I was twenty-one—two years. Two long, long years. +</p> +<p> +"Six months ago I got out and Sellers gave me a job. Now, that is +all, Captain Latham. You will readily see my position. I do not want +to go anywhere with you to eat where your friends are likely to see +you." +</p> +<p> +He uttered a sudden, stinging, harsh sound; then he removed his cap +and bent toward her. +</p> +<p> +"But what you have said—Why, were they all crazy? Couldn't they see +that such a thing would be impossible for you? Impossible!" +</p> +<p> +She put a hand gently on his arm to quiet his excitement, for others +were passing. Her eyes glowed up into his for an instant. Her lips +parted in a happier smile than he had seen on them before. +</p> +<p> +"Then you will not get up from this bench, Captain Latham, and +excuse yourself? I should not blame you if you did so." +</p> +<p> +"Do you think I'm that kind of a fellow?" he demanded bluntly. +</p> +<p> +"I—I told you I thought I had quite read your character in your +face. But that is no reason why I should take advantage of your +kindness to do you harm." +</p> +<p> +"Harm? How do you mean, 'harm?'" +</p> +<p> +"Sheila Macklin is a creature from a reformatory. She has been +sentenced by a magistrate. She was arrested by the police. She was +accused by her employers of theft, and the theft was proved. If any +of your friends should see you with me, and I should be identified +as the Sheila Macklin who was sentenced for stealing—" +</p> +<p> +"Cat's foot!" ejaculated Tunis with a sudden reversion to his usual +cheerful manner. "Are you going through the rest of your life +feeling like that?" +</p> +<p> +"Why shouldn't I? I am always expecting somebody to see and +recognize me. Even in Sellers' place. That man this evening, when he +called me 'jailbird'—" +</p> +<p> +"I wish I had wrung his neck!" exclaimed the captain of the <i>Seamew</i> +heartily. +</p> +<p> +"I appreciate your kindness." Her eyes twinkled. For a moment he +caught a glimpse of what Sheila Macklin must have been before +tragedy had come into her life. "You are a good, kind man, Captain +Latham." +</p> +<p> +"You just look on me as though I were your brother," he said +sturdily. "You are not going to be alone any more, not really. If +you had had friends before, when it happened, somebody to speak for +you, I am sure nothing like what did happen to you could have +happened." +</p> +<p> +"I come of respectable people," she said quietly. "But they are all +dead. I was an orphan before I came to Boston. The friends I had in +the little inland town I came from would not have understood. They +did not approve of my coming to the city at all. Oh, I wish I had +not come!" +</p> +<p> +"And now you ought not to stay here. Should you?" +</p> +<p> +"What can I do? I must support myself. I cannot go back. I could not +explain those two years. Yet I am always expecting somebody to make +inquiry for Sheila Macklin. And then I cannot conceal my story +longer." +</p> +<p> +He nodded thoughtfully. It seemed that, once she had opened the dam +of speech, she was glad to talk about herself and her trouble. +</p> +<p> +"I do hate the city. I have been so unhappy here. If I were only a +man I would start right out into the country. I would tramp until I +found a place to work. You don't know what it means to be a girl, +Captain Latham, and be in trouble." +</p> +<p> +"I guess all city girls aren't alike after all," he said with a +short laugh. Then he looked at her keenly again. "Do you know what +sort of an errand brought me up into the city from T-Wharf to-day?" +</p> +<p> +"What errand? I cannot imagine." +</p> +<p> +"There are two old people down on the Cape that I am much interested +in. They live near my home." +</p> +<p> +He told her quietly, yet with earnestness, about Cap'n Ira and +Prudence. He described their home and their need of some young +person to live with them, somebody who would not only help them, but +who would love to help them. Then he related, perhaps rather tartly, +his experience with Ida May Bostwick. +</p> +<p> +"What a foolish girl!" she breathed. "And she would not accept a +chance like that?" +</p> +<p> +"Lucky for Cap'n Ira and for Aunt Prue that she won't take up with +their offer," he said grimly. "But I dread taking back word to them +about her. It will be hard to make them understand. And then, they +need the help a good girl could give them." +</p> +<p> +"Captain Latham, if I only had a chance like that!" she exclaimed. +"I'd work my fingers to the bone for a home like that, for shelter, +and kindness, and—and—oh, well, some girls have all the best of +it, I guess!" +</p> +<p> +She sighed. It was half a sob. He saw her hands clasp tightly before +her in the dusk. The gesture was like a prayer. He knew that her +pale face was flushed with earnestness. He cleared his throat. +</p> +<p> +"You have the chance, if you want it, Miss Macklin," he said. +</p> +<a name="2HCH0010"><!-- H2 anchor --></a> + +<div style="height: 4em;"><br /><br /><br /><br /></div> + +<h2> + CHAPTER X +</h2> +<h3> + THE PLOT +</h3> +<p> +There was a long minute of utter silence following Tunis Latham's +last words. Then the girl's whisper, tense, yet shaking like a +frightened child's: +</p> +<p> +"You do not know what you are saying." +</p> +<p> +"I know exactly what I am saying," he replied. +</p> +<p> +"They—they would not have me." +</p> +<p> +"They will welcome you—gladly." +</p> +<p> +"Never! I am a stranger. They must be told all about me. They could +never welcome Sheila Macklin." +</p> +<p> +He knew that. He knew it only too well. She was just the sort of +girl to make Cap'n Ira Ball and Prudence happy, to bring to their +latter years the comfort and joy the old couple should have. But the +Puritanism which, after all, ingrained their characters would never +allow the Balls to welcome a girl with the stain Sheila Macklin bore +upon her name. Tunis remembered clearly how scornfully Cap'n Ira +had spoken of the possibility of their taking in a girl from the +poor farm. Pride of family and of name is inbred in their class of +New Englanders. +</p> +<p> +The old people wanted a girl whom they could love and look upon as +their own. They would welcome nobody else. They had set their minds +and hearts upon Ida May Bostwick. The fact that Ida May failed to +come up to their expectations, that she was perfectly worthless and +inconsequential, did not open the way for another girl to be +substituted for Ida May. Possibly Tunis might be successful in an +attempt to interest the Balls in Sheila Macklin's case. But the girl +did not want charity, not charity as the word is used in its general +and harsher sense. +</p> +<p> +Should she carry with her wherever she went this name which had been +so smirched—the identity of Sheila Macklin, the ghost of whose past +misfortune might rise to shame her at any time—the girl could never +be happy. Did Tunis Latham succeed in getting the Balls to take +Sheila in and give her a home, this story that so bowed her down +would continually threaten its revelation, like a pirate ship +hovering in the offing! +</p> +<p> +And there was, too, a deeper reason why he could not introduce +Sheila Macklin to Big Wreck Cove folk. It was no reason he could +give the girl at this time. In some ways the captain of the <i>Seamew</i> +was wise enough. He felt that this was no time to put forward his +personal and particular desires. Enough that she had admitted him +to her friendship and had given him her confidence. +</p> +<p> +She had accepted him in all good faith in a brotherly sense. He +dared not spoil his influence with her by revealing a deeper +interest. +</p> +<p> +"We may as well look at this thing calmly and sensibly," Tunis said, +answering her statement of what was indubitably a fact. "It is quite +true my old neighbors would not accept you as Sheila Macklin. But +they need you; no other kind of a girl would so suit their need. And +you could not help loving them; nor they you, once they learned to +know you." +</p> +<p> +"I am sure I should love them," breathed Sheila. +</p> +<p> +"Then, as you are just the person they want and their home is just +the place you need for shelter, I am going to take you back with +me." +</p> +<p> +"Oh, Captain Latham! We—we can't do it. My name—somebody will some +time be sure to hear about me, and the dreadful secret will come +out." +</p> +<p> +"No, it won't," said Tunis doggedly. "There will be no secret, not +such as you mean, to come out." +</p> +<p> +She gazed upon him in open-eyed surprise, her lips parted, her face +aglow. +</p> +<p> +"You mean—" +</p> +<p> +"We'll leave Sheila Macklin sitting on this bench, if you will +agree. She need never be traced from this point. Let her drop out of +the ken of the whole world that knew her. The name can only bring +you harm; it has brought you harm. Through it you are threatened +with trouble, with disaster. Your whole future is menaced through +that name and the stain upon it." +</p> +<p> +She looked at him still, scarcely breathing. Latham did not realize +the power he held over this girl at the moment. He was to her a +living embodiment of the All Good. Almost any suggestion, no matter +how reckless, he might have made, would have found an echo in her +heart and the will to do it. +</p> +<p> +To few is vouchsafed that knowledge which makes all clear before the +mental vision. Tunis Latham's perspicacity did not compass this +thing. He did not grasp the psychological moment, as we moderns call +it, and consummate there and then the only reasonable and righteous +plan that it was given him to complete. +</p> +<p> +The captain of the <i>Seamew</i> was a young man very much in love. He +did not question this fact at all. But in his wildest imaginings he +could never have believed that the girl beside him on this bench +returned his passion, that she would even listen to his +protestations of affection. Not for a long time, at least. +</p> +<p> +Nor had he ever considered marriage as possible in any case when +there was not love on both sides. Although he commiserated Sheila +Macklin's situation most deeply, he could not dream of those depths +of despair into which the girl's heart had sunk before he came upon +the scene of action. He did not understand that she was at that +bitterly desperate point where she would grasp at any means of +rescue which promised respectability. +</p> +<p> +He almost feared to put before her the proposition he did have in +his mind. In the dusk, even, those violet eyes seemed to look to the +very bottom of his soul. Fortunate for him that its clarity was +visible to the girl at that moment. +</p> +<p> +He bent closer. His lips almost brushed her ear. He whispered +several swift sentences into it. She listened. Some of that glow of +exaltation drained out of her countenance, but it registered no +disagreement. They sat for some time thereafter, talking, planning, +this desperate young girl and the captain of the <i>Seamew</i>. +</p> +<hr /> +<p> +"What do you know about this?" Orion Latham growled. "The mate +bunkin' in with cooky and the skipper slingin' a hammock in the +fo'c's'le while the whole cabin's to be given up to a girl. A woman +aboard! Never knew no good to come of that on any craft. What is +this schooner, a passenger packet?" +</p> +<p> +"You was sayin' she was already hoodooed," chuckled Horace Newbegin. +"I cal'late a gal sailing one trip won't materially harm the +<i>Seamew</i> nor her crew." +</p> +<p> +"Who is she? That's what I want to know," said the supercargo, who +seemed to consider the matter a personal affront. +</p> +<p> +"Skipper says she's going to live with Cap'n Ira Ball. She's some +kin of his wife's. And they need somebody with 'em, up there in that +lonesome place," said the ancient seaman reflectively. "That's what +the skipper was doin' all day yesterday, lookin' this gal up and +making arrangements for her going back to the <i>Seamew</i>. He's gone up +town to get her now. We'll get away come the turn of the tide, if +he's back in time." +</p> +<p> +The taxicab with Tunis and the girl arrived in season for the tide. +It was quite dark on the dock to which the <i>Seamew</i> was still +moored. The Captain hailed, and two of the hands were sent up for +the trunk. Tunis carried the girl's hand bag. +</p> +<p> +Every member of the crew was loitering on deck, even Johnny Lark and +Tony, the boy, to get a glimpse of the mysterious passenger. They +saw only a slender, graceful, quick-stepping figure, her face +veiled, her hands neatly gloved. Just how she was dressed and what +she really looked like only daylight would reveal. +</p> +<p> +Tunis went below with her and remained until the men brought down +the trunk. It was a small trunk and brand-new, as was the bag. Had +one observed, the hat she wore, and even her simple frock, were +likewise just out of the shop. At least the girl who was going with +the <i>Seamew</i> to Big Wreck Cove seemed to have made certain +preparations for a new life. +</p> +<p> +The captain came out on deck and closed the slide. The commercial +tug was puffing in toward the <i>Seamew's</i> berth. +</p> +<p> +"Come alive, boys!" said Captain Latham, taking instant command of +the deck. "Cast off those lines! Get that tug hawser inboard, Horry. +Mr. Chapin, will you see that those lines are coiled down properly? +Keep the deck shipshape. Make less work for your watch when we get +under canvas. +</p> +<p> +"Lay aft here with your men now, Horry. Tail on to those mainsheets. +All together! Get away on her so we can cast loose as soon as +possible from that smoky scuttle butt." +</p> +<p> +He referred to the tug. He stepped aft to take the wheel himself. +The mainsail was going up smartly. The old boatswain and the +Portygees swung upon the lines with vehemence. There was not more +than a capful of wind; but once let the canvas fill, and the +schooner would get steerageway. +</p> +<p> +"I'd rather take my chance through the channel under sail than +depend on that tug," the captain added. "Like a puppy dragging +around an old rubber boot. Lively there! Ready to cast off, Mr. +Chapin." +</p> +<p> +The schooner was freed of the "puffing abomination," the smoke of +which sooted the <i>Seamew's</i> clean sails. The heavy hawser splashed +overboard and the schooner staggered away rather drunkenly at +first, tacking among the larger craft anchored out there in the +harbor. +</p> +<p> +The wind was not a very helpful one and soon after midnight it fell +almost calm. There were only light airs to urge the <i>Seamew</i> on. Yet +she glided through the starlit murk in a ghostly fashion as though +some monstrous submarine hand forced her seaward. +</p> +<p> +The water chuckled and gurgled under her bow, flashing in ripples +now and then. There was no phosphorescence, no glitter or sparkle. +The schooner moved on as through a tideless sea. Now and then a +clutter of spars or a suit of listless sails loomed up in the dark. +But even if the other craft likewise was tacking seaward, the +<i>Seamew</i> passed it and dropped it behind. +</p> +<p> +Tunis paced the deck—Horry was at the wheel—and quite approved of +the feat his schooner was performing. +</p> +<p> +"If she can sail like this on only a breath of wind, what can she do +in a gale?" he said buoyantly in the old man's hearing. +</p> +<p> +"That's all right. She sails pretty. But I don't like that tug to +sta'bo'd," growled Horry. "It 'minds me too much of the <i>Marlin B.</i>" +</p> +<p> +Captain Latham gave no heed. +</p> +<p> +The sun stretched red beams from the horizon and took the <i>Seamew</i>, +all dressed out at sunrise in her full suit of canvas, in his arms. +She danced as lightly over the whitecaps that had sprung up with the +breeze at dawn as though she had not a ton of ballast in her hold. +Yet she was pretty well down to her Plimsoll mark. +</p> +<p> +The girl's first glimpse through the cabin window at sea and sky was +a heartening one. If she had sought repose with doubt, uncertainty, +and some fear weighing upon her spirit, this beautiful morning was +one to revive her courage. She was fully dressed and prepared to go +on deck when Tunis tapped at the slide. +</p> +<p> +"Miss Bostwick," he called, "any time you are ready the boy will +come in and lay the table for breakfast." +</p> +<p> +She ran to the companionway, pushed back the door, and appeared +smiling in the frame of the doorway. +</p> +<p> +"Good morning, captain!" +</p> +<p> +Her cheerfulness was infectious. All night Tunis Latham, even while +lying in his hammock in the forecastle, had been ruminating in +anything but a cheerful mood. Determined as he was to carry his plan +through, and confident as he was of its being a good one and +eminently practical, he had been considering many chances which at +first blush had not appeared to him. +</p> +<p> +With his first look into her smiling countenance all those anxieties +seemed dissipated. He met her smile with one which transfigured his +own handsome face. +</p> +<p> +"May I come out on deck, captain?" +</p> +<p> +"We shall be honored by your company up here, Miss Bostwick." +</p> +<p> +She even made him a little face in secret for the formality of his +address, as she flashed past him. There was a dancing light in her +eye he had not seen before—at least, not in the openness of day. +There was something daring about her that was a revelation. He knew +at once that he need not fear her attitude when they reached the +point where she must carry on her part without his aid. She +displayed an innocent boldness that must dissipate suspicion in the +mind of the keenest critic. +</p> +<p> +Tunis introduced Mason Chapin to her, who quite evidently liked the +girl at once. Orion Latham lounged aft to meet her, his pale eyes +betraying surprise as well as admiration. +</p> +<p> +"Hi golly!" said the supercargo. "I guess you come honest by the +Honey side of your family tree, Miss Bostwick, though you don't +favor them much in looks." +</p> +<p> +"'Rion is given to flattery," said the captain dryly. +</p> +<p> +Horace Newbegin touched his forelock. He had been a naval man in his +prime and knew what was expected when a lady trod the deck. The +Portygees were all widely asmile. Indeed, the entire company of the +<i>Seamew</i> was cheered by the girl's presence. +</p> +<p> +At breakfast time, which was served by Tony to the guest and the +mate as well as Captain Latham, her sweet laughter floated out of +the cabin and caught the attention of everybody on deck. Horry +grinned wryly upon Orion. +</p> +<p> +"How 'bout this schooner being hoodooed?" he rumbled in his deep +bass. "Lemme tell you, boy, I'd sail to ary end o' the world with +that gal for mascot. This won't be no Jonah ship while she's +aboard." +</p> +<p> +"Hi golly! Tunis Latham has all the luck," whined Orion. "Taking her +down to live with Cap'n Ball and Prudence! Huh! She won't live with +'em long." +</p> +<p> +"Why not?" demanded the old salt. +</p> +<p> +"Can't you see what he's up to?" sneered Orion. "Aunt 'Cretia will +be takin' a back seat 'fore long. 'Latham's Folly' will be getting a +new mistress." +</p> +<p> +"Latham's Folly" was a name Medway Latham's big brown house behind +Wreckers' Head had gained soon after it was built. Such a huge house +for so limited a family had suggested the term to the sharp-tongued +Cape Codders. +</p> +<p> +Horry Newbegin turned the idea and his quid over several times, then +commented: +</p> +<p> +"Well, the skipper wouldn't be doing so bad at that!" +</p> +<a name="2HCH0011"><!-- H2 anchor --></a> + +<div style="height: 4em;"><br /><br /><br /><br /></div> + +<h2> + CHAPTER XI +</h2> +<h3> + AT BIG WRECK COVE +</h3> +<p> +The girl had never been to sea before, not even on a pleasure boat +down the harbor. The delights of a sail to Nantasket were quite +unknown to her. Naturally this voyage out through the bay and into +the illimitable ocean was sure to be either a delight or a most +unpleasant experience. +</p> +<p> +Happily it was the former. She proved to be a good sailor. +</p> +<p> +"You was born for a sailor's bride, miss," Horry told her. +</p> +<p> +But he said it when nobody else was by to see the blush which +stained her cheek. And yet she did not look happy after the old +salt's observation. He hastened to interest her in another theme. +</p> +<p> +It was the tail of the afternoon watch. Because of the light and +shifting airs the <i>Seamew</i>, in spite of her wonderful sailing +qualities, had only then raised the northern extremity of the Cape +and, turning on her heel, was now running out to sea again on the +long leg of a tack into the southeast. +</p> +<p> +Horry hung to the spokes of the wheel while the skipper was helping +Orion make up the manifest. The steersman had jettisoned his usual +quid of tobacco when the girl approached him, and without that aid +to complacency Horry just had to talk. +</p> +<p> +"Did you see the wheel jerk then, miss? That tug to sta'bo'd is the +only fault I find with this here schooner. She's a right tidy craft, +and Cap'n Tunis is a good judge of sailing ships, as his father was +afore him. +</p> +<p> +"But although this <i>Seamew</i> looks like a new craft, she isn't. Sure, +he knowed she wasn't new, Cap'n Tunis did, when he bought her up +there to Marblehead. Only trouble is, he didn't seem to go quite +deep enough into her antecedents, as the feller said. He bought her +on the strength of her condition and the way she sailed on a trial +trip." +</p> +<p> +"Well, isn't that all right?" asked his listener. "How would one go +about buying a ship?" +</p> +<p> +"Huh—ship? Well, a schooner ain't a ship, Miss Bostwick. +Howsomever, buying a schooner is like buying a race horse. You want +to know <i>his</i> pedigree. They said the <i>Seamew</i> had been brought up +from the Gulf to sell. And maybe she was. But she is Yankee built, +every timber and rope of her. She warn't built down South none." +</p> +<p> +"Shouldn't that make the bargain all the more satisfactory?" +queried the girl, smiling. +</p> +<p> +"Ordinarily, yes, ma'am. But it looks like they was hidin' +something. It looks like, too, she was built for sailing and +fishing, not to be a cargo boat." +</p> +<p> +"I think she is beautiful." +</p> +<p> +"She is sightly, I grant ye," said Horace. "But there's something to +be considered 'sides looks when a man is putting his money into a +craft. As I say, her pedigree oughter be looked up. What was the +schooner before they changed the slant of them masts, painted her +over, and put a new name under her stern?" +</p> +<p> +"I don't understand you at all, Mr. Newbegin," said the girl, +staring at him with a strange look dawning in her own countenance. +</p> +<p> +He bent toward her, after casting a knowing glance aloft. His +weather-bitten face was preternaturally solemn. +</p> +<p> +"Ye can't help havin' your suspicions 'bout ships or folks that are +sailin' under cover. There's got to be some reason for a man +changing his name and trying to get by on one that ain't his'n. Same +with a schooner like this." +</p> +<p> +"Oh!" +</p> +<p> +"There is such things as hoodooed ships, Miss Bostwick, just like +there is hoodooed folks," he said hoarsely, without seeming to +notice her shrinking from him and her changed countenance. +</p> +<p> +"Oh! Is there?" she inquired faintly. +</p> +<p> +"Surest thing you know," acclaimed the old seaman with his most +impressive manner. "There was a hoodooed schooner sailed out o' +Salem some years back, the <i>Marlin B.</i> She had the same tug to +sta'bo'd that I feel when I'm steerin' of this here schooner." +</p> +<p> +The girl was recovering from her momentary excitement. She saw that +Newbegin had no ulterior meaning in his speech. He shook his head +and cast a wary glance toward the companionway to see that the +skipper was not appearing from below. +</p> +<p> +"Listen here, Miss Bostwick," he said hoarsely. "It's a mighty +curious thing. I had just come back from a v'y'ge to New Guinea, and +I thinks I'd like a trip to the Banks, not having been fishin' since +I was a boy. I went to Sutro Brothers in Salem and got me a berth on +the <i>Marlin B.</i> I marked that every man aboard her, skipper and all, +warn't Salem men, nor yet from Gloucester nor Marblehead. But I +didn't suspicion nothing. +</p> +<p> +"Tell you, Miss Bostwick, them that goes down to the sea in ships +runs against more than natur's wonders. There's mysteries that ain't +to be explained, scurce to be spoke of. I dunno why we shouldn't +believe in spirits and ghosts and dead men come alive. The Bible's +full of such, ain't it? +</p> +<p> +"Well, then! And what I tell you is as sure, as sure. I took the +<i>Marlin B.</i> out of that harbor, being at the wheel. It was +February, and a nasty snow squall come up and smothered us complete +and proper. That schooner was a hummer; she sailed just so pretty as +this one. She did for a fact. But I felt that tug to sta'bo'd. Do +you know, Miss Bostwick, as I was tellin' Cap'n Tunis, there ain't +never two craft just alike, no more than there is two men." +</p> +<p> +"Is that so?" she said. +</p> +<p> +"Ships is almost human. I never did see two so much alike as this +<i>Seamew</i> and the <i>Marlin B.</i> Well, to continue, as the feller said, +we was smothered in that snow squall for 'bout ten minutes. At the +wheel there I heard off to windward the rushing sound of another +craft. She was a tall ship, too, and she had as much canvas spread +as we had. She came down on us like a shot. +</p> +<p> +"I shouted to the mate, but he had heard it too. He yelled for all +hands on deck. We both knowed the <i>Marlin B.</i> was due to be run +under unless a miracle intervened. It was a moment I ain't likely to +forget, for we stood there, the whole ship's company, hanging on by +backstay and rail, peering out into the smother of the snow, while +the amazing rush of that unknown craft deafened us. +</p> +<p> +"Then out of her upper works—I swear I could see the tangle of +ropes and slatting canvas—came a voice that rang in my ears for +many a day, no matter how the others heard it. It shouted: +</p> +<p> +"We're the spirits of them ye run under! We're the spirits of them +ye run under!" +</p> +<p> +"My soul and body, Miss Bostwick, but I was scairt!" confessed the +old salt. "That rushing sound and the voices crashed on through our +rigging and went down wind in a most amazing style. It was a ghost +warning like nothing I'd ever heard before or since. And it struck +the whole crew the same way. We begun to question what the <i>Marlin +B.</i> was. She was a new schooner and had made but one trip to the +Banks previous to this one we was on. We began to ask why her +original crew had not stayed with her. +</p> +<p> +"You can't fool sailormen, Miss Bostwick," continued the old man, +shaking his head with great solemnity. "They sees too much and they +knows too much. Sutro Brothers had got rid of the <i>Marlin B.'s</i> +first crew and picked up strangers, but murder will out. The story +come to us through the night and in the snow squall. We couldn't +stand for no murder ship. We made the skipper put back." +</p> +<p> +"Why, wasn't that mutiny?" gasped the girl. +</p> +<p> +"He was glad enough to turn back hisself. Even if he lost his ticket +he would have turned back. Then we learned what it meant. On her +first trip for fish, returning to Salem, the <i>Marlin B.</i> run under a +smaller fishing craft and every soul aboard of her was lost. And it +stands to reason that every time that murder schooner went out of +the harbor and came to the spot where she'd run the other craft +down, those uneasy souls would rise up and denounce the <i>Marlin B.</i>" +</p> +<p> +"Oh!" gasped the girl, startled, for Tunis Latham and Orion stood +behind her. +</p> +<p> +"Your tongue's hung in the middle and wags both ends, Horry," +growled the young skipper. "You trying to scare Miss Bostwick out of +her wits? What you poor, weak-minded, misguided fellows heard that +time in the snow squall was a flock of black gulls coming down +with the wind. And somebody aboard of the <i>Marlin B.</i> was a +ventriloquist. Your whole crew weren't ignorant of the accident that +happened on her first trip. Somebody had it in for Sutro Brothers, +and made much of little, same as usual." +</p> +<p> +"Oh, they <i>did</i>?" muttered Horry. +</p> +<p> +"Anyway," said Captain Latham, "that's neither here nor there. We +aren't sailing the <i>Marlin B.</i>, for she's in Chilean waters, owned +by a South American millionaire. You can stow that kind of talk, +Horry—anyway, while Miss Bostwick is aboard." +</p> +<p> +They were until late in the evening beating into Paulmouth Harbor, +but the heavens were starlit and the air as soft as spring. The +tolling of the bell buoy over Bitter Reef was mellow and soothing; +they heard it for a long time before the <i>Seamew</i> made the short leg +of the final tack and went rushing in past the danger mark under +the urge of a sudden puff of the fitful breeze. +</p> +<p> +"The old bell is welcoming us, Ida May," Captain Latham said to the +girl who reclined in a canvas chair which the cook had raked out of +the lazaret for her use. "I've beat my way in here when it hasn't +sounded so cheerful." +</p> +<p> +"I am wondering what sort of welcome I shall receive when we get +to—Wreckers' Head, do you call it?" she asked softly. +</p> +<p> +"That'll be all right, too," he told her with confidence. "Just wait +and see." +</p> +<p> +They dropped anchor near the Main Street dock in order that they +should be able to warp the schooner in to unload her cargo in the +morning. Tunis allowed shore leave, late as the hour was. But he sat +beside the passenger on the <i>Seamew's</i> deck, and they talked. It was +surprising how much those two found to talk about! Perhaps a good +deal of their inconsequential chatter was to hide the anxiety each +felt in secret as to the future. +</p> +<p> +However, that talk was a memorable one for both Tunis Latham and the +girl posing as Ida May Bostwick. Two young people can tell a great +deal to each other under certain circumstances in the mid-watch of a +starlit night. The lap, lap of the wavelets whispering against the +schooner's hull, the drone of the surf on a distant bar, and the +sounds of insect life from the shore were accompaniments to their +long talk. +</p> +<p> +Orion Latham, tumbling over the forward rail from a waterside +dinghy, whispered hoarsely in Johnny Lark's ear: +</p> +<p> +"What do you know about that? There they are, billin' and cooin', +just where we left 'em when we went ashore. Wouldn't it sicken you?" +</p> +<p> +But Johnny only grinned and chuckled, shaking the tiny gold rings in +his ears till they sparkled in the faint light. He had a girl +himself in Portygee Town, at Big Wreck Cove. +</p> +<p> +The creaking of the hawsers and the "heave hos" of the crew as they +warped the <i>Seamew</i> in to the wharf awoke the girl passenger in the +cabin. There was little fancy about the schooner's after house, but +it was comfortable. +</p> +<p> +There was a tarry smell about the place that rather pleased the +girl. The lamp over the round table vibrated in its gimbals, but did +not swing. There were several prints upon the walls of the cabin, +prints which showed the rather exceptional taste of the <i>Seamew's</i> +master, for they had been tacked up since she had come into Tunis +Latham's possession. +</p> +<p> +There was, too, a somewhat faded photograph on a background of +purple velvet, boxed in with glass, screwed to the forward +stanchion. It was the photograph of an overhealthy-looking young +woman, with scallops of hair pasted to her forehead undoubtedly +with quince-seed pomatum, her basque wrinkled across her bust +because of the high-shouldered cut of it. But it had been in the +extreme mode when it was made and worn, in the eighties. +</p> +<p> +The brooch which fastened the lace collar had been painted yellow by +the "artist photographer" of that day, and even the earrings she +wore had been touched up, or perhaps painted on with the air brush. +</p> +<p> +This was Tunis Latham's mother, the girl who had seemed so promising +an addition to the family in the opinion of Medway Latham, the +builder of "Latham's Folly." The rather blowzy prettiness of Captain +Randall Latham's young wife had been translated into real beauty in +her son; for Tunis had got his physique and open, bold physiognomy +from his mother. +</p> +<p> +The girl lying in an upper berth, a close cap tied over her neatly +braided hair, parted the cretonne curtains to look at these +ornaments hung about the cabin. She realized that the photograph, so +strangely contrasting with the prints of some of the world's +masterpieces, was a sort of shrine to Tunis Latham. He revered the +mother whom he had told the girl he could not remember of ever +having seen. His love and admiration for that unknown mother had +helped make the captain of the <i>Seamew</i> what he was. +</p> +<p> +He was a good man, a safe man for any girl to trust. And yet he was +lending himself to a species of masquerade which, if ever it became +known, would bring upon his head both derision and scorn. He risked +this contumely cheerfully and with a reckless disregard for what +might arise through the plans they had made while sitting beside +each other on that bench on Boston Common. +</p> +<p> +He would not admit the point of his own risk. He would not consider +it when they had talked, only the night before, on the deck of the +schooner. He scouted every possibility of any harm coming to him +through their attempt to replace the girl in a firm niche in society +and give the Cap'n Ira Balls what they needed of companionship and +care. +</p> +<p> +The girl sat up in the berth and let her bare legs dangle a moment +before dropping to the rug. In her bare feet she padded to the +photograph of Captain Randall Latham's young wife. +</p> +<p> +The girl stood before the old photograph, her hands clasped, her +gaze raised to the pictured face, as a votary might stand before the +Madonna. There were tears in the girl's violet eyes. At that moment +she was uplifted, carried out of herself by the wealth of feeling in +her heart. Her lips moved. +</p> +<p> +"I promise," she said softly, "I promise you that I will never do +anything that will hurt him. I promise you that I will never let him +do anything that may harm him. He has given me my chance. I promise +before you and God that he shall not be sorry, ever, that he has +raised me out of the dust." +</p> +<p> +She stood on tiptoe and pressed her lips to the glass which covered +the photograph. +</p> +<p> +The wind held fair, a quartering offshore blow, and the schooner, +having discharged her cargo, just past noon spread her upper sails, +caught a gentle breeze of old Boreas, and shot out of the harbor and +so to the southward with a following wind which brought her to the +mouth of Big Wreck Cove long before nightfall. +</p> +<p> +Upon the bluff of Wreckers' Head was to be dimly seen the sprawling +Ball homestead. Tunis pointed it out to the passenger. +</p> +<p> +"That is where you are going to be happy, Ida May," he said to her +softly. +</p> +<p> +"I wonder," murmured the girl. +</p> +<p> +He looked down into her rapt face. The violet eyes were fixed upon +the old house and the brown-and-green fields immediately surrounding +it. Perhaps Cap'n Ira and Prudence were out there now, watching from +the front yard the white-winged <i>Seamew</i> threading so saucily the +crooked passage into the cove, the sand bars on one hand and the +serried teeth of the Lighthouse Point Reef on the other. +</p> +<p> +Inside the cove the schooner's canvas was reduced smartly to merely +a topsail and jib, the wind in which carried her close enough to +Luiz Wharf for a line to be cast ashore. Tier upon tier of barrels +of clams were stored under the open sheds, ready to be packed away +in the <i>Seamew's</i> hold. Orion loudly acclaimed against a malign +fate. +</p> +<p> +"Hi golly! Ain't we goin' to have no spare time at all? This running +in a coasting packet is plain slavery; that's what it is! A man +don't have a chance even to go home and change his socks 'tween +trips." +</p> +<p> +"Have a clean pair in your duffel bag; then you won't have to go +home for 'em, 'Rion," advised Tunis. "We've got to make hay while +the sun shines. There'll be loafing enough to cut into the profits +by and by when bad weather breaks." +</p> +<p> +Orion grunted pessimistically. Little in this world ever just suited +Orion. +</p> +<p> +"She's a hoodooed packet. I said it from the first," he muttered to +Horry. "You know well enough what she was before they gave her a +lick of paint and a new name. We'll all pay high yet for sailin' in +her." +</p> +<p> +"I wouldn't let Cap'n Tunis hear me say that 'nless I was seekin' a +new berth," rejoined the old mariner. +</p> +<p> +Tunis left the mate and Horry to carry on while he took the +passenger ashore, meaning to spend the night himself at home with +Aunt Lucretia. He stopped to get Eunez Pareta's father to harness up +his old horse and transfer Miss Bostwick's trunk and bag to the Ball +homestead. Eunez was in evidence—as she always was when Tunis came +by—a bird of paradise indeed. Her languishing glances at Tunis +flashed in their change to suspicious glares at the girl waiting in +the roadway. +</p> +<p> +"You have a guest, Tunis Latham?" she asked with a composure which +scarcely hid her jealousy and doubt. +</p> +<p> +"I'm taking her up to the Balls'. She's Mrs. Ball's niece, Eunez," +Tunis said good-naturedly. He was always friendly with these +Portygees. That was why he got along so well with them and they +liked to work for him. Many of the Big Wreck Cove folk looked upon +them even now as "furriners" who had to be shouted at if one would +make them understood. +</p> +<p> +"What does she come for?" asked Eunez sharply. +</p> +<p> +"They need her up there. Mrs. Ball is feeble and so is the captain. +She is going to live with them right along." +</p> +<p> +"Ah-ha!" whispered Eunez, as he passed her to step outside the house +again. She seized his arm and swung him around to face her, for she +was strong. "You think she is pretty, Tunis?" she demanded. +</p> +<p> +"Eh? What's eating on you, Eunez? I never stopped to think whether +she was or not?" +</p> +<p> +But he flushed, and she saw it. Eunez smiled in a way which might +have puzzled Tunis Latham had he stopped to consider it. But he +joined the girl who was waiting for him, and they went on up the +road and out of the town without his giving a backward glance or +thought to the fiery Portygee girl. +</p> +<p> +When they mounted to the windswept headland the visitor looked about +with glowing eyes, breathing deeply. The flush of excitement rose in +her cheek. He knew that as far as the physical aspect of the place +went, she was more rejoiced than ever she had expected to be. +</p> +<p> +"Beautiful—and free," she whispered. +</p> +<p> +"You've said it, now, Ida May," he agreed. "From up here it looks +like the whole world was freer and a whole lot brighter. It is a +great outlook." +</p> +<p> +"And is that the house?" the girl asked, for in approaching the Ball +homestead from this angle it looked different from its appearance as +viewed standing on the deck of the inbound <i>Seamew</i>. +</p> +<p> +"That is the Ball house, and Aunt Prue taking in her wash," Tunis +replied. "I suppose she had John-Ed Williams' wife over to wash for +her, but Myra will have gone home before this to get the supper. +Tush! Aunt Prue ought not to try to do that." +</p> +<p> +The fresh wind blowing over the headland filled every garment on the +lines like ballooning sails. The frail, little old woman had to +stand on tiptoe to get each article unpinned from the line. The +wind wickedly sought to drag the linen from her grasp. +</p> +<p> +Cap'n Ira, hobbling around from the front of the house, hailed his +wife in some rancor: +</p> +<p> +"I don't see why you have to do that. Don't we pay that woman for +washing them clothes? And ain't she supposed to take 'em down off'n +the halyards? I swan! You'll be inter that basket headfirst, yet, +like ye was inter the grain chist. Look out!" +</p> +<p> +"They wasn't all dry when Myra Williams went home, Ira. And I don't +dare leave 'em out all night. Half of 'em would blow over the edge +of the bluff. The wind is terrible strong." +</p> +<p> +It was much too strong for her frail arms, that was sure. The +captain turned in anger to look for help about the open common. He +saw the two figures briskly moving up the road toward the house. +</p> +<p> +"I swan! Who's this here?" he exclaimed. "Tunis Latham, and—and Ida +May!" +</p> +<p> +His face broadened into a delighted smile. He had seen the <i>Seamew</i> +come in, and had prayerfully hoped her master had brought the girl +that he believed would be their salvation. This person with the +captain of the <i>Seamew</i> could only be Ida May Bostwick! +</p> +<p> +At the moment Prudence was taking down her own starched, blue house +dress from the line. It was hung like a pirate in chains by its +sleeves, was blown out as round as a barrel, and was as stiff as a +board. Just as the pins came out an extra heavy puff of wind +shrieked around the corner of the house, as though it had been lying +in wait for just this opportunity. +</p> +<p> +The dress was whipped out of Aunt Prue's hands. She herself, as +Cap'n Ira had warned her, was cast, face downward, into the +half-filled clothes basket. The blue dress was whirled high in the +air, skirt downward. Before the old man was warned by Prudence's +muffled scream that something had gone wrong, the starched dress +plumped down over his head and shoulders, and he was bound fast and +blinded in its folds. +</p> +<p> +"Drat the thing! What did I tell ye?" bawled Cap'n Ira. "Take this +here thing off'n me! Want to make me more of an old Betty than I be +a'ready—a-dressin' me in women's clothes? I swan!" +</p> +<a name="2HCH0012"><!-- H2 anchor --></a> + +<div style="height: 4em;"><br /><br /><br /><br /></div> + +<h2> + CHAPTER XII +</h2> +<h3> + A NEW HAND AT THE HELM +</h3> +<p> +Tunis ran to the old man's rescue, but it was the girl who lifted +Prudence from out the laundry-basket. +</p> +<p> +"Drat the thing!" ejaculated Cap'n Ira, fighting off the starched +dress. "Feel like I was being smothered by a complete suit of sails. +That you, Tunis?" +</p> +<p> +"Yes, Cap'n Ira. You're all right now. Hold on! Don't let's mess up +Aunt Prue's wrapper more than can be helped. 'Vast there!" +</p> +<p> +"I swan! Don't it beat all what a pickle we get into? We ain't no +more fit to be alone, me an' Prue, than a pair o' babies. For the +lan's sake, Tunis! Who is that?" +</p> +<p> +He was staring at the girl, who led forward the trembling old woman, +her strong, young arms about the thin shoulders. Prudence was +tearful but smiling. +</p> +<p> +"This is the girl you sent me for," said the captain of the +<i>Seamew</i>. +</p> +<p> +The girl was smiling, too. To the delight of the young man there was +no suspicion of fear or shyness in her expression. Her eyes were +luminous. Her smile he thought would have ravished the heart of a +misogynist. +</p> +<p> +"I swan!" murmured Cap'n Ira, almost prayerfully. +</p> +<p> +"Ain't she pretty, Ira?" cried Prudence, almost girlish herself in +her new happiness. "Just like Sarah Honey was when she was Ida May's +age. And ain't it sweet, her coming to us this way? She's brought +her trunk. She's going to stay." +</p> +<p> +"And I know I shall be happy here, Uncle Ira," said the girl, giving +him her hand. +</p> +<p> +Cap'n Ira's smile was as ecstatic as that of his wife. He looked +sidewise at Tunis, a glance of considerable admiration. +</p> +<p> +"It takes you to do it, Tunis. I couldn't have brought home a nicer +lookin' gal myself. I swan!" +</p> +<p> +"Now, you hesh your foolin', Ira," cried his wife, while the younger +man's blush admitted unmistakably his feelings. "Don't you mind him, +Ida May. Come into the house, now, and you, too, Tunis. We'll have +supper in a jiffy." +</p> +<p> +"No," said the captain of the <i>Seamew</i>. "I must be getting on. Aunt +Lucretia will be expecting me, for, of course, she saw the schooner +heading in for the cove. Good night, Ida May." He shook hands with +her quietly. "I know you will be happy here, with your own folks." +</p> +<p> +The girl looked deep into the young man's eyes; nor did she free her +hand from his clasp immediately. At one side stood the two old +people, both smiling, and not a little knowingly and slyly at each +other, while the captain of the <i>Seamew</i> and the girl bade each +other good night. Cap'n Ira whispered in his wife's ear: +</p> +<p> +"Look at that now! How long d'you think we'll be able to keep Ida +May with us? I cal'late we'd better build our boundary fence a great +sight higher and shut him out o' walkin' across this farm." +</p> +<p> +But Prudence only struck at him with a gently admonitory hand. Tunis +and Ida May had taken down the remainder of the wash and the former +carried it into the house before he started on for his own home. +</p> +<p> +The girl, walking behind the old couple into the homelike kitchen, +sensed the warming hospitality of the place. It was just as though +she had known all this before, as though, in some past time, she had +called the Ball homestead <i>home</i>. +</p> +<p> +"Lay off your hat and coat, Ida May, on the sitting-room lounge," +said Prudence. "We'll have supper before I show you upstairs. Me and +Ira sleep down here, but there's a nice, big room up there I've +fixed up for you." +</p> +<p> +"Before you were sure I could come?" the girl asked in some wonder. +</p> +<p> +"She's got faith enough to move mountains, Prudence has," broke in +Cap'n Ira proudly. "At least, I cal'late she's got enough to move +this here Wreckers' Head if she set out to." And he chuckled. +</p> +<p> +"But you believed Ida May would come, too. You said so, Ira," cried +his wife. +</p> +<p> +"I swan! I had to say it to keep up with you," he returned. +"Otherwise you'd have sailed fathoms ahead of me. However, if you +hadn't come, gal, neither of us could have well said to the other +them bitterest of all human words: 'I told you so!'" +</p> +<p> +"How could you suppose I would not come?" asked the girl gayly. "Who +would refuse such a generous offer?" +</p> +<p> +"I knowed you'd see it that way," said Prudence happily. +</p> +<p> +"But there might have been circumstances we could not foresee," +Cap'n Ira said. "You—you didn't have many friends where you was +stopping?" +</p> +<p> +"No <i>real</i> friends." +</p> +<p> +"Well, there is a difference, I cal'late. No young man, o' course, +like Tunis Latham, for instance?" +</p> +<p> +"Now, Ira!" admonished Prudence. +</p> +<p> +But Ida May only laughed. +</p> +<p> +"Nobody half as nice as Captain Latham," she said with honesty. +</p> +<p> +"Well, I cal'late he would be hard to beat, even here on the Cape," +agreed the inquisitive old man. +</p> +<p> +He took a pinch of snuff and prepared to enjoy it. Suddenly +remembering his wife's nervousness, he shouted in a high key: +</p> +<p> +"Looker—out—Prue! <i>A-choon!</i>" +</p> +<p> +"Good—Well, ye did warn me that time, Ira, for a fact. But if I +had a cake in the oven 'stead of biscuit, I guess 'twould have fell +flat with that shock. I do wish you could take snuff quiet. Look an' +see, will you, Ida May, if those biscuits are burning?" +</p> +<p> +The girl opened the oven door to view briefly the two pans of +biscuit. +</p> +<p> +"They are not even brown yet, Aunt Prue. But soon." +</p> +<p> +"The creamed fish is done. I hope you like salt fish, Ida May?" +</p> +<p> +"I adore it!" +</p> +<p> +"Lucky you do," put in Cap'n Ira. "I can't say that I think it is +actually 'adorable.' But then, I ain't been eatin' it as a steady +shore diet much more'n sixty-five year." +</p> +<p> +"Don't you run down your victuals, Ira," said his wife. +</p> +<p> +"No, I don't cal'late to. But if I may be allowed to express my +likes and dislikes, I got to be honest and say that there's victuals +I eat that would have suited me better for a steady diet than +pollack and potatoes. And now we don't even have the potatoes, +'cause we can't raise 'em no more." +</p> +<p> +"But you have land. I see a garden," said Ida May briskly. +</p> +<p> +"Yes, it's land," said Cap'n Ira, in the same pessimistic way. "But +it ain't had a coat of shack fish for three years and this spring +not much seaweed. Besides that, after the potatoes are planted, who +is to hoe 'em and knock the bugs off?" +</p> +<p> +"Oh!" commented Ida May, with a small shudder. +</p> +<p> +He grinned broadly. +</p> +<p> +"There's a whole lot o' work to farming. I'd rather plow the sea +than plow the land, and that's no idle jest! Never could see how a +man could be downright honest when he says he likes to putter with a +garden. Why, it's working in one place all the time. When he looks +up from his job, there's the same old reefs and shoals he's been +beatin' about for years. No matter how often he shoots the sun, the +computation's bound to be just the same. He's there, or thereabout." +</p> +<p> +"That's the way with most longshoremen, Ida May," said Prudence, +sighing. "They make awful poor farmers if they are good seamen. +Can't seem to combine the two trades." +</p> +<p> +"I cal'late that's so," agreed Cap'n Ira, his eyes twinkling. +"They'd ought to examine all the babies born on the Cape first off, +and them that ain't web-footed ought to be sent to agricultural +school 'stead of to the fishing. But that ain't why our potato +crop's a failure this year. And as far as I see, talking won't cure +many fish, either." +</p> +<p> +"Can't I help?" asked Ida May in her gentle voice. "You know, I've +come here to work. I don't expect to play lady." +</p> +<p> +"Well, I don't know. It ain't the kind of work you are used to." +</p> +<p> +"I've been used to work all my life, and all kinds of work," +interposed the girl bravely. +</p> +<p> +"But you seem so eddicated," Prudence said. +</p> +<p> +"Getting an education did not keep me from learning how to use my +hands." +</p> +<p> +"Well, Sarah Honey was a right good housekeeper," granted Prudence. +</p> +<p> +At that the girl fell suddenly silent, as she did whenever Sarah +Honey's name was mentioned. And yet she knew she must get used to +such references to her presumed mother. Prudence frequently recalled +incidents which had happened when Sarah Honey visited the Ball house +before she was married. +</p> +<p> +They had supper, a plentiful meal if there was not much variety. +Prudence had made a "two-egg cake" and opened a jar of beach-plum +preserves to follow the creamed fish and biscuits. +</p> +<p> +"I must learn to make biscuit as good as these," said Ida May. +</p> +<p> +"I expect you are more used to riz bread. City folks are. But on +the Cape we don't have that much. Our men folks want hot bread at +every meal. We pamper 'em," said Prudence. +</p> +<p> +"I'm pampered 'most to death, that's a fact," grumbled Cap'n Ira. +</p> +<p> +Ida May briskly cleared the table and washed the dishes. She would +not allow Prudence even to wipe them. +</p> +<p> +"I'm sitting here like a lady, Ira," said the little old woman. +"This child will work herself to death if we let her." +</p> +<p> +"A willin' horse always does get driv' too fast," commented Cap'n +Ira. +</p> +<p> +"A new broom sweeps clean," laughed the girl, rinsing out the +dishcloths and hanging them on the line behind the stove. +</p> +<p> +They went outside in the gloaming and sat in a sheltered nook where +they could watch the lights twinkling all along the coast to the +southward, the revolving lantern at Lighthouse Point, the steady +beacon on Eagle's Head, and now and then the flash of the great one +of Monomoy Point so far away. It was peaceful, quiet, assuring, and, +the girl thought, heavenly! She thought for a moment of Sellers' +restaurant and the little room she had occupied on Hanover Street. +<i>This</i> was contentment. +</p> +<p> +Old Pareta had brought her trunk and bag and carried them up to the +big, well-furnished room she was to occupy. By and by Prudence went +up with her to see that she was made comfortable there, and to watch +her unpack, for the old woman was not without curiosity regarding +the "city fashions." +</p> +<p> +One window of the room looked to the north. Through this Ida May saw +the steady beam of a lamp shining from a house down in what seemed +to be a depression behind the Head. She asked Prudence what that +was. +</p> +<p> +"That must be a light at 'Latham's Folly,' Tunis' house, you know," +said the little old woman, likewise peering through the window. +"Shouldn't be surprised if 'twas right in his room. He sleeps this +end of the house. Yes, that's what it is." +</p> +<p> +"So Captain Latham lives just there?" the girl said softly. +</p> +<p> +"When he's ashore. He and his Aunt Lucretia. They are the only +Lathams left of their branch of the family." +</p> +<p> +Afterward, when Ida May had come upstairs to go to bed, she looked +to the northward again. The light was still there. She knelt by the +open window in her nightgown and watched the light for a long time. +When it finally was extinguished she crept into bed. +</p> +<p> +She heard the nasal tones of the two old people below, for her door +on the stairs was open. She heard, too, the occasional cry of a +night fowl and, in the distance, the barking of an uneasy watchdog. +</p> +<p> +But after all, and in spite of the many, many thoughts which +shuttled to and fro in her mind, she did not lie awake for long. It +was a clear and sparkling night; there were no foghorns to disturb +her dreams with their raucous warnings, and the surf along the +beaches below the Head merely scuffed its way up and down the strand +with a soothing "Hush! Hush-sh!" +</p> +<p> +At dawn, however, there came a noise which roused the newcomer to +Wreckers' Head. She awoke with a start. Something had clattered upon +her window sill, that window looking toward the north. She sat +upright in bed to listen. The clatter was repeated. In the dim, gray +light she saw several tiny objects bounding into the room. +</p> +<p> +She scrambled out of the high four-poster and shrugged her feet into +slippers. She crept to the window, holding the nightgown close at +the neck. She felt one of the tiny objects under the soft sole of +her slipper and stooped to secure it. It was a pebble. +</p> +<p> +More pebbles rattled on the window sill. She stepped forward then +with considerable bravery, and looked down. What she saw at first +startled her. A tall, misty, gray object stood below the window, +something quite ghostly in appearance, something which moved in the +dim light. +</p> +<p> +"Why, what—" +</p> +<p> +Then the thing stamped and blew a faint whinny. She saw a pale, +long face raised and two pointed ears twitching above it. +</p> +<p> +"A horse!" +</p> +<p> +A darker figure rose up suddenly from before the strange animal. +</p> +<p> +"Ida May!" +</p> +<p> +"Why, Captain Latham!" +</p> +<p> +"Cat's foot!" exclaimed the captain of the <i>Seamew</i>. "I thought I'd +never wake you up without disturbing the old folks. No need to ask +<i>you</i> if you rested well." +</p> +<p> +"Oh, gloriously!" whispered the girl, beaming down upon him, but +keeping out of the full range of his vision. +</p> +<p> +"Sorry I had to wake you, but I'm due at the wharf right now to see +that the hands get those clams stowed aboard. We want to get away on +the morning tide. I brought Queenie home and thought I'd better tell +you." +</p> +<p> +"Queenie?" +</p> +<p> +"The Queen of Sheba, you know. I was telling you about Cap'n Ira's +old mare." +</p> +<p> +"Oh, yes! Wait. I'll dress and be right down." +</p> +<p> +"That's all right," said Tunis. "I'll wait." +</p> +<p> +She scurried into the clothes she had laid out before going to bed. +In five minutes she crept down the stairs into the kitchen and out +of the back door. Tunis, holding the sleepy mare by her rope bridle, +met her between the kitchen ell and the barn. +</p> +<p> +"You look as bright as a new penny," he chuckled. "But it's early +yet for you to be astir. I'll put Queenie in her stable and show you +where the feed is. Aunt Prue will like to have her back. She sets +great store by the old mare. She won't be much bother to you, Ida +May." +</p> +<p> +"Nothing will ever be a bother to me here, Captain Latham," said the +girl cheerfully. +</p> +<p> +"That's the way to talk," he said, with satisfaction. "Just you keep +on that tack, Ida May, and things will go swimmingly, I've no +doubt." +</p> +<p> +In ten minutes he was briskly on his way to the town. The girl +watched him from the back stoop as long as he was to be seen in the +morning mist. Then she went back into the house, made a more careful +toilet, and when Cap'n Ira came hobbling into the kitchen an hour +later breakfast was in preparation on the glowing stove. +</p> +<p> +"I swan! This is comfort, and no mistake," chuckled the old man, +rubbing his chin reflectively. "You're going to be a blessing in +this house, Ida May." +</p> +<p> +"I hope you'll always say so, Uncle Ira," returned the girl, smiling +at him. +</p> +<p> +"I cal'late. Now I'll get washed, but that derned shavin'." +</p> +<p> +"You sit down in that rocker and I'll shave you," she said briskly. +"Oh, I can do it! I shaved my own father when he was sick last—" +</p> +<p> +She stopped, turned away, and fell silent. It was the first time +she had spoken of either of her parents, but Cap'n Ira did not +notice her sudden confusion. He prepared for the ordeal, making his +own lather and opening the razor. +</p> +<p> +"I can't strop it, Ida May," he groaned. "That's one of the things +that's beyont my powers." +</p> +<p> +She came to him with a clean towel which she tucked carefully in at +the neckband of his shirt. Practically she lathered his face and +rubbed the lather into the stubble with brisk hands. He grunted +ecstatically, lying back in the chair in solid comfort. He eyed her +manipulation of the razor on the strop with approval. +</p> +<p> +For the first time in many a morning he was shaved neatly and with +dispatch. When Prudence came feebly into the room, he hailed her +delightedly. +</p> +<p> +"You've lost your job, old woman!" he cried. +</p> +<p> +"And ain't there a thing for me to do?" queried Prudence softly, yet +smiling. +</p> +<p> +"Just sit down at the table, auntie," said the girl. "The coffee is +made. How long do you want your eggs boiled? The water is bubbling." +</p> +<p> +"Eggs!" exclaimed Cap'n Ira. "I thought them hens of Prue's had give +up layin' altogether." +</p> +<p> +"I found some stolen nests in the barn," returned Ida May. "They +have been playing tricks on you." +</p> +<p> +It was near noon when Ida May from an upper window saw the <i>Seamew</i> +beating out of the cove on her return trip to Boston. She watched +the schooner as long as the white sails were visible. But her heart +was not wholly with the beautiful schooner. A great content filled +her soul. Afterward she bustled about, straightening up the house, +her cheerful smile always ready when the old folks spoke. They +watched her with such a feeling of thankfulness as they could not +openly express. +</p> +<p> +After dinner she started on the ironing and proved herself to be as +capable in that line as in everything else. +</p> +<p> +"Maybe she's been a shopgirl, Ira," Prudence observed in private to +her husband; "but Sarah Honey didn't neglect teaching her how to +keep any man's home neat and proper." +</p> +<p> +"Sh!" admonished Cap'n Ira. "Don't put no such ideas in the gal's +head." +</p> +<p> +"What ideas?" the old woman asked wonderingly. +</p> +<p> +His eyes twinkled and he rewarded himself with a generous pinch of +snuff before repeating his bon mot: +</p> +<p> +"If you don't tell her she'll make some man a good wife, maybe she +won't never know it! Looker out, Prudence! <i>A-choon!</i>" +</p> +<a name="2HCH0013"><!-- H2 anchor --></a> + +<div style="height: 4em;"><br /><br /><br /><br /></div> + +<h2> + CHAPTER XIII +</h2> +<h3> + SOME YOUNG MEN APPEAR +</h3> +<p> +A house plant brought out into the May sunshine and air expands +almost immediately under the rejuvenating influences of improved +conditions. Its leaves uncurl; its buds develop; it turns at once +and gratefully to the business of growing which has been restricted +during its incarceration indoors. +</p> +<p> +So with Sheila Macklin—she who now proclaimed herself Ida May +Bostwick and who was gladly welcomed as such by the old people at +the Ball homestead on Wreckers' Head. After the girl's experiences +of more than three years since leaving her home town, the +surroundings of the house on the headland seemed an estate in +paradise. +</p> +<p> +As for the work which fell to her share, she enjoyed it. She felt +that she could not do too much for the old people to repay them for +this refuge they had given her. That Cap'n Ira and Prudence had no +idea of the terrible predicament in which she had been placed +previous to her coming made no difference to the girl's feeling of +gratitude toward them. She had been serving a sentence in purgatory, +and Tunis Latham's bold plan had opened the door of heaven to her. +</p> +<p> +The timidity which had so marked her voice and manner when Tunis had +first met her soon wore away. With Cap'n Ira and Prudence she was +never shy, and when the captain of the <i>Seamew</i> came back again he +found such a different girl at the old house on Wreckers' Head that +he could scarcely believe she was the Sheila Macklin who had told +him her history on the bench on Boston Common. +</p> +<p> +"I swan, Tunis," hoarsely announced Cap'n Ira, "you done a deed that +deserves a monument equal to that over there to Plymouth. Them +Pilgrim fathers—to say nothing of the mothers—never done no more +beneficial thing than you did in bringing Ida May down here to stay +along o' Prudence and me. And I cal'late Prue and me are more +thankful to you than the red Indians was to the Pilgrims for coming +ashore in Plymouth County and so puttin' the noses of Provincetown +people out o' joint." +</p> +<p> +He chuckled. +</p> +<p> +"She's as sweet as them rose geraniums of Prue's and just as sightly +looking. Did you ever notice how that black hair of hers sort of +curls about her ears, and them ears like little, tiny seashells ye +pick up 'long shore? Them curls just lays against her neck that +pretty! I swan! I don't see how the young fellers kept their hands +off her where she come from. Do you?" +</p> +<p> +"Why, you old Don Juan!" exclaimed Tunis, grinning. "Ain't you +ashamed of yourself?" +</p> +<p> +"Me? Aha! I've come to that point of age and experience, Tunis, +where whatever I say about the female sect can't be misconstrued. +That's where I have the advantage of you." +</p> +<p> +"Uh-huh!" agreed Tunis, nodding. +</p> +<p> +"Now, if you begun raving about that gal's black hair—An' come to +think of it, Tunis, her mother, Sarah Honey's hair was near 'bout +red. Funny, ain't it?" +</p> +<p> +"The Bostwicks must have been dark people," said Tunis evenly. +</p> +<p> +But he remembered in a flash the "fool's gold" which had adorned in +rich profusion the head of the girl in the lace department of Hoskin +& Marl's. +</p> +<p> +"Well, the Honeys warn't. None I ever see, leastways," announced +Cap'n Ira. "Howsomever, Ida May fits her mother's maiden name in +disposition, if ever a gal did. She's pure honey, Tunis; right from +the comb! And she takes to everything around the house that handy." +</p> +<p> +Prudence was equally enthusiastic. And Tunis Latham could see for +himself many things which marked the régime of the newcomer at the +Ball homestead as one of vast improvement over that past régime of +the old couple, who had been forced to manage of late in ways which +troubled their orderly souls. +</p> +<p> +"Catch as catch can," was Cap'n Ball's way of expressing the +condition of the household and other affairs before the advent of +Ida May. Now matters were already getting to be "shipshape," and no +observer could fail to note the increased comfort enjoyed by Cap'n +Ira and Prudence. +</p> +<p> +Nor need Tunis feel anxious, either, regarding the girl's state of +mind or body. She was so blithe and cheerful that he could scarcely +recall the picture of that girl who had waited upon him in the cheap +restaurant on Scollay Square. Here was a transformation indeed! +</p> +<p> +Nor had Ida May's activities been confined wholly to the house and +the old folks' comfort. He noted that the wire fence of the chicken +run was handily repaired; that Aunt Prue's few languishing flowers +had been weeded; and that one end of the garden was the neater for +the use of hoe and rake. +</p> +<p> +It was too late in the season, of course, for much new growth in the +vegetable beds; but the half-hearted attention of John-Ed, junior, +had never brought about this metamorphosis, Tunis well knew. He went +on to the Latham house, feeling well pleased. Aside from all other +considerations, he was glad to know that his Machiavellian plan had +brought about these good results. +</p> +<p> +He did not have much time to spend with Sheila, for the <i>Seamew's</i> +freighting business was good. He never remained ashore but one night +between trips, and he spent that evening with his Aunt Lucretia, +whose enjoyment of his presence in the house was none the less keen +because inarticulate. +</p> +<p> +But when he started off across the fields for the port in the early +morning he saw Sheila's rising light, and she was at the back door +to greet him when he went past. They stole a little time to be +together there, whispering outside the door so as not to awaken +Cap'n Ira and Prudence. And Tunis Latham went on to the wharf where +the <i>Seamew</i> tied up with a warmth at his heart which he had never +experienced before. +</p> +<p> +That another girl rose betimes on these mornings and waited and +watched for him to pass, the young schooner captain never noticed. +That Eunez Pareta should be lingering about the edge of Portygee +Town as he came down from the Head made small impression on his +mind. He never particularly remarked her presence or her smile as +being for him alone. It was that Eunez did not count in any of his +calculations. +</p> +<p> +"That girl at Cap'n Ball's place, Tunis," said the Portygee girl. +"Does she like it up there?" +</p> +<p> +"Oh, yes! She's getting on fine," was his careless response. +</p> +<p> +"And will they keep her?" +</p> +<p> +"Of course they will keep her." He laughed. "Who wouldn't, if they +got the chance?" +</p> +<p> +"<i>Si?</i>" Eunez commented sibilantly. +</p> +<p> +Naturally, many people besides Eunez Pareta in and about Big Wreck +Cove were interested in the coming of the stranger to Cap'n Ira +Ball's. Those housewives who lived on Wreckers' Head and in the +vicinity were able more easily to call at the Ball homestead for the +express purpose of meeting and becoming acquainted with "Sarah +Honey's daughter." And they did so. +</p> +<p> +"I'd got into the way of thinking," remarked Cap'n Ball dryly, "that +most folks—'ceptin' John-Ed and his wife—had got the notion we'd +dried up here, Prue and me, and blowed away. Some of 'em ain't never +come near in six months. I swan!" +</p> +<p> +"Now, Ira," admonished his wife, "do have charity." +</p> +<p> +"Charity? Huh! I'll take a pinch of snuff instead. That's a warnin', +Prudence! <i>A-choon!</i>" +</p> +<p> +Not until the second Sunday after the <i>Seamew</i> had brought Ida May +from Boston did Big Wreck Cove folk in general get a "good slant," +as they expressed it, at the Balls' visitor. There was an ancient +carryall in the barn, and on the Saturday previous little John-Ed +was caught and made to clean this vehicle, rub up the green-molded +harness, and give the Queen of Sheba more than "a lick and a +promise" with the currycomb and brush. +</p> +<p> +At ten o'clock on Sunday morning Sheila herself backed the gray mare +out of her stable and harnessed her into the shafts of the carryall. +</p> +<p> +"For a city gal, you are the handiest creature!" sighed Prudence, +marveling. +</p> +<p> +The girl only smiled. She was now used to such comments. They did +not make her heart flutter as had any reference to her past life at +first. +</p> +<p> +The bell in the steeple of the green-blinded, white-painted church +on the farther edge of the port was tinkling tinnily as the girl +drove the old mare down the hill, with Cap'n Ira and Prudence in the +rear seat of the carriage. +</p> +<p> +"We ain't felt we could undertake churchgoing for months, Ida May," +the old woman said. "And I miss Elder Minnett's sermons." +</p> +<p> +"So do I," agreed her husband, with his usual caustic turn of +speech. "I swan! I can sleep better under the elder's preaching than +I can to home." +</p> +<p> +"If you go to sleep to-day, Ira, I shall step on your foot," warned +his wife. +</p> +<p> +"You'd better take care which one you step on," rejoined Cap'n Ira. +"I got a corn on one that jumps like an ulcerated tooth. If you +touch that I shall likely surprise you more'n I do when I take +snuff." +</p> +<p> +The Portygees had a chapel devoted to their faith. The carriage +passed that on the way to the Congregational Church. A girl, very +dark as to features, very red as to lips, and dressed in very gay +colors in spite of her destination, was mounting the chapel steps. +She halted to stare particularly at the quietly dressed girl driving +the gray mare. +</p> +<p> +"Ain't that Pareta's girl, Ira?" asked Prudence. +</p> +<p> +"I cal'late." +</p> +<p> +"What a bold-looking thing she's grown to be! But she's pretty." +</p> +<p> +"As a piney," agreed Cap'n Ira. "I reckon she sets all these +Portygee boys by the ears. I hear tell two of 'em had a knife fight +over her in Luiz's fish house some time ago. She'll raise real +trouble in the town 'fore she's well and safely married." +</p> +<p> +"That is awful," murmured the old woman, casting another glance back +at the girl and wondering why Eunez Pareta scowled so hatefully +after them. +</p> +<p> +Following service, as usual, there was social intercourse on the +steps of the church and at the horse sheds back of it. Particularly +did the women gather about Aunt Prudence and Sheila. As for the men, +both young and old, the newcomer's city ways and unmistakable beauty +gave them much to gossip about. Several of the younger masculine +members of Elder Minnett's congregation came almost to blows over +the settlement of who should take the fly cloth off Queenie, back +her around, and lead her out to the front of the church when the +time came to drive back to the Head. +</p> +<p> +In addition, Cap'n Ira found himself as popular with the young men +as he was wont to be in the old days when he was making up his crew +at the port for the <i>Susan Gatskill</i>. +</p> +<p> +"Prudence," he said to his wife, but quite loud enough for the girl +to hear as they drove sedately homeward, "I cal'late I shall have to +buy me some shot and powder and load up the old gun I put away in +the attic, thinking I wouldn't never go hunting no more." +</p> +<p> +"Goodness gracious gallop!" ejaculated his wife. "What for? I +cal'late you <i>won't</i> go hunting at your time of life!" +</p> +<p> +"I dunno. I may be forced to load it up for protection. But maybe +rock salt will do instead of shot," said Cap'n Ira, still with +soberness. "A feller has got a right to protect himself and his +family." +</p> +<p> +"Against what, I want to know?" +</p> +<p> +"I can see the Ball place is about to be overrun with a passel of +young sculpins that are going to be more annoying than a dose of +snuff in your eye. That's right." +</p> +<p> +"Why, how you talk!" +</p> +<p> +"Didn't ye see 'em all standing around as we drove away from the +church, casting sheep's eyes? And they're hating each other already +like a hen hates dishwater. I swan!" +</p> +<p> +"For the land's sake!" +</p> +<p> +"No. For Ida May's sake," chuckled Cap'n Ira. "That's who I've got +to defend with a shotgun." +</p> +<p> +The girl flushed rosily, but she laughed, too. +</p> +<p> +"You can leave them to me, Uncle Ira. I shall know how to get rid of +them." +</p> +<p> +"Maybe they won't come," said Prudence. +</p> +<p> +"They won't? I swan!" snorted her husband. "They all see she's +more'n half Honey. Couldn't keep 'em away any more than you can +flies." +</p> +<p> +It was quite as Cap'n Ira prophesied. The path from Big Wreck Cove +across the fields to the Head, a path which had become grass-grown +of late years, was soon worn smooth. It was a shorter way from the +town than the wagon road. +</p> +<p> +The errands invented by the youthful and more or less unattached +male inhabitants of the port to bring them by this path through the +Ball premises were most ingenious indeed. Early on Monday morning, +while Sheila was hanging out her first lineful of clothes, Andrew +Roby, clam basket and hoe on arm, appeared as the first of a long +line of itinerant pedestrians who more or less bashfully bade Cap'n +Ira good day as he sat in his armchair in the sun. +</p> +<p> +"What's the matter?" asked the old man soberly. "All the clams give +out down to the cove? I heard they was getting scarce. You got to +come clean over here to the beaches, I cal'late, to find you a mess +for dinner, Andy?" +</p> +<p> +"Well—er—Cap'n Ira, mother was wishing for some big chowder +clams," said young Roby, his eyes squinting sidewise at the slim +figure of Sheila on tiptoe to reach the line. +</p> +<p> +"Ye-as," considered the old man. "You got that cat still, Andy?" +</p> +<p> +"The <i>Maybird?</i> Oh, yes, sir!" +</p> +<p> +"And there's a fair wind. She'd have taken you in half the time to +the outer beaches, and saved your legs," said the caustic speaker. +"But exercise is good for you, I don't dispute." +</p> +<p> +A match, one might think, could easily have been touched off at +Andrew's face. He had not much more to say, and went on without +having the joy of more than a nod and smile from the busy Sheila. +</p> +<p> +Then came Joshua Jones. Joshua usually was to be found behind his +father's counter, the elder Jones being proprietor of one of the +general stores in Big Wreck Cove. Joshua was a bustling young man +with a reddish ruff of hair back of a bald brow, "side tabs" of the +same hue as his hair before each red and freckled ear, and a nose a +good deal like an eagle's beak. In fact, the upper part of his +face—Cap'n Ira had often remarked it—was of noble proportions, +while the lower part fell away surprisingly in a receding chin which +seemed saved from being swallowed completely only by a very +prominent Adam's apple. +</p> +<p> +"I swan!" the captain had said judiciously. "It's more by good luck +than good management that Josh's chin didn't fall into his stomach. +Only that knob in his neck acts like a stopper." +</p> +<p> +But when the lanky young storekeeper appeared on this occasion, +Cap'n Ira hailed him cheerfully before Joshua could reach the back +door. +</p> +<p> +"Hi, Josh! You ain't goin' for clams, too, be ye?" +</p> +<p> +"No, no, Cap'n Ira!" cried young Jones cheerfully. "I'm looking to +pick up some eggs regular. We want to begin to ship again, and eggs +seem to be staying in the nests. He, he! Has Mrs. Ball got any to +spare?" +</p> +<p> +"I don't cal'late she has. You see," said Cap'n Ira soberly, "we got +another mouth to feed eggs to now. Did you know we had Ida May +Bostwick visiting us? A young lady from Boston. Prue's niece, once +removed." +</p> +<p> +"Why—I—I—ahem! I saw her at church, Cap'n Ira," faltered Joshua. +</p> +<p> +"Did ye, now?" rejoined Cap'n Ira, in apparent wonder. "I didn't +suppose you would ever notice her, you not being much for the +ladies, Joshua." +</p> +<p> +"Oh, I ain't so blind!" giggled the young man, peering in through +the kitchen door, where Sheila was stepping briskly from tubs to +sink and back again. +</p> +<p> +"That's a fortunate thing," agreed the old man. "But you've got a +long v'y'ge before you, if you cal'late to go to all the houses on +the Head to pick up eggs. Good luck to you, Joshua!" +</p> +<p> +Josh found himself passed along like a country politician in line at +a presidential reception. His legs got to working without volition, +it seemed, and he was several rods away before he realized that he +had not spoken to the girl at all. +</p> +<p> +Zebedee Pauling, whose ancestor had been an admiral and was never +forgotten by the Pauling family—Paulmouth was said to have been +named in their honor—arrived at the Ball back door just as the +family was finishing the usual "picked-up" washday dinner. Zebedee +took off his cap with a flourish, and his grin advertised to all +beholders the fact that he felt shy but pleased at his own courage +in appearing thus on the Head. +</p> +<p> +"Why, Zeb!" exclaimed Prudence. "We haven't seen you up here for a +dog's age. Won't you set?" +</p> +<p> +"Oh, no'm, no'm! I was just stopping by and thought I'd ask how are +you all, Aunt Prue." +</p> +<p> +He bobbed and smiled, but kept his gaze fixed upon Sheila to the +exclusion of the two old people. But Cap'n Ira was never to be +overlooked. +</p> +<p> +"You're going to be mighty neighborly, now, Zeb," he said. "We shall +see you often." +</p> +<p> +"Er—I don't know, Cap'n Ira," stammered Zebedee, rather taken +aback. +</p> +<p> +The old man rose and hobbled toward the door with the aid of his +cane, fumbling in his pocket meanwhile. +</p> +<p> +"Here, Zeb," he said, producing a dime. "You're a willin' friend, I +know. I'm running low on snuff. Get me a packet, will ye? American +Affection is my brand. Just slip it in your pocket and bring it +along with you when you come by to-morrow." +</p> +<p> +"But—but I don't know as I shall be up this way to-morrow, Cap'n +Ira. Though maybe I shall." And he glanced again at the smiling +girl. +</p> +<p> +"Course you will, or next day at the latest," said the old man +stoutly. "I can see plainly that you ain't going to neglect Prue and +me no more. And I shall want that snuff." +</p> +<p> +"Well—er—Cap'n—" +</p> +<p> +"If you don't come," pursued the perfectly sober captain, "you can +hand the snuff to Andy Roby, or to Josh Jones, or to 'most any of +the boys. They'll be up this way pretty near every day, I shouldn't +wonder." +</p> +<p> +Zebedee took the hint and the dime. +</p> +<p> +He was no "slow coach" if he was longshore bred. He got the chance +of carrying another heavy basket of clothes out to the lines for +Sheila, who rewarded him with a smile, and then he nodded to the old +man as he left. +</p> +<p> +"I'll bring that snuff myself, Cap'n Ira," he assured him. +</p> +<p> +"Don't it beat all?" queried the captain, shaking his head +reflectively, as he resumed his seat. "Don't it beat all? For old +folks, Prue, we do certainly seem to be popular." +</p> +<p> +"Oh, you hesh!" exclaimed his wife. +</p> +<p> +But Sheila giggled delightedly. The way Cap'n Ira handled the +several visitors who thereafter came to Wreckers' Head continued to +amuse the girl immensely. Nor did the visits cease. The Ball +homestead was no longer a lonely habitation. Somebody was forever +"just stopping by," as the expression ran; and the path from the +port was trodden brown and sere as autumn drew on apace. +</p> +<a name="2HCH0014"><!-- H2 anchor --></a> + +<div style="height: 4em;"><br /><br /><br /><br /></div> + +<h2> + CHAPTER XIV +</h2> +<h3> + THE HARVEST HOME FESTIVAL +</h3> +<p> +It was not that Sheila Macklin had no graver moments. There were +nights when, in spite of her healthful weariness of body, arising +from the work of the household, she lay awake for long hours of +restless, anxious thought. And sometimes her pillow was wet with +tears. Yet she was not of a lachrymose disposition. She could not +invent imaginary troubles or build in her mind gibbets on which +remorse and sorrow might hang in chains. +</p> +<p> +Indeed, how could she be sorrowful? Why should she feel remorse? She +had taken another girl's name and claim of parentage, and she filled +a place which the other girl might have had. But the rightful owner +of the name had scorned this refuge. The real Ida May Bostwick had +no appreciation of what the Balls had to offer, and she had been +unwilling even to open communication with her relatives down on the +Cape. +</p> +<p> +Besides, Tunis Latham always cheered the girl who was playing an +imposter's part with the declaration that she had done just +right—that without her presence on Wreckers' Head Cap'n Ira and his +wife would be in a very bad way, indeed. +</p> +<p> +She could see that this was so. Her coming to them had been as great +a blessing in their lives as it had been in her own. +</p> +<p> +She fully realized that Cap'n Ira and his wife would not have +admitted her to their home and to their hearts had she come in her +own person and identity. This was not so much because of their +strict morality as because of their strict Puritanism. For a puritan +may not be moral always, but he must be just. And justice of that +character is seldom tempered by mercy. What they might have forgiven +the real Ida May they could scarcely be expected to forgive a +stranger. +</p> +<p> +In spite of this situation, the Balls were being blessed by the +presence of a girl in their household who had been tainted with a +sentence to a reformatory. Even now, when she knew they loved her +and could scarcely imagine what they would do without her, Sheila +Macklin was quite convinced that a whisper about these hidden +miseries would turn Cap'n Ball, and even Prudence, against her. +</p> +<p> +Therefore she was careful, putting a guard upon her tongue and +almost keeping watch upon her secret thoughts. She never allowed +herself to lapse into reverie in their presence for fear the old +people might suspect that she had a past that would not endure open +discussion. +</p> +<p> +And, deliberately and with forethought, the intelligent girl went +about strengthening her position with the Balls and making her +identity as Ida May Bostwick unassailable. She had a retentive +memory. Nothing Aunt Prudence ever said in her hearing about Sarah +Honey, her ways when she was young, or what the old woman knew or +surmised about her dead niece's marriage and her life thereafter, +escaped the girl. She treasured it all. +</p> +<p> +When visitors were by—especially the neighboring women who likewise +remembered Sarah Honey—the masquerader often spoke in a way to +reduce to a minimum any suspicion that she was not the rightful Ida +May. Even a visit from Annabell Coffin—"she who was a Cuttle"—went +off without a remark being made which would yield a grain of doubt. +</p> +<p> +Mrs. Coffin had heard of Ida May while she visited "his folks" in +Boston, in a most roundabout way. She did say to the girl, however: +</p> +<p> +"Let's see, Ida May, didn't they tell me that you worked for a spell +in one of them great stores? I wish you could see 'em, Aunt Prue! +The Marshall & Denham department store on Washington Street covers +acres—<i>acres</i>! Was it there that you worked, Ida May?" +</p> +<p> +"No," replied Ida May calmly. +</p> +<p> +"What store did you work in?" +</p> +<p> +"Hoskin & Marl's," said the girl, still unruffled. +</p> +<p> +"To be sure. That's what Esther Coffin said she heard, I remember. +But I never got to that store. Couldn't go to all of 'em. It tired +me to death, just going around Marshall & Denham's." +</p> +<p> +This and similar incidents were building blocks in the structure +which she was raising. Nor did she consider it a structure of +deceit. The foundation only was of doubtful veracity. These people +had accepted her as somebody she was not, it was true; but she +gained nothing thereby that the real Ida May would not have had to +win for herself. +</p> +<p> +With Tunis approving and encouraging her, how could the girl spend +much time in doubt or any at all in despair? She felt that she was a +much better girl—morally as well as physically—in this environment +than she had been for many, many months. Instead of being conscience +wrung in playing the part of impostor and living under an assumed +name and identity, she felt a sense of self-congratulation. +</p> +<p> +And when in the company of the captain of the <i>Seamew</i> she felt +almost exalted. There was a pact between them that made their tie +more than that of sister and brother. Yet, of love they never +spoke—not during those first weeks on Wreckers' Head. He never +failed to talk with Sheila as he came up from the town when the +schooner lay at her moorings in the cove or was docked ready to +discharge or take aboard freight. Business remained good, but all +was not plain sailing for the young shipmaster. He confided in the +girl many of his perplexities. When he went away again, rain or +shine, the girl did not fail to be up and about when he passed the +Ball homestead. He knew that she did this purposely—that she was on +the watch for him. Her reason for doing so was not so clear to the +young man, but he appreciated her interest. +</p> +<p> +Was he overmodest? Perhaps. He might have gained courage regarding +the girl's attitude toward him had he known that, on the nights he +was at home, she sat in her darkened, upper room and watched the +lamp he burned until it was extinguished. On the other hand, Tunis +Latham's brotherly manner and cheerful kindness were a puzzle to +Sheila. She knew that he had been kinder to her than any other man +she had ever met. But what was the root of that kindness? +</p> +<p> +There were many pleasant thoughts in Sheila's heart just now; nor +did she allow the secret of her past to leave its acid scars upon +her soul. She was the life and joy of the old house on the Head; she +was the center of amusement when she went into company at the church +or elsewhere. She managed, too, to be that marvelous specimen of +beautiful womankind who can attract other girls as well as men. +</p> +<p> +For one thing, the girl played no favorites. She treated them all +alike. None of the young men of Big Wreck Cove could honestly crow +because Ida May Bostwick had showed him any special favor. +</p> +<p> +And none of them suspected that Tunis Latham had the inside track +with the girl from the city. At least, this was unsuspected by all +before the occasion of the "harvest-home festival"—that important +affair held yearly by the ladies' aid of the Big Wreck Cove church. +</p> +<p> +For the first time in more than a year, Cap'n Ira and Prudence +ventured to town in the evening. Church socials, in the past, and +while Cap'n Ira was so much at sea, had been Prudence Ball's chief +relaxation. She was naturally of a social disposition, and the +simple pleasure of being with and of a party of other matrons of the +church was almost the height of Prudence's mundane desire. +</p> +<p> +When Cap'n Ira heard her express the wish to go to the harvest-home +festival he took an extra pinch of snuff. +</p> +<p> +"I swan!" he said. "If we take that Queen of Sheby out at night, +she'll near have a conniption. She'll think the world's come to an +end. She ain't been out o' her stable at night since Hector was a +pup—and Hector is a big dog now! How can you think of such a thing, +Prudence?" +</p> +<p> +"Queenie won't mind, I guess," said his wife calmly. "I shouldn't be +surprised if you was saying one word for her and a good many more'n +one for yourself, Ira." +</p> +<p> +However, they went to the harvest-home festival. It was bound to be +a very gay and enjoyable occasion, and Queenie did not stumble more +than three times going down the hill into the port. +</p> +<p> +"That old critter would be the death of us, if she could do it +without being the death of herself, too," fumed Cap'n Ira. +</p> +<p> +There were half a dozen young men almost fighting for the privilege +of taking Queenie around to the sheds and blanketing her, the winner +hopeful of a special smile and word from Sheila. +</p> +<p> +The decorated church was well filled when the trio from Wreckers' +Head entered, and most delicious odors rose from the basement, where +the tables were laid. +</p> +<p> +Sheila was immediately surrounded by her own little coterie of young +people and was enjoying herself quietly when a newcomer, whose +appearance created some little surprise at the door, approached the +group of which the girl was the center. +</p> +<p> +"Why, here's Orion Latham!" exclaimed one girl. "I didn't know the +<i>Seamew</i> was in." +</p> +<p> +"We just made it by the skin of our teeth," Orion said, making it a +point to shake hands with Sheila. "How are you, Miss Bostwick? I +never did see such a Jonah of an old tub as that dratted schooner! I +thought she never would get back this trip." +</p> +<p> +"I cal'late you wouldn't think she was Jonahed if the <i>Seamew</i> was +yours, 'Rion," snickered Andrew Roby. +</p> +<p> +"I wouldn't even take her as a gift," snarled Orion. +</p> +<p> +"Guess you won't get her that way—if any," chuckled Joshua Jones. +"Tunis, he knows which side o' the bread his butter's on. He's doin' +well. We cal'late—pa and me—to have all our freight come down from +Boston on the <i>Seamew</i>." +</p> +<p> +Orion glowered at him. +</p> +<p> +"You'd better have a care, Josh," he growled. "That schooner is +hoodooed, as sure as sure! She'll stub her nose some night on +Lighthouse Point Reef, if she don't do worse. You can't scurcely +steer her proper." +</p> +<p> +"Nonsense, 'Rion!" spoke up Zebedee Pauling. "I'd like to sail on +her myself." +</p> +<p> +"Perhaps," Sheila interposed, rather flushed, and looking at Orion +with unmistakable displeasure, "Orion will give up his berth to you, +Zebedee. He seems so very sure that the schooner is unlucky. I came +down from Boston in her, and I saw nothing about her save to +admire." +</p> +<p> +"And if you found her all right, Miss Bostwick," struck in the +gallant Joshua, "she's good enough for me. Of course, I heard tell +some thought the <i>Seamew</i> had a bad reputation—that she run under +a fishing boat once and was haunted. But I cal'late that's all +bosh." +</p> +<p> +"Yah!" growled Orion. "Have it your own way. But after the dratted +schooner is sunk and you lose a mess of freight, Josh Jones, I guess +you'll sing small." +</p> +<p> +"I've heard," said Andrew Roby gravely, "that it's mighty bad +manners to bite the hand that feeds you. You never was overpolite, +'Rion Latham." +</p> +<p> +"Not only that, but he's clean reckless with his own livelihood," +added Zebedee Pauling. +</p> +<a name="2HCH0015"><!-- H2 anchor --></a> + +<div style="height: 4em;"><br /><br /><br /><br /></div> + +<h2> + CHAPTER XV +</h2> +<h3> + AN INVITATION ACCEPTED +</h3> +<p> +It was a small incident, of course; scarcely to be noted at all when +it was over. Yet the impression left upon Sheila's mind was that +Orion Latham was deliberately endeavoring to injure his cousin's +business with the <i>Seamew</i>. If he talked like this before the more +or less superstitious Portygees, how long would Tunis manage to keep +a crew to work the schooner? +</p> +<p> +Had she dared she would have taken Orion to task there and then for +his unfaithfulness. The fellow was, as Cap'n Ira had once observed, +one of those yapping curs always envious of the braver dog's bone. +</p> +<p> +To the girl's disgust, too, Orion Latham showed plainly that he +considered that he, as an older acquaintance of the girl, could +presume upon that fact. He clung to her throughout the evening like +a mussel to duck grass. Of all the Big Wreck Cove youth, he was the +only one that she could not put in his place. +</p> +<p> +She did not think it wise to snub him so openly that Orion would +take offense. This course might do the captain of the <i>Seamew</i> harm. +She foresaw trouble in the offing for Tunis, in any case, and she +did not wish to do anything that would spur Orion to further and +more successful attempts to harm his cousin's business. +</p> +<p> +There was another matter troubling Sheila's mind after Orion had +come to the harvest-home festival. Mason Chapin likewise appeared at +the church. But Tunis did not come. He knew, of course, of the +festival, and he had known when he sailed last for Boston that the +Balls and Ida May intended to go. It did seem as if Tunis might have +come, if for only a little while, before going home. +</p> +<p> +These thoughts made Sheila rather inattentive to other proposals, +and she found herself obliged to go down to supper with Orion, since +he had outsat and outtalked all the other young men who had hovered +about her. She was nice to Orion; the girl could scarcely be +otherwise, even to those she disliked, unless some very important +matter arose to disturb her, but she did not enjoy the remainder of +the evening, and she was glad when Cap'n Ira and Prudence were ready +to go home. It was full time, the girl thought. +</p> +<p> +Even then Orion Latham assumed altogether too much authority. +Sheila had been about to send little John-Ed around for Queenie and +the carryall, but Orion put the boy aside with a self-assured grin. +</p> +<p> +"Nobody ain't going to put you in the carriage, Ida May, but me," he +declared. "I'll get the old mare." +</p> +<p> +He seized his cap and went out. In a few minutes they had said +good-bye, and the old couple and the girl went out on the church +steps. Sheila saw the carryall standing before the door. A figure +stood at the old mare's head which she presumed to be Orion's. +</p> +<p> +"The chariot is ready, I cal'late," said Cap'n Ira. "Come on, +Prudence." +</p> +<p> +Sheila helped the old woman into the rear seat and then aided Cap'n +Ira as well. She got in quickly in front, but as she was about to +gather up the reins the man holding Queenie's head came around +swiftly and stepped in beside her to the driver's place. +</p> +<p> +"I swan! That you, Tunis?" exclaimed Cap'n Ira. +</p> +<p> +"Looks like it," the captain of the <i>Seamew</i> said gravely. "All +clear aft?" +</p> +<p> +"You can pay off, Tunis," returned the old man. "Tuck that robe +around your knees, Prudence. This night air is as chill as a breath +off the ice barrens." +</p> +<p> +Orion loafed into the lamplight by the steps before Queenie got +into action. His scowl was unseen, but his voice was audible—as it +was meant to be—to Sheila's ears. +</p> +<p> +"There he is—hoggin' everything, same as usual. How did I know he +was hanging around outside here, waiting to drive her home? Just as +though he owned her! Huh! He may be skipper aboard that dratted +schooner, but that gives him no right to boss me ashore. I won't +stand it." +</p> +<p> +"Sit down to it, then, 'Rion," snickered one of the other young +fellows. "I cal'late Tunis has got the inside course on all of us." +</p> +<p> +The girl said nothing to the captain of the <i>Seamew</i> at first. It +was Prudence who asked him why he had not been in the church. +</p> +<p> +"I could not get over here until just now," Tunis replied quietly. +</p> +<p> +Sheila wondered if he really had been detained on the schooner. +Perhaps he had refrained from coming to the festival for fear the +good people of Big Wreck Cove would notice his attentions to her. He +had never been publicly in her company since he had brought her down +from Boston. Orion Latham's outburst there at the church door was +the first cue people might have gained of anything more than a +passing acquaintanceship between the captain of the <i>Seamew</i> and the +girl who had come to live with the Balls. +</p> +<p> +These thoughts bore down the girl's spirits tremendously. The +simple pleasure of the evening was quite erased from her memory. She +remained speechless while old Queenie climbed the hill to the Head. +</p> +<p> +The desultory conversation between Cap'n Ira, Prudence, and the +young shipmaster scarcely attracted the girl's attention. If Tunis +looked at her curiously now and then, she did not see his glances. +And she merely nodded her understanding of his statement when Tunis +said, speaking directly to her: +</p> +<p> +"The <i>Seamew's</i> going to lie here over Sunday this time, Ida May." +</p> +<p> +"That'll be nice for you, Tunis," Aunt Prue put in. "You can go to +church. You don't often have that privilege. Seafarin' is an awful +godless life." +</p> +<p> +Queenie sprang ahead gallantly at the sound of a hearty sneeze from +Cap'n Ira, just then, and they were soon at home. Tunis jumped out +and aided the old woman and then the captain to alight. Sheila got +out on the other side of the carriage. She would have preferred to +run on into the house, but she could not really do that. Queenie +must be unharnessed and put in her stable and given a measure of +oats to munch. Of course, Tunis would offer to do this, but she +could not leave him to attend to it without a word. +</p> +<p> +"I'll help you with Queenie, Ida May," said the captain of the +<i>Seamew</i>. +</p> +<p> +That settled it. She had to remain outside while Cap'n Ira and +Prudence went into the house. Tunis led the old mare toward the +barn. A lantern, burning very dimly, was in a box just outside the +big door, and Sheila got this and held it while Tunis busied himself +with the buckles. +</p> +<p> +"I didn't mean to interfere," the man said, suddenly breaking the +silence between them. "But as I was coming this way, of course, I +expected to ride along with you. So—" +</p> +<p> +"What do you mean, Captain Latham?" the girl asked wonderingly. +</p> +<p> +"Orion said you sent him out to get Queenie." +</p> +<p> +"Why, I—" +</p> +<p> +"Of course, you didn't know I was there. I had just reached the +church. But 'Rion is so fresh—" +</p> +<p> +"He took it upon himself to go," said the girl calmly. "I did not +send him. I guess you know how your cousin is." +</p> +<p> +"He is too fresh. I'd like to punch him," growled Tunis, to the +girl's secret delight. It sounded boyish, but real. "I don't know +that I can stand him aboard the <i>Seamew</i> much longer. He attends to +everybody's business but his own." +</p> +<p> +"He means you no good, Captain Latham," she said frankly. "To-night +he was repeating that silly story about the <i>Seamew</i> being haunted." +</p> +<p> +"Cat's-foot!" ejaculated Tunis. "I wish I'd fired old Horry Newbegin +for starting <i>that</i>." +</p> +<p> +"But 'Rion keeps it up." +</p> +<p> +"If he believed she was hoodoed, you wouldn't get him aboard with a +wire cable," growled Tunis. +</p> +<p> +"It would be better for you and for the success of your business, +Captain Latham, if 'Rion was really afraid of going aboard the +<i>Seamew</i>," she said with confidence. +</p> +<p> +"Well, I don't see how I can fire him. He's my cousin—in a way. And +there is enough ill feeling in the family now. Gran'ther Peleg left +all his money to me, and it made Orion and his folks as sore as can +be." +</p> +<p> +"You are inclined to be too kind. I am not sure it is always wise to +be too easy." +</p> +<p> +"Like chopping off the dog's tail an inch at a time, so's not to +hurt him so much, eh?" he chuckled. +</p> +<p> +"Something like that." +</p> +<p> +"Well, I'm almost tempted to give 'Rion his walking ticket. I've +reason enough. He can't even keep a manifest straight." +</p> +<p> +"Does he even try?" +</p> +<p> +"And that also is in my mind," acknowledged Tunis. "I'm pretty well +fed up on 'Rion, I do allow. But I don't know what Aunt 'Cretia +would say." Then he laughed again. "Just about what she usually +says, I guess; nothing at all. But she abhors family squabbles. +</p> +<p> +"That reminds me, Ida May. This being the first Sunday I've been +home since you came here, I want you should go over with me after +church to-morrow and have dinner at our house." +</p> +<p> +"Oh, Captain Latham! I—" +</p> +<p> +"And don't you guess you could employ some other term when speaking +to me, Ida May?" he interrupted. "I get 'captained' almost enough +aboard the schooner and up to Boston. Just plain 'Tunis' for those +that are my friends suits me a sight better." +</p> +<p> +"I shall call you 'Tunis,' if you like," she said composedly. "But +about taking dinner with you—I am not so sure." +</p> +<p> +"Why not?" he demanded. +</p> +<p> +"Your aunt has never called here since I have been on the Head." +</p> +<p> +"She don't call anywhere. She never did that I can remember. She +goes to church on Sunday sometimes. Occasionally she has to go to +town to buy things. Once in a dog's age she leaves anchor and gets +as far as Paulmouth. But other times she's never off the place." +</p> +<p> +"I—I feel hesitant about doing what you ask, Captain—Tunis, I +mean." +</p> +<p> +"Why?" +</p> +<p> +"You know well enough," said Sheila. "If anything should turn up—if +the truth should come out—" +</p> +<p> +"Now, are you still worrying about that, Ida May?" +</p> +<p> +"Don't you think of it—Tunis?" +</p> +<p> +"Not a bit! We're as safe as a church. That girl will never show up +here on Wreckers' Head. Of course not!" +</p> +<p> +He seemed absolutely confident. In the dim illumination of the +lantern she looked very closely into his face. Then it was not fear +of exposure that kept Tunis Latham silent. She moved closer to him, +looking up into his countenance, holding the lantern so that her own +face was in the shadow. +</p> +<p> +"Who suggested my coming to dinner, Tunis? You, or your Aunt +Lucretia?" +</p> +<p> +"If you knew my aunt! Well! She seldom says a word. But when I have +anything to say, I talk along just as though she answered back like +an ordinary person would. I can tell if she's interested." +</p> +<p> +"Yes?" +</p> +<p> +"She's been interested in you from the start, I know. She showed it +in her look the very first time I spoke of you—that day I brought +you here to Wreckers' Head." +</p> +<p> +"But—but you have never spoken of this before. She did not come to +call." +</p> +<p> +"I'll tell you," said Tunis earnestly. "I wanted to be sure. Aunt +'Cretia knew your—er—Sarah Honey very well." +</p> +<p> +"Oh." +</p> +<p> +"Just about as well as Mrs. Ball did. When she was staying here +with Aunt Prue, she used to run over to our place a lot. +</p> +<p> +"You don't remember it," continued Tunis, grinning suddenly; "but +you were taken over there when you were a baby." +</p> +<p> +"Oh, don't! Don't!" cried the girl. "Let us not speak so lightly—so +carelessly. Suppose—suppose—" +</p> +<p> +"Suppose nothing!" exclaimed Tunis. "Don't have any fears. She +wanted to know just how you looked—every particular. Oh, she has +ways of showing what she wants without getting what you'd call +voluble! I told her about your hair—your eyes—everything. I know +from the way she looked that she accepts the fact of your being the +real Ida May without more question than Cap'n Ira and Aunt Prue." +</p> +<p> +She was silent, thinking. Then she sighed. +</p> +<p> +"I will accept the invitation, Tunis. But I feel—I feel that all is +not for the best. But what must be must be. So—oh, I'll go!" +</p> +<a name="2HCH0016"><!-- H2 anchor --></a> + +<div style="height: 4em;"><br /><br /><br /><br /></div> + +<h2> + CHAPTER XVI +</h2> +<h3> + MEMORIES—AND TUNIS +</h3> +<p> +The benison of that most beautiful season of all the year, the +autumn, lay upon Wreckers' Head and the adjacent coast on that +Sunday morning. Alongshore there is never any sad phase of the fall. +One reason is the lack of deciduous trees. The brushless hills and +fields are merely turned to golden brown when the frosts touch them. +</p> +<p> +The sea—ever changing in aspect, yet changeless in tide and +restraint—was as bright and sparkling as at midsummer. Along the +distant beaches the white ruffle of the surf seemed to have just +been laundered. The green of the shallows and the blue of the deeper +sea were equally vivid. +</p> +<p> +When she first arose Sheila Macklin looked abroad from that favorite +north window of her bedroom, and saw that all the world was good. If +she had felt secret misgivings and the tremor of a nervous +apprehension, these feelings were sloughed away by this promising +morning. The fear she had expressed to Tunis Latham the evening +before did not obsess her. She continued placid and outwardly +cheerful. Whatever threatened in the immediate future, she +determined to meet it with as much composure as she could summon. +</p> +<p> +Nobody but Sheila Macklin knew wholly what she had endured since +leaving her childhood's home. When Tunis Latham had come so +dramatically into her life she had been almost at the limit of her +endurance. To him, even, she had not confessed all her miseries. To +escape from them she would have embraced a much more desperate +expedient than posing as Ida May Bostwick. +</p> +<p> +The ethics of the situation had not really impressed her at first. +The desire to get away from her unfortunate environment, from the +city itself, and to go where nobody knew her history, not even her +name, was the main thought at that time in the girl's mind. Tunis +Latham's confident assurances that she would be accepted without +question by Cap'n Ball and Prudence caused her to put aside all fear +of consequences at the moment. It was a desperate stroke, but she +had been in desperate need, and she had carried the matter through +boldly. +</p> +<p> +Now that she seemed so securely established in the Ball household +and was accepted by all the community of Big Wreck Cove as the real +Ida May, it seemed foolish to give way to anxiety. Discovery of the +imposture was remote. +</p> +<p> +Yet, as she had hinted to Tunis, she had an undercurrent of +feeling—a more-than-faint apprehension—that all was not right. +Something was lurking in the shadows of the future which menaced +their peace and security. +</p> +<p> +She was ever mindful of the fact that Tunis had gone sponsor for her +identity as Ida May. Should her imposture be revealed, her first +duty would be to protect him. How could she do this? What tale could +she concoct to make it seem that he was as much duped as were Cap'n +Ball and Prudence? +</p> +<p> +This seemed impossible. She saw no way out. He had met the real Ida +May Bostwick, and then had deliberately introduced Sheila Macklin as +the girl he had been sent for! If the truth were revealed, what +explanation could be offered? +</p> +<p> +Had she allowed her mind to dwell upon this phase of the affair she +would surely have revealed to those about her, unobservant as they +might be, that she had a secret cause for worry. She must drive it +into the back of her mind—ignore it utterly. +</p> +<p> +And this she did on this beautiful Sabbath morning. When Tunis came +up to the Head to accompany the Balls to church—Aunt Lucretia did +not attend service on this day—a very close observer would have +seen nothing in the girl's look or manner to suggest that so keen +an anxiety had touched her. +</p> +<p> +This should have been Sheila's happy day—and it was. For the first +time, the young captain of the <i>Seamew</i> linked his interest with her +in a deliberate public appearance. Although she feared in secret the +result of that appearance at church with Tunis Latham, it +nevertheless thrilled her. +</p> +<p> +He harnessed Queenie after giving that surprised animal such a +curry-combing and polishing as she had not suffered in many a day. +Sheila rode with Prudence on the rear seat of the carryall. +</p> +<p> +"I'm berthed on the for'ard deck along o' you, Tunis," said the old +man, hoisting himself with difficulty into the front seat. "If the +afterguard is all ready, I be. Trip the anchor, boy, and set sail!" +</p> +<p> +As they passed down through Portygee Town the denizens of that part +of Big Wreck Cove were streaming to their own place of worship. It +was a saint's day, and the brown people—both men and women, ringed +of ears and garbed in the very gayest colors—gave way with smiles +and bows for the jogging old mare and the rumbling carryall. Some of +the <i>Seamew's</i> crew were overtaken, and they swept off their hats to +Prudence and the supposed Ida May, grinning up at Tunis with more +than usual friendliness. +</p> +<p> +"Ah!" exclaimed Eunez Pareta to Johnny Lark, the <i>Seamew's</i> cook. +"So you know she of the evil eye, eh?" +</p> +<p> +"What do you mean?" asked Johnny. "That pretty girl who rides behind +Captain Latham?" +</p> +<p> +"<i>Si!</i>" +</p> +<p> +"She has no evil eye," declared the cook stoutly. +</p> +<p> +"It is told me that she has," said the smiling girl. "And she has +put what you call the 'hoodoo' on that schooner. She come down in +her from Boston." +</p> +<p> +"What of it?" retorted the cook. "She is a fine lady—and a pretty +lady." +</p> +<p> +"So Tunis Latham think—heh?" demanded Eunez fiercely. +</p> +<p> +"And why not?" grinned Johnny. +</p> +<p> +"Bah! Has not all gone wrong with that <i>Seamew</i> ever since she sail +in the schooner?" demanded the girl. "An anchor chain breaks; a rope +parts; you lost a topmast—yes? How about Tony? Has he not left and +will not return aboard the schooner for a price? Do you not find +calm where other schooners find fair winds? Ah!" +</p> +<p> +"Pooh!" ejaculated Johnny Lark. "Old woman's talk!" +</p> +<p> +"Not!" cried the girl hotly. "It is a truth. The saints defend us +from the evil eye! And Tunis Latham is under that girl's spell." +</p> +<p> +Johnny Lark tried to laugh again, but with less success. Many little +things had marred the fair course of the <i>Seamew</i> and her captain's +business. He, however, shook his head. +</p> +<p> +"Not that pretty girl yonder," he said, "has brought bad luck to the +<i>Seamew</i>. No, no!" +</p> +<p> +"What, then?" asked Eunez, staring sidewise at him from eyes which +seemed almost green. +</p> +<p> +"See!" said Johnny, seizing her wrist. "If the <i>Seamew</i> is a Jonahed +schooner, it is because of something different. Yes!" +</p> +<p> +"Bah!" cried Eunez, yet with continued eagerness. "Tell me what it +may be if it is not that girl with the evil eye?" +</p> +<p> +"Ask 'Rion Latham," whispered Johnny. "You know him—huh?" +</p> +<p> +The Portygee girl looked for a moment rather taken aback. Then she +said, tossing her head: +</p> +<p> +"What if I do know 'Rion?" +</p> +<p> +"Ask him," repeated Johnny Lark. "He is cousin of our captain. He +knows—if anybody knows—what is the trouble with the <i>Seamew</i>." And +he shook his head. +</p> +<p> +Eunez stared at him. +</p> +<p> +"You know something you do not tell me, Juan?" +</p> +<p> +"Ask 'Rion Latham," the cook said again, and left her at the door of +the church. +</p> +<hr /> +<p> +Those swains who had been "cluttering the course"—to quote Cap'n +Ira—did not interfere in any way with the Balls' equipage on this +Sunday at the church. There was none who seemed bold enough to +enter the lists with Tunis Latham. He put Queenie in the shed and +backed her out again and brought her around to the door when the +service was ended without having to fight for the privilege. +</p> +<p> +'Rion Latham, however, was the center of a group of young fellows +who were all glad to secure a smile and bow from the girl, but who +only sheepishly grinned at Tunis. 'Rion was not smiling; there was a +settled scowl upon his ugly face. +</p> +<p> +"I cal'late," said Cap'n Ira, as they drove away, "that 'Rion must +have eat sour pickles for breakfast to-day and nothing much else. +Yet he seemed perky enough last night at the sociable. I wonder +what's got into him." +</p> +<p> +"I'd like to get something out of him," growled Tunis, to whom the +remark was addressed. +</p> +<p> +"What's that?" +</p> +<p> +"Some work, for one thing," said the captain of the <i>Seamew</i>. "He's +as lazy a fellow as I ever saw. And his tongue's too long." +</p> +<p> +"Trouble is," Cap'n Ira rejoined, "these trips you take in the +schooner are too short to give you any chance to lick your crew into +shape. They get back home too often. Too much shore leave, if ye ask +me." +</p> +<p> +"I'd lose Mason Chapin if the <i>Seamew</i> made longer voyages. And I +have lost one of the hands already—Tony." +</p> +<p> +"I swan! What's the matter with him?" +</p> +<p> +"His mother says Tony is scared to sail again with the <i>Seamew</i>. +Some Portygee foolishness." +</p> +<p> +"I told you them Portygees warn't worth the grease they sop their +bread in," declared Cap'n Ira. +</p> +<p> +The two on the rear seat of the carryall paid no attention to this +conversation. +</p> +<p> +"I'm real pleased," said the old woman, "that you are going to +dinner with Lucretia Latham, Ida May. Your mother thought a sight of +her, and 'Cretia did of Sarah Honey, too. Sarah was one of the few +who seemed to understand Lucretia. She's so dumb. I declare I can't +never get used to her myself. I like folks lively about me, and I +don't care how much they talk—the more the better. +</p> +<p> +"Lucretia Latham might have got her a good man and been happily +married long ago, if it hadn't been that when a feller dropped in to +call on her she sat mum all the evening and never said no more than +the cat. +</p> +<p> +"I remember Silas Payson, who lived over beyond the port, took quite +a shine to Lucretia, seeing her at church. Or, at least, we thought +he did. Silas began going down to Latham's Folly of an evening, now +and then, and setting up with Lucretia. But after a while he left +off going and said he cal'lated he'd join the Quakers over to +Seetawket. Playing Quaker meeting with just one girl to look at +didn't suit, noway." And the old woman laughed placidly. +</p> +<p> +"Tunis says he understands his aunt," ventured the girl. +</p> +<p> +"Tunis has had to put up with her. But he can say nothing a good +deal himself, if anybody should ask ye. That's the only fault I've +found with Tunis. I've heard Ira talk at him for a straight hour in +our kitchen, and all the answer Tunis made was to say 'yes' twice." +</p> +<p> +The girl did not find the captain of the <i>Seamew</i> at all +inarticulate later, as they crossed the old fields of the Ball place +and walked down the slope into the saucerlike valley where lay +Latham's Folly. She had never known Tunis to be more companionable +than on this occasion. He seemed to have gained the courage to +talk on more intimate topics than at any time since their +acquaintanceship had begun. +</p> +<p> +"I guess you know," he observed, "that most all the money Uncle Peke +left me—after what the lawyers got—I put into that schooner. +There's a mortgage on her, too. You see, although the old place will +come to me by and by, Aunt Lucretia has rights in it while she +lives. It's sort of entailed, you know. I could not raise a dollar +on Latham's Folly, if I wanted to. So I am pretty well tied up, you +see. +</p> +<p> +"But the schooner is doing well. That is, I mean, business is good, +Ida May. Other things being equal, I will make more money with her +the way I am doing now than I could in any other business. My line +is the sea; I know that. I am fitted for it. +</p> +<p> +"And if I had invested Uncle Peke's legacy and kept on fishing, or +tried for a berth in a deep bottom somewhere, I would not get ahead +any faster or make so much money. Besides, long voyages would take +me away from home, and, after all, Aunt Lucretia is my only kin and +she would miss me sore." +</p> +<p> +"I am sure she would," said the girl with sympathy. +</p> +<p> +"But all ain't plain sailing," added the young skipper wistfully. "I +am running too close to the reefs right now to crow any." +</p> +<p> +"But I am sure you will be successful in the end. Of course you +will!" +</p> +<p> +"That's mighty nice of you," he said, smiling down into her vivid +face. "With you and Aunt Lucretia both pulling for me, I ought to +win out, sure enough. +</p> +<p> +"You can't fail to like her," he added. "If you just get the right +slant on her character, I mean, Ida May. Hers has been a lonely +life. Not that there has not almost always been somebody in the +house with her. But she has lived with her own thoughts. She reads a +great deal. There is not one topic I can broach of which she has +not at least a general knowledge. I was sent away to school, but +when I came home vacations I brought my books and she read them all. +</p> +<p> +"And she is a splendid listener." He laughed. "You'll find that out +for yourself, I fancy. And I know she likes people to talk to +her—when they have anything to say. Tell her things; that is what +she enjoys." +</p> +<p> +In spite of his assurances, Sheila Macklin approached the old, brown +house behind the cedars with much secret trepidation. Although Aunt +Lucretia had a neighbor's girl come in to help her almost daily, she +had preferred to prepare the dinner on this occasion with her own +hands. And, perhaps, she did not care to have the neighbor's child +around when the supposed Ida May came to the house for the first +time. +</p> +<p> +They saw her watching from the side door—a tall, angular figure in +a black dress. Her hair was done plainly and in no arrangement to +soften the gaunt outline of her face, but there was much of it, and +Sheila longed to make a change in that grim coiffure. +</p> +<p> +The woman smiled so warmly when she saw the two approach that almost +instantly the girl forgot the grim contour of Aunt Lucretia's face. +That smile was like a flash of sunshine playing over one of those +barren, brown fields through which they had passed so quickly on +the way down from the Ball house. +</p> +<p> +"This is Ida May, Aunt Lucretia," said Tunis, as they reached the +porch. +</p> +<p> +The smiling woman stretched forth a hand to the girl. Her eyes, +peering through the spectacles, were very keen, and when their gaze +was centered upon the girl's face it seemed that Aunt Lucretia was +suddenly smitten by some thought, or by some discovery about the +visitor, which made her greeting slow. +</p> +<p> +Yet that may have been her usual manner. Tunis did not appear to +observe anything extraordinary. But Sheila thought Aunt Lucretia had +been about to greet her with a kiss, and then had thought better of +it. +</p> +<a name="2HCH0017"><!-- H2 anchor --></a> + +<div style="height: 4em;"><br /><br /><br /><br /></div> + +<h2> + CHAPTER XVII +</h2> +<h3> + AUNT LUCRETIA +</h3> +<p> +There was nothing thereafter in Aunt Lucretia's manner—surely not +in her speech—to lead Sheila to fear the woman did not accept her +at face value. Why should she suspect a masquerade when nobody else +did? The girl took her cue from Tunis and placidly accepted his +aunt's manner as natural. +</p> +<p> +Aunt Lucretia put the dinner on the table at once. They ate, when +there was special company, in the dining room. The meal was generous +in quantity and well cooked. It was evident that, like most country +housewives, Lucretia Latham took pride in her table. Had the visitor +come for the meal alone she would have been amply recompensed. +</p> +<p> +But the woman seldom uttered a word, and then only brief questions +regarding the service of the food. She listened smilingly to the +conversation between Tunis and the visitor, but did not enter into +it. It was difficult for the girl to feel at ease under these +circumstances. +</p> +<p> +Especially was this so after dinner, when she asked to help Aunt +Lucretia clear off the table and wash and dry the dishes. The woman +made no objection; indeed, she seemed to accept the girl's +assistance placidly enough. But while they were engaged in the +task—a time when two women usually have much to chatter about, if +nothing of great importance—Aunt Lucretia uttered scarcely a word, +preferring even to instruct her companion in dumb show where the +dried dishes should be placed. +</p> +<p> +Yet, all the time, the girl could not trace anything in Aunt +Lucretia's manner or look which actually suggested suspicion or +dislike. Tunis seemed eminently satisfied with his aunt's attitude. +He whispered to Sheila, when they were alone together: +</p> +<p> +"She certainly likes you, Ida May." +</p> +<p> +"Are you sure?" the girl asked. +</p> +<p> +"Couldn't be mistaken. But don't expect her to tell you so in just +so many words." +</p> +<p> +Later they walked about the dooryard and out-buildings—Tunis and +the visitor—and Aunt Lucretia watched them from her rocking-chair +on the porch. What her thoughts were regarding her nephew and the +girl it would be hard to guess, but whatever they were, they made +her face no grimmer than usual, and the light in her bespectacled +eyes was scarcely one of dislike or even of disapproval. Yet there +was a strange something in the woman's look or manner which +suggested that she watched the visitor with thoughts or feelings +which she wished neither the girl nor Tunis to observe. +</p> +<p> +Late in the afternoon the two young people started back for the Ball +house, taking a roundabout way. They did not even follow the patrol +path, well defined along the brink of Wreckers' Head as far as the +beach. Instead, they went down by the wagon track to the beach +itself, intending to follow the edge of the sea and the channel +around to a path that led up the face of the bluff to the Ball +homestead. It was a walk the girl had never taken. +</p> +<p> +The reaction she experienced after having successfully met and +become acquainted with Aunt Lucretia put Sheila in high spirits. +Tunis had never seen her in quite this mood. Although she was always +cheerful and not a little gay about the Ball homestead, she suddenly +achieved a spirit of sportiveness which surprised the captain of the +<i>Seamew</i>. But he wholly liked and approved of this new mood. +</p> +<p> +She had made herself a new fall frock and a pretty, close-fitting +hat—something entirely different, as he had noticed, from the +styles displayed by the other girls of Big Wreck Cove. And he was +observant enough to see that this outfit was more like what the +girls in Boston wore. +</p> +<p> +She ran ahead to pick up a shell or pebble that gleamed at the +water's edge from a long way off. She escaped a wetting from the +surf by a scant margin, and laughed delightedly at the chance she +took. Back against the foot of the bluff certain brilliant flowers +grew—fall blossoms that equaled any in Prudence Ball's garden—and +the girl gathered these and arranged them in an attractive bouquet +with a regard for color that delighted her companion. +</p> +<p> +They came, finally, in sight of a cabin back under the bank on the +far side of the little cove, where once Tunis had reaped clams while +Cap'n Ira and the Queen of Sheba made their unfortunate slide down +the face of the bluff. The sea was so low now that Tunis could aid +the girl across the mouth of the tiny inlet on the sand bar which +defended it from the sea. There was but one channel over which she +need leap with his help. +</p> +<p> +The cabin captivated Sheila, especially when she learned it was no +longer occupied. It had a tight tin roof and a cement-pipe chimney +with a cap to keep the rain out. The window sashes had been carried +away and the door hung by a single hinge. However, the one-roomed +cabin was otherwise tight and dry. +</p> +<p> +"Sometimes fishing parties from the port come around here and camp +for a day or two," explained Tunis. "But Hosea Westcott used to live +here altogether. Even in the winter. He caught his own fish and +split and dried them; he dug clams and picked beach plums and sold +them in town, or swapped them for what he needed. Sometimes the +neighbors gave him a day's work." +</p> +<p> +"An old and lonely man, Tunis?" the girl murmured. +</p> +<p> +"That is what he was. All his immediate family was gone. So, when he +fell ill one winter and one of the coast guards found him here +almost starved and helpless, they took him away to the poor farm." +</p> +<p> +They went on around the end of the headland and walked up the beach +toward the port. Before they reached the path by which they intended +to mount to the summit of Wreckers' Head, they observed another +couple going in the same direction, following the edge of the water +on the firm strand. The woman was dressed in such brilliant hues +that she could be mistaken for nobody but a resident of Portygee +Town. +</p> +<p> +"That is the daughter of Pareta, who brought up your trunk when you +came here, Ida May," said Tunis carelessly. +</p> +<p> +"But do you see who the man is?" she said, with some surprise. "It +is your cousin." +</p> +<p> +"'Rion? So it is. Well," he added rather scornfully, "no accounting +for tastes. She's a decent-enough girl, I guess, but we don't mix +much with the Portygees. Although most of them are all right folks, +at that. But fooling around those girls sometimes starts trouble, +as 'Rion ought to know by this time." +</p> +<p> +As they climbed the path, Tunis aiding his companion at certain +places, the girl, looking down, thought they were being closely +watched by the other couple on the beach. There was nothing in this +to disturb her mind; a feeling of confidence had overcome her since +her experience with Aunt Lucretia. Her present environment was so +far from the scenes of her old pain and misery that it seemed +nothing actually could disturb her again. +</p> +<p> +The peacefulness of the scene impressed Tunis as well. When they +came up finally upon the brink of the headland they saw a spiral of +smoke rising from one of the chimneys of the distant Ball homestead. +The man pointed to it and, smiling down upon her, repeated a verse +he had read somewhere which he knew expressed the hope she held: +</p> +<p class="poem"> + "I knew by the smoke that so gracefully curled<br /> + Above the green elms that a cottage was near;<br /> + And I said, 'if there's peace to be found in the world,<br /> + A heart that was humble might hope for it here.'" +</p> +<p> +"That is pretty near right, don't you think, Ida May?" +</p> +<p> +"It is, indeed! Oh, it is!" she cried. "And my heart <i>is</i> humble, +Tunis. I feel that God has been very good to me—and you," she added +softly. +</p> +<p> +"I've been mighty good to myself," he responded. "Ida May, there +never was a girl just like you, I guess. Anyway, I never saw such a +one. I—I don't know just how to put it, but I feel that you are the +only girl in the world I can ever feel the same toward." +</p> +<p> +"Tunis!" +</p> +<p> +He took her hand, looking so hungrily into her face that she, +blushing, if not confused, could not bear his gaze, and the long +lashes drooped to veil the violet eyes. +</p> +<p> +"You understand me, Ida May?" whispered the captain of the <i>Seamew</i> +eagerly. "I don't know, fixed as I am, that I've any right to talk +to you like this. But—but I can't wait any longer!" +</p> +<p> +She allowed her hand to remain in his warm clasp, and now she looked +up at him again. +</p> +<p> +"Have you thought of what all this may mean, Tunis?" she asked. +</p> +<p> +"You bet I have. I haven't been thinking of much else—not since the +first time I saw you." +</p> +<p> +"What? You felt—felt that you could like me that night when we sat +on the bench so long on the Common?" +</p> +<p> +"My Godfrey, Ida May!" he exclaimed. "Since that time you slipped on +the sidewalk in front of that restaurant and I caught you. That's +when I first knew that you were the most wonderful girl in the +world!" +</p> +<p> +"Oh, Tunis! Do you mean that?" +</p> +<p> +"I certainly do," he said stoutly. +</p> +<p> +"That—that you thought <i>that</i>? At very first sight?" +</p> +<p> +"I couldn't get you out of my mind. I went about in a sort of dream. +Why, Ida May, when Cap'n Ira and Aunt Prue talked so much about +wanting that other girl down here, all I could think of was you! I +half believed it must be you that they sent me for—until I came +face to face with that other girl." +</p> +<p> +Her face dimpled suddenly; her eyes shone. The look she gave him +passed through Tunis Latham like an electric shock. He trembled. He +would have drawn her closer. +</p> +<p> +"Not here, Tunis," she whispered. "But if you dare take me—knowing +what and who I am—I am all yours. Whenever you feel that you can +take me I shall be ready. Can I say more, Tunis?" +</p> +<p> +He looked at her solemnly. "I am the happiest man alive. I am the +happiest man alive, Ida May!" he breathed. +</p> +<a name="2HCH0018"><!-- H2 anchor --></a> + +<div style="height: 4em;"><br /><br /><br /><br /></div> + +<h2> + CHAPTER XVIII +</h2> +<h3> + IDA MAY THINKS IT OVER +</h3> +<p> +The <i>Seamew</i> sailed next day, short-handed. Not only had Tony, the +boy, left, but one of the foremast hands did not put in an +appearance. A grinning Portygee boy came to the wharf and announced +that "Paul, he iss ver' seek." +</p> +<p> +Tunis knew it would be useless to go after the man, just as it had +been useless to go after Tony. He had been unable to ship another +boy in Tony's place, and when he let it be known among the dock +laborers and loungers about Luiz Wharf that there was a berth open +in the <i>Seamew's</i> forecastle, nobody applied for it. +</p> +<p> +"What is the matter with those fellows?" the skipper asked Mason +Chapin. "They were tumbling over each other a few weeks ago to join +us, and now there isn't an offer." +</p> +<p> +"Some Portygee foolishness," grumbled the mate. +</p> +<p> +"I wonder," muttered Tunis. +</p> +<p> +"You wonder if it's so?" queried the mate. "You know how silly +these people are once they get a crazy notion in their heads." +</p> +<p> +"What's the crazy notion, Mr. Chapin?" +</p> +<p> +The mate flung up his hands and shrugged his shoulders. +</p> +<p> +"A haunt—a jinx—<i>something</i>. The Lord knows!" +</p> +<p> +"I wonder if it is a Portygee notion or something else," said Tunis +Latham, his eyes fixed on the back of Orion, busy, for once, at the +other rail. +</p> +<p> +"Whatever it is, Captain Latham," said Mason Chapin with gravity, "I +suggest you fill your berths at Boston." +</p> +<p> +"Guess I'll have to. But the offscourings of the city docks! They +will be worse than these Portygees." +</p> +<p> +It was not a prospect he welcomed. He well knew the sort of dock +rats he must put up with if he wished to make up his crew with city +hands for a short trip. The sea tramps who are within reach of +coasting skippers are the same kind of worthless material that +shiftless farmers must depend upon in harvest time. +</p> +<p> +Even the lack of one man forward, to say nothing of the cook's boy, +made a considerable difference in the working of the schooner. 'Rion +Latham loudly proclaimed that he was being imposed upon when he was +forced to work with the captain's watch. He had shipped as +supercargo and clerk, he had! This treatment was an imposition. +</p> +<p> +"You know what you can do about it, 'Rion, if you like," the skipper +said to him calmly, but aside. "I wouldn't want to feel that I was +holding you to a job that you did not like. You can leave the +<i>Seamew</i> any time you want." +</p> +<p> +"Huh! The rats will be doing that soon enough," growled 'Rion. +</p> +<p> +But he did not say this where Captain Latham could hear. It was +Horry Newbegin who heard him. +</p> +<p> +"It strikes me, young feller, that if I quarreled with my victuals +and drink the way you do, I'd get me another berth and get shet of +all this." And the old salt wagged his head. "I don't get you at +all, 'Rion." +</p> +<p> +"You wait," growled the younger man. "I'll leave at the right time. +And if things go as I expect, everybody else will leave him flat, +too." +</p> +<p> +"You're taking a chance talking that way," admonished the old man. +"It's just as much mutiny as though you turned and hit the skipper +or the mate." +</p> +<p> +"It is, is it? I'll show him!" +</p> +<p> +"Show who?" asked Horry, in some wonder at the other's spitefulness. +</p> +<p> +"That dratted cousin of mine. Thinks he owns the earth and sea, as +well as this hoodooed tub of a schooner. Gets the best of +everything. But he won't always. He never ought to have got the +money to buy this old tub." +</p> +<p> +"You said you wouldn't have her for a gift," chuckled the old man. +</p> +<p> +"But that don't make it any the more right that he should have her. +And she is hoodooed. You know she is, Horry." +</p> +<p> +The old mariner was silent. 'Rion craftily went on: +</p> +<p> +"Look what a number of things have happened since he put this derned +schooner into commission. We broke an anchor chain in Paulmouth +Harbor, didn't we? And the old mud hook lies there to this day. Did +you ever see so many halyards snap in your life, and in just a +capful of wind? Didn't we have a tops'l carried away—clean—in that +squall off Swampscott? And now the hands are leaving her." +</p> +<p> +"Guess you know something about that," growled Horry. +</p> +<p> +'Rion grinned. +</p> +<p> +"Maybe I do. I don't say 'no' and I don't say 'yes.' However, we've +all got to work like dogs to make up for being short-handed." +</p> +<p> +"Nobody is kicking much but you," said the older man. +</p> +<p> +"That's all right. I've got pluck enough not to stand being imposed +upon. Them Portygees—well, there's no figuring on what they will +do." +</p> +<p> +"I can see you are bent on making them do something that will raise +trouble," Newbegin said, shaking his head once more. +</p> +<p> +"What do you expect? You know the <i>Seamew</i> is hoodooed. Huh! +<i>Seamew</i>! That ain't no more her rightful name than it is mine." +</p> +<p> +"I wouldn't say that." +</p> +<p> +"I would!" snapped 'Rion. "She's the <i>Marlin B.</i>, out o' Salem. No +matter what he says, or anybody else. She's the murder ship. If he +sailed her over that place outside o' Salem Harbor where those poor +fellows was drowned, they'd rise again and curse the schooner and +all aboard her." +</p> +<p> +The old man shuddered. He turned his face away and spat reflectively +over the rail. The tug of the steering chains to starboard was even +then thrilling the cords of his hands and arms with an almost +electric shock. 'Rion watched him slyly. He knew the impression he +was making on the old man's superstitious mind. He played upon it as +he did upon the childish minds of some of the Portygee seamen. +</p> +<p> +So Captain Tunis Latham did not arrive in Boston in a very calm +frame of mind. Although he had no words with 'Rion, and really no +trouble with the crew in general, he felt that trouble was brewing. +And the worst of it was, it was trouble which he did not know how to +avert. +</p> +<p> +It was not so easy to fill the empty berth in the forecastle, even +from the offscourings of the docks. It was a time when dock labor +was at a premium. And short voyages never did interest good +sailormen. In addition, knowing that the <i>Seamew</i> sailed from her +home port, decent seafarers wanted to know what was the matter with +her that the captain could not fill his forecastle at that end. +</p> +<p> +These men wondered about Captain Latham, too. They judged that +infirmities of temper must be the reason his men did not stay with +the schooner. He was, perhaps, a driver—too quick with his fist or +the toe of his boot. Questions along this line were bound to breed +answers—and answers from those members of the <i>Seamew's</i> crew who +were not friendly to the skipper. +</p> +<p> +In some little den off Commercial Street 'Rion Latham had +forgathered with certain dock loiterers, and, after that, word went +to and fro that the <i>Seamew</i> was haunted. If she ever sailed off +Great Misery Island, the crew of a run-under Salem fishing smack +would rise up to curse the schooner's company. And that curse would +follow those who sailed aboard her—either for'ard or in the +afterguard—for all time. In consequence of this the only man who +applied for the empty berth aboard the <i>Seamew</i> was more than a +little drunk and so dirty that Captain Latham would not let him +come over the rail. +</p> +<p> +Nor could the young shipmaster give much time to looking up hands. +He had freight ready for his return trip. It must be got aboard, +stowed properly, and advantage taken of the tide and a fair wind to +get back to the Cape. He had not been in the habit of going up into +the city at all of late. If that girl behind the lace counter of +Hoskin & Marl's had expected to see Tunis Latham again, she had been +disappointed. Her warm invitation to him to call on her—possibly to +take her again to lunch—had borne only Dead Sea fruit. He had +accepted her decision regarding the Balls and Cape Cod as final and +irrevocable. At least, he had had no intention of ever going back +and discussing the suggestion again. +</p> +<p> +The possibility of the real Ida May Bostwick changing her mind and +reconsidering her refusal to communicate with the Balls or visit +Wreckers' Head never once entered Tunis' mind, if it had Sheila +Macklin's. He had seen how scornfully the cheap little shop-girl had +refused the kind offer extended to her by her old relatives. He +could not have imagined her thinking of the old people and their +home and Big Wreck Cove in any different way. +</p> +<p> +He was quite right in this. Ida May Bostwick never would have looked +upon these several matters differently. The thing was settled. Born +and bred in the city, she could not conceive of any sane girl like +herself deliberately burying herself down on the Cape, to "live on +pollock and potatoes," as she had heard it expressed, and be the +slave of a pair of old fogies. +</p> +<p> +Not for her! She would not think of it. Indeed, this phase of the +offer Tunis had brought her really made Ida May Bostwick angry. What +did he think she was, anyway? In fact, she was inclined to think +that that seafaring person had almost insulted her. Although she had +deliberately spoken of him as her "Cousin Tunis" to the girls who +were her confidantes in the store and to her landlady, who was +likewise curious about him, Ida May Bostwick was much pleased by the +thought of him. +</p> +<p> +Then she began to compare Tunis with the young men she knew in +Boston. She knew that the young men she got acquainted with were +either very light minded or downright objectionable. If any of them +contemplated marriage at all, they knew it could not be undertaken +upon the meager salaries they were paid. Marriage meant teamwork, +with the girl working down-town just as hard as ever, and then +working at night when she went home, and on Sundays, even if she and +her bridegroom lived only in a furnished room and did light +housekeeping. +</p> +<p> +Ida May Bostwick had a brain explosion one day when she considered +these all-too-evident facts. She said: +</p> +<p> +"I bet <i>that</i> fellow wouldn't expect his wife to stand behind a lace +counter and take the sass of floorwalkers and buyers, as well as +lady customers, all day long. Not much! He's a regular guy, if he is +a hick. My gracious! Don't I wish he'd come back! If I ever get my +claws on him again—" +</p> +<p> +Just what she might do to Tunis under those circumstances she did +not even explain to herself. But she began to think of Tunis a good +deal. He was a good-looking man, too. And he spent freely. Ida May +Bostwick remembered the lunch at Barquette's. +</p> +<p> +It was true that Sarah Honey had been all Prudence Ball and Aunt +Lucretia Latham and other Wreckers' Head folk believed her to be. +But she died when Ida May was small, and the girl had been brought +up wholly under the influence of the Bostwicks. That family had +lacked refinement and breeding and graciousness of manner to a +degree that would have amazed and shocked Sarah Honey's relatives +down on the Cape. +</p> +<p> +Not that the girl thought of Tunis Latham's refinement with any +wistfulness. She thought of his well-filled wallet, that he was +something more than a common sailor, that he undoubtedly owned a +good home, even if it was down at Big Wreck Cove, and that he seemed +"soft" and "easy." +</p> +<p> +"A girl might wind him right around her finger, if she went at it +right," Ida May Bostwick finally decided. "Some girl will. I wonder +how long it would take to get him to sell out down there and live up +here in town? My mother came from that awful hole, and she caught a +city fellow. I bet I could do this, if it was worth my while. My +goodness! Why not? +</p> +<p> +"There's property there, too. I wonder how much those old creatures +are worth. And how long they will live. He spoke like they needed +somebody because they were sick. Ugh! I don't like folks when they +are sick. Ma was <i>awful</i>. I can remember it. And there was pa, when +he was cripped with rheumatism before he died." +</p> +<p> +This phase of the matter fairly staggered Ida May Bostwick. She put +the faint glimmerings of the idea out of her mind—or tried to. Yet +that summer she kept delaying her vacation until all the other girls +had come back and related all their adventures—those that had +actually happened and those that they had imagined. +</p> +<p> +"Ain't you going to take any time off, Ida May?" they asked. +</p> +<p> +At last she said she expected to visit her folks "down on the Cape." +</p> +<p> +"You remember that nice-looking farmer that came in to speak to me +that time and took me to lunch at Barquette's?" she asked Miss +Leary. +</p> +<p> +"I know you <i>said</i> he took you there." +</p> +<p> +"Well, he did, smarty! He's my cousin—of course, not too close." +And Ida May giggled. "Well, we've been corresponding." +</p> +<p> +"I hope it's all perfectly proper," grinned Miss Leary. +</p> +<p> +Ida May Bostwick stuck out her tongue. But she laughed. +</p> +<p> +"I've got a good mind," she said to her friend, "to go down and see +that fellow's folks. They're well fixed, I guess. And the store pays +you for one week of your vacation. I wouldn't lose much, even if it +did turn out to be a dead-and-alive hole." +</p> +<a name="2HCH0019"><!-- H2 anchor --></a> + +<div style="height: 4em;"><br /><br /><br /><br /></div> + +<h2> + CHAPTER XIX +</h2> +<h3> + THE ARRIVAL +</h3> +<p> +There was a driving road down past Latham's Folly and on across +certain sand flats and by cranberry bogs to a small settlement where +Prudence had a stepsister still living. This old woman lived with +her granddaughter's husband's kinsfolk, who were so distantly +related to Cap'n Ira's wife that the relationship could scarcely be +followed. +</p> +<p> +"It takes us Cape Codders," remarked Cap'n Ira, "to study out the +shoals and channels of kinship. It's 'cause we're such good +navigators that we're able to do it." +</p> +<p> +"And now that we've got Ida May to harness up Queenie for us and +look after the house while we're gone, and you feel so much spryer +yourself, Ira, I don't see why we can't visit our folks a little," +Prudence said. +</p> +<p> +He agreed, and they set off in high fettle just before noon, +expecting to return before dark. Sheila was upstairs dusting when, +not long after the noon hour, she saw from one of the windows the +spread canvas of the <i>Seamew</i>—there was no mistaking the +schooner—making through the channel into the cove. +</p> +<p> +"Tunis is coming! Tunis is coming! Tunis is coming soon!" +</p> +<p> +Her heart sang the refrain over and over again. She fairly danced +about the household tasks she had set herself to do while the old +couple were absent. Now and again she ran to some point where she +could watch the <i>Seamew</i>. The memory of Tunis' kisses were on her +lips and in her heart. In the dusk of the previous Monday morning, +when he was on his way to the port to take command of his schooner, +the young shipmaster had held her in his arms at the back door +there, and had told her over and over again of his love for her. +Thought of that moment was an exquisite memory to the girl. +</p> +<p> +She saw the schooner drop anchor off Portygee Town, with all its +canvas rattling down in windrows of white. She even saw the little +gig launched. Tunis was coming ashore. He would soon be up the hill. +His long strides would soon bring him to her side again—open-eyed, +ruddy-faced, a veritable sea god among men! +</p> +<p> +She ran out a dozen times to gaze down the road and wonder what kept +him. Then she turned her back on the road and spent the next half +hour in beating the dust out of all the parlor and sitting room +sofa pillows and one or two of the covered chairs. +</p> +<p> +Peace, like the sunshine itself, lay over all of Wreckers' Head. +Here and there a spiral of smoke rose from a chimney, and fowl +wandered about the well-reaped fields. But not much other life was +visible. The fall haze gave to distant objects a dimmer outline, +softening the sharp lineaments of the more rugged landscape. Color +and form took on new beauty. +</p> +<p> +It was all so lovely, so peaceful, that it was impossible that the +girl should have dreamed of what was approaching. Since she had come +her mind had not been so far from apprehension of disaster. Since +Sunday, when she had wandered with Tunis along the shore, it had +seemed to the young woman that no harm could assail her. She was +secure, sheltered, impregnably fortified both in Tunis' love and in +the situation she had gained with the Balls and in the community. +</p> +<p> +She knew, at last, that somebody was on the road, but she would not +look. She heard the latch of the gate and the creak of its hinges. +Somebody was behind her. How softly Tunis stepped! She thought that +he was approaching her quietly, believing he could surprise her. In +a moment she would feel his arms about her and would surprise him by +laying her head back against his breast and putting up her lips to +be kissed. +</p> +<p> +But, as he delayed, she turned her head ever so slyly. It was not +the heavily shod feet of Tunis Latham she saw. What she saw was a +pair of the very lightest of pearl-gray shoes, wonderful of arch and +heel. Above were slim ankles and calves incased in fiber-silk hose +the hue of the shoes. +</p> +<p> +She flashed a glance at the face of the stranger, and her gaze was +immediately held by a pair of fixed brown eyes. There were green +glints in the eyes—sharp, suspicious gleams that warned Sheila, +before the other uttered a word, to set watch and ward upon her own +lips. Not that she suspected who the stranger was. +</p> +<p> +"Good afternoon," was her greeting. +</p> +<p> +"Is this where the Balls live?" was the demand, with a note in the +voice which betokened both weariness and vexation. +</p> +<p> +"Yes." +</p> +<p> +The girl set down her bag and gave a sigh of relief. +</p> +<p> +"Well, I am glad! I thought I'd never get here. I never did hear of +such a hick place! No taxi, of course, and not even a hack or any +other carriage to be hired. I've walked <i>miles</i>. And such a rough +road!" +</p> +<p> +The parlor settee and easy-chairs had just been brought outdoors +for their weekly beating and dusting. Sheila pointed to a seat. +</p> +<p> +"Do sit down," she urged. "It is a long walk from the port." +</p> +<p> +"You said it! And after riding over from Paulmouth in that dinky old +stagecoach, too," went on the stranger, as though holding Sheila +responsible for some measure of her discomfort. "Say, ain't the +folks home?" She cast a sour look around the premises. "Gee! It's a +lonesome place in winter, I bet." +</p> +<p> +"Did you wish to see Mrs. Ball?" asked Sheila, eying the visitor +with nothing more than curiosity. +</p> +<p> +"I guess so. She is Mrs. Prudence Ball, isn't she?" +</p> +<p> +"Yes. Mrs. Ball and the captain have gone away for the day. I am +ever so sorry. You wished to see her particularly?" +</p> +<p> +"I guess I did." The stranger looked her over with more interest. +"Say, how old are the Balls?" +</p> +<p> +The abrupt question drew a more penetrating look from Sheila. The +visitor certainly was not Cape bred. Her smart cheapness did not +attract Sheila at all. There was something so unwholesome about her +that the observer had difficulty in suppressing a shudder. Yet her +prettiness was orchidlike. But there are poisonous orchids. +</p> +<p> +"They are quite old people," Sheila said, finally answering the +question. "Cap'n Ira is over seventy and Prudence is not far from +that age. You—you are not acquainted with them?" +</p> +<p> +"I never saw 'em. But I've heard a lot about 'em," said the +stranger, with a light laugh. "They are sort of relations of mine." +</p> +<p> +"You are a relative?" asked the girl. Even then she had no thought +of who this newcomer was. "Cap'n Ira's relative? Or Mrs. Ball's, if +I may ask?" +</p> +<p> +"Well, I guess it is the old woman's. But I'm kind of curious to see +'em first, you know, before I make any strong play in the +relationship game. Gee! Is this the parlor furniture?" +</p> +<p> +"Some of it," was the wondering rejoinder. +</p> +<p> +"Looks like the house, don't it? Down at the heel and shabby. Say, +have they got much money, after all—them Balls? You're a neighbor, +I suppose? You must know 'em well." +</p> +<p> +"I live here," said the other girl rather sternly. +</p> +<p> +"Huh? You mean around here?" +</p> +<p> +"I live here with Cap'n Ira and Mrs, Ball," was the further +explanation. +</p> +<p> +"You <i>do</i>? You?" +</p> +<p> +Her voice suddenly became shrill. It rose half an octave with +surprise. Her gaze, which had merely been insolent, now became +suspicious. She scrutinized Sheila closely. +</p> +<p> +"I didn't know the Balls had anybody living with 'em," she resumed +at length. "You ain't been here long, have you?" +</p> +<p> +"Oh, for some time," was the cheerful rejoinder. +</p> +<p> +"They hire you?" +</p> +<p> +"Not—not exactly. You see, I am sort of related to them, too." +</p> +<p> +"A relation of this old Cap'n Ira?" +</p> +<p> +"Of Mrs. Ball." +</p> +<p> +"Huh! Say, what's you name?" +</p> +<p> +"My name is Bostwick," was the composed reply. "You did not mention +yours, did you?" +</p> +<p> +"<i>Bostwick?</i>" +</p> +<p> +"They call me Ida May Bostwick," said Sheila, demurely smiling, and +even then without a suspicion of the vortex into which she was being +drawn. +</p> +<p> +"<i>Ida May Bostwick!</i>" +</p> +<p> +The visitor rose out of her seat as though a spring had been +released under her. Her eyes flattened, distended, and sparked like +micaceous rock in the dark. Her hands clenched till the pointed, +highly polished nails bit into the palms. +</p> +<p> +"What do you say? <i>You</i> are Ida May Bostwick?" +</p> +<p> +At that moment Sheila Macklin saw the light. It smote upon her brain +like a shaft from a great searchlight; a penetrating, cleaving beam +that might have laid bare her very soul before the accusing +stranger. She staggered, retreating, shrinking, but only for a +moment. +</p> +<p> +The pallor that had come into her face left it. Color rose softly +under the exquisite skin and there came a haughty uplift of her +chin. She stared back into the blazing, greenish-brown eyes of the +other, her own eyes unafraid, challenging. +</p> +<p> +"Do you doubt me?" she demanded, with as much composure as though a +secure position and a conscience quite at ease were hers. "Who are +you? In what way are you interested in my name or in my identity?" +</p> +<p> +"Why, you—you—" The visitor was for the moment stricken +speechless. But it was the speechlessness of rage—of wild and +uncontrollable fury. Then she caught her breath. "You dirty cheat, +you! You stand there and tell me you are Ida Bostwick? You've got +gall—you certainly <i>have</i> got gall! +</p> +<p> +"I'd like to know who the devil you are? Comin' right here, wormin' +your way into a place that don't belong to you, gettin' on the soft +side of my aunt an' uncle, I s'pose, and thinkin' to grab all they +got when they die. Oh, I know <i>your</i> kind, miss! +</p> +<p> +"But I'll show you up. I'll let 'em know what's what and who's who. +They must be precious soft to take a girl like you in and think +she's Ida Bostwick. How <i>dare</i> you?" +</p> +<p> +She stamped her foot. She advanced upon the other threateningly. But +the girl she had accused did not retreat. The flush of outrage and +that haughty expression were still upon her countenance. She spoke +very firmly but in a voice so low that it contrasted the more +sharply with the enraged squall of her opponent. She asked: +</p> +<p> +"Who are <i>you</i>, if you please?" +</p> +<p> +"You've cheek to ask me. I'd ought to spit on you, so I had! But +I'll tell you who I am—and it'll hold you for a while, I guess. I +am Ida May Bostwick. You know full and well you are makin' out to +these rich relations of mine that you are me. I'll show you up, +miss! I'll have you whipped—or jailed—or something. The gall of +you!" +</p> +<p> +The other girl heard her with unchanging face. Somehow, that steady, +unshrinking look gave Ida May Bostwick pause. It was she who +recoiled. +</p> +<a name="2HCH0020"><!-- H2 anchor --></a> + +<div style="height: 4em;"><br /><br /><br /><br /></div> + +<h2> + CHAPTER XX +</h2> +<h3> + THE LIE +</h3> +<p> +The girl who had seized upon the chance of becoming Ida May +Bostwick, and so escaping the horror and despair that enshrouded +Sheila Macklin like a filthy mantle, stood after the first blast as +firm as a rock under the torrent of vituperation and rage which +poured from the other girl's lips. +</p> +<p> +The real Ida May—weak, save in venomous hate, unstable as water, as +shallow as a pool of glass—could have joined issue in a +hair-pulling, face-scratching brawl. She was of that breed and +up-bringing. +</p> +<p> +Sheila Macklin's very dignity held Ida May Bostwick at arm's length. +With all right and title to the name and place Sheila had usurped, +the new arrival was awed by the impostor's look. Following that +first—and merely instantaneous—expression of horrified surprise at +Ida May's announcement of her identity, this girl, who was so secure +in the confidence of the Balls and the community, proceeded to look +down at the claimant of her achieved position with utter calmness. +</p> +<p> +It made the real Ida May almost afraid. Certain as she was of her +own name and the assertion of her own personality, the bold and +unshaken opposition confronting her in the very look of the impostor +abashed Ida May Bostwick. After her first outbreak she was silenced. +</p> +<p> +"Do you really know what you are saying?" the girl in possession +asked. "Are you aware that I am Ida May Bostwick? There certainly +cannot be two girls of the same name, both related to Mrs. Prudence +Ball. That is too ridiculous." +</p> +<p> +The other gasped. Though red and white by turn, from impotence and +rage, her fury was quelled under the look of the more composed young +woman. +</p> +<p> +"There are twenty people almost within call who know me and who can +swear to my name and my assertions that I am Miss Bostwick," went on +Sheila, with a calmness which both frightened and daunted the other. +"Just why you should come here and make such a preposterous claim I +cannot understand. Where do you come from? Who are you—really?" +</p> +<p> +Ida May stared, flaccid, helpless. For the time being all her rage, +her rudeness, her amazement, even, drained out of her. For this +impostor to face her down in this way; for her to claim Ida May's +name and identity with such utter calm—such sangfroid; for Sheila +to stand before her and deliberately declare that what Ida May had +known to be her own all her life long—her name and distinctive +character—was actually another's—all this was so monstrous a thing +that Ida May was stunned. +</p> +<p> +Suppose—suppose something had really happened to her mind? People +did go mad, Ida May had heard. She had rather a vague idea as to +what insanity was like, but she felt her mind slipping. +</p> +<p> +The sure and unafraid expression of the other girl's countenance +gave Ida May no help at all. She was sure that her opponent had not +lost her mind. She was just a wicked, bad, horrid girl who had +somehow got something that belonged to Ida May Bostwick, and meant +to keep it if she could. +</p> +<p> +Self-pity filled the visitor's mind in place of the fury she had +expended in her first outburst. She dared not attack the other with +tooth and nail, for she saw now that this girl was as much her +superior in physical strength as she was in strength of character. +</p> +<p> +Therefore, Ida May fell back upon tears. She blubbered right +heartily, and, being really weary after her walk from the port, she +fell back into the spring rocker, which squeaked almost as +protestingly as she did, put her beringed hands before her face, and +gave herself to grief. +</p> +<p> +Sheila Macklin's expression did not change. She revealed no sympathy +for Ida May Bostwick. If she felt sympathy, it was for that girl +who had been persecuted, unfairly accused of stealing, sent to a +place worse than prison, afterward branded with the stigma of +"jailbird"; that girl whom Tunis Latham had befriended, had rescued +from a situation which she could not think of now without a feeling +of creeping horror. +</p> +<p> +Was she going to give over without a fight to this new claimant a +place which had been and still was her only refuge? It could not be +expected that she would do this. She had had no warning of this +catastrophe. There had been no opportunity to prepare for a +situation which must have shocked her terribly in any case. But if +she had only had time— +</p> +<p> +Time? Time for what? To run away? Or to prepare the Balls, for +instance, for the coming of this new claimant? And who knew this +girl who said she was Ida May Bostwick? Sheila Macklin was fully +aware of the history of Sarah Honey, of her marriage which had quite +cut her off from her Cape Cod friends, and of the little that was +known at Big Wreck Cove about her daughter, who, since babyhood, had +never been seen here. +</p> +<p> +How was one to be sure if this were really the right Ida May? If one +girl could make the claim and carry it through so easily, why not +another? How could this girl, crying in the rocking-chair, prove her +statement that she was Mrs. Ball's niece? +</p> +<p> +These thoughts seethed in Sheila Macklin's brain. She must keep +cool! She must hold herself down, keep control of her own mind, and +keep the whip hand of this girl before her. +</p> +<p> +And, then, there was Tunis to think of. The appearance of the real +Ida May Bostwick wrecked all her happiness, of course, with Tunis. +Sheila could not let him continue his association with her. Yet what +course should she pursue to save him? That suddenly became the first +consideration in Sheila Macklin's mind. +</p> +<p> +How to do this? How to save Tunis from being overwhelmed by the +result of his own ill-considered deed? Impulse and love on Tunis +Latham's part had brought about this terrible situation. Not that +the girl blamed him in the least. Her thought was to protect the +captain of the <i>Seamew</i> from being sucked into the whirlpool which +she clearly beheld beside her path. +</p> +<p> +Save Tunis! It must be done. This little, inconsequential, +weak-minded, loose-lipped girl must not be allowed to wreck Tunis +Latham's life. If people came to accept as true the tale the girl +could relate, Tunis' reputation would be smirched utterly in the +opinion of all Big Wreck Cove folk. +</p> +<p> +Much as Sheila Macklin felt that her own happiness with Tunis was +now impossible—a flash of Aunt Lucretia made this realization the +more poignant—he must be sheltered from any folly regarding this +thing. She knew well his impulsive, generous nature. Who had a +fuller knowledge of it than she? +</p> +<p> +She must think and act for herself, without any conference with +Tunis. But she must do the only thing, after all, that would balk +this wretched girl from the city—for a time, at least. +</p> +<p> +The real Ida May Bostwick had no friends here and no acquaintances +among the people of Big Wreck Cove. It would be no easy matter for +her to establish either credit or the fact of her identity in the +community. It would take time and perhaps be very difficult for Ida +May to bring forward conclusive evidence that would convince the +Balls, or anybody else, of her real personality and prove that the +girl in possession was an impostor. +</p> +<p> +All the latter had to do was to maintain her already-accepted +standing, deny the true Ida May's claim, and demand that the latter +show proof of her apparently preposterous statement. At least, some +considerable delay must ensue through Sheila's course before the +girl could convince anybody that she only claimed what was her own. +</p> +<p> +Nor need the battle end there. Ida May Bostwick might find it very +difficult to prove to the satisfaction of all concerned that she was +the actual niece of Prudence Ball. The very fact that Tunis had +brought Sheila and introduced her as the girl he had been sent for +was proof so strong that it could not be lightly denied. +</p> +<p> +That phase of the matter—that Tunis was as deep in the conspiracy +as she was herself—made Sheila Macklin desperate. She grasped at +this only salvation—straw as it was!—for his sake more than for +her own. +</p> +<p> +Later, when she was able to think and plan and plot again, she would +evolve some method of rescuing Tunis from the results of his own +impulsiveness and her weakness in accepting his suggestion as a way +out of her personal difficulties. She should have known better! She +should have scouted the idea at its inception! +</p> +<p> +She saw that this position in which she was placed was far and away +more serious than that she had been in when she sat with Tunis upon +the Boston Common bench. She had thought at that time that it needed +little more to make her condition too desperate to bear. She would +now, she felt, give life itself for the privilege of being back +there and able to refuse the reckless plan of escape the captain of +the <i>Seamew</i> had submitted to her. +</p> +<p> +She did not for a breath's length blame Tunis for the misfortune +that had overtaken her—overtaken them both, indeed. She had +accepted his plan with open eyes. In her desperation she had even +foreseen the possibility of this outcome. She must blame nobody but +herself. +</p> +<p> +But all these thoughts were futile. No use in considering for a +single moment past situations and possibilities. She was confronted +by a grim and adamant present! And that grim present was in the +person of a girl with tear-streaked face who looked up at her, +sobbing. +</p> +<p> +"You're the meanest girl I ever heard of. I'll pay you for this. +Think of the gall of you comin' here and tellin' my rich relations +you was me. I never heard of such a thing! It beats the movies, and +and I thought they was just lies. Gee, but you must be a regular +crook! I expect the very clothes you got on my aunt bought and gave +you. I'll put you where you belong!" +</p> +<p> +"And suppose I put you where you seem to belong?" interrupted the +girl in possession. "There is such a place as an insane hospital in +this county, I believe. I think you must have either escaped from +such a place, or that you belong in one." +</p> +<p> +"Oh!" gasped the other girl, staring up at her amazedly and not a +little terrified by Sheila's emphatic speech. +</p> +<p> +"If you really are some distant relative of the family," the latter +continued, "Mrs. Ball may wish to see you. Come into the house and I +will make you a cup of tea. You need it. And you can wait for Mrs. +Ball and the captain to return, if you like." +</p> +<p> +Ida May darted to her feet again. +</p> +<p> +"A cup of tea of <i>your</i> making!" she cried. "You'd put poison in it! +You must be a wicked girl—anybody can see that. I wouldn't put +anything bad past you. I guess them stories in the movies ain't so +much lies, after all. +</p> +<p> +"I want nothing from you, whoever you are, only my name back and the +chance you have grabbed off here. I'll go to the neighbors about it. +I'll tell 'em what you've done. I guess I can find somebody to +believe me." +</p> +<p> +Her abrupt halt warned Sheila that there was somebody approaching. +Before she could turn to see who it was, the other girl ejaculated: +</p> +<p> +"My goodness! What is it—a junk wagon? Look at that horse, will +you! Say! who's these folks? What a pair of old dubs!" +</p> +<p> +Cap'n Ira and Prudence had returned somewhat earlier than Sheila had +expected. Old Queenie came up the lane and turned in at the open +gateway beyond the garden. +</p> +<p> +The new girl tugged excitedly at Sheila's arm. +</p> +<p> +"Say! Who are they?" she demanded huskily. +</p> +<p> +"This is Cap'n Ball and Mrs. Ball," was the reply, and the girl in +possession hurried forward to help them out of the carriage. +</p> +<p> +"Ahoy, Ida May!" the captain hailed cheerfully. "What's the good +word?" +</p> +<p> +He prepared to climb down. The girl assisted Prudence first. +</p> +<p> +"Who's that with you, Ida May?" asked the old woman. Then, with +keener eyes than the captain, she observed the change in the girl's +face. "What's happened? Something has gone wrong, Ida May, I know. +What is it?" +</p> +<p> +"That—that girl—" +</p> +<p> +Sheila almost choked. How could she prevaricate to the good old +woman who had been so kind to her? +</p> +<p> +"Who is she, Ida May?" +</p> +<p> +"She says she is your niece," whispered the girl. +</p> +<p> +"My niece? Land's sake! I ain't got no niece but you, Ida May. Say, +Ira, do you know this young woman? She ain't none o' your relations, +is she?" +</p> +<p> +Cap'n Ira came to the ground finally with a thump of his cane. He +straightened up and started at the new arrival. +</p> +<p> +"Red-headed, I swan!" he muttered. "Never was a Ball that I know of +with that color topknot. And she looks like one o' these sandpipers +ye see along shore. Look at that hat!" +</p> +<p> +"Ida May says she claims to be our niece," Prudence told him. +</p> +<p> +"I swan! I told you we was gettin' mighty popular." +</p> +<p> +Sheila, her limbs now trembling so that she feared she would fall, +took Queenie by the head and backed the carriage around. The old +mare would have to be put in her stall and the carryall run under +cover. But the girl was fearful of moving out of earshot. +</p> +<p> +Cap'n Ira and Prudence approached the real Ida May. The latter had +been staring at them, marveling. Unlike Sheila, almost everything +that Ida May Bostwick thought was advertised upon her face. +</p> +<p> +"My goodness!" considered Ida May. "What a pair of hicks!" +</p> +<p> +"You was lookin' for somebody named Ball, I cal'late?" Cap'n Ira +said within Sheila's hearing as she led the gray mare away. +</p> +<p> +She could not catch the reply. Whatever the real Ida May said, she +could not stand by to deny it. Besides, the matter must rest for the +present on the evidence, and she did not know yet how much proof Ida +May might be able to advance to strengthen her case. If it rested +upon mere assertion, then Sheila need merely deny its truth and hold +her own! +</p> +<p> +And, frightened as she was, that was exactly what Sheila intended to +do. For the sake of Tunis, as well as for her own salvation, she +must stand up against the new girl and hold by her own first +claim—that she was the girl the Balls had sent Tunis for. +</p> +<a name="2HCH0021"><!-- H2 anchor --></a> + +<div style="height: 4em;"><br /><br /><br /><br /></div> + +<h2> + CHAPTER XXI +</h2> +<h3> + AT SWORDS' POINTS +</h3> +<p> +Sheila Macklin got Queenie to the stable and unharnessed her. She +ran the carryall into the barn and then closed the big door for the +night, although the sun was still an hour high. She stopped to fling +grain to the poultry, too. These chores she did with the thought in +her mind that she might never do them again for Cap'n Ira and +Prudence. +</p> +<p> +If that girl could prove her claim, if she could satisfy the old +people that they had been cheated by Sheila and Tunis Latham, they +might be indignant enough to put her right out—to-night! +</p> +<p> +The trio had disappeared into the house. She heard voices from the +sitting room. But she wanted to return the furniture to the front +room and finish the task which the real Ida May's coming had +interrupted. +</p> +<p> +She had been strong enough when she carried the chairs and the +settee into the yard, but she could scarcely get them back again. +The strength seemed to have deserted her arms. She staggered in with +the last article of furniture and set it in place. +</p> +<p> +The murmur of voices from the room across the hall was steady. What +were they saying? What had Ida May told them? How were the Balls +taking it? Could that cheap, little thing convince the old people +that she was their niece and that the girl they had come to love and +trust was an impostor? Sheila Macklin's heart bled for Cap'n Ira and +Prudence! +</p> +<p> +If she must go and they took this other girl in her place, would +they be happy? And they had been happy during these last months! +Would they not miss her if she left them to the mercy of this new +claimant? +</p> +<p> +Yes, Sheila loved Cap'n Ira and Prudence. She loved them as though +they were her very own! Not since her father had died had the girl +been so fond of anybody—except Tunis, of course. And what would +Tunis say when he came? +</p> +<p> +What would he expect her to do? To admit the truth of Ida May's +claim and give up without a battle? If she did this, she would +expose him as well as herself to infamy. It was a situation that +would have appalled a person of much stronger character than Sheila +Macklin, and she was no weakling. +</p> +<p> +No! She could not give up—not without a struggle. As she had first +decided, she must confront the new girl boldly and deny, if she +could, any claim Ida May Bostwick put forward. She must do this for +Tunis even more than for herself. +</p> +<p> +She arose determinedly. With this thought, strength surged back into +her limbs as well as into her mind. For a time she had been weak, +undecided. Once more she gathered her energies to oppose the sea of +adversity which threatened to overwhelm her. +</p> +<p> +She crossed the hall and opened the sitting room door. Cap'n Ira sat +in his usual chair, leaning forward, with his hands clasped over the +knob of his cane. Prudence, with a wondering look on her face, sat +beside him, and just as far from the new girl as the length of the +room would allow. The latter had been speaking with her usual +vehemence, and she did not even glance at Sheila when the latter +came quietly into the room. +</p> +<p> +"Oh, Ida May!" gasped Prudence, and almost ran to her. "Do you know +what she is saying? I never heard of such a thing!" +</p> +<p> +"I tell you she <i>ain't</i> Ida Bostwick," cried the other. "Don't you +dare call her that. I'll—" +</p> +<p> +"Hoity-toity, young woman! Avast there!" said the captain gruffly. +"We won't get to the rights of this by quarreling. Wait!" +</p> +<p> +He looked at Sheila, and his weatherhued countenance was as kindly +of expression as usual. +</p> +<p> +"You know what this young woman says?" he asked. +</p> +<p> +Sheila nodded, but she held Prudence closely. The old woman was +sobbing. +</p> +<p> +"This won't do, you know," said Cap'n Ira. "I swan! It beats my +time. I expect you've got friends somewhere, young woman, and you +ought to be given into their charge. I'm real sorry for you, but +what you say don't sound sensible. Ain't you made a mistake? I +cal'late you heard about us and Ida May—" +</p> +<p> +"I tell you," cried the girl, starting to her feet again, the brown +eyes flashing spitefully, "that that thing there is an impostor. +She's got my place. She's took my name. Why, I'll—I'll have her +arrested. Ain't there no police in this awful place?" +</p> +<p> +"There's a constable all right," said Cap'n Ira calmly. "But I +wouldn't want to call him in. Not just now, anyway. It looks to me +you wanted a doctor more than you wanted a constable." +</p> +<p> +"You think I'm crazy!" gasped Ida May. +</p> +<p> +"Well, it looks as though you was a leetle off your course," the old +man told her calmly. "You don't talk with sense, to say the least. +Making the claim you do would make most anybody think you was a +little flighty. Yes, a little flighty, to say the least." And he +wagged his head. +</p> +<p> +"Look here," he pursued soothingly. "Have you been sick, perhaps? +You ain't quite yourself, be ye? I knowed a feller once that +thought he was the angel Gabriel and went around with a tin fish +horn, tooting it at all hours of the day and night. But no graves +opened for him and nobody was resurrected. They finally put him in +the booby hatch, poor feller." +</p> +<p> +"I'm your niece, I tell you," interrupted Ida May, pointing at +Prudence, who shrank from her immediately in undeniable fear. "My +mother was Sarah Honey before she was married. I guess there must be +enough people in this Big Wreck Cove place who knew her and remember +her to prove who I am." +</p> +<p> +"I wouldn't try to do that," said Cap'n Ira thoughtfully. "Telling +such a thing as this among the neighbors would be the surest way of +getting into trouble. That's right. If Prudence—Mrs. Ball—don't +know ye, do you think strangers would be likely to back you up? +Don't you think it would be better to sit down quietly and rest a +while? Maybe you'd better stay with us overnight." +</p> +<p> +"Oh, Ira!" gasped his wife. "I wouldn't scurce dare have her stay. +She—she's out of her head. She might do something." +</p> +<p> +"I'll do something fast enough!" cried Ida May, stamping her foot. +"I'll do something to that hussy!" +</p> +<p> +"You hear her, Ira?" murmured Prudence, trying to draw Sheila away +from the enraged girl. +</p> +<p> +"Threatening damage never broke no bones yet," said the captain +calmly. +</p> +<p> +"I'll do <i>her</i> some damage," declared Ida May bitterly. "If none of +you won't listen to me, I'll find somebody that will. I'll—" +</p> +<p> +She halted suddenly in her wild and angry speech. Her face changed +as if by magic. The flush died in it and the expression of her +sparkling eyes became subdued. A simpering look overspread Ida May +Bostwick's countenance that warned the other girl, at least, that +another person had entered the house. +</p> +<p> +Before Sheila could turn to look toward the kitchen door, Ida May +cried: +</p> +<p> +"Oh, Cousin Tunis! If you ain't my cousin exactly, I guess you are +pretty near. And ain't I glad you've come! Do you know what this +awful girl is saying—what she is doing here? And these old fools +won't believe me! I never heard of such a thing. Just you tell them +who I am, and I guess they'll make her pack up and get out in a +hurry." +</p> +<p> +In the doorway stood the captain of the <i>Seamew</i>. The two old people +welcomed his appearance with a satisfaction that could not be +mistaken. +</p> +<p> +"I swan, Tunis, you come at a mighty handy time," declared Cap'n +Ira. +</p> +<p> +"Oh, Tunis! Take that girl away," cried Prudence faintly, pointing +at Ida May. +</p> +<p> +The most difficult thing Sheila Macklin had ever done in all her +life was what she did now. To act and speak a deliberate falsehood +before Tunis Latham! +</p> +<p> +She disengaged herself from Prudence, and before the simpering Ida +May could speak again Sheila ran to him. In her face was, for the +moment, all the fear and horror of the situation which she felt. It +was a warning to him, and he was acute enough to understand it even +before she spoke. +</p> +<p> +"Oh, Tunis! This girl must be beside herself. She says her name is +Ida May Bostwick and that she is Mrs. Ball's niece." +</p> +<p> +Involuntarily Tunis had stretched forth his hands to welcome Sheila. +He drew her closer without giving the Balls any attention +whatsoever. One flashing glance he gave to the girl he held so +gently—a look which was both a promise and a reassurance. Then he +gazed over her head at the smirking Ida May. +</p> +<p> +"What's the matter here?" he demanded. +</p> +<p> +"Matter enough," said Cap'n Ira, not without marking, however, the +attitude of the two young people he and Prudence loved. He even +nudged his wife, who now stood close beside him. "Matter enough. +That gal there, Tunis, seems to have lost her top-hamper. Leastways, +some of it is mighty loose." +</p> +<p> +"Tunis Latham!" gasped the new claimant. "You know who I am. Tell +that girl—" +</p> +<p> +She halted again, realizing the young man's expression of +countenance and his attitude with the other girl. She was quick +enough of comprehension to see that this other girl had the +advantage of her with the captain of the <i>Seamew</i> as well as with +her relatives. +</p> +<p> +In Ida May's own artful mind she had decided that a smart girl could +easily "twist that fellow around her finger." This girl who had +usurped her name and identity had already succeeded in doing just +that! The girl from Hoskin & Marl's halted, the wrathful flush came +back into her pretty, insipid face, and she almost screamed: +</p> +<p> +"What's got into you folks? Are you all crazy? Why, that fellow +knows who I am well enough! I bet he brought that girl here himself +and palmed her off on you." She turned to blaze at Cap'n Ira and +Prudence. "He picked her up somewhere—some low creature! But I'll +show them both up; that's what I'll do. I'll make them both sorry +for cheating me. I guess you folks have got a heap of money, and +that fellow and that girl are trying to get it all. But they won't. +I'll have my rights or—" +</p> +<p> +"Belay that!" exclaimed Cap'n Ira suddenly. "We won't listen to no +more such talk. Whatever we have got—Prudence and me—and whoever +you be, young woman, I cal'late we'll do about as we please with it. +I think you have broke loose from them that had you in charge. And +they ought to be hunting for you. Leastways, I guess you'd better +be sent back to 'em." +</p> +<p> +"I'm her niece, I tell you!" reiterated Ida May, pointing at +Prudence, who shrank again from the vehement girl. +</p> +<p> +Then she whirled on Tunis. She clasped her hands. Into her rage was +distilled some fear because of Cap'n Ira's grim words. +</p> +<p> +"You got to help me," she said to the younger man. "You know who I +am, and you daren't deny it!" +</p> +<p> +No man can pace the quarter-deck—even of a packet of no greater +importance than the <i>Seamew</i>—without having developed the sterner +side of his character. And Tunis Latham came of a long line of +shipmasters who had handled all sorts and conditions of men. If a +skipper does not command the respect of his crew, he'll not get far! +</p> +<p> +The grim mask that had settled upon the countenance of the captain +of the <i>Seamew</i> might have stayed the tongue of a more courageous +person than Ida May Bostwick. His severe look and manner appalled +her. +</p> +<p> +"See here, young woman, I don't like your tone; nor do I understand +what you mean. Who do you say this is, Ida May?" he added more +gently, looking down into Sheila's face again. +</p> +<p> +"She—" +</p> +<p> +"<i>I'm</i> Ida May Bostwick. You know I am!" wailed the visitor. +"Why—why, you must remember me, Tunis Latham. Don't you call her by +my name. I won't stand it." +</p> +<p> +"Mad as a hatter! Mad as a hatter!" muttered Cap'n Ira to Prudence. +</p> +<p> +"There's something the matter with her, is there?" proceeded Tunis +thoughtfully, eying the claimant as though she was indeed an utter +stranger. "How did she get here? What does she want?" +</p> +<p> +"She wants a strait-jacket, I cal'late," said Cap'n Ira. "I don't +know what is best to do about her. Prudence says she won't have her +in the house overnight. 'Twould be too bad to have to put her in the +town lockup." +</p> +<p> +"You <i>dare</i> to!" shrieked Ida May, with courage born of desperation. +</p> +<p> +Tunis put Sheila tenderly aside. He crossed the room to the other +girl. He showed no manner of sympathy for her, but he spoke quietly. +</p> +<p> +"This won't do, you know. Mr. and Mrs. Ball don't want you here. You +have no claim on them—none at all. Even if you chanced to be a +relation, they have not got to take you in if they don't want to." +</p> +<p> +"They've taken that other girl in!" cried Ida May wildly. +</p> +<p> +"That is their business. They want her. They don't want you. You +have no more standing here than you would have if you went into the +house of the governor of the State and demanded recognition there." +</p> +<p> +"What a wicked man you are!" gasped Ida May. "And—and I thought you +was a simp!" +</p> +<p> +Tunis did not even change color. He addressed her as though he +believed she was not right in her mind. Sheila watched him, not now +in fear, but in wonder. She had thought she must battle with this +girl for Tunis' name and reputation. But the captain of the <i>Seamew</i> +had seized the reins of affairs himself and was likely to do much +better in the emergency than Sheila could ever dream of doing. +</p> +<p> +"Come, now," said Tunis Latham calmly. "I do not know where you +belong or where you came from last. But you cannot stay here. Cap'n +Ira and Aunt Prue do not want you. If you have any friends near—" +</p> +<p> +"I've got friends all right! You'll find out that I've got 'em!" +gasped the girl threateningly. +</p> +<p> +"You know anybody in Big Wreck Cove?" +</p> +<p> +"No, I don't. I've just come here. But I mean to stay here till I +get my rights. I'll show you all!" +</p> +<p> +"You can't show us anything to-night," interposed Tunis firmly. +"Whatever you mean to try to do cannot be done right now, you know. +You will have to sleep somewhere, and I shall have to do one of two +things—no, one of three things." +</p> +<p> +She looked at him wonderingly, but she was listening. +</p> +<p> +"I will take you back to the port. You cannot go home—wherever you +live—to-night. In the morning you can go over with Ben Craddock on +the stage to Paulmouth." +</p> +<p> +"I won't!" The girl's determination was roused. There was a stubborn +streak in her character that would make her a bitter antagonist. +Tunis, as well as Sheila, realized this. +</p> +<p> +"All right," said the captain of the <i>Seamew</i> calmly. "Then I'll get +you a place to stay down in the port. Or I shall have to see the +justice of the peace and have you committed for your own safety." +</p> +<p> +"You don't dare!" cried Ida May again. +</p> +<p> +"You tempt me too far, young woman," he said sternly, "and you'll +find just how much I dare. Will you come along with me now and +behave yourself?" +</p> +<p> +"That's the ticket, Tunis," muttered Cap'n Ira. "Put her where she +belongs." +</p> +<p> +"So my own folks turn me out, do they?" cried Ida May, hatefully, +staring at the two old people. "If anybody is crazy it is those +two," and she pointed to the Balls. "Take in a drab like that girl +and throw <i>me</i> out. Why, I believe I've seen her before. Somehow, +she looks familiar," she added, her sharp gaze fixed on Sheila +again. "Well, wherever it was, she was up to no good, I'll be +bound." +</p> +<p> +"Are you coming with me willingly, and now?" put in Tunis more +harshly. "You are taking a chance, young woman, in talking this +way." +</p> +<p> +"Oh, she's got <i>you</i> going. That's plain to be seen! I thought you +was a nice fellow. But I guess you're like other sailors. I always +heard they was a bad lot—running after women—" +</p> +<p> +"Will you come without any more words?" interrupted Tunis grimly. +</p> +<p> +"I'll have to go back to the town, I suppose. But remember! This +ain't the end of this," she weakly blustered. +</p> +<p> +"This your bag?" said Tunis calmly, picking up Ida May's satchel. +"All right. We'll go." +</p> +<p> +He did not attempt to look at Sheila again, nor at Cap'n Ira and +Prudence. He walked behind Ida May, but rather hustled her out of +the door. She might have cast back some final defiance, but he gave +her no chance. +</p> +<p> +It was almost twilight when they went out at the kitchen door. They +left the trio in the sitting room speechless for the moment. But +Sheila Macklin's speechlessness arose through different thoughts +from those of the Balls. +</p> +<p> +The girl left behind realized that this almost unexpected outcome +was but the momentary triumph of falsehood. +</p> +<a name="2HCH0022"><!-- H2 anchor --></a> + +<div style="height: 4em;"><br /><br /><br /><br /></div> + +<h2> + CHAPTER XXII +</h2> +<h3> + A WAY OUT +</h3> +<p> +"Ida May, you'd better sit down. You look like you'd had a stroke," +declared the captain. +</p> +<p> +"Why wouldn't she, the dear child?" cried Prudence. "What do you +suppose is the matter with that girl? Is she crazy?" +</p> +<p> +"Crazy ain't no name for it," her husband rejoined. "Her top-hamper +is all askew, I cal'late. I never see the beat." +</p> +<p> +But just now Sheila could not endure any discussion of the strange +girl. She rose as quickly as she had seated herself. +</p> +<p> +"I must fix supper," she said briskly. "You sit still, Aunt +Prudence. You're flustered, I can see. There is nothing for you to +do." +</p> +<p> +"That's right," put in Cap'n Ira. "Get a bite ready against Tunis +comes back. He'll want something fillin' after handling that crazy +gal." +</p> +<p> +He winked at Prudence and nudged her. The outstanding incident for +the old man was the unmistakable signs Tunis and Sheila had given +that they were in love with each other. +</p> +<p> +"What did I tell ye when that gal first come here?" whispered Cap'n +Ira hoarsely, when the girl had left the room. "I knowed that the +hull generation here on the Cape hadn't been struck blind, not by a +jugful! And it's evident to my mind, Prudence, that Tunis Latham has +had his eyes pretty wide open from the first." +</p> +<p> +"Oh! I hope—it can't be that Ida May would leave us," murmured +Prudence. "I don't mean to be selfish." +</p> +<p> +"Looks like we could get another gal easy enough if we wanted her," +remarked the old man, with some bitterness. "I swan, Prue! S'pose +Ida May had turned out to be the sort of a gal that flyaway critter +is? We are blessed; we certainly are." And he treated himself to a +liberal pinch of snuff. +</p> +<p> +Sheila did not wish to hear the two old people talk about the real +Ida May Bostwick. When Tunis took the girl away it was an enormous +relief. Of that she was quite sure. The malevolent attitude of the +frustrated Ida May was sufficient to frighten anybody. +</p> +<p> +Shelia was positive enough that, as Ida May had promised, the matter +was not ended. That venomous girl would not be content to leave Big +Wreck Cove without making a further attempt—perhaps many—to +establish herself in her right identity and in what she considered +her rightful place with the Balls. +</p> +<p> +Supper was late that evening. They were only just seated at the +table when Tunis returned. +</p> +<p> +"Come on, boy," said Cap'n Ira. "There's a place set for you. Tell +us what you did with that crazy girl." +</p> +<p> +Sheila was busy between the stove and the table and did not come to +the side of the captain of the <i>Seamew</i> as he took the chair +indicated. He was not smiling as usual, but neither did he seem +alarmed. He replied to the questions of the old people with +tranquillity. +</p> +<p> +"I did not advise her to go to the Burchell House," Tunis said. "You +know what a talker Sally Burchell is. I remember that Mrs. Pauling +took boarders in the summer, and I went to her with that girl." +</p> +<p> +"You mean Zeb's mother?" asked Prudence. "Well, she'll take care of +her, I guess. And Zeb is strong and willing. If she gets crazy in +the night, they ought to be able to hold her." +</p> +<p> +A faint smile flickered for a moment about Tunis Latham's stern +lips. +</p> +<p> +"I don't guess she will act up so very bad with strangers." +</p> +<p> +"I swan! We was strangers enough to her, it would seem," exclaimed +Cap'n Ira. +</p> +<p> +"But she seems to consider that you ought not to be," Tunis pointed +out. +</p> +<p> +"Never heard of such a thing!" muttered the old man. +</p> +<p> +"I would have been glad to get her out of town this very night," +Tunis observed quietly. "But it could not be done. She is convinced +that she has what she calls 'rights,' and she proposes to remain and +fight for them." +</p> +<p> +"I swan!" +</p> +<p> +"You will have to be firm with her. I explained to Zeb's mother what +we thought was the matter with her. And I'll try to find her +friends. She says she comes from Boston." +</p> +<p> +"Goodness gracious gallop!" exclaimed the old woman, more angry than +frightened now. "She certainly can't stay here and tell those awful +things she was saying about Ida May." +</p> +<p> +"I don't really see how we are going to stop her, right at first," +Tunis rejoined. "Of course, if she continues to come up here and +bother you, you can have her arrested." +</p> +<p> +"Oh!" gasped Sheila. +</p> +<p> +"Now, gal," said Cap'n Ira firmly, "don't you let your tender heart +deceive you. That crazy critter ain't worth worrying about. She +shan't be hurt. But I won't have her coming round here frightening +you and Prudence. No, sir!" +</p> +<p> +"Quite right," said Tunis, agreeing. +</p> +<p> +"Oh, Tunis!" murmured the girl. +</p> +<p> +"But she will make talk. No doubt she will make talk," said Prudence +in a worried tone. "We ought to stop her, somehow, from telling such +things about our Ida May." +</p> +<p> +"Does she want money?" asked Cap'n Ira gruffly. "She talked as +though she did." +</p> +<p> +"I think to offer her money would be the very worst possible way of +shutting her up," said Tunis. "She wants to come here and live and +be accepted as your niece." +</p> +<p> +"I never did!" gasped Prudence. +</p> +<p> +"She says nothing else will suit her. She seems to think she can +prove what she had claimed. I think the best thing to do is to let +her try it." +</p> +<p> +Sheila could not eat. She merely stared from one to the other of the +three and listened to the discussion. In no way could she see a +shadow of escape from ultimate disaster; yet she saw that Tunis was +determined to fight it out on this line, to deny the stranger's +claim and hold to what had already been gained for the girl in +possession! +</p> +<p> +"Well," Prudence said, with a sigh, "I can see plainly it is going +to stir up a puddle of muddy water. Unless she says or does +something that makes the authorities take her and put her away, +there will be them that will believe her—or half believe her." +</p> +<p> +"Let 'em talk," growled Cap'n Ira. "'Twon't be the first time Big +Wreck Cove folks got a mouthful to chew." +</p> +<p> +"But it will hurt Ida May," said Prudence, her voice trembling, as +she squeezed the girl's hand and held it. +</p> +<p> +"'Sticks and stones may break my bones, but names will never hurt +me,'" began Cap'n Ira. Then he broke off in anger when he saw the +girl's face, and exclaimed: "But, I swan! They'll keep you dodging, +and that's a fact! Ought to be some way of shutting her up, Tunis." +</p> +<p> +"I don't know how that is going to be done. Not just at first, +anyway. Perhaps something will turn up. And, anyway, she hasn't +begun to talk yet." +</p> +<p> +"It's like being tied down to one o' them railroad tracks and +waiting for the fast express to come along and crunch ye," grumbled +the old man. "I know how Ida May feels. But you keep a stiff upper +lip, my gal. You've got plenty of friends that won't listen to any +such crazy notions as that other gal's got in her noodle." +</p> +<p> +In this manner the old folks comforted themselves in part. But +nothing that was said could comfort Sheila. Tunis smoked a pipe with +Cap'n Ira after supper, while the girl cleared off the table and +washed and dried the dishes. Then he got her outside just after he +had bidden Cap'n Ira and Prudence good night. +</p> +<p> +They walked away silently from the kitchen door into the deep murk +of a starless night. The moaning of a rising sea upon the outer +reefs was the requiem of Sheila's hopes. One thing, she saw clearly, +she must do. If she remained and fought for her place with the +Balls, she must stand alone. Whether or not she held her place, she +must not allow Tunis to be linked with her in this situation. As she +slipped deeper and deeper into the morass, she could not cling to +him and drag him as well into infamy and disgrace. +</p> +<p> +Away from the house, fully out of earshot from the kitchen, she +halted. Tunis had taken her hand in his warm, encouraging grasp. She +let it remain, but she did not return his pressure. +</p> +<p> +"Dear, this is dreadful," he whispered, "I know. But leave it to me. +I'll find some way out." +</p> +<p> +"There is no way out, Tunis," she said confidently. +</p> +<p> +"Cat's-foot! Don't say that," he cried in exasperation. "There is +always a way out of every jam." +</p> +<p> +"This girl will do one of two things," said Sheila firmly. "Either +she will prove her claim, or she will give up and go back to Boston. +You know that." +</p> +<p> +"She'll fight hard, I guess" he admitted. +</p> +<p> +"Either way, Tunis," the girl pursued, "there is bound to be much +doubt cast upon my character—upon <i>me</i>. If the truth becomes known, +I am utterly lost. If it is hushed up, I must go on living a +lie—if I stay here." +</p> +<p> +"Don't talk that way!" he exclaimed gruffly. "Of course you'll stay +here. If not with the Balls, then with me." +</p> +<p> +"Stop!" she begged him. "Wait! I am going to state the matter +plainly as it is. We can no longer dodge it. This is the <i>truth</i> +which we have been trying to ignore. I have not been foolish only; I +have been wicked. And my greatest sin was in allowing you to link +yourself with me so closely." +</p> +<p> +"What do you mean?" he gasped. +</p> +<p> +"Just what I say. It was wrong for me to allow you to be friendly +with me before the Balls and other people. I should not have gone to +your house last Sunday. I should not have allowed you to introduce +me to your Aunt Lucretia." +</p> +<p> +"Ida May!" +</p> +<p> +"That is not my name," she whispered. "Let there be no further +mockery between you and me, Tunis. I have been wicked; <i>we</i> have +been wicked. We must pay for what we have done. There is no escaping +that. I must not keep you as my lover, Tunis. I was wrong—oh! so +wrong—last Sunday. Reckless, wicked, drifting with a current, I +scarcely knew where." +</p> +<p> +"My dear girl—" +</p> +<p> +"Now I see the rocks ahead, Tunis. I can shut my eyes to them no +longer. Disaster is at hand. You shall not be overwhelmed, as I may +be overwhelmed at any time. I will not have your ruin on my +conscience!" +</p> +<p> +"My ruin?" he repeated. "Ridiculous! My dear girl, you are talking +like a mad woman. You cannot snap the tie that binds us. You cannot +shoulder all the responsibility for this situation. The sin is as +much mine as yours, if it is a sin. I'm in it as deep as you are." +</p> +<p> +"You must not be," she cried. "You can escape. You <i>shall</i> escape." +</p> +<p> +"Suppose I refuse to do so?" And he said it confidently. +</p> +<p> +"Tunis, I have thought of a way out for you," she cried suddenly. +</p> +<p> +"I don't want to hear it." +</p> +<p> +"But you must hear it!" +</p> +<p> +"I will not accept it." +</p> +<p> +"You cannot help yourself," she told him firmly. "Oh, I know what I +am about! You may be angry; you will perhaps be laughed at a bit. +But to be laughed at is better than to be scorned." +</p> +<p> +"What under the sun do you mean, girl?" he exclaimed, both startled +and horrified by her determined words. "Do you think I would desert +you in the middle of the current and swim ashore?" +</p> +<p> +"But I will desert you. I am determined to desert you. I refuse to +cling to you, a millstone about your neck to drag you down. Ah, +Tunis, whether or not that girl makes her claim good, what you and +I had hoped for cannot be! An explanation must be made of your part +in this frightful affair. That, in itself, must separate you and +me." +</p> +<p> +"What explanation? There is no such explanation that can be made. I +glory in the fact that we are together in this, Sheila, and whatever +comes of it, we stand or fall together!" +</p> +<p> +"Ah, Tunis, you <i>are</i> a man! I knew that before. But nothing you can +say will bend my determination. I withdraw all I said to you Sunday +and on Monday morning before you went away. I positively withdraw +all I promised you. It cannot be, Tunis. We cannot look forward to +any happiness when we began so unwisely." +</p> +<p> +"'Unwisely?' What do you mean?" demanded the captain of the +<i>Seamew</i>. "Chance threw us together. <i>Providence</i>, I tell you! I +needed you fully as much as you needed me. And surely these poor old +folks needed you, Sheila. Consider what you have been to them." +</p> +<p> +"It makes no difference in our association, Tunis," she said, +shaking her head. +</p> +<p> +"Why, that night we talked upon that bench on Boston Common, had I +dared propose such a thing, I would have said: 'Come and marry me +now.' I would, indeed, Sheila." +</p> +<p> +The girl clenched her hands and drew in a breath. She raised her +face to his, and in the darkness Tunis Latham saw it shine with a +light from within. A great and desperate longing filled her voice +when she cried: +</p> +<p> +"Oh, why didn't you do just that, Tunis Latham? I would have said +'yes.' And all this—<i>this</i> need not have been." +</p> +<p> +Swiftly she caught him around the neck, pressed her lips fiercely to +his, while the tears rained down her face, wetting his face as well. +Then she was gone. He heard her sobbing wildly in the dark. He was +alone. +</p> +<a name="2HCH0023"><!-- H2 anchor --></a> + +<div style="height: 4em;"><br /><br /><br /><br /></div> + +<h2> + CHAPTER XXIII +</h2> +<h3> + A CALL UNANNOUNCED +</h3> +<p> +Cap'n Ira and Prudence did not see Sheila again that evening, for +she slipped in by the kitchen door after they had gone into the +sitting room and went up to her own chamber. They heard her mount +the stairs and marked the tread of her light feet overhead. +</p> +<p> +The girl was not thinking of the old people just then. Their need +entered into her determination to remain if she could. But this +night was one time when Sheila Macklin thought almost altogether of +herself and her personal difficulties. +</p> +<p> +Her present and acknowledged love for the young captain of the +<i>Seamew</i> had been of no mushroom growth. She might not say, as Tunis +did, that she had fallen in love at first sight. But very soon after +meeting the young shipmaster from Big Wreck Cove she had appreciated +his full value and realized that he was far and away the best man +she had ever met. +</p> +<p> +Indeed, in that moment when Tunis Latham had caught Sheila in his +arms as she had slipped in front of the restaurant on Scollay +Square, the girl's mind had been stabbed through by such a poignant +feeling, such a desire to know more about him, that she was actually +frightened by the strength of this concern. +</p> +<p> +She knelt before her north window with the frosty air breathing in +like a balm upon her fevered body, and strained her eyes for a +glimpse of the light that always burned in Tunis' window when he was +at home. It was a long time before she saw it. For Tunis Latham had +walked about the fields a long time after she left him, and it was +late when he finally entered the big brown house behind the cedars. +</p> +<p> +Aunt Lucretia, who had been expecting him, after she had seen the +<i>Seamew</i> heading for the cove that afternoon, was still sitting in +the kitchen when her nephew entered. Composed as the man's features +were, there was still an expression upon them which startled the +woman. It brought her out of her chair, even if it did not bring an +audible question to her lips. +</p> +<p> +"I was delayed, Aunt 'Cretia," he said. "No; nothing new about the +<i>Seamew</i> or about business. It's—there's trouble up to the Balls'." +</p> +<p> +He knew her first thought would be for the health of the two old +people, and he had to explain a little more. +</p> +<p> +"They are all right—Cap'n Ira and Aunt Prue. It's about Sh—Ida +May." +</p> +<p> +"Tunis! Nothing has happened to the girl?" +</p> +<p> +He must take Aunt Lucretia into his confidence—at least, to some +extent. Just how much could he tell her? How much dared he tell her? +</p> +<p> +From somebody, he felt sure, she would hear about this other girl +who had appeared to claim kinship with the Balls and demand that +Sheila give over to her the place she had with Cap'n Ira and +Prudence. For Ida May Bostwick was going to talk. Tunis knew that +well enough. Although he had warned her sternly that evening against +talking, he knew well enough that after the girl had recovered from +her first fright she would spit out the venomous tale that she had +already concocted in her mind about Sheila and himself. +</p> +<p> +He could not bring himself to confess to Aunt Lucretia all the truth +about his first meeting and subsequent association with Sheila. +Indeed, he hoped he would never be obliged to tell it. +</p> +<p> +But he must tell Aunt Lucretia nothing but the truth. He did this by +beginning at the coming of the real Ida May Bostwick to the Ball +house that afternoon and her claim to Sheila's place with the +family. As he told the story, Aunt Lucretia gazed upon him so +fixedly, so intently, that the captain of the <i>Seamew</i> was +disturbed. He could not understand her expression. +</p> +<p> +Perhaps he told the story haltingly of how Ida May had been turned +out and he had taken her back to the port and housed her with Mrs. +Pauling. He made few comments, however; he left Aunt Lucretia to +draw her own conclusions. It was not until he had quite finished +that she spoke again. +</p> +<p> +"That crazy girl, is she—" +</p> +<p> +"I don't know that she's crazy," said Tunis gruffly. +</p> +<p> +"It would seem so. Does she look like Ida May?" +</p> +<p> +Tunis started. The question seemed to probe into a matter that he +had not before considered. But he shook his head negatively. +</p> +<p> +"Nothing like her," he said. "Reddish hair. Brown eyes—or kind of +brown. When she's maddest there are green lights in 'em. Not nice +eyes at all." +</p> +<p> +Aunt Lucretia nodded and said no more upon that point. What her +question had dealt with in her own mind, Tunis could not guess. She +watched his face, now pale and sadly drawn. Then she placed a firm +hand upon his arm to arouse his attention. +</p> +<p> +"Tunis! This—this girl at Cap'n Ira's is something to you?" +</p> +<p> +"My God! Aunt 'Cretia, she's <i>everything</i> to me," he groaned, his +reticence breaking down. +</p> +<p> +"Is she a good girl, Tunis?" +</p> +<p> +"As good as gold. On my honor, there was never a nobler or better +girl. I—I love her!" The words burst from him now in a great gush +of emotion. These Lathams, when they did break up, often ran over. +"I can't tell you the hold she has on me. If I lose her through this +or any other cause, I'm done for! +</p> +<p> +"She thinks she isn't good enough for me. She is afraid of this girl +who claims her place. She fears that I am going to be looked down on +if I have anything more to do with her. And I tell you, if she was +not the girl I know her to be, I would still cling to her. I must +have her. I tell you, I must!" +</p> +<p> +Tears came to his eyes. His voice, hoarse and broken, carried to the +woman's heart the knowledge that the one and overpowering passion of +the man's life was rampant within him. What or whoever the girl at +the Ball homestead might be, Tunis Latham was bound to her by ties +which could not be broken. +</p> +<p> +She did the thing most generous; quite in accordance with her +unselfish disposition. She stepped nearer to her nephew and put her +arms about his neck. She kissed him. She gave no further evidence of +doubt or disapproval. Indeed, when he left her to go to his room, he +was assured that, however the world might look upon him, Aunt +Lucretia was his supporter. +</p> +<p> +The girl in the Ball house saw the glimmer of his lamp that night +for a very few minutes. There was a day's work before him, and +Tunis Latham, like other hard-working men, must have his sleep. +</p> +<p> +Sheila kept the night watches alone. She went to bed, but the lids +of her eyes could not close. Sleep was as far from her as heaven +itself. She went over the entire happenings of the previous +afternoon and evening with care, giving to each incident its +rightful importance, judging the weight of each word said, each look +granted her. Did the Balls suspect her in the least? Had the story +Ida May Bostwick told made any real impression upon their minds? +</p> +<p> +No! She finally told herself that thus far she was secure. Ida May +must bring something besides assertion to influence the minds of the +two old people. And if she had had documentary proof in her +possession yesterday, the new claimant would have shown it. +</p> +<p> +Nobody carries about with him birth certificate or memoranda of +identification and relationship. If Ida May had been warned of what +she was to meet at the old house on Wreckers' Head, without doubt +she would have tried to equip herself in some such way for the +interview. +</p> +<p> +It might be very difficult for the girl to obtain any evidence that +would assure the Balls of her actual relationship to them. Sheila +had foreseen this possibility from the first. She was still quite +determined to hold on, to make the other girl do all the talking +and all the proving. She herself would rest upon the foundation of +her establishment in the place Ida May Bostwick claimed. +</p> +<p> +The latter certainly could not know Sheila's true history. Sheila +was as much a stranger to Ida May as she had been to the Balls when +Tunis had brought her to Wreckers' Head. +</p> +<p> +And then, suddenly, a thought seared through the girl's mind. +Something that Ida May Bostwick had said just before Tunis hurried +her out of the house! +</p> +<p> +"I believe I've seen her before. Somehow, she looks familiar." +</p> +<p> +These two sentences, spoken in Ida May's sneering way, had made +little impression on the excited Sheila at the time they were +spoken. But now they made the girl's heart beat wildly. +</p> +<p> +Suppose it were true! Suppose Ida May should really remember who +Sheila was? It was not impossible that the girl from the lace +counter of Hoskin & Marl's knew of Sheila's disgrace. +</p> +<p> +Sleep was not within her reach. The long hours of the night dragged +past. Dimly dawn crept along the dark line of the horizon, circling +all her world as far as Sheila could see it from her bed. But it was +still dark below her north window when she caught the sound of a +familiar step, the crunch of gravel under Tunis' boot. +</p> +<p> +She lay shaking for a moment, holding her breath. She heard the tiny +pebbles rattle upon the window sill. For the first time she had not +been downstairs to greet Tunis on his way to the port. Could she let +him go now without a word? +</p> +<p> +But she must! She must be firm. +</p> +<p> +Nevertheless, she slipped softly out of bed. The pebbles rattled +again. She caught up a dark veil from her bureau and wrapped it +about her face. She crept to the north window. The veil would mask +her face so that he could not distinguish it in the shadow. +</p> +<p> +But she could look down upon him. She saw him standing there so +firmly—so determinedly. His was no nature to give over easily +anything he had set his heart on. All the more reason why Sheila +should not appear to weaken. +</p> +<p> +She crouched there breathlessly as he tossed up more pebbles. Then +she heard him sigh. Then he turned slowly away, and his feet dragged +off along the path, and he went out of sight. +</p> +<p> +The girl crept back into bed. She hid her face in the pillow and dry +sobs racked her frame. This was the hardest of all the hard things +she had to do. She had wounded Tunis to the heart! +</p> +<a name="2HCH0024"><!-- H2 anchor --></a> + +<div style="height: 4em;"><br /><br /><br /><br /></div> + +<h2> + CHAPTER XXIV +</h2> +<h3> + EUNEZ PARETA +</h3> +<p> +Tunis Latham went down the track toward the port as the dull dawn +glimmered behind him in a frame of mind so dismal and despairing +that more than Sheila Macklin would have pitied the captain of the +<i>Seamew</i>. Against the tide of emotions which now surged in his heart +he scarcely had the energy to battle. +</p> +<p> +Never had he felt less like approaching his usual tasks as commander +and owner of the schooner and facing the trials he knew would meet +him upon this coming trip to Boston. Freight was waiting upon Luiz +Wharf, and he would be able to pick up the remainder of his cargo at +Hollis, which, with the wind as it was now, he could reach that +afternoon by four o'clock. Given good luck, he would warp into the +T-wharf next day before nightfall. +</p> +<p> +The uncertain point which troubled him most was the matter of the +crew of the <i>Seamew</i>. The Portygees remaining with him—even Johnny +Lark, the cook—had been in a most unhappy temper all the way back +from Boston on the last trip. Tunis could depend upon Mate Chapin, +Boatswain Newbegin, and 'Rion Latham himself to stick by the +schooner. For, in spite of his quarreling and long tongue about a +hoodoo, Tunis thought that his cousin was a man above any real fear +of the very superstitions he talked about. +</p> +<p> +But four men could not safely work the schooner to Boston, nor in +season to keep his contract with the consignees of freight which the +<i>Seamew</i> carried. Troubled as he had been at Boston, and delayed, +Tunis wished now that he had remained there even longer while he +made search for and engaged a proper crew for the schooner. He had +better, perhaps, have paid the fare of the Portygees back to Big +Wreck Cove and so saved quarreling with them. +</p> +<p> +When he had been about to leave the schooner the afternoon before, +the foolish fellows had sent a spokesman to him asking if he was +sure the <i>Seamew</i> was not the old <i>Marlin B.</i>, the Salem fishing +craft which had been acclaimed "the murder ship" from the Banks to +the Cape by all coasting seamen several years before. To answer this +question rasped the pride of the owner of the <i>Seamew</i>. For a seaman +to ask a question of one of the officers—a question of such a +nature—was flaunting authority in any case. +</p> +<p> +Although Captain Latham considered the question ridiculous and +utterly unworthy of a serious answer, he had replied to it. +</p> +<p> +He had told the sailor that to the best of his knowledge and belief +the old <i>Marlin B.</i> was several thousand miles away from the Cape at +that time, and that the <i>Seamew</i> was herself and no other. In any +case, he had said he had no personal fear of sailing in the schooner +as long as he could keep a decent crew of seamen aboard her, but +that he would stand for no more foolishness from his present crew. +</p> +<p> +Tunis had spoken quite boldly. But, to tell the truth, he did not +know where or how he was to sign another crew and a cook if the +Portygees deserted the schooner. Not at Big Wreck Cove. He had heard +too many whispers about the curse upon his schooner from people of +all classes in the port. Even Joshua Jones, who was supposed to be a +pretty hard-headed merchant, had been influenced by the story 'Rion +Latham had first told about the <i>Seamew</i>. He and his father had +hesitated to give Tunis an order for another lot of freight now +waiting on the dock at Boston. They wanted to be sure that the +schooner was not going to sail from the latter port undermanned. +Whether or not the Joneses believed in the hoodoo, they did know +that if the <i>Seamew</i> sailed without a proper crew their insurance on +the freight would be invalid. +</p> +<p> +So the farther Tunis walked down toward the wharves, the more these +thoughts assailed and overcame his mind, to the exclusion even of +the tragic happenings back there on the Head the night before. He +could not consider Ida May Bostwick—not even Sheila—now. The +schooner, with her affairs, was a harsh mistress. His all was +invested in the <i>Seamew</i>, and business had not been so good thus far +that he could withdraw with a profit. Far from that! There were +financial reefs and shoals on either hand, and that fact the young +skipper knew right well. +</p> +<p> +As he drew near to Portygee Town, he glanced toward the open door of +Pareta's cottage and saw the girl, Eunez, seated upon the step. She +did not come out to meet him, as had been her wont, but she hailed +him as he approached—though in a sharper tone than usual. +</p> +<p> +"So Captain Tunis Latham has still another girl? He is a lion with +the ladies, it is plain to be seen. Ah!" +</p> +<p> +"You don't mind, do you, Eunez?" replied the young man, trying to +assume his usual careless manner of speech. "You have the reputation +of being pretty popular with the fellows yourself." +</p> +<p> +"Ah!" she said again, tossing her head. "Who is this new girl I see +you walk with last evening, Tunis?" +</p> +<p> +"She is a stranger in Big Wreck Cove," was his noncommittal reply. +</p> +<p> +"So I see. They come and go for you, Tunis Latham. You are the +fickle man, eh?" +</p> +<p> +"Tut, tut, Eunez!" he laughed. "Those who live in glass houses +should not throw stones. How about yourself? Didn't I see you going +to church with Johnny Lark last Sunday? And then, in the afternoon, +you had another cavalier along the beaches. Oh, I saw you!" +</p> +<p> +The color flashed into her dark cheek, and her black eyes reflected +some unexplained anger. Beside her, leaning against the house wall, +was the handle end of a broken oar. Tunis chanced to mark that there +was a streak of dull blue paint on it. +</p> +<p> +"You have sharp eyes. Tunis Latham," hissed the girl. "Not all of +the Lathams are too proud to walk with Eunez Pareta—or too proud to +think of her. But <i>you</i>—bah!" +</p> +<p> +She got up suddenly, turned her back upon him, and entered the +cottage. Tunis walked on, just a little puzzled. +</p> +<p> +Horry Newbegin sat on the rail of the schooner smoking, and +evidently looking anxiously for the appearance of the skipper. There +was no smoke rising from the galley chimney. +</p> +<p> +"What's the matter with cooky?" demanded Tunis briskly. +</p> +<p> +"The dratted Portygee's gone off to Paulmouth. He left word that he +couldn't sail with us this trip." +</p> +<p> +"Then he'll never sail on the <i>Seamew</i> again," declared the skipper +grimly. +</p> +<p> +"And <i>that</i> won't bother him none," said the boatswain gloomily. +</p> +<p> +"I'll get breakfast for all hands," said Tunis. "I'm not above that. +Where are the hands?" +</p> +<p> +"As far as I know, Cap'n Tunis, they are where Johnny Lark is. +Haven't shown up, and don't mean to," said Horry doggedly. +</p> +<p> +Tunis Latham cursed his delinquent crew soundly. The rage which +flamed into his eyes, added to the pallor of his face, made an ugly +mask indeed. It was not often that he gave way to such an outburst, +but Horry had seen the same deadly anger displayed on occasion by +Captain Randall Latham. +</p> +<p> +"Where's Mr. Chapin?" +</p> +<p> +"He was here before you, Cap'n Tunis. He's gone up to town to see if +he can drum up some hands." +</p> +<p> +"Where's 'Rion?" +</p> +<p> +"He says he'll be here by the time you get ready to wheel the stuff +aboard." And the old man pointed with his pipe-stem toward the open +door of the shed. +</p> +<p> +"Ha!" ejaculated Tunis. "Feared I'd set him to work, eh? Well, +they're all dogs together—the whole litter of 'em. I'll make the +coffee. Tell me when Mr. Chapin comes. I suppose we can hire enough +hands to get the freight aboard." +</p> +<p> +"But we can't work the schooner with three men, Cap'n Tunis; nor +yet with four." +</p> +<p> +"Don't I know that? I'll get a crew if I have to shanghai them," +promised Tunis grimly. +</p> +<p> +Mason Chapin came along with half a dozen fellows after a while. One +was a negro who could cook. But there was no breakfast worthy of the +name served aboard the <i>Seamew</i> that morning. They were late already +in getting to work. +</p> +<p> +It was the middle of the forenoon before the schooner left port. +There was a crew, such as it was. But Mason Chapin had been obliged +to promise them extra pay to get them aboard the schooner at all. +</p> +<p> +When 'Rion Latham slipped aboard finally, half the loading of the +cargo had been accomplished. Tunis himself was keeping tally. The +skipper beckoned his cousin to him. +</p> +<p> +"'Rion," he said, "you certainly are about as useless a fellow as I +ever had anything to do with. These Portygees who have left me in +the lurch have some excuse for their actions. They are ignorant and +superstitious. You know mighty well that the stuff you have been +repeating about the schooner being cursed is nothing but lies and +old-women's gossip! You've done it to make trouble. I ought to have +had booted you overboard at the start." +</p> +<p> +"Aw—you—" +</p> +<p> +"Close your hatch!" ejaculated Tunis. "And keep it closed. I'm +talking, and I won't take any of your slack in return. I am not +married to you, thanks be! I think you've got pretty near enough of +me, and I'm sure I have of you, 'Rion. I give you warning—" +</p> +<p> +"Oh! You do?" snarled 'Rion, his ugly face aflame. +</p> +<p> +"Yes. I give you <i>fair</i> warning. When the <i>Seamew</i> gets back here to +Big Wreck Cove again, you're through! You can take your dunnage +ashore now if you like, but you go without pay if you do. Or you can +do your work properly on this trip and return. <i>Then</i> you get +through. Take your choice." +</p> +<p> +He expected 'Rion would leave the <i>Seamew</i> then and there. Tunis +half hoped, indeed, that he would do so. But to his surprise, Orion +suddenly snatched the book and pencil out of the skipper's hand and, +growling that "he'd stay the voyage out," shuffled away to the rail +and began taking tally of the barrels and cases being hauled aboard. +</p> +<p> +Working smartly, the new crew got the <i>Seamew</i> under sail and out of +the cove two hours later. The wind held in a favorable quarter, and +they reached Hollis betimes. There they finished the schooner's +loading, and about dark went out to sea on a long tack and got +plenty of sea room before they made the short leg of it. +</p> +<p> +Supper was the first good meal they had had aboard that day. After +everything was cleaned up, the black cook joined the crew forward. +In whispers the men talked over both the skipper and his schooner. +The story of the curse was known to everybody in Big Wreck Cove by +this time, and none of these new men was ignorant of it. They had, +however, merely used it as a means of getting more pay than ordinary +seamen were getting in such vessels. +</p> +<p> +"'Tain't nothing as I can see," one of the older men said, "that is +likely to hurt us. It's a curse on the schooner, not on us folks +that warn't aboard her when she run under that other boat. And as +long as we keep away from the spot where the poor devils was +drowned, we ain't likely to see no ha'nts." +</p> +<p> +The cook's eyes rolled tremendously. +</p> +<p> +"You thinks likely this yere is that <i>Marlin B.</i>?" +</p> +<p> +"Bah!" exclaimed one, whose name was Carney. "It's only talk. Maybe +she ain't that schooner at all. Mr. Chapin says she ain't." +</p> +<p> +"Is that so?" sneered the voice of 'Rion Latham behind them. "You +fellows don't want to believe what the skipper and the mate say. It +ain't to their benefit for you to believe the truth. Look here!" +</p> +<p> +"What's that?" asked Carney, looking at the article Orion pushed +forward in the dark. "A broken oar?" +</p> +<p> +"That's what it is. I found it only this morning in the hold, when I +was helping stow the last of the cargo. It was wedged in behind a +timber of her frame." +</p> +<p> +"Well? What of it?" +</p> +<p> +"Strike a match somebody. See what's burned into that handle?" +</p> +<p> +Their heads were clustered about the faint glimmer of the match +flame. But the light was sufficient to reveal what 'Rion pointed +out. Burned more or less unevenly were the letters M A R L I N B. +</p> +<p> +"What do you think of that?" exclaimed 'Rion. "Would that broken oar +be aboard of this dratted schooner if she wasn't the <i>Marlin B.</i> +painted over and a new name give her? What do you fellows think of +it?" +</p> +<p> +There was silence in the group when the match flame died out. It was +finally the negro cook who made comment: +</p> +<p> +"Lawsy me!" he groaned. "Ef I had only de faith of Peter I'd up an' +walk ashore from dis here cussed schooner right now!" +</p> +<a name="2HCH0025"><!-- H2 anchor --></a> + +<div style="height: 4em;"><br /><br /><br /><br /></div> + +<h2> + CHAPTER XXV +</h2> +<h3> + TO LOVE AND BE LOVED +</h3> +<p> +The girl whom Cap'n Ira Ball found in the kitchen of the old house +on Wreckers' Head when he hobbled out of his bedroom the next +morning was not the Ida May he had been wont to find of late, ready +with his shaving materials, hot water, and a clean and voluminous +checked apron to be tucked in about the neckband of his shirt. +</p> +<p> +All was in readiness as usual, but the girl herself was smileless, +heavy-eyed, and slack of step. That she had suffered both in body +and mind since the day before, the least observant person in the +world would have easily comprehended. +</p> +<p> +"I swan, Ida May!" gasped the old man. "Whatever's happened to you?" +</p> +<p> +"I did not sleep well, Uncle Ira," she told him faintly. +</p> +<p> +"Sleep? Why you look as though you'd been standing double watch for +a week of Sundays! I never see the beat! Has that crazy gal coming +here set ye all aback this way?" +</p> +<p> +"I—I am afraid so." +</p> +<p> +"'Tis a shame. I won't stand to have that gal come here again. +Prudence has been starting and crying out all night, too. She's as +much upset as you be. I cal'late you don't feel like shaving of me +this morning, Ida May." +</p> +<p> +"Oh, yes, I do, Uncle Ira! Don't mind how I look." +</p> +<p> +"But I do mind," he grumbled. "Folks' looks is a great p'int. I've +always held to it. Talk about a singed cat being better than it +looks—I doubt it!" +</p> +<p> +"People of my complexion always look worse after a sleepless night," +explained Sheila, trying to smile at him. +</p> +<p> +"That's a pity, too. And I feel the need of being spruced up a good +deal myself this morning, Ida May," he continued. "D'you see how +straggly my hair is gettin'? Do you think you could trim it a mite?" +</p> +<p> +"Why, of course I can, Uncle Ira," she rejoined cheerfully. +</p> +<p> +"I swan! You be a likely gal, Ida May," said the old man, both +reflectively and gratefully. "What would Prue and me do without you? +And no other girl but just you would have begun to fill the bill o' +lading. That's as sure as sure! See now," he went on, with emphasis, +"suppose you'd been such a one as that half-crazy critter that come +here yesterday! Where'd Prudence and me been with her in the house? +Well!" +</p> +<p> +"She—she may not be as bad as she seemed under those particular +circumstances," Sheila said hesitatingly. "If she had come here—had +come here first and you and Aunt Prue had not known me at all—" +</p> +<p> +"I swan! Don't say no more! Don't say no more, I tell ye!" gasped +Cap'n Ira. "It's bad luck to talk such a way; I do believe it is. +Come on, Ida May. You tackle my hair and let's see what you can do +with it. I know right well you'll make it look better than Prudence +used to do." +</p> +<p> +Cap'n Ira was talking for effect, and the result he wished to +achieve was bringing a smile to Sheila's face and a brighter light +into her eyes, the violet hues of which were far more subdued than +he desired. His success was not marked, but he changed to some +degree the forlorn expression of the girl's countenance, so that +when Prudence appeared in the midst of the operation of shaving, +Sheila could greet the old woman with a tremulous smile. +</p> +<p> +"You deary-dear!" crooned Prudence, with her withered arms about the +strong, young frame of the girl, drawing her close. "I know you've +suffered this night. That mad girl was enough to put us all out o' +kilter. But don't let any thought of her bother you, Ida May. Your +uncle and I love you, and if forty people said you didn't belong +here, we should keep you just the same. Ain't that so, Ira?" +</p> +<p> +"Sure is," declared the captain vigorously. "No two ways about it. +We couldn't get along without Ida May, and I cal'late, the way +things look, that I'd better get that high fence I spoke of built +around this place at once. We're likely to have somebody come here +and carry the gal off almost any time. I can see that danger as +plain as plain!" +</p> +<p> +Prudence laughed, yet there was a catch in her voice too. She kissed +the girl's tear-wet face tenderly. Sheila's heart throbbed so that +she could scarcely go on with the task of shaving Cap'n Ira. How +could she continue to live this lie before two people who were so +infinitely kind to her and who loved her so tenderly? +</p> +<p> +And the girl loved them in return. It was no selfish thought which +held Sheila Macklin here in the old house on Wreckers' Head. She had +put aside all concern for her own personal comfort or ease. Had it +not been for her desire to shield Tunis and continue to aid and +comfort Cap'n Ira and Prudence, she might quickly and quietly have +left the place and thus have escaped all possibility of punishment +for the deception she had practiced. +</p> +<p> +Yes, had these other considerations not been involved, she would +have run away! Although she chanced to have no money just at this +time, she would have left the Ball homestead and Wreckers' Head and +the town itself and walked so far away that nobody who knew her +would ever see her again. She had thought of doing this even as far +back as the time when she was so lonely and miserable in Boston. +Now, she would willingly have become a tramp for the purpose of +getting out of the affliction which enmeshed her. +</p> +<p> +She could not, nevertheless, yield to this temptation. If she ran +away from the Balls and Big Wreck Cove, she would tacitly admit the +truth of all Ida May Bostwick's claims, and possibly involve Tunis +in the wreckage. Therefore she held to her determination of keeping +her place here until she was actually driven forth. +</p> +<p> +As a last resort, having now worked out the detail of that plan in +her mind, she believed she could save Tunis from much calumny if it +became positively necessary for her to depart under this cloud and +abandon her place to the real Ida May. The latter must, however, +come with positive proof of her identity—evidence sufficient to +convince Cap'n Ira and Prudence—before Sheila Macklin would release +her grasp upon what she had obtained by trickery and deceit. +</p> +<p> +Not for a moment did the girl try to excuse to herself what she had +done. In spite of the Balls' need of her, and in spite of Tunis' +love, Sheila did not try to deceive herself with any sophistry about +the end justifying the deed. Such thinking could not satisfy her +now. +</p> +<p> +Sheila's eyes were opened. She beheld before her both the wide and +the narrow way. If she took the pleasanter path, it was with a full +knowledge of what she did. Yet would it be the pleasanter path? She +doubted this. If she continued to fight for a place which was not +hers by right, she must walk for all time in a slippery way. This +claim of the real Ida May might be perennial; the girl might return +again and again to the attack. For years—as long as the Balls lived +and Sheila remained with them—she must be ever on the alert to +defend her position with them. +</p> +<p> +And after the good old people died—what then? Their property here +on the Head and their money would no more belong to Sheila Macklin +than it did now. She shrank in horror from the thought of swindling +the real Ida May out of anything which might legally be hers when +the Balls were gone. Of course, Cap'n Ira and Prudence could will +their property to whom they pleased. Still, Ida May was Prudence's +niece! +</p> +<p> +As the day dragged on, Ida May did not appear, but the old folks +talked about her continually, until Sheila thought she must cry +aloud to them to stop. +</p> +<p> +"The poor thing must be half-witted, of course," Mrs. Ball said +ruminatively. "Can't be otherwise. But she must have known +something about Sarah Honey and her folks." +</p> +<p> +"Seems likely," agreed Cap'n Ira. +</p> +<p> +"Now, you know, Ira, Sarah was an orphan and I was her mother's only +relation—and only that in a kind of a left-handed way, for I wasn't +really her aunt. That branch of the Honeys—Sarah's father's +folks—had all died out. Sarah lived about—kinder from pillar to +post as you might say—till she went to Boston and met Mr. Bostwick. +Isn't that so, Ida May?" +</p> +<p> +"Yes. So I understand," agreed the girl faintly. +</p> +<p> +"Now, you don't remember your mother much, Ida May," pursued +Prudence confidently. "You was too young when she died. And you +being brought up among the Bostwicks, you didn't know much about us +down here on the Cape. But don't you remember any neighbor that +lived near you there in Boston that had a gal something like this +crazy one that come here?" +</p> +<p> +"I swan!" ejaculated Cap'n Ira. "You're coming out strong, old +woman, I do say." +</p> +<p> +Sheila could only shake her head. +</p> +<p> +"Why, see," said Prudence, encouraged by her husband's commendation, +"there might have been a neighbor woman that Sarah—your mother, you +know, Ida May—was close acquainted with. Maybe she used to talk +with this neighbor a good deal about her young days, and how she +lived down here. You know women often gossip that way." +</p> +<p> +"I'll say they do!" put in Cap'n Ira, tapping the knob of his cane. +</p> +<p> +"Well, now," said the old woman, greatly interested in her own idea, +and a little proud of it, "suppose that neighbor had a little girl +who heard all these things Sarah Bostwick might have said. And if +that child's brain wasn't just right—if she was a little +weak-minded, poor thing—what's more reasonable than that she +treasured it all up in her mind and after years, in one of her +spells of weak-mindedness, she got the idea <i>she</i> was Ida May +Bostwick, and determined to come here and visit us!" +</p> +<p> +"I swan, Prudence!" exclaimed Cap'n Ira. "It's like a story-book—a +reg'lar novel." +</p> +<p> +"Well, it might be," said his wife, smiling quite proudly. +</p> +<p> +"Only after all, that gal didn't seem so very weak-minded," muttered +Cap'n Ira. "She seemed more mean and ugly than weak." +</p> +<p> +Sheila had thought somewhat along this line herself. At least, she +knew how weak the real Ida May's story must sound to most people in +the neighborhood, unless the claimant had actual proof of birth and +name to bolster her attempt to win the Balls. There was but a +tenuous thread connecting Ida May with Big Wreck Cove, or any other +part of Cape Cod. The Bostwicks—the girl's immediate family, at +least—were dead. +</p> +<p> +These facts, already gathered by Sheila from Aunt Prudence's +conversation with the neighboring women, were the foundation on +which she had built her desperate hope of keeping up the deception +and thwarting the other girl, no matter how bitterly the latter +might press her claim. +</p> +<p> +Nor was she, Sheila felt, depriving Ida May of anything which the +latter, if she obtained it, would actually prize. The shallow girl +was not the sort of person to appreciate the kindness of the two old +people or give them any comfort and sympathy in return. Why, both +Cap'n Ira and Prudence already shrank from the new claimant! +</p> +<p> +This fact, however, did not cause Sheila, the imposter, to lose +sight of the point that Cap'n Ira and his wife could both be very +stern in attitude and speech toward the evildoer. They made no +compromises with evil. +</p> +<p> +Even the old man, philosophical as he was and wont to look upon most +human frailities with a lenient if not a humorous eye, would not +excuse actual crime. And something very like a crime had been +committed. +</p> +<p> +The day passed without any reappearance of Ida May upon Wreckers' +Head, but just after nightfall and while the supper dishes were +being cleared away, Zebedee Pauling knocked at the kitchen door. All +three of the Ball household looked upon the young fellow +expectantly when he stepped in. +</p> +<p> +"I was just passing by and thought I'd look in and see how you all +were," said Zeb, with his usual shy manner and apologetic smile. +</p> +<p> +"Come in and set down, Zeb," said the captain eagerly. "I cal'late +you've got some news for us." +</p> +<p> +"I don't know," said Zeb thoughtfully, "but what you've got some +news that might satisfy mom and me. That is, about that girl Tunis +brought to the house." +</p> +<p> +"What about her, Zeb?" queried Prudence anxiously. +</p> +<p> +"Mom and I would be glad to know what you know about her," said +Zebedee. "She—she 'pears to have a—a great imagination." +</p> +<p> +"I shouldn't wonder," Cap'n Ira snorted. +</p> +<p> +"She don't act crazy, but she certainly talks crazy," the visitor +went on emphatically. "Why, she says the most ridiculous things +about—about Miss Bostwick!" He bowed and blushed as he spoke the +name and looked penitently toward Sheila. "Why, she declares <i>her</i> +name is Bostwick!" +</p> +<p> +"That's what she done up here," said Cap'n Ira grimly. "I cal'late +she means to kick up a fuss. Is she still stopping with your mother, +Zeb?" +</p> +<p> +"Yes. She paid a week's board money down. I expect mom wouldn't have +taken her, or it, if Tunis hadn't brought her." +</p> +<p> +"That wasn't Tunis' fault," snapped the old man. "He had to get +shet of her somehow. We expect she'll try to make trouble." +</p> +<p> +"Oh, as for that," said Zeb, with some relief, "I don't see, even if +she is your niece, why she should expect you to take her in if you +don't want to!" +</p> +<p> +"She ain't," said Cap'n Ira flatly. "You can take that from me, +Zeb." +</p> +<p> +"Not any relation at all?" +</p> +<p> +"None at all, as far as we know," declared the captain. +</p> +<p> +"Then what does she want to talk the way she does, for?" cried the +young man. "I told mom she was crazy, and now I know she is." +</p> +<p> +"I guess likely," agreed the old man, taking upon himself the burden +of the explanation. "None of us up here ever saw the gal before. +Neither Prudence nor me nor Ida May. She's loony!" +</p> +<p> +"I told mom so," reiterated Zeb, with a great sigh of relief. "I +know what she said must be a pack of foolishness. But you know how +mom is. I—" +</p> +<p> +"She's soft. I know," returned Cap'n Ira. +</p> +<p> +"She's so tender-hearted," explained Zeb. "The girl talks so. She's +talked mom not into believing in her, but into kind of listening and +sympathizing with her. And now, to-night, she's took her to see +Elder Minnett." +</p> +<p> +"What? I swan! To see the elder!" ejaculated Cap'n Ira. "What she +needs is a doctor, not a minister. What do you think of that, +Prudence?" +</p> +<p> +"I hope Elder Minnett will be able to put her in better mind," +sighed his wife. "That girl must have a very wicked heart, indeed, +if she isn't really crazy." +</p> +<a name="2HCH0026"><!-- H2 anchor --></a> + +<div style="height: 4em;"><br /><br /><br /><br /></div> + +<h2> + CHAPTER XXVI +</h2> +<h3> + ELDER MINNETT HAS HIS SAY +</h3> +<p> +Another night counted among the interminable nights which have +dragged their slow length across the couch of sleeplessness. To +Sheila, lying in the four-poster—a downy couch, indeed, for a quiet +conscience—the space of time after she blew out her lamp and until +the dawn passed like the sluggish coils of some Midgard serpent. An +eternity in itself. +</p> +<p> +She came down to her daily tasks again with no change in her looks, +although her voice had the same placid, kindly tone which had +cheered the old people for these many weeks. But they both were +worried about her. +</p> +<p> +"Maybe she's been working too hard, Prudence," ventured the old man. +"Can it be so, d'ye think?" +</p> +<p> +"She says she likes to work. She's a marvel of a housekeeper, Ira. I +don't mean to put too much on her, but I can't do much myself, spry +as I do feel this fall. And she won't let me, anyway." +</p> +<p> +"I know, I know," muttered Cap'n Ira. "She's with you like she is +with me. Always running to help me, or to pick up something I let +fall, or to fetch and carry. A kinder girl never breathed. I swan! +What should we do without her, Prue? That Tunis—" +</p> +<p> +"Sh!" Prudence begged him. "Don't chaff no more about that, Ira." +</p> +<p> +"Why not?" he asked. "Though I don't feel much like chaffing when I +think of them getting married. 'Tis a pretty serious business for +us, Prudence." +</p> +<p> +"I had a chance to hint about it last night when you went outside +with Zebedee," whispered his wife, "I spoke about Tunis. She—she +says she'll never leave us to marry Tunis or any other man." +</p> +<p> +"What's that?" ejaculated Cap'n Ira. "He wouldn't agree to come and +live here, I reckon. What would become of his Aunt 'Cretia? I don't +guess there's any fear of her getting married, is there?" +</p> +<p> +"No, no! Don't be funnin'! But Ida May said just that—in so many +words." +</p> +<p> +"She's mad with him, do you cal'late? They had a tiff!" cried her +husband. "And they were like two turtledoves the night that other +gal come here. It don't seem possible. I swan! <i>That's</i> why she's so +on her beam ends, I bet a cake!" +</p> +<p> +"It may be. She wouldn't say much. I didn't understand, though, +that they had quarreled. Only that she'd made up her mind that she +wouldn't marry." +</p> +<p> +"Oh, she'll change her mind!" said Cap'n Ira, wagging his head. +</p> +<p> +"Do you think so? Not so easy. You'd ought to know by this time how +firm Ida May can be." +</p> +<p> +"The Lord help Tunis then," said Cap'n Ira emphatically. "But his +loss is our gain. Ain't no two ways about that." +</p> +<p> +Sheila's secret thoughts were not calculated to calm her soul. Her +determination braced her body as well as her mind to go about her +daily tasks with her usual thoroughness, but she could not confront +the old people with even a ghost of her usual smile. So she kept out +of their way as much as possible and communed alone with her bitter +thoughts. +</p> +<p> +The uncertainty of what Ida May was doing and saying down there in +Big Wreck Cove was not all that agitated Sheila. Her conscience, so +long lulled by her peaceful existence here with the two old people, +was now continually censuring her. +</p> +<p> +Sin brings its own secret punishment, though the sinner may hide the +effects of the punishment for a long time. But Sheila could not now +conceal the effect of the mental pain and the remorse she suffered. +</p> +<p> +Of one thing she might be sure. The neighbors had not as yet heard +about the real Ida May or heard her story. Otherwise some of the +women living on the Head would have been in to hear the particulars +from Prudence. +</p> +<p> +But that afternoon the throaty chug of Elder Minnett's little +car—it had created almost a scandal in Big Wreck Cove when he +bought it—was heard mounting the road to the Head. +</p> +<p> +"I swan!" commented Cap'n Ira, who sat at the sunny sitting-room +window, for it was a cold day. "Here comes that tin wagon of the +elder's. But he's alone. Get on your best bib and tucker, Prudence, +for there ain't any doubt but what he's headin' in this way." +</p> +<p> +"Oh, dear me!" fluttered his wife. "I wonder what he's going to say. +Make the tea strong, Ida May. The elder likes it so it'll about bear +up an egg. And open a jar of that quince jam. I wish we had fresh +biscuits, although them you made for dinner were light as feathers." +</p> +<p> +"I'll make some now. There's a hot oven," replied the girl. +</p> +<p> +"No, no," interposed Cap'n Ira firmly. "I want you should sit in +here with us and hear all the elder's got to say." +</p> +<p> +"Perhaps, Uncle Ira, he will want to talk to you and Aunt Prue +privately." +</p> +<p> +"There won't be no private talk about you, Ida May," snorted the +captain, his keen eyes sparkling. "Not much! If he's got anything to +say to your aunt and me, he's got to say it in your hearing." +</p> +<p> +The elder was a tall and bony man with a stiff brush of gray beard +and bushy hair to match, which seemed as uncompromising as his +doctrinal discourses in the pulpit. He was an old-fashioned +preacher, but not wholly an old-fashioned thinker. +</p> +<p> +Sheila had thought, on the few occasions when she had met him away +from his pulpit, that there was an undercurrent of humanity in him +quite equal to that in Cap'n Ira Ball, but his personal appearance +and rather gruff manner made it difficult for one to be sure of the +measure of his tenderness. +</p> +<p> +How Elder Minnett appeared in the sick room or in the house of +sorrow, she did not know. She could not very well imagine his being +tender at any time with the sinner at whom he thundered from the +pulpit. Secretly she trembled at the old clergyman's approach. +</p> +<p> +"Well, Elder!" was the warm greeting of Prudence at the front door +when the rattling automobile came to a wheezing halt before the +gate. "Do tell! Ira said he see you coming up the road, and I was +determined you shouldn't drive by without speaking. Do come in." +</p> +<p> +"I propose to, Sister Ball," was the grim-lipped reply. +</p> +<p> +He came into the house and took the proffered chair in the sitting +room. They spoke of the weather, of the tide, and of the clam +harvest. The farm crops back of Big Wreck Cove did not interest +Cap'n Ira. +</p> +<p> +"Well," said the elder finally, clearing his throat, "I've come up +here on an errand you can possibly guess, Cap'n Ira and Sister +Ball." +</p> +<p> +"Maybe we can and maybe we can't," observed the captain with a +countenance quite as wooden as the elder himself displayed. +</p> +<p> +"I come on behalf of that young woman who was here to see you the +other day." +</p> +<p> +"It's my opinion you'd done better to have gone to the insane asylum +folks about her," rejoined Cap'n Ira. +</p> +<p> +"Now, Ira!" said Prudence softly. +</p> +<p> +"Seeing it as you do, Cap'n Ira," the elder remarked quite equably, +"I conclude that you might think that. But you formed your judgment +in the heat of—well, not anger, of course—but without sufficient +reflection." +</p> +<p> +"Humph!" grunted Cap'n Ira noncommittally. +</p> +<p> +"I have talked with that young woman on two occasions," said the +elder. +</p> +<p> +"With what young woman?" interrupted Cap'n Ira. +</p> +<p> +"With the girl staying at the Widow Pauling's. The girl who claims +to be your niece." +</p> +<p> +"You'd better talk with the other young woman," said Cap'n Ira +sternly. "Ida May! Just you come in here and sit down. You are as +much interested as we be, I guess. <i>This</i> is Ida May Bostwick, +Elder Minnett," he added, as Sheila entered. +</p> +<p> +"Yes, yes. I have had the pleasure," said the elder, bowing gravely +without offering to shake hands. He turned abruptly to Prudence. +"You are quite convinced in your own mind, Sister Ball, that the +young woman at the Pauling's is not your niece?" +</p> +<p> +"Why, Elder Minnett," returned Prudence, "how <i>can</i> she be? Ida May +is Sarah Honey's only child, and Sarah was only distantly related to +me. There never was another girl in the family—not like that one +that came here the other day, for sure!" And the old woman shook her +head emphatically. +</p> +<p> +"That girl you got down there at the port, Elder, is crazy—crazy as +a loon," put in Cap'n Ira harshly. +</p> +<p> +"I am not so sure of that," the clergyman said shortly. +</p> +<p> +"I swan! Beg your pardon, Elder. No offense. But you don't mean to +say that she seems sane and sensible to you?" +</p> +<p> +"Sane—yes! As for being sensible, that is another thing," confessed +Elder Minnett. +</p> +<p> +"Huh! What do you mean by that?" asked Cap'n Ira curiously. +</p> +<p> +"She has told her story in full to me, and told it twice alike," +said the grim-visaged minister, looking at Sheila as he answered the +query. "An insane person is not so likely to do that, I believe. But +she is not what I would call a sensible young woman. Not at all." +</p> +<p> +"I should say not!" gasped Prudence. +</p> +<p> +"But I have heard her, and I have reflected on what she has said. I +do not see, if she is an impostor, how she could have made up that +story." +</p> +<p> +"Then she <i>must</i> be loony," muttered Cap'n Ira. +</p> +<p> +"I presume she told the same story to you that she did to me," +pursued Elder Minnett. "I do not understand Tunis Latham's part in +it, but the rest of her story seems quite reasonable." +</p> +<p> +"Reasonable?" repeated Prudence, with some warmth. "Do you call it +reasonable to say what she did about Ida May?" +</p> +<p> +"In speaking of the young woman's reasonableness I mean in regard to +the personal details she gave me. What she said in her anger to, or +of, other people has no influence whatsoever on my judgment." +</p> +<p> +"Well, it has on mine!" exclaimed Cap'n Ira. "I'd have drove out a +dozen gals that spoke as she did to Prudence and Ida May—crazy or +not!" +</p> +<p> +"You would be wrong, Cap'n Ball," said the elder severely. +</p> +<p> +"Well, let's have the p'ints the girl makes!" growled the old +shipmaster. "I will listen to 'em." +</p> +<p> +Elder Minnett bowed formally and began Ida May's story, checking off +the several assertions she had made when she was at the Ball house +far more clearly than the girl herself had done. As Sheila +listened, her heart sank even lower. It was so very reasonable! How +could the Balls fail to be impressed? +</p> +<p> +But Cap'n Ira and Prudence listened with more of a puzzled +expression in their countenances than anything else. It seemed +altogether wild and improbable to them. Why! There sat Ida May +before them. There could not be two Ida May Bostwicks! +</p> +<p> +"Say!" exclaimed Cap'n Ira suddenly, after Elder Minnett had +concluded, "that girl says she worked at Hoskin & Marl's?" +</p> +<p> +"Yes." +</p> +<p> +"Why, ain't that where you worked, Ida May?" +</p> +<p> +"Yes," was Sheila's faint admission. +</p> +<p> +"You never see her there, did you?" +</p> +<p> +"I do not remember of having seen her until she came here," the girl +said quite truthfully. +</p> +<p> +"Ought to be some way of proving up that," muttered Cap'n Ira. +</p> +<p> +"I have written to Hoskin & Marl, at the other young woman's +instigation, and have asked about her," said Elder Minnett. +</p> +<p> +"Well, I never!" gasped Prudence, and her withered, old face grew +pink. +</p> +<p> +"I hope you will not take offense," said the visitor evenly. "You +must understand that the young woman has come to me in trouble, and +it is my duty to aid her if I can—in any proper way. That is my +office. <i>Any</i> young woman"—he looked directly at Sheila again as he +said it—"will find in me an adviser and a friend whenever she may +need my help." +</p> +<p> +"We all know how good you are, Elder Minnett," Prudence hastened to +say. "But that girl—" +</p> +<p> +"That girl," he interrupted, "is a human being needing help. I have +advised her. Now I want to advise you." +</p> +<p> +"Out with it, Elder," said Cap'n Ira. "Good advice ain't to be +sneezed at—not as I ever heard." +</p> +<p> +"I have the other young woman's promise that she will tell her story +to nobody else—nobody at all—until I can hear from those whom she +says are her employers. But with the understanding that you will do +your part." +</p> +<p> +"What's that?" asked Cap'n Ira quickly. +</p> +<p> +"She wants to come up here and stay with you. She says she is sure +you are her relatives. She says if you will let her come, she +will be able to prove to you that she is the real niece you +expected—whom you sent for last summer." +</p> +<p> +"Why, she's crazy!" again cried Cap'n Ira. +</p> +<p> +"I—I am almost afraid of her," murmured Prudence, looking from +Sheila to her husband. +</p> +<p> +"I assure you, Sister Ball, she is not insane. She is harmless." +</p> +<p> +"She didn't talk as though she was when she was here—not by a +jugful," declared Cap'n Ira bitterly. +</p> +<p> +"That was because she was angry," explained Elder Minnett +patiently. "You must not judge her by her appearance when she came +here the other day and found—as she declares—another girl in her +rightful place." +</p> +<p> +"I swan!" exclaimed the old shipmaster, bursting out again. "I won't +stand for that. Her rightful place, indeed! Why, if she was forty +times Prudence's niece and we didn't want her here, what's to make +us take her, I want to know?" +</p> +<p> +"Do you think we ought to, Elder?" questioned Prudence faintly. +</p> +<p> +"I think, under all the circumstances, that it is your Christian +duty. Know the girl better. See if there is not something in her +that reminds you—" +</p> +<p> +"Avast there!" shouted Cap'n Ira, pounding with his cane on the +floor. "That's going a deal too far. 'Christian duty,' indeed! How +about our duty to Ida May setting there, and to ourselves? Prudence +is afraid of that crazy gal in the first place." +</p> +<p> +"I give you my word she is not insane." +</p> +<p> +"That's your opinion," said the captain grimly. "I wouldn't back it +with my word, Elder, unless I was prepared to go the whole v'y'ge. +Do you mean to say that you accept that gal's story as true—in all +partic'lars?" +</p> +<p> +"I don't say that." +</p> +<p> +"Then I shall stick to my opinion. She's as loony as she can be. And +I am plumb against insulting our Ida May by letting the girl come +up here. What do you say, Prudence?" +</p> +<p> +The old woman was much perturbed. Elder Minnett was a minister of +the gospel. To be told by him that it was her Christian duty to take +a certain course bore much weight with Prudence Ball. +</p> +<p> +But when she looked at Sheila, sitting there so pale and silent, and +realized that on her head all this was falling, the old woman rose +up, burst into tears, and threw herself into the girl's arms. +</p> +<p> +"No, no!" she sobbed. "Don't let her come here, Ira. We don't want +her. We don't want anybody but Ida May whom we love so dear, and who +we know loves us. We can't do it, Elder Minnett! Why, if they should +come and tell me—and prove it—that Ida May wasn't our niece and +that other girl was, I couldn't bear the creature 'round. No, I +couldn't. I couldn't forgive anybody that would separate us from +this dear, dear girl!" +</p> +<p> +Cap'n Ira had got upon his feet and was leaning forward on his cane. +With a shaking finger he drew the elder's attention to the two +women, rocking in each other's arms. +</p> +<p> +"You hear that? You see that?" demanded the captain brokenly, the +tears starting from his own eyes and finding gutters down his +cleanly shaved cheeks. "That's your answer, Elder! You have some +idea how Prudence and I longed for young company in this house, and +somebody to help and comfort us. <i>And we got her.</i> +</p> +<p> +"Ida May come to us like the falling of manna in the wilderness for +them spent and wandering Israelites. She has been to us more than +ever we dared hope for. If she was our own child and had growed up +here on Wreckers' Head our own born daughter, I couldn't think no +more of her. +</p> +<p> +"And you come here and ask us to give countenance for a moment to a +half-witted girl that says she belongs here in Ida May's place, and +claiming Ida May's name. More than that, she saying that our own +girl that we love so is a liar and an impostor and altogether +bad—such as she must be if she had fooled us so. I swan! Elder, I +should think you'd have more sense." And Cap'n Ira concluded +abruptly and with a return to his usual self-control. +</p> +<p> +The silence which ensued was only broken by the old woman's sobs. +Cap'n Ira, frankly wiping his own eyes with the great silk +handkerchief which he usually flourished when he took snuff, strode +across the room and patted Prudence's withered shoulder. He said +nothing, nor did the elder. It was Sheila who broke the silence at +last. +</p> +<p> +She had stood up. Now she put Prudence tenderly into Cap'n Ira's +arms. She gave him, too, such a thankful, beaming glance that the +old man was almost staggered. For he had not seen one of those +smiles for more than two days. +</p> +<p> +"Elder Minnett," Sheila said, and her voice was quite steady, "I +think it is my place to speak." +</p> +<p> +"Yes?" was the noncommittal response of the grim old minister. +</p> +<p> +"I should not think for a moment of doubting your judgment in such a +matter. If you say Cap'n Ira and Mrs. Ball should receive this—this +girl here while the matter is being examined, I hope they will agree +with you and allow her to come." +</p> +<p> +"Why, Ida May!" gasped Prudence. +</p> +<p> +"That gal's an angel! She ain't nothing but an angel!" marveled +Cap'n Ira. +</p> +<p> +"But I think," said Sheila, "that the girl should be made to promise +that while she is here, and if she comes here, that she will not +speak to anybody outside this room at the present time of the claim +she makes—especially as it seems to affect Captain Latham." +</p> +<p> +"I swan! That's so! He's got a wage and share in this thing, ain't +he? And he ain't here to defend himself, if we be." +</p> +<p> +The elder nodded slowly. His gaze did not leave Sheila's face. +</p> +<p> +"I think I can promise that in her name. Indeed, I had already +extracted such a promise before I would undertake to come up here. I +have warned Mrs. Pauling not to repeat a word the girl said to her. +And Zebedee is a prudent young man." +</p> +<p> +"I told Zeb myself to keep his hatch battened," growled Cap'n Ira. +"But, I swan, Ida May! I don't see how you can bear to have the +crazy critter here. And Prudence—" +</p> +<p> +"If Ida May says she is willing," sighed the old woman, glad to be +able to set a course not opposed to her minister's advice. +</p> +<p> +"Thank you, young woman," Elder Minnett said, speaking grimly enough +to Sheila. "Those who have nothing to fear can afford to be +generous. You have done right." +</p> +<p> +The subject was dropped—to the relief of all of them. Tea was +poured from the marble-topped, black-walnut table, and Sheila passed +biscuit, jam, cakes, and other delicacies. She performed her part of +the ceremony with apparent calm. She did not speak to the elder +again, nor he to her, save when she ran out to carry forgotten +gloves to him when he had climbed into the automobile. +</p> +<p> +The grim old man shot her through with the keenest of keen glances +as he accepted the gloves. +</p> +<p> +"I don't think, young woman," he said softly, "that you are likely +to put poison in that other girl's tea—as she says she's afraid you +will." +</p> +<p> +Then he drove away. +</p> +<a name="2HCH0027"><!-- H2 anchor --></a> + +<div style="height: 4em;"><br /><br /><br /><br /></div> + +<h2> + CHAPTER XXVII +</h2> +<h3> + CAP'N IRA SPEAKS OUT +</h3> +<p> +Wrung as Sheila's heart had been by the expression of the old +woman's utter confidence in her and by Cap'n Ira's warm words of +approbation spoken before the elder, it was nevertheless for Tunis +Latham's sake that she had abetted the minister's desire and had +agreed that the real Ida May Bostwick should come to the Ball house +on Wreckers' Head. +</p> +<p> +By extracting a promise from Ida May that she would talk to nobody +for the present—especially about the connection of the captain of +the <i>Seamew</i> with Ida May's affairs—Sheila believed she had entered +a wedge which might open the way for the young man to escape from a +situation which threatened both his reputation and his peace of +mind. +</p> +<p> +To save Tunis! She was fairly obsessed by that thought. Her vow +before the picture of Tunis' mother in the <i>Seamew's</i> cabin must be +in Sheila's view to the very end. She had a sufficient share of +that vision of the Celt to be deeply impressed by a promise made as +that had been made—though in secret. It was a sacred pledge. +</p> +<p> +It was no easy matter for any of the Ball household to consider the +coming of Ida May with serenity. Prudence, at heart, shrank from the +claimant on her hospitality almost as much as Sheila did. If Cap'n +Ira hid his perturbation better than the others, he nevertheless +hobbled about with a very solemn countenance. +</p> +<p> +"I swan!" he muttered within Sheila's hearing. "It's most like there +was a corpse in the house. This ain't no way to live. I do wish +Elder Minnett could have minded his own business and let well enough +alone. Let the girl talk, and other folks, too. Trying to stop +gossip is like trying to put your finger on a drop of quicksilver. +There won't be no good come o' that girl being here. That's as sure +as sure." +</p> +<p> +The elder's car came wheezing up the hill again about the middle of +the forenoon. He did not alight himself, but Ida May needed the +presence of nobody to lend her assurance. She hopped out of the car +with her bag and flaunted her cheap finery through the gate and in +at the front door. +</p> +<p> +Her reception at this end of the house marked the unmistakable fact +that Prudence and Cap'n Ira received her as a stranger rather than +in a confidential way. +</p> +<p> +"Well, Aunt Prue! For you are my aunt whatever you may say," was +Ida May's prologue. "And you are my uncle," she added, her +greenish-brown eyes flashing a glance at the grimly observant +captain. "I must say it's pretty shabby treatment I've got from you +so far. But I don't blame you—not at all. I blame that girl and +Tunis Latham." +</p> +<p> +"Avast there!" put in Cap'n Ira so sternly and with so threatening a +tone of voice and visage that even Ida May was silenced. "We've let +you come here, my girl, because Elder Minnett asked us to; and not +at all because our opinion of you is changed. Far from it. You're +here on sufferance and you'd best be civil spoken while you remain. +Ain't that the ticket, Prudence?" +</p> +<p> +His wife nodded, in full accord with his statement of the situation, +although she could not bear to look so sternly on any person as +Cap'n Ira now looked at Ida May. +</p> +<p> +"Well! I like that!" sniffed the girl, tossing her head, but she +actually shrank from the captain. +</p> +<p> +"Furthermore, as regards Tunis Latham, you was to say nothing about +him outside of this house if you was let come here. And I warn you, +we don't care to hear nothing in his disfavor <i>in</i> this house." +</p> +<p> +"Oh! I can see he's a favorite with you," muttered Ida May. +</p> +<p> +"Then trim your sails according," admonished the old man. "In +addition, you mentioned the young woman we already got here in a way +we don't like none too well. I want to impress on your mind that it +was only through her saying she was agreeable to your coming here +that we agreed to the elder's request and let you come." +</p> +<p> +"She did, eh?" cried Ida May, flouncing in her chair. "Well, I don't +thank her." +</p> +<p> +"No. I cal'late you ain't of a thanking disposition," said Cap'n +Ira. "But you like enough won't drop your bread butter-side down. +That's all." +</p> +<p> +Ida May, startled by his speech, stared with less impudence at the +old man. For his part, the captain watched her pretty closely, and +he had met and judged too many people in his day not to form +gradually, as the hours passed, a decided opinion regarding Ida May. +</p> +<p> +Nor did he cling to his first impression—the one made in haste and +some vexation, when she had first tried to thrust herself into the +Ball household and demanded the place filled by Sheila Macklin. This +girl certainly was not insane. But with all her apparent smartness, +Cap'n Ira easily saw that she was not intelligent—that she had +scarcely ordinary understanding. Beside the newcomer's shallow +nature and even more shallow endowments, Sheila seemed to be from a +different world. +</p> +<p> +"I swan!" whispered Cap'n Ira to Prudence some time later. "The +difference between them two girls! They ain't to be spoke of in the +same county, I declare. Look at that one, Prudence," he said, with a +side glance at the newcomer. "Ain't she a sight with them thin and +flashy clothes?" +</p> +<p> +"I can't see anything about her that looks like any of the Honeys, +let alone Sarah." +</p> +<p> +"Huh! No. Only that her hair's sorter red," returned Cap'n Ira, +"like Sarah's was." +</p> +<p> +The visitor proved her position in the household by sitting idly in +a rocking-chair looking over some pictures which were on the table +or staring out of the window. She offered to do nothing for +Prudence. But, of course, Ida May was not very domestic. Living in a +furnished room and working behind the counter in a department store +does not develop the domestic virtues to any appreciable degree. +</p> +<p> +She did not see Sheila until dinner was on the table and she was +called to the meal with Cap'n Ira and the old woman. The stiff, +little bow with which Ida May favored the girl in possession was +returned by the latter quite as formally. +</p> +<p> +Sheila had regained complete control of voice and face now. Although +she did not actually address Ida May, her manner was such that there +was no restraint put upon the company. It was the newcomer's manner, +if anything, that curtailed the usual friendly intercourse at the +Ball table. +</p> +<p> +Ida May possessed some powers of observation. She would have said +herself that she was able to "put two and two together." The way the +meal had been cooked, the way it was served, and the work entailed +in doing both these things, were matters not overlooked by the +visitor. +</p> +<p> +She knew that Prudence had given neither thought nor attention to +getting the dinner. The girl the Balls had received in Ida May's +name and supposed identity had done it all herself. It seemed to be +expected of her! +</p> +<p> +She saw, before the day was over, that Sheila was a very busy person +indeed. That she not only did the housework, but that she waited +upon Prudence and Cap'n Ira "hand and foot." She did it with such +unconcern that the new girl could be sure these tasks were quite +what was expected of her. +</p> +<p> +"Why," exclaimed Ida May to herself, "she's just hired help! Is +<i>that</i> what they wanted me for when they sent Tunis Latham up to +Boston after me? I'd like to see myself!" +</p> +<p> +She had foreseen something of this kind when she had refused so +unconditionally to come down here to the Cape. And her observation +of the house and its furnishings, as well as the appearance of the +old couple, had confirmed her suspicion that her belief in the Balls +"being pretty well fixed" was groundless. +</p> +<p> +After her interview with Elder Minnett, although she had refrained +from detailing her story and her spiteful comments about Sheila and +Tunis Latham to the Paulings, she had not ceased to question Zebedee +and his mother about the financial condition of the Balls. +</p> +<p> +She had learned that a couple of thousand dollars would probably buy +all the real property the old people owned on Wreckers' Head. There +was a certain invested sum which secured them a fair living. Beyond +that, the Big Wreck Cove people knew of no wealth belonging to +either Cap'n Ira or Prudence. +</p> +<p> +Ida May already considered that she had come down here to the Cape +on a fool's errand. She would like to make herself solid, however, +with the old folks so as to benefit when they were dead and gone, if +that were possible. But to make herself a kitchen drudge for them? +She would like to see herself! +</p> +<p> +There was a phase of the situation which held Ida May to the course +she had set sail upon, and one which would hold her to it to the +bitter end. Her spitefulness and determination to be revenged upon +this unknown girl who had usurped the place originally offered her +by the Balls, and who had stolen her name as well, was quite +sufficient to cause a person of Ida May Bostwick's character to +fight for her rights. +</p> +<p> +She would be revenged on Tunis, too. Or, at least, she would make +him, as well as the other girl, suffer for the slight he had put +upon her. +</p> +<p> +Had she not preened her feathers and strutted her very best on the +occasion when he interviewed her at Hoskin & Marl's and taken her +out to lunch? And to no end at all! He had been quite unimpressed by +Ida May's airs and graces. +</p> +<p> +Yet he would take up with this other girl—a mere nobody. Worse than +a nobody, of course. She must be both a bad and a cunning woman to +have done what it was plain she had done. She had wound Tunis Latham +around her finger, and had hoodwinked the old people in the bargain! +</p> +<p> +Ida May saw the other girl waiting on Prudence and Cap'n Ira; she +observed her tenderness toward them and their delight in her +ministrations; and these things which she regarded with her +green-glinting eyes made her taste the bitterness of wormwood. She +hated Sheila more and more as the day wore on; and she scorned the +old people both for what she considered this niggardliness and for +their simplicity, as well, in being fooled by this other girl. +</p> +<p> +For, of course, to Ida May's mind, Sheila's kindness and the love +shown for the Balls on her part was all put on. It could not be +otherwise. Ida May Bostwick could not, in the first place, imagine +any sane girl "falling for the two old hicks." +</p> +<p> +Prudence could seldom show herself other than kindly toward any +person whether she exactly approved of that person or not. So she +chatted cheerfully at Ida May, if not with her. She was quite as +insistent as Cap'n Ira, however, in keeping away from the vexing +question of the identity of the two girls. +</p> +<p> +Right at the first the question had been raised: where should the +visitor be put to sleep? Ida May was prepared to object strenuously +if any slight was put upon her, such as being given some little, +tucked-up attic room away from the rest of the family. Had she +dared, she would have demanded the use of the room the false Ida May +occupied; only she was not sure, after seeing the position Sheila +seemed to hold in the household, that she cared to be put to sleep +in the room of the "hired help." +</p> +<p> +But Sheila herself settled that question. +</p> +<p> +"The guest room is ready. Aunt Prue," she said to Prudence. "I +cleaned it this week and the little stove is set up in there if it +should grow cold overnight. All the bed needs is aired sheets. I'll +get them out of the press." +</p> +<p> +So Prudence took Ida May to the guest chamber, which was beyond the +parlor. A black-walnut set, which had been the height of +magnificence when Cap'n Ira and Prudence were married, filled the +shade-drawn room with shadows. There was an ingrain carpet on the +floor of a green groundwork with pale-yellow flowers on it, of a +genus known to no botanist. The tidies on the chair backs were so +stiff with starch that it would be a punishment to lay one's head +against them. +</p> +<p> +On a little marble-topped table between the windows was something +made of shells and seaweed in a glass-topped case. It looked to Ida +May like a dead baby in a coffin. +</p> +<p> +"Of all the junk!" she muttered to herself when Prudence left her to +arrange the contents of her bag as she chose. "And that girl likes +it here! Well, I'll show her who's who and what's what! +</p> +<p> +"I'd like to know where I ever saw her face before? I bet it was +somewhere she'd no business to be—just as she has sneaked in here +where she doesn't belong. The nasty, hateful thing! +</p> +<p> +"If Bessie Dole or Mayme Leary could only see this dump!" she added, +looking over the room again. "Anyhow, I've made 'em give me the best +they've got. I'll show 'em how to treat a <i>real</i> relation that comes +to see 'em." +</p> +<p> +Supper time came and passed no more cheerfully than had the midday +meal. The society of the old people was anything but enlivening for +Ida May. In desperation she began to talk, and out of sheer +perverseness she lighted upon the subject of the establishment of +Hoskin & Marl. +</p> +<p> +Now Prudence found this topic of interest, for since Annabel +Coffin—she who was a Buttle—had dilated upon those great marts of +trade in Boston, the old woman had been vastly curious. Sheila had +never cared to talk of her experiences as saleswoman behind the +counter. +</p> +<p> +"They tell me they sell most everything you could name in those +stores," Prudence said reflectively. "Heaps of dry goods, I suppose. +Let me see, what did you sell, my dear?" +</p> +<p> +"I'm in the laces," said Ida May. "But Hoskin & Marl sell lots +besides dry goods." +</p> +<p> +"Oh, yes! Annabel did say something about automobiles and—and +plasters; didn't she, Ira?" +</p> +<p> +"Goodness knows," rejoined her husband with a groan. "Annabel Coffin +said so much the last time she was here that my head buzzes now when +I think of her." +</p> +<p> +"Now, you hesh!" said Prudence. "Never can interest a man in such +things. So you sold laces, did you, my dear? Oh, Ida May!" she +exclaimed suddenly to Sheila, sitting on the other side of the +table. "Ida May, what did you say you sold in that store? You worked +for Hoskin & Marl, didn't you?" +</p> +<p> +"Ye-es. I—I was in the silverware and jewelry department," +stammered Sheila, the question coming so unexpectedly that she could +not exercise consideration before making answer. +</p> +<p> +"Now, is that so?" cried Prudence. "That must have been nice. To +handle all them pretty things. But lace is pretty, too," she added, +turning quickly to the guest again. "I expect you find it so." +</p> +<p> +The old woman was startled into silence by the expression she saw +upon Ida May's face. The latter was glaring across the table at +Sheila. No other word could so express the intense and malevolent +look in those greenish-brown eyes and on that sharp countenance. +</p> +<p> +Sheila's gaze was enthralled as well by Ida May's sudden emotion. +She half rose from her chair. But her strength left her limbs again, +and she fell back into the seat. +</p> +<p> +"What's the matter, Ida May?" demanded Cap'n Ira, in wonder and +alarm. +</p> +<p> +The real Ida May sprang up with a shriek. She shook her hand at +Sheila and for a moment could not articulate. Then she said: +</p> +<p> +"I know her now! I knew I'd seen that creature before and I thought +I'd remember what and who she is. And she dares come down here and +sneak her way into honest people's houses! The gall of her!" +</p> +<a name="2HCH0028"><!-- H2 anchor --></a> + +<div style="height: 4em;"><br /><br /><br /><br /></div> + +<h2> + CHAPTER XXVIII +</h2> +<h3> + GONE +</h3> +<p> +"Looker here, girl!" exclaimed Cap'n Ira sternly. Putting his hand +upon Ida May's shoulder, he forced her down into her chair again. +His own eyes gleamed angrily, and his countenance expressed his +wrath. "What was you told on coming here? Didn't you promise to keep +a taut line on all that foolishness? I won't stand for it. No, +Prudence!" he exclaimed, as his wife tried to interfere. "I won't +stand for it. She must either keep away from that business, or I'll +put her right out of the house. Leastways, it being night, I'll send +her to her room." +</p> +<p> +"Do you think you can boss me like that?" cried Ida May hotly, so +angry herself that she forgot her fear of him. "I'm not your slave, +nor your hired help, like that creature." She pointed scornfully at +Sheila. "And you'll just listen to something I've got to say. If you +don't, I'll go out to-morrow and tell everybody in this hick town. +I'll hire a hall to tell 'em in!" +</p> +<p> +"Won't—won't you be good, deary?" begged Prudence, before her +husband could make any rejoinder to this defiance. "You know you +promised Elder Minnett you would be if we let you come here." +</p> +<p> +"I don't want to stay here. I've seen enough of this place and you +all! And I would be ashamed to stay any longer than I can help with +folks that take in such a girl as she is." +</p> +<p> +Again Ida May's little claw indicated Sheila, who stared, +speechless, helpless, at least for the time being. The harassed girl +could fight for herself no longer. She knew that she was on the +verge of betrayal. She could not stem the tide of Ida May's venom. +The latter must make the revelation which had threatened ever since +she had come to Wreckers' Head. There was no way of longer +smothering the truth. It would come out! +</p> +<p> +"Look here," Cap'n Ira said, his curiosity finally aroused, "the +elder says you ain't crazy! But it looks to me—" +</p> +<p> +"I'm not crazy, I can tell you," snapped Ida May, taking him up +short. "But I guess you and Aunt Prue must be. Why, you don't even +know the name of this girl you took in instead of me—in my rightful +place. But I can tell you who she is—and what she's done. I +remember her now. I knew I'd seen her before—the hussy!" +</p> +<p> +"Belay that!" exclaimed Cap'n Ira. +</p> +<p> +But he said it faintly. He was looking at the other girl now, and +something in her expression and in her attitude made him lose +confidence. His voice died in his throat. Ida May Bostwick had the +upper hand at last—and she kept it. +</p> +<p> +"Look at her," she exulted, the green lights in her brown eyes +glinting like the sparkling eyes of a serpent. "Look at her. She +knows that I know. She's come down here and fooled you all, but she +can't fool you any longer. And that Tunis Latham! Why, it can't be +possible he knew what she was from the first!" +</p> +<p> +"See here," said Cap'n Ira shakily. "What do you mean? What are you +getting at—or trying to? If you got anything to say about Ida May, +get it out and be over with it." +</p> +<p> +"Oh, Ira! Don't! Stop her!" wailed Prudence. +</p> +<p> +Like the old man, Prudence finally realized that there was something +wrong—something very wrong, indeed—with the girl they had known +for months as Ida May and whom they had learned to love so dearly. +</p> +<p> +Nobody looking at Sheila could doubt this for a moment. Her tortured +expression of countenance, the wild light in her eyes, her trembling +lips, advertised to the beholders that the last bastion of her +fortress was taken, that the wall was breached and into that breach +now marched the triumphant phrases of the real Ida May's bitter, +gloating speech. +</p> +<p> +"Look at her!" repeated the latter. "She can't deny it now. She +knows I know her and what she is. Why, Aunt Prue—and you, Captain +Ball—have been fooled nice, I must say. And that Tunis Latham! +Well, he can't be much!" +</p> +<p> +"Don't—don't say anything against Tunis!" +</p> +<p> +It was not a voice at all like the usual mellow tones of Sheila +Macklin which uttered those faint words. Hoarse, strained, +uncertain, there was yet a note of command in the phrase which had +its influence on the wildly excited Ida May. +</p> +<p> +"I'll say what I've got to say about <i>you</i>, miss!" she exclaimed +with exultation. "And you—nor they—shan't stop me. You're the girl +that was arrested in the store for stealing. It must have been +two—why, it must have been more than three years ago. I hadn't +worked there but a little while. No wonder I didn't remember you at +first." +</p> +<p> +Cap'n Ira vented a groan and caught at his wife's hand. She was +sobbing frantically. She still murmured her plea for the captain to +stop the awful revelation Ida May was bent on making. But the latter +gave no heed and the captain himself was speechless. +</p> +<p> +"And I can't remember her name even now," went on Ida May, flashing +a look at the Balls. Their pitiful appearance made no impression +upon her. "But that don't matter. I guess they've got your record at +Hoskin & Marl's. You worked there all right; sure you worked there, +in the jewelry section. You stole something. I saw the store +detective, Miss Hopwell, take you up to the manager's office. I +never heard what they did to you, but they did a plenty, I bet." +</p> +<p> +She turned confidently again to the horrified captain and his wife. +</p> +<p> +"Just see how she looks. She don't deny it. How she managed to work +that Tunis Latham into bringing her down here, I don't know. She +pulled the wool over his eyes all right. +</p> +<p> +"Why, she's a thief! She was arrested! I guess you can see now that +I'm not crazy—far from it. She won't dare say again that she is Ida +May Bostwick. I—guess—not!" +</p> +<p> +The malevolent exultation of the girl was fearful to behold. But +neither Cap'n Ira nor Prudence now looked at Ida May. Leaning +against her husband, the tears coursing over her withered cheeks, +Prudence joined Cap'n Ira in gazing at the other girl. +</p> +<p> +She rose slowly to her feet. Something like strength came back to +her; even into her voice, as Sheila again spoke. Nor did she look at +Ida May, but fixed her feverish gaze upon the two old people. +</p> +<p> +"What—what she says is true—as far as I am concerned. But—but +Tunis did not know. It is not his fault. I was desperate. I heard +what he said to—to Miss Bostwick. I chanced to overhear it. I was +desperate; I hated the city. I was willing to take a chance for the +sake of getting among people who would be kind to me—who were +good." +</p> +<p> +"Bah!" exclaimed Ida May raucously. "You're not fit to go among good +people!" +</p> +<p> +Sheila did not heed her. She spoke slowly—haltingly, but what she +said held the old people silent. +</p> +<p> +"Tunis is not to blame. I told him this—this girl"—she pointed to +Ida May, but did not look at her—"was not the right Miss Bostwick. +I said that I was the girl he wanted to see. I made him think so. I +tricked him. Don't listen to her!" she added wildly, as the enraged +Ida May would have interposed. "Tunis thought she had talked to him +just for a joke. I made him believe that. I—I would have done +anything then to get away from the city and to come down here. +Perhaps he was at fault because he did not take more time to find +out about me—to be sure I was the right girl. But he cannot be +blamed for anything else. I tell you, it was all my fault." +</p> +<p> +"I don't believe it!" snapped Ida May. +</p> +<p> +But Cap'n Ira put her aside with his hand, and there was returned +firmness in his voice. +</p> +<p> +"Is this the truth? Are you what she says you are?" he asked. +</p> +<p> +"Oh, don't, Ira!" gasped his sobbing wife. "She—" +</p> +<p> +"We've got to learn the straight of it," said the old man sternly. +"If we've been bamboozled, we've got to know it. Now's the time for +her to speak." +</p> +<p> +Sheila was still gazing at him. She nodded, indicating that his +question was already answered. +</p> +<p> +"You—you mean to say you stole—like she says?" +</p> +<p> +"I was arrested in Hoskin & Marl's. They accused me of stealing. +Yes." +</p> +<p> +She said no more. She turned, when he did not speak again, and +walked slowly to the stairway door. She opened it and went up, +closing the door behind her. +</p> +<p> +It was Ida May who moved first when she was gone. She jumped up once +more and started for the stairway. +</p> +<p> +"I'll tell her what's what!" she ejaculated. "The gall of her to +come here and say she was me and get my rightful place! I'll put her +out with my own hands!" +</p> +<p> +Somehow—it would be hard to say just how—Cap'n Ira was before her, +ere she could arrive at the stairway door. +</p> +<p> +"Avast!" he said throatily. "Don't take too much upon yourself, +young woman. You don't quite own these premises—yet." +</p> +<p> +"You ain't going to stand for her stayin' here any longer, are you?" +demanded the amazed Ida May. +</p> +<p> +"Whether or not she stays here is more my business and Prudence's +business than it is yours," said the old man. "But there's one thing +sure, and you may as well l'arn it first as last: you're not to +speak to her nor do anything else to annoy her. Understand?" +</p> +<p> +"You—you—" +</p> +<p> +"Heed what I tell ye!" said Cap'n Ira, grim-lipped and with flashing +eyes. "You interfere with that girl in any way and it won't be her +I'll put out o' the house. I'll put you out—night though it is—and +you'll march yourself down to the port and to the Widder Pauling's +alone. Understand me?" +</p> +<p> +There was silence again in the kitchen, save for Prudence's pitiful +sobbing. +</p> +<hr /> +<p> +In Tunis Latham's mind as he came up from the port four days later +was visioned no part of the tragedy which had occurred at the Ball +homestead during his absence on this last voyage to Boston. He had +suffered trouble enough during the trip even to dull the smart of +Sheila's renunciation of him before he had left the Head. Indeed, he +could scarcely realize even now that she had meant what she +said—that she could mean it! +</p> +<p> +So brief had been their dream of love—only since that recent Sunday +when they walked the beaches about the foot of Wreckers' Head—that +it seemed to the captain of the <i>Seamew</i> it could not be so soon +over. If Sheila really and truly loved him, how could anything part +them? +</p> +<p> +When he considered her wild manner and her trenchant words when last +he had seen her, however, his heart sank. He had gained during the +few months of their acquaintance a pretty accurate idea of how firm +she could be—how unwavering in face of any difficulty. He realized +that her obstinacy, when her mind was once settled on a course of +action, was not easily overcome. She had declared that they could +not be lovers any longer; that the situation which had arisen +through the appearance of the real Ida May upon Wreckers' Head had +made her decision necessary; and she had refused to consider any +other outcome of this dreadful affair. +</p> +<p> +In his business there was much which would have disturbed Tunis in +any event. The negro cook had deserted the <i>Seamew</i> the moment after +she touched the Boston wharf. Although the other hands had remained +by the schooner until she had just now dropped anchor in the cove +below, he was not at all sure that they would sail with him for +another voyage. +</p> +<p> +Why these new men should be more troubled by the silly tattle of the +hoodoo than even the Portygees had been was a problem Tunis could +not solve. And seamen were so scarce just then in Boston that he had +been obliged to risk another voyage without engaging strangers to +man the <i>Seamew</i>. Besides, being a true Cape Codder, he disliked +hiring other than Cape men to work the schooner. +</p> +<p> +For one thing he could be grateful. Orion Latham had taken his chest +ashore this very day. And Zebedee Pauling had offered himself in +Orion's place on the wharf as Tunis had just now come ashore. +</p> +<p> +He had been glad to take on Zeb in place of his cousin. And from +young Pauling he had learned at least one piece of news connected +with affairs on Wreckers' Head. Zeb told him that the girl he had +brought to the Pauling house had talked with Elder Minnett and that +the elder had later taken her up to the Ball house, where she had +remained. +</p> +<p> +There was not much gossip about the matter it seemed. Nobody seemed +to know who the young woman was; nor did Zeb know what was going on +at the Ball homestead. It was with this slight information only that +Tunis now approached the old place. He saw Cap'n Ira hobbling into +the barn, but he saw nobody else about. +</p> +<p> +The day was gray, and a chill wind crept over the brown earth, +rustling the dead stalks of the weeds and curling little spirals of +dust in the road which rose no more than a foot or two, then fell +again, despairingly. In any event the young shipmaster must have +felt the oppression of the day and the lingering season. His spirits +fell lower, and he came to the Ball place with such a feeling of +depression that he hesitated about turning in at the gate at all. +</p> +<p> +As Cap'n Ira did not at once come out of the barn, the younger man +made his way there instead of going first to the kitchen door. He +shrank from meeting the real Ida May again. At any rate, he wanted +first to get the lay of the land from the old man. +</p> +<p> +He looked into the dim interior of the place and for a moment did +not see Cap'n Ira at all. The ghostly face of the Queen of Sheba +appeared at the opening over her manger. Tunis was about to call +when he saw the old man straining upon the lower rungs of the ladder +to reach the loft to pitch down a bunch of fodder. Queenie whinnied +softly. +</p> +<p> +"Hello, Cap'n Ira!" Tunis hailed. "What are you doing that for?" He +hastened to cross the barn floor to his aid. "Where's Ida May that +she lets you do this?" +</p> +<p> +"Ida May?" The old man repeated the name with such disgust that +Tunis was all but stunned and stopped to eye Cap'n Ira amazedly. +"D'ye think she'd take a step to save me a dozen? Or lift them +lily-white hands of hers to keep Prudence from doing all the work +she has to do? I swan!" +</p> +<p> +"What do you mean?" demanded Tunis. "You sound mighty funny, Cap'n +Ira. Hasn't Ida May been doing all and sundry for you for months? Is +she sick?" +</p> +<p> +"I—I don't mean <i>that</i> gal," quavered Cap'n Ira. "I mean the real +Ida May." +</p> +<p> +He half tumbled off the ladder into Tunis Latham's arms. He clung to +the young man tightly, and, although it was dark in the barn, Tunis +could have sworn that there were tears on the old man's cheeks. +</p> +<p> +"Don't you know we've got the right Ida May with us at +last—Prudence's niece that has come here to visit for a while and +play lady? Yes, you was fooled; we was bamboozled. That—that other +gal, Tunis, is a real bad one, I ain't no doubt. She pulled the wool +over your eyes and made a monkey of most everybody, it seems. She—" +</p> +<p> +"Who are you talking about?" cried Tunis, in his alarm almost +shaking the old man. +</p> +<p> +"I'm telling you the girl you brought down here, thinking she was +Ida May Bostwick, turned out to be somebody else. I don't know who. +Anyway, she ain't no relation of Prudence or me. I ain't blaming you +none, boy; she told us we musn't blame you, for you didn't know the +truth about her, either." +</p> +<p> +"Cap'n Ira, where is she?" demanded the younger man hoarsely. +</p> +<p> +"She ain't here. She's gone. She left four nights ago—after Ida May +had remembered what she'd done in that big store in Boston. Oh, she +admitted it—" +</p> +<p> +"You mean to tell me she's gone? That you don't know where she is?" +almost shouted Tunis. +</p> +<p> +"Easy, boy! Remember I got some feeling yet in them arms you was +squeezing. It ain't our fault she went. She left us in the +night—stole out with just a bundle of clothes and things. Left, +Prudence says, every enduring thing she'd got since she come +here—that we give her." +</p> +<p> +Tunis groaned. +</p> +<p> +"Yes, she's gone. And she's left that other dratted girl in her +place. I swan, Tunis, I'd just as leave have the figgerhead of the +old <i>Susan Gatskill</i> sittin' by our kitchen stove as to have that +useless critter about. She ain't no good to Prudence and me—not at +all!" +</p> +<a name="2HCH0029"><!-- H2 anchor --></a> + +<div style="height: 4em;"><br /><br /><br /><br /></div> + +<h2> + CHAPTER XXIX +</h2> +<h3> + ON THE TRAIL +</h3> +<p> +There was but a single idea in Sheila Macklin's mind when she left +those three people in the kitchen and mounted to her room. Indeed, +there was scarcely left to the sadly distracted girl another sane +thought. +</p> +<p> +She must leave the house before she could be further questioned. She +hoped that she had said enough to exonerate Tunis. If she said more, +it might be to raise some doubt in the minds of Cap'n Ira and +Prudence as to Tunis' ignorance of her true reputation. She must +escape any cross-examination—on that or any other topic. +</p> +<p> +She believed that the captain of the <i>Seamew</i> possessed sufficient +caution to keep secret the particulars of their first meeting until +he had heard from the old people the few false details she had left +in their minds. She had done all she could to make Tunis' reputation +secure in the eyes of those who must know any particulars of his +connection with her. She had kept her vow to the dead woman whom the +young shipmaster had, throughout his life, so revered—his mother. +</p> +<p> +She did not light her bedroom lamp until she knew by the sounds from +below that the family had retired for the night. Then, stepping +softly, she went over her small possessions and made a bundle of +those which she had brought with her when she came from Boston. The +articles of apparel purchased with money given her by the Balls she +left in the closet or in the bureau drawers. +</p> +<p> +This done, she did not lie down on the bed, but sat by the north +window staring out into the starlit dark. There was no lamp to watch +in the window of Latham's Folly to-night. Tunis was far away. Had +she been prepared for this unexpected catastrophe, she would have +been far, far away from Wreckers' Head before Tunis returned. +</p> +<p> +As it chanced, she possessed very little money—scarcely more than +enough to take her to Paulmouth. There she would be no better off +than she was at Big Wreck Cove. Sheila was not, in truth, quite +accountable for her actions at this time. To get away from the Ball +house was her only really clear thought. What followed must fall as +fate directed. +</p> +<p> +At the first faint gleam of dawn in the sky, and as the distant +stars paled and disappeared, the girl crept down the stairs with +her bundle, her shoes in her hand, and went out by the kitchen door. +She heard only the deep breathing of the old captain from across the +sitting room and now and then the sobbing breath of Prudence, like +the breathing of a hurt child that has fallen asleep in pain and +half wakes to a realization of it. +</p> +<p> +As she turned to close the outer door softly behind her, the girl's +heart throbbed in response to the old woman's sorrow. While she sat +on the bench to lace her shoes the cat, old Tabby, came rubbing and +purring about her skirts. Muffled, as though from a great distance, +a rooster vented a questioning crow as though he doubted that it was +yet time to announce the birth of another day. +</p> +<p> +She went to the barn to feed Queenie for the last time. That +outraged old creature displayed her surprised countenance at the +opening above her manger and blew sonorously through her nostrils. +Perhaps the gray mare remembered how she had been aroused at a +similar hour once before, and by Cap'n Ira himself. That experience +must have been keen in the Queen of Sheba's memory if she had any +memory at all. +</p> +<p> +But the troubled girl gave the mare less attention than usual, +throwing down some fodder and pouring a measure of corn into the +manger. The mare turned to that with appetite. Corn came not amiss +to Queenie, no matter at what hour it was vouchsafed her. Her sound +old teeth did not stop crunching the kernels as Sheila went out of +the barn. +</p> +<p> +From the shed she secured an ax and a spade, as well as a basket. +In spite of her condition of mind she knew exactly what she wanted +to do—and she did it. Had she thought out her intention for +months she could have gone about the matter no more directly and +practically. Yet, had one stopped Sheila and asked her what she +was about—exactly what her intentions were—the query would have +found her unprepared with an answer. +</p> +<p> +Both her physical and mental condition precluded Sheila from going +far from the Ball homestead. What she had been through during these +past few days had drained out of her physical vigor as well as all +intellectual freshness. +</p> +<p> +When Cap'n Ira Ball had led the feebly protesting Queen of Sheba +across these empty fields to her intended sacrifice, the two had +made no more dreary picture against the dim dawn than did Sheila +now. She carried the bundle she had made slung over one shoulder by +a length of rope. The spade, ax, and basket balanced her figure on +the other side; she bent forward as she walked and, from a distance, +Prudence herself would have looked no older or more decrepit than +did the girl now leaving the Ball premises. +</p> +<p> +She did not follow the same course that the captain and Queenie had +followed on that memorable occasion, but took a path that led to a +cart track to the beach behind John-Ed Williams' house. Nobody was +astir anywhere on Wreckers' Head but herself. +</p> +<p> +In an hour she arrived at the objective point toward which she had +been headed from the first. Why and how she had thought of this +refuge it would be hard to tell. Least of all could Sheila have +explained her reason for coming here. It was in her mind, it was +away from all other human habitations, and she did not think anybody +would have the right to drive her from it. +</p> +<p> +The cabin formerly occupied by Hosea Westcott was well above the +tide, was, or could be made, perfectly dry, was roughly, if not +comfortably furnished, and offered the girl a shelter in which she +thought she would be safe. +</p> +<p> +To one who had spent such weary months in a narrow room in a Hanover +Street lodging house, going in and out with speech with scarcely any +one save the person to whom she paid her weekly dole of rent, there +could be no loneliness in a place like this, where the surf soughed +continually in one's ear, a hundred feathered forms flashed by in an +hour, sails dotted the dimpling sea, and the strand itself was +spread thick with many varieties of nature's wonders. +</p> +<p> +During the summer and early fall, Sheila had become a splendid +oarswoman. In a skiff belonging to little John-Ed which was drawn up +on the sands not far from the cabin she had paddled out through the +narrow neck of the tiny cove's entrance and pulled bravely through +the surf and out upon the sea beyond. She had learned more than a +bit of sea lore, too, from Cap'n Ira and Tunis. And regarding the +edible shellfish to be found along the beaches, she was well +informed. +</p> +<p> +If an old man such as Hosea Westcott, feeble and spent, no doubt, +could pick up a living here, why could not she? Sheila did not fear +starvation. Indeed, she did not even look forward to such a +possibility. She did not fear work of any kind. With every salt +breath she drew, strength, like the tide itself, flowed into her +body. Although her mind remained in a partially stunned condition, +her muscles soon recovered their vigor. +</p> +<p> +Of course the girl's presence here in the abandoned cabin, her +taking up a hermit life on the shore, could not remain unknown to +the neighbors on Wreckers' Head for long. Yet at this season of the +year the men were all busy elsewhere and the women almost never came +down to the beaches. It is a remarkable fact that most longshore +women have little interest in the beauties or wonders to be found +along the beaches, even in the sea itself. Perhaps this is because +the latter is such a hard mistress to their menfolk. +</p> +<p> +Nevertheless, Sheila could not hide herself away from +everybody—not even on that first day. The Balls made no outcry when +they found that she had disappeared. And no near-port fishing craft +came by. But the smoke from the chimney of the cabin, when she had +swept and made comfortable its interior and built a fire of +driftwood in the rusty pot stove, attracted at least one sharp eye. +</p> +<p> +Down the bank, along with a small avalanche of sand and gravel, +plunged little John-Ed and his freckled face appeared at the +doorway. +</p> +<p> +"By the great jib boom!" he cried. "What you doing here? Playing +castaway?" +</p> +<p> +"Yes, John-Ed," said Sheila. "That is it exactly. I am a castaway." +</p> +<p> +He stared at her. She could not take this boy into her confidence. +But already little John-Ed was a henchman of hers, in spite of the +fact that Sheila often had made him work. +</p> +<p> +"I am going to stay here for a while," she told him. "But I would +rather nobody but you knew about it." +</p> +<p> +"By the great jib boom!" exploded the boy for a second time. "Not +even Cap'n Ira and Aunt Prudence?" +</p> +<p> +"Not even them," sighed the girl. +</p> +<p> +"I bet it's because you don't want to stay there while that other +girl is visitin' them. Ain't that it? She's a snippy thing!" +</p> +<p> +"You must not say so to anybody," urged Sheila. "It will not be +wrong for you to say nothing about my being here to your father and +mother. Do you understand?" +</p> +<p> +"I can keep a secret, all right," he assured her proudly. +</p> +<p> +"I believe you can. And do you think you could get off to go down to +the store for me this evening?" +</p> +<p> +"Going down anyway for mom," he assured her. +</p> +<p> +Sheila had a dollar and a little change besides. She had already +planned just what the dollar would buy in the way of necessaries. +There were cooking utensils in the cabin sufficient for her modest +needs. She gave little John-Ed the dollar and her list and warned +him to hide her purchases safely until the next morning and bring +them to her on his way to school. +</p> +<p> +"What you going to eat to-night?" he asked her bluntly. +</p> +<p> +"I dug some clams at low water and caught a big horseshoe crab." +</p> +<p> +"Cousin Phineas brought us more squeteague than we can eat. Mom told +me to cut one up for the hens. I'll bring it down to you in a +little. It's a fresh one." +</p> +<p> +In spite of her refusal, he did this, and brought along, too, a box +of sweet crackers which he had bought and hidden away in his bedroom +closet in preparation for some time when he might wake up in the +night and feel that he was on the verge of famine. +</p> +<p> +"Though I never did wake up in the night that I can remember, 'cept +that time I had the toothache," he observed. +</p> +<p> +And in this way Sheila began her hermit life in the fisherman's +cabin. +</p> +<p> +But Sheila was not without a practical design as to her future. In +her determination to accept no further aid from the Balls she had +crippled her finances. Back in the inland town where she had spent +her girlhood, and where Dr. Macklin had served the community so +long, there were those who, in disapproving Sheila's venture into +the city, at least had a sense of justice. Some of these critical +friends whom the young woman had shrunk from appealing to +heretofore, still owed for Dr. Macklin's services; and Sheila felt +that in this present tragic emergency she must attempt the +collection of these old debts. +</p> +<p> +She wrote letters praying that money might be sent her by express to +Paulmouth, but with the orders addressed under cover to "John-Ed +Williams, Jr." at the Big Wreck Cove post office. She explained her +design to her juvenile confidant and little John-Ed was made +immensely proud of such mark of her trust. She could have found no +more faithful adherent than the boy, and with him the secret of her +dwelling on the lonely shore and in her hermit-like state was safe. +</p> +<p> +But her presence there could not be hidden for long; of that she was +well aware. Little John-Ed, however, told nobody of her whereabouts +until the day Tunis Latham came back from Boston and learned that +the girl he loved had stolen away from her home in the Ball house. +</p> +<p> +Coming out of the rear door of the barn, fresh from the interview +with the old captain which had so shocked him, Tunis saw a small boy +astride the low stone fence that marked the rear boundary of the +Ball farm. The captain of the <i>Seamew</i> was in no mood to bandy words +with little John-Ed Williams, but the sharp tooth of his troubled +thought fastened upon one indubitable fact: if there is anything odd +going on in a community, the small boy of that community knows all +about it—or, at least, as much about it as it is possible to know. +</p> +<p> +Tunis could not have walked up to any adult person on Wreckers' Head +and asked the question which he put to little John-Ed on the spur of +the moment: +</p> +<p> +"Where is she?" +</p> +<p> +He did not have to utter Sheila's name. Indeed, he was doubtful by +what name it would be wise to call her. But he did not have to be +plainer with little John-Ed. He saw in the sly expression of the +boy's eyes that he knew whom he meant. But he shook his head. +</p> +<p> +"You know where she went," was the schooner captain's accusation. +"Where is she?" +</p> +<p> +"I—I can't tell you," stammered the boy. "I promised not." +</p> +<p> +A promise is a promise, especially to a small boy who scorns to +"snitch." Tunis thought a moment. +</p> +<p> +"Show me," he said, and his voice had in it that tone which made the +foremast hands jump to obey when a squall was coming. +</p> +<p> +The boy got promptly off the wall. +</p> +<p> +"All right," he said gruffly. "But don't you tell her I showed you, +Cap'n Tunis Latham." +</p> +<p> +"Trust me," agreed the captain of the <i>Seamew</i>, and followed after +little John-Ed with such tremendous strides that the latter had to +run to keep ahead of him. +</p> +<p> +Tunis was led to that point on the bluff from which a curl of smoke +from the cabin chimney could be seen. He halted almost in +horror—stricken to the heart when he understood. +</p> +<p> +"Alone?" he muttered. +</p> +<p> +"Yep," was the reply. "She's playing she's a castaway. Nobody but me +knows it." +</p> +<p> +Then, fearing he had said too much, John-Ed ran away. +</p> +<p> +Tunis descended the bluff by a perilous path—he would not delay to +go around by the cart track—and came in plain view of the cabin. +The door hinge had been repaired, and the door now swung freely. A +strip of cotton cloth had been tacked over the gaping window. There +was that neatness about the abandoned cabin which must always be +associated in his mind with Sheila Macklin, even had he not seen her +sitting pensively upon a driftwood timber by the door. +</p> +<p> +The ax had been doing good service, for there was a great +heap of wood cut into stove lengths. The fragrant odor of +something—chowder, perhaps—simmering on the stove, floated +through the open door. +</p> +<p> +It was the coarse sand crunching under his boots which aroused her. +She did not start at his approach, but raised her eyes languidly. He +wondered if she had expected him. She must have seen the <i>Seamew</i> +pass several hours earlier as they headed in toward the channel. +</p> +<p> +"My God, Sheila!" he exclaimed with bitterness, but without anger. +"You can't stay here." +</p> +<p> +"I must—for a while. No. Don't talk about it, please, Tunis." Her +gesture had a finality to it which silenced the objections rising to +his lips. "Nothing you can say will change my determination. And you +must not come here again." +</p> +<p> +"What will people say?" he gasped. +</p> +<p> +The violet eyes blazed suddenly while she surveyed him. This was not +the girl he had known before. At least, she was not the same as +when he had seen her last. Even at that previous interview her look +and manner had not so reminded him of the girl he had sat beside on +the bench on Boston Common. +</p> +<p> +She was alone again. The flower of her nature that had expanded +while she lived her all too brief and happy life with the Balls was +now withered. She was hopeless again; she had become once more the +Sheila Macklin that he had met under such wretched circumstances at +that past time. But in spite of her helplessness and her +wretchedness, there was something in the girl's expression which +convinced Tunis Latham before he again spoke that nothing he could +say would in any degree change her determination. +</p> +<p> +"That confounded girl never should have been allowed to come back to +the house up there," he cried almost wildly. "Why did Elder Minnett +want to interfere? It was not his business! No one need have known +the truth." +</p> +<p> +"Don't you see, Tunis, that just because it was the truth it was +sure to become known? At least, the main points in the whole matter +were sure to come out. But if you are careful, if you are wise, +nobody need know more of your share in the transaction than I have +told already." +</p> +<p> +"Cap'n Ira asked me if it was true. He told me what you said. +Sheila, you ruined your own reputation with the old folks to save +me. Girl—" +</p> +<p> +"Did I have any reputation to lose, Tunis?" she interrupted, yet +speaking softly. "I could not save myself. I have tried to save you. +Don't be ill-advised; don't be foolish. Say nothing, and it will all +blow over—for you." +</p> +<p> +"You think I'll accept such a sacrifice on your part?" he demanded +fiercely. +</p> +<p> +"I am making no sacrifice. Nothing I can do or say; nothing you can +do or say; nothing anybody can do or say; will change my situation. +We need not both be ruined in the eyes of the community. Soon I will +get away. They will forget me. It will all blow over. You need not +suffer." +</p> +<p> +"What do you think I am?" he cried again. "Am I the sort of a +fellow, you think, to shelter myself behind you?" +</p> +<p> +"Shelter your Aunt Lucretia. Shelter your business prospects. +Shelter the good name of your mother's son. You can do me absolutely +no good by telling any different story from the one I was forced to +tell. Let it be, Tunis." +</p> +<p> +She said it wearily. She dropped her eyes again, looking away from +him. But when he would have stepped nearer and caught her to him, +she leaped up and with look and tone warded him away. +</p> +<p> +"Don't touch me! Be at least so kind, Tunis. Make it no harder for +me than you can help." +</p> +<p> +"You are breaking my heart, Sheila!" +</p> +<p> +"Mine is already broken," she told him. "And I do not blame you, +Tunis. It is the punishment for my own sins. I attempted to escape +from my overwhelming troubles in a wrong way. I see it now. I know +it to be so. I must go somewhere else and build again—if I may. But +never again upon a foundation of trickery and deceit. Oh! Never! +Never!" +</p> +<p> +She stepped around the big block on which she had been sitting, +entered the cabin, and closed the door behind her. She left him +standing there hopeless, miserable, almost distraught by all the +entanglements of this tragedy that had come upon them. +</p> +<a name="2HCH0030"><!-- H2 anchor --></a> + +<div style="height: 4em;"><br /><br /><br /><br /></div> + +<h2> + CHAPTER XXX +</h2> +<h3> + THE STORM +</h3> +<p> +Captain Tunis Latham, pacing the deck of the <i>Seamew</i>, had come to a +conclusion which was by no means complimentary to his own +self-respect. During his manifold duties and the business bothers +connected with the sailing of the undermanned schooner, his mind had +seized upon and grappled with a train of ideas which brought him +logically to the decision that he was playing a weak and piffling +part. +</p> +<p> +Strong in most things, Tunis Latham had allowed his better sense to +be throttled and his purpose balked in the thing which meant more to +him than the schooner, his business success, or anything else in +life. The broader the rift grew between Sheila and himself, the +clearer he saw that without her he was a ship without a rudder and +that nothing could come of his life save wreck and disaster. +</p> +<p> +She had renounced him for his own good, as she believed, and he had +tacitly consented to her ruling. He might be slow of thought +regarding such things, but once having made up his mind—and it was +made up now—he was of the kind that obstacles do not frighten. +</p> +<p> +Not only did he realize that by bowing to the girl's will he had +been weak, but he was determined to take matters in the future into +his own hands. He should not have allowed Sheila, in the first +place, to shoulder the responsibility of handling the emergency of +the appearance of the real Ida May Bostwick at Big Wreck Cove. +</p> +<p> +Sheila, in an attempt to save his reputation, to save his +self-respect in the eyes of the home folks and of the world in +general, had uttered a direct falsehood and cut herself off from him +and from those who loved her. This was too much for any decent man +to stand. Was he a coward? Would he shelter himself—as he had told +her—behind her skirts? +</p> +<p> +Tunis believed that Cap'n Ira and Prudence, when once the shock of +the girl's revelation was past, loved her so dearly that they would +forgive Sheila if they knew all the truth—if they knew the girl as +he knew her. He was not so sure of Aunt Lucretia. He had feared to +tell her the night before that Sheila had gone to live in the old +fisherman's cabin, in spite of the sympathy Lucretia had previously +shown him. But he believed his silent aunt fully appreciated the +better qualities of the girl she had seen on but one occasion, and +that she would, in time, admit that Sheila was more than worthy of +her nephew's love. +</p> +<p> +In any event he had his own life to make or mar. Without Sheila he +knew it would be utterly fruitless and without an object. Rather +than lose Sheila he would sell the schooner, cut himself off from +friends and home, and, with her, face the world anew. He was +determined, if Sheila left Big Wreck Cove, that he would go with +her. Nobody—not even the girl herself—could shake this +determination now born in the mind of the captain of the <i>Seamew</i>. +</p> +<p> +Sheila had borne his reputation upon her heart from the beginning, +but he should have at first thought of her good name and the opinion +the world must needs hold of Sheila Macklin. She had been unfairly +accused. She had been abused, ill-treated, punished for a sin which +was not hers. It was not enough that he had tried to help her hide +away from those who knew of her persecution. The only right thing to +do—the only sane course, and the one which should have been pursued +from the start—was to attempt to disprove the accusation under +which the girl had suffered and set her right not only before Big +Wreck Cove folk, but before the whole world. +</p> +<p> +The poignant feeling of sin committed, with which Sheila herself was +now burdened, did not influence Tunis Latham. It was the logic of +the idea which convinced him that they had been totally wrong in +what they had done. He should have married Sheila on the night they +had met in Boston and set about first of all tracing back her +trouble and disproving the flimsy evidence which must have convicted +her of stealing from Hoskin & Marl's. +</p> +<p> +He told himself it was not piety, but hard common sense which +suggested this as the only and practical way to handle the matter. +It was, in truth, the awakened hope in a loving heart. +</p> +<p> +Tunis had been able to keep scarcely enough of his crew to handle +the <i>Seamew</i> in fair weather; and the barometer was falling, with +every indication in sea and sky of the approach of bad weather. He +feared the few hands he had would desert when they reached Boston. +Zebedee Pauling was a young host in himself—far and away a better +seaman than Orion Latham, as well as a better fellow. But the +schooner could not be sailed with good will. +</p> +<p> +Tunis' mind, however, remained fixed upon Sheila's troubles rather +than upon his own; and as soon as the schooner docked, he went up +into the town and wended his way directly to the great department +store in which he had once interviewed the troublesome Ida May +Bostwick. +</p> +<hr /> +<p> +The cargo was out, and the <i>Seamew</i> had already been warped into +another wharf where freight was awaiting her when the skipper +returned to the water front that afternoon. The three men remaining +of the forecastle crew were still at work, assisted by Zebedee and +Horry Newbegin. They had not had a regular cook for two trips now. +</p> +<p> +But a new complication had arisen. Mason Chapin stood at the rail +waiting his return, and a taxicab had been summoned. The mate +carried a bag. +</p> +<p> +"A telegram from Doctor Norris. My wife's worse, Mr. Latham. I've +got to go back just as fast as steam will get me there," was his +greeting to the skipper of the <i>Seamew</i>. +</p> +<p> +This was according to the agreement Mason Chapin had made in the +beginning. His wife was sorely ill, and surely Tunis would not stand +between a man and his sick wife! +</p> +<p> +But it left a very serious situation upon the schooner when the mate +drove away in the taxicab. Six men, forward and aft, to handle a +suit of sails which equaled those of any seagoing racing yacht. If +it had not been for the freight—some of which was perishable—the +master of the <i>Seamew</i> would have laid up until he could have got +together a more numerous crew at least. +</p> +<p> +But instead of going to the seamen's employment offices, Tunis had +to turn to himself, while the heavier pieces of freight were lowered +down the hatchway of the schooner. It was near evening when the +hatch was battened down and a small tug snaked them out of the dock +and from among the greater shipping, and gave them a whistled +blessing in midstream. +</p> +<p> +All hands and the skipper tailed on to the sheets and got her canvas +spread. Then the skipper went below to the galley and prepared +supper. Tunis Latham could be no stickler for quarter-deck etiquette +on this voyage, that was sure. +</p> +<p> +But although the hands growled, and even Horry looked sour, Tunis +seemed strangely excited; indeed, he looked less woebegone than he +had for many a day. Something seemed to have given him a new zest in +life. He even spoke to the hands cheerfully, and they were a trio of +as surly dogs as ever quarreled with their food and a ship's +officers. +</p> +<p> +"I'll lay up at the cove until I get a decent crew this time, if I +lose all my existing contracts," Tunis said to Zebedee. "I'll find a +bunch of men who are not afraid of their shadows. Huh! Hoodooed, is +she? I'll show 'em that she can sail, even if Davy Jones himself +sits on her bowsprit!" +</p> +<p> +There was wind enough, in all good conscience. They discovered that +before they were out of the bay. It had shifted into the northeast, +and the <i>Seamew</i> went roaring away on her course under reefed +canvas, heeling over to it like a racing yacht. +</p> +<p> +But the long tacks to seaward which the gale enforced made it +impossible for the schooner to beat back to Hollis where the first +of her freight must be discharged until after breakfast the next +morning. By that time the three foremast hands who had been obliged +to work double watches were fairly stewing in their own rage. +</p> +<p> +Tunis had to see his consignees while the freight was being +discharged; when he got back to the wharf there was nobody aboard +the schooner save Horry and Zebedee. The latter had a broken oar in +his hand and he and the ancient seaman seemed to be in a condition +of utter amazement. +</p> +<p> +"What's to do now?" demanded the skipper. +</p> +<p> +"They've gone, Cap'n Latham," stammered Zebedee. "Say they won't put +foot on the <i>Seamew's</i> deck again. That—that confounded 'Rion—" +</p> +<p> +"What's the matter with Orion now?" exclaimed Tunis. "I hoped I was +well rid of him. Has he turned up here at Hollis?" +</p> +<p> +"Look at this," said Zebedee, shaking the broken oar. "Here's what +it seems 'Rion found in the hold two trips back. So those fellows +say. He left it with 'em. And they say the schooner is a murder ship +and they won't try to work her no further." +</p> +<p> +Tunis seized the piece of oar. Along one side was a streak of faint +blue paint. He knew immediately where he had seen that broken oar +before—leaning against the door frame of Pareta's cottage in +Portygee Town, when he had last talked with the old man's daughter. +</p> +<p> +"What in thunder!" +</p> +<p> +He had turned it over and saw the straggling letters burned into +the wood: MARLIN B. Newbegin looked at Tunis with an expression +which betrayed a great perturbation of soul. The old man could +scarcely show pallor under the mahogany of his face, but it was +plain that superstition had him by the throat. +</p> +<p> +"So this is the thing that rotten 'Rion played them with, is it?" +Tunis demanded. "Trying to make them think my beautiful <i>Seamew</i> was +once the <i>Marlin B.</i>? Why, the poor fools, this broken oar came out +of Mike Pareta's woodpile, or I'm a dog-fish! See that blue streak? +I saw this broken oar at Pareta's house. Bet you anything Eunez had +something to do with it, too. Though why she should want to harm me, +who never said a cross word to her, I can't see." +</p> +<p> +"She and your cousin are mighty thick," Zebedee said reflectively. +"That's a fact." +</p> +<p> +"Thicker than they ought to be for the girl's good, I guess," agreed +Tunis. Then he said to Horry: "What's the matter with you, old man? +Do you want to desert me, too, all along of a broken oar with some +silly letters burned into it?" +</p> +<p> +The ancient mariner had got a grip upon himself. The simple +explanation that punctured the bubble of superstition so +convincingly might not have altogether satisfied Horry. But he was a +true and just man. +</p> +<p> +"I never deserted your father, Cap'n Randall Latham, not even when +his ship sunk under him," the old man declared. "I was saved from +that wreck by chance, not because I tried to be. And I ain't likely +to desert his son." +</p> +<p> +"How about you, Zebedee?" demanded the captain of the <i>Seamew</i>. +</p> +<p> +"I am not afraid of any foolish talk, anyway, Captain Latham. Had I +been I wouldn't have applied for the berth. I had heard enough about +it. Eunez Pareta, I believe, talked too much to the Portygees, and +that is why you couldn't keep them. But I'm not a Portygee." +</p> +<p> +"I'll say you're not," agreed Tunis. "But we're left in something of +a fix. This freight for Josh Jones and his father is needed. Some +other stuff consigned to Big Wreck Cove ought to be there by +to-night. And I can't get a man for love or money here to help us +out. I tried while I was uptown." +</p> +<p> +Zeb showed no hesitation. He shrugged his blue-jerseyed shoulders. +</p> +<p> +"Don't you cal'late we can beat down there under a reefed mainsail +and jib? It'll take time, but she's the sweetest sailing craft I was +ever in in my life," he said. +</p> +<p> +"She's certainly all right, 'cept for that pull to sta'bbo'd," +muttered Horry. +</p> +<p> +"Humph! Three men to sail a schooner of this tonnage. And this isn't +any capsize wind at that," murmured the captain of the <i>Seamew</i>. +"But it's got to be done. Come! Will you risk it with me?" +</p> +<p> +They looked aloft and then at each other. There was little save +reflection in their several glances. Men of this caliber do not +hesitate over a risk of life or ship. Cautious as Tunis Latham was, +his agreement with those he had contracted with called for a prompt +fulfillment of the details of the pact. Nor did the prospect of the +rising gale and rising sea cause any of the trio to blanch. It was +not a long run to Big Wreck Cove. Properly manned, the <i>Seamew</i> +should make it prettily in three or four hours. In addition, there +was little but an open roadstead before the port of Hollis. The +breakwater was scarcely strong enough to fend off the waves in a +real gale. And they knew that a gale was coming. +</p> +<p> +This was no place for a schooner of the <i>Seamew's</i> size to ride out +the storm. She might easily drag her anchors and go ashore on the +Hollis sands that in the past had buried many a good ship. So the +trio of Cape men nodded grimly to each other and took the better +chance. +</p> +<a name="2HCH0031"><!-- H2 anchor --></a> + +<div style="height: 4em;"><br /><br /><br /><br /></div> + +<h2> + CHAPTER XXXI +</h2> +<h3> + BITTER WATERS +</h3> +<p> +Ah, yes! youth, and romance linked with a self-scrutiny born of her +New England ancestry if not of her father's Celtic blood, had +brought Sheila Macklin to her dreadful pass. One might have said, if +one were hardened enough, that had the young woman "possessed an +ounce of sense" she would not have made herself penniless, an +outcast, and so suffered because she could not escape quickly from +an environment well-nigh poignant enough to turn her brain. +</p> +<p> +She was days in recovering from the shock of the appearance of the +real Ida May Bostwick at the Ball homestead. And those hours of +torture that had followed had eaten like acid into Sheila's soul. +</p> +<p> +She had by no means recovered herself when Tunis had his brief +interview with her. Had she not shut herself away from him—refused +to even discuss the situation with the troubled skipper of the +<i>Seamew</i>—she must have broken down, given way to that womanly +weakness born of love for the man of her choice. +</p> +<p> +For Sheila knew how Tunis Latham suffered. She felt that her course +was right; nevertheless she fully appreciated how keen the blow of +her decision fell upon the partner in her sin. +</p> +<p> +A sin it was—almost, it seemed to her now, an unpardonable crime. +To seize upon another girl's identity; to usurp another's chance; to +foist herself upon the unsuspecting and kindly souls at the Ball +homestead in a way that raised for them a happiness that was merely +a phantom—the thought of it all was now a draught of which the +dregs were very, very bitter. +</p> +<p> +Over and over again she recalled all that Ida May Bostwick had said +to and of her. It was all true! Coarse and unfeeling as the shopgirl +was, Sheila lashed her troubled soul with the thought that what Ida +May had said was deserved. Neither circumstances nor the fact that +Tunis had suggested the masquerade excused the transgression. +</p> +<p> +The days of her waiting on fate, alone in the cabin under Wreckers' +Head, gave no surcease to her mental castigation. Her sin loomed the +more huge as the hours dragged their slow length by. +</p> +<p> +And yet, with it all, Sheila's keenest anguish came through her +renunciation of Tunis' love. She could see no possible way of +holding to that if she would purge herself of the fault she had +committed. +</p> +<p> +And above the stain of her false position since she had come to the +Cape was the overcloud of that accusation which had first warped +Sheila Macklin's life and humbled her spirit. She believed that she +could never escape the shame of that prosecution and punishment for +a crime she had not committed. +</p> +<p> +She believed that, no matter where she might go nor how blamelessly +she might live, the fact that she had been sentenced to a woman's +reformatory would crop up like the ugly memory of a horrid dream to +embitter her existence. Was her life linked with Tunis Latham's, he +must suffer also from that misfortune. +</p> +<p> +And so Sheila Macklin waited from hour to hour, from day to day, +dully and in a brooding spirit, for release from a situation which +must in time embitter her whole nature. +</p> +<hr /> +<p> +From the cabin at the foot of the seaward bluff of Wreckers' Head, +the coming of the black gale out of the northeast was watched +anxiously by Sheila, from the very break of this day. Tunis might be +on the sea. She doubted if the threat of bad weather would hold the +<i>Seamew</i> in port. +</p> +<p> +There was no rain—just a wind which tore across the waste of waters +within view of her station, scattering their crests in foam and +spoondrift, and rolling them in huger and still huger breakers on +the strand. It was a magnificent sight, but a terrifying one as +well. The girl watched almost continually for a white patch against +the black of the storm which might mark a sailing craft in peril. +</p> +<p> +Steam vessels went past, several of them. They, surely, were in +little danger, were their hulls ordinarily sound and their engines +perfect. All the fishing craft had made for cover the night before. +The New York-Boston steamers would keep to the inside passage in +this gale. +</p> +<p> +Sheila had made all taut and trim inside the cabin. She had plenty +of firewood and sufficient provisions to last her for a time. +</p> +<p> +About noon she heard the crunch of footsteps on the sand. It was +little John-Ed who first appeared before her eyes. He thrust a +letter into Sheila's hand. +</p> +<p> +"Dad brought it up from the port this morning, and I got it away +from him. Say," he continued, evidently much disturbed, "he's coming +here." +</p> +<p> +"Who is coming here—your father?" +</p> +<p> +"No, no! Not dad. I—I couldn't help it. I didn't tell him. I said +you wanted to play alone here at being shipwrecked, and I was just +like you said—your man Friday." +</p> +<p> +"Who do you mean?" asked Sheila, greatly agitated. "Not—" +</p> +<p> +"I bet 'twas that Tunis Latham told him you was here," continued +John-Ed. "Anyway, don't blame me. All I done was to help him down +the path." +</p> +<p> +He disappeared. Sheila stepped to the door. Cap'n Ira was laboring +over the sands toward the cabin, leaning on his cane, his coat +flapping in the wind and his cap screwed on so tightly that a +hurricane could not possibly have blown it away. +</p> +<p> +But in addition and aside from the buffeting he had suffered from +the wind, the old man looked much less trim and taut than Sheila had +ever before seen him. He had not been shaved for at least three +days; a button hung by a thread upon his coat; there was a coffee +stain on the bosom of his shirt. +</p> +<p> +He looked so miserable, and so faint, and so buffeted about, that +the girl cried out, running from the door of the cabin to meet him. +The sweat of his hard effort stood on his brow, and he panted for +breath. +</p> +<p> +"I swan! Ida May—er—well, whoever you be, gal, let me set down! +I'm near spent, and that's a fact." +</p> +<p> +"Oh, Cap'n Ball, you should not have done this!" cried the girl, +letting him lean upon her and aiding him as rapidly as possible to +the cabin door. "You should not have done this. You—you can do +nothing for me. You can do no good by coming here." +</p> +<p> +"Humph! P'r'aps not. Mebbe you're right. Let me set down on that +box, gal," he muttered. +</p> +<p> +He eased himself down upon the rough seat against the wall. He +removed the cap with an effort and took his huge handkerchief from +its crown. He mopped his brow and face and finally heaved a huge +sigh. +</p> +<p> +"I swan! That was a pull," he said. "So you're settled here. Gone to +housekeeping on your own hook, have ye?" he said. +</p> +<p> +"Just for a little while, Cap'n Ira. Only—only until I can get +away. I—I have been expecting some money—payment of one of my +father's old bills." +</p> +<p> +She slit the envelope of the letter little John-Ed had just brought +her. Inside was a pale-blue slip—a money order. +</p> +<p> +"Yes," she said. "I can get away now. I must go somewhere to earn my +living, and as far away from here as I can get." +</p> +<p> +"So you think on traveling, do you?" said the old man. "You ain't +content with Big Wreck Cove and the Head?" +</p> +<p> +"Oh, Cap'n Ira!" she cried. "You know I can't stay here. Winter is +coming. Besides, the people here—" +</p> +<p> +"Ain't none of 'em asked ye to come an' live with them?" +</p> +<p> +"Cap'n Ball!" +</p> +<p> +"Ain't ye seen Tunis?" +</p> +<p> +The girl hid her face from him. She put her hands over her eyes. Her +shoulders shook with her sobbing. Cap'n Ira took a reflective pinch +of snuff. +</p> +<p> +"I cal'late," he said, after wiping his eyes, "that it ain't Tunis' +fault that you are going away any more than it is mine and +Prudence's. You just made up your mind to go." +</p> +<p> +"Cap'n Ball!" she exclaimed faintly, and again raised her eyes to +his. "Can—can I help it? <i>Now?</i>" +</p> +<p> +"I don't know," he said, pursing his lips. "I don't know, gal, as +anybody is driving you away from Wreckers' Head and them that loves +ye here." +</p> +<p> +She was speechless. She gazed at him with drenched eyes, her face +quivering uncontrollably. A hand pressed tightly to her breast +seemed endeavoring to still the wild fluttering there. +</p> +<p> +"I don't know," he repeated, "that we got much to offer a gal like +you, and that's a fact. We learned to know you pretty well while you +stayed with us, Prue and me did. Somehow, we can't just seem to get +the straight of what you told us that night you left. It—it ain't +possible that you made some mistake, is it? Mebbe you was talking +about some other gal?" +</p> +<p> +"Oh, Cap'n Ball!" she sighed. "I am able to tell you nothing that +will change your opinion of me." +</p> +<p> +"Well, I don't know. I don't know. What you did say," he observed in +that same reflective, gentle tone, "didn't seem to change our +opinion much. Not mine and Prudence's." +</p> +<p> +"Cap'n Ball!" +</p> +<p> +"No," he went on, wagging his head. "You committing such a fault as +you say you was accused of, and you coming down here as you did, +through a trick—somehow those facts, if they be facts, don't seem +to have much effect on our opinion. Me and the old woman feel that +somehow—we don't know how—what you told us that night and what you +done for us before that night don't fit together nohow." +</p> +<p> +She stared at him without understanding. He cleared his throat and +mopped his brow again with the big silk handkerchief. +</p> +<p> +"No, gal, we can't understand how anybody as good and loving as you +have been to us can be at heart as bad as—as other folks might try +to make out. Fact is, we know you can't be bad." +</p> +<p> +"What—what do you mean, Cap'n Ball?" she asked faintly. +</p> +<p> +"I swan! I tell ye what I'm getting at," burst out the old man. "We +want you to come back. Prudence, she wants you to come back. I swan! +I want you to come back. Why, even that dratted Queen of Sheby needs +you, Ida May—or, whatever your name is! We've got to have you!" +</p> +<p> +"Prudence can't scurcely get around the house. And that niece of +hers sits there like a stick or a stun, not willin' to scurce lift +her hand to help. Thank the Lord <i>she's</i> goin' home to-day. Her +visit's come to an end. She don't like it down here. She says we're +all a set of—er—hicks, I believe she calls us. +</p> +<p> +"Howsomever, we're all high and dry on the reefs, gal, and it seems +likely you're the only one can get us off. You ain't got to go away +from here, if you don't want to. I've made it pretty average plain +to that Bostwick gal that no matter what happens, she's got no +expectations as far as Prudence and me are concerned. It was money +and nothing but money she was after. Her being Prudence's niece in +kind of a far-fetched way don't make it our duty—not even our +Christian duty, as Elder Minnett calls it—to keep a gal in the +house that we don't want, nor yet die at her convenience and leave +her our money. And so I'll tell the elder if he undertakes to put +his spoon in the dish again." +</p> +<p> +Sheila was listening to words that she had never expected to hear +from the old captain. Could this be true? Were Cap'n Ira and +Prudence, in spite of what they knew about her—what she had told +them and Ida May had told them—desirous of having her back? Was +there a chance, no matter what the real Ida May Bostwick could say, +for Sheila to return and take up her peaceful life with the Balls? +</p> +<p> +Could this be real? Indeed, was it right for her to do this? Tunis— +</p> +<p> +She arose and walked to the open door, looking out almost blindly +at first upon the gale-smitten sea. It was like her heart—so tossed +about and fretted by winds of opinion. What should she do? Which way +should she turn? Not to save Sheila Macklin from trouble or +disgrace. Not even to save Tunis from possible scorn. The question +that assailed her now was only: <i>Was it right?</i> +</p> +<p> +Suddenly, out upon the mountainous waves, she spied a sail. It was +reefed, flattened down, almost tri-cornered. The two sticks of the +schooner and the jaunty bowsprit pointing skyward heaved again into +view. She stood so long gazing at the craft that Cap'n Ira spoke +again. +</p> +<p> +"What d'ye say, gal?" he asked anxiously. +</p> +<p> +"Look—look here, Cap'n Ira!" she exclaimed. "Can it be the +<i>Seamew</i>? Is she trying to head in for the channel? Oh! Are they in +danger out there?" +</p> +<p> +The old man rose with his usual difficulty and hobbled to the door, +leaning on his cane. He peered out over her shoulder, and his keen +and experienced eyes saw and identified the laboring vessel almost +at once. +</p> +<p> +"I swan! That is the <i>Seamew</i>, Ida May," he exclaimed. "Tut, tut! +What's Tunis got himself into such a pickle for? 'Tain't reasonable +he should—being as good a seaman as he is. +</p> +<p> +"My, my! Why don't he get some cloth on her? He can't have lost all +his upper canvas. Don't he know he needs tops'ls to beat up aslant +of this gale and get into the shelter of the Head? I swan! If +there's men enough there to man her proper, why don't they do the +right thing?" +</p> +<p> +"Oh, Cap'n Ball," gasped the girl, "perhaps there are not enough men +with him. Perhaps his crew has deserted again." +</p> +<p> +"I swan!" rejoined the old man. "What did he set sail for, then? +Ain't he got a mite of sense? But, I tell ye, Ida May, if he don't +get more canvas on her, and get under better way, he'll never make +that channel in this world." +</p> +<p> +"Oh!" +</p> +<p> +"The schooner's sure to go on the outer reef. She never can claw off +the land now. Without help—if that's his trouble—Tunis Latham will +never get that schooner into Big Wreck Cove. And God help him and +them that's with him!" added the captain reverently. +</p> +<a name="2HCH0032"><!-- H2 anchor --></a> + +<div style="height: 4em;"><br /><br /><br /><br /></div> + +<h2> + CHAPTER XXXII +</h2> +<h3> + A GIRL TO THE RESCUE +</h3> +<p> +On shore the gale seemed a stiff and dangerous blow. At sea, even +with a stanch deck under one's feet, the wind proved to have passed +the hurricane mark long since. The captain of the <i>Seamew</i> felt that +the elements had conspired bitterly to assail his schooner. Before +they were a mile beyond the end of the Hollis breakwater, Tunis knew +that he had the fight of his seagoing experience on his hands. +</p> +<p> +When they were fairly out of the semi-shelter of the point behind +which Hollis lay, Tunis and his two companions realized very quickly +just what they had to contend with. They had spread a handbreadth of +mainsail, but the jib was blown out of the boltropes by one big +swoop of wind and carried down to leeward, looking like a giant's +shirt. +</p> +<p> +"Still feel that tug to sta'bbo'd," grumbled Horry. "Just like—" +</p> +<p> +"Belay that!" commanded Tunis. "I begin to believe that's bad luck, +anyway. If you hadn't got on to that tack when we first put the +schooner into commission, those Portygees wouldn't have even +remembered the <i>Marlin B.</i> And <i>that</i> schooner thousands of miles +away from these seas!" +</p> +<p> +"I cal'late 'Rion Latham would have found something else to harp on +then," said Zebedee. "He was bound to ruin you if he could." +</p> +<p> +Quickly the gale increased instead of abating, and it was utterly +impossible for the trio to get topsails on her. She needed the pull +of upper canvas if she was to tack properly for the mouth of the +channel into Big Wreck Cove. +</p> +<p> +They fought for two hours to bring this much-desired object to pass, +hoping for a lull or a shifting of the gale which might aid them. +The yellow sands of Wreckers' Head were plainly in view all that +time. To give up the attempt and run before the gale was a folly of +which Tunis Latham had no intention of being guilty if it could +possibly be avoided. Manned as she was, the schooner might never be +worked back to a landfall if they did so. +</p> +<p> +The keen old eyes of Horace Newbegin first spied the thing which +promised hope. From his station at the wheel he shouted something +which the younger men did not catch, but his pointing arm drew their +gaze shoreward. +</p> +<p> +Coming out from the Head was an open boat. Four figures pulled at +the oars while another held the steering sweep. The daring crew was +heading the boat straight on for the pitching schooner! +</p> +<p> +"The coast guard!" the old man was now heard to shout. "God bless +them fellers!" +</p> +<p> +But Tunis knew it was not the lifeboat from the distant station. He +knew the boat, if he could not at first identify those who manned +it. It was an old lifeboat that had been stored in a shed below +John-Ed Williams' place, and these men attempting their rescue were +some of the neighbors from Wreckers' Head. +</p> +<p> +They came on steadily, the steersman standing at his post and +handling the long oar as though it was a feather's weight. His huge +figure soon identified him. It was Captain John Dunn, who, like Ira +Ball, had left the sea, and he had left his right forearm, too, +because of some accident somewhere on the other side of the globe. +But with the steel hook screwed to its stump and the good hand +remaining to him, Captain Dunn handled that steering oar with more +skill than most other men with two good hands could have done. +</p> +<p> +How the four at the oars pulled the heavy boat! Tunis sought to +identify them as well. He saw John-Ed Williams—in a place at last +where he was forced to keep up his end, though he was notably a lazy +man. Ben Brewster had the oar directly behind John-Ed. +</p> +<p> +The third figure Tunis could not identify—not at once. The man at +the bow oar was Marvin Pike, who pulled a splendid stroke. So did +that unknown oarsman. They were all bravely tugging at the heavy +oars. Tunis had faith in them. +</p> +<p> +Zebedee suddenly plunged across the pitching deck and reached the +rail where Tunis stood. Discipline—at least seagoing etiquette—had +been somewhat in abeyance aboard the <i>Seamew</i> during the last few +hours. Zeb caught the skipper by the arm. +</p> +<p> +"See her?" he bawled into the ear of the surprised Tunis. +</p> +<p> +"What's that?" +</p> +<p> +"See her hair? It's a girl! As I'm a living sinner, it's a girl! +Pulling number three oar, Captain Latham! Did you ever?" +</p> +<p> +Clinging to a stay, the captain of the <i>Seamew</i> flung himself far +over the rail as the schooner chanced to roll. He could look down +into the approaching lifeboat. He saw the loosened, dark locks of +the girl who was pulling at number three oar. On the very heels of +Zeb's words the captain was confident of the girl's identity. +</p> +<p> +"Sheila!" +</p> +<p> +His voice could not have reached her ear because of the rush and +roar of the wind and sea, but, as though in answer to his shout, the +girl glanced back and up, over her shoulder. For a moment Tunis got +a flash of the face he so dearly loved. +</p> +<p> +What a woman she was! She lacked no more in courage than she did in +beauty and sweetness of disposition. What other girl along all this +coast—even one born of the Cape strain—would have dared take an +oar in that lifeboat in face of such dire peril as this? +</p> +<p> +"Good Lord, Cap'n Latham!" shrieked Zeb. "That's Miss Bostwick!" +</p> +<p> +Tunis straightened up, squared his shoulders, and looked at Zebedee +proudly. He wanted Zeb to know—he wanted the whole world to know, +if he could spread the news abroad—that the girl pulling number +three oar was the girl he loved, and was going to marry! +</p> +<hr /> +<p> +An hour later the <i>Seamew</i>, her topsails drawing full and her lower +canvas properly handled, drove on like the bird she was through the +channel into the cove, trailing the old lifeboat behind her. The +skipper had taken the wheel himself, but that "tug to sta'bbo'd" did +not disturb his equanimity as it sometimes did Horry's. +</p> +<p> +Sheila, muffled in oilskins and sea boots, but with her wet hair +flowing over her shoulders, stood beside the skipper. No matter how +satisfied and confident Tunis might appear, the girl was still in an +uncertain state of mind. +</p> +<p> +"And so," she said to him anxiously, "I do not know what to tell +them. Cap'n Ira seemed so poorly and so unhappy. And he says Aunt +Prue is almost ill. +</p> +<p> +"But it was Cap'n Ira who told me what to do when we saw the +<i>Seamew</i> in danger; how to get the men together and how to launch +the boat! Oh, it was wonderful! He was not too overcome to be +practical and realize your need, Tunis." +</p> +<p> +"Trust Cap'n Ira," agreed the young man. "And what other girl could +have done what you did, Sheila? Hear what Cap'n John Dunn says? You +ought to be a sailor's daughter. <i>I</i> can tell him you are going to +be a sailor's wife." +</p> +<p> +"No, no! Oh, Tunis! It can't—" +</p> +<p> +"No 'can't' in the dictionary," interrupted the captain of the +<i>Seamew</i>. "You and I are going to have one big talk, Sheila, after I +take you up home." +</p> +<p> +"Up home?" she repeated. +</p> +<p> +"You are going back to Cap'n Ira's. You know you are. That other +girl has beat it for Boston, you say, and there's not a living +reason why you shouldn't return to the Balls. Besides, they need +you. I could see that with half an eye when I went away the other +morning. The old man hobbling around the barn trying to catch an old +hen was a sight to make the angels weep." +</p> +<p> +"Poor, poor Cap'n Ira!" she murmured. +</p> +<p> +"And poor Aunt Prudence—and poor <i>me</i>!" exclaimed Tunis. "What do +you think is going to happen to me? If you go away, I shall have to +sell all I own in the world and follow you." +</p> +<p> +"Tunis!" she cried, almost in fear. "You wouldn't." +</p> +<p> +"I certainly would. I am going to have you, one way or another. +Nobody else shall get you, Sheila. And you can't go far enough or +fast enough to lose me." +</p> +<p> +"Don't!" she said faintly. "You cannot be in earnest. Do you know +what it means if you and I have any association whatsoever? Oh! I +thought this was all over—that you would not tear open the wound—" +</p> +<p> +"I don't mean to hurt you, Sheila," he said softly. But he was +smiling. "I have got something to tell you that will, I believe, put +an entirely different complexion on your affairs." +</p> +<p> +"What—what can you mean?" she burst out. "Oh, tell me!" +</p> +<p> +"I'll tell you a little of it now. Just enough to keep you from +thinking I am crazy. The rest I will not tell you save in the Balls' +sitting room before Cap'n Ira and Aunt Prue." +</p> +<p> +"Tunis!" she murmured with clasped hands. +</p> +<p> +"Yesterday I spent two hours in the manager's office of Hoskin & +Marl's. They have been looking for you for more than six months. +Naturally, there was no record of you after you left that—that +school when your time was out. They didn't seem to guess you'd have +got work in that Seller's place." +</p> +<p> +"What do you mean? What did they want me for?" gasped the girl. +</p> +<p> +"Near as I could find out from the old gentleman who seemed to be in +charge there at the store, they wanted to find you to beg your +pardon. He cried, that manager did. He broke down and cried like a +baby—especially after I had told him a few things that had happened +to you, and some things that might have happened if you hadn't found +such good friends in Cap'n Ira and Prudence. That's right. He was +all broke up." +</p> +<p> +The girl stood before him, straight as a reed. She rocked with the +pitching of the schooner, but it seemed as though her feet were +glued to the planks. She could not have fallen! +</p> +<p> +"They—they know—" +</p> +<p> +"They know they sent to jail the wrong girl. The woman that stole +the goods is dead, and before she died she wrote 'em all about it +from the sanitarium where the firm sent her. They are sending you +papers signed by the judge, the prosecuting attorney, even the +pawnbroker and the store detective, and—and a lot of other folks. +Why, Sheila, you are fully exonerated." +</p> +<p> +She began suddenly to weep, the great tears raining down her face, +although she still stood erect and kept her gaze fixed upon him. +</p> +<p> +"Six months! As long as I have been down here! Oh, Tunis! While we +were making up our plot on that bench on Boston Common and planning +to lie to these dear, good people down here—and everybody; while we +were beginning this coil of deceit and trouble, I might have gone +back there to the store and found all this out. And—and I would +never have needed to lie and deceive as I have done." +</p> +<p> +"Huh! Yes. I cal'late that's so, Sheila," he said. "But how about +me? Where would I have come in, if you had found out that your name +had been cleared and Hoskin & Marl were anxious to do well by you? +Seems to me, Sheila, there must be some compensation in that +thought. There is for me, at any rate." +</p> +<p> +She flashed him a look then that cleaved its way to Tunis Latham's +very soul. His tale did not remove from her heart all its burden. +She was still penitent for the falsehood she had told in direct +words to Cap'n Ira and Prudence about her first meeting with Tunis. +But that prevarication, at least, had been for no purpose of self +gain. +</p> +<p> +And so Sheila looked at her lover for just that passing moment with +all the passion which filled her heart for him. Had Tunis not been +steering the <i>Seamew</i> through a pretty tortuous channel at just that +moment there is no knowing what he would have done—spurred by +Sheila's look! +</p> +<a name="2HCH0033"><!-- H2 anchor --></a> + +<div style="height: 4em;"><br /><br /><br /><br /></div> + +<h2> + CHAPTER XXXIII +</h2> +<h3> + A HAVEN OF REST +</h3> +<p> +Wreckers' Head so shelters the cove from the northeast that the +schooner could be brought safely in to Luiz Wharf, instead of +dropping her anchor in deep water. Half the port, and all of +Portygee Town, crowded nearby wharves and streets to welcome Tunis +Latham's schooner; for news of her peril and the way in which help +had reached the <i>Seamew</i> had come down from the Head as on the wings +of the wind itself. +</p> +<p> +There was one face on the wharf Tunis Latham sought out with grim +persistency as the schooner was made fast. He had purposely placed +Sheila in Zebedee Pauling's care. Tunis kept, directly under his +hand, the broken oar which had helped to make so much of his recent +trouble. When the <i>Seamew</i> was safe, her skipper leaped ashore. And +he carried the broken oar with him. +</p> +<p> +Orion, grinning and sneering by turns, saw his cousin coming. It +must have been preternatural sagacity which caused him to see and +recognize the broken oar. Having seen it, he jumped for the head of +the wharf. +</p> +<p> +Tunis leaped away on his cousin's trail. The crowd parted to let +them through, and then joined in a streaming, excited tail to their +kite of progress. Most of the spectators lived in Portygee Town. +Some of them had been members of the <i>Seamew's</i> deserting crews. +They were afraid of Tunis Latham, but they had little sympathy for +Orion. +</p> +<p> +The skipper caught up with him in the middle of the road and almost +opposite the Pareta cottage. Orion had picked up a cobblestone as he +reached the street and, finding himself about to be overtaken, he +turned and threw the missile at Tunis' head. The latter dodged it +and, with a single, savage blow of the oar felled his cousin to the +roadway. +</p> +<p> +"You unmitigated scoundrel!" Tunis roared. "I ought to take your +life. Because of you I nearly lost my own to-day—and the lives of +two other men and my schooner into the bargain. You villain!" +</p> +<p> +As Orion tried to scramble up, the skipper of the <i>Seamew</i> made +another pass at him with the oar, and the fellow fell again. +</p> +<p> +"Don't hit me! Don't hit me again, Tunis! Remember I'm your cousin. +I—I haven't done a thing—true an' honest, I haven't!" +</p> +<p> +The listeners gathered closer. Tunis Latham's face displayed such +rage that the Portygees expected him to continue his attack with the +oar. But instead he shook it before their eyes—and Orion's. +</p> +<p> +"See it?" he demanded of the bystanders. "That's the scurvy trick +the dog played me. Found this broken oar in somebody's woodpile, +burned the name of the <i>Marlin B.</i> into the handle, and foisted it +on a fool crew to prove that my schooner was once called by that +name. I ought to pound him to death!" +</p> +<p> +Suddenly a brilliant figure whirled into the midst of the crowd and +reached the angry skipper and his victim. Eunez, her black eyes +ablaze, her face ruddy with anger, planted herself before Tunis +Latham, hands on hips, confronting him boldly. One glance at the +prostrate Orion assured her that, although there was blood upon his +face, he was not much hurt. She tossed her head and snapped her +fingers under the nose of the captain of the <i>Seamew</i>. +</p> +<p> +"So now, Tunis Latham! It is that you have waked up! Of a gr-r-reat +smartness are you, eh?" she cried. "You scorn us all, and tr-r-reat +us as you would dogs. Heh! All you shipmasters are alike. +</p> +<p> +"But <i>you</i>—we put the laugh on you, eh? That oar in your hand—ha, +ha! Do not lay the blame altogether upon your cousin. <i>I</i> burned +those letters into that wood with my curling irons. Fooled by a +girl, eh, Tunis Latham? Ah! Learn your lesson, Captain Latham! We +Portygee women are not to be scorned by <i>any</i> schooner captain. No!" +</p> +<p> +She snapped her fingers again in his face and turned away, swaying +her hips and tossing her head as she disappeared into her father's +cottage. When Tunis looked around for his cousin, he found that that +facile young man, taking advantage of the girl's intervention, had +slipped away. +</p> +<hr /> +<p> +A winter hurricane had pounced upon the Cape and torn at it with +teeth and claws, as though seeking to dismember it—to wrench the +forty-mile curved claw of the Cape from the remainder of Barnstable +County. +</p> +<p> +The driven snow masked everything—earth, houses, trees, and the +shivering bushes; it clung to these objects, iced upon them like +frosting. No craft ventured out of Big Wreck Cove, least of all the +<i>Seamew</i>, although she had a cargo in her hold and a complete and +satisfied crew in her forecastle. +</p> +<p> +Tunis Latham was speaking of the latter fact to Aunt Lucretia in the +warm and homelike kitchen of Latham's Folly. +</p> +<p> +"Zeb is a good fellow. He has got together a bunch of hands that +aren't afraid of ghosts or bogies. You couldn't make those Portygees +or some of the other hands we had see the ridiculousness of their +fear of the <i>Seamew</i>—bless her! But with this bunch Zeb has got +together I wouldn't fear to sail around the Horn." +</p> +<p> +His aunt looked startled at the suggestion and shook her head. +</p> +<p> +"I know you wouldn't want I should go for such a long voyage, Aunt +Lucretia," he replied. "And I don't want to myself. But I couldn't +be content here if I didn't see the prospect bright before me of +getting Ida—I mean, of getting Sheila." +</p> +<p> +His aunt looked at him again not unkindly, but said not a word. +</p> +<p> +"I've told you all about it, Aunt Lucretia," the skipper of the +<i>Seamew</i> pursued. "Everything. If Sheila did wrong to come down here +as she did, I did a greater wrong in encouraging her to come and in +tempting her with the chance of escaping from the mess she was in. +And she's paid—we've both paid—for our folly. +</p> +<p> +"As for folks talking, if that Bostwick girl wants to keep her job +with Hoskin & Marl's she'll keep her mouth shut about Sheila. She +understands that. And Hoskin & Marl—everybody, in fact that was +connected with that awful thing that happened to Sheila—have done +all in their power to make amends." +</p> +<p> +For the first time his aunt's lips opened. +</p> +<p> +"The poor child!" she said. +</p> +<p> +"I want more than your sympathy for Sheila, auntie," he urged +earnestly. "I want your approval of what Sheila and I mean to +do—in time. Of course, I must be better established first and be +making money enough to support a—a family. And Sheila would not +think of leaving the old people up there. They need her so sorely." +</p> +<p> +"But you may as well know, first as last, Aunt Lucretia, that I mean +to marry Sheila. I know it was wrong in me to try to palm her off on +you as somebody she wasn't—to try to fool you—" +</p> +<p> +"You did not fool me, Tunis; not for a moment," she told him softly. +</p> +<p> +He stared at her in amazement. +</p> +<p> +"No," went on his usually inarticulate aunt. "The moment I first +looked into her face I knew she was not Sarah Honey's daughter. That +baby's eyes were brown when Sarah brought her here years ago; and no +brown eyes could change to such a beautiful violet-blue as—as +Sheila's. I knew you and she were trying to deceive me, but I could +not help loving the dear girl from my first sight of her." +</p> +<p> +That was a very long speech indeed for Aunt Lucretia to make. She +put her arms about Tunis Latham's neck and said all the rest she +might have said in a loving kiss. +</p> +<p> +Driving as the storm was, there remained something that took the +skipper of the <i>Seamew</i> out into the welter of it. With the wet snow +plastering his back he climbed out of the saucerlike valley to the +rear premises of the Ball place. He even gave a look in at the barn +to make sure that all the chores were done for the night. The gray +ghost of the Queen of Sheba's face was raised a moment from her +manger while she looked at him inquiringly, blowing softly through +her nostrils the while. +</p> +<p> +"You're all right, anyway," said Tunis, chuckling as he closed the +barn door. "You've got a friend for life." +</p> +<p> +He went on to the kitchen door. Inside he could hear the bustle of +Sheila's swift feet, the croon of Prudence's gentle voice, and then +a mighty "A-choon!" as Cap'n Ira relieved his pent-up feelings. +</p> +<p> +"Don't let them fish cakes burn, gal," the old man drawled. "If +Tunis ain't here mighty quick he can eat his cold. Oh! Here he +is—right to the nick o' time, like the second mate's watch comin' +to breakfast." +</p> +<p> +Tunis had shaken his peacoat free of the clinging snow and now +stamped his sea-boots on the rug. He smiled broadly and confidently +at Sheila and she returned it so happily that her whole face seemed +to irradiate sunshine. Prudence nudged Cap'n Ira's elbow. +</p> +<p> +"Ain't it a pretty sight, Ira?" she whispered. +</p> +<p> +"She looks 'most as sweet as you did, Prue, when I took you to the +altar," sighed the old man windily. "I swan! Women is most alike, +young an' old. All but that dratted Ida May Bostwick. <i>She</i> was a +caution to cats." +</p> +<p> +"Now you hush, Ira. She's our own rel'tive and we ought not to speak +ill of her." +</p> +<p> +"Ha!" blew Cap'n Ira, reminding Tunis of the old mare when she +snorted. "Ha! Maybe she is. But even so I want none o' her. An' I +told Elder Minnett so. I got kinder of an idee that the elder won't +be so brash, puttin' his spoon into other folks' porridge again." +</p> +<p> +"Hush, Ira! Don't be irreverent. Remember he's a minister." +</p> +<p> +"So he is. So he is," concluded Cap'n Ira. "They say charity covers +a multitude of sins; and I expect the call to be a preacher covers a +multitude of sinners." He chuckled mellowly again. "But sometimes +I've thought that the 'call' some of our preachers hear 'stead o' +being the voice of God is some other noise they mistook for it. +Well, there, Prudence, I won't say no more. But you must allow that +Elder Minnett's buttin' in, as the boys say, come pretty nigh +bustin' everything to flinders. +</p> +<p> +"Come, Tunis. Do sit down or that gal won't be able to dish up +supper, and I'm as hungry as a wolf. Pull up your chair, Prudence. +Ain't this livin', I want to know?" He shuddered luxuriously at the +howl and rattle of the wind without. "Now, folks: 'For that with +which we are about to be blessed make us truly thankful. Amen.' Put +your teeth in one o' them biscuit, Tunis. I want to recommend 'em +to you. Ain't none better on this endurin' Cape—no, sir. We got the +best cook on the Head. If you are ever lucky enough to get one ha'f +as good, Tunis—" +</p> +<p> +"Now, you be still, Ira," admonished Prudence, smiling comfortingly +at the blushing girl. +</p> +<p> +"You better sing small, Cap'n Ira," said the skipper of the <i>Seamew</i> +hoarsely. "It's mebbe just because we're good-natured and forbearing +that you are keeping your cook for a while." +</p> +<p> +"Ha! So that's the way the wind blows, eh?" croaked Cap'n Ira. "You +talk big, young man. But we know Sheila better than you do, p'r'aps. +Don't we, Prue?" +</p> +<p> +His little old wife, with her winter-apple face wrinkled in a smile +of utter confidence, leaned nearer Sheila to pat her hand. The girl +seized the wrinkled claw suddenly and pressed it with both of +hers—pressed it gratefully and with a full-charged heart. +</p> +<p> +"Don't be disturbed. Don't fear," she whispered so that the old +woman only might not hear. "I will not leave you." +</p> +<p> +The two men looked deeply into each other's eyes and with a great +understanding. They are not demonstrative, these Cape men, not as a +rule; but Cap'n Ira and Tunis Latham understood all entailed in that +promise so softly given, and they subscribed to it. Sheila was to +have her way. +</p> +<p> +Hours later Tunis lit the lamp in his bedroom and then stood before +his window, gazing out into the driving snow. Almost immediately he +saw the gleam of another lamp, far up the slope, showing from that +north window of Sheila's chamber in the old Ball house. +</p> +<p> +This was the signal they had agreed upon—their good-night symbol +whenever he was at home. He stood there a long time, looking out. +</p> +<p> +Although the wintry wind raved across Wreckers' Head and the snow +scurried wildly before it, there was springtime in the hearts of +Tunis Latham and Sheila—the springtime of their hopes. +</p> +<h4>THE END</h4> + +<div style="height: 6em;"><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /></div> + +<div>*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 14563 ***</div> +</body> +</html> diff --git a/14563-h/images/fp.jpg b/14563-h/images/fp.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..9f7f3ec --- /dev/null +++ b/14563-h/images/fp.jpg diff --git a/LICENSE.txt b/LICENSE.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6312041 --- /dev/null +++ b/LICENSE.txt @@ -0,0 +1,11 @@ +This eBook, including all associated images, markup, improvements, +metadata, and any other content or labor, has been confirmed to be +in the PUBLIC DOMAIN IN THE UNITED STATES. + +Procedures for determining public domain status are described in +the "Copyright How-To" at https://www.gutenberg.org. + +No investigation has been made concerning possible copyrights in +jurisdictions other than the United States. Anyone seeking to utilize +this eBook outside of the United States should confirm copyright +status under the laws that apply to them. diff --git a/README.md b/README.md new file mode 100644 index 0000000..cb7a52e --- /dev/null +++ b/README.md @@ -0,0 +1,2 @@ +Project Gutenberg (https://www.gutenberg.org) public repository for +eBook #14563 (https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/14563) diff --git a/old/14563-8.txt b/old/14563-8.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..5073af6 --- /dev/null +++ b/old/14563-8.txt @@ -0,0 +1,10722 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of Sheila of Big Wreck Cove, by James A. Cooper + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Sheila of Big Wreck Cove + A Story of Cape Cod + +Author: James A. Cooper + +Release Date: January 2, 2005 [EBook #14563] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK SHEILA OF BIG WRECK COVE *** + + + + +Produced by Janet Kegg and the Project Gutenberg Online Distributed +Proofreading Team + + + + + + + + + +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 + + +[Frontispiece: "Come here and look at this craft, Prudence." +Page 11 (_Sheila of Big Wreck Cove._)] + + + + + + +CONTENTS + + +CHAPTER + 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 day, and +was a bit of a dandy still. The niceties of maritime full dress were +as important to his mind now that he had retired from the sea to +spend his remaining days in the Ball homestead on Wreckers' Head as +when he had trod the quarter-deck of the old _Susan Gatskill_, or +had occupied the chief seat at her saloon table. + +"I don't know what's to become of us," repeated Cap'n Ira, wagging a +thoughtful head, his gaze, as that of old people often is, fixed +upon a point too distant for youthful eyes to see. + +"I can't see into the future, Ira, any clearer than you can," +rejoined his wife, glancing at his sagging, blue-coated shoulders +with some gentle apprehension. + +She was a frail, little, old woman, one of those women who, after a +robust middle age, seem gradually to shrivel to the figure of what +they were in their youth, but with no charm of girlish lines +remaining. Her face was wrinkled like a russet apple in February, +and it had the colorings of that grateful fruit. She sat on the +stone slab which served for a back door stoop peeling potatoes. + +"I swan, Prue, you cut me in two places this mornin' when you shaved +me," said Cap'n Ira suddenly and in some slight exasperation. "And I +can't handle that dratted razor myself." + +"Maybe you could get John-Ed Williams to come over and shave you, +Ira." + +"John-Ed's got his work to do. Then again, how're we going to pay +him for such jobs? I swan! I can't afford a vally, Prue. Besides, +you need help about the house more than I need a steward. I can get +along without being shaved so frequent, I s'pose, but there's times +when you can't scurce lift a pot of potatoes off the stove." + +"Oh, now, Ira, I ain't so bad as all that!" declared his wife +mildly. + +"Yes, you be. I am always expecting you to fall down, or hurt +yourself some way. And as for looking out for the Queen of Sheby--" + +"Now, Ira, Queenie ain't no trouble scurcely." + +"Huh! She's more trouble than all our money, that's sure. And she's +eating her head off." + +"Now, don't say that," urged his wife in that soothing tone which +often irritated Cap'n Ira more than it mollified him. + +He tapped the metal top of the huge knob of his cane and the spring +cover flew open. Ira took a pinch of snuff, inhaled it, closed the +cover of the box, delicately brushed a few flecks of the pungent +powder from his coat lapel and shirt front, and then, burying his +nose in a large silk handkerchief, vented a prodigious: + +"_A-choon!_" + +Prudence uttered a surprised squeak, like a mouse being stepped on, +jerked herself to a half-standing posture, and the potatoes rolled +to every point of the compass. + +"Goodness gracious gallop!" she ejaculated, quite shaken out of her +usual calm. "I should think, Ira, as many times as I've told you +that scares me most into a conniption, that you'd signal me when +you're going to take snuff. I--I'm all of a shake, I be." + +"I swan! I'm sorry, Prue. I oughter fire a gun, I allow, before +speakin' the ship." + +"Fire a gun!" repeated the old woman, panting as she scrambled for +the potatoes. "That's what I object to, Ira. You want to speak +_this_ ship 'fore you shoot that awful noise. I never can get used +to it." + +"There, there!" he said, trying to poke the more distant potatoes +toward her with his cane. He could not himself stoop; or, if he did, +he could only sit erect again after the method of a ratchet wheel. +"I won't do so again, Prudence. I be an onthoughtful critter, if +ever there was one." + +Prudence had recovered the last potato. She stopped to pat his ruddy +cheek, nor was it much wrinkled, before she returned to peeling the +potatoes. + +"I know you don't mean to, Iry," she crooned. Married couples like +the Balls, where the man has been at home only for brief visits +between voyages, if they really love each other, never grow weary of +the little frills on connubial bliss usually worn shabby by other +people before the honeymoon is past. "I know you don't mean to. But +when you sneeze I think it's the crack o' doom." + +"I'm sorry about them potatoes," repeated Cap'n Ira. "I make you a +lot of extry work, Prue. Sometimes I feel, fixed as I be in health, +I oughter be in the Sailors' Snug Harbor over to Paulmouth. I do, +for a fact." + +"And what would become of me?" cried the old woman, appalled. + +"Well," returned Cap'n Ira, "you couldn't be no worse off than you +be. We'd miss each other a heap, I know." + +"Ira!" cried his wife. "Ira, I'd just _die_ without you now that +I've got you to myself at last. Those long years you were away so +much, and us not being blessed with children--" + +Ira Ball made a sudden clucking sound with his tongue. That was a +sore topic of conversation, and he always tried to dodge it. + +"It did seem sometimes," pursued Prudence, wiping her eyes with a +bit of a handkerchief that she took from her bosom, "as though I +wasn't an honestly married woman. I know that sounds awful"--and she +shook her head--"but it was so, you only getting home as you did +between voyages. But I was always looking forward to the time when +you would be home for good." + +"Don't you s'pose I looked forward to casting anchor?" he demanded +warmly. "Seemed like the time never would come. I was always trying +to speculate a little so as to make something besides my skipper's +pay and share. That--that's why I got bit in that Sea-Gold +proposition. That feller's prospectus did read mighty reasonable, +Prudence." + +"I know it did, Ira," she agreed cordially. "I believed in it just +as strong as you did. You warn't none to blame." + +"Well, I dunno. It's mighty nice of you to say so, Prue. But they +told me afterward that I might have knowed that a feller couldn't +extract ten dollars' wuth of gold from the whole Atlantic Ocean, not +if he bailed it dry!" + +"We've got enough left to keep us, Ira." + +"Just about. Just about. That is just it. When I was taken down with +this rheumatiz and the hospital doctors in New York told me I could +never think of pacing my own quarter no more, we had just enough +left invested in good securities for us to live on the int'rest." + +"And the old place, here, Ira," added his wife cheerfully. + +"Which ain't much more than a shelter," he rejoined rather bitterly. +"And just as I say, it isn't fit for two old folks like us to live +alone in. Why, we can't even raise our own potatoes no more. And I +never yet heard of pollack swimmin' ashore and begging to be split +and dried against winter. No, sir!" + +"The Lord's been good to us, Ira. We ain't never suffered yet," she +told him softly. + +"I know that. We ain't suffering for food and shelter. But, I swan, +Prue, we be suffering for some young person about the house. Now, +hold on! 'Twarn't for us to have children. That warn't meant. We've +been all through that, and it's settled. But that don't change the +fact that we need somebody to live with us if we're going to live +comfortable." + +"Oh, dear, if my niece Sarah had lived! She used to stay with me +when she was a gal and you was away," sighed Prudence. + +"But she married and had a gal of her own. She brought her here that +time I was home after my first v'y'ge on the _Susan Gatskill_. A +pretty baby if ever there was one." + +"Ida May Bostwick! Bostwick was Sarah's married name. I heard +something about Ida May only the other day." + +"You did?" exclaimed Cap'n Ira, much interested. + +"Yes, Ira. Annabell Coffin, she who was a Cuttle, was visiting his +folks in Boston, and she learned that Sarah Bostwick's daughter was +working behind the counter in some store there. She has to work for +her livin', poor child." + +"I swan!" ejaculated the captain. + +Much as he had been about the world, Cap'n Ira looked upon most +mundane affairs with the eyes of the true Cape man. Independence is +bred in the bone of his tribe. A tradesman or storekeeper is, after +all, not of the shipmaster caste. And a clerk, working "behind the +counter" of any store, is much like a man before the mast. + +"It does seem too bad," sighed Prudence. "She was a pretty baby, as +you say, Ira." + +"Sarah was nice as she could be to you," was the old man's +thoughtful comment. + +"Yes. But her husband, Bostwick, was only a mechanic. Of course, he +left nothing. Them city folks are so improvident," said Prudence. "I +wish't we was able to do something for little Ida May, Ira. Think of +her workin' behind a counter!" + +"I am a-thinkin'," growled the old captain. "See here, Prue. What's +to hinder us doin' something for her?" + +Prudence looked at him, startled. + +"Why, Iry, you say yourself we can scurce help ourselves." + +"It's a mighty ill wind that don't blow fair for some craft," +declared the ancient mariner, nodding. "We do need help right here, +Prudence, and that gal of Sarah Bostwick's could certainly fill the +bill. On the other hand, she'd be a sight better off here on the +Cape, living with us, getting rosy and healthy, and having this old +place and what we've got left when we die, than she would be slavin' +behind a counter in any city store. What d'you think?" + +"Ira!" exclaimed his wife, clasping her hands, potato knife and all. +"Ira! I think that's a most wonderful idea. It takes you to think up +things. You're just wonderful!" + +Cap'n Ira preened himself like the proud old gander he was. He +heaved himself out of the chair by the aid of his cane, a present +from one grateful group of passengers that had sailed in his charge, +on the _Susan Gatskill_. + +"Well, well!" he said. "Let's think of it. Let's see, where's my +glass? Here 'tis." + +He seized the old-fashioned collapsible spyglass, which he favored +rather than the newer binoculars, and started off to "pace the +quarter," as he called the path from the back door to the grassy +cart track which joined the road at the lower corner of the Ball +premises. This highway wandered down from the Head into the fishing +village along the inner beach of Big Wreck Cove. Prudence watched +Ira with fond but comprehending eyes. She saw how broken he was, how +stumbling his feet when he first started off, and the swaying +locomotion that betrayed that feebleness of both brain and body that +can never be denied. + +Somewhere on the Head in the old days the wreckers had kept their +outlook for ships in distress. Those harpies of the coast had +fattened on the bones of storm-racked craft. It was one of those +battered freighters that, nearly two centuries before, had been +driven into the cove itself, to become embalmed in Cape history as +"the big wreck." + +The Balls and the Lathams, the Honeys and the Coffins of that +ancient day had "wracked" the stranded craft most thoroughly. But +they had not overlooked the salvation of her ship's company of +foreigners. She had been a Portuguese vessel, and although the Cape +Codder, then, as now, was opposed to "foreigners," refuge was +extended to the people saved from the big wreck. + +Near the straggling settlement at the cove a group of shacks had +sprung up to shelter the "Portygees" from the stranded-vessel. As +her bones were slowly engulfed in the marching sands, through the +decades that passed, the people who had come ashore from the big +wreck had waxed well to do, bred families of strong, handsome, brown +men and black-eyed, glossy-haired women who flashed their white +teeth in smiles that were almost startling. Now one end of "the +port," as the village of Big Wreck Cove was usually called by the +natives, was known as Portygee Town. + +Wreckers' Head boasted of several homes of retired shipmasters and +owners of Cap'n Ira's ilk. These ancient sea dogs, on such a day as +this, were unfailingly found "walking the poop" of their front +yards, or wherever they could take their diurnal exercise, +binoculars or spyglass in hand, their vision more often fixed +seaward than on the land. + +Cap'n Ira had scarcely put the glass to his eye for a first squint +at his "position" when he exclaimed: + +"I swan! That's a master-pretty sight. I ain't seen a prettier in +many a day. Come here and look at this craft, Prudence." + +She hurried to join him. Her motions when she was on her feet were +birdlike, yet there was the same unsteadiness in her walk as in +Cap'n Ira's. Only, at the moment, he did not see it, for his eye was +glued to the telescope. + +"What do you see, Ira?" she asked. + +"Clap this glass to your eye," said her husband. He steadied the +telescope, having pointed it for her. "See that suit of sails? Ain't +they grand? And the taper of them masts? She's a bird!" + +"Why, what schooner is it?" asked Prudence. "I never saw her before, +did I? She's bearing in for the cove." + +"I cal'late she is," agreed Cap'n Ira. "And I cal'late by the +newness of that suit of sails and her lines and all that she's Tunis +Latham's new craft that he went up to Marblehead last week to bring +down here and put into commission." + +"The _Seamew!_" cried Prudence, in a pleased voice. "Isn't she a +pretty sight?" + +"She's a sightly craft. Looks more like a racing yacht than a cargo +boat. Still and all, Tunis has got judgment. And he's put nigh every +cent he's got, all Peke Latham left him, into this schooner. And she +not new." + +"I hope Tunis has made no mistake," sighed Prudence, releasing the +glass for Ira to look through once more. "There has been trouble +enough over Peleg Latham's money." + +"More trouble than the money amounted to. Split the family wide +open. 'Rion Latham was saying to me he believed Peke never meant the +money should go all one way. The Medway Lathams, them 'Rion belongs +to, is all as sore as carbuncles about Tunis getting it. But I tell +Tunis as long as the court says the money should be his, let 'Rion +and all them yap like the hungry dogs they be. Tunis has got the +marrer bone." + +"Does seem a pity," the old woman said, still watching the white +splotch against the background of gray and blue. "Families ought to +be at peace." + +"Peace! I swan!" snorted Cap'n Ira. "'Rion Latham is about as much +given to peace as a wild tagger. But he knows which half of his +biscuit's buttered. He'll sail with Tunis as long as Tunis pays him +wages." + +The captain continued to study the approaching schooner while +Prudence went back to her household tasks. + + + + +CHAPTER II + +THE CAPTAIN OF THE SEAMEW + + +Tunis Latham's _Seamew_, tacking for the channel into Big Wreck +Cove, wings full-spread, skimming the heaving blue of the summer +sea, looked like a huge member of the tern family. From Wreckers' +Head and the other sand bluffs guarding this roadstead from the +heave of the Atlantic rollers, the schooner with her yachtlike lines +was truly a picture to please the most exacting mariner. + +On her deck paced the young captain whose personal affairs had been +a subject of comment between Cap'n Ira Ball and his wife. He was a +heavy-set, upstanding, blue-jerseyed figure, lithe and as spry on +his feet as a cat. Tunis Latham was thirty, handsome in the bold way +of longshore men, and ruddy-faced. He had crisp, short, sandy hair; +his cheeks, chin, and lip were scraped as clean as his palm; his +eyes were like blue-steel points, but with humorous wrinkles at the +outer corners of them, matched by a faint smile that almost always +wreathed his lips. Altogether he was a man that a woman would be +sure to look at twice. + +The revelation of the lighter traits of his character counteracted +the otherwise sober look of Tunis Latham. His sternness and fitness +to command were revealed at first glance; his softer attributes +dawned upon one later. + +As he swayed back and forth across the deck of the flying _Seamew_, +rolling easily in sailor gait to the pitching of the schooner, his +sharp glance cast alow and then aloft betrayed the keen perception +and attentive mind of the master mariner, while his surface +appearance merely suggested a young man pridefully enjoying the +novelty of pacing the deck of his first command. For this was the +maiden trip of the _Seamew_ under this name and commanded by this +master. + +She was not a new vessel, but neither was she old. At least, her +decks were not marred, her rails were ungashed with the wear of +lines, and even her fenders were almost shop-new. Of course, any +craft may have a fresh suit of sails; and new paint and gilding on +the figurehead or a new name board under the stern do not bespeak a +craft just off the builder's ways. Yet there was an appearance about +the schooner-yacht which would assure any able seaman at first +glance that she was still to be sea-tried. She was like a maiden at +her first dance, just venturing out upon the floor. + +An old salt hung to the _Seamew's_ wheel as the bonny craft sped +channelward. Horace Newbegin was a veritable sea dog. He had sailed +every navigable sea in all this watery world, and sailed in almost +every conceivable sort of craft. And he had sailed many voyages +under Tunis Latham's father, who had owned and commanded the +four-master _Ada May_, which, ill-freighted and ill-fated at last, +had struck and sunk on the outer Hebrides, carrying to the bottom +most of the hands as well as the commander of the partially insured +ship. + +This misfortune had kept Tunis Latham out of a command of his own +until he was thirty; for Cape Cod boys that come of masters' +families and are born navigators usually tread their own decks years +before the age at which Tunis was pacing that of the _Seamew_ on +this summer day. + +"How does she handle now, Horry?" asked the skipper, wheeling +suddenly to face the old steersman. + +"Thar's still that tug to sta'bo'd, Captain Tunis," growled the old +man. + +"But you keep her full on her course." + +"Spite o' that? In course. But I can feel her tuggin' like a big +bluefish trying to bolt with hook and sinker. Never did feel that +same tug to sta'bo'd but once before on any craft. I told you that." + +Tunis Latham nodded. The old man's keen eyes tried to read the +skipper's face. He could scan the signs in sea and sky at a glance, +but he confessed that the captain of the _Seamew_ revealed no more +of his inner thoughts than had the mahogany countenance of the older +Captain Latham with whom Horry Newbegin had so long sailed. + +"Well," the steersman said finally, "I've told ye all I can tell ye. +That other schooner that had a tug to sta'bo'd like this, the +_Marlin B._, got a bad name from the Georges to Monomoy P'int. You +know that." + +"Cat's foot!" ejaculated Tunis cheerfully. "The _Marlin B._ was sold +for a pleasure yacht and taken half around the world. A Chilean +guano millionaire bought her the year after the Sutro Brothers took +her off the Banks." + +"Ye-as. That's what Sutro Brothers says," and the old man wagged his +head doubtfully. "But there's just as much difference in ships, as +there is in men. Ain't never been two men just per_zact_-ly alike. +No two craft ever sailed or steered same as same, Captain Tunis. I +steered the _Martin B._ out o' Salem on her second trip, without +knowing what she'd been through, you can believe, on her first." + +"Well, well!" Tunis broke in sharply. "Just keep your mind on what +you are doing now, Horry. You're supposed to be steering the +_Seamew_ into Big Wreck Cove. Don't undertake to shave a piece off +the Lighthouse Point reef." + +The steersman did not answer. From long experience with these +Lathams, Horace Newbegin knew just how much interference or advice +they would stand. + +"And, by gum, that ain't much!" he growled to himself. + +He took the beautifully sailing schooner in through the channel in a +masterly manner. He knew that more ancient skippers than Cap'n Ira +Ball, up there on Wreckers' Head, would be watching the _Seamew_ +make the cove, and old Horry Newbegin wanted them to say it was well +done. + +Half an hour later the anchor was dropped fifty yards off Portygee +Town. Captain Tunis ordered the gig lowered to take him ashore and, +after giving the mate some instructions regarding stowage and the +men's shore leave, he was rowed over to Luiz Wharf. 'Rion Latham, a +red-headed, pimply faced young man, sidled up to Horace Newbegin. + +"Well, what do you think of the hoodoo ship, Horrors?" he hoarsely +whispered. + +Newbegin stared at him unwaveringly, and the red-haired one repeated +the question. The old salt finally batted one eye, slowly and +impressively. + +"D'you know what answer the little boy got that asked the quahog the +time o' day?" he drawled. "Not a word. Not a derned word, 'Rion." + +Landing at the fish wharf, Tunis Latham walked up the straggling +street of the district inhabited for the most part by smiling brown +men and women. Fayal and Cape Cod are strangely analogous, +especially upon a summer's day. The houses he passed had one room; +they were little more than shacks. But there were gay colors +everywhere in the dress of both men and women. It was believed that +these Portygee fishermen would have their seines dyed red and yellow +if the fish would swim into them. + +A young woman sitting upon a doorstep, nursing a little, bald, +brown-headed baby, dropped a gay handkerchief over her bared bosom +but nodded and smiled at the captain of the _Seamew_ with right good +fellowship. He knew all these people, and most of them, the young +women at least, admired Tunis; but he was too self-centered and +busied with his own thoughts and affairs to comprehend this. + +At the corner of one of the houses a girl stood--a tall, +lean-flanked, but deep-bosomed creature, as graceful as a well-grown +sapling. Her calico frock clung to the lines of her matured figure +as though she had just stepped up out of the sea itself. Around her +head she had banded a crimson bandanna, but it allowed the escape of +glossy black hair that waved prettily. Her lips were as red as +poppies, full, voluptuous; her eyes were sloe-black and as soft as a +cow's. Fortunately for the languishing girl's peace of mind--she had +placed herself there at the corner of the house to wait for Tunis +since the moment the _Seamew_ had dropped anchor--she did not know +that the young captain had noticed her only as "that cow" as he +swung by on his way to the road that wound up the slope of Wreckers' +Head. + +Neither Eunez Pareta--nor any other girl of the port, Portygee or +Yankee--had ever made Tunis Latham's heart flutter. He was not +impervious to the blandishments of all feminine beauty. As Cap'n Ira +Ball would have said, Tunis was "a general admirer of the sect." And +as the young man passed the languishing Eunez with a cheerful nod +and smile there flashed into his memory an entirely different +picture, but one of a girl nevertheless. Somehow the memory of that +girl in Scollay Square kept coming back to his mind. + +He had gone up by train for the _Seamew_ and her crew, and naturally +he had spent one night in Boston. Coming up out of the North End +after a late supper, he had stopped upon one side of the square to +watch the passing throng, some hurrying home from work, some +hurrying to theaters and other places of amusement, but all +hurrying. Nowhere did he see the slow, but carrying, stride of a man +used to open spaces. And the narrow-skirted girls could scarcely +hobble. + +A narrow skirt, however, had not led Tunis Latham to give particular +note to one certain girl in the throng. She had stepped through the +door of a cheap but garish restaurant. Somebody had thrown a peeling +on the sidewalk, and she had slipped on it. Tunis had leaped and +caught her before she measured her length. She looked up into his +face with startled, violet eyes that seemed, in that one moment, to +hold in them a fascination and power that the Cape man had never +dreamed a woman's eyes could possess. + +"You're all right, ma'am," he said, confused, setting her firmly on +her feet. + +"My skirt!" She almost whispered it. There seemed to be not a +shyness, but a terrified timidity in her voice and manner. Tunis saw +that the shabby skirt was torn widely at the hem. + +"Let's go somewhere and get that fixed," he suggested awkwardly. + +"Thank you, sir. I will go back into the restaurant. I work there. I +can get a pin or two." + +He had to let her go, of course. Nor could he follow her. He lacked +the boldness that might have led another man to enter the restaurant +and order something to eat for the sake of seeing what became of the +girl with the violet eyes and colorless velvet cheeks. There had +been an appeal in her countenance that called Tunis more and more as +he dreamed about her. + +And standing there on Scollay Square dreaming about her had done the +young captain of the _Seamew_ positively no good! She did not come +out again, although he stood there for fully an hour. At the end of +that time he strolled up an alley and discovered that there was a +side door to the restaurant for the use of employees, and he judged +that the girl, seeing him lingering in front, had gone out by this +way. It made him flush to his ears when he thought of it. Of course, +he had been rude. + +Marching up the winding road by the Ball homestead, Tunis Latham +revisioned this adventure--and the violet-eyed girl. Well, he +probably would never see her again. And in any case she was not the +sort of girl that he would ever take home to Aunt Lucretia. He was +headed toward home now, to the old brown house in the saucer-like +valley some distance beyond Cap'n Ira's. + +As he came within hail of the old homestead in which the Balls had +been born and had died--if they were not lost at sea--for many +generations, the captain of the _Seamew_ became suddenly aware that +something was particularly wrong there. He heard somebody shouting. +Was it for help? He hastened his stride. + +Quite unexpectedly the hobbling figure of Cap'n Ira appeared in the +open barn door. He saw Tunis. He waved his cane in one hand and +beckoned wildly with the other. Then he disappeared. + +The young captain vaulted the fence and ran across the ill-tended +garden adjoining the Balls' side yard. Again he heard Cap'n Ira's +hail. + +"Come on in here, Tunis!" + +"What's the matter, Cap'n Ira?" + +"That dratted Queen of Sheby! I knowed she'd be the death of one of +us some day. I swan! Tunis Latham, come here! I can't get her out, +and you know derned well Prudence can't stand on her head that a way +without strangling. Lend us a hand, boy. This is something awful! +Something awful!" + +Tunis Latham, much disturbed by the old man's words and excited +manner, pushed into the dimly lit interior of the barn. + + + + +CHAPTER III + +THE QUEEN OF SHEBA + + +The barn was a roomy place, as well built as the Ball house itself, +and quite as old. The wagon floor had a wide door, front and rear. +The stables were on either side of this floor and the mows were +above. In one mow was a small quantity of hay and some corn fodder, +but the upper reaches were filled only with a brown dusk. + +The pale face of a gray mare was visible at the opening over one of +the mangers. She was the sole recognized occupant of the stable. In +a dark corner Tunis Latham saw a huge grain box, for once the Ball +farm had supported several span of oxen and a considerable dairy +herd, its cover raised and its maw gaping wide. There was something +moving there in the murk, something fluttering. + +"Come here, boy!" gasped Cap'n Ira, hurrying across the barn door. +"I'm so crippled I can't git her up, and she's dove clean to the +lower hold, tryin' to scrape out a capful o' oats for that dratted +Queen of Sheby." + +"Aunt Prue!" shouted Tunis, reverting to the title he had addressed +her by in his boyhood. "It's never her?" + +A muffled voice stammered: + +"Get me out! Get me out!" + +"Heave hard, Tunis! All together now!" gasped Cap'n Ira, as the +younger man reached over the old woman's struggling heels and seized +her around the waist. + +"Up she comes!" continued the excited old man, as though he were +bossing a capstan crew starting one of the _Susan Gatskill's_ +anchors. + +Tunis Latham set Prudence Ball on her feet, but the old woman was +forced to lean against the stalwart young man for a minute. She +addressed her husband in some heat. + +"Goodness gracious gallop! Why don't you sing a chantey over me, I +want to know? You'd think I was a bale of jute being snaked out of a +ship's hold. Good land!" + +"There, there, Prudence!" exclaimed Cap'n Ira. "You're safe, after +all! It--it was something awful!" + +"I cal'late it was," rejoined the old woman rather bitterly. "And I +didn't get them oats, after all." + +"I'll 'tend to all that, Aunt Prue," said Tunis. + +"If it hadn't been for that dratted Queen of Sheby"--Cap'n Ira +glared malevolently at the rather surprised-looking countenance of +the gray mare in her box--"you wouldn't have got into that jam." + +"If it hadn't been for you taking that dose of snuff when I was +expecting nothing of the kind, I wouldn't have dove into that feed +box, Ira, and you know it very well." + +"I swan!" admitted her husband in a feeble voice. "I forgot again, +didn't I?" + +"I don't know as you forgot, but I know you mighty near sneezed your +head off. You'll be the death of me some day, Ira, blowin' up that +way. I wonder I didn't jump clean through the bottom of that feed +box when I was just reaching down to get a measure of oats." + +"Aunt Prue," Tunis interposed, "why do you keep the little tad of +feed you have to buy for Queenie in this big old chest?" + +"There!" Cap'n Ira hastened to rejoin, glad likewise to turn the +trend of conversation. "That's all that dratted boy's doings, little +John-Ed Williams. Who else would have ever thought of dumping a +two-bushel bag of oats into a twenty-bushel bin? We always put feed +in that covered can yonder, so as to keep shet of the rats. But that +boy, when he brought the oats, dumped 'em into the box before I +could stop him. He's got less sense than his father; and you know, +Tunis, John-Ed himself ain't got much more wit than the law allows." + +"But if you hadn't sneezed--" began Prudence again. + +"You take her into the house, Cap'n Ira," said Tunis. "I'll feed +Queenie. What do you give her--this measure full of oats? And a hank +of that hay?" + +"And a bunch of fodder. Might as well give her a dinner while you're +about it," grumbled the old man, leading his tottering wife toward +the door. "As I say, that old critter is eatin' her head off." + +"Well, she long ago earned her keep in her old age," Tunis said, +laughing. + +He could remember when the Queen of Sheba had come to the Ball barn +as a colt. Many a clandestine bareback ride had he enjoyed. He fed +the mare and petted her as if she were his own. Then he scraped the +oats out of the bin and poured them into the galvanized-iron can, so +that Cap'n Ira could more easily get at the mare's feed. + +He went to the house afterward to see if there was any other little +chore he could do for the old couple before going on to his own +home. + +"You can't do much for us, Tunis, unless you can furnish me a new +pair of legs," said Cap'n Ira. "I might as well have timber ones as +these I've got. What Prue and me needs is what you've got but can't +give away--youth." + +"You ought to have somebody living with you to help, Cap'n Ira," +said the young man. + +"I cal'late," said the other dryly, "that we've already made that +discovery, Tunis. Trouble is, we ain't fixed right to increase the +pay roll. I'd like to know who you'd think would want to sign up on +this craft that even the rats have deserted?" + +"Never mind, Ira. Don't be downhearted," Prudence said, now +recovered from her excitement. "Perhaps the Lord has something good +in store for us." + +Cap'n Ira pursed his lips. + +"I ain't doubting the Lord's stores is plentiful," he returned +rather irreverently. "The trouble is for us poor mortals to get at +'em. Well, Tunis, I certainly am obliged to you." + +The flurry of excitement was over. But Ira Ball was a determined +man. It was in his mind that the trouble of taking care of the old +mare was too great for Prudence, and he could not do the barn chores +himself. They really had no use for the gray mare, for nowadays the +neighbors did all their errands in town for them, and the few +remaining acres of the old farm lay fallow. + +Nor, had he desired to sell the mare, would anybody be willing to +pay much for the twenty-two-year-old Queenie. In truth, Ira Ball was +too tender-hearted to think of giving the Queen of Sheba over to a +new owner and so sentence her to painful toil. + +"She'd be a sight better off in the horse heaven, wherever that +is," he decided. But he was careful to say nothing like this in his +wife's hearing. "Women are funny that way," he considered. "She'd +rather let the decrepit old critter hang around eatin' her head off, +like I say, than mercifully put her out of her misery." + +Stern times call for stern methods. Cap'n Ira Ball had seen the +tragic moment when he was forced to separate a bridegroom from his +bride with a sinking deck all but awash under his feet. What had to +be done had to be done! Prudence could no longer be endangered by +the stable tasks connected with the old mare. He could not relieve +her. They could scarcely afford a hired hand merely to take care of +Queenie. + +He remained rather silent that evening, and even forgot to praise +Prue's hot biscuit, of which he ate a good many with his creamed +pollack. The sweet-tempered old woman chatted as she knitted on his +blue-wool hose, but she scarcely expected more than his occasional +grunted acknowledgment that he was listening. She always said it was +"a joy to have somebody besides the cat around to talk to." The +loneliness of shipmasters who sail the seven seas is often mentioned +in song and in story; the loneliness of their wives at home is not +usually marked. + +They went to bed. Old men do not usually sleep much after second +cock-crow, and it was not far from three in the morning when Cap'n +Ira awoke. Like most mariners, he was wide awake when he opened his +eyes. He lay quietly for several moments in the broad bed he +occupied alone. The half-sobbing breathing of the old woman sounded +from her room, through the open door. + +"It's got to be done," Cap'n Ira almost audibly repeated. + +He got out of the bed with care. It was both a difficult and a +painful task to dress. When he had on all but his boots and hat he +tiptoed to a green sea chest in the corner, unlocked it, and from +beneath certain tarpaulins and other sea rubbish drew out something +which he examined carefully in the semidarkness of the chamber. He +finally tucked this into an inner pocket of the double-breasted +pilot coat he wore. It sagged the coat a good deal on that side. + +He crept out of the chamber, crossed the sitting room, and went into +the ell-kitchen with his shoes in his hand. When he opened the back +door he faced the west, but even the sky at that point of the +compass showed the glow of the false dawn. Down in the cove the +night mist wrapped the shipping about in an almost opaque veil. Only +the lofty tops of craft like the _Seamew_ were visible, black +streaks against the mother-of-pearl sky line. + +The captain closed the kitchen door softly behind him. He sat down +on a bench and painfully pulled on his shoes and laced them. When he +tried to straighten up it was by a method which he termed, "easy, +by jerks." He sat and recovered his breath after the effort. + +Then, taking his cane, he hobbled off to the barn. The big doors +were open, for it had been a warm night. The pungent odor from +Queenie's stall made his nostrils wrinkle. He stumbled in, and the +pale face of the old mare appeared at the opening above her manger. +She snorted her surprise. + +"You'll snort more'n that afore I'm done with you," Cap'n Ira said, +trying to seem embittered. + +But when he unknotted the halter and backed her out of the stable, +quite involuntarily he ran a tender hand down her sleek neck. He +sighed as he led her out of the rear door. + +The old mare hung back, stretching first one hind leg and then the +other as old horses do when first they come from the stall in the +morning. + +"Come on, you old nuisance!" exploded Cap'n Ira under his breath, +giving an impatient tug at the rope. + +He did not look around at her, but set his face sternly toward the +distant lot which had once been known as the east meadow. It was no +longer in grass. Wild carrots sprang from its acidulous soil. The +herbage would scarcely have nourished sheep. There were patches of +that gray moss which blossoms with a tiny red flower, and there was +mullein and sour grass. Altogether the run-down condition of the +soil could not be mistaken by even the casual eye. + +The hobbling old man and the hobbling old mare, making their way +across the bare lot, made as drab a picture in the early morning as +a Millet. At a distance their moving shapes would have seemed like +shadows only. There was no other sign of life upon Wreckers' Head. + +A light but keen and salty breath blew in from the sea. Cap'n Ira +faced this breeze with twitching nostrils. The old mare's lower lip +hung down in depression. She groaned. She did not care to be led out +of her comfortable stall at this unconscionably early hour. + +"Grunt, you old nuisance!" muttered Cap'n Ira bitterly. "You don't +even know what a dratted, useless thing you be, I swan!" + +There was a depression in the field. When the heavy spring and fall +rains came the water ran down into this sink and stood, sometimes a +foot or two deep over several acres. In some past time of heavy +flood the water had washed out to the edge of the highland +overlooking the ocean beach. There it had crumbled the brink of the +Head away, the water gullying year after year a deeper and broader +channel, until now the slanting gutter began a hundred yards back +from the brink. + +The recurrent downpours, aided by occasional landslips, had made a +slanting trough to the beach itself, which was all of two hundred +feet below the brink of Wreckers' Head. Many such water-worn gullies +are to be found along the face of the Cape headlands, up which the +fishermen and seaweed gatherers freight their cargoes from the +shore. There was no wheel track here; merely a trough of sliding +sand, treacherous under foot and almost continuously in motion. As +the gully progressed seaward, the banks on either hand became more +than forty feet high, the trough itself being scarcely half as wide. + +Determinedly Cap'n Ira led the old mare into and down the slope of +this gully. + +It was steep. He went ahead haltingly, trying to steady his +footsteps with the cane, which sank deeply into the sand, making +orifices which, in the pale light of the dawn, seemed to startle the +mare. She held back, scuffling and snorting. + +"Come on, drat ye!" adjured the captain. "You needn't blow your +nose. You ain't been taking snuff." + +The sand was so light and dry that it seemed to be on the move all +about them. There was a stealthy sound to the whispering particles, +too, as though they breathed. "Hush.' Hush-sh-sh!" The old man was +made nervous by it. He began to glance back over his shoulder at the +faintly objecting mare. When Queenie slipped a little and scrambled +in the unstable sand he uttered such an exclamation as might have +been wrung from him at time of stress upon his quarter-deck. + +"I swan! I'd rather be keelhauled than do this," burst from his lips +finally. + +But they were well into the gully now. The walls on either hand +towered far above their heads. He halted, and the mare stood still, +again blowing softly through her nostrils. + +The old man, with shaking hands, took from under his coat the heavy +article that had sagged his pocket. It was a black, old-fashioned, +seven-chambered revolver, well oiled and as grim-looking as a rifled +cannon on a battleship. He produced three greased cartridges, broke +the weapon, inserted the cartridges, then closed it and spun the +cylinder. It was not an unfamiliar weapon, this. Its mere grim +appearance, stuck into Cap'n Ira's waistband, had once quelled +mutiny aboard the _Susan Gatskill_. + +While he was thus engaged he had not even glanced around at the old +mare. Suddenly he felt a touch upon his shoulder, then upon the +sleeve of his coat. He felt a creepy chill the length of his spine. +It seemed as if the hand of Prudence had been laid softly upon him. + +"I swan!" he gulped, shaking himself. "I'm as flighty as a gal. What +th'--" He looked back. Queenie was nuzzling his arm questioningly. +Her ears were cocked forward; her surprised face was almost +ridiculously human in its expression. + +Cap'n Ira groaned again. He shuddered. But his gnarled hand gripped +the hard-rubber butt of the revolver with the desperation of the +deed he had screwed his courage to do. Better the old mare should be +put out of the way than that she should fall into hands that would +misuse her. And he feared what other accident might happen if +Prudence continued to take care of the animal. + +"I swan! It's a wrench," admitted Cap'n Ira, swerving to point the +muzzle of the revolver at the gray mare. + +He looked all about again. Yes, the position was right. If she fell +here, a man with a shovel could easily pry down tons of sand from +either bank upon her in a few minutes. The burial might be done by +himself without any other soul knowing what had become of Queenie. + +He cocked the old revolver. + +Suddenly the Queen of Sheba gave a snort of alarm. She looked back +over her withers. The light in the cut between the sand banks was +dim. Was somebody coming? + +To tell the truth, Cap'n Ira had a vision of Prudence, having missed +him, getting out of her bed and traveling down through the lots +after him and the old mare. The idea shook him to his marrow, or was +it the weight of the heavy weapon that made his hand so unsteady? + +"I swan!" His oft-repeated ejaculation was almost a prayer. + +At the moment he felt the sand giving under his feet. The old mare +uttered again her terrified snort. He saw dimly the path behind them +moving--a swift, serpentlike slide. Heavy as the mare was, she felt +the landslip, too. + +Cap'n Ira was not a man who easily lost his self-possession. He had +been through too much to show the white flag when danger menaced. He +realized that peril threatened now. + +He turned squarely about and, cocked pistol in one hand and +huge-knobbed cane in the other, he started away from the spot at a +cripple's gallop. The whole trough of the gully of sand seemed to be +in motion. Behind him the old mare scrambled and whistled with fear, +quite as unable to keep her feet as was the captain. + +For, before he had gone far, Cap'n Ira found himself seated on the +moving plane of sand. He glanced fearfully behind him. The Queen of +Sheba was seated on her tail, her forefeet braced against nothing +more stable than the avalanche itself, and she was sailing down the +slope behind him like a winged Pegasus! + +"My soul and body!" ejaculated Cap'n Ira. "We're certainly on our +way." + + + + +CHAPTER IV + +AT THE LATHAM HOUSE + + +The Latham house stood in the middle of the shallow valley behind +Wreckers' Head. The fields surrounding it were arable and well kept. +The house was not as old as the Ball house and was of an entirely +different style of architecture. Whereas the Ball house was +low-roofed and sprawling, squatting like a huge and ugly toad on the +gale-swept Head, the house Tunis Latham's grandfather had built was +three-story, including the mansard roof, painted a tobacco brown, +and it was surrounded by wry-limbed cedars which could grow here +because they were sheltered from the gales. + +It was a gloomy-looking house even in midsummer, standing like a +grim figure menaced by the tortured limbs of the trees surrounding +it, stark and alone. No other human habitation was in view from its +site. The Latham who had built the twelve-room house had built on +hope. He desired and expected to fill the great house with a breed +of Lathams that would do honor to the Cape on sea and on land. But +his young wife had died the next year, after giving birth to her +second child. + +Tunis Latham's father, Randall Latham, had been the elder Latham's +sole hope of perpetuating the family name and filling the big, ugly +brown house behind Wreckers' Head with tow-headed little Lathams, +for the other child was a girl. + +It was said that Medford Latham had seldom spoken to or of his +daughter, Lucretia. She must have led a very lonely and repressed +life while she was a little girl. Medford Latham did not go to sea, +for he had business that kept him on shore. + +Medford Latham lived long enough to see Randall grow up, walk his +own quarter-deck, and marry a maiden from the port who promised to +be able to fulfill his hopes of a flourishing houseful of children. +She bore Tunis while young Captain Randall Latham was away, and he +came back in time to christen the boy with the name of the most +colorful city he had touched on the trip, not an uncommon practice +of seagoing fathers on the Cape. But Mrs. Randall Latham, watching +her husband's ship bear off to seaward in the face of a keen gale, +caught a severe cold, and when Captain Randall returned the next +time he came not to a cradle in the great living room of the big, +brown house, but to an already-sodden grave in the family plot on +the west side of the saucerlike valley. + +Lucretia Latham had grown to be a tall, large-boned, silent, and +quick-stepping woman--a woman of understanding and infinite +tenderness, although this tenderness was exhibited in deeds, not +words. + +The big, quiet-faced woman, who had never had a lover and on whom no +man had ever looked with admiration, seemed to the casual observer +cold and uncompromising. She might speak to the dog, call the fowls +to their meals, but she never otherwise spoke unless she was forced +to. When he was little, Tunis had found in her arms and against her +breast a refuge from all hurt and fear, but it was a wordless +comfort Aunt Lucretia gave him. + +When he walked over from the cove that afternoon, after seeing the +anchor of the _Seamew_ over-side for the first time in this +roadstead, Tunis found his Aunt Lucretia much as usual. She watched +him approach from the side porch, a warm smile of greeting on her +rather gaunt face. He knew that she must have watched the _Seamew_ +skim by, making for the channel into the cove; for he had written +her when to expect him. But she would say nothing about it unless he +forced the gates of her silence by some direct question which +demanded more than a "yes" or a "no." + +Lucretia folded him in her arms, however, and patted his broad +shoulder with little love pats as he put his arms about her. Her +kiss for him was as warm on his lips as a girl's. They understood +each other pretty well, these two; for Tunis had caught something of +her muteness, living so long alone with her. + +He went to wash and change his shirt. Then he sat down in one of the +huge porch chairs and rocked quietly, waiting for supper. He could +see into the kitchen, which was the family dining room as well, and +when he saw his Aunt Lucretia take the coffee-pot from the stove and +put it on the square Dutch tile by her own place, Tunis knew it was +the only call to supper there would be. + +He rose and went in, taking his place at the head of the table. His +aunt's head was bowed and her lips moved soundlessly. He respected +her whispered grace and always felt that he could add nothing to it +in thankfulness or reverence if he uttered an orison himself. During +the cheerful and plentiful meal the young captain of the _Seamew_ +related certain matters he thought would interest the woman +regarding his purchase of the schooner and the voyage down to the +Cape. He told her he was sure the _Seamew_ was fast enough for a +Boston market boat. + +"Speed is what is wanted now to compete with the Old Colony," Tunis +declared. "We've got fish and clams and cranberries in season, and +some vegetables, that have to be shaken up and jounced together and +squashed on those jolting steam trains. I'll lay down a crate of +lobsters at the T-wharf without a hair being ruffled. I know how to +stow a cargo." + +She nodded both her understanding and her belief that Tunis was +right. The legacy he had received from the estate of Peleg Latham, +Medford Latham's brother, had enabled Tunis to buy this beautiful +schooner. Undoubtedly an eye for the beauty of the craft had more +than a little drawn the young man into her purchase. Yet there was a +foundation of solid sense under his streak of romance. + +In this day a man must serve a long apprenticeship before he gets a +command unless he owns the craft on which he is skipper. To own a +schooner of the size of the _Seamew_ is not enough. One must be a +good merchant as well as a good skipper. + +The coast trade from port to port along the North Atlantic shore +must be fostered and coaxed like a stumbling baby. The tentacles of +the hated railroad reach to many of the Cape ports. Yet everybody +knows that a cargo properly stowed in a seaworthy craft reaches +market in much the better condition than by rail, though perhaps it +is some hours longer on the way. + +There were docks, too, at which Tunis Latham could pick up +well-paying freights which would have to be carted over bad roads to +the nearest railway station. And there were always full or part +cargoes to be had at Boston for certain single consignees along the +Cape, which would pay a fair profit on the upkeep of the schooner. +Medford Latham had lost almost all his fortune before he died so +unhappily, leaving only the homestead and small farm to his son. The +son, Captain Randall Latham, had lost the ship _Ada May_ and every +cent he possessed. Tunis had only his great uncle's legacy to begin +on, and he had waited for that until he was thirty. + +In the morning the young man arose early, for the tide was then low, +and started forth with basket and clam hoe on his arm. Aunt Lucretia +had promised him, by a smiling nod, a mess of fritters for dinner if +he would supply the necessary clams. Alongshore the soft clam is the +only clam used for fritters; the tough, long-keeping quahog is +shipped to the less-enlightened "city trade." + +It was not yet sunrise, but as Tunis walked down through one of +those cuts in the edge of the headland, following a well-defined +cart track, he saw the rose-glow of the sun's round face staining +the mist on the eastern horizon. + +He came down upon the hard sand of the beach and walked toward a +tiny cove into which the mud flats extended and on which he knew the +clams were plentiful and ripe. Glistening pools of black water, +showing where other diggers had raided the flat, were interspersed +with trembling patches of black sand. When Tunis began to cross the +flat the sand before his boots became alive with tiny, shooting +geysers of clean water. He set to work. + +And while he was thus engaged he heard suddenly a shrill outcry and +a most mysterious sound up in one of the gullies toward the summit +of Wreckers' Head. Here thousands of tons of sand had run out of the +cut in the steep bank and formed a dykelike way to the beach itself. +More and more sand was slipping down this way all the time. A strong +man could scarcely make his way up the incline, the sand was so +unstable. + +Tunis stood and stared up the slope. There shot into view, carried +rapidly upon the forefront of the avalanche, a white-haired old man +who waved a stick in one hand and a cocked pistol in the other, +while from his mouth came shrill cries of excitement, if not of +alarm. + +But it was what followed Cap'n Ira Ball--whom Tunis immediately +recognized--that caused the captain of the _Seamew_ such utter +surprise. Sitting on her rump, pawing at the sliding sand with her +front hoofs, and whistling her terror and amazement, the Queen of +Sheba appeared flying after the harassed old man. + +It was a scene to surprise more than to entertain the beholder. The +avalanche promised disaster to the participants in it. Tons upon +tons of sand, undulating and sinuous in appearance, traveled faster +and yet faster behind the old gray mare and the gray old sea +captain. The smoke of the slide hid all that lay behind them, and +these wreaths of sand dust threatened a higher wave that might, at +any moment, entirely overwhelm both the equine and the human victim +of the catastrophe. + +Tunis dropped his clam hoe and started for the dyke of sand on the +crest of which the old man and the old mare were sliding like +naughty children down a woodshed roof. + +"Hey, Tunis! Tunis!" bawled the captain. "Take her off'n me! She'll +be afoul my hawser in another second, I do believe." + +It was evident that he spoke of the Queen of Sheba, but Tunis could +not see how the mare was intentionally threatening Cap'n Ira's peace +of mind or safety of body. She was, however, "close aboard" Cap'n +Ira as he tobogganed down the sandy way. + +"Stern all!" shouted the old man, throwing another startled, +backward glance at the Queen of Sheba. "Drat the derned old critter! +Don't she know nothin' at all? Tunis! Do you see what's goin' to +happen?" + +While the young man had been running toward the ridge of sand, the +avalanche bearing Cap'n Ira and the Queen of Sheba on its bosom +swept down the slope of the huge windrow, but not altogether along +its spine. The mass slid over one pitch of the ridge, and suddenly, +following on the heels of Cap'n Ira's final question, the old man +was shot to the beach, several tons of loose sand and the snorting +mare almost on top of him. + +In fact, he would have been overwhelmed, and perhaps seriously hurt, +had not Tunis Latham arrived at the spot at just the time Cap'n Ira +did, and suddenly pulled out the old man. + +"What are you doing? Trying to run a race with Queenie?" demanded +the captain of the _Seamew_. + +The mare had come down right side up, more by good luck than by good +management. She stood deep in the sand, her naturally surprised +expression vastly enhanced. In all her twenty-two years Queenie had +never before gone through such an experience. + +"I swan!" ejaculated Cap'n Ira. "Ain't this the beatenest you ever +heard of, Tunis?" + +Tunis stared from the old mare to the old mariner, especially at the +cocked revolver in the captain's hand. He pointed at the tightly +gripped weapon. + +"What's that for, Cap'n Ira?" he asked. + +"I--I--well, I swan!" stammered Cap'n Ira, now looking, himself, at +the old seven-chambered revolver as though he had never seen it +before. "I cal'late it does look sort o' funny to you, Tunis, to +see me come sailing down this way, armed like a pirate." + +"I wouldn't call it exactly funny. But it is surprising," admitted +Tunis. "And Queenie looks as surprised as anybody." + +"Yes, she does, for a fact," agreed Cap'n Ira, squinting across the +heap of loose sand at the gray mare. "I kind o' wonder what she's +thinking about." + +"I'm wondering hard enough myself," put in Tunis pointedly. + +"I swan!" murmured Cap'n Ira reflectively. + +He carefully lowered the hammer of the pistol, his cane stuck +upright in the sand before him. Then he put the weapon back in the +inside pocket of his coat. He tapped the knob of his cane for a +pinch of snuff before he said another word. His mighty "A-choon!" +startled the Queen of Sheba almost as it startled Prudence. + +"Avast!" exclaimed Cap'n Ira. "Did you ever see such a scary old +lubber, Tunis?" + +"But what's it all about?" again demanded the younger man, seizing +the rope halter and aiding the mare to flounder out upon the firmer +sand below high-water mark. "What are you doing up so early? And +what were you going to do with Queenie?" + +"I swan!" groaned Cap'n Ira again. "I don't wonder that you ask me +that. It don't really seem reasonable that a sane man would get in +such a jam, does it? Me and the Queen of Sheby sailin' down that +sand pile. Tunis! We'll never be able to get up it in this world." + +"No. You must come along to our road, and get up that way," his +young friend told him. "It is longer, but easier. But tell me how +you came down that gully, you and Queenie?" + +"I'm sort of ashamed to tell you, Tunis, and that's a fact," the old +captain said, wagging his head. "And don't you ever tell Prudence." + +"I'll not say a word to Aunt Prue," promised the captain of the +_Seamew_. + +"Yet," grumbled the old man, "that dratted Queen of Sheby is too +much for Prudence. You see yourself only yesterday how she is like +to come to her death because of the mare." + +"I know that you should have somebody living with you, Cap'n Ira," +urged Tunis. "But what does _this_ mean?" + +"I--I can't scurcely tell you, Tunis. I swan! I was goin' to murder +the old critter." + +"What do you mean?" gasped Tunis in apparent horror. "Not Aunt +Prue?" + +"What's the matter with you?" snapped Cap'n Ira. "I mean that old +mare. I was going to murder her in cold blood, only the sand slide +wrecked my plans." + +"If you had killed her, Aunt Prue would have had hard work to +forgive you. Come on now. I'll lead Queenie up to our barn. Let her +stay there for a spell. I tell you, Cap'n Ira, you and Aunt Prue +must have somebody to live with you." + +"Who?" + +"Get a girl from the port." + +"Huh! One o' them Portygees? They're as dirty and useless in the +kitchen as their men folks are aboard ship." + +"Oh, they are not all like that!" objected the captain of the +_Seamew_. "I've got a good crew of 'em aboard my schooner." + +"You think so. Wait till you get in a jam. And the men ain't so bad +as the gals. All hussies." + +"I don't know, then, what you'll do." + +"I do," interrupted the old man, hobbling along the hard sand beside +Tunis and the horse. "It's just like I told Prudence yesterday. I +know just what we've got to do whether you or Prue or anybody else +knows," and he was very emphatic. + +"Let's hear your plan, Cap'n," said Tunis. + +"It's like this," went on Cap'n Ira. "Prudence ain't got but one +living relative, a grandniece, that's kin to her. That Ida May +Bostwick we must have come and live with us, and that's all there is +about it." + +Tunis stared. He said: + +"Never heard of her. She doesn't live anywhere around here, does +she?" + +"No, no! Lives to Boston." + +"Boston!" + +Why was it Tunis Latham felt that his heart skipped a beat? Memory +of that pale, violet-eyed girl who worked in the restaurant on +Scollay Square flashed across his mind like a shooting star. Indeed, +he was so confused that he heard only a little at first of Cap'n +Ira's rambling explanation. Then he caught: + +"And if you will go to that address--Prue's got the street and +number--and see Ida May Bostwick and tell her about us, you'd be +doing us a kindness, Tunis." + +"Me?" exclaimed the startled captain of the _Seamew_. + +"Yes, you. The gal won't bite you. You're going to Boston next week, +you say. Will you do it?" + +"Sure I will, Cap'n Ira," said the young man heartily. "It's a good +move, and I'll say all I can to get the girl to come down here." + +"That's the boy! You're going on an errand of mercy; that's as sure +as sure. Prue and me need that gal. And maybe she needs us. I don't +know what sort of a place she works at, but no city job for a gal +can be the equal of living down here on the Cape, with her own +folks, as you might say. Yes, Tunis, you'll be doing an errand of +mercy mebbe both ways." + + + + +CHAPTER V + +LOOKING FOR IDA MAY + + +The _Seamew_ was put in commission in a very few days. Tunis Latham +had many friends in and about Big Wreck Cove, and he had little +difficulty in picking up a cargo, which was loaded right at the +port. + +As for the schooner's crew, Tunis could have filled every billet +four times over had he so desired. But he had already picked his +crew with some care. Mason Chapin was mate, a perfectly capable +navigator who might have used his ticket to get a berth on a much +larger craft than the _Seamew_. But he had an invalid wife and +wished only to leave home on brief voyages. Johnny Lark was shipped +as cook, with a Portygee boy, Tony, to help him. + +Forward, Horace Newbegin served as boatswain and Orion Latham was a +sort of supercargo and general handy man. He was Tunis' cousin, +several times removed. There were four Portygees to make up the +company, a full crew for a sailing vessel of the tonnage of the +_Seamew_. Yet every man was needed in handling her lofty canvas and +in loading and unloading freight. + +With a well-stowed cargo below deck the schooner sailed even better +than she had in ballast. She slipped out of the cove through the +rather tortuous channel like an eel through the meshes of a broken +trap. In the dawn, and with a fresh outside breeze just ruffling the +sea into whitecaps, they broke out her upper sails and caught the +very last breath of the gale the canvas would draw. + +Cap'n Ira, and even Prudence, had got up before daybreak to see the +schooner pass. They watched her, turn and turn about at the +spyglass, till she was blotted out by the distant fog bank. + +"I swan," said the old man, "when she heaves into view again I hope +she'll have Ida May Bostwick aboard! That is what _I_ hope." + +"The dear girl!" breathed Prudence. + +It never crossed their simple minds that Ida May Bostwick might see +this chance they offered her in a different light from that in which +they looked at it. The old couple made their innocent plans for the +welcoming of the "grandniece," positive that a happy future was in +store for both Ida May and themselves. + +In Tunis Latham's mind there was more uncertainty regarding the +mysterious Ida May Bostwick than there was in the minds of Cap'n +Ira and Prudence. Whenever he considered his "errand of mercy" the +captain of the _Seamew_ had a flash of that girl with the violet +eyes who worked in the restaurant on Scollay Square. The Balls did +not know where Ida May worked. Prudence only had obtained the +lodging-house address of her young relative from Annabell Coffin, +"she who was a Cuttle." + +Of course, it was merely a faint and tenuous possibility that Ida +May was a waitress. Still fainter was the chance that she would +prove to be the girl with the violet eyes that Tunis Latham +remembered so distinctly. The Balls knew that she worked in a store, +and all stores were the same to them. There might be a few hundred +thousand other girls in Boston besides that particular girl whom he +had saved from falling on the square. + +Nevertheless, when the _Seamew_ had unloaded and been warped to a +berth in an outer tier of small craft to await her turn to load +barrels and box shooks for a concern at Paulmouth, Captain Tunis +started up into the city. He knew his way about Boston as well as +any one not a native, and his first objective point was that +restaurant on Scollay Square. + +It was the dogwatch when Tunis Latham entered the eating place, but +the dogwatch here was not at the same time of day as aboard ship. +The captain's first startled glance about the room assured him that +there was not a girl employee in sight, not even at the cashier's +desk, and very few customers. + +He ordered a late but hearty breakfast of the unshaven waiter in +half-spoiled apron and coat who lounged over his table. + +"I thought they used to have girl waiters in this place?" the +captain said when the man brought the tableware and glass of water. + +"On from 'leven till eight. You're too early if you got a jane in +your eye, bo," was the ribald reply. "The boss is a good guy." He +sneered in the direction of the black-haired, coarse-looking man in +the cashier's cage. "He hires them girls for five dollars less a +week than he'd have to pay union waiters, and he asks no questions." +He closed his recital with a wink so full of meaning that Tunis' +palm itched to slap him. + +But the guest's wind-bitten face betrayed no confusion nor further +interest. The waiter judged he had mistaken his man, after all, and +sheered off until the ordered viands were ready at the slide. + +He hesitated to question that coarse man, even to mention Ida May +Bostwick's name to him. The waiter had misinterpreted his first +remark about the waitresses. The proprietor might hold any question +he asked regarding Ida May against the record of the violet-eyed +girl, if by any wild possibility that should be her name. There was +time still, he thought, to find her at her lodgings before she +started for the restaurant, if she worked here. + +So Tunis paid his check and strode forth. The lodging of Ida May +Bostwick was not in this neighborhood, of course, not even in the +West End. In fact, it was in the South End, in one of those streets +running more or less parallel to lower Shawmut Avenue. He took a car +in the subway and got off near the address Prudence Ball had given +him. + +To the mind of the Cape man, used as he was to the open spaces of +both sea and land, these dingy blocks of brick houses, three and +four stories in height, all quite alike in smoke and squalor and +even in the pattern of the net curtains at their parlor windows, +made as dreary a picture as he had ever imagined. He thought of that +pale, slender, violet-eyed girl coming back to this ugly block at +night, after long hours at the restaurant, having to look forward to +nothing more beautiful, in all probability, inside the house where +she lodged. Who would not be glad, overjoyed, indeed, to get away +from such an environment? + +He found the number. The house was no worse and no better than its +neighbors. By stains on the blistered bricks beside the door frame +he gathered that scraps of paper advertising empty rooms had often +been pasted there. He rang the bell at the top of the rail-guarded +steps. After a time he rang again. + +He could hear the bell jangle somewhere in a distant part of the +house. Nobody came in answer to his summons, not even after his +third ring. At length the creaking, iron-barred gate in the area +warned him that the main door at which he rang was not in use at +that hour of the day. A woman in a house dress as ugly as the street +itself, and with untidy gray hair and a bar of smut on her cheek, +craned her neck from this opening to look up at him. + +"There's no use your ringing. I ain't got an empty room, young man," +she announced. + +He descended spryly into the area before she could close the gate. +Her near-sighted scowl misjudged him again, for she added: + +"Nor I don't want to buy anything." + +"One moment, ma'am," he cried. "I have nothing for sale. I'd like to +see somebody who lodges here." + +"Who?" asked the woman, peering at him curiously. + +"Miss Bostwick." + +"You'll have to come this evening." + +"Oh! She has--has gone to work already?" + +"My stars! Do you know what time it is, young man?" demanded the +lodging-house keeper. "It's after ten o'clock." + +Already Tunis Latham's hopes began to sink. + +"Then--then she goes to work early?" + +"Lemme tell you, them that works for Hoskin & Marl have to show up +by eight or they lose their jobs." + +"And she will not be in until evening?" he repeated. + +"'Bout seven. She gets her supper before she comes home. I don't +give meals." + +"Where is this place she works at?" asked the captain of the +_Seamew_, with a suppressed sigh. + +"Guess you are a stranger in town, aren't you?" said the curious +landlady. "I thought everybody knew Hoskin & Marl's. It's on Tremont +Street. The big department store." + +"Oh! Miss Bostwick works there?" + +"In the laces. You can't know her very well, young man." + +"I come from her folks down on the Cape," he thought it his duty to +explain. "I've a message for her." + +"On the Cape? My stars! I never knowed she had any country +relatives. Are they rich? They ain't died and left her a fortune, +have they?" were the eager questions. + +"The ones I speak of are still alive," Tunis said gravely, backing +up the steps to the sidewalk. "Thank you, ma'am. I'll go to that +store and speak to her there. Thank you." + +Before she could evolve another question, Tunis had escaped. He +walked smartly away, not only to outdistance the lodging-house +keeper's voice, but because he was confused and disappointed. Ida +May Bostwick could not work in a department store and in an eating +house as well. Of course not! And now that this point was an +established fact in his mind, he admitted that he had been utterly +foolish to imagine for a moment that he had already met her, that +she was the violet-eyed girl in whom he had taken an interest. + +Right at the start he had known that a girl working in an eating +house like that was not the sort of person he could introduce to +Aunt Lucretia. And so why had he imagined that she would prove to be +the great-niece of Prudence Ball? It was ridiculous! + +Of course, this Ida May came of good Cape stock. At least, on one +side of her family. The Honeys were as good as the Lathams or the +Balls. + +Thus condemning his foolish fancies he strode downtown again. He +knew where Hoskin & Marl's was. He had been in the place. When he +reached the department store he marched straight in, meaning to have +an immediate interview with the girl at the lace counter. + + + + +CHAPTER VI + +AN UNSATISFACTORY INTERVIEW + + +Tunis Latham suffered all the timidity of the average man when he +got into the maze of that department store. There is a psychological +reason for the haberdashery goods, the line for the mere male, being +placed always within sight of a principal exit. The catacombs of +Rome would be no more terrifying in prospect for a man than a +venture into the farther intricacies of Hoskin & Marl's. + +The captain of the _Seamew_ could box the compass with the next +seafarer, but he lost all idea of the points on the card before he +had been three minutes in the store, and he had to hail a +floor-walker to get his bearings. + +"Lace counter? Right this way, sir. Yes, sir. Just over there. +Our--er--Miss Bostwick will serve you, sir. Forward!" + +The wind and sun had heightened Tunis Latham's naturally florid +complexion to about as deep a red as can easily be imagined, but he +felt the back of his neck and his ears burning as he approached the +counter to which he was directed. A girl had detached herself from a +group at the farther end, and now came toward him. All that he first +saw clearly, however, was a pair of eyes staring at him from behind +the counter. They were not violet eyes. + +The girl who owned those twinkling, needle-sharp eyes was nothing +like that girl he had been thinking of so much since his previous +visit to Boston. She was rather small, dressed in the extreme mode +in a cheap way, wearing a tawdry gilt chain, several rings, and a +wrist watch. There was something about her which reminded Tunis very +strongly of the girls of Portygee Town, although she was a +pronounced blonde. + +Her hair was really her only attractive possession. Those sharp +brown eyes did not please Tunis Latham at all. And there was a +certain smart boldness in her manner, too, which caused him a +distinct feeling of repugnance. + +He plunged into his errand with all the boldness that a bashful man +usually displays when he finally gets his courage to the sticking +point. + +"You are Miss Bostwick?" he asked. + +"What kind of lace--goodness! Who are you?" asked the girl, her +stilted, saleslady manner changing to amazement with surprising +suddenness. + +"I live at Big Wreck Cove. I guess you've heard of it," said Tunis. + +"Big Wreck Cove? Do tell!" Her eyes danced. "You're from down on the +Cape, then. I guess you want some lace for your wife. What kind did +she send you for?" + +Tunis brushed this aside bluntly. + +"I don't want any lace," he told her. "I come from your aunt, Mrs. +Ira Ball." + +"My aunt? Fancy!" + +"She has heard about you," went on Tunis. "I guess she thought a +heap of your mother. She--she'd like to see you, Mrs. Ball would." + +The girl patted her hair into place with a languid hand. Her lips +parted in a teasing smile. This "hick" really amused her. + +"Just to think! Would she?" she drawled. "Is she in town?" + +"Who? Mrs. Ball? I should say not. She's down at Big Wreck Cove, I +tell you." + +"Oh, really? I thought by the way you spoke she was outside--in her +car." She tossed her head with that same tantalizing smile, almost a +grimace. "What did you want to tell me?" + +Tunis realized that he could not talk to her here, after all. The +idle girls at the end of the counter were already whispering, and +their smiles were poignant javelins of ridicule. The captain of the +_Seamew_ knew that he was far beyond his depth. + +"Where can I talk to you?" he asked. + +"I get away for my lunch hour in a few minutes. I could talk to you +then. But us girls ain't supposed to entertain our friends at the +counter." She flashed him another amused and quite comprehending +glance. + +"I've a message for you from Aunt Prue and the captain. Captain Ira +Ball. He's her husband," explained Tunis jerkily. + +"Oh, really? Mr. Judson is coming this way." She flirted open a card +of cheap lace lying on the counter. "Won't this do, sir?" + +"Cat's foot! I don't want any lace," growled the captain of the +_Seamew_. + +"And I don't want to lose my job," rejoined the girl sharply. + +"Where'll I meet you so we can talk?" + +"At twelve forty-five," hissed the girl out of the corner of her +mouth, beginning to wind up the lace again. "Back entrance to the +store." Then, aloud: "Sorry, sir. We haven't any cheaper quality in +that pattern." + +He knew she was ridiculing him. He was cognizant, however, of the +department head's hard stare and the amused glances of the other +saleswomen. He strode out of the store, and on the sidewalk halted +to mop his face and neck with a blue-bordered handkerchief. + +"She's as sassy as a chipmunk. I declare! What would Cap'n Ira and +Aunt Prue do with a girl like her around the house? And the way +she's dressed!" + +In his mind the idea germinated that he would be doing a far better +thing if he did not go around to the employees' door and wait for +Ida May Bostwick. What sort of life would she lead the two old +people down there on Wreckers' Head? He actually shrank from being a +party to such an arrangement. + +Not for a moment did he think that Miss Bostwick might not jump at +the chance to change her place of residence from a South End lodging +house to the Ball homestead overlooking Big Wreck Cove and the sea. +He had seen that she was afraid of her boss in the store. The rules +there must be very strict. He had noted that everything about the +girl, her apparel and her ornaments, was cheap and tawdry. She must +be both poor and unhappy. Why should she not jump at the chance of +bettering herself? + +What would Cap'n Ira say when he caught his first glimpse of that +painted and powdered face? How could good Aunt Prue take to her +heart the bold, jeering shopgirl, evidently born and bred as far +from the old standards of Cape Cod breeding as could be imagined? No +matter how fine a girl Sarah Honey was, her daughter was of a cheap +city type. + +But Tunis Latham did not stand in the position of a judge. He had +not been told to use his powers of observation before placing the +Balls' offer before Ida May Bostwick. He had no discretion in the +matter at all. + +So he went around to the street behind Hoskin & Marl's at the +required time and spent five or ten minutes backed up against a +blank wall under the sharp scrutiny of every girl who hurried out of +the big store on her way to lunch. Ida May came, at last. + +Tunis Latham in his go-ashore uniform and cap was no unsightly +figure. A stern tranquillity of countenance lent him dignity. He +attracted a certain respect wherever he went, but, as has been said, +there was nothing harsh in his appearance. + +The girl gave him an appraising scrutiny as she walked toward him. +While covering those few yards she made up her mind about Tunis on +several points. One was that she would not lunch this noon at any +cafeteria or automat! + +"Really," she said, with downcast glance, as the man got into step +beside her, "I don't feel that I know you well enough to talk to you +at all, Mister--Mister--" + +"My name's Tunis Latham. I'm owner and skipper of the schooner +_Seamew_. I live right handy to your uncle and aunt." + +"Goodness! You don't mean I've got an uncle and aunt down there on +the Cape? I never heard of them." + +"They are your great-uncle and great-aunt. Aunt Prue must have been +your mother's own aunt." + +"So you are my Cousin--er--Tunis?" + +His face flamed and he did not look at her. + +"That doesn't follow," he said. "Aunt Prue is my aunt only in a +manner of speaking. But she is your blood relation." + +"Yes? I suppose she's a dear old soul?" + +"They are mighty nice folks," Tunis replied stoutly. "As nice as any +in all Barnstable County." + +"But--er--sort of simple?" + +The girl asked it with a perfectly innocent countenance. Tunis +flashed her a look that showed comprehension. + +"Just about as simple as I am," he said. + +"Oh!" + +"Where'll we go to eat?" he asked cheerfully, considering that he +had the best of it so far. + +They came out upon Tremont Street and now started downtown. He +desired to get no nearer to that eating house on Scollay Square. At +least, not with his present companion. + +"There's the Barquette," said Miss Bostwick, with the air of one +used daily to the grandeur of such hostelries. + +But Tunis had seen her lodgings! However, her airs amused him, and +Tunis Latham was no penny-squeezer. He headed straight in for the +dining room, where a gloriously appareled negro head waiter +appraised him as being "all right," and Ida May got by, without +knowing it, upon the captain's substantial appearance. + +While the waiter was away, Tunis bluntly put his errand before her. +He felt it his duty to make the offer as attractive as possible. But +he did not make small the fact that the Balls were old and needed +her services. + +"Goodness! What do they want me for--a nurse?" she demanded tartly. + +The question put Tunis on his mettle. He explained that Cap'n Ira +and his wife were comfortably "fixed," as Cape people considered +comfort, with a home free and clear of all encumbrances, and +investments that yielded a sufficient support. Ida May, as he +understood it, would share their home and their means. + +"And you want I should go down to that place and live on pollack and +potatoes till them folks die, for the sake of just a _home_?" she +demanded, her brown eyes snapping. + +"_I_ don't want you to do anything," he pointed out coolly enough. +"I am merely repeating their offer. They are your folks." + +"And I know all about what it is down there," the girl said quickly. +"My mother came from there. She was glad enough to get away, too, I +warrant. Why should I give up a good job and the city to live in +such a dead-and-alive hole?" + +"That is for you to decide," Tunis replied, not without secret +relief. + +He could not understand her attitude. He remembered that South End +lodging house with secret horror. But evidently Ida May Bostwick was +wedded to the tawdry conveniences and gayeties of city life. Tunis +could not wholly understand why any sane person should assume this +attitude; in fact, he suspected a good deal of it was put on. How +could a girl, even one as inconsequential and flighty as Ida May +evidently was, hold in contempt the offer he had brought her from +Cap'n Ira and his wife? + +But he had done all that could be expected of him. All, indeed, that +he thought wise. Disappointed as the old couple would be by Ida +May's refusal, Tunis felt that to urge her to reconsider the matter +would not be in the best interests of her elderly relatives. They +needed a young companion there on Wreckers' Head, needed one very +sorely, but not such a person as Ida May Bostwick. + +"Then, that will be your final answer, Miss Bostwick?" he said +slowly, as Ida May played with her ice. + +"Say! I wouldn't go down to that hole for a million," scoffed the +girl. "I guess you wouldn't stand it yourself, only you're off on +your ship most of the time." + +"I like the Cape," he said briefly. + +"Never lived in the city, did you?" + +"I never did." + +"Then you don't know any better," she told him confidently. "And you +don't really look like such a dead one, at that." + +"Thank you." + +She smiled saucily into his rather grim face. Then she opened her +bag and deliberately powdered her nose before rising from the table. + +"Thanks for a pleasant hour," she drawled. "You tell Auntie and +Uncle Josh to get a girl from the poor farm or somewhere to do their +chores and tuck 'em in nights. _Me_, I don't mean to live out of +sight of movie signs and electric lights. I'd like to see myself!" + +She was both rude and common. Tunis was glad to get out of the +dining room. Ida May attracted altogether too much attention. And +she had quite openly eyed his well-lined wallet when he paid the +waiter. To a girl like Ida May, all was fish that swam into her net. +Crude as she considered him, Tunis Latham was a man with some money. +And he evidently knew how to spend it. + +"When you're in town I'd be glad to see you any time, Mr. Latham. Or +do I say captain?" + +She smiled up at the big, broad-shouldered fellow bravely as she +trotted along in the skirt that made her hobble like a cripple. The +captain of the _Seamew_ did not respond very cordially, and quite +overlooked her personal question. + +"I don't expect to spend much time in Boston," he said. "Thank you. +Then I shall report to Aunt Prue and Cap'n Ira that you will not +consider their offer at all?" + +"I should say not!" She laughed lightly. "You don't know, I guess, +what we girls expect nowadays, if we give up our independence." + +"Independence!" snorted Tunis. + +"That's what I said," rejoined Ida May tartly. "When the store +closes my time's my own. I can do as I please. And I've got nobody +to please but myself. Oh, you don't understand at all, Captain +Latham!" + +He said no more. Nor did he escort her farther than the corner. +There he lifted his cap and took her offered hand. Although it was +beringed and the nails were stained and polished, Tunis could not +help noticing that Ida May's hand was not altogether clean. + +"Well, au revoir, captain!" she said lightly. "I hope I see you +again." + +He bowed silently and watched her depart. The sunshine glinted +gloriously upon her fluffy hair. + +"Fool's gold," he muttered. + + + + +CHAPTER VII + +AT THE RESTAURANT + + +The captain of the _Seamew_ found himself facing an unpleasant +problem. How could he make the Balls, either Cap'n Ira or Prudence, +understand the kind of girl Ida May was? How could he even bring +them to understand that nothing he could have said would have ever +made Ida May Bostwick see the situation in its true light? + +Why, the old couple could never be made to believe that a girl in +her sane senses would turn down cold such a proposition as they had +made. They would suspect that he had failed to put it to her in the +proper light. His "errand of mercy," as Cap'n Ira had called it, had +seemed so reasonable for both sides! + +Tunis realized that he had not overurged the matter to the girl. But +there was a reason for that. The difficulty would be in explaining +to the Balls just how unsuitable Ida May was. They would never +believe that the daughter of Sarah Honey could be such a cheap and +inconsequential person as she had actually proved to be. + +"It's going to hit 'em 'twixt wind and water, and hit 'em hard," +muttered the captain of the _Seamew_. "One thing that girl said was +right, I guess. They'd better get somebody from the poor farm, +rather than take her into their house. Such a creature would be +happier with the Balls, and make them happier. But it's pretty tough +when those of your own blood go back on you." + +The experience had left a bad taste in Tunis Latham's mouth. He +hoped heartily that he would never see Ida May Bostwick again. He +never intended to if he could help it. To take his mind off the +fiasco entirely, he hopped on to a car and rode out to the art +museum and spent the afternoon in the quiet galleries where the +masters, little and great, are hung. + +He came downtown at nightfall, threading the paths of the public +gardens and the common malls of Charles and Beacon Streets, with a +feeling of immense calm in his soul. Tunis Latham possessed keenly +contrasting attributes of character. On the one hand he was of a +rather practical mind and thought; on the other, his love of beauty +and appreciation of nature's greater forces might have made of him +an artist under more liberal conditions of birth and breeding. + +Ida May Bostwick had rasped all the finer feelings of the captain +of the _Seamew_. He was happy to be able to get her out of his mind. +In fact, he had put aside thought of any girl. Romance no longer +enmeshed his cogitations. He was utterly calm, unruffled, serene, as +he descended by the twists and turns of certain streets beyond the +State House and came out finally upon the now lighted and bustling +square. + +He halted, like a pointer dog, before the eating place where he had +had breakfast. + +Tunis Latham felt a certain shock. That girl with the violet eyes +had been farthest from his thought at the moment, and for some hours +now. He had lumped together the whole girl question and had +relegated it to the back of his mind. + +And perhaps he was cured. He looked at it more sensibly after the +first moment. It was not thought of the girl that had brought him +here. Habit is strong in most of us. The urge of a healthy appetite +was more likely what had caused him to halt before the restaurant +door. + +It was after seven. Following his walk from the Back Bay it was +little wonder that he was hungry. But should he enter this place? +There were several other restaurants in sight of about the same +standard. Tunis Latham did not make a practice of patronizing places +similar to the Barquette when he ate alone. + +To pass on and enter another restaurant would be to confess +weakness. He really cared nothing about that girl with the violet +eyes. She very probably was no better and no worse than Ida May +Bostwick. All these city shopgirls were about of a pattern. He had +allowed sentiment to sway him for a few hours. But sentiment had +received a jolt during his interview with the girl from the lace +department of Hoskin & Marl's. + +"Cat's foot!" ejaculated the captain of the _Seamew_. "I guess I'm +not afraid to take another look at that girl, if she's in here. +Probably two looks will be about all I want," and he grinned rather +wryly as he approached the door. + +The place was well patronized at this hour; and the "lady help" was +much in evidence, flying back and forth from tables to slide and +"dealing 'em off the arm" with a rapidity and dexterity that was +most amazing, Tunis thought. There was even a girl in the cashier's +cage, while the black-haired man he had paid his check to that +forenoon was walking about with a sharp eye for everything that went +on. + +The Cape man started down the room for an empty seat. Somebody was +ahead of him and he backed away. A soft voice, a voice that thrilled +Tunis Latham before he saw the speaker at all, said just behind him: + +"There is a seat here, sir." + +He knew it was she of the violet eyes before he turned about. It +seemed to the seaman the voice matched the beautiful eyes of which +he had thought so often during the past few days. They must belong +together! + +He turned to look at her. She was gathering up the soiled dishes +from a table at which was an empty seat. First of all, Tunis secured +it. Then he glanced keenly at the girl. + +Would she remember him? Had his face and appearance been +photographed upon her memory as her face had been printed on his? +She did not look at him then. She was busy clearing the enameled top +of the table and wiping off the coffee stains and the wet rings made +by the water glass. + +She had black hair and a great deal of it, deep black, glossy, fine +of texture, and very well brushed. Black hair and those velvety +violet eyes, the long, black lashes of which were a most delicate +fringe! The brows were boldly dashed on against her smooth, almost +colorless, but perfect skin. Tunis had never before seen any +feminine loveliness the equal of this girl, this waitress in a cheap +restaurant! Yet a casual glance would scarcely have discovered much +attractive about the girl. Had he not looked so deep into her violet +eyes at the instant of their first meeting, perhaps the captain of +the _Seamew_ would never have given her the second glance. There was +a timidity about her, a shrinking in her very attitude, that would +naturally displease even an observant person. + +Her nose, mouth, and chin, were only ordinarily well formed. Nothing +remarkable at all about them. But the texture of her skin, it seemed +to the man, was the finest he had ever beheld. Her figure was +slight, but supple. Every line, accentuated by the common black +dress she wore, was graceful. Her throat was bare and she wore no +ornament. His sharp gaze flashed to her left hand. It was guiltless +of any band. He had begun to flush at the thought which prompted +this last observation, and grabbed at a stained bill of fare to +cover his sudden confusion. + +She moved away with the piled-up dishes. His gaze followed her +covertly. Even her walk was graceful, not at all the hobble or the +jerky pace or the slouch of the other waitresses. + +By and by she came back. She brought tableware and a glass of water. +She placed them meticulously before him. Then, for the first time it +seemed, she looked at Tunis Latham. She halted, her hand still upon +the water glass. She quivered all over. The water slopped upon the +table. + +"Oh, is it you, sir?" she said in that timid, breathless whisper he +so well remembered. + +"Good evening," Tunis rejoined. "I hope you are well?" + +"Oh, yes, sir! Quite well. What will you have, sir?" + +She no longer looked at him. Her gaze was roving about her tables, +but more often fixed upon the broad, alpaca-coated shoulders of the +restaurant proprietor at the front of the room. + +Tunis ordered almost at random. She repeated the viands named. There +was a tiny tendril of her hair that curled low upon her neck at one +side, caressing the pale satin sheen of the skin. He felt an +overpowering desire to lean forward and press his lips to the tiny +curl! + +As though she comprehended his secret wish, a wave of color stained +her throat and cheeks from the line of her frock to her hair. It +poured up under the pallor of the skin, transfiguring her expression +ravishingly. Instead of her countenance being rather wan and weary +looking, in a moment it became as vivid as a freshly opened flower. + +She turned swiftly, departing with his order. Tunis was conscious of +a hoarse voice at his elbow. He glanced aside. His neighbor in the +next chair was a little, common man, with a little, common face, on +which was a little, common leer. + +"A pip, I'll tell the world," was the neighbor's comment. "Whadjer +s'pose brought her into this dump?" + +"The necessity for earning her living," replied Tunis, without +looking again at the man. + +"With a face like that?" suggested the man, and fell wordless +again, but not silent, as he attacked his soup. + +If there was an opportunity to speak to the girl again, Tunis could +scarcely do so, he thought, for her own sake. It would attract the +attention not only of the fellow beside him, but of others. + +He felt an overpowering desire, however, to talk with her. His +recently born determination to have nothing more to do with any girl +had melted like snow in July. That feeling, which had come through +his experience with Ida May Bostwick, seemed a sacrilege when he +considered this girl. + +The man beside him, noisily finishing his soup, ordered +apple-meringue pie when the waitress returned with Tunis' order. The +latter noted that her fingers still trembled when she placed his +food before him. When she brought the pie she reached for the man's +check and punched another hole in it. Tunis was careful not to raise +his own eyes to her face. But all the time he was trying to invent +some way by which he might further his acquaintance with her. + +He must be back at the _Seamew_ that night. Tomorrow the cargo would +come aboard and, wind and tide being ordinarily favorable, the +schooner would put to sea as soon as the hatches were battened down. +He could not continue to come here to the restaurant for his meals +and so grasp the frail chance of bolstering his acquaintance with +the girl. Indeed, he felt that such an obvious course would utterly +wreck any chance he might naturally have of knowing her better. + +The timidity she evinced was nothing put on. It was real. Its cause +he could not fathom, but to Tunis Latham it seemed that this girl +with the violet eyes was a gentle girl, if not gently bred, and that +she shrank from contact with the rougher elements of life. How she +came to be working in this place was not of moment to him. It would +not have mattered to Tunis Latham where he had met her or under what +circumstances; he only knew that there was a mysterious charm about +her which attracted and held his heart captive. + +"Will you have anything more, sir?" The low, yet penetrating voice +was in his ear. She hovered over his chair and her near presence +thrilled him. He had not much more than played with the food. Now he +replied briefly, without thinking: + +"Apple-meringue." + +"Yes, sir." + +His neighbor pushed back his chair and got up noisily. He picked up +his check, glanced at it, and snorted. + +"Hey!" he said to the girl returning with Tunis' pie. "What's this +for?" + +"Yes, sir?" + +"You've rung me up an extry nickel. What's the idea?" + +"Fifteen cents for meringue, sir." + +"Huh? Who had meringue? I had apple pie, plain apple pie. It's ten +cents. This feller"--indicating Tunis--"ordered apple-meringue; not +me." + +He held out the check for correction belligerently. + +"You ordered apple-meringue, sir, and I brought it. You ate it. The +check is correct." + +Low and timid as the voice was, gently as the words were spoken, +Tunis sensed an undercurrent of firmness and determination in the +girl's character that he had not before suspected. + +"Say, you don't put nothing like that over on me!" exclaimed the man +loudly. + +Tunis moved in his chair. He saw the black-haired man at the front +of the restaurant swing about to face down the room. He had heard +this unseemly disturbance. + +"I will call the manager." + +"And so will I--I'll call him good!" sneered the patron. "He knows +that you crooks in here over-charge. He puts you up to it. That's +why he hires jailbirds and--" + +Tunis had got up, pushed back his chair with his foot, and as the +girl uttered a horrified gasp at the rough speech, he seized the +man. His grip on the back of the fellow's coat between his shoulders +brought a startled grunt from lips parted to continue his +blackguardism. + +"Hey! What d'ye mean?" roared the fellow, as Tunis twisted him into +the aisle. + +"You dog!" said the captain of the _Seamew_ in a low voice. "Down on +your knees and ask the lady's pardon for that speech!" + +The black-haired man started toward them. His coarse face had a +smile on it as vicious as the snarl of a tiger. He put up his hand +in a gesture of command. + +"Beg her pardon!" repeated Tunis, and by the great weight of his +hand crushed the squalling patron of the restaurant to his knees +before the terrified girl. + +"Stop that! What do you mean?" cried the manager of the restaurant, +still several yards away. + +The patrons of the place had been thinning out for the last few +minutes. Most of those remaining were near the front. Some of the +waitresses were already seated at a table next to the kitchen slide, +eating their suppers. + +"Take him off me!" roared the man squirming on the floor under Tunis +Latham's hand. "That thief of a girl set him on me. This is a nice +thing, be overcharged and then assaulted!" + +He was talking for the benefit of the black-haired man. The latter +swooped down upon them. His face was purple with wrath and his fat +jowls trembled. + +"Let him up! Do you hear me?" he exclaimed. + +"He insulted this lady," said Tunis, indicating the waitress. "You +just heard him repeat it. He'll beg her pardon or I'll wring his +neck." + +"What do you mean?" cried the restaurant man. "What's the girl to +you? One of her friends, are you? Well, you are doing her no good +with me, I assure you." + +The captain of the _Seamew_ flung the little man face down upon the +floor and held him there with his foot while he reached with both +hands for the proprietor. He got him. The latter uttered a squeak +like a captured rat. + +"You're another of the same breed, are you?" Tunis demanded. "You'll +beg her pardon, too, or I'll crack the heads of the two of you +together! Come!" + +He stood the man on his feet before the waitress with such force +that his teeth rattled. He stooped and yanked the other to an +upright posture likewise. The shrinking girl, Tunis noticed, was not +weeping. She looked at all he did as though she approved. The other +girls were shrieking. The cashier had run to the door and cried into +the street for the police. But that violet-eyed girl, timid as she +naturally was, did not open her lips. + +"She's a plucky little lady," thought Tunis Latham. "But somebody's +got to stand up for her." + + + + +CHAPTER VIII + +SHEILA + + +The captain of the _Seamew_ held the two struggling, cursing men as +though they were small boys. His eyes flamed a question at the girl. +She understood and nodded, if ever so faintly. + +"I ought to send both of you to the hospital," said Tunis in a grim +voice. "But I'm satisfied if you beg her pardon and let her go." +This to the restaurant proprietor. + +The man opened his lips to emit something besides an apology, +although the smaller man was already quelled. But the look in Tunis +Latham's face made the black-haired man pause. + +"Well, she can't cause a disturbance here. But I meant no offense." + +The smaller man hastened to add: + +"So help me! I was that mad I didn't know what I said. I didn't mean +nothing." + +Tunis nodded solemnly. + +"Get your coat and hat, miss," he said. "I guess it won't be a +pleasant place for you to work in after this." + +She slipped away. Tunis let the men go. They both stepped away from +him, panting, relaxing their shoulders, eyeing the young captain +with as much curiosity as apprehension. + +Suddenly there was an added commotion at the front door. Tunis saw a +policeman enter. The coarse-featured proprietor of the restaurant +instantly recovered all his courage. + +"This way, officer! This way!" he cried. "Here's the man." + +At that moment Tunis felt a tug at his coat. He flashed a glance +over his shoulder. It was the girl. She wore a little hat pulled +down over all that black hair, and she was buttoning a shabby +jacket. There was a way out by the alley; he well knew it. Nor was +he anxious of appearing before either a police lieutenant or a +magistrate for creating a disturbance in the place. + +"Run along. I'll be right behind you," he whispered. + +The policeman was some distance, and several tables away. Tunis +looked to see if all was clear. The girl was just passing through +the swinging door into the kitchen. Tunis stepped back, turned +suddenly, while the restaurant proprietor was making ready to +address the policeman, and leaped for the rear exit. + +"There he goes!" squealed the patron who had been the cause of the +trouble. + +But nobody stopped Tunis Latham. At a flash, when he got into the +kitchen, he saw the girl opening the outer door. The way was clear. +He crossed the room in several quick strides and caught up with her. +The startled chef and his assistants merely stared. + +The alley was empty, but they walked swiftly away from the square. +The arc lamp on the corner which they approached sputtered +continuously, like soda water bubbling out of a bottle. He looked +down at her curiously in the flickering illumination from this lamp +and found the girl looking up at him just as curiously. + +"That was an unwise thing to do. You might have been arrested," she +said, ever so gently. Then she added: "And it has cost me my job." + +"That is the only thing that worries me," he rejoined promptly. + +"You need not mind, sir. I really am not sorry. I could not have +stood it much longer. And Mr. Sellers paid yesterday." + +"So they don't owe you much on account, then," Tunis said soberly. +"I came away without paying for my dinner. I'll pay the worth of my +check to you; that'll help some." + +For the first time she laughed. Once he had sat all afternoon in a +gully back of Big Wreck Cove in the pine woods and listened to the +cheerful gurgle of a spring bubbling from under a stone. That +silvery chuckle was repeated in this girl's laugh With all her +timidity and shyness, she was naturally a cheerful body. That laugh +was quite involuntary. + +"I think I may be able to get along," she said, with that quiet tone +of finality which Tunis felt would keep the boldest man at a +distance. "It is difficult, however, to get a position without +references." + +"I'll go back and wring one out of him--when the cop has gone," +grinned Tunis. + +"I don't think a reference from Mr. Sellers would do me much good," +she sighed. "But at the time I took the place I was quite +desperate." + +The captain of the _Seamew_ made no comment. They were walking up +the hill through a quiet street. Of course, there was no pursuit. +But the young man began to feel that he might have done the girl +more harm than good by espousing her cause in the restaurant. +Perhaps he had been too impulsive. + +"You--you can find other and more pleasant work, I am sure," he said +with hesitation. "I hope you will forgive me for thrusting myself +into your concerns, but I really could not stand for that man +backing up your customer instead of you. He did order meringue pie. +I heard him." + +She smiled, and he caught the faint flicker of it as it curved her +lips and made her eyes shine for an instant. Minute following +minute, she was becoming more attractive. His voice trembled when he +spoke again: + +"I--I hope you will forgive me." + +"You did just what I should have expected my brother to do, if I had +a brother," she replied frankly. "But few girls who work at Sellers' +have brothers." + +"No?" Something in her voice, rather than in the words, startled +Tunis. + +"Let me put it differently," she said, still with that gentle +cadence which ameliorated the bitterness of her tone. "Girls who +have brothers seldom fall into Sellers' clutches. You see, he is a +last resort. He does not demand references, and he poses as a +philanthropist." + +Tunis felt confused, in a maze. He could not imagine where the girl +was tacking. He was keenly aware, however, that there was a mystery +about her being employed at all in Sellers' restaurant. + +They came out at last upon the brow of the hill overlooking the +Common. The lamps glimmered along Tremont Street through an +opalescent haze which was stealing over the city from the bay. +Without question they went down the steps side by side. There was a +bench in a shadow and, without touching her, Tunis steered the +girl's steps toward it. + +She sat down with an involuntary sigh of weariness. She had been on +her feet most of the time since eleven o'clock. She relaxed in +contact with the back of the bench, and he could see the contour of +her throat and chin thrown up in relief against the background of +shadow. The whole relaxed attitude of her slim body betrayed +exhaustion. + +"I hope you will not blame me too severely," Tunis stammered. + +"I don't blame you." + +"I fear you will after you have taken time to think it over. +But--but perhaps there may be some way in which I can repair the +damage I have done." + +She looked at him levelly, curiously. + +"You are a seaman, are you not?" + +"I'm Tunis Latham. I own the schooner _Seamew_, and command her. We +are going to run back and forth from Boston to the Cape--Cape Cod." + +"Oh! I could scarcely fill a position on your schooner, Captain +Latham." + +She smiled again. It was a weary smile, however, not like the former +flash of amusement she had shown. Her head drooped as her mind sank +into unhappy retrospection. Tunis looked aside at her with a great +hunger in his heart to take all her trouble--no matter what it +was--upon his own mind and give her the freedom she needed. What or +who the girl was did not matter. Even what she had done, or what +she had not done meant little to Tunis Latham. + +She was the one girl in all this world who had ever interested him +beyond a passing moment, and he was convinced that she alone would +ever interest him. The cheap environment of their meeting meant +nothing. If she was free, her own mistress, and he could get her, he +meant to make this girl his wife. + +"You didn't tell me your name," he said directly. "Won't you? I have +been frank with you." + +"Why, so you have," said the girl. There might have been a strata of +laughter underlying the words; yet her face was sober enough. "If +you really wish to know, Captain Latham, my name is Macklin." + +"_Miss_ Macklin?" he asked, a positive tremor in his voice. + +"Certainly. Sheila Macklin, spinster." + +Tunis drew a long breath. That was enough! He would take his chance +in the game with any other man as long as she was not promised. But +there was no use in spoiling everything by being too precipitate. +The captain of the _Seamew_ might be simple, but he was not the man +to ruin a thing through impulsiveness. That exhibition in the +restaurant was hooked up with wrath. + +There had been an undercurrent of thought in his mind ever since he +had met this girl for the second time, and it was quite a natural +thought, comparing her with Ida May Bostwick. If Sheila Macklin had +only been Ida May, after all! It was a ridiculous idea. Not a +feature or betrayed trait of character was like any that the +disappointing great-niece of Prudence Ball possessed. This girl +sitting beside Tunis on the bench and Ida May Bostwick were as +little alike as though they were inhabitants of two different +worlds. + +He had begun to imagine, too, how well this girl beside him would +fit into the needs of the old couple living there alone on Wreckers' +Head. It was an idle thought, of course. He had no plan, or scheme, +or definite suggestion in his mind. It was only a wish, a keen +longing for an impossible conjunction of circumstances which would +have enabled him to present Sheila Macklin to Cap'n Ira and Prudence +and say: + +"This is the girl you sent me for." + +"Just what will you do now that you have lost that job, Miss +Macklin?" Tunis asked abruptly. + +"Oh, after I am rested, I will go home!" + +He had a sudden flash of the memory of that stark lodging house +where Ida May Bostwick lived, and he felt assured this girl's home +could be no better. But he did not mention this thought. + +"I did not mean it just that way," he told her, smiling. "First you +and I will go and get supper somewhere. I did not half finish mine, +and you have had none at all." + +"I don't know about that," she interposed. "It is generous of you. +But ought I to accept?" + +"You need not question that. We are going to be friends, Miss +Macklin. Is it necessary for me to bring you references?" + +"It may be necessary for me to obtain a sponsor," she said, quite +seriously. "You do not know a thing about me, Captain Latham." + +"You know nothing about me, except what I have told you." And he +laughed. + +"And what I read in your countenance," she said soberly. + +He grinned at her, but rather ruefully. + +"I never knew my thoughts were advertised in my face." + +"Oh, no! Not that! But your character is. Otherwise I would not be +sitting here with you." + +"I guess that's all right then," he declared with satisfaction. +"Well, let's call it a draw. If you take me at face value, I'll take +you at the same rating. Anyhow, we can risk going to supper +together." + +"Well, somewhere to a quiet place. Don't take me where you are +known, Captain Latham." + +"No?" He was puzzled again. "But, then, I am not known anywhere in +Boston." + +"All the better. I ought not to lend myself in any way to making you +possible future trouble." + +"I do not understand you, Miss Macklin." + +He sat up suddenly on the bench to look at her more sharply. There +was an underlying, but important, meaning to her speech. + +"I know you do not understand," she rejoined gently. She sighed. "I +must make you clearly see just who I am and the risk you run in +associating with me." + +"The risk I run!" + +He uttered the words in both amazement and ridicule. + +"You do not quite understand, Captain Latham," she repeated in the +same gentle tone. + +There was no raillery in her voice now. She was altogether serious. +Her eyes, luminous, yet darkly unfathomable, were held full upon his +face. He felt rather than saw that she was under a mental strain. +The revelation she was about to make throbbed in her voice when she +spoke again. + +"You do not quite understand. Sellers gives girls work in his +restaurant who could by no possibility offer proper references, +girls from the Protectory, from homes, as they are called; some, +even, who have served jail sentences. I had been two years in the +St. Andrew's School for Girls when I went to work for Sellers." + + + + +CHAPTER IX + +A GIRL'S STORY + + +There was a ringing in Tunis Latham's ears. As you make Paulmouth +Harbor coming from seaward, on a thick day you hear the insistent +tolling of the bell buoy over Bitter Reef. That was the distant, but +incessant sound that the captain of the _Seamew_ seemed to hear as +he sat on that bench on Boston Common beside this strange girl. + +Without being a prig, Tunis Latham was undeniably a good man. +Whether he was altogether a wise man was perhaps a subject for +argument. At least, his future conduct must settle that point. + +But for the moment, when Sheila Macklin had made her last statement, +it seemed that every atom of thought and all ability to consider +matters logically were drained out of the man's mind. That mind was +perfectly blank. What the girl had said seemed mere sound, sound +without meaning. He could not grasp its significance. + +And yet he knew it was tragic. It was something that had made the +girl what she was. It explained all Tunis had been unable heretofore +to understand about Sheila Macklin. That timidity, that whispering +shyness, the shrinking from observation and from any attention, were +all explained. She had suffered persecution and punishment, harsh +and undeserved, that made her recoil from contact with other more +fortunate people. She felt herself outcast, ostracized, and was +unable to defend herself from malign fortune. + +Gradually Tunis regained his usual self-control. + +If Sheila had said anything following the bare statement that she +had spent two years in the St. Andrew's Reformatory for Women, he +had not comprehended it. Nor could he have told how long he sat +silent on the bench getting control of his voice and of his tongue. +When he did speak he said quite casually: + +"And what kind of a place is that--er--school, Miss Macklin?" + +"You can imagine. It harbors the weak-minded, the vicious, and the +unfortunate runaway girls, thieves' consorts, and women of the +streets. It is, I think, a little like hell, if there really is such +a place, Captain Latham." + +The poignancy of expression in her voice and words made the man +tremble. And yet she did not speak bitterly nor angrily. Her feeling +was beyond all passion. It was the expression of a soul that had +suffered everything and could no longer feel. That was just it, +Tunis told himself. It explained her attitude, even the tone of her +voice. She had endured and seen so much misery and heartache that +there seemed nothing left for her to experience. + +"Can you bear to tell me what misfortune took you to that place?" he +asked gently, yet fighting down all the time that desire to roar +with rage. + +"Why do you not say 'crime,' Captain Latham?" she asked in that same +low, strained voice. + +"Because I know that crime and you could not be associated, Miss +Macklin," he said hoarsely. + +At that she began suddenly to weep. Not aloud, but with her hands +pressed over her eyes and her shoulders, shaking with long, +shuddering sobs which betrayed how the horror of past thoughts and +experiences controlled her when once she gave way. Tunis Latham +could have behaved like a madman. That berserk rage that had seized +him in the restaurant welled up in his heart now. He gripped the +back of the bench till the slat cracked. But there was no opponent +here upon whom he could vent his violence that he longed to express. + +"Don't cry! For God's sake, don't cry!" he whispered hoarsely. "I +know it was all a mistake. It must have been a mistake. How could +anybody have been so wicked, so utterly senseless, as to believe +you guilty of--of--what did they accuse you of?" + +"Stealing," whispered the girl. + +"'Stealing?' What nonsense!" + +He put a wealth of disdain into the words. She sat up straighter. +She dropped her hands from her face and looked at him. Dark as it +was on the bench, he could see that her expression was one of +wonder. + +"Do--do you really feel that way about it, Captain Latham?" + +"It is ridiculous!" he acclaimed heartily. + +She sighed. Her momentary animation fell and she spoke again: + +"It did not seem ridiculous to the police or to the magistrate. I +worked in a store. A piece of sterling silverware disappeared. Other +pieces had previously been stolen. The police traced the last +missing piece to a pawnshop. The pawnbroker testified that a girl +pawned it. His identification of me was close enough to satisfy the +judge." + +"My God!" + +"I was what they call a first offender. At least, I had no police +record. Ordinarily I might have been let go under suspended sentence +or been put on probation. But I had nobody to say a good word for +me. I had been in Boston only a year, and I could not let people +where I came from know about my trouble. Even if the judge had +given me a jail sentence, I could have shortened it by good +behavior. He did what he thought was best, I suppose. He considered +me a hardened young criminal. He sent me to the St. Andrew's School +until I was twenty-one--two years. Two long, long years. + +"Six months ago I got out and Sellers gave me a job. Now, that is +all, Captain Latham. You will readily see my position. I do not want +to go anywhere with you to eat where your friends are likely to see +you." + +He uttered a sudden, stinging, harsh sound; then he removed his cap +and bent toward her. + +"But what you have said--Why, were they all crazy? Couldn't they see +that such a thing would be impossible for you? Impossible!" + +She put a hand gently on his arm to quiet his excitement, for others +were passing. Her eyes glowed up into his for an instant. Her lips +parted in a happier smile than he had seen on them before. + +"Then you will not get up from this bench, Captain Latham, and +excuse yourself? I should not blame you if you did so." + +"Do you think I'm that kind of a fellow?" he demanded bluntly. + +"I--I told you I thought I had quite read your character in your +face. But that is no reason why I should take advantage of your +kindness to do you harm." + +"Harm? How do you mean, 'harm?'" + +"Sheila Macklin is a creature from a reformatory. She has been +sentenced by a magistrate. She was arrested by the police. She was +accused by her employers of theft, and the theft was proved. If any +of your friends should see you with me, and I should be identified +as the Sheila Macklin who was sentenced for stealing--" + +"Cat's foot!" ejaculated Tunis with a sudden reversion to his usual +cheerful manner. "Are you going through the rest of your life +feeling like that?" + +"Why shouldn't I? I am always expecting somebody to see and +recognize me. Even in Sellers' place. That man this evening, when he +called me 'jailbird'--" + +"I wish I had wrung his neck!" exclaimed the captain of the _Seamew_ +heartily. + +"I appreciate your kindness." Her eyes twinkled. For a moment he +caught a glimpse of what Sheila Macklin must have been before +tragedy had come into her life. "You are a good, kind man, Captain +Latham." + +"You just look on me as though I were your brother," he said +sturdily. "You are not going to be alone any more, not really. If +you had had friends before, when it happened, somebody to speak for +you, I am sure nothing like what did happen to you could have +happened." + +"I come of respectable people," she said quietly. "But they are all +dead. I was an orphan before I came to Boston. The friends I had in +the little inland town I came from would not have understood. They +did not approve of my coming to the city at all. Oh, I wish I had +not come!" + +"And now you ought not to stay here. Should you?" + +"What can I do? I must support myself. I cannot go back. I could not +explain those two years. Yet I am always expecting somebody to make +inquiry for Sheila Macklin. And then I cannot conceal my story +longer." + +He nodded thoughtfully. It seemed that, once she had opened the dam +of speech, she was glad to talk about herself and her trouble. + +"I do hate the city. I have been so unhappy here. If I were only a +man I would start right out into the country. I would tramp until I +found a place to work. You don't know what it means to be a girl, +Captain Latham, and be in trouble." + +"I guess all city girls aren't alike after all," he said with a +short laugh. Then he looked at her keenly again. "Do you know what +sort of an errand brought me up into the city from T-Wharf to-day?" + +"What errand? I cannot imagine." + +"There are two old people down on the Cape that I am much interested +in. They live near my home." + +He told her quietly, yet with earnestness, about Cap'n Ira and +Prudence. He described their home and their need of some young +person to live with them, somebody who would not only help them, but +who would love to help them. Then he related, perhaps rather tartly, +his experience with Ida May Bostwick. + +"What a foolish girl!" she breathed. "And she would not accept a +chance like that?" + +"Lucky for Cap'n Ira and for Aunt Prue that she won't take up with +their offer," he said grimly. "But I dread taking back word to them +about her. It will be hard to make them understand. And then, they +need the help a good girl could give them." + +"Captain Latham, if I only had a chance like that!" she exclaimed. +"I'd work my fingers to the bone for a home like that, for shelter, +and kindness, and--and--oh, well, some girls have all the best of +it, I guess!" + +She sighed. It was half a sob. He saw her hands clasp tightly before +her in the dusk. The gesture was like a prayer. He knew that her +pale face was flushed with earnestness. He cleared his throat. + +"You have the chance, if you want it, Miss Macklin," he said. + + + + +CHAPTER X + +THE PLOT + + +There was a long minute of utter silence following Tunis Latham's +last words. Then the girl's whisper, tense, yet shaking like a +frightened child's: + +"You do not know what you are saying." + +"I know exactly what I am saying," he replied. + +"They--they would not have me." + +"They will welcome you--gladly." + +"Never! I am a stranger. They must be told all about me. They could +never welcome Sheila Macklin." + +He knew that. He knew it only too well. She was just the sort of +girl to make Cap'n Ira Ball and Prudence happy, to bring to their +latter years the comfort and joy the old couple should have. But the +Puritanism which, after all, ingrained their characters would never +allow the Balls to welcome a girl with the stain Sheila Macklin bore +upon her name. Tunis remembered clearly how scornfully Cap'n Ira +had spoken of the possibility of their taking in a girl from the +poor farm. Pride of family and of name is inbred in their class of +New Englanders. + +The old people wanted a girl whom they could love and look upon as +their own. They would welcome nobody else. They had set their minds +and hearts upon Ida May Bostwick. The fact that Ida May failed to +come up to their expectations, that she was perfectly worthless and +inconsequential, did not open the way for another girl to be +substituted for Ida May. Possibly Tunis might be successful in an +attempt to interest the Balls in Sheila Macklin's case. But the girl +did not want charity, not charity as the word is used in its general +and harsher sense. + +Should she carry with her wherever she went this name which had been +so smirched--the identity of Sheila Macklin, the ghost of whose past +misfortune might rise to shame her at any time--the girl could never +be happy. Did Tunis Latham succeed in getting the Balls to take +Sheila in and give her a home, this story that so bowed her down +would continually threaten its revelation, like a pirate ship +hovering in the offing! + +And there was, too, a deeper reason why he could not introduce +Sheila Macklin to Big Wreck Cove folk. It was no reason he could +give the girl at this time. In some ways the captain of the _Seamew_ +was wise enough. He felt that this was no time to put forward his +personal and particular desires. Enough that she had admitted him +to her friendship and had given him her confidence. + +She had accepted him in all good faith in a brotherly sense. He +dared not spoil his influence with her by revealing a deeper +interest. + +"We may as well look at this thing calmly and sensibly," Tunis said, +answering her statement of what was indubitably a fact. "It is quite +true my old neighbors would not accept you as Sheila Macklin. But +they need you; no other kind of a girl would so suit their need. And +you could not help loving them; nor they you, once they learned to +know you." + +"I am sure I should love them," breathed Sheila. + +"Then, as you are just the person they want and their home is just +the place you need for shelter, I am going to take you back with +me." + +"Oh, Captain Latham! We--we can't do it. My name--somebody will some +time be sure to hear about me, and the dreadful secret will come +out." + +"No, it won't," said Tunis doggedly. "There will be no secret, not +such as you mean, to come out." + +She gazed upon him in open-eyed surprise, her lips parted, her face +aglow. + +"You mean--" + +"We'll leave Sheila Macklin sitting on this bench, if you will +agree. She need never be traced from this point. Let her drop out of +the ken of the whole world that knew her. The name can only bring +you harm; it has brought you harm. Through it you are threatened +with trouble, with disaster. Your whole future is menaced through +that name and the stain upon it." + +She looked at him still, scarcely breathing. Latham did not realize +the power he held over this girl at the moment. He was to her a +living embodiment of the All Good. Almost any suggestion, no matter +how reckless, he might have made, would have found an echo in her +heart and the will to do it. + +To few is vouchsafed that knowledge which makes all clear before the +mental vision. Tunis Latham's perspicacity did not compass this +thing. He did not grasp the psychological moment, as we moderns call +it, and consummate there and then the only reasonable and righteous +plan that it was given him to complete. + +The captain of the _Seamew_ was a young man very much in love. He +did not question this fact at all. But in his wildest imaginings he +could never have believed that the girl beside him on this bench +returned his passion, that she would even listen to his +protestations of affection. Not for a long time, at least. + +Nor had he ever considered marriage as possible in any case when +there was not love on both sides. Although he commiserated Sheila +Macklin's situation most deeply, he could not dream of those depths +of despair into which the girl's heart had sunk before he came upon +the scene of action. He did not understand that she was at that +bitterly desperate point where she would grasp at any means of +rescue which promised respectability. + +He almost feared to put before her the proposition he did have in +his mind. In the dusk, even, those violet eyes seemed to look to the +very bottom of his soul. Fortunate for him that its clarity was +visible to the girl at that moment. + +He bent closer. His lips almost brushed her ear. He whispered +several swift sentences into it. She listened. Some of that glow of +exaltation drained out of her countenance, but it registered no +disagreement. They sat for some time thereafter, talking, planning, +this desperate young girl and the captain of the _Seamew_. + + * * * * * + +"What do you know about this?" Orion Latham growled. "The mate +bunkin' in with cooky and the skipper slingin' a hammock in the +fo'c's'le while the whole cabin's to be given up to a girl. A woman +aboard! Never knew no good to come of that on any craft. What is +this schooner, a passenger packet?" + +"You was sayin' she was already hoodooed," chuckled Horace Newbegin. +"I cal'late a gal sailing one trip won't materially harm the +_Seamew_ nor her crew." + +"Who is she? That's what I want to know," said the supercargo, who +seemed to consider the matter a personal affront. + +"Skipper says she's going to live with Cap'n Ira Ball. She's some +kin of his wife's. And they need somebody with 'em, up there in that +lonesome place," said the ancient seaman reflectively. "That's what +the skipper was doin' all day yesterday, lookin' this gal up and +making arrangements for her going back to the _Seamew_. He's gone up +town to get her now. We'll get away come the turn of the tide, if +he's back in time." + +The taxicab with Tunis and the girl arrived in season for the tide. +It was quite dark on the dock to which the _Seamew_ was still +moored. The Captain hailed, and two of the hands were sent up for +the trunk. Tunis carried the girl's hand bag. + +Every member of the crew was loitering on deck, even Johnny Lark and +Tony, the boy, to get a glimpse of the mysterious passenger. They +saw only a slender, graceful, quick-stepping figure, her face +veiled, her hands neatly gloved. Just how she was dressed and what +she really looked like only daylight would reveal. + +Tunis went below with her and remained until the men brought down +the trunk. It was a small trunk and brand-new, as was the bag. Had +one observed, the hat she wore, and even her simple frock, were +likewise just out of the shop. At least the girl who was going with +the _Seamew_ to Big Wreck Cove seemed to have made certain +preparations for a new life. + +The captain came out on deck and closed the slide. The commercial +tug was puffing in toward the _Seamew's_ berth. + +"Come alive, boys!" said Captain Latham, taking instant command of +the deck. "Cast off those lines! Get that tug hawser inboard, Horry. +Mr. Chapin, will you see that those lines are coiled down properly? +Keep the deck shipshape. Make less work for your watch when we get +under canvas. + +"Lay aft here with your men now, Horry. Tail on to those mainsheets. +All together! Get away on her so we can cast loose as soon as +possible from that smoky scuttle butt." + +He referred to the tug. He stepped aft to take the wheel himself. +The mainsail was going up smartly. The old boatswain and the +Portygees swung upon the lines with vehemence. There was not more +than a capful of wind; but once let the canvas fill, and the +schooner would get steerageway. + +"I'd rather take my chance through the channel under sail than +depend on that tug," the captain added. "Like a puppy dragging +around an old rubber boot. Lively there! Ready to cast off, Mr. +Chapin." + +The schooner was freed of the "puffing abomination," the smoke of +which sooted the _Seamew's_ clean sails. The heavy hawser splashed +overboard and the schooner staggered away rather drunkenly at +first, tacking among the larger craft anchored out there in the +harbor. + +The wind was not a very helpful one and soon after midnight it fell +almost calm. There were only light airs to urge the _Seamew_ on. Yet +she glided through the starlit murk in a ghostly fashion as though +some monstrous submarine hand forced her seaward. + +The water chuckled and gurgled under her bow, flashing in ripples +now and then. There was no phosphorescence, no glitter or sparkle. +The schooner moved on as through a tideless sea. Now and then a +clutter of spars or a suit of listless sails loomed up in the dark. +But even if the other craft likewise was tacking seaward, the +_Seamew_ passed it and dropped it behind. + +Tunis paced the deck--Horry was at the wheel--and quite approved of +the feat his schooner was performing. + +"If she can sail like this on only a breath of wind, what can she do +in a gale?" he said buoyantly in the old man's hearing. + +"That's all right. She sails pretty. But I don't like that tug to +sta'bo'd," growled Horry. "It 'minds me too much of the _Marlin B._" + +Captain Latham gave no heed. + +The sun stretched red beams from the horizon and took the _Seamew_, +all dressed out at sunrise in her full suit of canvas, in his arms. +She danced as lightly over the whitecaps that had sprung up with the +breeze at dawn as though she had not a ton of ballast in her hold. +Yet she was pretty well down to her Plimsoll mark. + +The girl's first glimpse through the cabin window at sea and sky was +a heartening one. If she had sought repose with doubt, uncertainty, +and some fear weighing upon her spirit, this beautiful morning was +one to revive her courage. She was fully dressed and prepared to go +on deck when Tunis tapped at the slide. + +"Miss Bostwick," he called, "any time you are ready the boy will +come in and lay the table for breakfast." + +She ran to the companionway, pushed back the door, and appeared +smiling in the frame of the doorway. + +"Good morning, captain!" + +Her cheerfulness was infectious. All night Tunis Latham, even while +lying in his hammock in the forecastle, had been ruminating in +anything but a cheerful mood. Determined as he was to carry his plan +through, and confident as he was of its being a good one and +eminently practical, he had been considering many chances which at +first blush had not appeared to him. + +With his first look into her smiling countenance all those anxieties +seemed dissipated. He met her smile with one which transfigured his +own handsome face. + +"May I come out on deck, captain?" + +"We shall be honored by your company up here, Miss Bostwick." + +She even made him a little face in secret for the formality of his +address, as she flashed past him. There was a dancing light in her +eye he had not seen before--at least, not in the openness of day. +There was something daring about her that was a revelation. He knew +at once that he need not fear her attitude when they reached the +point where she must carry on her part without his aid. She +displayed an innocent boldness that must dissipate suspicion in the +mind of the keenest critic. + +Tunis introduced Mason Chapin to her, who quite evidently liked the +girl at once. Orion Latham lounged aft to meet her, his pale eyes +betraying surprise as well as admiration. + +"Hi golly!" said the supercargo. "I guess you come honest by the +Honey side of your family tree, Miss Bostwick, though you don't +favor them much in looks." + +"'Rion is given to flattery," said the captain dryly. + +Horace Newbegin touched his forelock. He had been a naval man in his +prime and knew what was expected when a lady trod the deck. The +Portygees were all widely asmile. Indeed, the entire company of the +_Seamew_ was cheered by the girl's presence. + +At breakfast time, which was served by Tony to the guest and the +mate as well as Captain Latham, her sweet laughter floated out of +the cabin and caught the attention of everybody on deck. Horry +grinned wryly upon Orion. + +"How 'bout this schooner being hoodooed?" he rumbled in his deep +bass. "Lemme tell you, boy, I'd sail to ary end o' the world with +that gal for mascot. This won't be no Jonah ship while she's +aboard." + +"Hi golly! Tunis Latham has all the luck," whined Orion. "Taking her +down to live with Cap'n Ball and Prudence! Huh! She won't live with +'em long." + +"Why not?" demanded the old salt. + +"Can't you see what he's up to?" sneered Orion. "Aunt 'Cretia will +be takin' a back seat 'fore long. 'Latham's Folly' will be getting a +new mistress." + +"Latham's Folly" was a name Medway Latham's big brown house behind +Wreckers' Head had gained soon after it was built. Such a huge house +for so limited a family had suggested the term to the sharp-tongued +Cape Codders. + +Horry Newbegin turned the idea and his quid over several times, then +commented: + +"Well, the skipper wouldn't be doing so bad at that!" + + + + +CHAPTER XI + +AT BIG WRECK COVE + + +The girl had never been to sea before, not even on a pleasure boat +down the harbor. The delights of a sail to Nantasket were quite +unknown to her. Naturally this voyage out through the bay and into +the illimitable ocean was sure to be either a delight or a most +unpleasant experience. + +Happily it was the former. She proved to be a good sailor. + +"You was born for a sailor's bride, miss," Horry told her. + +But he said it when nobody else was by to see the blush which +stained her cheek. And yet she did not look happy after the old +salt's observation. He hastened to interest her in another theme. + +It was the tail of the afternoon watch. Because of the light and +shifting airs the _Seamew_, in spite of her wonderful sailing +qualities, had only then raised the northern extremity of the Cape +and, turning on her heel, was now running out to sea again on the +long leg of a tack into the southeast. + +Horry hung to the spokes of the wheel while the skipper was helping +Orion make up the manifest. The steersman had jettisoned his usual +quid of tobacco when the girl approached him, and without that aid +to complacency Horry just had to talk. + +"Did you see the wheel jerk then, miss? That tug to sta'bo'd is the +only fault I find with this here schooner. She's a right tidy craft, +and Cap'n Tunis is a good judge of sailing ships, as his father was +afore him. + +"But although this _Seamew_ looks like a new craft, she isn't. Sure, +he knowed she wasn't new, Cap'n Tunis did, when he bought her up +there to Marblehead. Only trouble is, he didn't seem to go quite +deep enough into her antecedents, as the feller said. He bought her +on the strength of her condition and the way she sailed on a trial +trip." + +"Well, isn't that all right?" asked his listener. "How would one go +about buying a ship?" + +"Huh--ship? Well, a schooner ain't a ship, Miss Bostwick. +Howsomever, buying a schooner is like buying a race horse. You want +to know _his_ pedigree. They said the _Seamew_ had been brought up +from the Gulf to sell. And maybe she was. But she is Yankee built, +every timber and rope of her. She warn't built down South none." + +"Shouldn't that make the bargain all the more satisfactory?" +queried the girl, smiling. + +"Ordinarily, yes, ma'am. But it looks like they was hidin' +something. It looks like, too, she was built for sailing and +fishing, not to be a cargo boat." + +"I think she is beautiful." + +"She is sightly, I grant ye," said Horace. "But there's something to +be considered 'sides looks when a man is putting his money into a +craft. As I say, her pedigree oughter be looked up. What was the +schooner before they changed the slant of them masts, painted her +over, and put a new name under her stern?" + +"I don't understand you at all, Mr. Newbegin," said the girl, +staring at him with a strange look dawning in her own countenance. + +He bent toward her, after casting a knowing glance aloft. His +weather-bitten face was preternaturally solemn. + +"Ye can't help havin' your suspicions 'bout ships or folks that are +sailin' under cover. There's got to be some reason for a man +changing his name and trying to get by on one that ain't his'n. Same +with a schooner like this." + +"Oh!" + +"There is such things as hoodooed ships, Miss Bostwick, just like +there is hoodooed folks," he said hoarsely, without seeming to +notice her shrinking from him and her changed countenance. + +"Oh! Is there?" she inquired faintly. + +"Surest thing you know," acclaimed the old seaman with his most +impressive manner. "There was a hoodooed schooner sailed out o' +Salem some years back, the _Marlin B._ She had the same tug to +sta'bo'd that I feel when I'm steerin' of this here schooner." + +The girl was recovering from her momentary excitement. She saw that +Newbegin had no ulterior meaning in his speech. He shook his head +and cast a wary glance toward the companionway to see that the +skipper was not appearing from below. + +"Listen here, Miss Bostwick," he said hoarsely. "It's a mighty +curious thing. I had just come back from a v'y'ge to New Guinea, and +I thinks I'd like a trip to the Banks, not having been fishin' since +I was a boy. I went to Sutro Brothers in Salem and got me a berth on +the _Marlin B._ I marked that every man aboard her, skipper and all, +warn't Salem men, nor yet from Gloucester nor Marblehead. But I +didn't suspicion nothing. + +"Tell you, Miss Bostwick, them that goes down to the sea in ships +runs against more than natur's wonders. There's mysteries that ain't +to be explained, scurce to be spoke of. I dunno why we shouldn't +believe in spirits and ghosts and dead men come alive. The Bible's +full of such, ain't it? + +"Well, then! And what I tell you is as sure, as sure. I took the +_Marlin B._ out of that harbor, being at the wheel. It was +February, and a nasty snow squall come up and smothered us complete +and proper. That schooner was a hummer; she sailed just so pretty as +this one. She did for a fact. But I felt that tug to sta'bo'd. Do +you know, Miss Bostwick, as I was tellin' Cap'n Tunis, there ain't +never two craft just alike, no more than there is two men." + +"Is that so?" she said. + +"Ships is almost human. I never did see two so much alike as this +_Seamew_ and the _Marlin B._ Well, to continue, as the feller said, +we was smothered in that snow squall for 'bout ten minutes. At the +wheel there I heard off to windward the rushing sound of another +craft. She was a tall ship, too, and she had as much canvas spread +as we had. She came down on us like a shot. + +"I shouted to the mate, but he had heard it too. He yelled for all +hands on deck. We both knowed the _Marlin B._ was due to be run +under unless a miracle intervened. It was a moment I ain't likely to +forget, for we stood there, the whole ship's company, hanging on by +backstay and rail, peering out into the smother of the snow, while +the amazing rush of that unknown craft deafened us. + +"Then out of her upper works--I swear I could see the tangle of +ropes and slatting canvas--came a voice that rang in my ears for +many a day, no matter how the others heard it. It shouted: + +"We're the spirits of them ye run under! We're the spirits of them +ye run under!" + +"My soul and body, Miss Bostwick, but I was scairt!" confessed the +old salt. "That rushing sound and the voices crashed on through our +rigging and went down wind in a most amazing style. It was a ghost +warning like nothing I'd ever heard before or since. And it struck +the whole crew the same way. We begun to question what the _Marlin +B._ was. She was a new schooner and had made but one trip to the +Banks previous to this one we was on. We began to ask why her +original crew had not stayed with her. + +"You can't fool sailormen, Miss Bostwick," continued the old man, +shaking his head with great solemnity. "They sees too much and they +knows too much. Sutro Brothers had got rid of the _Marlin B.'s_ +first crew and picked up strangers, but murder will out. The story +come to us through the night and in the snow squall. We couldn't +stand for no murder ship. We made the skipper put back." + +"Why, wasn't that mutiny?" gasped the girl. + +"He was glad enough to turn back hisself. Even if he lost his ticket +he would have turned back. Then we learned what it meant. On her +first trip for fish, returning to Salem, the _Marlin B._ run under a +smaller fishing craft and every soul aboard of her was lost. And it +stands to reason that every time that murder schooner went out of +the harbor and came to the spot where she'd run the other craft +down, those uneasy souls would rise up and denounce the _Marlin B._" + +"Oh!" gasped the girl, startled, for Tunis Latham and Orion stood +behind her. + +"Your tongue's hung in the middle and wags both ends, Horry," +growled the young skipper. "You trying to scare Miss Bostwick out of +her wits? What you poor, weak-minded, misguided fellows heard that +time in the snow squall was a flock of black gulls coming down +with the wind. And somebody aboard of the _Marlin B._ was a +ventriloquist. Your whole crew weren't ignorant of the accident that +happened on her first trip. Somebody had it in for Sutro Brothers, +and made much of little, same as usual." + +"Oh, they _did_?" muttered Horry. + +"Anyway," said Captain Latham, "that's neither here nor there. We +aren't sailing the _Marlin B._, for she's in Chilean waters, owned +by a South American millionaire. You can stow that kind of talk, +Horry--anyway, while Miss Bostwick is aboard." + +They were until late in the evening beating into Paulmouth Harbor, +but the heavens were starlit and the air as soft as spring. The +tolling of the bell buoy over Bitter Reef was mellow and soothing; +they heard it for a long time before the _Seamew_ made the short leg +of the final tack and went rushing in past the danger mark under +the urge of a sudden puff of the fitful breeze. + +"The old bell is welcoming us, Ida May," Captain Latham said to the +girl who reclined in a canvas chair which the cook had raked out of +the lazaret for her use. "I've beat my way in here when it hasn't +sounded so cheerful." + +"I am wondering what sort of welcome I shall receive when we get +to--Wreckers' Head, do you call it?" she asked softly. + +"That'll be all right, too," he told her with confidence. "Just wait +and see." + +They dropped anchor near the Main Street dock in order that they +should be able to warp the schooner in to unload her cargo in the +morning. Tunis allowed shore leave, late as the hour was. But he sat +beside the passenger on the _Seamew's_ deck, and they talked. It was +surprising how much those two found to talk about! Perhaps a good +deal of their inconsequential chatter was to hide the anxiety each +felt in secret as to the future. + +However, that talk was a memorable one for both Tunis Latham and the +girl posing as Ida May Bostwick. Two young people can tell a great +deal to each other under certain circumstances in the mid-watch of a +starlit night. The lap, lap of the wavelets whispering against the +schooner's hull, the drone of the surf on a distant bar, and the +sounds of insect life from the shore were accompaniments to their +long talk. + +Orion Latham, tumbling over the forward rail from a waterside +dinghy, whispered hoarsely in Johnny Lark's ear: + +"What do you know about that? There they are, billin' and cooin', +just where we left 'em when we went ashore. Wouldn't it sicken you?" + +But Johnny only grinned and chuckled, shaking the tiny gold rings in +his ears till they sparkled in the faint light. He had a girl +himself in Portygee Town, at Big Wreck Cove. + +The creaking of the hawsers and the "heave hos" of the crew as they +warped the _Seamew_ in to the wharf awoke the girl passenger in the +cabin. There was little fancy about the schooner's after house, but +it was comfortable. + +There was a tarry smell about the place that rather pleased the +girl. The lamp over the round table vibrated in its gimbals, but did +not swing. There were several prints upon the walls of the cabin, +prints which showed the rather exceptional taste of the _Seamew's_ +master, for they had been tacked up since she had come into Tunis +Latham's possession. + +There was, too, a somewhat faded photograph on a background of +purple velvet, boxed in with glass, screwed to the forward +stanchion. It was the photograph of an overhealthy-looking young +woman, with scallops of hair pasted to her forehead undoubtedly +with quince-seed pomatum, her basque wrinkled across her bust +because of the high-shouldered cut of it. But it had been in the +extreme mode when it was made and worn, in the eighties. + +The brooch which fastened the lace collar had been painted yellow by +the "artist photographer" of that day, and even the earrings she +wore had been touched up, or perhaps painted on with the air brush. + +This was Tunis Latham's mother, the girl who had seemed so promising +an addition to the family in the opinion of Medway Latham, the +builder of "Latham's Folly." The rather blowzy prettiness of Captain +Randall Latham's young wife had been translated into real beauty in +her son; for Tunis had got his physique and open, bold physiognomy +from his mother. + +The girl lying in an upper berth, a close cap tied over her neatly +braided hair, parted the cretonne curtains to look at these +ornaments hung about the cabin. She realized that the photograph, so +strangely contrasting with the prints of some of the world's +masterpieces, was a sort of shrine to Tunis Latham. He revered the +mother whom he had told the girl he could not remember of ever +having seen. His love and admiration for that unknown mother had +helped make the captain of the _Seamew_ what he was. + +He was a good man, a safe man for any girl to trust. And yet he was +lending himself to a species of masquerade which, if ever it became +known, would bring upon his head both derision and scorn. He risked +this contumely cheerfully and with a reckless disregard for what +might arise through the plans they had made while sitting beside +each other on that bench on Boston Common. + +He would not admit the point of his own risk. He would not consider +it when they had talked, only the night before, on the deck of the +schooner. He scouted every possibility of any harm coming to him +through their attempt to replace the girl in a firm niche in society +and give the Cap'n Ira Balls what they needed of companionship and +care. + +The girl sat up in the berth and let her bare legs dangle a moment +before dropping to the rug. In her bare feet she padded to the +photograph of Captain Randall Latham's young wife. + +The girl stood before the old photograph, her hands clasped, her +gaze raised to the pictured face, as a votary might stand before the +Madonna. There were tears in the girl's violet eyes. At that moment +she was uplifted, carried out of herself by the wealth of feeling in +her heart. Her lips moved. + +"I promise," she said softly, "I promise you that I will never do +anything that will hurt him. I promise you that I will never let him +do anything that may harm him. He has given me my chance. I promise +before you and God that he shall not be sorry, ever, that he has +raised me out of the dust." + +She stood on tiptoe and pressed her lips to the glass which covered +the photograph. + +The wind held fair, a quartering offshore blow, and the schooner, +having discharged her cargo, just past noon spread her upper sails, +caught a gentle breeze of old Boreas, and shot out of the harbor and +so to the southward with a following wind which brought her to the +mouth of Big Wreck Cove long before nightfall. + +Upon the bluff of Wreckers' Head was to be dimly seen the sprawling +Ball homestead. Tunis pointed it out to the passenger. + +"That is where you are going to be happy, Ida May," he said to her +softly. + +"I wonder," murmured the girl. + +He looked down into her rapt face. The violet eyes were fixed upon +the old house and the brown-and-green fields immediately surrounding +it. Perhaps Cap'n Ira and Prudence were out there now, watching from +the front yard the white-winged _Seamew_ threading so saucily the +crooked passage into the cove, the sand bars on one hand and the +serried teeth of the Lighthouse Point Reef on the other. + +Inside the cove the schooner's canvas was reduced smartly to merely +a topsail and jib, the wind in which carried her close enough to +Luiz Wharf for a line to be cast ashore. Tier upon tier of barrels +of clams were stored under the open sheds, ready to be packed away +in the _Seamew's_ hold. Orion loudly acclaimed against a malign +fate. + +"Hi golly! Ain't we goin' to have no spare time at all? This running +in a coasting packet is plain slavery; that's what it is! A man +don't have a chance even to go home and change his socks 'tween +trips." + +"Have a clean pair in your duffel bag; then you won't have to go +home for 'em, 'Rion," advised Tunis. "We've got to make hay while +the sun shines. There'll be loafing enough to cut into the profits +by and by when bad weather breaks." + +Orion grunted pessimistically. Little in this world ever just suited +Orion. + +"She's a hoodooed packet. I said it from the first," he muttered to +Horry. "You know well enough what she was before they gave her a +lick of paint and a new name. We'll all pay high yet for sailin' in +her." + +"I wouldn't let Cap'n Tunis hear me say that 'nless I was seekin' a +new berth," rejoined the old mariner. + +Tunis left the mate and Horry to carry on while he took the +passenger ashore, meaning to spend the night himself at home with +Aunt Lucretia. He stopped to get Eunez Pareta's father to harness up +his old horse and transfer Miss Bostwick's trunk and bag to the Ball +homestead. Eunez was in evidence--as she always was when Tunis came +by--a bird of paradise indeed. Her languishing glances at Tunis +flashed in their change to suspicious glares at the girl waiting in +the roadway. + +"You have a guest, Tunis Latham?" she asked with a composure which +scarcely hid her jealousy and doubt. + +"I'm taking her up to the Balls'. She's Mrs. Ball's niece, Eunez," +Tunis said good-naturedly. He was always friendly with these +Portygees. That was why he got along so well with them and they +liked to work for him. Many of the Big Wreck Cove folk looked upon +them even now as "furriners" who had to be shouted at if one would +make them understood. + +"What does she come for?" asked Eunez sharply. + +"They need her up there. Mrs. Ball is feeble and so is the captain. +She is going to live with them right along." + +"Ah-ha!" whispered Eunez, as he passed her to step outside the house +again. She seized his arm and swung him around to face her, for she +was strong. "You think she is pretty, Tunis?" she demanded. + +"Eh? What's eating on you, Eunez? I never stopped to think whether +she was or not?" + +But he flushed, and she saw it. Eunez smiled in a way which might +have puzzled Tunis Latham had he stopped to consider it. But he +joined the girl who was waiting for him, and they went on up the +road and out of the town without his giving a backward glance or +thought to the fiery Portygee girl. + +When they mounted to the windswept headland the visitor looked about +with glowing eyes, breathing deeply. The flush of excitement rose in +her cheek. He knew that as far as the physical aspect of the place +went, she was more rejoiced than ever she had expected to be. + +"Beautiful--and free," she whispered. + +"You've said it, now, Ida May," he agreed. "From up here it looks +like the whole world was freer and a whole lot brighter. It is a +great outlook." + +"And is that the house?" the girl asked, for in approaching the Ball +homestead from this angle it looked different from its appearance as +viewed standing on the deck of the inbound _Seamew_. + +"That is the Ball house, and Aunt Prue taking in her wash," Tunis +replied. "I suppose she had John-Ed Williams' wife over to wash for +her, but Myra will have gone home before this to get the supper. +Tush! Aunt Prue ought not to try to do that." + +The fresh wind blowing over the headland filled every garment on the +lines like ballooning sails. The frail, little old woman had to +stand on tiptoe to get each article unpinned from the line. The +wind wickedly sought to drag the linen from her grasp. + +Cap'n Ira, hobbling around from the front of the house, hailed his +wife in some rancor: + +"I don't see why you have to do that. Don't we pay that woman for +washing them clothes? And ain't she supposed to take 'em down off'n +the halyards? I swan! You'll be inter that basket headfirst, yet, +like ye was inter the grain chist. Look out!" + +"They wasn't all dry when Myra Williams went home, Ira. And I don't +dare leave 'em out all night. Half of 'em would blow over the edge +of the bluff. The wind is terrible strong." + +It was much too strong for her frail arms, that was sure. The +captain turned in anger to look for help about the open common. He +saw the two figures briskly moving up the road toward the house. + +"I swan! Who's this here?" he exclaimed. "Tunis Latham, and--and Ida +May!" + +His face broadened into a delighted smile. He had seen the _Seamew_ +come in, and had prayerfully hoped her master had brought the girl +that he believed would be their salvation. This person with the +captain of the _Seamew_ could only be Ida May Bostwick! + +At the moment Prudence was taking down her own starched, blue house +dress from the line. It was hung like a pirate in chains by its +sleeves, was blown out as round as a barrel, and was as stiff as a +board. Just as the pins came out an extra heavy puff of wind +shrieked around the corner of the house, as though it had been lying +in wait for just this opportunity. + +The dress was whipped out of Aunt Prue's hands. She herself, as +Cap'n Ira had warned her, was cast, face downward, into the +half-filled clothes basket. The blue dress was whirled high in the +air, skirt downward. Before the old man was warned by Prudence's +muffled scream that something had gone wrong, the starched dress +plumped down over his head and shoulders, and he was bound fast and +blinded in its folds. + +"Drat the thing! What did I tell ye?" bawled Cap'n Ira. "Take this +here thing off'n me! Want to make me more of an old Betty than I be +a'ready--a-dressin' me in women's clothes? I swan!" + + + + +CHAPTER XII + +A NEW HAND AT THE HELM + + +Tunis ran to the old man's rescue, but it was the girl who lifted +Prudence from out the laundry-basket. + +"Drat the thing!" ejaculated Cap'n Ira, fighting off the starched +dress. "Feel like I was being smothered by a complete suit of sails. +That you, Tunis?" + +"Yes, Cap'n Ira. You're all right now. Hold on! Don't let's mess up +Aunt Prue's wrapper more than can be helped. 'Vast there!" + +"I swan! Don't it beat all what a pickle we get into? We ain't no +more fit to be alone, me an' Prue, than a pair o' babies. For the +lan's sake, Tunis! Who is that?" + +He was staring at the girl, who led forward the trembling old woman, +her strong, young arms about the thin shoulders. Prudence was +tearful but smiling. + +"This is the girl you sent me for," said the captain of the +_Seamew_. + +The girl was smiling, too. To the delight of the young man there was +no suspicion of fear or shyness in her expression. Her eyes were +luminous. Her smile he thought would have ravished the heart of a +misogynist. + +"I swan!" murmured Cap'n Ira, almost prayerfully. + +"Ain't she pretty, Ira?" cried Prudence, almost girlish herself in +her new happiness. "Just like Sarah Honey was when she was Ida May's +age. And ain't it sweet, her coming to us this way? She's brought +her trunk. She's going to stay." + +"And I know I shall be happy here, Uncle Ira," said the girl, giving +him her hand. + +Cap'n Ira's smile was as ecstatic as that of his wife. He looked +sidewise at Tunis, a glance of considerable admiration. + +"It takes you to do it, Tunis. I couldn't have brought home a nicer +lookin' gal myself. I swan!" + +"Now, you hesh your foolin', Ira," cried his wife, while the younger +man's blush admitted unmistakably his feelings. "Don't you mind him, +Ida May. Come into the house, now, and you, too, Tunis. We'll have +supper in a jiffy." + +"No," said the captain of the _Seamew_. "I must be getting on. Aunt +Lucretia will be expecting me, for, of course, she saw the schooner +heading in for the cove. Good night, Ida May." He shook hands with +her quietly. "I know you will be happy here, with your own folks." + +The girl looked deep into the young man's eyes; nor did she free her +hand from his clasp immediately. At one side stood the two old +people, both smiling, and not a little knowingly and slyly at each +other, while the captain of the _Seamew_ and the girl bade each +other good night. Cap'n Ira whispered in his wife's ear: + +"Look at that now! How long d'you think we'll be able to keep Ida +May with us? I cal'late we'd better build our boundary fence a great +sight higher and shut him out o' walkin' across this farm." + +But Prudence only struck at him with a gently admonitory hand. Tunis +and Ida May had taken down the remainder of the wash and the former +carried it into the house before he started on for his own home. + +The girl, walking behind the old couple into the homelike kitchen, +sensed the warming hospitality of the place. It was just as though +she had known all this before, as though, in some past time, she had +called the Ball homestead _home_. + +"Lay off your hat and coat, Ida May, on the sitting-room lounge," +said Prudence. "We'll have supper before I show you upstairs. Me and +Ira sleep down here, but there's a nice, big room up there I've +fixed up for you." + +"Before you were sure I could come?" the girl asked in some wonder. + +"She's got faith enough to move mountains, Prudence has," broke in +Cap'n Ira proudly. "At least, I cal'late she's got enough to move +this here Wreckers' Head if she set out to." And he chuckled. + +"But you believed Ida May would come, too. You said so, Ira," cried +his wife. + +"I swan! I had to say it to keep up with you," he returned. +"Otherwise you'd have sailed fathoms ahead of me. However, if you +hadn't come, gal, neither of us could have well said to the other +them bitterest of all human words: 'I told you so!'" + +"How could you suppose I would not come?" asked the girl gayly. "Who +would refuse such a generous offer?" + +"I knowed you'd see it that way," said Prudence happily. + +"But there might have been circumstances we could not foresee," +Cap'n Ira said. "You--you didn't have many friends where you was +stopping?" + +"No _real_ friends." + +"Well, there is a difference, I cal'late. No young man, o' course, +like Tunis Latham, for instance?" + +"Now, Ira!" admonished Prudence. + +But Ida May only laughed. + +"Nobody half as nice as Captain Latham," she said with honesty. + +"Well, I cal'late he would be hard to beat, even here on the Cape," +agreed the inquisitive old man. + +He took a pinch of snuff and prepared to enjoy it. Suddenly +remembering his wife's nervousness, he shouted in a high key: + +"Looker--out--Prue! _A-choon!_" + +"Good--Well, ye did warn me that time, Ira, for a fact. But if I +had a cake in the oven 'stead of biscuit, I guess 'twould have fell +flat with that shock. I do wish you could take snuff quiet. Look an' +see, will you, Ida May, if those biscuits are burning?" + +The girl opened the oven door to view briefly the two pans of +biscuit. + +"They are not even brown yet, Aunt Prue. But soon." + +"The creamed fish is done. I hope you like salt fish, Ida May?" + +"I adore it!" + +"Lucky you do," put in Cap'n Ira. "I can't say that I think it is +actually 'adorable.' But then, I ain't been eatin' it as a steady +shore diet much more'n sixty-five year." + +"Don't you run down your victuals, Ira," said his wife. + +"No, I don't cal'late to. But if I may be allowed to express my +likes and dislikes, I got to be honest and say that there's victuals +I eat that would have suited me better for a steady diet than +pollack and potatoes. And now we don't even have the potatoes, +'cause we can't raise 'em no more." + +"But you have land. I see a garden," said Ida May briskly. + +"Yes, it's land," said Cap'n Ira, in the same pessimistic way. "But +it ain't had a coat of shack fish for three years and this spring +not much seaweed. Besides that, after the potatoes are planted, who +is to hoe 'em and knock the bugs off?" + +"Oh!" commented Ida May, with a small shudder. + +He grinned broadly. + +"There's a whole lot o' work to farming. I'd rather plow the sea +than plow the land, and that's no idle jest! Never could see how a +man could be downright honest when he says he likes to putter with a +garden. Why, it's working in one place all the time. When he looks +up from his job, there's the same old reefs and shoals he's been +beatin' about for years. No matter how often he shoots the sun, the +computation's bound to be just the same. He's there, or thereabout." + +"That's the way with most longshoremen, Ida May," said Prudence, +sighing. "They make awful poor farmers if they are good seamen. +Can't seem to combine the two trades." + +"I cal'late that's so," agreed Cap'n Ira, his eyes twinkling. +"They'd ought to examine all the babies born on the Cape first off, +and them that ain't web-footed ought to be sent to agricultural +school 'stead of to the fishing. But that ain't why our potato +crop's a failure this year. And as far as I see, talking won't cure +many fish, either." + +"Can't I help?" asked Ida May in her gentle voice. "You know, I've +come here to work. I don't expect to play lady." + +"Well, I don't know. It ain't the kind of work you are used to." + +"I've been used to work all my life, and all kinds of work," +interposed the girl bravely. + +"But you seem so eddicated," Prudence said. + +"Getting an education did not keep me from learning how to use my +hands." + +"Well, Sarah Honey was a right good housekeeper," granted Prudence. + +At that the girl fell suddenly silent, as she did whenever Sarah +Honey's name was mentioned. And yet she knew she must get used to +such references to her presumed mother. Prudence frequently recalled +incidents which had happened when Sarah Honey visited the Ball house +before she was married. + +They had supper, a plentiful meal if there was not much variety. +Prudence had made a "two-egg cake" and opened a jar of beach-plum +preserves to follow the creamed fish and biscuits. + +"I must learn to make biscuit as good as these," said Ida May. + +"I expect you are more used to riz bread. City folks are. But on +the Cape we don't have that much. Our men folks want hot bread at +every meal. We pamper 'em," said Prudence. + +"I'm pampered 'most to death, that's a fact," grumbled Cap'n Ira. + +Ida May briskly cleared the table and washed the dishes. She would +not allow Prudence even to wipe them. + +"I'm sitting here like a lady, Ira," said the little old woman. +"This child will work herself to death if we let her." + +"A willin' horse always does get driv' too fast," commented Cap'n +Ira. + +"A new broom sweeps clean," laughed the girl, rinsing out the +dishcloths and hanging them on the line behind the stove. + +They went outside in the gloaming and sat in a sheltered nook where +they could watch the lights twinkling all along the coast to the +southward, the revolving lantern at Lighthouse Point, the steady +beacon on Eagle's Head, and now and then the flash of the great one +of Monomoy Point so far away. It was peaceful, quiet, assuring, and, +the girl thought, heavenly! She thought for a moment of Sellers' +restaurant and the little room she had occupied on Hanover Street. +_This_ was contentment. + +Old Pareta had brought her trunk and bag and carried them up to the +big, well-furnished room she was to occupy. By and by Prudence went +up with her to see that she was made comfortable there, and to watch +her unpack, for the old woman was not without curiosity regarding +the "city fashions." + +One window of the room looked to the north. Through this Ida May saw +the steady beam of a lamp shining from a house down in what seemed +to be a depression behind the Head. She asked Prudence what that +was. + +"That must be a light at 'Latham's Folly,' Tunis' house, you know," +said the little old woman, likewise peering through the window. +"Shouldn't be surprised if 'twas right in his room. He sleeps this +end of the house. Yes, that's what it is." + +"So Captain Latham lives just there?" the girl said softly. + +"When he's ashore. He and his Aunt Lucretia. They are the only +Lathams left of their branch of the family." + +Afterward, when Ida May had come upstairs to go to bed, she looked +to the northward again. The light was still there. She knelt by the +open window in her nightgown and watched the light for a long time. +When it finally was extinguished she crept into bed. + +She heard the nasal tones of the two old people below, for her door +on the stairs was open. She heard, too, the occasional cry of a +night fowl and, in the distance, the barking of an uneasy watchdog. + +But after all, and in spite of the many, many thoughts which +shuttled to and fro in her mind, she did not lie awake for long. It +was a clear and sparkling night; there were no foghorns to disturb +her dreams with their raucous warnings, and the surf along the +beaches below the Head merely scuffed its way up and down the strand +with a soothing "Hush! Hush-sh!" + +At dawn, however, there came a noise which roused the newcomer to +Wreckers' Head. She awoke with a start. Something had clattered upon +her window sill, that window looking toward the north. She sat +upright in bed to listen. The clatter was repeated. In the dim, gray +light she saw several tiny objects bounding into the room. + +She scrambled out of the high four-poster and shrugged her feet into +slippers. She crept to the window, holding the nightgown close at +the neck. She felt one of the tiny objects under the soft sole of +her slipper and stooped to secure it. It was a pebble. + +More pebbles rattled on the window sill. She stepped forward then +with considerable bravery, and looked down. What she saw at first +startled her. A tall, misty, gray object stood below the window, +something quite ghostly in appearance, something which moved in the +dim light. + +"Why, what--" + +Then the thing stamped and blew a faint whinny. She saw a pale, +long face raised and two pointed ears twitching above it. + +"A horse!" + +A darker figure rose up suddenly from before the strange animal. + +"Ida May!" + +"Why, Captain Latham!" + +"Cat's foot!" exclaimed the captain of the _Seamew_. "I thought I'd +never wake you up without disturbing the old folks. No need to ask +_you_ if you rested well." + +"Oh, gloriously!" whispered the girl, beaming down upon him, but +keeping out of the full range of his vision. + +"Sorry I had to wake you, but I'm due at the wharf right now to see +that the hands get those clams stowed aboard. We want to get away on +the morning tide. I brought Queenie home and thought I'd better tell +you." + +"Queenie?" + +"The Queen of Sheba, you know. I was telling you about Cap'n Ira's +old mare." + +"Oh, yes! Wait. I'll dress and be right down." + +"That's all right," said Tunis. "I'll wait." + +She scurried into the clothes she had laid out before going to bed. +In five minutes she crept down the stairs into the kitchen and out +of the back door. Tunis, holding the sleepy mare by her rope bridle, +met her between the kitchen ell and the barn. + +"You look as bright as a new penny," he chuckled. "But it's early +yet for you to be astir. I'll put Queenie in her stable and show you +where the feed is. Aunt Prue will like to have her back. She sets +great store by the old mare. She won't be much bother to you, Ida +May." + +"Nothing will ever be a bother to me here, Captain Latham," said the +girl cheerfully. + +"That's the way to talk," he said, with satisfaction. "Just you keep +on that tack, Ida May, and things will go swimmingly, I've no +doubt." + +In ten minutes he was briskly on his way to the town. The girl +watched him from the back stoop as long as he was to be seen in the +morning mist. Then she went back into the house, made a more careful +toilet, and when Cap'n Ira came hobbling into the kitchen an hour +later breakfast was in preparation on the glowing stove. + +"I swan! This is comfort, and no mistake," chuckled the old man, +rubbing his chin reflectively. "You're going to be a blessing in +this house, Ida May." + +"I hope you'll always say so, Uncle Ira," returned the girl, smiling +at him. + +"I cal'late. Now I'll get washed, but that derned shavin'." + +"You sit down in that rocker and I'll shave you," she said briskly. +"Oh, I can do it! I shaved my own father when he was sick last--" + +She stopped, turned away, and fell silent. It was the first time +she had spoken of either of her parents, but Cap'n Ira did not +notice her sudden confusion. He prepared for the ordeal, making his +own lather and opening the razor. + +"I can't strop it, Ida May," he groaned. "That's one of the things +that's beyont my powers." + +She came to him with a clean towel which she tucked carefully in at +the neckband of his shirt. Practically she lathered his face and +rubbed the lather into the stubble with brisk hands. He grunted +ecstatically, lying back in the chair in solid comfort. He eyed her +manipulation of the razor on the strop with approval. + +For the first time in many a morning he was shaved neatly and with +dispatch. When Prudence came feebly into the room, he hailed her +delightedly. + +"You've lost your job, old woman!" he cried. + +"And ain't there a thing for me to do?" queried Prudence softly, yet +smiling. + +"Just sit down at the table, auntie," said the girl. "The coffee is +made. How long do you want your eggs boiled? The water is bubbling." + +"Eggs!" exclaimed Cap'n Ira. "I thought them hens of Prue's had give +up layin' altogether." + +"I found some stolen nests in the barn," returned Ida May. "They +have been playing tricks on you." + +It was near noon when Ida May from an upper window saw the _Seamew_ +beating out of the cove on her return trip to Boston. She watched +the schooner as long as the white sails were visible. But her heart +was not wholly with the beautiful schooner. A great content filled +her soul. Afterward she bustled about, straightening up the house, +her cheerful smile always ready when the old folks spoke. They +watched her with such a feeling of thankfulness as they could not +openly express. + +After dinner she started on the ironing and proved herself to be as +capable in that line as in everything else. + +"Maybe she's been a shopgirl, Ira," Prudence observed in private to +her husband; "but Sarah Honey didn't neglect teaching her how to +keep any man's home neat and proper." + +"Sh!" admonished Cap'n Ira. "Don't put no such ideas in the gal's +head." + +"What ideas?" the old woman asked wonderingly. + +His eyes twinkled and he rewarded himself with a generous pinch of +snuff before repeating his bon mot: + +"If you don't tell her she'll make some man a good wife, maybe she +won't never know it! Looker out, Prudence! _A-choon!_" + + + + +CHAPTER XIII + +SOME YOUNG MEN APPEAR + + +A house plant brought out into the May sunshine and air expands +almost immediately under the rejuvenating influences of improved +conditions. Its leaves uncurl; its buds develop; it turns at once +and gratefully to the business of growing which has been restricted +during its incarceration indoors. + +So with Sheila Macklin--she who now proclaimed herself Ida May +Bostwick and who was gladly welcomed as such by the old people at +the Ball homestead on Wreckers' Head. After the girl's experiences +of more than three years since leaving her home town, the +surroundings of the house on the headland seemed an estate in +paradise. + +As for the work which fell to her share, she enjoyed it. She felt +that she could not do too much for the old people to repay them for +this refuge they had given her. That Cap'n Ira and Prudence had no +idea of the terrible predicament in which she had been placed +previous to her coming made no difference to the girl's feeling of +gratitude toward them. She had been serving a sentence in purgatory, +and Tunis Latham's bold plan had opened the door of heaven to her. + +The timidity which had so marked her voice and manner when Tunis had +first met her soon wore away. With Cap'n Ira and Prudence she was +never shy, and when the captain of the _Seamew_ came back again he +found such a different girl at the old house on Wreckers' Head that +he could scarcely believe she was the Sheila Macklin who had told +him her history on the bench on Boston Common. + +"I swan, Tunis," hoarsely announced Cap'n Ira, "you done a deed that +deserves a monument equal to that over there to Plymouth. Them +Pilgrim fathers--to say nothing of the mothers--never done no more +beneficial thing than you did in bringing Ida May down here to stay +along o' Prudence and me. And I cal'late Prue and me are more +thankful to you than the red Indians was to the Pilgrims for coming +ashore in Plymouth County and so puttin' the noses of Provincetown +people out o' joint." + +He chuckled. + +"She's as sweet as them rose geraniums of Prue's and just as sightly +looking. Did you ever notice how that black hair of hers sort of +curls about her ears, and them ears like little, tiny seashells ye +pick up 'long shore? Them curls just lays against her neck that +pretty! I swan! I don't see how the young fellers kept their hands +off her where she come from. Do you?" + +"Why, you old Don Juan!" exclaimed Tunis, grinning. "Ain't you +ashamed of yourself?" + +"Me? Aha! I've come to that point of age and experience, Tunis, +where whatever I say about the female sect can't be misconstrued. +That's where I have the advantage of you." + +"Uh-huh!" agreed Tunis, nodding. + +"Now, if you begun raving about that gal's black hair--An' come to +think of it, Tunis, her mother, Sarah Honey's hair was near 'bout +red. Funny, ain't it?" + +"The Bostwicks must have been dark people," said Tunis evenly. + +But he remembered in a flash the "fool's gold" which had adorned in +rich profusion the head of the girl in the lace department of Hoskin +& Marl's. + +"Well, the Honeys warn't. None I ever see, leastways," announced +Cap'n Ira. "Howsomever, Ida May fits her mother's maiden name in +disposition, if ever a gal did. She's pure honey, Tunis; right from +the comb! And she takes to everything around the house that handy." + +Prudence was equally enthusiastic. And Tunis Latham could see for +himself many things which marked the régime of the newcomer at the +Ball homestead as one of vast improvement over that past régime of +the old couple, who had been forced to manage of late in ways which +troubled their orderly souls. + +"Catch as catch can," was Cap'n Ball's way of expressing the +condition of the household and other affairs before the advent of +Ida May. Now matters were already getting to be "shipshape," and no +observer could fail to note the increased comfort enjoyed by Cap'n +Ira and Prudence. + +Nor need Tunis feel anxious, either, regarding the girl's state of +mind or body. She was so blithe and cheerful that he could scarcely +recall the picture of that girl who had waited upon him in the cheap +restaurant on Scollay Square. Here was a transformation indeed! + +Nor had Ida May's activities been confined wholly to the house and +the old folks' comfort. He noted that the wire fence of the chicken +run was handily repaired; that Aunt Prue's few languishing flowers +had been weeded; and that one end of the garden was the neater for +the use of hoe and rake. + +It was too late in the season, of course, for much new growth in the +vegetable beds; but the half-hearted attention of John-Ed, junior, +had never brought about this metamorphosis, Tunis well knew. He went +on to the Latham house, feeling well pleased. Aside from all other +considerations, he was glad to know that his Machiavellian plan had +brought about these good results. + +He did not have much time to spend with Sheila, for the _Seamew's_ +freighting business was good. He never remained ashore but one night +between trips, and he spent that evening with his Aunt Lucretia, +whose enjoyment of his presence in the house was none the less keen +because inarticulate. + +But when he started off across the fields for the port in the early +morning he saw Sheila's rising light, and she was at the back door +to greet him when he went past. They stole a little time to be +together there, whispering outside the door so as not to awaken +Cap'n Ira and Prudence. And Tunis Latham went on to the wharf where +the _Seamew_ tied up with a warmth at his heart which he had never +experienced before. + +That another girl rose betimes on these mornings and waited and +watched for him to pass, the young schooner captain never noticed. +That Eunez Pareta should be lingering about the edge of Portygee +Town as he came down from the Head made small impression on his +mind. He never particularly remarked her presence or her smile as +being for him alone. It was that Eunez did not count in any of his +calculations. + +"That girl at Cap'n Ball's place, Tunis," said the Portygee girl. +"Does she like it up there?" + +"Oh, yes! She's getting on fine," was his careless response. + +"And will they keep her?" + +"Of course they will keep her." He laughed. "Who wouldn't, if they +got the chance?" + +"_Si?_" Eunez commented sibilantly. + +Naturally, many people besides Eunez Pareta in and about Big Wreck +Cove were interested in the coming of the stranger to Cap'n Ira +Ball's. Those housewives who lived on Wreckers' Head and in the +vicinity were able more easily to call at the Ball homestead for the +express purpose of meeting and becoming acquainted with "Sarah +Honey's daughter." And they did so. + +"I'd got into the way of thinking," remarked Cap'n Ball dryly, "that +most folks--'ceptin' John-Ed and his wife--had got the notion we'd +dried up here, Prue and me, and blowed away. Some of 'em ain't never +come near in six months. I swan!" + +"Now, Ira," admonished his wife, "do have charity." + +"Charity? Huh! I'll take a pinch of snuff instead. That's a warnin', +Prudence! _A-choon!_" + +Not until the second Sunday after the _Seamew_ had brought Ida May +from Boston did Big Wreck Cove folk in general get a "good slant," +as they expressed it, at the Balls' visitor. There was an ancient +carryall in the barn, and on the Saturday previous little John-Ed +was caught and made to clean this vehicle, rub up the green-molded +harness, and give the Queen of Sheba more than "a lick and a +promise" with the currycomb and brush. + +At ten o'clock on Sunday morning Sheila herself backed the gray mare +out of her stable and harnessed her into the shafts of the carryall. + +"For a city gal, you are the handiest creature!" sighed Prudence, +marveling. + +The girl only smiled. She was now used to such comments. They did +not make her heart flutter as had any reference to her past life at +first. + +The bell in the steeple of the green-blinded, white-painted church +on the farther edge of the port was tinkling tinnily as the girl +drove the old mare down the hill, with Cap'n Ira and Prudence in the +rear seat of the carriage. + +"We ain't felt we could undertake churchgoing for months, Ida May," +the old woman said. "And I miss Elder Minnett's sermons." + +"So do I," agreed her husband, with his usual caustic turn of +speech. "I swan! I can sleep better under the elder's preaching than +I can to home." + +"If you go to sleep to-day, Ira, I shall step on your foot," warned +his wife. + +"You'd better take care which one you step on," rejoined Cap'n Ira. +"I got a corn on one that jumps like an ulcerated tooth. If you +touch that I shall likely surprise you more'n I do when I take +snuff." + +The Portygees had a chapel devoted to their faith. The carriage +passed that on the way to the Congregational Church. A girl, very +dark as to features, very red as to lips, and dressed in very gay +colors in spite of her destination, was mounting the chapel steps. +She halted to stare particularly at the quietly dressed girl driving +the gray mare. + +"Ain't that Pareta's girl, Ira?" asked Prudence. + +"I cal'late." + +"What a bold-looking thing she's grown to be! But she's pretty." + +"As a piney," agreed Cap'n Ira. "I reckon she sets all these +Portygee boys by the ears. I hear tell two of 'em had a knife fight +over her in Luiz's fish house some time ago. She'll raise real +trouble in the town 'fore she's well and safely married." + +"That is awful," murmured the old woman, casting another glance back +at the girl and wondering why Eunez Pareta scowled so hatefully +after them. + +Following service, as usual, there was social intercourse on the +steps of the church and at the horse sheds back of it. Particularly +did the women gather about Aunt Prudence and Sheila. As for the men, +both young and old, the newcomer's city ways and unmistakable beauty +gave them much to gossip about. Several of the younger masculine +members of Elder Minnett's congregation came almost to blows over +the settlement of who should take the fly cloth off Queenie, back +her around, and lead her out to the front of the church when the +time came to drive back to the Head. + +In addition, Cap'n Ira found himself as popular with the young men +as he was wont to be in the old days when he was making up his crew +at the port for the _Susan Gatskill_. + +"Prudence," he said to his wife, but quite loud enough for the girl +to hear as they drove sedately homeward, "I cal'late I shall have to +buy me some shot and powder and load up the old gun I put away in +the attic, thinking I wouldn't never go hunting no more." + +"Goodness gracious gallop!" ejaculated his wife. "What for? I +cal'late you _won't_ go hunting at your time of life!" + +"I dunno. I may be forced to load it up for protection. But maybe +rock salt will do instead of shot," said Cap'n Ira, still with +soberness. "A feller has got a right to protect himself and his +family." + +"Against what, I want to know?" + +"I can see the Ball place is about to be overrun with a passel of +young sculpins that are going to be more annoying than a dose of +snuff in your eye. That's right." + +"Why, how you talk!" + +"Didn't ye see 'em all standing around as we drove away from the +church, casting sheep's eyes? And they're hating each other already +like a hen hates dishwater. I swan!" + +"For the land's sake!" + +"No. For Ida May's sake," chuckled Cap'n Ira. "That's who I've got +to defend with a shotgun." + +The girl flushed rosily, but she laughed, too. + +"You can leave them to me, Uncle Ira. I shall know how to get rid of +them." + +"Maybe they won't come," said Prudence. + +"They won't? I swan!" snorted her husband. "They all see she's +more'n half Honey. Couldn't keep 'em away any more than you can +flies." + +It was quite as Cap'n Ira prophesied. The path from Big Wreck Cove +across the fields to the Head, a path which had become grass-grown +of late years, was soon worn smooth. It was a shorter way from the +town than the wagon road. + +The errands invented by the youthful and more or less unattached +male inhabitants of the port to bring them by this path through the +Ball premises were most ingenious indeed. Early on Monday morning, +while Sheila was hanging out her first lineful of clothes, Andrew +Roby, clam basket and hoe on arm, appeared as the first of a long +line of itinerant pedestrians who more or less bashfully bade Cap'n +Ira good day as he sat in his armchair in the sun. + +"What's the matter?" asked the old man soberly. "All the clams give +out down to the cove? I heard they was getting scarce. You got to +come clean over here to the beaches, I cal'late, to find you a mess +for dinner, Andy?" + +"Well--er--Cap'n Ira, mother was wishing for some big chowder +clams," said young Roby, his eyes squinting sidewise at the slim +figure of Sheila on tiptoe to reach the line. + +"Ye-as," considered the old man. "You got that cat still, Andy?" + +"The _Maybird?_ Oh, yes, sir!" + +"And there's a fair wind. She'd have taken you in half the time to +the outer beaches, and saved your legs," said the caustic speaker. +"But exercise is good for you, I don't dispute." + +A match, one might think, could easily have been touched off at +Andrew's face. He had not much more to say, and went on without +having the joy of more than a nod and smile from the busy Sheila. + +Then came Joshua Jones. Joshua usually was to be found behind his +father's counter, the elder Jones being proprietor of one of the +general stores in Big Wreck Cove. Joshua was a bustling young man +with a reddish ruff of hair back of a bald brow, "side tabs" of the +same hue as his hair before each red and freckled ear, and a nose a +good deal like an eagle's beak. In fact, the upper part of his +face--Cap'n Ira had often remarked it--was of noble proportions, +while the lower part fell away surprisingly in a receding chin which +seemed saved from being swallowed completely only by a very +prominent Adam's apple. + +"I swan!" the captain had said judiciously. "It's more by good luck +than good management that Josh's chin didn't fall into his stomach. +Only that knob in his neck acts like a stopper." + +But when the lanky young storekeeper appeared on this occasion, +Cap'n Ira hailed him cheerfully before Joshua could reach the back +door. + +"Hi, Josh! You ain't goin' for clams, too, be ye?" + +"No, no, Cap'n Ira!" cried young Jones cheerfully. "I'm looking to +pick up some eggs regular. We want to begin to ship again, and eggs +seem to be staying in the nests. He, he! Has Mrs. Ball got any to +spare?" + +"I don't cal'late she has. You see," said Cap'n Ira soberly, "we got +another mouth to feed eggs to now. Did you know we had Ida May +Bostwick visiting us? A young lady from Boston. Prue's niece, once +removed." + +"Why--I--I--ahem! I saw her at church, Cap'n Ira," faltered Joshua. + +"Did ye, now?" rejoined Cap'n Ira, in apparent wonder. "I didn't +suppose you would ever notice her, you not being much for the +ladies, Joshua." + +"Oh, I ain't so blind!" giggled the young man, peering in through +the kitchen door, where Sheila was stepping briskly from tubs to +sink and back again. + +"That's a fortunate thing," agreed the old man. "But you've got a +long v'y'ge before you, if you cal'late to go to all the houses on +the Head to pick up eggs. Good luck to you, Joshua!" + +Josh found himself passed along like a country politician in line at +a presidential reception. His legs got to working without volition, +it seemed, and he was several rods away before he realized that he +had not spoken to the girl at all. + +Zebedee Pauling, whose ancestor had been an admiral and was never +forgotten by the Pauling family--Paulmouth was said to have been +named in their honor--arrived at the Ball back door just as the +family was finishing the usual "picked-up" washday dinner. Zebedee +took off his cap with a flourish, and his grin advertised to all +beholders the fact that he felt shy but pleased at his own courage +in appearing thus on the Head. + +"Why, Zeb!" exclaimed Prudence. "We haven't seen you up here for a +dog's age. Won't you set?" + +"Oh, no'm, no'm! I was just stopping by and thought I'd ask how are +you all, Aunt Prue." + +He bobbed and smiled, but kept his gaze fixed upon Sheila to the +exclusion of the two old people. But Cap'n Ira was never to be +overlooked. + +"You're going to be mighty neighborly, now, Zeb," he said. "We shall +see you often." + +"Er--I don't know, Cap'n Ira," stammered Zebedee, rather taken +aback. + +The old man rose and hobbled toward the door with the aid of his +cane, fumbling in his pocket meanwhile. + +"Here, Zeb," he said, producing a dime. "You're a willin' friend, I +know. I'm running low on snuff. Get me a packet, will ye? American +Affection is my brand. Just slip it in your pocket and bring it +along with you when you come by to-morrow." + +"But--but I don't know as I shall be up this way to-morrow, Cap'n +Ira. Though maybe I shall." And he glanced again at the smiling +girl. + +"Course you will, or next day at the latest," said the old man +stoutly. "I can see plainly that you ain't going to neglect Prue and +me no more. And I shall want that snuff." + +"Well--er--Cap'n--" + +"If you don't come," pursued the perfectly sober captain, "you can +hand the snuff to Andy Roby, or to Josh Jones, or to 'most any of +the boys. They'll be up this way pretty near every day, I shouldn't +wonder." + +Zebedee took the hint and the dime. + +He was no "slow coach" if he was longshore bred. He got the chance +of carrying another heavy basket of clothes out to the lines for +Sheila, who rewarded him with a smile, and then he nodded to the old +man as he left. + +"I'll bring that snuff myself, Cap'n Ira," he assured him. + +"Don't it beat all?" queried the captain, shaking his head +reflectively, as he resumed his seat. "Don't it beat all? For old +folks, Prue, we do certainly seem to be popular." + +"Oh, you hesh!" exclaimed his wife. + +But Sheila giggled delightedly. The way Cap'n Ira handled the +several visitors who thereafter came to Wreckers' Head continued to +amuse the girl immensely. Nor did the visits cease. The Ball +homestead was no longer a lonely habitation. Somebody was forever +"just stopping by," as the expression ran; and the path from the +port was trodden brown and sere as autumn drew on apace. + + + + +CHAPTER XIV + +THE HARVEST HOME FESTIVAL + + +It was not that Sheila Macklin had no graver moments. There were +nights when, in spite of her healthful weariness of body, arising +from the work of the household, she lay awake for long hours of +restless, anxious thought. And sometimes her pillow was wet with +tears. Yet she was not of a lachrymose disposition. She could not +invent imaginary troubles or build in her mind gibbets on which +remorse and sorrow might hang in chains. + +Indeed, how could she be sorrowful? Why should she feel remorse? She +had taken another girl's name and claim of parentage, and she filled +a place which the other girl might have had. But the rightful owner +of the name had scorned this refuge. The real Ida May Bostwick had +no appreciation of what the Balls had to offer, and she had been +unwilling even to open communication with her relatives down on the +Cape. + +Besides, Tunis Latham always cheered the girl who was playing an +imposter's part with the declaration that she had done just +right--that without her presence on Wreckers' Head Cap'n Ira and his +wife would be in a very bad way, indeed. + +She could see that this was so. Her coming to them had been as great +a blessing in their lives as it had been in her own. + +She fully realized that Cap'n Ira and his wife would not have +admitted her to their home and to their hearts had she come in her +own person and identity. This was not so much because of their +strict morality as because of their strict Puritanism. For a puritan +may not be moral always, but he must be just. And justice of that +character is seldom tempered by mercy. What they might have forgiven +the real Ida May they could scarcely be expected to forgive a +stranger. + +In spite of this situation, the Balls were being blessed by the +presence of a girl in their household who had been tainted with a +sentence to a reformatory. Even now, when she knew they loved her +and could scarcely imagine what they would do without her, Sheila +Macklin was quite convinced that a whisper about these hidden +miseries would turn Cap'n Ball, and even Prudence, against her. + +Therefore she was careful, putting a guard upon her tongue and +almost keeping watch upon her secret thoughts. She never allowed +herself to lapse into reverie in their presence for fear the old +people might suspect that she had a past that would not endure open +discussion. + +And, deliberately and with forethought, the intelligent girl went +about strengthening her position with the Balls and making her +identity as Ida May Bostwick unassailable. She had a retentive +memory. Nothing Aunt Prudence ever said in her hearing about Sarah +Honey, her ways when she was young, or what the old woman knew or +surmised about her dead niece's marriage and her life thereafter, +escaped the girl. She treasured it all. + +When visitors were by--especially the neighboring women who likewise +remembered Sarah Honey--the masquerader often spoke in a way to +reduce to a minimum any suspicion that she was not the rightful Ida +May. Even a visit from Annabell Coffin--"she who was a Cuttle"--went +off without a remark being made which would yield a grain of doubt. + +Mrs. Coffin had heard of Ida May while she visited "his folks" in +Boston, in a most roundabout way. She did say to the girl, however: + +"Let's see, Ida May, didn't they tell me that you worked for a spell +in one of them great stores? I wish you could see 'em, Aunt Prue! +The Marshall & Denham department store on Washington Street covers +acres--_acres_! Was it there that you worked, Ida May?" + +"No," replied Ida May calmly. + +"What store did you work in?" + +"Hoskin & Marl's," said the girl, still unruffled. + +"To be sure. That's what Esther Coffin said she heard, I remember. +But I never got to that store. Couldn't go to all of 'em. It tired +me to death, just going around Marshall & Denham's." + +This and similar incidents were building blocks in the structure +which she was raising. Nor did she consider it a structure of +deceit. The foundation only was of doubtful veracity. These people +had accepted her as somebody she was not, it was true; but she +gained nothing thereby that the real Ida May would not have had to +win for herself. + +With Tunis approving and encouraging her, how could the girl spend +much time in doubt or any at all in despair? She felt that she was a +much better girl--morally as well as physically--in this environment +than she had been for many, many months. Instead of being conscience +wrung in playing the part of impostor and living under an assumed +name and identity, she felt a sense of self-congratulation. + +And when in the company of the captain of the _Seamew_ she felt +almost exalted. There was a pact between them that made their tie +more than that of sister and brother. Yet, of love they never +spoke--not during those first weeks on Wreckers' Head. He never +failed to talk with Sheila as he came up from the town when the +schooner lay at her moorings in the cove or was docked ready to +discharge or take aboard freight. Business remained good, but all +was not plain sailing for the young shipmaster. He confided in the +girl many of his perplexities. When he went away again, rain or +shine, the girl did not fail to be up and about when he passed the +Ball homestead. He knew that she did this purposely--that she was on +the watch for him. Her reason for doing so was not so clear to the +young man, but he appreciated her interest. + +Was he overmodest? Perhaps. He might have gained courage regarding +the girl's attitude toward him had he known that, on the nights he +was at home, she sat in her darkened, upper room and watched the +lamp he burned until it was extinguished. On the other hand, Tunis +Latham's brotherly manner and cheerful kindness were a puzzle to +Sheila. She knew that he had been kinder to her than any other man +she had ever met. But what was the root of that kindness? + +There were many pleasant thoughts in Sheila's heart just now; nor +did she allow the secret of her past to leave its acid scars upon +her soul. She was the life and joy of the old house on the Head; she +was the center of amusement when she went into company at the church +or elsewhere. She managed, too, to be that marvelous specimen of +beautiful womankind who can attract other girls as well as men. + +For one thing, the girl played no favorites. She treated them all +alike. None of the young men of Big Wreck Cove could honestly crow +because Ida May Bostwick had showed him any special favor. + +And none of them suspected that Tunis Latham had the inside track +with the girl from the city. At least, this was unsuspected by all +before the occasion of the "harvest-home festival"--that important +affair held yearly by the ladies' aid of the Big Wreck Cove church. + +For the first time in more than a year, Cap'n Ira and Prudence +ventured to town in the evening. Church socials, in the past, and +while Cap'n Ira was so much at sea, had been Prudence Ball's chief +relaxation. She was naturally of a social disposition, and the +simple pleasure of being with and of a party of other matrons of the +church was almost the height of Prudence's mundane desire. + +When Cap'n Ira heard her express the wish to go to the harvest-home +festival he took an extra pinch of snuff. + +"I swan!" he said. "If we take that Queen of Sheby out at night, +she'll near have a conniption. She'll think the world's come to an +end. She ain't been out o' her stable at night since Hector was a +pup--and Hector is a big dog now! How can you think of such a thing, +Prudence?" + +"Queenie won't mind, I guess," said his wife calmly. "I shouldn't be +surprised if you was saying one word for her and a good many more'n +one for yourself, Ira." + +However, they went to the harvest-home festival. It was bound to be +a very gay and enjoyable occasion, and Queenie did not stumble more +than three times going down the hill into the port. + +"That old critter would be the death of us, if she could do it +without being the death of herself, too," fumed Cap'n Ira. + +There were half a dozen young men almost fighting for the privilege +of taking Queenie around to the sheds and blanketing her, the winner +hopeful of a special smile and word from Sheila. + +The decorated church was well filled when the trio from Wreckers' +Head entered, and most delicious odors rose from the basement, where +the tables were laid. + +Sheila was immediately surrounded by her own little coterie of young +people and was enjoying herself quietly when a newcomer, whose +appearance created some little surprise at the door, approached the +group of which the girl was the center. + +"Why, here's Orion Latham!" exclaimed one girl. "I didn't know the +_Seamew_ was in." + +"We just made it by the skin of our teeth," Orion said, making it a +point to shake hands with Sheila. "How are you, Miss Bostwick? I +never did see such a Jonah of an old tub as that dratted schooner! I +thought she never would get back this trip." + +"I cal'late you wouldn't think she was Jonahed if the _Seamew_ was +yours, 'Rion," snickered Andrew Roby. + +"I wouldn't even take her as a gift," snarled Orion. + +"Guess you won't get her that way--if any," chuckled Joshua Jones. +"Tunis, he knows which side o' the bread his butter's on. He's doin' +well. We cal'late--pa and me--to have all our freight come down from +Boston on the _Seamew_." + +Orion glowered at him. + +"You'd better have a care, Josh," he growled. "That schooner is +hoodooed, as sure as sure! She'll stub her nose some night on +Lighthouse Point Reef, if she don't do worse. You can't scurcely +steer her proper." + +"Nonsense, 'Rion!" spoke up Zebedee Pauling. "I'd like to sail on +her myself." + +"Perhaps," Sheila interposed, rather flushed, and looking at Orion +with unmistakable displeasure, "Orion will give up his berth to you, +Zebedee. He seems so very sure that the schooner is unlucky. I came +down from Boston in her, and I saw nothing about her save to +admire." + +"And if you found her all right, Miss Bostwick," struck in the +gallant Joshua, "she's good enough for me. Of course, I heard tell +some thought the _Seamew_ had a bad reputation--that she run under +a fishing boat once and was haunted. But I cal'late that's all +bosh." + +"Yah!" growled Orion. "Have it your own way. But after the dratted +schooner is sunk and you lose a mess of freight, Josh Jones, I guess +you'll sing small." + +"I've heard," said Andrew Roby gravely, "that it's mighty bad +manners to bite the hand that feeds you. You never was overpolite, +'Rion Latham." + +"Not only that, but he's clean reckless with his own livelihood," +added Zebedee Pauling. + + + + +CHAPTER XV + +AN INVITATION ACCEPTED + + +It was a small incident, of course; scarcely to be noted at all when +it was over. Yet the impression left upon Sheila's mind was that +Orion Latham was deliberately endeavoring to injure his cousin's +business with the _Seamew_. If he talked like this before the more +or less superstitious Portygees, how long would Tunis manage to keep +a crew to work the schooner? + +Had she dared she would have taken Orion to task there and then for +his unfaithfulness. The fellow was, as Cap'n Ira had once observed, +one of those yapping curs always envious of the braver dog's bone. + +To the girl's disgust, too, Orion Latham showed plainly that he +considered that he, as an older acquaintance of the girl, could +presume upon that fact. He clung to her throughout the evening like +a mussel to duck grass. Of all the Big Wreck Cove youth, he was the +only one that she could not put in his place. + +She did not think it wise to snub him so openly that Orion would +take offense. This course might do the captain of the _Seamew_ harm. +She foresaw trouble in the offing for Tunis, in any case, and she +did not wish to do anything that would spur Orion to further and +more successful attempts to harm his cousin's business. + +There was another matter troubling Sheila's mind after Orion had +come to the harvest-home festival. Mason Chapin likewise appeared at +the church. But Tunis did not come. He knew, of course, of the +festival, and he had known when he sailed last for Boston that the +Balls and Ida May intended to go. It did seem as if Tunis might have +come, if for only a little while, before going home. + +These thoughts made Sheila rather inattentive to other proposals, +and she found herself obliged to go down to supper with Orion, since +he had outsat and outtalked all the other young men who had hovered +about her. She was nice to Orion; the girl could scarcely be +otherwise, even to those she disliked, unless some very important +matter arose to disturb her, but she did not enjoy the remainder of +the evening, and she was glad when Cap'n Ira and Prudence were ready +to go home. It was full time, the girl thought. + +Even then Orion Latham assumed altogether too much authority. +Sheila had been about to send little John-Ed around for Queenie and +the carryall, but Orion put the boy aside with a self-assured grin. + +"Nobody ain't going to put you in the carriage, Ida May, but me," he +declared. "I'll get the old mare." + +He seized his cap and went out. In a few minutes they had said +good-bye, and the old couple and the girl went out on the church +steps. Sheila saw the carryall standing before the door. A figure +stood at the old mare's head which she presumed to be Orion's. + +"The chariot is ready, I cal'late," said Cap'n Ira. "Come on, +Prudence." + +Sheila helped the old woman into the rear seat and then aided Cap'n +Ira as well. She got in quickly in front, but as she was about to +gather up the reins the man holding Queenie's head came around +swiftly and stepped in beside her to the driver's place. + +"I swan! That you, Tunis?" exclaimed Cap'n Ira. + +"Looks like it," the captain of the _Seamew_ said gravely. "All +clear aft?" + +"You can pay off, Tunis," returned the old man. "Tuck that robe +around your knees, Prudence. This night air is as chill as a breath +off the ice barrens." + +Orion loafed into the lamplight by the steps before Queenie got +into action. His scowl was unseen, but his voice was audible--as it +was meant to be--to Sheila's ears. + +"There he is--hoggin' everything, same as usual. How did I know he +was hanging around outside here, waiting to drive her home? Just as +though he owned her! Huh! He may be skipper aboard that dratted +schooner, but that gives him no right to boss me ashore. I won't +stand it." + +"Sit down to it, then, 'Rion," snickered one of the other young +fellows. "I cal'late Tunis has got the inside course on all of us." + +The girl said nothing to the captain of the _Seamew_ at first. It +was Prudence who asked him why he had not been in the church. + +"I could not get over here until just now," Tunis replied quietly. + +Sheila wondered if he really had been detained on the schooner. +Perhaps he had refrained from coming to the festival for fear the +good people of Big Wreck Cove would notice his attentions to her. He +had never been publicly in her company since he had brought her down +from Boston. Orion Latham's outburst there at the church door was +the first cue people might have gained of anything more than a +passing acquaintanceship between the captain of the _Seamew_ and the +girl who had come to live with the Balls. + +These thoughts bore down the girl's spirits tremendously. The +simple pleasure of the evening was quite erased from her memory. She +remained speechless while old Queenie climbed the hill to the Head. + +The desultory conversation between Cap'n Ira, Prudence, and the +young shipmaster scarcely attracted the girl's attention. If Tunis +looked at her curiously now and then, she did not see his glances. +And she merely nodded her understanding of his statement when Tunis +said, speaking directly to her: + +"The _Seamew's_ going to lie here over Sunday this time, Ida May." + +"That'll be nice for you, Tunis," Aunt Prue put in. "You can go to +church. You don't often have that privilege. Seafarin' is an awful +godless life." + +Queenie sprang ahead gallantly at the sound of a hearty sneeze from +Cap'n Ira, just then, and they were soon at home. Tunis jumped out +and aided the old woman and then the captain to alight. Sheila got +out on the other side of the carriage. She would have preferred to +run on into the house, but she could not really do that. Queenie +must be unharnessed and put in her stable and given a measure of +oats to munch. Of course, Tunis would offer to do this, but she +could not leave him to attend to it without a word. + +"I'll help you with Queenie, Ida May," said the captain of the +_Seamew_. + +That settled it. She had to remain outside while Cap'n Ira and +Prudence went into the house. Tunis led the old mare toward the +barn. A lantern, burning very dimly, was in a box just outside the +big door, and Sheila got this and held it while Tunis busied himself +with the buckles. + +"I didn't mean to interfere," the man said, suddenly breaking the +silence between them. "But as I was coming this way, of course, I +expected to ride along with you. So--" + +"What do you mean, Captain Latham?" the girl asked wonderingly. + +"Orion said you sent him out to get Queenie." + +"Why, I--" + +"Of course, you didn't know I was there. I had just reached the +church. But 'Rion is so fresh--" + +"He took it upon himself to go," said the girl calmly. "I did not +send him. I guess you know how your cousin is." + +"He is too fresh. I'd like to punch him," growled Tunis, to the +girl's secret delight. It sounded boyish, but real. "I don't know +that I can stand him aboard the _Seamew_ much longer. He attends to +everybody's business but his own." + +"He means you no good, Captain Latham," she said frankly. "To-night +he was repeating that silly story about the _Seamew_ being haunted." + +"Cat's-foot!" ejaculated Tunis. "I wish I'd fired old Horry Newbegin +for starting _that_." + +"But 'Rion keeps it up." + +"If he believed she was hoodoed, you wouldn't get him aboard with a +wire cable," growled Tunis. + +"It would be better for you and for the success of your business, +Captain Latham, if 'Rion was really afraid of going aboard the +_Seamew_," she said with confidence. + +"Well, I don't see how I can fire him. He's my cousin--in a way. And +there is enough ill feeling in the family now. Gran'ther Peleg left +all his money to me, and it made Orion and his folks as sore as can +be." + +"You are inclined to be too kind. I am not sure it is always wise to +be too easy." + +"Like chopping off the dog's tail an inch at a time, so's not to +hurt him so much, eh?" he chuckled. + +"Something like that." + +"Well, I'm almost tempted to give 'Rion his walking ticket. I've +reason enough. He can't even keep a manifest straight." + +"Does he even try?" + +"And that also is in my mind," acknowledged Tunis. "I'm pretty well +fed up on 'Rion, I do allow. But I don't know what Aunt 'Cretia +would say." Then he laughed again. "Just about what she usually +says, I guess; nothing at all. But she abhors family squabbles. + +"That reminds me, Ida May. This being the first Sunday I've been +home since you came here, I want you should go over with me after +church to-morrow and have dinner at our house." + +"Oh, Captain Latham! I--" + +"And don't you guess you could employ some other term when speaking +to me, Ida May?" he interrupted. "I get 'captained' almost enough +aboard the schooner and up to Boston. Just plain 'Tunis' for those +that are my friends suits me a sight better." + +"I shall call you 'Tunis,' if you like," she said composedly. "But +about taking dinner with you--I am not so sure." + +"Why not?" he demanded. + +"Your aunt has never called here since I have been on the Head." + +"She don't call anywhere. She never did that I can remember. She +goes to church on Sunday sometimes. Occasionally she has to go to +town to buy things. Once in a dog's age she leaves anchor and gets +as far as Paulmouth. But other times she's never off the place." + +"I--I feel hesitant about doing what you ask, Captain--Tunis, I +mean." + +"Why?" + +"You know well enough," said Sheila. "If anything should turn up--if +the truth should come out--" + +"Now, are you still worrying about that, Ida May?" + +"Don't you think of it--Tunis?" + +"Not a bit! We're as safe as a church. That girl will never show up +here on Wreckers' Head. Of course not!" + +He seemed absolutely confident. In the dim illumination of the +lantern she looked very closely into his face. Then it was not fear +of exposure that kept Tunis Latham silent. She moved closer to him, +looking up into his countenance, holding the lantern so that her own +face was in the shadow. + +"Who suggested my coming to dinner, Tunis? You, or your Aunt +Lucretia?" + +"If you knew my aunt! Well! She seldom says a word. But when I have +anything to say, I talk along just as though she answered back like +an ordinary person would. I can tell if she's interested." + +"Yes?" + +"She's been interested in you from the start, I know. She showed it +in her look the very first time I spoke of you--that day I brought +you here to Wreckers' Head." + +"But--but you have never spoken of this before. She did not come to +call." + +"I'll tell you," said Tunis earnestly. "I wanted to be sure. Aunt +'Cretia knew your--er--Sarah Honey very well." + +"Oh." + +"Just about as well as Mrs. Ball did. When she was staying here +with Aunt Prue, she used to run over to our place a lot. + +"You don't remember it," continued Tunis, grinning suddenly; "but +you were taken over there when you were a baby." + +"Oh, don't! Don't!" cried the girl. "Let us not speak so lightly--so +carelessly. Suppose--suppose--" + +"Suppose nothing!" exclaimed Tunis. "Don't have any fears. She +wanted to know just how you looked--every particular. Oh, she has +ways of showing what she wants without getting what you'd call +voluble! I told her about your hair--your eyes--everything. I know +from the way she looked that she accepts the fact of your being the +real Ida May without more question than Cap'n Ira and Aunt Prue." + +She was silent, thinking. Then she sighed. + +"I will accept the invitation, Tunis. But I feel--I feel that all is +not for the best. But what must be must be. So--oh, I'll go!" + + + + +CHAPTER XVI + +MEMORIES--AND TUNIS + + +The benison of that most beautiful season of all the year, the +autumn, lay upon Wreckers' Head and the adjacent coast on that +Sunday morning. Alongshore there is never any sad phase of the fall. +One reason is the lack of deciduous trees. The brushless hills and +fields are merely turned to golden brown when the frosts touch them. + +The sea--ever changing in aspect, yet changeless in tide and +restraint--was as bright and sparkling as at midsummer. Along the +distant beaches the white ruffle of the surf seemed to have just +been laundered. The green of the shallows and the blue of the deeper +sea were equally vivid. + +When she first arose Sheila Macklin looked abroad from that favorite +north window of her bedroom, and saw that all the world was good. If +she had felt secret misgivings and the tremor of a nervous +apprehension, these feelings were sloughed away by this promising +morning. The fear she had expressed to Tunis Latham the evening +before did not obsess her. She continued placid and outwardly +cheerful. Whatever threatened in the immediate future, she +determined to meet it with as much composure as she could summon. + +Nobody but Sheila Macklin knew wholly what she had endured since +leaving her childhood's home. When Tunis Latham had come so +dramatically into her life she had been almost at the limit of her +endurance. To him, even, she had not confessed all her miseries. To +escape from them she would have embraced a much more desperate +expedient than posing as Ida May Bostwick. + +The ethics of the situation had not really impressed her at first. +The desire to get away from her unfortunate environment, from the +city itself, and to go where nobody knew her history, not even her +name, was the main thought at that time in the girl's mind. Tunis +Latham's confident assurances that she would be accepted without +question by Cap'n Ball and Prudence caused her to put aside all fear +of consequences at the moment. It was a desperate stroke, but she +had been in desperate need, and she had carried the matter through +boldly. + +Now that she seemed so securely established in the Ball household +and was accepted by all the community of Big Wreck Cove as the real +Ida May, it seemed foolish to give way to anxiety. Discovery of the +imposture was remote. + +Yet, as she had hinted to Tunis, she had an undercurrent of +feeling--a more-than-faint apprehension--that all was not right. +Something was lurking in the shadows of the future which menaced +their peace and security. + +She was ever mindful of the fact that Tunis had gone sponsor for her +identity as Ida May. Should her imposture be revealed, her first +duty would be to protect him. How could she do this? What tale could +she concoct to make it seem that he was as much duped as were Cap'n +Ball and Prudence? + +This seemed impossible. She saw no way out. He had met the real Ida +May Bostwick, and then had deliberately introduced Sheila Macklin as +the girl he had been sent for! If the truth were revealed, what +explanation could be offered? + +Had she allowed her mind to dwell upon this phase of the affair she +would surely have revealed to those about her, unobservant as they +might be, that she had a secret cause for worry. She must drive it +into the back of her mind--ignore it utterly. + +And this she did on this beautiful Sabbath morning. When Tunis came +up to the Head to accompany the Balls to church--Aunt Lucretia did +not attend service on this day--a very close observer would have +seen nothing in the girl's look or manner to suggest that so keen +an anxiety had touched her. + +This should have been Sheila's happy day--and it was. For the first +time, the young captain of the _Seamew_ linked his interest with her +in a deliberate public appearance. Although she feared in secret the +result of that appearance at church with Tunis Latham, it +nevertheless thrilled her. + +He harnessed Queenie after giving that surprised animal such a +curry-combing and polishing as she had not suffered in many a day. +Sheila rode with Prudence on the rear seat of the carryall. + +"I'm berthed on the for'ard deck along o' you, Tunis," said the old +man, hoisting himself with difficulty into the front seat. "If the +afterguard is all ready, I be. Trip the anchor, boy, and set sail!" + +As they passed down through Portygee Town the denizens of that part +of Big Wreck Cove were streaming to their own place of worship. It +was a saint's day, and the brown people--both men and women, ringed +of ears and garbed in the very gayest colors--gave way with smiles +and bows for the jogging old mare and the rumbling carryall. Some of +the _Seamew's_ crew were overtaken, and they swept off their hats to +Prudence and the supposed Ida May, grinning up at Tunis with more +than usual friendliness. + +"Ah!" exclaimed Eunez Pareta to Johnny Lark, the _Seamew's_ cook. +"So you know she of the evil eye, eh?" + +"What do you mean?" asked Johnny. "That pretty girl who rides behind +Captain Latham?" + +"_Si!_" + +"She has no evil eye," declared the cook stoutly. + +"It is told me that she has," said the smiling girl. "And she has +put what you call the 'hoodoo' on that schooner. She come down in +her from Boston." + +"What of it?" retorted the cook. "She is a fine lady--and a pretty +lady." + +"So Tunis Latham think--heh?" demanded Eunez fiercely. + +"And why not?" grinned Johnny. + +"Bah! Has not all gone wrong with that _Seamew_ ever since she sail +in the schooner?" demanded the girl. "An anchor chain breaks; a rope +parts; you lost a topmast--yes? How about Tony? Has he not left and +will not return aboard the schooner for a price? Do you not find +calm where other schooners find fair winds? Ah!" + +"Pooh!" ejaculated Johnny Lark. "Old woman's talk!" + +"Not!" cried the girl hotly. "It is a truth. The saints defend us +from the evil eye! And Tunis Latham is under that girl's spell." + +Johnny Lark tried to laugh again, but with less success. Many little +things had marred the fair course of the _Seamew_ and her captain's +business. He, however, shook his head. + +"Not that pretty girl yonder," he said, "has brought bad luck to the +_Seamew_. No, no!" + +"What, then?" asked Eunez, staring sidewise at him from eyes which +seemed almost green. + +"See!" said Johnny, seizing her wrist. "If the _Seamew_ is a Jonahed +schooner, it is because of something different. Yes!" + +"Bah!" cried Eunez, yet with continued eagerness. "Tell me what it +may be if it is not that girl with the evil eye?" + +"Ask 'Rion Latham," whispered Johnny. "You know him--huh?" + +The Portygee girl looked for a moment rather taken aback. Then she +said, tossing her head: + +"What if I do know 'Rion?" + +"Ask him," repeated Johnny Lark. "He is cousin of our captain. He +knows--if anybody knows--what is the trouble with the _Seamew_." And +he shook his head. + +Eunez stared at him. + +"You know something you do not tell me, Juan?" + +"Ask 'Rion Latham," the cook said again, and left her at the door of +the church. + + * * * * * + +Those swains who had been "cluttering the course"--to quote Cap'n +Ira--did not interfere in any way with the Balls' equipage on this +Sunday at the church. There was none who seemed bold enough to +enter the lists with Tunis Latham. He put Queenie in the shed and +backed her out again and brought her around to the door when the +service was ended without having to fight for the privilege. + +'Rion Latham, however, was the center of a group of young fellows +who were all glad to secure a smile and bow from the girl, but who +only sheepishly grinned at Tunis. 'Rion was not smiling; there was a +settled scowl upon his ugly face. + +"I cal'late," said Cap'n Ira, as they drove away, "that 'Rion must +have eat sour pickles for breakfast to-day and nothing much else. +Yet he seemed perky enough last night at the sociable. I wonder +what's got into him." + +"I'd like to get something out of him," growled Tunis, to whom the +remark was addressed. + +"What's that?" + +"Some work, for one thing," said the captain of the _Seamew_. "He's +as lazy a fellow as I ever saw. And his tongue's too long." + +"Trouble is," Cap'n Ira rejoined, "these trips you take in the +schooner are too short to give you any chance to lick your crew into +shape. They get back home too often. Too much shore leave, if ye ask +me." + +"I'd lose Mason Chapin if the _Seamew_ made longer voyages. And I +have lost one of the hands already--Tony." + +"I swan! What's the matter with him?" + +"His mother says Tony is scared to sail again with the _Seamew_. +Some Portygee foolishness." + +"I told you them Portygees warn't worth the grease they sop their +bread in," declared Cap'n Ira. + +The two on the rear seat of the carryall paid no attention to this +conversation. + +"I'm real pleased," said the old woman, "that you are going to +dinner with Lucretia Latham, Ida May. Your mother thought a sight of +her, and 'Cretia did of Sarah Honey, too. Sarah was one of the few +who seemed to understand Lucretia. She's so dumb. I declare I can't +never get used to her myself. I like folks lively about me, and I +don't care how much they talk--the more the better. + +"Lucretia Latham might have got her a good man and been happily +married long ago, if it hadn't been that when a feller dropped in to +call on her she sat mum all the evening and never said no more than +the cat. + +"I remember Silas Payson, who lived over beyond the port, took quite +a shine to Lucretia, seeing her at church. Or, at least, we thought +he did. Silas began going down to Latham's Folly of an evening, now +and then, and setting up with Lucretia. But after a while he left +off going and said he cal'lated he'd join the Quakers over to +Seetawket. Playing Quaker meeting with just one girl to look at +didn't suit, noway." And the old woman laughed placidly. + +"Tunis says he understands his aunt," ventured the girl. + +"Tunis has had to put up with her. But he can say nothing a good +deal himself, if anybody should ask ye. That's the only fault I've +found with Tunis. I've heard Ira talk at him for a straight hour in +our kitchen, and all the answer Tunis made was to say 'yes' twice." + +The girl did not find the captain of the _Seamew_ at all +inarticulate later, as they crossed the old fields of the Ball place +and walked down the slope into the saucerlike valley where lay +Latham's Folly. She had never known Tunis to be more companionable +than on this occasion. He seemed to have gained the courage to +talk on more intimate topics than at any time since their +acquaintanceship had begun. + +"I guess you know," he observed, "that most all the money Uncle Peke +left me--after what the lawyers got--I put into that schooner. +There's a mortgage on her, too. You see, although the old place will +come to me by and by, Aunt Lucretia has rights in it while she +lives. It's sort of entailed, you know. I could not raise a dollar +on Latham's Folly, if I wanted to. So I am pretty well tied up, you +see. + +"But the schooner is doing well. That is, I mean, business is good, +Ida May. Other things being equal, I will make more money with her +the way I am doing now than I could in any other business. My line +is the sea; I know that. I am fitted for it. + +"And if I had invested Uncle Peke's legacy and kept on fishing, or +tried for a berth in a deep bottom somewhere, I would not get ahead +any faster or make so much money. Besides, long voyages would take +me away from home, and, after all, Aunt Lucretia is my only kin and +she would miss me sore." + +"I am sure she would," said the girl with sympathy. + +"But all ain't plain sailing," added the young skipper wistfully. "I +am running too close to the reefs right now to crow any." + +"But I am sure you will be successful in the end. Of course you +will!" + +"That's mighty nice of you," he said, smiling down into her vivid +face. "With you and Aunt Lucretia both pulling for me, I ought to +win out, sure enough. + +"You can't fail to like her," he added. "If you just get the right +slant on her character, I mean, Ida May. Hers has been a lonely +life. Not that there has not almost always been somebody in the +house with her. But she has lived with her own thoughts. She reads a +great deal. There is not one topic I can broach of which she has +not at least a general knowledge. I was sent away to school, but +when I came home vacations I brought my books and she read them all. + +"And she is a splendid listener." He laughed. "You'll find that out +for yourself, I fancy. And I know she likes people to talk to +her--when they have anything to say. Tell her things; that is what +she enjoys." + +In spite of his assurances, Sheila Macklin approached the old, brown +house behind the cedars with much secret trepidation. Although Aunt +Lucretia had a neighbor's girl come in to help her almost daily, she +had preferred to prepare the dinner on this occasion with her own +hands. And, perhaps, she did not care to have the neighbor's child +around when the supposed Ida May came to the house for the first +time. + +They saw her watching from the side door--a tall, angular figure in +a black dress. Her hair was done plainly and in no arrangement to +soften the gaunt outline of her face, but there was much of it, and +Sheila longed to make a change in that grim coiffure. + +The woman smiled so warmly when she saw the two approach that almost +instantly the girl forgot the grim contour of Aunt Lucretia's face. +That smile was like a flash of sunshine playing over one of those +barren, brown fields through which they had passed so quickly on +the way down from the Ball house. + +"This is Ida May, Aunt Lucretia," said Tunis, as they reached the +porch. + +The smiling woman stretched forth a hand to the girl. Her eyes, +peering through the spectacles, were very keen, and when their gaze +was centered upon the girl's face it seemed that Aunt Lucretia was +suddenly smitten by some thought, or by some discovery about the +visitor, which made her greeting slow. + +Yet that may have been her usual manner. Tunis did not appear to +observe anything extraordinary. But Sheila thought Aunt Lucretia had +been about to greet her with a kiss, and then had thought better of +it. + + + + +CHAPTER XVII + +AUNT LUCRETIA + + +There was nothing thereafter in Aunt Lucretia's manner--surely not +in her speech--to lead Sheila to fear the woman did not accept her +at face value. Why should she suspect a masquerade when nobody else +did? The girl took her cue from Tunis and placidly accepted his +aunt's manner as natural. + +Aunt Lucretia put the dinner on the table at once. They ate, when +there was special company, in the dining room. The meal was generous +in quantity and well cooked. It was evident that, like most country +housewives, Lucretia Latham took pride in her table. Had the visitor +come for the meal alone she would have been amply recompensed. + +But the woman seldom uttered a word, and then only brief questions +regarding the service of the food. She listened smilingly to the +conversation between Tunis and the visitor, but did not enter into +it. It was difficult for the girl to feel at ease under these +circumstances. + +Especially was this so after dinner, when she asked to help Aunt +Lucretia clear off the table and wash and dry the dishes. The woman +made no objection; indeed, she seemed to accept the girl's +assistance placidly enough. But while they were engaged in the +task--a time when two women usually have much to chatter about, if +nothing of great importance--Aunt Lucretia uttered scarcely a word, +preferring even to instruct her companion in dumb show where the +dried dishes should be placed. + +Yet, all the time, the girl could not trace anything in Aunt +Lucretia's manner or look which actually suggested suspicion or +dislike. Tunis seemed eminently satisfied with his aunt's attitude. +He whispered to Sheila, when they were alone together: + +"She certainly likes you, Ida May." + +"Are you sure?" the girl asked. + +"Couldn't be mistaken. But don't expect her to tell you so in just +so many words." + +Later they walked about the dooryard and out-buildings--Tunis and +the visitor--and Aunt Lucretia watched them from her rocking-chair +on the porch. What her thoughts were regarding her nephew and the +girl it would be hard to guess, but whatever they were, they made +her face no grimmer than usual, and the light in her bespectacled +eyes was scarcely one of dislike or even of disapproval. Yet there +was a strange something in the woman's look or manner which +suggested that she watched the visitor with thoughts or feelings +which she wished neither the girl nor Tunis to observe. + +Late in the afternoon the two young people started back for the Ball +house, taking a roundabout way. They did not even follow the patrol +path, well defined along the brink of Wreckers' Head as far as the +beach. Instead, they went down by the wagon track to the beach +itself, intending to follow the edge of the sea and the channel +around to a path that led up the face of the bluff to the Ball +homestead. It was a walk the girl had never taken. + +The reaction she experienced after having successfully met and +become acquainted with Aunt Lucretia put Sheila in high spirits. +Tunis had never seen her in quite this mood. Although she was always +cheerful and not a little gay about the Ball homestead, she suddenly +achieved a spirit of sportiveness which surprised the captain of the +_Seamew_. But he wholly liked and approved of this new mood. + +She had made herself a new fall frock and a pretty, close-fitting +hat--something entirely different, as he had noticed, from the +styles displayed by the other girls of Big Wreck Cove. And he was +observant enough to see that this outfit was more like what the +girls in Boston wore. + +She ran ahead to pick up a shell or pebble that gleamed at the +water's edge from a long way off. She escaped a wetting from the +surf by a scant margin, and laughed delightedly at the chance she +took. Back against the foot of the bluff certain brilliant flowers +grew--fall blossoms that equaled any in Prudence Ball's garden--and +the girl gathered these and arranged them in an attractive bouquet +with a regard for color that delighted her companion. + +They came, finally, in sight of a cabin back under the bank on the +far side of the little cove, where once Tunis had reaped clams while +Cap'n Ira and the Queen of Sheba made their unfortunate slide down +the face of the bluff. The sea was so low now that Tunis could aid +the girl across the mouth of the tiny inlet on the sand bar which +defended it from the sea. There was but one channel over which she +need leap with his help. + +The cabin captivated Sheila, especially when she learned it was no +longer occupied. It had a tight tin roof and a cement-pipe chimney +with a cap to keep the rain out. The window sashes had been carried +away and the door hung by a single hinge. However, the one-roomed +cabin was otherwise tight and dry. + +"Sometimes fishing parties from the port come around here and camp +for a day or two," explained Tunis. "But Hosea Westcott used to live +here altogether. Even in the winter. He caught his own fish and +split and dried them; he dug clams and picked beach plums and sold +them in town, or swapped them for what he needed. Sometimes the +neighbors gave him a day's work." + +"An old and lonely man, Tunis?" the girl murmured. + +"That is what he was. All his immediate family was gone. So, when he +fell ill one winter and one of the coast guards found him here +almost starved and helpless, they took him away to the poor farm." + +They went on around the end of the headland and walked up the beach +toward the port. Before they reached the path by which they intended +to mount to the summit of Wreckers' Head, they observed another +couple going in the same direction, following the edge of the water +on the firm strand. The woman was dressed in such brilliant hues +that she could be mistaken for nobody but a resident of Portygee +Town. + +"That is the daughter of Pareta, who brought up your trunk when you +came here, Ida May," said Tunis carelessly. + +"But do you see who the man is?" she said, with some surprise. "It +is your cousin." + +"'Rion? So it is. Well," he added rather scornfully, "no accounting +for tastes. She's a decent-enough girl, I guess, but we don't mix +much with the Portygees. Although most of them are all right folks, +at that. But fooling around those girls sometimes starts trouble, +as 'Rion ought to know by this time." + +As they climbed the path, Tunis aiding his companion at certain +places, the girl, looking down, thought they were being closely +watched by the other couple on the beach. There was nothing in this +to disturb her mind; a feeling of confidence had overcome her since +her experience with Aunt Lucretia. Her present environment was so +far from the scenes of her old pain and misery that it seemed +nothing actually could disturb her again. + +The peacefulness of the scene impressed Tunis as well. When they +came up finally upon the brink of the headland they saw a spiral of +smoke rising from one of the chimneys of the distant Ball homestead. +The man pointed to it and, smiling down upon her, repeated a verse +he had read somewhere which he knew expressed the hope she held: + + "I knew by the smoke that so gracefully curled + Above the green elms that a cottage was near; + And I said, 'if there's peace to be found in the world, + A heart that was humble might hope for it here.'" + +"That is pretty near right, don't you think, Ida May?" + +"It is, indeed! Oh, it is!" she cried. "And my heart _is_ humble, +Tunis. I feel that God has been very good to me--and you," she added +softly. + +"I've been mighty good to myself," he responded. "Ida May, there +never was a girl just like you, I guess. Anyway, I never saw such a +one. I--I don't know just how to put it, but I feel that you are the +only girl in the world I can ever feel the same toward." + +"Tunis!" + +He took her hand, looking so hungrily into her face that she, +blushing, if not confused, could not bear his gaze, and the long +lashes drooped to veil the violet eyes. + +"You understand me, Ida May?" whispered the captain of the _Seamew_ +eagerly. "I don't know, fixed as I am, that I've any right to talk +to you like this. But--but I can't wait any longer!" + +She allowed her hand to remain in his warm clasp, and now she looked +up at him again. + +"Have you thought of what all this may mean, Tunis?" she asked. + +"You bet I have. I haven't been thinking of much else--not since the +first time I saw you." + +"What? You felt--felt that you could like me that night when we sat +on the bench so long on the Common?" + +"My Godfrey, Ida May!" he exclaimed. "Since that time you slipped on +the sidewalk in front of that restaurant and I caught you. That's +when I first knew that you were the most wonderful girl in the +world!" + +"Oh, Tunis! Do you mean that?" + +"I certainly do," he said stoutly. + +"That--that you thought _that_? At very first sight?" + +"I couldn't get you out of my mind. I went about in a sort of dream. +Why, Ida May, when Cap'n Ira and Aunt Prue talked so much about +wanting that other girl down here, all I could think of was you! I +half believed it must be you that they sent me for--until I came +face to face with that other girl." + +Her face dimpled suddenly; her eyes shone. The look she gave him +passed through Tunis Latham like an electric shock. He trembled. He +would have drawn her closer. + +"Not here, Tunis," she whispered. "But if you dare take me--knowing +what and who I am--I am all yours. Whenever you feel that you can +take me I shall be ready. Can I say more, Tunis?" + +He looked at her solemnly. "I am the happiest man alive. I am the +happiest man alive, Ida May!" he breathed. + + + + +CHAPTER XVIII + +IDA MAY THINKS IT OVER + + +The _Seamew_ sailed next day, short-handed. Not only had Tony, the +boy, left, but one of the foremast hands did not put in an +appearance. A grinning Portygee boy came to the wharf and announced +that "Paul, he iss ver' seek." + +Tunis knew it would be useless to go after the man, just as it had +been useless to go after Tony. He had been unable to ship another +boy in Tony's place, and when he let it be known among the dock +laborers and loungers about Luiz Wharf that there was a berth open +in the _Seamew's_ forecastle, nobody applied for it. + +"What is the matter with those fellows?" the skipper asked Mason +Chapin. "They were tumbling over each other a few weeks ago to join +us, and now there isn't an offer." + +"Some Portygee foolishness," grumbled the mate. + +"I wonder," muttered Tunis. + +"You wonder if it's so?" queried the mate. "You know how silly +these people are once they get a crazy notion in their heads." + +"What's the crazy notion, Mr. Chapin?" + +The mate flung up his hands and shrugged his shoulders. + +"A haunt--a jinx--_something_. The Lord knows!" + +"I wonder if it is a Portygee notion or something else," said Tunis +Latham, his eyes fixed on the back of Orion, busy, for once, at the +other rail. + +"Whatever it is, Captain Latham," said Mason Chapin with gravity, "I +suggest you fill your berths at Boston." + +"Guess I'll have to. But the offscourings of the city docks! They +will be worse than these Portygees." + +It was not a prospect he welcomed. He well knew the sort of dock +rats he must put up with if he wished to make up his crew with city +hands for a short trip. The sea tramps who are within reach of +coasting skippers are the same kind of worthless material that +shiftless farmers must depend upon in harvest time. + +Even the lack of one man forward, to say nothing of the cook's boy, +made a considerable difference in the working of the schooner. 'Rion +Latham loudly proclaimed that he was being imposed upon when he was +forced to work with the captain's watch. He had shipped as +supercargo and clerk, he had! This treatment was an imposition. + +"You know what you can do about it, 'Rion, if you like," the skipper +said to him calmly, but aside. "I wouldn't want to feel that I was +holding you to a job that you did not like. You can leave the +_Seamew_ any time you want." + +"Huh! The rats will be doing that soon enough," growled 'Rion. + +But he did not say this where Captain Latham could hear. It was +Horry Newbegin who heard him. + +"It strikes me, young feller, that if I quarreled with my victuals +and drink the way you do, I'd get me another berth and get shet of +all this." And the old salt wagged his head. "I don't get you at +all, 'Rion." + +"You wait," growled the younger man. "I'll leave at the right time. +And if things go as I expect, everybody else will leave him flat, +too." + +"You're taking a chance talking that way," admonished the old man. +"It's just as much mutiny as though you turned and hit the skipper +or the mate." + +"It is, is it? I'll show him!" + +"Show who?" asked Horry, in some wonder at the other's spitefulness. + +"That dratted cousin of mine. Thinks he owns the earth and sea, as +well as this hoodooed tub of a schooner. Gets the best of +everything. But he won't always. He never ought to have got the +money to buy this old tub." + +"You said you wouldn't have her for a gift," chuckled the old man. + +"But that don't make it any the more right that he should have her. +And she is hoodooed. You know she is, Horry." + +The old mariner was silent. 'Rion craftily went on: + +"Look what a number of things have happened since he put this derned +schooner into commission. We broke an anchor chain in Paulmouth +Harbor, didn't we? And the old mud hook lies there to this day. Did +you ever see so many halyards snap in your life, and in just a +capful of wind? Didn't we have a tops'l carried away--clean--in that +squall off Swampscott? And now the hands are leaving her." + +"Guess you know something about that," growled Horry. + +'Rion grinned. + +"Maybe I do. I don't say 'no' and I don't say 'yes.' However, we've +all got to work like dogs to make up for being short-handed." + +"Nobody is kicking much but you," said the older man. + +"That's all right. I've got pluck enough not to stand being imposed +upon. Them Portygees--well, there's no figuring on what they will +do." + +"I can see you are bent on making them do something that will raise +trouble," Newbegin said, shaking his head once more. + +"What do you expect? You know the _Seamew_ is hoodooed. Huh! +_Seamew_! That ain't no more her rightful name than it is mine." + +"I wouldn't say that." + +"I would!" snapped 'Rion. "She's the _Marlin B._, out o' Salem. No +matter what he says, or anybody else. She's the murder ship. If he +sailed her over that place outside o' Salem Harbor where those poor +fellows was drowned, they'd rise again and curse the schooner and +all aboard her." + +The old man shuddered. He turned his face away and spat reflectively +over the rail. The tug of the steering chains to starboard was even +then thrilling the cords of his hands and arms with an almost +electric shock. 'Rion watched him slyly. He knew the impression he +was making on the old man's superstitious mind. He played upon it as +he did upon the childish minds of some of the Portygee seamen. + +So Captain Tunis Latham did not arrive in Boston in a very calm +frame of mind. Although he had no words with 'Rion, and really no +trouble with the crew in general, he felt that trouble was brewing. +And the worst of it was, it was trouble which he did not know how to +avert. + +It was not so easy to fill the empty berth in the forecastle, even +from the offscourings of the docks. It was a time when dock labor +was at a premium. And short voyages never did interest good +sailormen. In addition, knowing that the _Seamew_ sailed from her +home port, decent seafarers wanted to know what was the matter with +her that the captain could not fill his forecastle at that end. + +These men wondered about Captain Latham, too. They judged that +infirmities of temper must be the reason his men did not stay with +the schooner. He was, perhaps, a driver--too quick with his fist or +the toe of his boot. Questions along this line were bound to breed +answers--and answers from those members of the _Seamew's_ crew who +were not friendly to the skipper. + +In some little den off Commercial Street 'Rion Latham had +forgathered with certain dock loiterers, and, after that, word went +to and fro that the _Seamew_ was haunted. If she ever sailed off +Great Misery Island, the crew of a run-under Salem fishing smack +would rise up to curse the schooner's company. And that curse would +follow those who sailed aboard her--either for'ard or in the +afterguard--for all time. In consequence of this the only man who +applied for the empty berth aboard the _Seamew_ was more than a +little drunk and so dirty that Captain Latham would not let him +come over the rail. + +Nor could the young shipmaster give much time to looking up hands. +He had freight ready for his return trip. It must be got aboard, +stowed properly, and advantage taken of the tide and a fair wind to +get back to the Cape. He had not been in the habit of going up into +the city at all of late. If that girl behind the lace counter of +Hoskin & Marl's had expected to see Tunis Latham again, she had been +disappointed. Her warm invitation to him to call on her--possibly to +take her again to lunch--had borne only Dead Sea fruit. He had +accepted her decision regarding the Balls and Cape Cod as final and +irrevocable. At least, he had had no intention of ever going back +and discussing the suggestion again. + +The possibility of the real Ida May Bostwick changing her mind and +reconsidering her refusal to communicate with the Balls or visit +Wreckers' Head never once entered Tunis' mind, if it had Sheila +Macklin's. He had seen how scornfully the cheap little shop-girl had +refused the kind offer extended to her by her old relatives. He +could not have imagined her thinking of the old people and their +home and Big Wreck Cove in any different way. + +He was quite right in this. Ida May Bostwick never would have looked +upon these several matters differently. The thing was settled. Born +and bred in the city, she could not conceive of any sane girl like +herself deliberately burying herself down on the Cape, to "live on +pollock and potatoes," as she had heard it expressed, and be the +slave of a pair of old fogies. + +Not for her! She would not think of it. Indeed, this phase of the +offer Tunis had brought her really made Ida May Bostwick angry. What +did he think she was, anyway? In fact, she was inclined to think +that that seafaring person had almost insulted her. Although she had +deliberately spoken of him as her "Cousin Tunis" to the girls who +were her confidantes in the store and to her landlady, who was +likewise curious about him, Ida May Bostwick was much pleased by the +thought of him. + +Then she began to compare Tunis with the young men she knew in +Boston. She knew that the young men she got acquainted with were +either very light minded or downright objectionable. If any of them +contemplated marriage at all, they knew it could not be undertaken +upon the meager salaries they were paid. Marriage meant teamwork, +with the girl working down-town just as hard as ever, and then +working at night when she went home, and on Sundays, even if she and +her bridegroom lived only in a furnished room and did light +housekeeping. + +Ida May Bostwick had a brain explosion one day when she considered +these all-too-evident facts. She said: + +"I bet _that_ fellow wouldn't expect his wife to stand behind a lace +counter and take the sass of floorwalkers and buyers, as well as +lady customers, all day long. Not much! He's a regular guy, if he is +a hick. My gracious! Don't I wish he'd come back! If I ever get my +claws on him again--" + +Just what she might do to Tunis under those circumstances she did +not even explain to herself. But she began to think of Tunis a good +deal. He was a good-looking man, too. And he spent freely. Ida May +Bostwick remembered the lunch at Barquette's. + +It was true that Sarah Honey had been all Prudence Ball and Aunt +Lucretia Latham and other Wreckers' Head folk believed her to be. +But she died when Ida May was small, and the girl had been brought +up wholly under the influence of the Bostwicks. That family had +lacked refinement and breeding and graciousness of manner to a +degree that would have amazed and shocked Sarah Honey's relatives +down on the Cape. + +Not that the girl thought of Tunis Latham's refinement with any +wistfulness. She thought of his well-filled wallet, that he was +something more than a common sailor, that he undoubtedly owned a +good home, even if it was down at Big Wreck Cove, and that he seemed +"soft" and "easy." + +"A girl might wind him right around her finger, if she went at it +right," Ida May Bostwick finally decided. "Some girl will. I wonder +how long it would take to get him to sell out down there and live up +here in town? My mother came from that awful hole, and she caught a +city fellow. I bet I could do this, if it was worth my while. My +goodness! Why not? + +"There's property there, too. I wonder how much those old creatures +are worth. And how long they will live. He spoke like they needed +somebody because they were sick. Ugh! I don't like folks when they +are sick. Ma was _awful_. I can remember it. And there was pa, when +he was cripped with rheumatism before he died." + +This phase of the matter fairly staggered Ida May Bostwick. She put +the faint glimmerings of the idea out of her mind--or tried to. Yet +that summer she kept delaying her vacation until all the other girls +had come back and related all their adventures--those that had +actually happened and those that they had imagined. + +"Ain't you going to take any time off, Ida May?" they asked. + +At last she said she expected to visit her folks "down on the Cape." + +"You remember that nice-looking farmer that came in to speak to me +that time and took me to lunch at Barquette's?" she asked Miss +Leary. + +"I know you _said_ he took you there." + +"Well, he did, smarty! He's my cousin--of course, not too close." +And Ida May giggled. "Well, we've been corresponding." + +"I hope it's all perfectly proper," grinned Miss Leary. + +Ida May Bostwick stuck out her tongue. But she laughed. + +"I've got a good mind," she said to her friend, "to go down and see +that fellow's folks. They're well fixed, I guess. And the store pays +you for one week of your vacation. I wouldn't lose much, even if it +did turn out to be a dead-and-alive hole." + + + + +CHAPTER XIX + +THE ARRIVAL + + +There was a driving road down past Latham's Folly and on across +certain sand flats and by cranberry bogs to a small settlement where +Prudence had a stepsister still living. This old woman lived with +her granddaughter's husband's kinsfolk, who were so distantly +related to Cap'n Ira's wife that the relationship could scarcely be +followed. + +"It takes us Cape Codders," remarked Cap'n Ira, "to study out the +shoals and channels of kinship. It's 'cause we're such good +navigators that we're able to do it." + +"And now that we've got Ida May to harness up Queenie for us and +look after the house while we're gone, and you feel so much spryer +yourself, Ira, I don't see why we can't visit our folks a little," +Prudence said. + +He agreed, and they set off in high fettle just before noon, +expecting to return before dark. Sheila was upstairs dusting when, +not long after the noon hour, she saw from one of the windows the +spread canvas of the _Seamew_--there was no mistaking the +schooner--making through the channel into the cove. + +"Tunis is coming! Tunis is coming! Tunis is coming soon!" + +Her heart sang the refrain over and over again. She fairly danced +about the household tasks she had set herself to do while the old +couple were absent. Now and again she ran to some point where she +could watch the _Seamew_. The memory of Tunis' kisses were on her +lips and in her heart. In the dusk of the previous Monday morning, +when he was on his way to the port to take command of his schooner, +the young shipmaster had held her in his arms at the back door +there, and had told her over and over again of his love for her. +Thought of that moment was an exquisite memory to the girl. + +She saw the schooner drop anchor off Portygee Town, with all its +canvas rattling down in windrows of white. She even saw the little +gig launched. Tunis was coming ashore. He would soon be up the hill. +His long strides would soon bring him to her side again--open-eyed, +ruddy-faced, a veritable sea god among men! + +She ran out a dozen times to gaze down the road and wonder what kept +him. Then she turned her back on the road and spent the next half +hour in beating the dust out of all the parlor and sitting room +sofa pillows and one or two of the covered chairs. + +Peace, like the sunshine itself, lay over all of Wreckers' Head. +Here and there a spiral of smoke rose from a chimney, and fowl +wandered about the well-reaped fields. But not much other life was +visible. The fall haze gave to distant objects a dimmer outline, +softening the sharp lineaments of the more rugged landscape. Color +and form took on new beauty. + +It was all so lovely, so peaceful, that it was impossible that the +girl should have dreamed of what was approaching. Since she had come +her mind had not been so far from apprehension of disaster. Since +Sunday, when she had wandered with Tunis along the shore, it had +seemed to the young woman that no harm could assail her. She was +secure, sheltered, impregnably fortified both in Tunis' love and in +the situation she had gained with the Balls and in the community. + +She knew, at last, that somebody was on the road, but she would not +look. She heard the latch of the gate and the creak of its hinges. +Somebody was behind her. How softly Tunis stepped! She thought that +he was approaching her quietly, believing he could surprise her. In +a moment she would feel his arms about her and would surprise him by +laying her head back against his breast and putting up her lips to +be kissed. + +But, as he delayed, she turned her head ever so slyly. It was not +the heavily shod feet of Tunis Latham she saw. What she saw was a +pair of the very lightest of pearl-gray shoes, wonderful of arch and +heel. Above were slim ankles and calves incased in fiber-silk hose +the hue of the shoes. + +She flashed a glance at the face of the stranger, and her gaze was +immediately held by a pair of fixed brown eyes. There were green +glints in the eyes--sharp, suspicious gleams that warned Sheila, +before the other uttered a word, to set watch and ward upon her own +lips. Not that she suspected who the stranger was. + +"Good afternoon," was her greeting. + +"Is this where the Balls live?" was the demand, with a note in the +voice which betokened both weariness and vexation. + +"Yes." + +The girl set down her bag and gave a sigh of relief. + +"Well, I am glad! I thought I'd never get here. I never did hear of +such a hick place! No taxi, of course, and not even a hack or any +other carriage to be hired. I've walked _miles_. And such a rough +road!" + +The parlor settee and easy-chairs had just been brought outdoors +for their weekly beating and dusting. Sheila pointed to a seat. + +"Do sit down," she urged. "It is a long walk from the port." + +"You said it! And after riding over from Paulmouth in that dinky old +stagecoach, too," went on the stranger, as though holding Sheila +responsible for some measure of her discomfort. "Say, ain't the +folks home?" She cast a sour look around the premises. "Gee! It's a +lonesome place in winter, I bet." + +"Did you wish to see Mrs. Ball?" asked Sheila, eying the visitor +with nothing more than curiosity. + +"I guess so. She is Mrs. Prudence Ball, isn't she?" + +"Yes. Mrs. Ball and the captain have gone away for the day. I am +ever so sorry. You wished to see her particularly?" + +"I guess I did." The stranger looked her over with more interest. +"Say, how old are the Balls?" + +The abrupt question drew a more penetrating look from Sheila. The +visitor certainly was not Cape bred. Her smart cheapness did not +attract Sheila at all. There was something so unwholesome about her +that the observer had difficulty in suppressing a shudder. Yet her +prettiness was orchidlike. But there are poisonous orchids. + +"They are quite old people," Sheila said, finally answering the +question. "Cap'n Ira is over seventy and Prudence is not far from +that age. You--you are not acquainted with them?" + +"I never saw 'em. But I've heard a lot about 'em," said the +stranger, with a light laugh. "They are sort of relations of mine." + +"You are a relative?" asked the girl. Even then she had no thought +of who this newcomer was. "Cap'n Ira's relative? Or Mrs. Ball's, if +I may ask?" + +"Well, I guess it is the old woman's. But I'm kind of curious to see +'em first, you know, before I make any strong play in the +relationship game. Gee! Is this the parlor furniture?" + +"Some of it," was the wondering rejoinder. + +"Looks like the house, don't it? Down at the heel and shabby. Say, +have they got much money, after all--them Balls? You're a neighbor, +I suppose? You must know 'em well." + +"I live here," said the other girl rather sternly. + +"Huh? You mean around here?" + +"I live here with Cap'n Ira and Mrs, Ball," was the further +explanation. + +"You _do_? You?" + +Her voice suddenly became shrill. It rose half an octave with +surprise. Her gaze, which had merely been insolent, now became +suspicious. She scrutinized Sheila closely. + +"I didn't know the Balls had anybody living with 'em," she resumed +at length. "You ain't been here long, have you?" + +"Oh, for some time," was the cheerful rejoinder. + +"They hire you?" + +"Not--not exactly. You see, I am sort of related to them, too." + +"A relation of this old Cap'n Ira?" + +"Of Mrs. Ball." + +"Huh! Say, what's you name?" + +"My name is Bostwick," was the composed reply. "You did not mention +yours, did you?" + +"_Bostwick?_" + +"They call me Ida May Bostwick," said Sheila, demurely smiling, and +even then without a suspicion of the vortex into which she was being +drawn. + +"_Ida May Bostwick!_" + +The visitor rose out of her seat as though a spring had been +released under her. Her eyes flattened, distended, and sparked like +micaceous rock in the dark. Her hands clenched till the pointed, +highly polished nails bit into the palms. + +"What do you say? _You_ are Ida May Bostwick?" + +At that moment Sheila Macklin saw the light. It smote upon her brain +like a shaft from a great searchlight; a penetrating, cleaving beam +that might have laid bare her very soul before the accusing +stranger. She staggered, retreating, shrinking, but only for a +moment. + +The pallor that had come into her face left it. Color rose softly +under the exquisite skin and there came a haughty uplift of her +chin. She stared back into the blazing, greenish-brown eyes of the +other, her own eyes unafraid, challenging. + +"Do you doubt me?" she demanded, with as much composure as though a +secure position and a conscience quite at ease were hers. "Who are +you? In what way are you interested in my name or in my identity?" + +"Why, you--you--" The visitor was for the moment stricken +speechless. But it was the speechlessness of rage--of wild and +uncontrollable fury. Then she caught her breath. "You dirty cheat, +you! You stand there and tell me you are Ida Bostwick? You've got +gall--you certainly _have_ got gall! + +"I'd like to know who the devil you are? Comin' right here, wormin' +your way into a place that don't belong to you, gettin' on the soft +side of my aunt an' uncle, I s'pose, and thinkin' to grab all they +got when they die. Oh, I know _your_ kind, miss! + +"But I'll show you up. I'll let 'em know what's what and who's who. +They must be precious soft to take a girl like you in and think +she's Ida Bostwick. How _dare_ you?" + +She stamped her foot. She advanced upon the other threateningly. But +the girl she had accused did not retreat. The flush of outrage and +that haughty expression were still upon her countenance. She spoke +very firmly but in a voice so low that it contrasted the more +sharply with the enraged squall of her opponent. She asked: + +"Who are _you_, if you please?" + +"You've cheek to ask me. I'd ought to spit on you, so I had! But +I'll tell you who I am--and it'll hold you for a while, I guess. I +am Ida May Bostwick. You know full and well you are makin' out to +these rich relations of mine that you are me. I'll show you up, +miss! I'll have you whipped--or jailed--or something. The gall of +you!" + +The other girl heard her with unchanging face. Somehow, that steady, +unshrinking look gave Ida May Bostwick pause. It was she who +recoiled. + + + + +CHAPTER XX + +THE LIE + + +The girl who had seized upon the chance of becoming Ida May +Bostwick, and so escaping the horror and despair that enshrouded +Sheila Macklin like a filthy mantle, stood after the first blast as +firm as a rock under the torrent of vituperation and rage which +poured from the other girl's lips. + +The real Ida May--weak, save in venomous hate, unstable as water, as +shallow as a pool of glass--could have joined issue in a +hair-pulling, face-scratching brawl. She was of that breed and +up-bringing. + +Sheila Macklin's very dignity held Ida May Bostwick at arm's length. +With all right and title to the name and place Sheila had usurped, +the new arrival was awed by the impostor's look. Following that +first--and merely instantaneous--expression of horrified surprise at +Ida May's announcement of her identity, this girl, who was so secure +in the confidence of the Balls and the community, proceeded to look +down at the claimant of her achieved position with utter calmness. + +It made the real Ida May almost afraid. Certain as she was of her +own name and the assertion of her own personality, the bold and +unshaken opposition confronting her in the very look of the impostor +abashed Ida May Bostwick. After her first outbreak she was silenced. + +"Do you really know what you are saying?" the girl in possession +asked. "Are you aware that I am Ida May Bostwick? There certainly +cannot be two girls of the same name, both related to Mrs. Prudence +Ball. That is too ridiculous." + +The other gasped. Though red and white by turn, from impotence and +rage, her fury was quelled under the look of the more composed young +woman. + +"There are twenty people almost within call who know me and who can +swear to my name and my assertions that I am Miss Bostwick," went on +Sheila, with a calmness which both frightened and daunted the other. +"Just why you should come here and make such a preposterous claim I +cannot understand. Where do you come from? Who are you--really?" + +Ida May stared, flaccid, helpless. For the time being all her rage, +her rudeness, her amazement, even, drained out of her. For this +impostor to face her down in this way; for her to claim Ida May's +name and identity with such utter calm--such sangfroid; for Sheila +to stand before her and deliberately declare that what Ida May had +known to be her own all her life long--her name and distinctive +character--was actually another's--all this was so monstrous a thing +that Ida May was stunned. + +Suppose--suppose something had really happened to her mind? People +did go mad, Ida May had heard. She had rather a vague idea as to +what insanity was like, but she felt her mind slipping. + +The sure and unafraid expression of the other girl's countenance +gave Ida May no help at all. She was sure that her opponent had not +lost her mind. She was just a wicked, bad, horrid girl who had +somehow got something that belonged to Ida May Bostwick, and meant +to keep it if she could. + +Self-pity filled the visitor's mind in place of the fury she had +expended in her first outburst. She dared not attack the other with +tooth and nail, for she saw now that this girl was as much her +superior in physical strength as she was in strength of character. + +Therefore, Ida May fell back upon tears. She blubbered right +heartily, and, being really weary after her walk from the port, she +fell back into the spring rocker, which squeaked almost as +protestingly as she did, put her beringed hands before her face, and +gave herself to grief. + +Sheila Macklin's expression did not change. She revealed no sympathy +for Ida May Bostwick. If she felt sympathy, it was for that girl +who had been persecuted, unfairly accused of stealing, sent to a +place worse than prison, afterward branded with the stigma of +"jailbird"; that girl whom Tunis Latham had befriended, had rescued +from a situation which she could not think of now without a feeling +of creeping horror. + +Was she going to give over without a fight to this new claimant a +place which had been and still was her only refuge? It could not be +expected that she would do this. She had had no warning of this +catastrophe. There had been no opportunity to prepare for a +situation which must have shocked her terribly in any case. But if +she had only had time-- + +Time? Time for what? To run away? Or to prepare the Balls, for +instance, for the coming of this new claimant? And who knew this +girl who said she was Ida May Bostwick? Sheila Macklin was fully +aware of the history of Sarah Honey, of her marriage which had quite +cut her off from her Cape Cod friends, and of the little that was +known at Big Wreck Cove about her daughter, who, since babyhood, had +never been seen here. + +How was one to be sure if this were really the right Ida May? If one +girl could make the claim and carry it through so easily, why not +another? How could this girl, crying in the rocking-chair, prove her +statement that she was Mrs. Ball's niece? + +These thoughts seethed in Sheila Macklin's brain. She must keep +cool! She must hold herself down, keep control of her own mind, and +keep the whip hand of this girl before her. + +And, then, there was Tunis to think of. The appearance of the real +Ida May Bostwick wrecked all her happiness, of course, with Tunis. +Sheila could not let him continue his association with her. Yet what +course should she pursue to save him? That suddenly became the first +consideration in Sheila Macklin's mind. + +How to do this? How to save Tunis from being overwhelmed by the +result of his own ill-considered deed? Impulse and love on Tunis +Latham's part had brought about this terrible situation. Not that +the girl blamed him in the least. Her thought was to protect the +captain of the _Seamew_ from being sucked into the whirlpool which +she clearly beheld beside her path. + +Save Tunis! It must be done. This little, inconsequential, +weak-minded, loose-lipped girl must not be allowed to wreck Tunis +Latham's life. If people came to accept as true the tale the girl +could relate, Tunis' reputation would be smirched utterly in the +opinion of all Big Wreck Cove folk. + +Much as Sheila Macklin felt that her own happiness with Tunis was +now impossible--a flash of Aunt Lucretia made this realization the +more poignant--he must be sheltered from any folly regarding this +thing. She knew well his impulsive, generous nature. Who had a +fuller knowledge of it than she? + +She must think and act for herself, without any conference with +Tunis. But she must do the only thing, after all, that would balk +this wretched girl from the city--for a time, at least. + +The real Ida May Bostwick had no friends here and no acquaintances +among the people of Big Wreck Cove. It would be no easy matter for +her to establish either credit or the fact of her identity in the +community. It would take time and perhaps be very difficult for Ida +May to bring forward conclusive evidence that would convince the +Balls, or anybody else, of her real personality and prove that the +girl in possession was an impostor. + +All the latter had to do was to maintain her already-accepted +standing, deny the true Ida May's claim, and demand that the latter +show proof of her apparently preposterous statement. At least, some +considerable delay must ensue through Sheila's course before the +girl could convince anybody that she only claimed what was her own. + +Nor need the battle end there. Ida May Bostwick might find it very +difficult to prove to the satisfaction of all concerned that she was +the actual niece of Prudence Ball. The very fact that Tunis had +brought Sheila and introduced her as the girl he had been sent for +was proof so strong that it could not be lightly denied. + +That phase of the matter--that Tunis was as deep in the conspiracy +as she was herself--made Sheila Macklin desperate. She grasped at +this only salvation--straw as it was!--for his sake more than for +her own. + +Later, when she was able to think and plan and plot again, she would +evolve some method of rescuing Tunis from the results of his own +impulsiveness and her weakness in accepting his suggestion as a way +out of her personal difficulties. She should have known better! She +should have scouted the idea at its inception! + +She saw that this position in which she was placed was far and away +more serious than that she had been in when she sat with Tunis upon +the Boston Common bench. She had thought at that time that it needed +little more to make her condition too desperate to bear. She would +now, she felt, give life itself for the privilege of being back +there and able to refuse the reckless plan of escape the captain of +the _Seamew_ had submitted to her. + +She did not for a breath's length blame Tunis for the misfortune +that had overtaken her--overtaken them both, indeed. She had +accepted his plan with open eyes. In her desperation she had even +foreseen the possibility of this outcome. She must blame nobody but +herself. + +But all these thoughts were futile. No use in considering for a +single moment past situations and possibilities. She was confronted +by a grim and adamant present! And that grim present was in the +person of a girl with tear-streaked face who looked up at her, +sobbing. + +"You're the meanest girl I ever heard of. I'll pay you for this. +Think of the gall of you comin' here and tellin' my rich relations +you was me. I never heard of such a thing! It beats the movies, and +and I thought they was just lies. Gee, but you must be a regular +crook! I expect the very clothes you got on my aunt bought and gave +you. I'll put you where you belong!" + +"And suppose I put you where you seem to belong?" interrupted the +girl in possession. "There is such a place as an insane hospital in +this county, I believe. I think you must have either escaped from +such a place, or that you belong in one." + +"Oh!" gasped the other girl, staring up at her amazedly and not a +little terrified by Sheila's emphatic speech. + +"If you really are some distant relative of the family," the latter +continued, "Mrs. Ball may wish to see you. Come into the house and I +will make you a cup of tea. You need it. And you can wait for Mrs. +Ball and the captain to return, if you like." + +Ida May darted to her feet again. + +"A cup of tea of _your_ making!" she cried. "You'd put poison in it! +You must be a wicked girl--anybody can see that. I wouldn't put +anything bad past you. I guess them stories in the movies ain't so +much lies, after all. + +"I want nothing from you, whoever you are, only my name back and the +chance you have grabbed off here. I'll go to the neighbors about it. +I'll tell 'em what you've done. I guess I can find somebody to +believe me." + +Her abrupt halt warned Sheila that there was somebody approaching. +Before she could turn to see who it was, the other girl ejaculated: + +"My goodness! What is it--a junk wagon? Look at that horse, will +you! Say! who's these folks? What a pair of old dubs!" + +Cap'n Ira and Prudence had returned somewhat earlier than Sheila had +expected. Old Queenie came up the lane and turned in at the open +gateway beyond the garden. + +The new girl tugged excitedly at Sheila's arm. + +"Say! Who are they?" she demanded huskily. + +"This is Cap'n Ball and Mrs. Ball," was the reply, and the girl in +possession hurried forward to help them out of the carriage. + +"Ahoy, Ida May!" the captain hailed cheerfully. "What's the good +word?" + +He prepared to climb down. The girl assisted Prudence first. + +"Who's that with you, Ida May?" asked the old woman. Then, with +keener eyes than the captain, she observed the change in the girl's +face. "What's happened? Something has gone wrong, Ida May, I know. +What is it?" + +"That--that girl--" + +Sheila almost choked. How could she prevaricate to the good old +woman who had been so kind to her? + +"Who is she, Ida May?" + +"She says she is your niece," whispered the girl. + +"My niece? Land's sake! I ain't got no niece but you, Ida May. Say, +Ira, do you know this young woman? She ain't none o' your relations, +is she?" + +Cap'n Ira came to the ground finally with a thump of his cane. He +straightened up and started at the new arrival. + +"Red-headed, I swan!" he muttered. "Never was a Ball that I know of +with that color topknot. And she looks like one o' these sandpipers +ye see along shore. Look at that hat!" + +"Ida May says she claims to be our niece," Prudence told him. + +"I swan! I told you we was gettin' mighty popular." + +Sheila, her limbs now trembling so that she feared she would fall, +took Queenie by the head and backed the carriage around. The old +mare would have to be put in her stall and the carryall run under +cover. But the girl was fearful of moving out of earshot. + +Cap'n Ira and Prudence approached the real Ida May. The latter had +been staring at them, marveling. Unlike Sheila, almost everything +that Ida May Bostwick thought was advertised upon her face. + +"My goodness!" considered Ida May. "What a pair of hicks!" + +"You was lookin' for somebody named Ball, I cal'late?" Cap'n Ira +said within Sheila's hearing as she led the gray mare away. + +She could not catch the reply. Whatever the real Ida May said, she +could not stand by to deny it. Besides, the matter must rest for the +present on the evidence, and she did not know yet how much proof Ida +May might be able to advance to strengthen her case. If it rested +upon mere assertion, then Sheila need merely deny its truth and hold +her own! + +And, frightened as she was, that was exactly what Sheila intended to +do. For the sake of Tunis, as well as for her own salvation, she +must stand up against the new girl and hold by her own first +claim--that she was the girl the Balls had sent Tunis for. + + + + +CHAPTER XXI + +AT SWORDS' POINTS + + +Sheila Macklin got Queenie to the stable and unharnessed her. She +ran the carryall into the barn and then closed the big door for the +night, although the sun was still an hour high. She stopped to fling +grain to the poultry, too. These chores she did with the thought in +her mind that she might never do them again for Cap'n Ira and +Prudence. + +If that girl could prove her claim, if she could satisfy the old +people that they had been cheated by Sheila and Tunis Latham, they +might be indignant enough to put her right out--to-night! + +The trio had disappeared into the house. She heard voices from the +sitting room. But she wanted to return the furniture to the front +room and finish the task which the real Ida May's coming had +interrupted. + +She had been strong enough when she carried the chairs and the +settee into the yard, but she could scarcely get them back again. +The strength seemed to have deserted her arms. She staggered in with +the last article of furniture and set it in place. + +The murmur of voices from the room across the hall was steady. What +were they saying? What had Ida May told them? How were the Balls +taking it? Could that cheap, little thing convince the old people +that she was their niece and that the girl they had come to love and +trust was an impostor? Sheila Macklin's heart bled for Cap'n Ira and +Prudence! + +If she must go and they took this other girl in her place, would +they be happy? And they had been happy during these last months! +Would they not miss her if she left them to the mercy of this new +claimant? + +Yes, Sheila loved Cap'n Ira and Prudence. She loved them as though +they were her very own! Not since her father had died had the girl +been so fond of anybody--except Tunis, of course. And what would +Tunis say when he came? + +What would he expect her to do? To admit the truth of Ida May's +claim and give up without a battle? If she did this, she would +expose him as well as herself to infamy. It was a situation that +would have appalled a person of much stronger character than Sheila +Macklin, and she was no weakling. + +No! She could not give up--not without a struggle. As she had first +decided, she must confront the new girl boldly and deny, if she +could, any claim Ida May Bostwick put forward. She must do this for +Tunis even more than for herself. + +She arose determinedly. With this thought, strength surged back into +her limbs as well as into her mind. For a time she had been weak, +undecided. Once more she gathered her energies to oppose the sea of +adversity which threatened to overwhelm her. + +She crossed the hall and opened the sitting room door. Cap'n Ira sat +in his usual chair, leaning forward, with his hands clasped over the +knob of his cane. Prudence, with a wondering look on her face, sat +beside him, and just as far from the new girl as the length of the +room would allow. The latter had been speaking with her usual +vehemence, and she did not even glance at Sheila when the latter +came quietly into the room. + +"Oh, Ida May!" gasped Prudence, and almost ran to her. "Do you know +what she is saying? I never heard of such a thing!" + +"I tell you she _ain't_ Ida Bostwick," cried the other. "Don't you +dare call her that. I'll--" + +"Hoity-toity, young woman! Avast there!" said the captain gruffly. +"We won't get to the rights of this by quarreling. Wait!" + +He looked at Sheila, and his weatherhued countenance was as kindly +of expression as usual. + +"You know what this young woman says?" he asked. + +Sheila nodded, but she held Prudence closely. The old woman was +sobbing. + +"This won't do, you know," said Cap'n Ira. "I swan! It beats my +time. I expect you've got friends somewhere, young woman, and you +ought to be given into their charge. I'm real sorry for you, but +what you say don't sound sensible. Ain't you made a mistake? I +cal'late you heard about us and Ida May--" + +"I tell you," cried the girl, starting to her feet again, the brown +eyes flashing spitefully, "that that thing there is an impostor. +She's got my place. She's took my name. Why, I'll--I'll have her +arrested. Ain't there no police in this awful place?" + +"There's a constable all right," said Cap'n Ira calmly. "But I +wouldn't want to call him in. Not just now, anyway. It looks to me +you wanted a doctor more than you wanted a constable." + +"You think I'm crazy!" gasped Ida May. + +"Well, it looks as though you was a leetle off your course," the old +man told her calmly. "You don't talk with sense, to say the least. +Making the claim you do would make most anybody think you was a +little flighty. Yes, a little flighty, to say the least." And he +wagged his head. + +"Look here," he pursued soothingly. "Have you been sick, perhaps? +You ain't quite yourself, be ye? I knowed a feller once that +thought he was the angel Gabriel and went around with a tin fish +horn, tooting it at all hours of the day and night. But no graves +opened for him and nobody was resurrected. They finally put him in +the booby hatch, poor feller." + +"I'm your niece, I tell you," interrupted Ida May, pointing at +Prudence, who shrank from her immediately in undeniable fear. "My +mother was Sarah Honey before she was married. I guess there must be +enough people in this Big Wreck Cove place who knew her and remember +her to prove who I am." + +"I wouldn't try to do that," said Cap'n Ira thoughtfully. "Telling +such a thing as this among the neighbors would be the surest way of +getting into trouble. That's right. If Prudence--Mrs. Ball--don't +know ye, do you think strangers would be likely to back you up? +Don't you think it would be better to sit down quietly and rest a +while? Maybe you'd better stay with us overnight." + +"Oh, Ira!" gasped his wife. "I wouldn't scurce dare have her stay. +She--she's out of her head. She might do something." + +"I'll do something fast enough!" cried Ida May, stamping her foot. +"I'll do something to that hussy!" + +"You hear her, Ira?" murmured Prudence, trying to draw Sheila away +from the enraged girl. + +"Threatening damage never broke no bones yet," said the captain +calmly. + +"I'll do _her_ some damage," declared Ida May bitterly. "If none of +you won't listen to me, I'll find somebody that will. I'll--" + +She halted suddenly in her wild and angry speech. Her face changed +as if by magic. The flush died in it and the expression of her +sparkling eyes became subdued. A simpering look overspread Ida May +Bostwick's countenance that warned the other girl, at least, that +another person had entered the house. + +Before Sheila could turn to look toward the kitchen door, Ida May +cried: + +"Oh, Cousin Tunis! If you ain't my cousin exactly, I guess you are +pretty near. And ain't I glad you've come! Do you know what this +awful girl is saying--what she is doing here? And these old fools +won't believe me! I never heard of such a thing. Just you tell them +who I am, and I guess they'll make her pack up and get out in a +hurry." + +In the doorway stood the captain of the _Seamew_. The two old people +welcomed his appearance with a satisfaction that could not be +mistaken. + +"I swan, Tunis, you come at a mighty handy time," declared Cap'n +Ira. + +"Oh, Tunis! Take that girl away," cried Prudence faintly, pointing +at Ida May. + +The most difficult thing Sheila Macklin had ever done in all her +life was what she did now. To act and speak a deliberate falsehood +before Tunis Latham! + +She disengaged herself from Prudence, and before the simpering Ida +May could speak again Sheila ran to him. In her face was, for the +moment, all the fear and horror of the situation which she felt. It +was a warning to him, and he was acute enough to understand it even +before she spoke. + +"Oh, Tunis! This girl must be beside herself. She says her name is +Ida May Bostwick and that she is Mrs. Ball's niece." + +Involuntarily Tunis had stretched forth his hands to welcome Sheila. +He drew her closer without giving the Balls any attention +whatsoever. One flashing glance he gave to the girl he held so +gently--a look which was both a promise and a reassurance. Then he +gazed over her head at the smirking Ida May. + +"What's the matter here?" he demanded. + +"Matter enough," said Cap'n Ira, not without marking, however, the +attitude of the two young people he and Prudence loved. He even +nudged his wife, who now stood close beside him. "Matter enough. +That gal there, Tunis, seems to have lost her top-hamper. Leastways, +some of it is mighty loose." + +"Tunis Latham!" gasped the new claimant. "You know who I am. Tell +that girl--" + +She halted again, realizing the young man's expression of +countenance and his attitude with the other girl. She was quick +enough of comprehension to see that this other girl had the +advantage of her with the captain of the _Seamew_ as well as with +her relatives. + +In Ida May's own artful mind she had decided that a smart girl could +easily "twist that fellow around her finger." This girl who had +usurped her name and identity had already succeeded in doing just +that! The girl from Hoskin & Marl's halted, the wrathful flush came +back into her pretty, insipid face, and she almost screamed: + +"What's got into you folks? Are you all crazy? Why, that fellow +knows who I am well enough! I bet he brought that girl here himself +and palmed her off on you." She turned to blaze at Cap'n Ira and +Prudence. "He picked her up somewhere--some low creature! But I'll +show them both up; that's what I'll do. I'll make them both sorry +for cheating me. I guess you folks have got a heap of money, and +that fellow and that girl are trying to get it all. But they won't. +I'll have my rights or--" + +"Belay that!" exclaimed Cap'n Ira suddenly. "We won't listen to no +more such talk. Whatever we have got--Prudence and me--and whoever +you be, young woman, I cal'late we'll do about as we please with it. +I think you have broke loose from them that had you in charge. And +they ought to be hunting for you. Leastways, I guess you'd better +be sent back to 'em." + +"I'm her niece, I tell you!" reiterated Ida May, pointing at +Prudence, who shrank again from the vehement girl. + +Then she whirled on Tunis. She clasped her hands. Into her rage was +distilled some fear because of Cap'n Ira's grim words. + +"You got to help me," she said to the younger man. "You know who I +am, and you daren't deny it!" + +No man can pace the quarter-deck--even of a packet of no greater +importance than the _Seamew_--without having developed the sterner +side of his character. And Tunis Latham came of a long line of +shipmasters who had handled all sorts and conditions of men. If a +skipper does not command the respect of his crew, he'll not get far! + +The grim mask that had settled upon the countenance of the captain +of the _Seamew_ might have stayed the tongue of a more courageous +person than Ida May Bostwick. His severe look and manner appalled +her. + +"See here, young woman, I don't like your tone; nor do I understand +what you mean. Who do you say this is, Ida May?" he added more +gently, looking down into Sheila's face again. + +"She--" + +"_I'm_ Ida May Bostwick. You know I am!" wailed the visitor. +"Why--why, you must remember me, Tunis Latham. Don't you call her by +my name. I won't stand it." + +"Mad as a hatter! Mad as a hatter!" muttered Cap'n Ira to Prudence. + +"There's something the matter with her, is there?" proceeded Tunis +thoughtfully, eying the claimant as though she was indeed an utter +stranger. "How did she get here? What does she want?" + +"She wants a strait-jacket, I cal'late," said Cap'n Ira. "I don't +know what is best to do about her. Prudence says she won't have her +in the house overnight. 'Twould be too bad to have to put her in the +town lockup." + +"You _dare_ to!" shrieked Ida May, with courage born of desperation. + +Tunis put Sheila tenderly aside. He crossed the room to the other +girl. He showed no manner of sympathy for her, but he spoke quietly. + +"This won't do, you know. Mr. and Mrs. Ball don't want you here. You +have no claim on them--none at all. Even if you chanced to be a +relation, they have not got to take you in if they don't want to." + +"They've taken that other girl in!" cried Ida May wildly. + +"That is their business. They want her. They don't want you. You +have no more standing here than you would have if you went into the +house of the governor of the State and demanded recognition there." + +"What a wicked man you are!" gasped Ida May. "And--and I thought you +was a simp!" + +Tunis did not even change color. He addressed her as though he +believed she was not right in her mind. Sheila watched him, not now +in fear, but in wonder. She had thought she must battle with this +girl for Tunis' name and reputation. But the captain of the _Seamew_ +had seized the reins of affairs himself and was likely to do much +better in the emergency than Sheila could ever dream of doing. + +"Come, now," said Tunis Latham calmly. "I do not know where you +belong or where you came from last. But you cannot stay here. Cap'n +Ira and Aunt Prue do not want you. If you have any friends near--" + +"I've got friends all right! You'll find out that I've got 'em!" +gasped the girl threateningly. + +"You know anybody in Big Wreck Cove?" + +"No, I don't. I've just come here. But I mean to stay here till I +get my rights. I'll show you all!" + +"You can't show us anything to-night," interposed Tunis firmly. +"Whatever you mean to try to do cannot be done right now, you know. +You will have to sleep somewhere, and I shall have to do one of two +things--no, one of three things." + +She looked at him wonderingly, but she was listening. + +"I will take you back to the port. You cannot go home--wherever you +live--to-night. In the morning you can go over with Ben Craddock on +the stage to Paulmouth." + +"I won't!" The girl's determination was roused. There was a stubborn +streak in her character that would make her a bitter antagonist. +Tunis, as well as Sheila, realized this. + +"All right," said the captain of the _Seamew_ calmly. "Then I'll get +you a place to stay down in the port. Or I shall have to see the +justice of the peace and have you committed for your own safety." + +"You don't dare!" cried Ida May again. + +"You tempt me too far, young woman," he said sternly, "and you'll +find just how much I dare. Will you come along with me now and +behave yourself?" + +"That's the ticket, Tunis," muttered Cap'n Ira. "Put her where she +belongs." + +"So my own folks turn me out, do they?" cried Ida May, hatefully, +staring at the two old people. "If anybody is crazy it is those +two," and she pointed to the Balls. "Take in a drab like that girl +and throw _me_ out. Why, I believe I've seen her before. Somehow, +she looks familiar," she added, her sharp gaze fixed on Sheila +again. "Well, wherever it was, she was up to no good, I'll be +bound." + +"Are you coming with me willingly, and now?" put in Tunis more +harshly. "You are taking a chance, young woman, in talking this +way." + +"Oh, she's got _you_ going. That's plain to be seen! I thought you +was a nice fellow. But I guess you're like other sailors. I always +heard they was a bad lot--running after women--" + +"Will you come without any more words?" interrupted Tunis grimly. + +"I'll have to go back to the town, I suppose. But remember! This +ain't the end of this," she weakly blustered. + +"This your bag?" said Tunis calmly, picking up Ida May's satchel. +"All right. We'll go." + +He did not attempt to look at Sheila again, nor at Cap'n Ira and +Prudence. He walked behind Ida May, but rather hustled her out of +the door. She might have cast back some final defiance, but he gave +her no chance. + +It was almost twilight when they went out at the kitchen door. They +left the trio in the sitting room speechless for the moment. But +Sheila Macklin's speechlessness arose through different thoughts +from those of the Balls. + +The girl left behind realized that this almost unexpected outcome +was but the momentary triumph of falsehood. + + + + +CHAPTER XXII + +A WAY OUT + + +"Ida May, you'd better sit down. You look like you'd had a stroke," +declared the captain. + +"Why wouldn't she, the dear child?" cried Prudence. "What do you +suppose is the matter with that girl? Is she crazy?" + +"Crazy ain't no name for it," her husband rejoined. "Her top-hamper +is all askew, I cal'late. I never see the beat." + +But just now Sheila could not endure any discussion of the strange +girl. She rose as quickly as she had seated herself. + +"I must fix supper," she said briskly. "You sit still, Aunt +Prudence. You're flustered, I can see. There is nothing for you to +do." + +"That's right," put in Cap'n Ira. "Get a bite ready against Tunis +comes back. He'll want something fillin' after handling that crazy +gal." + +He winked at Prudence and nudged her. The outstanding incident for +the old man was the unmistakable signs Tunis and Sheila had given +that they were in love with each other. + +"What did I tell ye when that gal first come here?" whispered Cap'n +Ira hoarsely, when the girl had left the room. "I knowed that the +hull generation here on the Cape hadn't been struck blind, not by a +jugful! And it's evident to my mind, Prudence, that Tunis Latham has +had his eyes pretty wide open from the first." + +"Oh! I hope--it can't be that Ida May would leave us," murmured +Prudence. "I don't mean to be selfish." + +"Looks like we could get another gal easy enough if we wanted her," +remarked the old man, with some bitterness. "I swan, Prue! S'pose +Ida May had turned out to be the sort of a gal that flyaway critter +is? We are blessed; we certainly are." And he treated himself to a +liberal pinch of snuff. + +Sheila did not wish to hear the two old people talk about the real +Ida May Bostwick. When Tunis took the girl away it was an enormous +relief. Of that she was quite sure. The malevolent attitude of the +frustrated Ida May was sufficient to frighten anybody. + +Shelia was positive enough that, as Ida May had promised, the matter +was not ended. That venomous girl would not be content to leave Big +Wreck Cove without making a further attempt--perhaps many--to +establish herself in her right identity and in what she considered +her rightful place with the Balls. + +Supper was late that evening. They were only just seated at the +table when Tunis returned. + +"Come on, boy," said Cap'n Ira. "There's a place set for you. Tell +us what you did with that crazy girl." + +Sheila was busy between the stove and the table and did not come to +the side of the captain of the _Seamew_ as he took the chair +indicated. He was not smiling as usual, but neither did he seem +alarmed. He replied to the questions of the old people with +tranquillity. + +"I did not advise her to go to the Burchell House," Tunis said. "You +know what a talker Sally Burchell is. I remember that Mrs. Pauling +took boarders in the summer, and I went to her with that girl." + +"You mean Zeb's mother?" asked Prudence. "Well, she'll take care of +her, I guess. And Zeb is strong and willing. If she gets crazy in +the night, they ought to be able to hold her." + +A faint smile flickered for a moment about Tunis Latham's stern +lips. + +"I don't guess she will act up so very bad with strangers." + +"I swan! We was strangers enough to her, it would seem," exclaimed +Cap'n Ira. + +"But she seems to consider that you ought not to be," Tunis pointed +out. + +"Never heard of such a thing!" muttered the old man. + +"I would have been glad to get her out of town this very night," +Tunis observed quietly. "But it could not be done. She is convinced +that she has what she calls 'rights,' and she proposes to remain and +fight for them." + +"I swan!" + +"You will have to be firm with her. I explained to Zeb's mother what +we thought was the matter with her. And I'll try to find her +friends. She says she comes from Boston." + +"Goodness gracious gallop!" exclaimed the old woman, more angry than +frightened now. "She certainly can't stay here and tell those awful +things she was saying about Ida May." + +"I don't really see how we are going to stop her, right at first," +Tunis rejoined. "Of course, if she continues to come up here and +bother you, you can have her arrested." + +"Oh!" gasped Sheila. + +"Now, gal," said Cap'n Ira firmly, "don't you let your tender heart +deceive you. That crazy critter ain't worth worrying about. She +shan't be hurt. But I won't have her coming round here frightening +you and Prudence. No, sir!" + +"Quite right," said Tunis, agreeing. + +"Oh, Tunis!" murmured the girl. + +"But she will make talk. No doubt she will make talk," said Prudence +in a worried tone. "We ought to stop her, somehow, from telling such +things about our Ida May." + +"Does she want money?" asked Cap'n Ira gruffly. "She talked as +though she did." + +"I think to offer her money would be the very worst possible way of +shutting her up," said Tunis. "She wants to come here and live and +be accepted as your niece." + +"I never did!" gasped Prudence. + +"She says nothing else will suit her. She seems to think she can +prove what she had claimed. I think the best thing to do is to let +her try it." + +Sheila could not eat. She merely stared from one to the other of the +three and listened to the discussion. In no way could she see a +shadow of escape from ultimate disaster; yet she saw that Tunis was +determined to fight it out on this line, to deny the stranger's +claim and hold to what had already been gained for the girl in +possession! + +"Well," Prudence said, with a sigh, "I can see plainly it is going +to stir up a puddle of muddy water. Unless she says or does +something that makes the authorities take her and put her away, +there will be them that will believe her--or half believe her." + +"Let 'em talk," growled Cap'n Ira. "'Twon't be the first time Big +Wreck Cove folks got a mouthful to chew." + +"But it will hurt Ida May," said Prudence, her voice trembling, as +she squeezed the girl's hand and held it. + +"'Sticks and stones may break my bones, but names will never hurt +me,'" began Cap'n Ira. Then he broke off in anger when he saw the +girl's face, and exclaimed: "But, I swan! They'll keep you dodging, +and that's a fact! Ought to be some way of shutting her up, Tunis." + +"I don't know how that is going to be done. Not just at first, +anyway. Perhaps something will turn up. And, anyway, she hasn't +begun to talk yet." + +"It's like being tied down to one o' them railroad tracks and +waiting for the fast express to come along and crunch ye," grumbled +the old man. "I know how Ida May feels. But you keep a stiff upper +lip, my gal. You've got plenty of friends that won't listen to any +such crazy notions as that other gal's got in her noodle." + +In this manner the old folks comforted themselves in part. But +nothing that was said could comfort Sheila. Tunis smoked a pipe with +Cap'n Ira after supper, while the girl cleared off the table and +washed and dried the dishes. Then he got her outside just after he +had bidden Cap'n Ira and Prudence good night. + +They walked away silently from the kitchen door into the deep murk +of a starless night. The moaning of a rising sea upon the outer +reefs was the requiem of Sheila's hopes. One thing, she saw clearly, +she must do. If she remained and fought for her place with the +Balls, she must stand alone. Whether or not she held her place, she +must not allow Tunis to be linked with her in this situation. As she +slipped deeper and deeper into the morass, she could not cling to +him and drag him as well into infamy and disgrace. + +Away from the house, fully out of earshot from the kitchen, she +halted. Tunis had taken her hand in his warm, encouraging grasp. She +let it remain, but she did not return his pressure. + +"Dear, this is dreadful," he whispered, "I know. But leave it to me. +I'll find some way out." + +"There is no way out, Tunis," she said confidently. + +"Cat's-foot! Don't say that," he cried in exasperation. "There is +always a way out of every jam." + +"This girl will do one of two things," said Sheila firmly. "Either +she will prove her claim, or she will give up and go back to Boston. +You know that." + +"She'll fight hard, I guess" he admitted. + +"Either way, Tunis," the girl pursued, "there is bound to be much +doubt cast upon my character--upon _me_. If the truth becomes known, +I am utterly lost. If it is hushed up, I must go on living a +lie--if I stay here." + +"Don't talk that way!" he exclaimed gruffly. "Of course you'll stay +here. If not with the Balls, then with me." + +"Stop!" she begged him. "Wait! I am going to state the matter +plainly as it is. We can no longer dodge it. This is the _truth_ +which we have been trying to ignore. I have not been foolish only; I +have been wicked. And my greatest sin was in allowing you to link +yourself with me so closely." + +"What do you mean?" he gasped. + +"Just what I say. It was wrong for me to allow you to be friendly +with me before the Balls and other people. I should not have gone to +your house last Sunday. I should not have allowed you to introduce +me to your Aunt Lucretia." + +"Ida May!" + +"That is not my name," she whispered. "Let there be no further +mockery between you and me, Tunis. I have been wicked; _we_ have +been wicked. We must pay for what we have done. There is no escaping +that. I must not keep you as my lover, Tunis. I was wrong--oh! so +wrong--last Sunday. Reckless, wicked, drifting with a current, I +scarcely knew where." + +"My dear girl--" + +"Now I see the rocks ahead, Tunis. I can shut my eyes to them no +longer. Disaster is at hand. You shall not be overwhelmed, as I may +be overwhelmed at any time. I will not have your ruin on my +conscience!" + +"My ruin?" he repeated. "Ridiculous! My dear girl, you are talking +like a mad woman. You cannot snap the tie that binds us. You cannot +shoulder all the responsibility for this situation. The sin is as +much mine as yours, if it is a sin. I'm in it as deep as you are." + +"You must not be," she cried. "You can escape. You _shall_ escape." + +"Suppose I refuse to do so?" And he said it confidently. + +"Tunis, I have thought of a way out for you," she cried suddenly. + +"I don't want to hear it." + +"But you must hear it!" + +"I will not accept it." + +"You cannot help yourself," she told him firmly. "Oh, I know what I +am about! You may be angry; you will perhaps be laughed at a bit. +But to be laughed at is better than to be scorned." + +"What under the sun do you mean, girl?" he exclaimed, both startled +and horrified by her determined words. "Do you think I would desert +you in the middle of the current and swim ashore?" + +"But I will desert you. I am determined to desert you. I refuse to +cling to you, a millstone about your neck to drag you down. Ah, +Tunis, whether or not that girl makes her claim good, what you and +I had hoped for cannot be! An explanation must be made of your part +in this frightful affair. That, in itself, must separate you and +me." + +"What explanation? There is no such explanation that can be made. I +glory in the fact that we are together in this, Sheila, and whatever +comes of it, we stand or fall together!" + +"Ah, Tunis, you _are_ a man! I knew that before. But nothing you can +say will bend my determination. I withdraw all I said to you Sunday +and on Monday morning before you went away. I positively withdraw +all I promised you. It cannot be, Tunis. We cannot look forward to +any happiness when we began so unwisely." + +"'Unwisely?' What do you mean?" demanded the captain of the +_Seamew_. "Chance threw us together. _Providence_, I tell you! I +needed you fully as much as you needed me. And surely these poor old +folks needed you, Sheila. Consider what you have been to them." + +"It makes no difference in our association, Tunis," she said, +shaking her head. + +"Why, that night we talked upon that bench on Boston Common, had I +dared propose such a thing, I would have said: 'Come and marry me +now.' I would, indeed, Sheila." + +The girl clenched her hands and drew in a breath. She raised her +face to his, and in the darkness Tunis Latham saw it shine with a +light from within. A great and desperate longing filled her voice +when she cried: + +"Oh, why didn't you do just that, Tunis Latham? I would have said +'yes.' And all this--_this_ need not have been." + +Swiftly she caught him around the neck, pressed her lips fiercely to +his, while the tears rained down her face, wetting his face as well. +Then she was gone. He heard her sobbing wildly in the dark. He was +alone. + + + + +CHAPTER XXIII + +A CALL UNANNOUNCED + + +Cap'n Ira and Prudence did not see Sheila again that evening, for +she slipped in by the kitchen door after they had gone into the +sitting room and went up to her own chamber. They heard her mount +the stairs and marked the tread of her light feet overhead. + +The girl was not thinking of the old people just then. Their need +entered into her determination to remain if she could. But this +night was one time when Sheila Macklin thought almost altogether of +herself and her personal difficulties. + +Her present and acknowledged love for the young captain of the +_Seamew_ had been of no mushroom growth. She might not say, as Tunis +did, that she had fallen in love at first sight. But very soon after +meeting the young shipmaster from Big Wreck Cove she had appreciated +his full value and realized that he was far and away the best man +she had ever met. + +Indeed, in that moment when Tunis Latham had caught Sheila in his +arms as she had slipped in front of the restaurant on Scollay +Square, the girl's mind had been stabbed through by such a poignant +feeling, such a desire to know more about him, that she was actually +frightened by the strength of this concern. + +She knelt before her north window with the frosty air breathing in +like a balm upon her fevered body, and strained her eyes for a +glimpse of the light that always burned in Tunis' window when he was +at home. It was a long time before she saw it. For Tunis Latham had +walked about the fields a long time after she left him, and it was +late when he finally entered the big brown house behind the cedars. + +Aunt Lucretia, who had been expecting him, after she had seen the +_Seamew_ heading for the cove that afternoon, was still sitting in +the kitchen when her nephew entered. Composed as the man's features +were, there was still an expression upon them which startled the +woman. It brought her out of her chair, even if it did not bring an +audible question to her lips. + +"I was delayed, Aunt 'Cretia," he said. "No; nothing new about the +_Seamew_ or about business. It's--there's trouble up to the Balls'." + +He knew her first thought would be for the health of the two old +people, and he had to explain a little more. + +"They are all right--Cap'n Ira and Aunt Prue. It's about Sh--Ida +May." + +"Tunis! Nothing has happened to the girl?" + +He must take Aunt Lucretia into his confidence--at least, to some +extent. Just how much could he tell her? How much dared he tell her? + +From somebody, he felt sure, she would hear about this other girl +who had appeared to claim kinship with the Balls and demand that +Sheila give over to her the place she had with Cap'n Ira and +Prudence. For Ida May Bostwick was going to talk. Tunis knew that +well enough. Although he had warned her sternly that evening against +talking, he knew well enough that after the girl had recovered from +her first fright she would spit out the venomous tale that she had +already concocted in her mind about Sheila and himself. + +He could not bring himself to confess to Aunt Lucretia all the truth +about his first meeting and subsequent association with Sheila. +Indeed, he hoped he would never be obliged to tell it. + +But he must tell Aunt Lucretia nothing but the truth. He did this by +beginning at the coming of the real Ida May Bostwick to the Ball +house that afternoon and her claim to Sheila's place with the +family. As he told the story, Aunt Lucretia gazed upon him so +fixedly, so intently, that the captain of the _Seamew_ was +disturbed. He could not understand her expression. + +Perhaps he told the story haltingly of how Ida May had been turned +out and he had taken her back to the port and housed her with Mrs. +Pauling. He made few comments, however; he left Aunt Lucretia to +draw her own conclusions. It was not until he had quite finished +that she spoke again. + +"That crazy girl, is she--" + +"I don't know that she's crazy," said Tunis gruffly. + +"It would seem so. Does she look like Ida May?" + +Tunis started. The question seemed to probe into a matter that he +had not before considered. But he shook his head negatively. + +"Nothing like her," he said. "Reddish hair. Brown eyes--or kind of +brown. When she's maddest there are green lights in 'em. Not nice +eyes at all." + +Aunt Lucretia nodded and said no more upon that point. What her +question had dealt with in her own mind, Tunis could not guess. She +watched his face, now pale and sadly drawn. Then she placed a firm +hand upon his arm to arouse his attention. + +"Tunis! This--this girl at Cap'n Ira's is something to you?" + +"My God! Aunt 'Cretia, she's _everything_ to me," he groaned, his +reticence breaking down. + +"Is she a good girl, Tunis?" + +"As good as gold. On my honor, there was never a nobler or better +girl. I--I love her!" The words burst from him now in a great gush +of emotion. These Lathams, when they did break up, often ran over. +"I can't tell you the hold she has on me. If I lose her through this +or any other cause, I'm done for! + +"She thinks she isn't good enough for me. She is afraid of this girl +who claims her place. She fears that I am going to be looked down on +if I have anything more to do with her. And I tell you, if she was +not the girl I know her to be, I would still cling to her. I must +have her. I tell you, I must!" + +Tears came to his eyes. His voice, hoarse and broken, carried to the +woman's heart the knowledge that the one and overpowering passion of +the man's life was rampant within him. What or whoever the girl at +the Ball homestead might be, Tunis Latham was bound to her by ties +which could not be broken. + +She did the thing most generous; quite in accordance with her +unselfish disposition. She stepped nearer to her nephew and put her +arms about his neck. She kissed him. She gave no further evidence of +doubt or disapproval. Indeed, when he left her to go to his room, he +was assured that, however the world might look upon him, Aunt +Lucretia was his supporter. + +The girl in the Ball house saw the glimmer of his lamp that night +for a very few minutes. There was a day's work before him, and +Tunis Latham, like other hard-working men, must have his sleep. + +Sheila kept the night watches alone. She went to bed, but the lids +of her eyes could not close. Sleep was as far from her as heaven +itself. She went over the entire happenings of the previous +afternoon and evening with care, giving to each incident its +rightful importance, judging the weight of each word said, each look +granted her. Did the Balls suspect her in the least? Had the story +Ida May Bostwick told made any real impression upon their minds? + +No! She finally told herself that thus far she was secure. Ida May +must bring something besides assertion to influence the minds of the +two old people. And if she had had documentary proof in her +possession yesterday, the new claimant would have shown it. + +Nobody carries about with him birth certificate or memoranda of +identification and relationship. If Ida May had been warned of what +she was to meet at the old house on Wreckers' Head, without doubt +she would have tried to equip herself in some such way for the +interview. + +It might be very difficult for the girl to obtain any evidence that +would assure the Balls of her actual relationship to them. Sheila +had foreseen this possibility from the first. She was still quite +determined to hold on, to make the other girl do all the talking +and all the proving. She herself would rest upon the foundation of +her establishment in the place Ida May Bostwick claimed. + +The latter certainly could not know Sheila's true history. Sheila +was as much a stranger to Ida May as she had been to the Balls when +Tunis had brought her to Wreckers' Head. + +And then, suddenly, a thought seared through the girl's mind. +Something that Ida May Bostwick had said just before Tunis hurried +her out of the house! + +"I believe I've seen her before. Somehow, she looks familiar." + +These two sentences, spoken in Ida May's sneering way, had made +little impression on the excited Sheila at the time they were +spoken. But now they made the girl's heart beat wildly. + +Suppose it were true! Suppose Ida May should really remember who +Sheila was? It was not impossible that the girl from the lace +counter of Hoskin & Marl's knew of Sheila's disgrace. + +Sleep was not within her reach. The long hours of the night dragged +past. Dimly dawn crept along the dark line of the horizon, circling +all her world as far as Sheila could see it from her bed. But it was +still dark below her north window when she caught the sound of a +familiar step, the crunch of gravel under Tunis' boot. + +She lay shaking for a moment, holding her breath. She heard the tiny +pebbles rattle upon the window sill. For the first time she had not +been downstairs to greet Tunis on his way to the port. Could she let +him go now without a word? + +But she must! She must be firm. + +Nevertheless, she slipped softly out of bed. The pebbles rattled +again. She caught up a dark veil from her bureau and wrapped it +about her face. She crept to the north window. The veil would mask +her face so that he could not distinguish it in the shadow. + +But she could look down upon him. She saw him standing there so +firmly--so determinedly. His was no nature to give over easily +anything he had set his heart on. All the more reason why Sheila +should not appear to weaken. + +She crouched there breathlessly as he tossed up more pebbles. Then +she heard him sigh. Then he turned slowly away, and his feet dragged +off along the path, and he went out of sight. + +The girl crept back into bed. She hid her face in the pillow and dry +sobs racked her frame. This was the hardest of all the hard things +she had to do. She had wounded Tunis to the heart! + + + + +CHAPTER XXIV + +EUNEZ PARETA + + +Tunis Latham went down the track toward the port as the dull dawn +glimmered behind him in a frame of mind so dismal and despairing +that more than Sheila Macklin would have pitied the captain of the +_Seamew_. Against the tide of emotions which now surged in his heart +he scarcely had the energy to battle. + +Never had he felt less like approaching his usual tasks as commander +and owner of the schooner and facing the trials he knew would meet +him upon this coming trip to Boston. Freight was waiting upon Luiz +Wharf, and he would be able to pick up the remainder of his cargo at +Hollis, which, with the wind as it was now, he could reach that +afternoon by four o'clock. Given good luck, he would warp into the +T-wharf next day before nightfall. + +The uncertain point which troubled him most was the matter of the +crew of the _Seamew_. The Portygees remaining with him--even Johnny +Lark, the cook--had been in a most unhappy temper all the way back +from Boston on the last trip. Tunis could depend upon Mate Chapin, +Boatswain Newbegin, and 'Rion Latham himself to stick by the +schooner. For, in spite of his quarreling and long tongue about a +hoodoo, Tunis thought that his cousin was a man above any real fear +of the very superstitions he talked about. + +But four men could not safely work the schooner to Boston, nor in +season to keep his contract with the consignees of freight which the +_Seamew_ carried. Troubled as he had been at Boston, and delayed, +Tunis wished now that he had remained there even longer while he +made search for and engaged a proper crew for the schooner. He had +better, perhaps, have paid the fare of the Portygees back to Big +Wreck Cove and so saved quarreling with them. + +When he had been about to leave the schooner the afternoon before, +the foolish fellows had sent a spokesman to him asking if he was +sure the _Seamew_ was not the old _Marlin B._, the Salem fishing +craft which had been acclaimed "the murder ship" from the Banks to +the Cape by all coasting seamen several years before. To answer this +question rasped the pride of the owner of the _Seamew_. For a seaman +to ask a question of one of the officers--a question of such a +nature--was flaunting authority in any case. + +Although Captain Latham considered the question ridiculous and +utterly unworthy of a serious answer, he had replied to it. + +He had told the sailor that to the best of his knowledge and belief +the old _Marlin B._ was several thousand miles away from the Cape at +that time, and that the _Seamew_ was herself and no other. In any +case, he had said he had no personal fear of sailing in the schooner +as long as he could keep a decent crew of seamen aboard her, but +that he would stand for no more foolishness from his present crew. + +Tunis had spoken quite boldly. But, to tell the truth, he did not +know where or how he was to sign another crew and a cook if the +Portygees deserted the schooner. Not at Big Wreck Cove. He had heard +too many whispers about the curse upon his schooner from people of +all classes in the port. Even Joshua Jones, who was supposed to be a +pretty hard-headed merchant, had been influenced by the story 'Rion +Latham had first told about the _Seamew_. He and his father had +hesitated to give Tunis an order for another lot of freight now +waiting on the dock at Boston. They wanted to be sure that the +schooner was not going to sail from the latter port undermanned. +Whether or not the Joneses believed in the hoodoo, they did know +that if the _Seamew_ sailed without a proper crew their insurance on +the freight would be invalid. + +So the farther Tunis walked down toward the wharves, the more these +thoughts assailed and overcame his mind, to the exclusion even of +the tragic happenings back there on the Head the night before. He +could not consider Ida May Bostwick--not even Sheila--now. The +schooner, with her affairs, was a harsh mistress. His all was +invested in the _Seamew_, and business had not been so good thus far +that he could withdraw with a profit. Far from that! There were +financial reefs and shoals on either hand, and that fact the young +skipper knew right well. + +As he drew near to Portygee Town, he glanced toward the open door of +Pareta's cottage and saw the girl, Eunez, seated upon the step. She +did not come out to meet him, as had been her wont, but she hailed +him as he approached--though in a sharper tone than usual. + +"So Captain Tunis Latham has still another girl? He is a lion with +the ladies, it is plain to be seen. Ah!" + +"You don't mind, do you, Eunez?" replied the young man, trying to +assume his usual careless manner of speech. "You have the reputation +of being pretty popular with the fellows yourself." + +"Ah!" she said again, tossing her head. "Who is this new girl I see +you walk with last evening, Tunis?" + +"She is a stranger in Big Wreck Cove," was his noncommittal reply. + +"So I see. They come and go for you, Tunis Latham. You are the +fickle man, eh?" + +"Tut, tut, Eunez!" he laughed. "Those who live in glass houses +should not throw stones. How about yourself? Didn't I see you going +to church with Johnny Lark last Sunday? And then, in the afternoon, +you had another cavalier along the beaches. Oh, I saw you!" + +The color flashed into her dark cheek, and her black eyes reflected +some unexplained anger. Beside her, leaning against the house wall, +was the handle end of a broken oar. Tunis chanced to mark that there +was a streak of dull blue paint on it. + +"You have sharp eyes. Tunis Latham," hissed the girl. "Not all of +the Lathams are too proud to walk with Eunez Pareta--or too proud to +think of her. But _you_--bah!" + +She got up suddenly, turned her back upon him, and entered the +cottage. Tunis walked on, just a little puzzled. + +Horry Newbegin sat on the rail of the schooner smoking, and +evidently looking anxiously for the appearance of the skipper. There +was no smoke rising from the galley chimney. + +"What's the matter with cooky?" demanded Tunis briskly. + +"The dratted Portygee's gone off to Paulmouth. He left word that he +couldn't sail with us this trip." + +"Then he'll never sail on the _Seamew_ again," declared the skipper +grimly. + +"And _that_ won't bother him none," said the boatswain gloomily. + +"I'll get breakfast for all hands," said Tunis. "I'm not above that. +Where are the hands?" + +"As far as I know, Cap'n Tunis, they are where Johnny Lark is. +Haven't shown up, and don't mean to," said Horry doggedly. + +Tunis Latham cursed his delinquent crew soundly. The rage which +flamed into his eyes, added to the pallor of his face, made an ugly +mask indeed. It was not often that he gave way to such an outburst, +but Horry had seen the same deadly anger displayed on occasion by +Captain Randall Latham. + +"Where's Mr. Chapin?" + +"He was here before you, Cap'n Tunis. He's gone up to town to see if +he can drum up some hands." + +"Where's 'Rion?" + +"He says he'll be here by the time you get ready to wheel the stuff +aboard." And the old man pointed with his pipe-stem toward the open +door of the shed. + +"Ha!" ejaculated Tunis. "Feared I'd set him to work, eh? Well, +they're all dogs together--the whole litter of 'em. I'll make the +coffee. Tell me when Mr. Chapin comes. I suppose we can hire enough +hands to get the freight aboard." + +"But we can't work the schooner with three men, Cap'n Tunis; nor +yet with four." + +"Don't I know that? I'll get a crew if I have to shanghai them," +promised Tunis grimly. + +Mason Chapin came along with half a dozen fellows after a while. One +was a negro who could cook. But there was no breakfast worthy of the +name served aboard the _Seamew_ that morning. They were late already +in getting to work. + +It was the middle of the forenoon before the schooner left port. +There was a crew, such as it was. But Mason Chapin had been obliged +to promise them extra pay to get them aboard the schooner at all. + +When 'Rion Latham slipped aboard finally, half the loading of the +cargo had been accomplished. Tunis himself was keeping tally. The +skipper beckoned his cousin to him. + +"'Rion," he said, "you certainly are about as useless a fellow as I +ever had anything to do with. These Portygees who have left me in +the lurch have some excuse for their actions. They are ignorant and +superstitious. You know mighty well that the stuff you have been +repeating about the schooner being cursed is nothing but lies and +old-women's gossip! You've done it to make trouble. I ought to have +had booted you overboard at the start." + +"Aw--you--" + +"Close your hatch!" ejaculated Tunis. "And keep it closed. I'm +talking, and I won't take any of your slack in return. I am not +married to you, thanks be! I think you've got pretty near enough of +me, and I'm sure I have of you, 'Rion. I give you warning--" + +"Oh! You do?" snarled 'Rion, his ugly face aflame. + +"Yes. I give you _fair_ warning. When the _Seamew_ gets back here to +Big Wreck Cove again, you're through! You can take your dunnage +ashore now if you like, but you go without pay if you do. Or you can +do your work properly on this trip and return. _Then_ you get +through. Take your choice." + +He expected 'Rion would leave the _Seamew_ then and there. Tunis +half hoped, indeed, that he would do so. But to his surprise, Orion +suddenly snatched the book and pencil out of the skipper's hand and, +growling that "he'd stay the voyage out," shuffled away to the rail +and began taking tally of the barrels and cases being hauled aboard. + +Working smartly, the new crew got the _Seamew_ under sail and out of +the cove two hours later. The wind held in a favorable quarter, and +they reached Hollis betimes. There they finished the schooner's +loading, and about dark went out to sea on a long tack and got +plenty of sea room before they made the short leg of it. + +Supper was the first good meal they had had aboard that day. After +everything was cleaned up, the black cook joined the crew forward. +In whispers the men talked over both the skipper and his schooner. +The story of the curse was known to everybody in Big Wreck Cove by +this time, and none of these new men was ignorant of it. They had, +however, merely used it as a means of getting more pay than ordinary +seamen were getting in such vessels. + +"'Tain't nothing as I can see," one of the older men said, "that is +likely to hurt us. It's a curse on the schooner, not on us folks +that warn't aboard her when she run under that other boat. And as +long as we keep away from the spot where the poor devils was +drowned, we ain't likely to see no ha'nts." + +The cook's eyes rolled tremendously. + +"You thinks likely this yere is that _Marlin B._?" + +"Bah!" exclaimed one, whose name was Carney. "It's only talk. Maybe +she ain't that schooner at all. Mr. Chapin says she ain't." + +"Is that so?" sneered the voice of 'Rion Latham behind them. "You +fellows don't want to believe what the skipper and the mate say. It +ain't to their benefit for you to believe the truth. Look here!" + +"What's that?" asked Carney, looking at the article Orion pushed +forward in the dark. "A broken oar?" + +"That's what it is. I found it only this morning in the hold, when I +was helping stow the last of the cargo. It was wedged in behind a +timber of her frame." + +"Well? What of it?" + +"Strike a match somebody. See what's burned into that handle?" + +Their heads were clustered about the faint glimmer of the match +flame. But the light was sufficient to reveal what 'Rion pointed +out. Burned more or less unevenly were the letters M A R L I N B. + +"What do you think of that?" exclaimed 'Rion. "Would that broken oar +be aboard of this dratted schooner if she wasn't the _Marlin B._ +painted over and a new name give her? What do you fellows think of +it?" + +There was silence in the group when the match flame died out. It was +finally the negro cook who made comment: + +"Lawsy me!" he groaned. "Ef I had only de faith of Peter I'd up an' +walk ashore from dis here cussed schooner right now!" + + + + +CHAPTER XXV + +TO LOVE AND BE LOVED + + +The girl whom Cap'n Ira Ball found in the kitchen of the old house +on Wreckers' Head when he hobbled out of his bedroom the next +morning was not the Ida May he had been wont to find of late, ready +with his shaving materials, hot water, and a clean and voluminous +checked apron to be tucked in about the neckband of his shirt. + +All was in readiness as usual, but the girl herself was smileless, +heavy-eyed, and slack of step. That she had suffered both in body +and mind since the day before, the least observant person in the +world would have easily comprehended. + +"I swan, Ida May!" gasped the old man. "Whatever's happened to you?" + +"I did not sleep well, Uncle Ira," she told him faintly. + +"Sleep? Why you look as though you'd been standing double watch for +a week of Sundays! I never see the beat! Has that crazy gal coming +here set ye all aback this way?" + +"I--I am afraid so." + +"'Tis a shame. I won't stand to have that gal come here again. +Prudence has been starting and crying out all night, too. She's as +much upset as you be. I cal'late you don't feel like shaving of me +this morning, Ida May." + +"Oh, yes, I do, Uncle Ira! Don't mind how I look." + +"But I do mind," he grumbled. "Folks' looks is a great p'int. I've +always held to it. Talk about a singed cat being better than it +looks--I doubt it!" + +"People of my complexion always look worse after a sleepless night," +explained Sheila, trying to smile at him. + +"That's a pity, too. And I feel the need of being spruced up a good +deal myself this morning, Ida May," he continued. "D'you see how +straggly my hair is gettin'? Do you think you could trim it a mite?" + +"Why, of course I can, Uncle Ira," she rejoined cheerfully. + +"I swan! You be a likely gal, Ida May," said the old man, both +reflectively and gratefully. "What would Prue and me do without you? +And no other girl but just you would have begun to fill the bill o' +lading. That's as sure as sure! See now," he went on, with emphasis, +"suppose you'd been such a one as that half-crazy critter that come +here yesterday! Where'd Prudence and me been with her in the house? +Well!" + +"She--she may not be as bad as she seemed under those particular +circumstances," Sheila said hesitatingly. "If she had come here--had +come here first and you and Aunt Prue had not known me at all--" + +"I swan! Don't say no more! Don't say no more, I tell ye!" gasped +Cap'n Ira. "It's bad luck to talk such a way; I do believe it is. +Come on, Ida May. You tackle my hair and let's see what you can do +with it. I know right well you'll make it look better than Prudence +used to do." + +Cap'n Ira was talking for effect, and the result he wished to +achieve was bringing a smile to Sheila's face and a brighter light +into her eyes, the violet hues of which were far more subdued than +he desired. His success was not marked, but he changed to some +degree the forlorn expression of the girl's countenance, so that +when Prudence appeared in the midst of the operation of shaving, +Sheila could greet the old woman with a tremulous smile. + +"You deary-dear!" crooned Prudence, with her withered arms about the +strong, young frame of the girl, drawing her close. "I know you've +suffered this night. That mad girl was enough to put us all out o' +kilter. But don't let any thought of her bother you, Ida May. Your +uncle and I love you, and if forty people said you didn't belong +here, we should keep you just the same. Ain't that so, Ira?" + +"Sure is," declared the captain vigorously. "No two ways about it. +We couldn't get along without Ida May, and I cal'late, the way +things look, that I'd better get that high fence I spoke of built +around this place at once. We're likely to have somebody come here +and carry the gal off almost any time. I can see that danger as +plain as plain!" + +Prudence laughed, yet there was a catch in her voice too. She kissed +the girl's tear-wet face tenderly. Sheila's heart throbbed so that +she could scarcely go on with the task of shaving Cap'n Ira. How +could she continue to live this lie before two people who were so +infinitely kind to her and who loved her so tenderly? + +And the girl loved them in return. It was no selfish thought which +held Sheila Macklin here in the old house on Wreckers' Head. She had +put aside all concern for her own personal comfort or ease. Had it +not been for her desire to shield Tunis and continue to aid and +comfort Cap'n Ira and Prudence, she might quickly and quietly have +left the place and thus have escaped all possibility of punishment +for the deception she had practiced. + +Yes, had these other considerations not been involved, she would +have run away! Although she chanced to have no money just at this +time, she would have left the Ball homestead and Wreckers' Head and +the town itself and walked so far away that nobody who knew her +would ever see her again. She had thought of doing this even as far +back as the time when she was so lonely and miserable in Boston. +Now, she would willingly have become a tramp for the purpose of +getting out of the affliction which enmeshed her. + +She could not, nevertheless, yield to this temptation. If she ran +away from the Balls and Big Wreck Cove, she would tacitly admit the +truth of all Ida May Bostwick's claims, and possibly involve Tunis +in the wreckage. Therefore she held to her determination of keeping +her place here until she was actually driven forth. + +As a last resort, having now worked out the detail of that plan in +her mind, she believed she could save Tunis from much calumny if it +became positively necessary for her to depart under this cloud and +abandon her place to the real Ida May. The latter must, however, +come with positive proof of her identity--evidence sufficient to +convince Cap'n Ira and Prudence--before Sheila Macklin would release +her grasp upon what she had obtained by trickery and deceit. + +Not for a moment did the girl try to excuse to herself what she had +done. In spite of the Balls' need of her, and in spite of Tunis' +love, Sheila did not try to deceive herself with any sophistry about +the end justifying the deed. Such thinking could not satisfy her +now. + +Sheila's eyes were opened. She beheld before her both the wide and +the narrow way. If she took the pleasanter path, it was with a full +knowledge of what she did. Yet would it be the pleasanter path? She +doubted this. If she continued to fight for a place which was not +hers by right, she must walk for all time in a slippery way. This +claim of the real Ida May might be perennial; the girl might return +again and again to the attack. For years--as long as the Balls lived +and Sheila remained with them--she must be ever on the alert to +defend her position with them. + +And after the good old people died--what then? Their property here +on the Head and their money would no more belong to Sheila Macklin +than it did now. She shrank in horror from the thought of swindling +the real Ida May out of anything which might legally be hers when +the Balls were gone. Of course, Cap'n Ira and Prudence could will +their property to whom they pleased. Still, Ida May was Prudence's +niece! + +As the day dragged on, Ida May did not appear, but the old folks +talked about her continually, until Sheila thought she must cry +aloud to them to stop. + +"The poor thing must be half-witted, of course," Mrs. Ball said +ruminatively. "Can't be otherwise. But she must have known +something about Sarah Honey and her folks." + +"Seems likely," agreed Cap'n Ira. + +"Now, you know, Ira, Sarah was an orphan and I was her mother's only +relation--and only that in a kind of a left-handed way, for I wasn't +really her aunt. That branch of the Honeys--Sarah's father's +folks--had all died out. Sarah lived about--kinder from pillar to +post as you might say--till she went to Boston and met Mr. Bostwick. +Isn't that so, Ida May?" + +"Yes. So I understand," agreed the girl faintly. + +"Now, you don't remember your mother much, Ida May," pursued +Prudence confidently. "You was too young when she died. And you +being brought up among the Bostwicks, you didn't know much about us +down here on the Cape. But don't you remember any neighbor that +lived near you there in Boston that had a gal something like this +crazy one that come here?" + +"I swan!" ejaculated Cap'n Ira. "You're coming out strong, old +woman, I do say." + +Sheila could only shake her head. + +"Why, see," said Prudence, encouraged by her husband's commendation, +"there might have been a neighbor woman that Sarah--your mother, you +know, Ida May--was close acquainted with. Maybe she used to talk +with this neighbor a good deal about her young days, and how she +lived down here. You know women often gossip that way." + +"I'll say they do!" put in Cap'n Ira, tapping the knob of his cane. + +"Well, now," said the old woman, greatly interested in her own idea, +and a little proud of it, "suppose that neighbor had a little girl +who heard all these things Sarah Bostwick might have said. And if +that child's brain wasn't just right--if she was a little +weak-minded, poor thing--what's more reasonable than that she +treasured it all up in her mind and after years, in one of her +spells of weak-mindedness, she got the idea _she_ was Ida May +Bostwick, and determined to come here and visit us!" + +"I swan, Prudence!" exclaimed Cap'n Ira. "It's like a story-book--a +reg'lar novel." + +"Well, it might be," said his wife, smiling quite proudly. + +"Only after all, that gal didn't seem so very weak-minded," muttered +Cap'n Ira. "She seemed more mean and ugly than weak." + +Sheila had thought somewhat along this line herself. At least, she +knew how weak the real Ida May's story must sound to most people in +the neighborhood, unless the claimant had actual proof of birth and +name to bolster her attempt to win the Balls. There was but a +tenuous thread connecting Ida May with Big Wreck Cove, or any other +part of Cape Cod. The Bostwicks--the girl's immediate family, at +least--were dead. + +These facts, already gathered by Sheila from Aunt Prudence's +conversation with the neighboring women, were the foundation on +which she had built her desperate hope of keeping up the deception +and thwarting the other girl, no matter how bitterly the latter +might press her claim. + +Nor was she, Sheila felt, depriving Ida May of anything which the +latter, if she obtained it, would actually prize. The shallow girl +was not the sort of person to appreciate the kindness of the two old +people or give them any comfort and sympathy in return. Why, both +Cap'n Ira and Prudence already shrank from the new claimant! + +This fact, however, did not cause Sheila, the imposter, to lose +sight of the point that Cap'n Ira and his wife could both be very +stern in attitude and speech toward the evildoer. They made no +compromises with evil. + +Even the old man, philosophical as he was and wont to look upon most +human frailities with a lenient if not a humorous eye, would not +excuse actual crime. And something very like a crime had been +committed. + +The day passed without any reappearance of Ida May upon Wreckers' +Head, but just after nightfall and while the supper dishes were +being cleared away, Zebedee Pauling knocked at the kitchen door. All +three of the Ball household looked upon the young fellow +expectantly when he stepped in. + +"I was just passing by and thought I'd look in and see how you all +were," said Zeb, with his usual shy manner and apologetic smile. + +"Come in and set down, Zeb," said the captain eagerly. "I cal'late +you've got some news for us." + +"I don't know," said Zeb thoughtfully, "but what you've got some +news that might satisfy mom and me. That is, about that girl Tunis +brought to the house." + +"What about her, Zeb?" queried Prudence anxiously. + +"Mom and I would be glad to know what you know about her," said +Zebedee. "She--she 'pears to have a--a great imagination." + +"I shouldn't wonder," Cap'n Ira snorted. + +"She don't act crazy, but she certainly talks crazy," the visitor +went on emphatically. "Why, she says the most ridiculous things +about--about Miss Bostwick!" He bowed and blushed as he spoke the +name and looked penitently toward Sheila. "Why, she declares _her_ +name is Bostwick!" + +"That's what she done up here," said Cap'n Ira grimly. "I cal'late +she means to kick up a fuss. Is she still stopping with your mother, +Zeb?" + +"Yes. She paid a week's board money down. I expect mom wouldn't have +taken her, or it, if Tunis hadn't brought her." + +"That wasn't Tunis' fault," snapped the old man. "He had to get +shet of her somehow. We expect she'll try to make trouble." + +"Oh, as for that," said Zeb, with some relief, "I don't see, even if +she is your niece, why she should expect you to take her in if you +don't want to!" + +"She ain't," said Cap'n Ira flatly. "You can take that from me, +Zeb." + +"Not any relation at all?" + +"None at all, as far as we know," declared the captain. + +"Then what does she want to talk the way she does, for?" cried the +young man. "I told mom she was crazy, and now I know she is." + +"I guess likely," agreed the old man, taking upon himself the burden +of the explanation. "None of us up here ever saw the gal before. +Neither Prudence nor me nor Ida May. She's loony!" + +"I told mom so," reiterated Zeb, with a great sigh of relief. "I +know what she said must be a pack of foolishness. But you know how +mom is. I--" + +"She's soft. I know," returned Cap'n Ira. + +"She's so tender-hearted," explained Zeb. "The girl talks so. She's +talked mom not into believing in her, but into kind of listening and +sympathizing with her. And now, to-night, she's took her to see +Elder Minnett." + +"What? I swan! To see the elder!" ejaculated Cap'n Ira. "What she +needs is a doctor, not a minister. What do you think of that, +Prudence?" + +"I hope Elder Minnett will be able to put her in better mind," +sighed his wife. "That girl must have a very wicked heart, indeed, +if she isn't really crazy." + + + + +CHAPTER XXVI + +ELDER MINNETT HAS HIS SAY + + +Another night counted among the interminable nights which have +dragged their slow length across the couch of sleeplessness. To +Sheila, lying in the four-poster--a downy couch, indeed, for a quiet +conscience--the space of time after she blew out her lamp and until +the dawn passed like the sluggish coils of some Midgard serpent. An +eternity in itself. + +She came down to her daily tasks again with no change in her looks, +although her voice had the same placid, kindly tone which had +cheered the old people for these many weeks. But they both were +worried about her. + +"Maybe she's been working too hard, Prudence," ventured the old man. +"Can it be so, d'ye think?" + +"She says she likes to work. She's a marvel of a housekeeper, Ira. I +don't mean to put too much on her, but I can't do much myself, spry +as I do feel this fall. And she won't let me, anyway." + +"I know, I know," muttered Cap'n Ira. "She's with you like she is +with me. Always running to help me, or to pick up something I let +fall, or to fetch and carry. A kinder girl never breathed. I swan! +What should we do without her, Prue? That Tunis--" + +"Sh!" Prudence begged him. "Don't chaff no more about that, Ira." + +"Why not?" he asked. "Though I don't feel much like chaffing when I +think of them getting married. 'Tis a pretty serious business for +us, Prudence." + +"I had a chance to hint about it last night when you went outside +with Zebedee," whispered his wife, "I spoke about Tunis. She--she +says she'll never leave us to marry Tunis or any other man." + +"What's that?" ejaculated Cap'n Ira. "He wouldn't agree to come and +live here, I reckon. What would become of his Aunt 'Cretia? I don't +guess there's any fear of her getting married, is there?" + +"No, no! Don't be funnin'! But Ida May said just that--in so many +words." + +"She's mad with him, do you cal'late? They had a tiff!" cried her +husband. "And they were like two turtledoves the night that other +gal come here. It don't seem possible. I swan! _That's_ why she's so +on her beam ends, I bet a cake!" + +"It may be. She wouldn't say much. I didn't understand, though, +that they had quarreled. Only that she'd made up her mind that she +wouldn't marry." + +"Oh, she'll change her mind!" said Cap'n Ira, wagging his head. + +"Do you think so? Not so easy. You'd ought to know by this time how +firm Ida May can be." + +"The Lord help Tunis then," said Cap'n Ira emphatically. "But his +loss is our gain. Ain't no two ways about that." + +Sheila's secret thoughts were not calculated to calm her soul. Her +determination braced her body as well as her mind to go about her +daily tasks with her usual thoroughness, but she could not confront +the old people with even a ghost of her usual smile. So she kept out +of their way as much as possible and communed alone with her bitter +thoughts. + +The uncertainty of what Ida May was doing and saying down there in +Big Wreck Cove was not all that agitated Sheila. Her conscience, so +long lulled by her peaceful existence here with the two old people, +was now continually censuring her. + +Sin brings its own secret punishment, though the sinner may hide the +effects of the punishment for a long time. But Sheila could not now +conceal the effect of the mental pain and the remorse she suffered. + +Of one thing she might be sure. The neighbors had not as yet heard +about the real Ida May or heard her story. Otherwise some of the +women living on the Head would have been in to hear the particulars +from Prudence. + +But that afternoon the throaty chug of Elder Minnett's little +car--it had created almost a scandal in Big Wreck Cove when he +bought it--was heard mounting the road to the Head. + +"I swan!" commented Cap'n Ira, who sat at the sunny sitting-room +window, for it was a cold day. "Here comes that tin wagon of the +elder's. But he's alone. Get on your best bib and tucker, Prudence, +for there ain't any doubt but what he's headin' in this way." + +"Oh, dear me!" fluttered his wife. "I wonder what he's going to say. +Make the tea strong, Ida May. The elder likes it so it'll about bear +up an egg. And open a jar of that quince jam. I wish we had fresh +biscuits, although them you made for dinner were light as feathers." + +"I'll make some now. There's a hot oven," replied the girl. + +"No, no," interposed Cap'n Ira firmly. "I want you should sit in +here with us and hear all the elder's got to say." + +"Perhaps, Uncle Ira, he will want to talk to you and Aunt Prue +privately." + +"There won't be no private talk about you, Ida May," snorted the +captain, his keen eyes sparkling. "Not much! If he's got anything to +say to your aunt and me, he's got to say it in your hearing." + +The elder was a tall and bony man with a stiff brush of gray beard +and bushy hair to match, which seemed as uncompromising as his +doctrinal discourses in the pulpit. He was an old-fashioned +preacher, but not wholly an old-fashioned thinker. + +Sheila had thought, on the few occasions when she had met him away +from his pulpit, that there was an undercurrent of humanity in him +quite equal to that in Cap'n Ira Ball, but his personal appearance +and rather gruff manner made it difficult for one to be sure of the +measure of his tenderness. + +How Elder Minnett appeared in the sick room or in the house of +sorrow, she did not know. She could not very well imagine his being +tender at any time with the sinner at whom he thundered from the +pulpit. Secretly she trembled at the old clergyman's approach. + +"Well, Elder!" was the warm greeting of Prudence at the front door +when the rattling automobile came to a wheezing halt before the +gate. "Do tell! Ira said he see you coming up the road, and I was +determined you shouldn't drive by without speaking. Do come in." + +"I propose to, Sister Ball," was the grim-lipped reply. + +He came into the house and took the proffered chair in the sitting +room. They spoke of the weather, of the tide, and of the clam +harvest. The farm crops back of Big Wreck Cove did not interest +Cap'n Ira. + +"Well," said the elder finally, clearing his throat, "I've come up +here on an errand you can possibly guess, Cap'n Ira and Sister +Ball." + +"Maybe we can and maybe we can't," observed the captain with a +countenance quite as wooden as the elder himself displayed. + +"I come on behalf of that young woman who was here to see you the +other day." + +"It's my opinion you'd done better to have gone to the insane asylum +folks about her," rejoined Cap'n Ira. + +"Now, Ira!" said Prudence softly. + +"Seeing it as you do, Cap'n Ira," the elder remarked quite equably, +"I conclude that you might think that. But you formed your judgment +in the heat of--well, not anger, of course--but without sufficient +reflection." + +"Humph!" grunted Cap'n Ira noncommittally. + +"I have talked with that young woman on two occasions," said the +elder. + +"With what young woman?" interrupted Cap'n Ira. + +"With the girl staying at the Widow Pauling's. The girl who claims +to be your niece." + +"You'd better talk with the other young woman," said Cap'n Ira +sternly. "Ida May! Just you come in here and sit down. You are as +much interested as we be, I guess. _This_ is Ida May Bostwick, +Elder Minnett," he added, as Sheila entered. + +"Yes, yes. I have had the pleasure," said the elder, bowing gravely +without offering to shake hands. He turned abruptly to Prudence. +"You are quite convinced in your own mind, Sister Ball, that the +young woman at the Pauling's is not your niece?" + +"Why, Elder Minnett," returned Prudence, "how _can_ she be? Ida May +is Sarah Honey's only child, and Sarah was only distantly related to +me. There never was another girl in the family--not like that one +that came here the other day, for sure!" And the old woman shook her +head emphatically. + +"That girl you got down there at the port, Elder, is crazy--crazy as +a loon," put in Cap'n Ira harshly. + +"I am not so sure of that," the clergyman said shortly. + +"I swan! Beg your pardon, Elder. No offense. But you don't mean to +say that she seems sane and sensible to you?" + +"Sane--yes! As for being sensible, that is another thing," confessed +Elder Minnett. + +"Huh! What do you mean by that?" asked Cap'n Ira curiously. + +"She has told her story in full to me, and told it twice alike," +said the grim-visaged minister, looking at Sheila as he answered the +query. "An insane person is not so likely to do that, I believe. But +she is not what I would call a sensible young woman. Not at all." + +"I should say not!" gasped Prudence. + +"But I have heard her, and I have reflected on what she has said. I +do not see, if she is an impostor, how she could have made up that +story." + +"Then she _must_ be loony," muttered Cap'n Ira. + +"I presume she told the same story to you that she did to me," +pursued Elder Minnett. "I do not understand Tunis Latham's part in +it, but the rest of her story seems quite reasonable." + +"Reasonable?" repeated Prudence, with some warmth. "Do you call it +reasonable to say what she did about Ida May?" + +"In speaking of the young woman's reasonableness I mean in regard to +the personal details she gave me. What she said in her anger to, or +of, other people has no influence whatsoever on my judgment." + +"Well, it has on mine!" exclaimed Cap'n Ira. "I'd have drove out a +dozen gals that spoke as she did to Prudence and Ida May--crazy or +not!" + +"You would be wrong, Cap'n Ball," said the elder severely. + +"Well, let's have the p'ints the girl makes!" growled the old +shipmaster. "I will listen to 'em." + +Elder Minnett bowed formally and began Ida May's story, checking off +the several assertions she had made when she was at the Ball house +far more clearly than the girl herself had done. As Sheila +listened, her heart sank even lower. It was so very reasonable! How +could the Balls fail to be impressed? + +But Cap'n Ira and Prudence listened with more of a puzzled +expression in their countenances than anything else. It seemed +altogether wild and improbable to them. Why! There sat Ida May +before them. There could not be two Ida May Bostwicks! + +"Say!" exclaimed Cap'n Ira suddenly, after Elder Minnett had +concluded, "that girl says she worked at Hoskin & Marl's?" + +"Yes." + +"Why, ain't that where you worked, Ida May?" + +"Yes," was Sheila's faint admission. + +"You never see her there, did you?" + +"I do not remember of having seen her until she came here," the girl +said quite truthfully. + +"Ought to be some way of proving up that," muttered Cap'n Ira. + +"I have written to Hoskin & Marl, at the other young woman's +instigation, and have asked about her," said Elder Minnett. + +"Well, I never!" gasped Prudence, and her withered, old face grew +pink. + +"I hope you will not take offense," said the visitor evenly. "You +must understand that the young woman has come to me in trouble, and +it is my duty to aid her if I can--in any proper way. That is my +office. _Any_ young woman"--he looked directly at Sheila again as he +said it--"will find in me an adviser and a friend whenever she may +need my help." + +"We all know how good you are, Elder Minnett," Prudence hastened to +say. "But that girl--" + +"That girl," he interrupted, "is a human being needing help. I have +advised her. Now I want to advise you." + +"Out with it, Elder," said Cap'n Ira. "Good advice ain't to be +sneezed at--not as I ever heard." + +"I have the other young woman's promise that she will tell her story +to nobody else--nobody at all--until I can hear from those whom she +says are her employers. But with the understanding that you will do +your part." + +"What's that?" asked Cap'n Ira quickly. + +"She wants to come up here and stay with you. She says she is sure +you are her relatives. She says if you will let her come, she +will be able to prove to you that she is the real niece you +expected--whom you sent for last summer." + +"Why, she's crazy!" again cried Cap'n Ira. + +"I--I am almost afraid of her," murmured Prudence, looking from +Sheila to her husband. + +"I assure you, Sister Ball, she is not insane. She is harmless." + +"She didn't talk as though she was when she was here--not by a +jugful," declared Cap'n Ira bitterly. + +"That was because she was angry," explained Elder Minnett +patiently. "You must not judge her by her appearance when she came +here the other day and found--as she declares--another girl in her +rightful place." + +"I swan!" exclaimed the old shipmaster, bursting out again. "I won't +stand for that. Her rightful place, indeed! Why, if she was forty +times Prudence's niece and we didn't want her here, what's to make +us take her, I want to know?" + +"Do you think we ought to, Elder?" questioned Prudence faintly. + +"I think, under all the circumstances, that it is your Christian +duty. Know the girl better. See if there is not something in her +that reminds you--" + +"Avast there!" shouted Cap'n Ira, pounding with his cane on the +floor. "That's going a deal too far. 'Christian duty,' indeed! How +about our duty to Ida May setting there, and to ourselves? Prudence +is afraid of that crazy gal in the first place." + +"I give you my word she is not insane." + +"That's your opinion," said the captain grimly. "I wouldn't back it +with my word, Elder, unless I was prepared to go the whole v'y'ge. +Do you mean to say that you accept that gal's story as true--in all +partic'lars?" + +"I don't say that." + +"Then I shall stick to my opinion. She's as loony as she can be. And +I am plumb against insulting our Ida May by letting the girl come +up here. What do you say, Prudence?" + +The old woman was much perturbed. Elder Minnett was a minister of +the gospel. To be told by him that it was her Christian duty to take +a certain course bore much weight with Prudence Ball. + +But when she looked at Sheila, sitting there so pale and silent, and +realized that on her head all this was falling, the old woman rose +up, burst into tears, and threw herself into the girl's arms. + +"No, no!" she sobbed. "Don't let her come here, Ira. We don't want +her. We don't want anybody but Ida May whom we love so dear, and who +we know loves us. We can't do it, Elder Minnett! Why, if they should +come and tell me--and prove it--that Ida May wasn't our niece and +that other girl was, I couldn't bear the creature 'round. No, I +couldn't. I couldn't forgive anybody that would separate us from +this dear, dear girl!" + +Cap'n Ira had got upon his feet and was leaning forward on his cane. +With a shaking finger he drew the elder's attention to the two +women, rocking in each other's arms. + +"You hear that? You see that?" demanded the captain brokenly, the +tears starting from his own eyes and finding gutters down his +cleanly shaved cheeks. "That's your answer, Elder! You have some +idea how Prudence and I longed for young company in this house, and +somebody to help and comfort us. _And we got her._ + +"Ida May come to us like the falling of manna in the wilderness for +them spent and wandering Israelites. She has been to us more than +ever we dared hope for. If she was our own child and had growed up +here on Wreckers' Head our own born daughter, I couldn't think no +more of her. + +"And you come here and ask us to give countenance for a moment to a +half-witted girl that says she belongs here in Ida May's place, and +claiming Ida May's name. More than that, she saying that our own +girl that we love so is a liar and an impostor and altogether +bad--such as she must be if she had fooled us so. I swan! Elder, I +should think you'd have more sense." And Cap'n Ira concluded +abruptly and with a return to his usual self-control. + +The silence which ensued was only broken by the old woman's sobs. +Cap'n Ira, frankly wiping his own eyes with the great silk +handkerchief which he usually flourished when he took snuff, strode +across the room and patted Prudence's withered shoulder. He said +nothing, nor did the elder. It was Sheila who broke the silence at +last. + +She had stood up. Now she put Prudence tenderly into Cap'n Ira's +arms. She gave him, too, such a thankful, beaming glance that the +old man was almost staggered. For he had not seen one of those +smiles for more than two days. + +"Elder Minnett," Sheila said, and her voice was quite steady, "I +think it is my place to speak." + +"Yes?" was the noncommittal response of the grim old minister. + +"I should not think for a moment of doubting your judgment in such a +matter. If you say Cap'n Ira and Mrs. Ball should receive this--this +girl here while the matter is being examined, I hope they will agree +with you and allow her to come." + +"Why, Ida May!" gasped Prudence. + +"That gal's an angel! She ain't nothing but an angel!" marveled +Cap'n Ira. + +"But I think," said Sheila, "that the girl should be made to promise +that while she is here, and if she comes here, that she will not +speak to anybody outside this room at the present time of the claim +she makes--especially as it seems to affect Captain Latham." + +"I swan! That's so! He's got a wage and share in this thing, ain't +he? And he ain't here to defend himself, if we be." + +The elder nodded slowly. His gaze did not leave Sheila's face. + +"I think I can promise that in her name. Indeed, I had already +extracted such a promise before I would undertake to come up here. I +have warned Mrs. Pauling not to repeat a word the girl said to her. +And Zebedee is a prudent young man." + +"I told Zeb myself to keep his hatch battened," growled Cap'n Ira. +"But, I swan, Ida May! I don't see how you can bear to have the +crazy critter here. And Prudence--" + +"If Ida May says she is willing," sighed the old woman, glad to be +able to set a course not opposed to her minister's advice. + +"Thank you, young woman," Elder Minnett said, speaking grimly enough +to Sheila. "Those who have nothing to fear can afford to be +generous. You have done right." + +The subject was dropped--to the relief of all of them. Tea was +poured from the marble-topped, black-walnut table, and Sheila passed +biscuit, jam, cakes, and other delicacies. She performed her part of +the ceremony with apparent calm. She did not speak to the elder +again, nor he to her, save when she ran out to carry forgotten +gloves to him when he had climbed into the automobile. + +The grim old man shot her through with the keenest of keen glances +as he accepted the gloves. + +"I don't think, young woman," he said softly, "that you are likely +to put poison in that other girl's tea--as she says she's afraid you +will." + +Then he drove away. + + + + +CHAPTER XXVII + +CAP'N IRA SPEAKS OUT + + +Wrung as Sheila's heart had been by the expression of the old +woman's utter confidence in her and by Cap'n Ira's warm words of +approbation spoken before the elder, it was nevertheless for Tunis +Latham's sake that she had abetted the minister's desire and had +agreed that the real Ida May Bostwick should come to the Ball house +on Wreckers' Head. + +By extracting a promise from Ida May that she would talk to nobody +for the present--especially about the connection of the captain of +the _Seamew_ with Ida May's affairs--Sheila believed she had entered +a wedge which might open the way for the young man to escape from a +situation which threatened both his reputation and his peace of +mind. + +To save Tunis! She was fairly obsessed by that thought. Her vow +before the picture of Tunis' mother in the _Seamew's_ cabin must be +in Sheila's view to the very end. She had a sufficient share of +that vision of the Celt to be deeply impressed by a promise made as +that had been made--though in secret. It was a sacred pledge. + +It was no easy matter for any of the Ball household to consider the +coming of Ida May with serenity. Prudence, at heart, shrank from the +claimant on her hospitality almost as much as Sheila did. If Cap'n +Ira hid his perturbation better than the others, he nevertheless +hobbled about with a very solemn countenance. + +"I swan!" he muttered within Sheila's hearing. "It's most like there +was a corpse in the house. This ain't no way to live. I do wish +Elder Minnett could have minded his own business and let well enough +alone. Let the girl talk, and other folks, too. Trying to stop +gossip is like trying to put your finger on a drop of quicksilver. +There won't be no good come o' that girl being here. That's as sure +as sure." + +The elder's car came wheezing up the hill again about the middle of +the forenoon. He did not alight himself, but Ida May needed the +presence of nobody to lend her assurance. She hopped out of the car +with her bag and flaunted her cheap finery through the gate and in +at the front door. + +Her reception at this end of the house marked the unmistakable fact +that Prudence and Cap'n Ira received her as a stranger rather than +in a confidential way. + +"Well, Aunt Prue! For you are my aunt whatever you may say," was +Ida May's prologue. "And you are my uncle," she added, her +greenish-brown eyes flashing a glance at the grimly observant +captain. "I must say it's pretty shabby treatment I've got from you +so far. But I don't blame you--not at all. I blame that girl and +Tunis Latham." + +"Avast there!" put in Cap'n Ira so sternly and with so threatening a +tone of voice and visage that even Ida May was silenced. "We've let +you come here, my girl, because Elder Minnett asked us to; and not +at all because our opinion of you is changed. Far from it. You're +here on sufferance and you'd best be civil spoken while you remain. +Ain't that the ticket, Prudence?" + +His wife nodded, in full accord with his statement of the situation, +although she could not bear to look so sternly on any person as +Cap'n Ira now looked at Ida May. + +"Well! I like that!" sniffed the girl, tossing her head, but she +actually shrank from the captain. + +"Furthermore, as regards Tunis Latham, you was to say nothing about +him outside of this house if you was let come here. And I warn you, +we don't care to hear nothing in his disfavor _in_ this house." + +"Oh! I can see he's a favorite with you," muttered Ida May. + +"Then trim your sails according," admonished the old man. "In +addition, you mentioned the young woman we already got here in a way +we don't like none too well. I want to impress on your mind that it +was only through her saying she was agreeable to your coming here +that we agreed to the elder's request and let you come." + +"She did, eh?" cried Ida May, flouncing in her chair. "Well, I don't +thank her." + +"No. I cal'late you ain't of a thanking disposition," said Cap'n +Ira. "But you like enough won't drop your bread butter-side down. +That's all." + +Ida May, startled by his speech, stared with less impudence at the +old man. For his part, the captain watched her pretty closely, and +he had met and judged too many people in his day not to form +gradually, as the hours passed, a decided opinion regarding Ida May. + +Nor did he cling to his first impression--the one made in haste and +some vexation, when she had first tried to thrust herself into the +Ball household and demanded the place filled by Sheila Macklin. This +girl certainly was not insane. But with all her apparent smartness, +Cap'n Ira easily saw that she was not intelligent--that she had +scarcely ordinary understanding. Beside the newcomer's shallow +nature and even more shallow endowments, Sheila seemed to be from a +different world. + +"I swan!" whispered Cap'n Ira to Prudence some time later. "The +difference between them two girls! They ain't to be spoke of in the +same county, I declare. Look at that one, Prudence," he said, with a +side glance at the newcomer. "Ain't she a sight with them thin and +flashy clothes?" + +"I can't see anything about her that looks like any of the Honeys, +let alone Sarah." + +"Huh! No. Only that her hair's sorter red," returned Cap'n Ira, +"like Sarah's was." + +The visitor proved her position in the household by sitting idly in +a rocking-chair looking over some pictures which were on the table +or staring out of the window. She offered to do nothing for +Prudence. But, of course, Ida May was not very domestic. Living in a +furnished room and working behind the counter in a department store +does not develop the domestic virtues to any appreciable degree. + +She did not see Sheila until dinner was on the table and she was +called to the meal with Cap'n Ira and the old woman. The stiff, +little bow with which Ida May favored the girl in possession was +returned by the latter quite as formally. + +Sheila had regained complete control of voice and face now. Although +she did not actually address Ida May, her manner was such that there +was no restraint put upon the company. It was the newcomer's manner, +if anything, that curtailed the usual friendly intercourse at the +Ball table. + +Ida May possessed some powers of observation. She would have said +herself that she was able to "put two and two together." The way the +meal had been cooked, the way it was served, and the work entailed +in doing both these things, were matters not overlooked by the +visitor. + +She knew that Prudence had given neither thought nor attention to +getting the dinner. The girl the Balls had received in Ida May's +name and supposed identity had done it all herself. It seemed to be +expected of her! + +She saw, before the day was over, that Sheila was a very busy person +indeed. That she not only did the housework, but that she waited +upon Prudence and Cap'n Ira "hand and foot." She did it with such +unconcern that the new girl could be sure these tasks were quite +what was expected of her. + +"Why," exclaimed Ida May to herself, "she's just hired help! Is +_that_ what they wanted me for when they sent Tunis Latham up to +Boston after me? I'd like to see myself!" + +She had foreseen something of this kind when she had refused so +unconditionally to come down here to the Cape. And her observation +of the house and its furnishings, as well as the appearance of the +old couple, had confirmed her suspicion that her belief in the Balls +"being pretty well fixed" was groundless. + +After her interview with Elder Minnett, although she had refrained +from detailing her story and her spiteful comments about Sheila and +Tunis Latham to the Paulings, she had not ceased to question Zebedee +and his mother about the financial condition of the Balls. + +She had learned that a couple of thousand dollars would probably buy +all the real property the old people owned on Wreckers' Head. There +was a certain invested sum which secured them a fair living. Beyond +that, the Big Wreck Cove people knew of no wealth belonging to +either Cap'n Ira or Prudence. + +Ida May already considered that she had come down here to the Cape +on a fool's errand. She would like to make herself solid, however, +with the old folks so as to benefit when they were dead and gone, if +that were possible. But to make herself a kitchen drudge for them? +She would like to see herself! + +There was a phase of the situation which held Ida May to the course +she had set sail upon, and one which would hold her to it to the +bitter end. Her spitefulness and determination to be revenged upon +this unknown girl who had usurped the place originally offered her +by the Balls, and who had stolen her name as well, was quite +sufficient to cause a person of Ida May Bostwick's character to +fight for her rights. + +She would be revenged on Tunis, too. Or, at least, she would make +him, as well as the other girl, suffer for the slight he had put +upon her. + +Had she not preened her feathers and strutted her very best on the +occasion when he interviewed her at Hoskin & Marl's and taken her +out to lunch? And to no end at all! He had been quite unimpressed by +Ida May's airs and graces. + +Yet he would take up with this other girl--a mere nobody. Worse than +a nobody, of course. She must be both a bad and a cunning woman to +have done what it was plain she had done. She had wound Tunis Latham +around her finger, and had hoodwinked the old people in the bargain! + +Ida May saw the other girl waiting on Prudence and Cap'n Ira; she +observed her tenderness toward them and their delight in her +ministrations; and these things which she regarded with her +green-glinting eyes made her taste the bitterness of wormwood. She +hated Sheila more and more as the day wore on; and she scorned the +old people both for what she considered this niggardliness and for +their simplicity, as well, in being fooled by this other girl. + +For, of course, to Ida May's mind, Sheila's kindness and the love +shown for the Balls on her part was all put on. It could not be +otherwise. Ida May Bostwick could not, in the first place, imagine +any sane girl "falling for the two old hicks." + +Prudence could seldom show herself other than kindly toward any +person whether she exactly approved of that person or not. So she +chatted cheerfully at Ida May, if not with her. She was quite as +insistent as Cap'n Ira, however, in keeping away from the vexing +question of the identity of the two girls. + +Right at the first the question had been raised: where should the +visitor be put to sleep? Ida May was prepared to object strenuously +if any slight was put upon her, such as being given some little, +tucked-up attic room away from the rest of the family. Had she +dared, she would have demanded the use of the room the false Ida May +occupied; only she was not sure, after seeing the position Sheila +seemed to hold in the household, that she cared to be put to sleep +in the room of the "hired help." + +But Sheila herself settled that question. + +"The guest room is ready. Aunt Prue," she said to Prudence. "I +cleaned it this week and the little stove is set up in there if it +should grow cold overnight. All the bed needs is aired sheets. I'll +get them out of the press." + +So Prudence took Ida May to the guest chamber, which was beyond the +parlor. A black-walnut set, which had been the height of +magnificence when Cap'n Ira and Prudence were married, filled the +shade-drawn room with shadows. There was an ingrain carpet on the +floor of a green groundwork with pale-yellow flowers on it, of a +genus known to no botanist. The tidies on the chair backs were so +stiff with starch that it would be a punishment to lay one's head +against them. + +On a little marble-topped table between the windows was something +made of shells and seaweed in a glass-topped case. It looked to Ida +May like a dead baby in a coffin. + +"Of all the junk!" she muttered to herself when Prudence left her to +arrange the contents of her bag as she chose. "And that girl likes +it here! Well, I'll show her who's who and what's what! + +"I'd like to know where I ever saw her face before? I bet it was +somewhere she'd no business to be--just as she has sneaked in here +where she doesn't belong. The nasty, hateful thing! + +"If Bessie Dole or Mayme Leary could only see this dump!" she added, +looking over the room again. "Anyhow, I've made 'em give me the best +they've got. I'll show 'em how to treat a _real_ relation that comes +to see 'em." + +Supper time came and passed no more cheerfully than had the midday +meal. The society of the old people was anything but enlivening for +Ida May. In desperation she began to talk, and out of sheer +perverseness she lighted upon the subject of the establishment of +Hoskin & Marl. + +Now Prudence found this topic of interest, for since Annabel +Coffin--she who was a Buttle--had dilated upon those great marts of +trade in Boston, the old woman had been vastly curious. Sheila had +never cared to talk of her experiences as saleswoman behind the +counter. + +"They tell me they sell most everything you could name in those +stores," Prudence said reflectively. "Heaps of dry goods, I suppose. +Let me see, what did you sell, my dear?" + +"I'm in the laces," said Ida May. "But Hoskin & Marl sell lots +besides dry goods." + +"Oh, yes! Annabel did say something about automobiles and--and +plasters; didn't she, Ira?" + +"Goodness knows," rejoined her husband with a groan. "Annabel Coffin +said so much the last time she was here that my head buzzes now when +I think of her." + +"Now, you hesh!" said Prudence. "Never can interest a man in such +things. So you sold laces, did you, my dear? Oh, Ida May!" she +exclaimed suddenly to Sheila, sitting on the other side of the +table. "Ida May, what did you say you sold in that store? You worked +for Hoskin & Marl, didn't you?" + +"Ye-es. I--I was in the silverware and jewelry department," +stammered Sheila, the question coming so unexpectedly that she could +not exercise consideration before making answer. + +"Now, is that so?" cried Prudence. "That must have been nice. To +handle all them pretty things. But lace is pretty, too," she added, +turning quickly to the guest again. "I expect you find it so." + +The old woman was startled into silence by the expression she saw +upon Ida May's face. The latter was glaring across the table at +Sheila. No other word could so express the intense and malevolent +look in those greenish-brown eyes and on that sharp countenance. + +Sheila's gaze was enthralled as well by Ida May's sudden emotion. +She half rose from her chair. But her strength left her limbs again, +and she fell back into the seat. + +"What's the matter, Ida May?" demanded Cap'n Ira, in wonder and +alarm. + +The real Ida May sprang up with a shriek. She shook her hand at +Sheila and for a moment could not articulate. Then she said: + +"I know her now! I knew I'd seen that creature before and I thought +I'd remember what and who she is. And she dares come down here and +sneak her way into honest people's houses! The gall of her!" + + + + +CHAPTER XXVIII + +GONE + + +"Looker here, girl!" exclaimed Cap'n Ira sternly. Putting his hand +upon Ida May's shoulder, he forced her down into her chair again. +His own eyes gleamed angrily, and his countenance expressed his +wrath. "What was you told on coming here? Didn't you promise to keep +a taut line on all that foolishness? I won't stand for it. No, +Prudence!" he exclaimed, as his wife tried to interfere. "I won't +stand for it. She must either keep away from that business, or I'll +put her right out of the house. Leastways, it being night, I'll send +her to her room." + +"Do you think you can boss me like that?" cried Ida May hotly, so +angry herself that she forgot her fear of him. "I'm not your slave, +nor your hired help, like that creature." She pointed scornfully at +Sheila. "And you'll just listen to something I've got to say. If you +don't, I'll go out to-morrow and tell everybody in this hick town. +I'll hire a hall to tell 'em in!" + +"Won't--won't you be good, deary?" begged Prudence, before her +husband could make any rejoinder to this defiance. "You know you +promised Elder Minnett you would be if we let you come here." + +"I don't want to stay here. I've seen enough of this place and you +all! And I would be ashamed to stay any longer than I can help with +folks that take in such a girl as she is." + +Again Ida May's little claw indicated Sheila, who stared, +speechless, helpless, at least for the time being. The harassed girl +could fight for herself no longer. She knew that she was on the +verge of betrayal. She could not stem the tide of Ida May's venom. +The latter must make the revelation which had threatened ever since +she had come to Wreckers' Head. There was no way of longer +smothering the truth. It would come out! + +"Look here," Cap'n Ira said, his curiosity finally aroused, "the +elder says you ain't crazy! But it looks to me--" + +"I'm not crazy, I can tell you," snapped Ida May, taking him up +short. "But I guess you and Aunt Prue must be. Why, you don't even +know the name of this girl you took in instead of me--in my rightful +place. But I can tell you who she is--and what she's done. I +remember her now. I knew I'd seen her before--the hussy!" + +"Belay that!" exclaimed Cap'n Ira. + +But he said it faintly. He was looking at the other girl now, and +something in her expression and in her attitude made him lose +confidence. His voice died in his throat. Ida May Bostwick had the +upper hand at last--and she kept it. + +"Look at her," she exulted, the green lights in her brown eyes +glinting like the sparkling eyes of a serpent. "Look at her. She +knows that I know. She's come down here and fooled you all, but she +can't fool you any longer. And that Tunis Latham! Why, it can't be +possible he knew what she was from the first!" + +"See here," said Cap'n Ira shakily. "What do you mean? What are you +getting at--or trying to? If you got anything to say about Ida May, +get it out and be over with it." + +"Oh, Ira! Don't! Stop her!" wailed Prudence. + +Like the old man, Prudence finally realized that there was something +wrong--something very wrong, indeed--with the girl they had known +for months as Ida May and whom they had learned to love so dearly. + +Nobody looking at Sheila could doubt this for a moment. Her tortured +expression of countenance, the wild light in her eyes, her trembling +lips, advertised to the beholders that the last bastion of her +fortress was taken, that the wall was breached and into that breach +now marched the triumphant phrases of the real Ida May's bitter, +gloating speech. + +"Look at her!" repeated the latter. "She can't deny it now. She +knows I know her and what she is. Why, Aunt Prue--and you, Captain +Ball--have been fooled nice, I must say. And that Tunis Latham! +Well, he can't be much!" + +"Don't--don't say anything against Tunis!" + +It was not a voice at all like the usual mellow tones of Sheila +Macklin which uttered those faint words. Hoarse, strained, +uncertain, there was yet a note of command in the phrase which had +its influence on the wildly excited Ida May. + +"I'll say what I've got to say about _you_, miss!" she exclaimed +with exultation. "And you--nor they--shan't stop me. You're the girl +that was arrested in the store for stealing. It must have been +two--why, it must have been more than three years ago. I hadn't +worked there but a little while. No wonder I didn't remember you at +first." + +Cap'n Ira vented a groan and caught at his wife's hand. She was +sobbing frantically. She still murmured her plea for the captain to +stop the awful revelation Ida May was bent on making. But the latter +gave no heed and the captain himself was speechless. + +"And I can't remember her name even now," went on Ida May, flashing +a look at the Balls. Their pitiful appearance made no impression +upon her. "But that don't matter. I guess they've got your record at +Hoskin & Marl's. You worked there all right; sure you worked there, +in the jewelry section. You stole something. I saw the store +detective, Miss Hopwell, take you up to the manager's office. I +never heard what they did to you, but they did a plenty, I bet." + +She turned confidently again to the horrified captain and his wife. + +"Just see how she looks. She don't deny it. How she managed to work +that Tunis Latham into bringing her down here, I don't know. She +pulled the wool over his eyes all right. + +"Why, she's a thief! She was arrested! I guess you can see now that +I'm not crazy--far from it. She won't dare say again that she is Ida +May Bostwick. I--guess--not!" + +The malevolent exultation of the girl was fearful to behold. But +neither Cap'n Ira nor Prudence now looked at Ida May. Leaning +against her husband, the tears coursing over her withered cheeks, +Prudence joined Cap'n Ira in gazing at the other girl. + +She rose slowly to her feet. Something like strength came back to +her; even into her voice, as Sheila again spoke. Nor did she look at +Ida May, but fixed her feverish gaze upon the two old people. + +"What--what she says is true--as far as I am concerned. But--but +Tunis did not know. It is not his fault. I was desperate. I heard +what he said to--to Miss Bostwick. I chanced to overhear it. I was +desperate; I hated the city. I was willing to take a chance for the +sake of getting among people who would be kind to me--who were +good." + +"Bah!" exclaimed Ida May raucously. "You're not fit to go among good +people!" + +Sheila did not heed her. She spoke slowly--haltingly, but what she +said held the old people silent. + +"Tunis is not to blame. I told him this--this girl"--she pointed to +Ida May, but did not look at her--"was not the right Miss Bostwick. +I said that I was the girl he wanted to see. I made him think so. I +tricked him. Don't listen to her!" she added wildly, as the enraged +Ida May would have interposed. "Tunis thought she had talked to him +just for a joke. I made him believe that. I--I would have done +anything then to get away from the city and to come down here. +Perhaps he was at fault because he did not take more time to find +out about me--to be sure I was the right girl. But he cannot be +blamed for anything else. I tell you, it was all my fault." + +"I don't believe it!" snapped Ida May. + +But Cap'n Ira put her aside with his hand, and there was returned +firmness in his voice. + +"Is this the truth? Are you what she says you are?" he asked. + +"Oh, don't, Ira!" gasped his sobbing wife. "She--" + +"We've got to learn the straight of it," said the old man sternly. +"If we've been bamboozled, we've got to know it. Now's the time for +her to speak." + +Sheila was still gazing at him. She nodded, indicating that his +question was already answered. + +"You--you mean to say you stole--like she says?" + +"I was arrested in Hoskin & Marl's. They accused me of stealing. +Yes." + +She said no more. She turned, when he did not speak again, and +walked slowly to the stairway door. She opened it and went up, +closing the door behind her. + +It was Ida May who moved first when she was gone. She jumped up once +more and started for the stairway. + +"I'll tell her what's what!" she ejaculated. "The gall of her to +come here and say she was me and get my rightful place! I'll put her +out with my own hands!" + +Somehow--it would be hard to say just how--Cap'n Ira was before her, +ere she could arrive at the stairway door. + +"Avast!" he said throatily. "Don't take too much upon yourself, +young woman. You don't quite own these premises--yet." + +"You ain't going to stand for her stayin' here any longer, are you?" +demanded the amazed Ida May. + +"Whether or not she stays here is more my business and Prudence's +business than it is yours," said the old man. "But there's one thing +sure, and you may as well l'arn it first as last: you're not to +speak to her nor do anything else to annoy her. Understand?" + +"You--you--" + +"Heed what I tell ye!" said Cap'n Ira, grim-lipped and with flashing +eyes. "You interfere with that girl in any way and it won't be her +I'll put out o' the house. I'll put you out--night though it is--and +you'll march yourself down to the port and to the Widder Pauling's +alone. Understand me?" + +There was silence again in the kitchen, save for Prudence's pitiful +sobbing. + + * * * * * + +In Tunis Latham's mind as he came up from the port four days later +was visioned no part of the tragedy which had occurred at the Ball +homestead during his absence on this last voyage to Boston. He had +suffered trouble enough during the trip even to dull the smart of +Sheila's renunciation of him before he had left the Head. Indeed, he +could scarcely realize even now that she had meant what she +said--that she could mean it! + +So brief had been their dream of love--only since that recent Sunday +when they walked the beaches about the foot of Wreckers' Head--that +it seemed to the captain of the _Seamew_ it could not be so soon +over. If Sheila really and truly loved him, how could anything part +them? + +When he considered her wild manner and her trenchant words when last +he had seen her, however, his heart sank. He had gained during the +few months of their acquaintance a pretty accurate idea of how firm +she could be--how unwavering in face of any difficulty. He realized +that her obstinacy, when her mind was once settled on a course of +action, was not easily overcome. She had declared that they could +not be lovers any longer; that the situation which had arisen +through the appearance of the real Ida May upon Wreckers' Head had +made her decision necessary; and she had refused to consider any +other outcome of this dreadful affair. + +In his business there was much which would have disturbed Tunis in +any event. The negro cook had deserted the _Seamew_ the moment after +she touched the Boston wharf. Although the other hands had remained +by the schooner until she had just now dropped anchor in the cove +below, he was not at all sure that they would sail with him for +another voyage. + +Why these new men should be more troubled by the silly tattle of the +hoodoo than even the Portygees had been was a problem Tunis could +not solve. And seamen were so scarce just then in Boston that he had +been obliged to risk another voyage without engaging strangers to +man the _Seamew_. Besides, being a true Cape Codder, he disliked +hiring other than Cape men to work the schooner. + +For one thing he could be grateful. Orion Latham had taken his chest +ashore this very day. And Zebedee Pauling had offered himself in +Orion's place on the wharf as Tunis had just now come ashore. + +He had been glad to take on Zeb in place of his cousin. And from +young Pauling he had learned at least one piece of news connected +with affairs on Wreckers' Head. Zeb told him that the girl he had +brought to the Pauling house had talked with Elder Minnett and that +the elder had later taken her up to the Ball house, where she had +remained. + +There was not much gossip about the matter it seemed. Nobody seemed +to know who the young woman was; nor did Zeb know what was going on +at the Ball homestead. It was with this slight information only that +Tunis now approached the old place. He saw Cap'n Ira hobbling into +the barn, but he saw nobody else about. + +The day was gray, and a chill wind crept over the brown earth, +rustling the dead stalks of the weeds and curling little spirals of +dust in the road which rose no more than a foot or two, then fell +again, despairingly. In any event the young shipmaster must have +felt the oppression of the day and the lingering season. His spirits +fell lower, and he came to the Ball place with such a feeling of +depression that he hesitated about turning in at the gate at all. + +As Cap'n Ira did not at once come out of the barn, the younger man +made his way there instead of going first to the kitchen door. He +shrank from meeting the real Ida May again. At any rate, he wanted +first to get the lay of the land from the old man. + +He looked into the dim interior of the place and for a moment did +not see Cap'n Ira at all. The ghostly face of the Queen of Sheba +appeared at the opening over her manger. Tunis was about to call +when he saw the old man straining upon the lower rungs of the ladder +to reach the loft to pitch down a bunch of fodder. Queenie whinnied +softly. + +"Hello, Cap'n Ira!" Tunis hailed. "What are you doing that for?" He +hastened to cross the barn floor to his aid. "Where's Ida May that +she lets you do this?" + +"Ida May?" The old man repeated the name with such disgust that +Tunis was all but stunned and stopped to eye Cap'n Ira amazedly. +"D'ye think she'd take a step to save me a dozen? Or lift them +lily-white hands of hers to keep Prudence from doing all the work +she has to do? I swan!" + +"What do you mean?" demanded Tunis. "You sound mighty funny, Cap'n +Ira. Hasn't Ida May been doing all and sundry for you for months? Is +she sick?" + +"I--I don't mean _that_ gal," quavered Cap'n Ira. "I mean the real +Ida May." + +He half tumbled off the ladder into Tunis Latham's arms. He clung to +the young man tightly, and, although it was dark in the barn, Tunis +could have sworn that there were tears on the old man's cheeks. + +"Don't you know we've got the right Ida May with us at +last--Prudence's niece that has come here to visit for a while and +play lady? Yes, you was fooled; we was bamboozled. That--that other +gal, Tunis, is a real bad one, I ain't no doubt. She pulled the wool +over your eyes and made a monkey of most everybody, it seems. She--" + +"Who are you talking about?" cried Tunis, in his alarm almost +shaking the old man. + +"I'm telling you the girl you brought down here, thinking she was +Ida May Bostwick, turned out to be somebody else. I don't know who. +Anyway, she ain't no relation of Prudence or me. I ain't blaming you +none, boy; she told us we musn't blame you, for you didn't know the +truth about her, either." + +"Cap'n Ira, where is she?" demanded the younger man hoarsely. + +"She ain't here. She's gone. She left four nights ago--after Ida May +had remembered what she'd done in that big store in Boston. Oh, she +admitted it--" + +"You mean to tell me she's gone? That you don't know where she is?" +almost shouted Tunis. + +"Easy, boy! Remember I got some feeling yet in them arms you was +squeezing. It ain't our fault she went. She left us in the +night--stole out with just a bundle of clothes and things. Left, +Prudence says, every enduring thing she'd got since she come +here--that we give her." + +Tunis groaned. + +"Yes, she's gone. And she's left that other dratted girl in her +place. I swan, Tunis, I'd just as leave have the figgerhead of the +old _Susan Gatskill_ sittin' by our kitchen stove as to have that +useless critter about. She ain't no good to Prudence and me--not at +all!" + + + + +CHAPTER XXIX + +ON THE TRAIL + + +There was but a single idea in Sheila Macklin's mind when she left +those three people in the kitchen and mounted to her room. Indeed, +there was scarcely left to the sadly distracted girl another sane +thought. + +She must leave the house before she could be further questioned. She +hoped that she had said enough to exonerate Tunis. If she said more, +it might be to raise some doubt in the minds of Cap'n Ira and +Prudence as to Tunis' ignorance of her true reputation. She must +escape any cross-examination--on that or any other topic. + +She believed that the captain of the _Seamew_ possessed sufficient +caution to keep secret the particulars of their first meeting until +he had heard from the old people the few false details she had left +in their minds. She had done all she could to make Tunis' reputation +secure in the eyes of those who must know any particulars of his +connection with her. She had kept her vow to the dead woman whom the +young shipmaster had, throughout his life, so revered--his mother. + +She did not light her bedroom lamp until she knew by the sounds from +below that the family had retired for the night. Then, stepping +softly, she went over her small possessions and made a bundle of +those which she had brought with her when she came from Boston. The +articles of apparel purchased with money given her by the Balls she +left in the closet or in the bureau drawers. + +This done, she did not lie down on the bed, but sat by the north +window staring out into the starlit dark. There was no lamp to watch +in the window of Latham's Folly to-night. Tunis was far away. Had +she been prepared for this unexpected catastrophe, she would have +been far, far away from Wreckers' Head before Tunis returned. + +As it chanced, she possessed very little money--scarcely more than +enough to take her to Paulmouth. There she would be no better off +than she was at Big Wreck Cove. Sheila was not, in truth, quite +accountable for her actions at this time. To get away from the Ball +house was her only really clear thought. What followed must fall as +fate directed. + +At the first faint gleam of dawn in the sky, and as the distant +stars paled and disappeared, the girl crept down the stairs with +her bundle, her shoes in her hand, and went out by the kitchen door. +She heard only the deep breathing of the old captain from across the +sitting room and now and then the sobbing breath of Prudence, like +the breathing of a hurt child that has fallen asleep in pain and +half wakes to a realization of it. + +As she turned to close the outer door softly behind her, the girl's +heart throbbed in response to the old woman's sorrow. While she sat +on the bench to lace her shoes the cat, old Tabby, came rubbing and +purring about her skirts. Muffled, as though from a great distance, +a rooster vented a questioning crow as though he doubted that it was +yet time to announce the birth of another day. + +She went to the barn to feed Queenie for the last time. That +outraged old creature displayed her surprised countenance at the +opening above her manger and blew sonorously through her nostrils. +Perhaps the gray mare remembered how she had been aroused at a +similar hour once before, and by Cap'n Ira himself. That experience +must have been keen in the Queen of Sheba's memory if she had any +memory at all. + +But the troubled girl gave the mare less attention than usual, +throwing down some fodder and pouring a measure of corn into the +manger. The mare turned to that with appetite. Corn came not amiss +to Queenie, no matter at what hour it was vouchsafed her. Her sound +old teeth did not stop crunching the kernels as Sheila went out of +the barn. + +From the shed she secured an ax and a spade, as well as a basket. +In spite of her condition of mind she knew exactly what she wanted +to do--and she did it. Had she thought out her intention for +months she could have gone about the matter no more directly and +practically. Yet, had one stopped Sheila and asked her what she +was about--exactly what her intentions were--the query would have +found her unprepared with an answer. + +Both her physical and mental condition precluded Sheila from going +far from the Ball homestead. What she had been through during these +past few days had drained out of her physical vigor as well as all +intellectual freshness. + +When Cap'n Ira Ball had led the feebly protesting Queen of Sheba +across these empty fields to her intended sacrifice, the two had +made no more dreary picture against the dim dawn than did Sheila +now. She carried the bundle she had made slung over one shoulder by +a length of rope. The spade, ax, and basket balanced her figure on +the other side; she bent forward as she walked and, from a distance, +Prudence herself would have looked no older or more decrepit than +did the girl now leaving the Ball premises. + +She did not follow the same course that the captain and Queenie had +followed on that memorable occasion, but took a path that led to a +cart track to the beach behind John-Ed Williams' house. Nobody was +astir anywhere on Wreckers' Head but herself. + +In an hour she arrived at the objective point toward which she had +been headed from the first. Why and how she had thought of this +refuge it would be hard to tell. Least of all could Sheila have +explained her reason for coming here. It was in her mind, it was +away from all other human habitations, and she did not think anybody +would have the right to drive her from it. + +The cabin formerly occupied by Hosea Westcott was well above the +tide, was, or could be made, perfectly dry, was roughly, if not +comfortably furnished, and offered the girl a shelter in which she +thought she would be safe. + +To one who had spent such weary months in a narrow room in a Hanover +Street lodging house, going in and out with speech with scarcely any +one save the person to whom she paid her weekly dole of rent, there +could be no loneliness in a place like this, where the surf soughed +continually in one's ear, a hundred feathered forms flashed by in an +hour, sails dotted the dimpling sea, and the strand itself was +spread thick with many varieties of nature's wonders. + +During the summer and early fall, Sheila had become a splendid +oarswoman. In a skiff belonging to little John-Ed which was drawn up +on the sands not far from the cabin she had paddled out through the +narrow neck of the tiny cove's entrance and pulled bravely through +the surf and out upon the sea beyond. She had learned more than a +bit of sea lore, too, from Cap'n Ira and Tunis. And regarding the +edible shellfish to be found along the beaches, she was well +informed. + +If an old man such as Hosea Westcott, feeble and spent, no doubt, +could pick up a living here, why could not she? Sheila did not fear +starvation. Indeed, she did not even look forward to such a +possibility. She did not fear work of any kind. With every salt +breath she drew, strength, like the tide itself, flowed into her +body. Although her mind remained in a partially stunned condition, +her muscles soon recovered their vigor. + +Of course the girl's presence here in the abandoned cabin, her +taking up a hermit life on the shore, could not remain unknown to +the neighbors on Wreckers' Head for long. Yet at this season of the +year the men were all busy elsewhere and the women almost never came +down to the beaches. It is a remarkable fact that most longshore +women have little interest in the beauties or wonders to be found +along the beaches, even in the sea itself. Perhaps this is because +the latter is such a hard mistress to their menfolk. + +Nevertheless, Sheila could not hide herself away from +everybody--not even on that first day. The Balls made no outcry when +they found that she had disappeared. And no near-port fishing craft +came by. But the smoke from the chimney of the cabin, when she had +swept and made comfortable its interior and built a fire of +driftwood in the rusty pot stove, attracted at least one sharp eye. + +Down the bank, along with a small avalanche of sand and gravel, +plunged little John-Ed and his freckled face appeared at the +doorway. + +"By the great jib boom!" he cried. "What you doing here? Playing +castaway?" + +"Yes, John-Ed," said Sheila. "That is it exactly. I am a castaway." + +He stared at her. She could not take this boy into her confidence. +But already little John-Ed was a henchman of hers, in spite of the +fact that Sheila often had made him work. + +"I am going to stay here for a while," she told him. "But I would +rather nobody but you knew about it." + +"By the great jib boom!" exploded the boy for a second time. "Not +even Cap'n Ira and Aunt Prudence?" + +"Not even them," sighed the girl. + +"I bet it's because you don't want to stay there while that other +girl is visitin' them. Ain't that it? She's a snippy thing!" + +"You must not say so to anybody," urged Sheila. "It will not be +wrong for you to say nothing about my being here to your father and +mother. Do you understand?" + +"I can keep a secret, all right," he assured her proudly. + +"I believe you can. And do you think you could get off to go down to +the store for me this evening?" + +"Going down anyway for mom," he assured her. + +Sheila had a dollar and a little change besides. She had already +planned just what the dollar would buy in the way of necessaries. +There were cooking utensils in the cabin sufficient for her modest +needs. She gave little John-Ed the dollar and her list and warned +him to hide her purchases safely until the next morning and bring +them to her on his way to school. + +"What you going to eat to-night?" he asked her bluntly. + +"I dug some clams at low water and caught a big horseshoe crab." + +"Cousin Phineas brought us more squeteague than we can eat. Mom told +me to cut one up for the hens. I'll bring it down to you in a +little. It's a fresh one." + +In spite of her refusal, he did this, and brought along, too, a box +of sweet crackers which he had bought and hidden away in his bedroom +closet in preparation for some time when he might wake up in the +night and feel that he was on the verge of famine. + +"Though I never did wake up in the night that I can remember, 'cept +that time I had the toothache," he observed. + +And in this way Sheila began her hermit life in the fisherman's +cabin. + +But Sheila was not without a practical design as to her future. In +her determination to accept no further aid from the Balls she had +crippled her finances. Back in the inland town where she had spent +her girlhood, and where Dr. Macklin had served the community so +long, there were those who, in disapproving Sheila's venture into +the city, at least had a sense of justice. Some of these critical +friends whom the young woman had shrunk from appealing to +heretofore, still owed for Dr. Macklin's services; and Sheila felt +that in this present tragic emergency she must attempt the +collection of these old debts. + +She wrote letters praying that money might be sent her by express to +Paulmouth, but with the orders addressed under cover to "John-Ed +Williams, Jr." at the Big Wreck Cove post office. She explained her +design to her juvenile confidant and little John-Ed was made +immensely proud of such mark of her trust. She could have found no +more faithful adherent than the boy, and with him the secret of her +dwelling on the lonely shore and in her hermit-like state was safe. + +But her presence there could not be hidden for long; of that she was +well aware. Little John-Ed, however, told nobody of her whereabouts +until the day Tunis Latham came back from Boston and learned that +the girl he loved had stolen away from her home in the Ball house. + +Coming out of the rear door of the barn, fresh from the interview +with the old captain which had so shocked him, Tunis saw a small boy +astride the low stone fence that marked the rear boundary of the +Ball farm. The captain of the _Seamew_ was in no mood to bandy words +with little John-Ed Williams, but the sharp tooth of his troubled +thought fastened upon one indubitable fact: if there is anything odd +going on in a community, the small boy of that community knows all +about it--or, at least, as much about it as it is possible to know. + +Tunis could not have walked up to any adult person on Wreckers' Head +and asked the question which he put to little John-Ed on the spur of +the moment: + +"Where is she?" + +He did not have to utter Sheila's name. Indeed, he was doubtful by +what name it would be wise to call her. But he did not have to be +plainer with little John-Ed. He saw in the sly expression of the +boy's eyes that he knew whom he meant. But he shook his head. + +"You know where she went," was the schooner captain's accusation. +"Where is she?" + +"I--I can't tell you," stammered the boy. "I promised not." + +A promise is a promise, especially to a small boy who scorns to +"snitch." Tunis thought a moment. + +"Show me," he said, and his voice had in it that tone which made the +foremast hands jump to obey when a squall was coming. + +The boy got promptly off the wall. + +"All right," he said gruffly. "But don't you tell her I showed you, +Cap'n Tunis Latham." + +"Trust me," agreed the captain of the _Seamew_, and followed after +little John-Ed with such tremendous strides that the latter had to +run to keep ahead of him. + +Tunis was led to that point on the bluff from which a curl of smoke +from the cabin chimney could be seen. He halted almost in +horror--stricken to the heart when he understood. + +"Alone?" he muttered. + +"Yep," was the reply. "She's playing she's a castaway. Nobody but me +knows it." + +Then, fearing he had said too much, John-Ed ran away. + +Tunis descended the bluff by a perilous path--he would not delay to +go around by the cart track--and came in plain view of the cabin. +The door hinge had been repaired, and the door now swung freely. A +strip of cotton cloth had been tacked over the gaping window. There +was that neatness about the abandoned cabin which must always be +associated in his mind with Sheila Macklin, even had he not seen her +sitting pensively upon a driftwood timber by the door. + +The ax had been doing good service, for there was a great +heap of wood cut into stove lengths. The fragrant odor of +something--chowder, perhaps--simmering on the stove, floated +through the open door. + +It was the coarse sand crunching under his boots which aroused her. +She did not start at his approach, but raised her eyes languidly. He +wondered if she had expected him. She must have seen the _Seamew_ +pass several hours earlier as they headed in toward the channel. + +"My God, Sheila!" he exclaimed with bitterness, but without anger. +"You can't stay here." + +"I must--for a while. No. Don't talk about it, please, Tunis." Her +gesture had a finality to it which silenced the objections rising to +his lips. "Nothing you can say will change my determination. And you +must not come here again." + +"What will people say?" he gasped. + +The violet eyes blazed suddenly while she surveyed him. This was not +the girl he had known before. At least, she was not the same as +when he had seen her last. Even at that previous interview her look +and manner had not so reminded him of the girl he had sat beside on +the bench on Boston Common. + +She was alone again. The flower of her nature that had expanded +while she lived her all too brief and happy life with the Balls was +now withered. She was hopeless again; she had become once more the +Sheila Macklin that he had met under such wretched circumstances at +that past time. But in spite of her helplessness and her +wretchedness, there was something in the girl's expression which +convinced Tunis Latham before he again spoke that nothing he could +say would in any degree change her determination. + +"That confounded girl never should have been allowed to come back to +the house up there," he cried almost wildly. "Why did Elder Minnett +want to interfere? It was not his business! No one need have known +the truth." + +"Don't you see, Tunis, that just because it was the truth it was +sure to become known? At least, the main points in the whole matter +were sure to come out. But if you are careful, if you are wise, +nobody need know more of your share in the transaction than I have +told already." + +"Cap'n Ira asked me if it was true. He told me what you said. +Sheila, you ruined your own reputation with the old folks to save +me. Girl--" + +"Did I have any reputation to lose, Tunis?" she interrupted, yet +speaking softly. "I could not save myself. I have tried to save you. +Don't be ill-advised; don't be foolish. Say nothing, and it will all +blow over--for you." + +"You think I'll accept such a sacrifice on your part?" he demanded +fiercely. + +"I am making no sacrifice. Nothing I can do or say; nothing you can +do or say; nothing anybody can do or say; will change my situation. +We need not both be ruined in the eyes of the community. Soon I will +get away. They will forget me. It will all blow over. You need not +suffer." + +"What do you think I am?" he cried again. "Am I the sort of a +fellow, you think, to shelter myself behind you?" + +"Shelter your Aunt Lucretia. Shelter your business prospects. +Shelter the good name of your mother's son. You can do me absolutely +no good by telling any different story from the one I was forced to +tell. Let it be, Tunis." + +She said it wearily. She dropped her eyes again, looking away from +him. But when he would have stepped nearer and caught her to him, +she leaped up and with look and tone warded him away. + +"Don't touch me! Be at least so kind, Tunis. Make it no harder for +me than you can help." + +"You are breaking my heart, Sheila!" + +"Mine is already broken," she told him. "And I do not blame you, +Tunis. It is the punishment for my own sins. I attempted to escape +from my overwhelming troubles in a wrong way. I see it now. I know +it to be so. I must go somewhere else and build again--if I may. But +never again upon a foundation of trickery and deceit. Oh! Never! +Never!" + +She stepped around the big block on which she had been sitting, +entered the cabin, and closed the door behind her. She left him +standing there hopeless, miserable, almost distraught by all the +entanglements of this tragedy that had come upon them. + + + + +CHAPTER XXX + +THE STORM + + +Captain Tunis Latham, pacing the deck of the _Seamew_, had come to a +conclusion which was by no means complimentary to his own +self-respect. During his manifold duties and the business bothers +connected with the sailing of the undermanned schooner, his mind had +seized upon and grappled with a train of ideas which brought him +logically to the decision that he was playing a weak and piffling +part. + +Strong in most things, Tunis Latham had allowed his better sense to +be throttled and his purpose balked in the thing which meant more to +him than the schooner, his business success, or anything else in +life. The broader the rift grew between Sheila and himself, the +clearer he saw that without her he was a ship without a rudder and +that nothing could come of his life save wreck and disaster. + +She had renounced him for his own good, as she believed, and he had +tacitly consented to her ruling. He might be slow of thought +regarding such things, but once having made up his mind--and it was +made up now--he was of the kind that obstacles do not frighten. + +Not only did he realize that by bowing to the girl's will he had +been weak, but he was determined to take matters in the future into +his own hands. He should not have allowed Sheila, in the first +place, to shoulder the responsibility of handling the emergency of +the appearance of the real Ida May Bostwick at Big Wreck Cove. + +Sheila, in an attempt to save his reputation, to save his +self-respect in the eyes of the home folks and of the world in +general, had uttered a direct falsehood and cut herself off from him +and from those who loved her. This was too much for any decent man +to stand. Was he a coward? Would he shelter himself--as he had told +her--behind her skirts? + +Tunis believed that Cap'n Ira and Prudence, when once the shock of +the girl's revelation was past, loved her so dearly that they would +forgive Sheila if they knew all the truth--if they knew the girl as +he knew her. He was not so sure of Aunt Lucretia. He had feared to +tell her the night before that Sheila had gone to live in the old +fisherman's cabin, in spite of the sympathy Lucretia had previously +shown him. But he believed his silent aunt fully appreciated the +better qualities of the girl she had seen on but one occasion, and +that she would, in time, admit that Sheila was more than worthy of +her nephew's love. + +In any event he had his own life to make or mar. Without Sheila he +knew it would be utterly fruitless and without an object. Rather +than lose Sheila he would sell the schooner, cut himself off from +friends and home, and, with her, face the world anew. He was +determined, if Sheila left Big Wreck Cove, that he would go with +her. Nobody--not even the girl herself--could shake this +determination now born in the mind of the captain of the _Seamew_. + +Sheila had borne his reputation upon her heart from the beginning, +but he should have at first thought of her good name and the opinion +the world must needs hold of Sheila Macklin. She had been unfairly +accused. She had been abused, ill-treated, punished for a sin which +was not hers. It was not enough that he had tried to help her hide +away from those who knew of her persecution. The only right thing to +do--the only sane course, and the one which should have been pursued +from the start--was to attempt to disprove the accusation under +which the girl had suffered and set her right not only before Big +Wreck Cove folk, but before the whole world. + +The poignant feeling of sin committed, with which Sheila herself was +now burdened, did not influence Tunis Latham. It was the logic of +the idea which convinced him that they had been totally wrong in +what they had done. He should have married Sheila on the night they +had met in Boston and set about first of all tracing back her +trouble and disproving the flimsy evidence which must have convicted +her of stealing from Hoskin & Marl's. + +He told himself it was not piety, but hard common sense which +suggested this as the only and practical way to handle the matter. +It was, in truth, the awakened hope in a loving heart. + +Tunis had been able to keep scarcely enough of his crew to handle +the _Seamew_ in fair weather; and the barometer was falling, with +every indication in sea and sky of the approach of bad weather. He +feared the few hands he had would desert when they reached Boston. +Zebedee Pauling was a young host in himself--far and away a better +seaman than Orion Latham, as well as a better fellow. But the +schooner could not be sailed with good will. + +Tunis' mind, however, remained fixed upon Sheila's troubles rather +than upon his own; and as soon as the schooner docked, he went up +into the town and wended his way directly to the great department +store in which he had once interviewed the troublesome Ida May +Bostwick. + + * * * * * + +The cargo was out, and the _Seamew_ had already been warped into +another wharf where freight was awaiting her when the skipper +returned to the water front that afternoon. The three men remaining +of the forecastle crew were still at work, assisted by Zebedee and +Horry Newbegin. They had not had a regular cook for two trips now. + +But a new complication had arisen. Mason Chapin stood at the rail +waiting his return, and a taxicab had been summoned. The mate +carried a bag. + +"A telegram from Doctor Norris. My wife's worse, Mr. Latham. I've +got to go back just as fast as steam will get me there," was his +greeting to the skipper of the _Seamew_. + +This was according to the agreement Mason Chapin had made in the +beginning. His wife was sorely ill, and surely Tunis would not stand +between a man and his sick wife! + +But it left a very serious situation upon the schooner when the mate +drove away in the taxicab. Six men, forward and aft, to handle a +suit of sails which equaled those of any seagoing racing yacht. If +it had not been for the freight--some of which was perishable--the +master of the _Seamew_ would have laid up until he could have got +together a more numerous crew at least. + +But instead of going to the seamen's employment offices, Tunis had +to turn to himself, while the heavier pieces of freight were lowered +down the hatchway of the schooner. It was near evening when the +hatch was battened down and a small tug snaked them out of the dock +and from among the greater shipping, and gave them a whistled +blessing in midstream. + +All hands and the skipper tailed on to the sheets and got her canvas +spread. Then the skipper went below to the galley and prepared +supper. Tunis Latham could be no stickler for quarter-deck etiquette +on this voyage, that was sure. + +But although the hands growled, and even Horry looked sour, Tunis +seemed strangely excited; indeed, he looked less woebegone than he +had for many a day. Something seemed to have given him a new zest in +life. He even spoke to the hands cheerfully, and they were a trio of +as surly dogs as ever quarreled with their food and a ship's +officers. + +"I'll lay up at the cove until I get a decent crew this time, if I +lose all my existing contracts," Tunis said to Zebedee. "I'll find a +bunch of men who are not afraid of their shadows. Huh! Hoodooed, is +she? I'll show 'em that she can sail, even if Davy Jones himself +sits on her bowsprit!" + +There was wind enough, in all good conscience. They discovered that +before they were out of the bay. It had shifted into the northeast, +and the _Seamew_ went roaring away on her course under reefed +canvas, heeling over to it like a racing yacht. + +But the long tacks to seaward which the gale enforced made it +impossible for the schooner to beat back to Hollis where the first +of her freight must be discharged until after breakfast the next +morning. By that time the three foremast hands who had been obliged +to work double watches were fairly stewing in their own rage. + +Tunis had to see his consignees while the freight was being +discharged; when he got back to the wharf there was nobody aboard +the schooner save Horry and Zebedee. The latter had a broken oar in +his hand and he and the ancient seaman seemed to be in a condition +of utter amazement. + +"What's to do now?" demanded the skipper. + +"They've gone, Cap'n Latham," stammered Zebedee. "Say they won't put +foot on the _Seamew's_ deck again. That--that confounded 'Rion--" + +"What's the matter with Orion now?" exclaimed Tunis. "I hoped I was +well rid of him. Has he turned up here at Hollis?" + +"Look at this," said Zebedee, shaking the broken oar. "Here's what +it seems 'Rion found in the hold two trips back. So those fellows +say. He left it with 'em. And they say the schooner is a murder ship +and they won't try to work her no further." + +Tunis seized the piece of oar. Along one side was a streak of faint +blue paint. He knew immediately where he had seen that broken oar +before--leaning against the door frame of Pareta's cottage in +Portygee Town, when he had last talked with the old man's daughter. + +"What in thunder!" + +He had turned it over and saw the straggling letters burned into +the wood: MARLIN B. Newbegin looked at Tunis with an expression +which betrayed a great perturbation of soul. The old man could +scarcely show pallor under the mahogany of his face, but it was +plain that superstition had him by the throat. + +"So this is the thing that rotten 'Rion played them with, is it?" +Tunis demanded. "Trying to make them think my beautiful _Seamew_ was +once the _Marlin B._? Why, the poor fools, this broken oar came out +of Mike Pareta's woodpile, or I'm a dog-fish! See that blue streak? +I saw this broken oar at Pareta's house. Bet you anything Eunez had +something to do with it, too. Though why she should want to harm me, +who never said a cross word to her, I can't see." + +"She and your cousin are mighty thick," Zebedee said reflectively. +"That's a fact." + +"Thicker than they ought to be for the girl's good, I guess," agreed +Tunis. Then he said to Horry: "What's the matter with you, old man? +Do you want to desert me, too, all along of a broken oar with some +silly letters burned into it?" + +The ancient mariner had got a grip upon himself. The simple +explanation that punctured the bubble of superstition so +convincingly might not have altogether satisfied Horry. But he was a +true and just man. + +"I never deserted your father, Cap'n Randall Latham, not even when +his ship sunk under him," the old man declared. "I was saved from +that wreck by chance, not because I tried to be. And I ain't likely +to desert his son." + +"How about you, Zebedee?" demanded the captain of the _Seamew_. + +"I am not afraid of any foolish talk, anyway, Captain Latham. Had I +been I wouldn't have applied for the berth. I had heard enough about +it. Eunez Pareta, I believe, talked too much to the Portygees, and +that is why you couldn't keep them. But I'm not a Portygee." + +"I'll say you're not," agreed Tunis. "But we're left in something of +a fix. This freight for Josh Jones and his father is needed. Some +other stuff consigned to Big Wreck Cove ought to be there by +to-night. And I can't get a man for love or money here to help us +out. I tried while I was uptown." + +Zeb showed no hesitation. He shrugged his blue-jerseyed shoulders. + +"Don't you cal'late we can beat down there under a reefed mainsail +and jib? It'll take time, but she's the sweetest sailing craft I was +ever in in my life," he said. + +"She's certainly all right, 'cept for that pull to sta'bbo'd," +muttered Horry. + +"Humph! Three men to sail a schooner of this tonnage. And this isn't +any capsize wind at that," murmured the captain of the _Seamew_. +"But it's got to be done. Come! Will you risk it with me?" + +They looked aloft and then at each other. There was little save +reflection in their several glances. Men of this caliber do not +hesitate over a risk of life or ship. Cautious as Tunis Latham was, +his agreement with those he had contracted with called for a prompt +fulfillment of the details of the pact. Nor did the prospect of the +rising gale and rising sea cause any of the trio to blanch. It was +not a long run to Big Wreck Cove. Properly manned, the _Seamew_ +should make it prettily in three or four hours. In addition, there +was little but an open roadstead before the port of Hollis. The +breakwater was scarcely strong enough to fend off the waves in a +real gale. And they knew that a gale was coming. + +This was no place for a schooner of the _Seamew's_ size to ride out +the storm. She might easily drag her anchors and go ashore on the +Hollis sands that in the past had buried many a good ship. So the +trio of Cape men nodded grimly to each other and took the better +chance. + + + + +CHAPTER XXXI + +BITTER WATERS + + +Ah, yes! youth, and romance linked with a self-scrutiny born of her +New England ancestry if not of her father's Celtic blood, had +brought Sheila Macklin to her dreadful pass. One might have said, if +one were hardened enough, that had the young woman "possessed an +ounce of sense" she would not have made herself penniless, an +outcast, and so suffered because she could not escape quickly from +an environment well-nigh poignant enough to turn her brain. + +She was days in recovering from the shock of the appearance of the +real Ida May Bostwick at the Ball homestead. And those hours of +torture that had followed had eaten like acid into Sheila's soul. + +She had by no means recovered herself when Tunis had his brief +interview with her. Had she not shut herself away from him--refused +to even discuss the situation with the troubled skipper of the +_Seamew_--she must have broken down, given way to that womanly +weakness born of love for the man of her choice. + +For Sheila knew how Tunis Latham suffered. She felt that her course +was right; nevertheless she fully appreciated how keen the blow of +her decision fell upon the partner in her sin. + +A sin it was--almost, it seemed to her now, an unpardonable crime. +To seize upon another girl's identity; to usurp another's chance; to +foist herself upon the unsuspecting and kindly souls at the Ball +homestead in a way that raised for them a happiness that was merely +a phantom--the thought of it all was now a draught of which the +dregs were very, very bitter. + +Over and over again she recalled all that Ida May Bostwick had said +to and of her. It was all true! Coarse and unfeeling as the shopgirl +was, Sheila lashed her troubled soul with the thought that what Ida +May had said was deserved. Neither circumstances nor the fact that +Tunis had suggested the masquerade excused the transgression. + +The days of her waiting on fate, alone in the cabin under Wreckers' +Head, gave no surcease to her mental castigation. Her sin loomed the +more huge as the hours dragged their slow length by. + +And yet, with it all, Sheila's keenest anguish came through her +renunciation of Tunis' love. She could see no possible way of +holding to that if she would purge herself of the fault she had +committed. + +And above the stain of her false position since she had come to the +Cape was the overcloud of that accusation which had first warped +Sheila Macklin's life and humbled her spirit. She believed that she +could never escape the shame of that prosecution and punishment for +a crime she had not committed. + +She believed that, no matter where she might go nor how blamelessly +she might live, the fact that she had been sentenced to a woman's +reformatory would crop up like the ugly memory of a horrid dream to +embitter her existence. Was her life linked with Tunis Latham's, he +must suffer also from that misfortune. + +And so Sheila Macklin waited from hour to hour, from day to day, +dully and in a brooding spirit, for release from a situation which +must in time embitter her whole nature. + + * * * * * + +From the cabin at the foot of the seaward bluff of Wreckers' Head, +the coming of the black gale out of the northeast was watched +anxiously by Sheila, from the very break of this day. Tunis might be +on the sea. She doubted if the threat of bad weather would hold the +_Seamew_ in port. + +There was no rain--just a wind which tore across the waste of waters +within view of her station, scattering their crests in foam and +spoondrift, and rolling them in huger and still huger breakers on +the strand. It was a magnificent sight, but a terrifying one as +well. The girl watched almost continually for a white patch against +the black of the storm which might mark a sailing craft in peril. + +Steam vessels went past, several of them. They, surely, were in +little danger, were their hulls ordinarily sound and their engines +perfect. All the fishing craft had made for cover the night before. +The New York-Boston steamers would keep to the inside passage in +this gale. + +Sheila had made all taut and trim inside the cabin. She had plenty +of firewood and sufficient provisions to last her for a time. + +About noon she heard the crunch of footsteps on the sand. It was +little John-Ed who first appeared before her eyes. He thrust a +letter into Sheila's hand. + +"Dad brought it up from the port this morning, and I got it away +from him. Say," he continued, evidently much disturbed, "he's coming +here." + +"Who is coming here--your father?" + +"No, no! Not dad. I--I couldn't help it. I didn't tell him. I said +you wanted to play alone here at being shipwrecked, and I was just +like you said--your man Friday." + +"Who do you mean?" asked Sheila, greatly agitated. "Not--" + +"I bet 'twas that Tunis Latham told him you was here," continued +John-Ed. "Anyway, don't blame me. All I done was to help him down +the path." + +He disappeared. Sheila stepped to the door. Cap'n Ira was laboring +over the sands toward the cabin, leaning on his cane, his coat +flapping in the wind and his cap screwed on so tightly that a +hurricane could not possibly have blown it away. + +But in addition and aside from the buffeting he had suffered from +the wind, the old man looked much less trim and taut than Sheila had +ever before seen him. He had not been shaved for at least three +days; a button hung by a thread upon his coat; there was a coffee +stain on the bosom of his shirt. + +He looked so miserable, and so faint, and so buffeted about, that +the girl cried out, running from the door of the cabin to meet him. +The sweat of his hard effort stood on his brow, and he panted for +breath. + +"I swan! Ida May--er--well, whoever you be, gal, let me set down! +I'm near spent, and that's a fact." + +"Oh, Cap'n Ball, you should not have done this!" cried the girl, +letting him lean upon her and aiding him as rapidly as possible to +the cabin door. "You should not have done this. You--you can do +nothing for me. You can do no good by coming here." + +"Humph! P'r'aps not. Mebbe you're right. Let me set down on that +box, gal," he muttered. + +He eased himself down upon the rough seat against the wall. He +removed the cap with an effort and took his huge handkerchief from +its crown. He mopped his brow and face and finally heaved a huge +sigh. + +"I swan! That was a pull," he said. "So you're settled here. Gone to +housekeeping on your own hook, have ye?" he said. + +"Just for a little while, Cap'n Ira. Only--only until I can get +away. I--I have been expecting some money--payment of one of my +father's old bills." + +She slit the envelope of the letter little John-Ed had just brought +her. Inside was a pale-blue slip--a money order. + +"Yes," she said. "I can get away now. I must go somewhere to earn my +living, and as far away from here as I can get." + +"So you think on traveling, do you?" said the old man. "You ain't +content with Big Wreck Cove and the Head?" + +"Oh, Cap'n Ira!" she cried. "You know I can't stay here. Winter is +coming. Besides, the people here--" + +"Ain't none of 'em asked ye to come an' live with them?" + +"Cap'n Ball!" + +"Ain't ye seen Tunis?" + +The girl hid her face from him. She put her hands over her eyes. Her +shoulders shook with her sobbing. Cap'n Ira took a reflective pinch +of snuff. + +"I cal'late," he said, after wiping his eyes, "that it ain't Tunis' +fault that you are going away any more than it is mine and +Prudence's. You just made up your mind to go." + +"Cap'n Ball!" she exclaimed faintly, and again raised her eyes to +his. "Can--can I help it? _Now?_" + +"I don't know," he said, pursing his lips. "I don't know, gal, as +anybody is driving you away from Wreckers' Head and them that loves +ye here." + +She was speechless. She gazed at him with drenched eyes, her face +quivering uncontrollably. A hand pressed tightly to her breast +seemed endeavoring to still the wild fluttering there. + +"I don't know," he repeated, "that we got much to offer a gal like +you, and that's a fact. We learned to know you pretty well while you +stayed with us, Prue and me did. Somehow, we can't just seem to get +the straight of what you told us that night you left. It--it ain't +possible that you made some mistake, is it? Mebbe you was talking +about some other gal?" + +"Oh, Cap'n Ball!" she sighed. "I am able to tell you nothing that +will change your opinion of me." + +"Well, I don't know. I don't know. What you did say," he observed in +that same reflective, gentle tone, "didn't seem to change our +opinion much. Not mine and Prudence's." + +"Cap'n Ball!" + +"No," he went on, wagging his head. "You committing such a fault as +you say you was accused of, and you coming down here as you did, +through a trick--somehow those facts, if they be facts, don't seem +to have much effect on our opinion. Me and the old woman feel that +somehow--we don't know how--what you told us that night and what you +done for us before that night don't fit together nohow." + +She stared at him without understanding. He cleared his throat and +mopped his brow again with the big silk handkerchief. + +"No, gal, we can't understand how anybody as good and loving as you +have been to us can be at heart as bad as--as other folks might try +to make out. Fact is, we know you can't be bad." + +"What--what do you mean, Cap'n Ball?" she asked faintly. + +"I swan! I tell ye what I'm getting at," burst out the old man. "We +want you to come back. Prudence, she wants you to come back. I swan! +I want you to come back. Why, even that dratted Queen of Sheby needs +you, Ida May--or, whatever your name is! We've got to have you!" + +"Prudence can't scurcely get around the house. And that niece of +hers sits there like a stick or a stun, not willin' to scurce lift +her hand to help. Thank the Lord _she's_ goin' home to-day. Her +visit's come to an end. She don't like it down here. She says we're +all a set of--er--hicks, I believe she calls us. + +"Howsomever, we're all high and dry on the reefs, gal, and it seems +likely you're the only one can get us off. You ain't got to go away +from here, if you don't want to. I've made it pretty average plain +to that Bostwick gal that no matter what happens, she's got no +expectations as far as Prudence and me are concerned. It was money +and nothing but money she was after. Her being Prudence's niece in +kind of a far-fetched way don't make it our duty--not even our +Christian duty, as Elder Minnett calls it--to keep a gal in the +house that we don't want, nor yet die at her convenience and leave +her our money. And so I'll tell the elder if he undertakes to put +his spoon in the dish again." + +Sheila was listening to words that she had never expected to hear +from the old captain. Could this be true? Were Cap'n Ira and +Prudence, in spite of what they knew about her--what she had told +them and Ida May had told them--desirous of having her back? Was +there a chance, no matter what the real Ida May Bostwick could say, +for Sheila to return and take up her peaceful life with the Balls? + +Could this be real? Indeed, was it right for her to do this? Tunis-- + +She arose and walked to the open door, looking out almost blindly +at first upon the gale-smitten sea. It was like her heart--so tossed +about and fretted by winds of opinion. What should she do? Which way +should she turn? Not to save Sheila Macklin from trouble or +disgrace. Not even to save Tunis from possible scorn. The question +that assailed her now was only: _Was it right?_ + +Suddenly, out upon the mountainous waves, she spied a sail. It was +reefed, flattened down, almost tri-cornered. The two sticks of the +schooner and the jaunty bowsprit pointing skyward heaved again into +view. She stood so long gazing at the craft that Cap'n Ira spoke +again. + +"What d'ye say, gal?" he asked anxiously. + +"Look--look here, Cap'n Ira!" she exclaimed. "Can it be the +_Seamew_? Is she trying to head in for the channel? Oh! Are they in +danger out there?" + +The old man rose with his usual difficulty and hobbled to the door, +leaning on his cane. He peered out over her shoulder, and his keen +and experienced eyes saw and identified the laboring vessel almost +at once. + +"I swan! That is the _Seamew_, Ida May," he exclaimed. "Tut, tut! +What's Tunis got himself into such a pickle for? 'Tain't reasonable +he should--being as good a seaman as he is. + +"My, my! Why don't he get some cloth on her? He can't have lost all +his upper canvas. Don't he know he needs tops'ls to beat up aslant +of this gale and get into the shelter of the Head? I swan! If +there's men enough there to man her proper, why don't they do the +right thing?" + +"Oh, Cap'n Ball," gasped the girl, "perhaps there are not enough men +with him. Perhaps his crew has deserted again." + +"I swan!" rejoined the old man. "What did he set sail for, then? +Ain't he got a mite of sense? But, I tell ye, Ida May, if he don't +get more canvas on her, and get under better way, he'll never make +that channel in this world." + +"Oh!" + +"The schooner's sure to go on the outer reef. She never can claw off +the land now. Without help--if that's his trouble--Tunis Latham will +never get that schooner into Big Wreck Cove. And God help him and +them that's with him!" added the captain reverently. + + + + +CHAPTER XXXII + +A GIRL TO THE RESCUE + + +On shore the gale seemed a stiff and dangerous blow. At sea, even +with a stanch deck under one's feet, the wind proved to have passed +the hurricane mark long since. The captain of the _Seamew_ felt that +the elements had conspired bitterly to assail his schooner. Before +they were a mile beyond the end of the Hollis breakwater, Tunis knew +that he had the fight of his seagoing experience on his hands. + +When they were fairly out of the semi-shelter of the point behind +which Hollis lay, Tunis and his two companions realized very quickly +just what they had to contend with. They had spread a handbreadth of +mainsail, but the jib was blown out of the boltropes by one big +swoop of wind and carried down to leeward, looking like a giant's +shirt. + +"Still feel that tug to sta'bbo'd," grumbled Horry. "Just like--" + +"Belay that!" commanded Tunis. "I begin to believe that's bad luck, +anyway. If you hadn't got on to that tack when we first put the +schooner into commission, those Portygees wouldn't have even +remembered the _Marlin B._ And _that_ schooner thousands of miles +away from these seas!" + +"I cal'late 'Rion Latham would have found something else to harp on +then," said Zebedee. "He was bound to ruin you if he could." + +Quickly the gale increased instead of abating, and it was utterly +impossible for the trio to get topsails on her. She needed the pull +of upper canvas if she was to tack properly for the mouth of the +channel into Big Wreck Cove. + +They fought for two hours to bring this much-desired object to pass, +hoping for a lull or a shifting of the gale which might aid them. +The yellow sands of Wreckers' Head were plainly in view all that +time. To give up the attempt and run before the gale was a folly of +which Tunis Latham had no intention of being guilty if it could +possibly be avoided. Manned as she was, the schooner might never be +worked back to a landfall if they did so. + +The keen old eyes of Horace Newbegin first spied the thing which +promised hope. From his station at the wheel he shouted something +which the younger men did not catch, but his pointing arm drew their +gaze shoreward. + +Coming out from the Head was an open boat. Four figures pulled at +the oars while another held the steering sweep. The daring crew was +heading the boat straight on for the pitching schooner! + +"The coast guard!" the old man was now heard to shout. "God bless +them fellers!" + +But Tunis knew it was not the lifeboat from the distant station. He +knew the boat, if he could not at first identify those who manned +it. It was an old lifeboat that had been stored in a shed below +John-Ed Williams' place, and these men attempting their rescue were +some of the neighbors from Wreckers' Head. + +They came on steadily, the steersman standing at his post and +handling the long oar as though it was a feather's weight. His huge +figure soon identified him. It was Captain John Dunn, who, like Ira +Ball, had left the sea, and he had left his right forearm, too, +because of some accident somewhere on the other side of the globe. +But with the steel hook screwed to its stump and the good hand +remaining to him, Captain Dunn handled that steering oar with more +skill than most other men with two good hands could have done. + +How the four at the oars pulled the heavy boat! Tunis sought to +identify them as well. He saw John-Ed Williams--in a place at last +where he was forced to keep up his end, though he was notably a lazy +man. Ben Brewster had the oar directly behind John-Ed. + +The third figure Tunis could not identify--not at once. The man at +the bow oar was Marvin Pike, who pulled a splendid stroke. So did +that unknown oarsman. They were all bravely tugging at the heavy +oars. Tunis had faith in them. + +Zebedee suddenly plunged across the pitching deck and reached the +rail where Tunis stood. Discipline--at least seagoing etiquette--had +been somewhat in abeyance aboard the _Seamew_ during the last few +hours. Zeb caught the skipper by the arm. + +"See her?" he bawled into the ear of the surprised Tunis. + +"What's that?" + +"See her hair? It's a girl! As I'm a living sinner, it's a girl! +Pulling number three oar, Captain Latham! Did you ever?" + +Clinging to a stay, the captain of the _Seamew_ flung himself far +over the rail as the schooner chanced to roll. He could look down +into the approaching lifeboat. He saw the loosened, dark locks of +the girl who was pulling at number three oar. On the very heels of +Zeb's words the captain was confident of the girl's identity. + +"Sheila!" + +His voice could not have reached her ear because of the rush and +roar of the wind and sea, but, as though in answer to his shout, the +girl glanced back and up, over her shoulder. For a moment Tunis got +a flash of the face he so dearly loved. + +What a woman she was! She lacked no more in courage than she did in +beauty and sweetness of disposition. What other girl along all this +coast--even one born of the Cape strain--would have dared take an +oar in that lifeboat in face of such dire peril as this? + +"Good Lord, Cap'n Latham!" shrieked Zeb. "That's Miss Bostwick!" + +Tunis straightened up, squared his shoulders, and looked at Zebedee +proudly. He wanted Zeb to know--he wanted the whole world to know, +if he could spread the news abroad--that the girl pulling number +three oar was the girl he loved, and was going to marry! + + * * * * * + +An hour later the _Seamew_, her topsails drawing full and her lower +canvas properly handled, drove on like the bird she was through the +channel into the cove, trailing the old lifeboat behind her. The +skipper had taken the wheel himself, but that "tug to sta'bbo'd" did +not disturb his equanimity as it sometimes did Horry's. + +Sheila, muffled in oilskins and sea boots, but with her wet hair +flowing over her shoulders, stood beside the skipper. No matter how +satisfied and confident Tunis might appear, the girl was still in an +uncertain state of mind. + +"And so," she said to him anxiously, "I do not know what to tell +them. Cap'n Ira seemed so poorly and so unhappy. And he says Aunt +Prue is almost ill. + +"But it was Cap'n Ira who told me what to do when we saw the +_Seamew_ in danger; how to get the men together and how to launch +the boat! Oh, it was wonderful! He was not too overcome to be +practical and realize your need, Tunis." + +"Trust Cap'n Ira," agreed the young man. "And what other girl could +have done what you did, Sheila? Hear what Cap'n John Dunn says? You +ought to be a sailor's daughter. _I_ can tell him you are going to +be a sailor's wife." + +"No, no! Oh, Tunis! It can't--" + +"No 'can't' in the dictionary," interrupted the captain of the +_Seamew_. "You and I are going to have one big talk, Sheila, after I +take you up home." + +"Up home?" she repeated. + +"You are going back to Cap'n Ira's. You know you are. That other +girl has beat it for Boston, you say, and there's not a living +reason why you shouldn't return to the Balls. Besides, they need +you. I could see that with half an eye when I went away the other +morning. The old man hobbling around the barn trying to catch an old +hen was a sight to make the angels weep." + +"Poor, poor Cap'n Ira!" she murmured. + +"And poor Aunt Prudence--and poor _me_!" exclaimed Tunis. "What do +you think is going to happen to me? If you go away, I shall have to +sell all I own in the world and follow you." + +"Tunis!" she cried, almost in fear. "You wouldn't." + +"I certainly would. I am going to have you, one way or another. +Nobody else shall get you, Sheila. And you can't go far enough or +fast enough to lose me." + +"Don't!" she said faintly. "You cannot be in earnest. Do you know +what it means if you and I have any association whatsoever? Oh! I +thought this was all over--that you would not tear open the wound--" + +"I don't mean to hurt you, Sheila," he said softly. But he was +smiling. "I have got something to tell you that will, I believe, put +an entirely different complexion on your affairs." + +"What--what can you mean?" she burst out. "Oh, tell me!" + +"I'll tell you a little of it now. Just enough to keep you from +thinking I am crazy. The rest I will not tell you save in the Balls' +sitting room before Cap'n Ira and Aunt Prue." + +"Tunis!" she murmured with clasped hands. + +"Yesterday I spent two hours in the manager's office of Hoskin & +Marl's. They have been looking for you for more than six months. +Naturally, there was no record of you after you left that--that +school when your time was out. They didn't seem to guess you'd have +got work in that Seller's place." + +"What do you mean? What did they want me for?" gasped the girl. + +"Near as I could find out from the old gentleman who seemed to be in +charge there at the store, they wanted to find you to beg your +pardon. He cried, that manager did. He broke down and cried like a +baby--especially after I had told him a few things that had happened +to you, and some things that might have happened if you hadn't found +such good friends in Cap'n Ira and Prudence. That's right. He was +all broke up." + +The girl stood before him, straight as a reed. She rocked with the +pitching of the schooner, but it seemed as though her feet were +glued to the planks. She could not have fallen! + +"They--they know--" + +"They know they sent to jail the wrong girl. The woman that stole +the goods is dead, and before she died she wrote 'em all about it +from the sanitarium where the firm sent her. They are sending you +papers signed by the judge, the prosecuting attorney, even the +pawnbroker and the store detective, and--and a lot of other folks. +Why, Sheila, you are fully exonerated." + +She began suddenly to weep, the great tears raining down her face, +although she still stood erect and kept her gaze fixed upon him. + +"Six months! As long as I have been down here! Oh, Tunis! While we +were making up our plot on that bench on Boston Common and planning +to lie to these dear, good people down here--and everybody; while we +were beginning this coil of deceit and trouble, I might have gone +back there to the store and found all this out. And--and I would +never have needed to lie and deceive as I have done." + +"Huh! Yes. I cal'late that's so, Sheila," he said. "But how about +me? Where would I have come in, if you had found out that your name +had been cleared and Hoskin & Marl were anxious to do well by you? +Seems to me, Sheila, there must be some compensation in that +thought. There is for me, at any rate." + +She flashed him a look then that cleaved its way to Tunis Latham's +very soul. His tale did not remove from her heart all its burden. +She was still penitent for the falsehood she had told in direct +words to Cap'n Ira and Prudence about her first meeting with Tunis. +But that prevarication, at least, had been for no purpose of self +gain. + +And so Sheila looked at her lover for just that passing moment with +all the passion which filled her heart for him. Had Tunis not been +steering the _Seamew_ through a pretty tortuous channel at just that +moment there is no knowing what he would have done--spurred by +Sheila's look! + + + + +CHAPTER XXXIII + +A HAVEN OF REST + + +Wreckers' Head so shelters the cove from the northeast that the +schooner could be brought safely in to Luiz Wharf, instead of +dropping her anchor in deep water. Half the port, and all of +Portygee Town, crowded nearby wharves and streets to welcome Tunis +Latham's schooner; for news of her peril and the way in which help +had reached the _Seamew_ had come down from the Head as on the wings +of the wind itself. + +There was one face on the wharf Tunis Latham sought out with grim +persistency as the schooner was made fast. He had purposely placed +Sheila in Zebedee Pauling's care. Tunis kept, directly under his +hand, the broken oar which had helped to make so much of his recent +trouble. When the _Seamew_ was safe, her skipper leaped ashore. And +he carried the broken oar with him. + +Orion, grinning and sneering by turns, saw his cousin coming. It +must have been preternatural sagacity which caused him to see and +recognize the broken oar. Having seen it, he jumped for the head of +the wharf. + +Tunis leaped away on his cousin's trail. The crowd parted to let +them through, and then joined in a streaming, excited tail to their +kite of progress. Most of the spectators lived in Portygee Town. +Some of them had been members of the _Seamew's_ deserting crews. +They were afraid of Tunis Latham, but they had little sympathy for +Orion. + +The skipper caught up with him in the middle of the road and almost +opposite the Pareta cottage. Orion had picked up a cobblestone as he +reached the street and, finding himself about to be overtaken, he +turned and threw the missile at Tunis' head. The latter dodged it +and, with a single, savage blow of the oar felled his cousin to the +roadway. + +"You unmitigated scoundrel!" Tunis roared. "I ought to take your +life. Because of you I nearly lost my own to-day--and the lives of +two other men and my schooner into the bargain. You villain!" + +As Orion tried to scramble up, the skipper of the _Seamew_ made +another pass at him with the oar, and the fellow fell again. + +"Don't hit me! Don't hit me again, Tunis! Remember I'm your cousin. +I--I haven't done a thing--true an' honest, I haven't!" + +The listeners gathered closer. Tunis Latham's face displayed such +rage that the Portygees expected him to continue his attack with the +oar. But instead he shook it before their eyes--and Orion's. + +"See it?" he demanded of the bystanders. "That's the scurvy trick +the dog played me. Found this broken oar in somebody's woodpile, +burned the name of the _Marlin B._ into the handle, and foisted it +on a fool crew to prove that my schooner was once called by that +name. I ought to pound him to death!" + +Suddenly a brilliant figure whirled into the midst of the crowd and +reached the angry skipper and his victim. Eunez, her black eyes +ablaze, her face ruddy with anger, planted herself before Tunis +Latham, hands on hips, confronting him boldly. One glance at the +prostrate Orion assured her that, although there was blood upon his +face, he was not much hurt. She tossed her head and snapped her +fingers under the nose of the captain of the _Seamew_. + +"So now, Tunis Latham! It is that you have waked up! Of a gr-r-reat +smartness are you, eh?" she cried. "You scorn us all, and tr-r-reat +us as you would dogs. Heh! All you shipmasters are alike. + +"But _you_--we put the laugh on you, eh? That oar in your hand--ha, +ha! Do not lay the blame altogether upon your cousin. _I_ burned +those letters into that wood with my curling irons. Fooled by a +girl, eh, Tunis Latham? Ah! Learn your lesson, Captain Latham! We +Portygee women are not to be scorned by _any_ schooner captain. No!" + +She snapped her fingers again in his face and turned away, swaying +her hips and tossing her head as she disappeared into her father's +cottage. When Tunis looked around for his cousin, he found that that +facile young man, taking advantage of the girl's intervention, had +slipped away. + + * * * * * + +A winter hurricane had pounced upon the Cape and torn at it with +teeth and claws, as though seeking to dismember it--to wrench the +forty-mile curved claw of the Cape from the remainder of Barnstable +County. + +The driven snow masked everything--earth, houses, trees, and the +shivering bushes; it clung to these objects, iced upon them like +frosting. No craft ventured out of Big Wreck Cove, least of all the +_Seamew_, although she had a cargo in her hold and a complete and +satisfied crew in her forecastle. + +Tunis Latham was speaking of the latter fact to Aunt Lucretia in the +warm and homelike kitchen of Latham's Folly. + +"Zeb is a good fellow. He has got together a bunch of hands that +aren't afraid of ghosts or bogies. You couldn't make those Portygees +or some of the other hands we had see the ridiculousness of their +fear of the _Seamew_--bless her! But with this bunch Zeb has got +together I wouldn't fear to sail around the Horn." + +His aunt looked startled at the suggestion and shook her head. + +"I know you wouldn't want I should go for such a long voyage, Aunt +Lucretia," he replied. "And I don't want to myself. But I couldn't +be content here if I didn't see the prospect bright before me of +getting Ida--I mean, of getting Sheila." + +His aunt looked at him again not unkindly, but said not a word. + +"I've told you all about it, Aunt Lucretia," the skipper of the +_Seamew_ pursued. "Everything. If Sheila did wrong to come down here +as she did, I did a greater wrong in encouraging her to come and in +tempting her with the chance of escaping from the mess she was in. +And she's paid--we've both paid--for our folly. + +"As for folks talking, if that Bostwick girl wants to keep her job +with Hoskin & Marl's she'll keep her mouth shut about Sheila. She +understands that. And Hoskin & Marl--everybody, in fact that was +connected with that awful thing that happened to Sheila--have done +all in their power to make amends." + +For the first time his aunt's lips opened. + +"The poor child!" she said. + +"I want more than your sympathy for Sheila, auntie," he urged +earnestly. "I want your approval of what Sheila and I mean to +do--in time. Of course, I must be better established first and be +making money enough to support a--a family. And Sheila would not +think of leaving the old people up there. They need her so sorely." + +"But you may as well know, first as last, Aunt Lucretia, that I mean +to marry Sheila. I know it was wrong in me to try to palm her off on +you as somebody she wasn't--to try to fool you--" + +"You did not fool me, Tunis; not for a moment," she told him softly. + +He stared at her in amazement. + +"No," went on his usually inarticulate aunt. "The moment I first +looked into her face I knew she was not Sarah Honey's daughter. That +baby's eyes were brown when Sarah brought her here years ago; and no +brown eyes could change to such a beautiful violet-blue as--as +Sheila's. I knew you and she were trying to deceive me, but I could +not help loving the dear girl from my first sight of her." + +That was a very long speech indeed for Aunt Lucretia to make. She +put her arms about Tunis Latham's neck and said all the rest she +might have said in a loving kiss. + +Driving as the storm was, there remained something that took the +skipper of the _Seamew_ out into the welter of it. With the wet snow +plastering his back he climbed out of the saucerlike valley to the +rear premises of the Ball place. He even gave a look in at the barn +to make sure that all the chores were done for the night. The gray +ghost of the Queen of Sheba's face was raised a moment from her +manger while she looked at him inquiringly, blowing softly through +her nostrils the while. + +"You're all right, anyway," said Tunis, chuckling as he closed the +barn door. "You've got a friend for life." + +He went on to the kitchen door. Inside he could hear the bustle of +Sheila's swift feet, the croon of Prudence's gentle voice, and then +a mighty "A-choon!" as Cap'n Ira relieved his pent-up feelings. + +"Don't let them fish cakes burn, gal," the old man drawled. "If +Tunis ain't here mighty quick he can eat his cold. Oh! Here he +is--right to the nick o' time, like the second mate's watch comin' +to breakfast." + +Tunis had shaken his peacoat free of the clinging snow and now +stamped his sea-boots on the rug. He smiled broadly and confidently +at Sheila and she returned it so happily that her whole face seemed +to irradiate sunshine. Prudence nudged Cap'n Ira's elbow. + +"Ain't it a pretty sight, Ira?" she whispered. + +"She looks 'most as sweet as you did, Prue, when I took you to the +altar," sighed the old man windily. "I swan! Women is most alike, +young an' old. All but that dratted Ida May Bostwick. _She_ was a +caution to cats." + +"Now you hush, Ira. She's our own rel'tive and we ought not to speak +ill of her." + +"Ha!" blew Cap'n Ira, reminding Tunis of the old mare when she +snorted. "Ha! Maybe she is. But even so I want none o' her. An' I +told Elder Minnett so. I got kinder of an idee that the elder won't +be so brash, puttin' his spoon into other folks' porridge again." + +"Hush, Ira! Don't be irreverent. Remember he's a minister." + +"So he is. So he is," concluded Cap'n Ira. "They say charity covers +a multitude of sins; and I expect the call to be a preacher covers a +multitude of sinners." He chuckled mellowly again. "But sometimes +I've thought that the 'call' some of our preachers hear 'stead o' +being the voice of God is some other noise they mistook for it. +Well, there, Prudence, I won't say no more. But you must allow that +Elder Minnett's buttin' in, as the boys say, come pretty nigh +bustin' everything to flinders. + +"Come, Tunis. Do sit down or that gal won't be able to dish up +supper, and I'm as hungry as a wolf. Pull up your chair, Prudence. +Ain't this livin', I want to know?" He shuddered luxuriously at the +howl and rattle of the wind without. "Now, folks: 'For that with +which we are about to be blessed make us truly thankful. Amen.' Put +your teeth in one o' them biscuit, Tunis. I want to recommend 'em +to you. Ain't none better on this endurin' Cape--no, sir. We got the +best cook on the Head. If you are ever lucky enough to get one ha'f +as good, Tunis--" + +"Now, you be still, Ira," admonished Prudence, smiling comfortingly +at the blushing girl. + +"You better sing small, Cap'n Ira," said the skipper of the _Seamew_ +hoarsely. "It's mebbe just because we're good-natured and forbearing +that you are keeping your cook for a while." + +"Ha! So that's the way the wind blows, eh?" croaked Cap'n Ira. "You +talk big, young man. But we know Sheila better than you do, p'r'aps. +Don't we, Prue?" + +His little old wife, with her winter-apple face wrinkled in a smile +of utter confidence, leaned nearer Sheila to pat her hand. The girl +seized the wrinkled claw suddenly and pressed it with both of +hers--pressed it gratefully and with a full-charged heart. + +"Don't be disturbed. Don't fear," she whispered so that the old +woman only might not hear. "I will not leave you." + +The two men looked deeply into each other's eyes and with a great +understanding. They are not demonstrative, these Cape men, not as a +rule; but Cap'n Ira and Tunis Latham understood all entailed in that +promise so softly given, and they subscribed to it. Sheila was to +have her way. + +Hours later Tunis lit the lamp in his bedroom and then stood before +his window, gazing out into the driving snow. Almost immediately he +saw the gleam of another lamp, far up the slope, showing from that +north window of Sheila's chamber in the old Ball house. + +This was the signal they had agreed upon--their good-night symbol +whenever he was at home. He stood there a long time, looking out. + +Although the wintry wind raved across Wreckers' Head and the snow +scurried wildly before it, there was springtime in the hearts of +Tunis Latham and Sheila--the springtime of their hopes. + + +THE END + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's Sheila of Big Wreck Cove, by James A. 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Cooper +</title> +<style type="text/css"> +/*<![CDATA[*/ + <!-- + body { margin-left: 15%; margin-right: 15%; font-size: 100%;} + p { text-indent: 1.5em; + margin-top: .75em; + text-align: justify; + margin-bottom: .75em; } + h1,h2,h3,h4,h5,h6 { text-align: center; } + hr { width: 20%; } + hr.long {width: 65% } + hr.full { width: 100%; } + .note {text-indent: 0; text-align: center; font-size: 90%; } + .caption {text-indent: 0; text-align: center; + font-size: 90%; margin-top: 0.5em; margin-bottom: 2em;} + .poem { margin-left: 15%; text-indent: -.5em; text-align: left; } + .toc {text-align: center; text-indent: 0; font-size: 90%; + font-variant: small-caps; margin-bottom: .25em; margin-top: .25em; } + center { padding: 0.8em;} + pre {font-size: 8pt; } + a:link {color: blue; text-decoration: none; } + link {color: blue; text-decoration: none; } + a:visited {color: blue; text-decoration: none; } + a:hover {color: red } +/*]]>*/ + // --> +</style> +</head> +<body> + + +<pre> + +The Project Gutenberg EBook of Sheila of Big Wreck Cove, by James A. Cooper + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Sheila of Big Wreck Cove + A Story of Cape Cod + +Author: James A. Cooper + +Release Date: January 2, 2005 [EBook #14563] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK SHEILA OF BIG WRECK COVE *** + + + + +Produced by Janet Kegg and the Project Gutenberg Online Distributed +Proofreading Team + + + + + + +</pre> + + +<div style="height: 8em;"><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /></div> + +<a name="image-0001"><!--IMG--></a> +<center> +<img src="images/fp.jpg" width="277" height="450" alt="Come here and look at this craft, Prudence." /> +</center> + + +<p class="caption">"Come here and look at this craft, Prudence."<br /> +<i><a href="#p11">Page 11</a></i>...............(<i>Sheila of Big Wreck Cove.</i>) +</p> + +<hr class="long" /> + +<h1> +SHEILA +</h1> +<h1> + OF BIG WRECK COVE +</h1> +<h3> +<i>A Story of Cape Cod</i> +</h3> +<p><br /></p> +<h2> +B<small>Y</small> JAMES A. COOPER +</h2> +<p class="note"> +A<small>UTHOR OF</small><br /> +<i>"Tobias o' the Light," "Cap'n Jonah's Fortune"<br /> +"Cap'n Abe, Storekeeper," etc.</i> +</p> +<p><br /></p> +<p class="note"> +W<small>ITH</small> F<small>RONTISPIECE BY</small> <br /> +R. EMMETT OWEN +</p> +<p><br /></p> + +<h5> +A. L. BURT COMPANY<br /> +Publishers New York +</h5> +<p class="note"> +<small>Published by arrangement with George Sully & Company<br /> +Printed in U.S.A.</small> +</p> +<hr class="long" /> +<p><br /></p> +<p class="note"> +C<small>OPYRIGHT, 1921 (AS A SERIAL)</small><br /><br /> + +C<small>OPYRIGHT, 1922, BY</small> <br /> + GEORGE SULLY & COMPANY +</p> +<p><br /></p> + + +<hr class="long" /> +<h3>CONTENTS</h3> + + +<p class="toc"><a href="#2HCH0001"> +I. Cap'n Ira and Prue +</a></p> +<p class="toc"><a href="#2HCH0002"> +II. The Captain of the Seamew +</a></p> +<p class="toc"><a href="#2HCH0003"> + III. The Queen of Sheba +</a></p> +<p class="toc"><a href="#2HCH0004"> +IV. At the Latham House +</a></p> +<p class="toc"><a href="#2HCH0005"> +V. Looking for Ida May +</a></p> +<p class="toc"><a href="#2HCH0006"> +VI. An Unsatisfactory Interview +</a></p> +<p class="toc"><a href="#2HCH0007"> +VII. At the Restaurant +</a></p> +<p class="toc"><a href="#2HCH0008"> +VIII. Sheila +</a></p> +<p class="toc"><a href="#2HCH0009"> +IX. A Girl's Story +</a></p> +<p class="toc"><a href="#2HCH0010"> +X. The Plot +</a></p> +<p class="toc"><a href="#2HCH0011"> +XI. At Big Wreck Cove +</a></p> +<p class="toc"><a href="#2HCH0012"> +XII. A New Hand at the Helm +</a></p> +<p class="toc"><a href="#2HCH0013"> +XIII. Some Young Men Appear +</a></p> +<p class="toc"><a href="#2HCH0014"> +XIV. The Harvest Home Festival +</a></p> +<p class="toc"><a href="#2HCH0015"> +XV. An Invitation Accepted +</a></p> +<p class="toc"><a href="#2HCH0016"> +XVI. Memories—and Tunis +</a></p> +<p class="toc"><a href="#2HCH0017"> +XVII. Aunt Lucretia +</a></p> +<p class="toc"><a href="#2HCH0018"> +XVIII. Ida May Thinks It Over +</a></p> +<p class="toc"><a href="#2HCH0019"> +XIX. The Arrival +</a></p> +<p class="toc"><a href="#2HCH0020"> +XX. The Lie +</a></p> +<p class="toc"><a href="#2HCH0021"> +XXI. At Swords' Points +</a></p> +<p class="toc"><a href="#2HCH0022"> +XXII. A Way Out +</a></p> +<p class="toc"><a href="#2HCH0023"> +XXIII. A Call Unannounced +</a></p> +<p class="toc"><a href="#2HCH0024"> +XXIV. Eunez Pareta +</a></p> +<p class="toc"><a href="#2HCH0025"> +XXV. To Love and Be Loved +</a></p> +<p class="toc"><a href="#2HCH0026"> +XXVI. Elder Minnett Has His Say +</a></p> +<p class="toc"><a href="#2HCH0027"> +XXVII. Cap'n Ira Speaks Out +</a></p> +<p class="toc"><a href="#2HCH0028"> +XXVIII. Gone +</a></p> +<p class="toc"><a href="#2HCH0029"> +XXIX. On the Trail +</a></p> +<p class="toc"><a href="#2HCH0030"> +XXX. The Storm +</a></p> +<p class="toc"><a href="#2HCH0031"> +XXXI. Bitter Waters +</a></p> +<p class="toc"><a href="#2HCH0032"> +XXXII. A Girl to the Rescue +</a></p> +<p class="toc"><a href="#2HCH0033"> +XXXIII. A Haven of Rest +</a></p> +<p><br /></p> + +<hr class="long" /> + + + <a name="2HCH0001"><!-- H2 anchor --></a> + +<div style="height: 4em;"><br /><br /><br /><br /></div> + +<h2> + CHAPTER I +</h2> +<h3> + CAP'N IRA AND PRUE +</h3> +<p> +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. +</p> +<p> +For Cap'n Ira had commanded passenger-carrying craft in his day, and +was a bit of a dandy still. The niceties of maritime full dress were +as important to his mind now that he had retired from the sea to +spend his remaining days in the Ball homestead on Wreckers' Head as +when he had trod the quarter-deck of the old <i>Susan Gatskill</i>, or +had occupied the chief seat at her saloon table. +</p> +<p> +"I don't know what's to become of us," repeated Cap'n Ira, wagging a +thoughtful head, his gaze, as that of old people often is, fixed +upon a point too distant for youthful eyes to see. +</p> +<p> +"I can't see into the future, Ira, any clearer than you can," +rejoined his wife, glancing at his sagging, blue-coated shoulders +with some gentle apprehension. +</p> +<p> +She was a frail, little, old woman, one of those women who, after a +robust middle age, seem gradually to shrivel to the figure of what +they were in their youth, but with no charm of girlish lines +remaining. Her face was wrinkled like a russet apple in February, +and it had the colorings of that grateful fruit. She sat on the +stone slab which served for a back door stoop peeling potatoes. +</p> +<p> +"I swan, Prue, you cut me in two places this mornin' when you shaved +me," said Cap'n Ira suddenly and in some slight exasperation. "And I +can't handle that dratted razor myself." +</p> +<p> +"Maybe you could get John-Ed Williams to come over and shave you, +Ira." +</p> +<p> +"John-Ed's got his work to do. Then again, how're we going to pay +him for such jobs? I swan! I can't afford a vally, Prue. Besides, +you need help about the house more than I need a steward. I can get +along without being shaved so frequent, I s'pose, but there's times +when you can't scurce lift a pot of potatoes off the stove." +</p> +<p> +"Oh, now, Ira, I ain't so bad as all that!" declared his wife +mildly. +</p> +<p> +"Yes, you be. I am always expecting you to fall down, or hurt +yourself some way. And as for looking out for the Queen of Sheby—" +</p> +<p> +"Now, Ira, Queenie ain't no trouble scurcely." +</p> +<p> +"Huh! She's more trouble than all our money, that's sure. And she's +eating her head off." +</p> +<p> +"Now, don't say that," urged his wife in that soothing tone which +often irritated Cap'n Ira more than it mollified him. +</p> +<p> +He tapped the metal top of the huge knob of his cane and the spring +cover flew open. Ira took a pinch of snuff, inhaled it, closed the +cover of the box, delicately brushed a few flecks of the pungent +powder from his coat lapel and shirt front, and then, burying his +nose in a large silk handkerchief, vented a prodigious: +</p> +<p> +"<i>A-choon!</i>" +</p> +<p> +Prudence uttered a surprised squeak, like a mouse being stepped on, +jerked herself to a half-standing posture, and the potatoes rolled +to every point of the compass. +</p> +<p> +"Goodness gracious gallop!" she ejaculated, quite shaken out of her +usual calm. "I should think, Ira, as many times as I've told you +that scares me most into a conniption, that you'd signal me when +you're going to take snuff. I—I'm all of a shake, I be." +</p> +<p> +"I swan! I'm sorry, Prue. I oughter fire a gun, I allow, before +speakin' the ship." +</p> +<p> +"Fire a gun!" repeated the old woman, panting as she scrambled for +the potatoes. "That's what I object to, Ira. You want to speak +<i>this</i> ship 'fore you shoot that awful noise. I never can get used +to it." +</p> +<p> +"There, there!" he said, trying to poke the more distant potatoes +toward her with his cane. He could not himself stoop; or, if he did, +he could only sit erect again after the method of a ratchet wheel. +"I won't do so again, Prudence. I be an onthoughtful critter, if +ever there was one." +</p> +<p> +Prudence had recovered the last potato. She stopped to pat his ruddy +cheek, nor was it much wrinkled, before she returned to peeling the +potatoes. +</p> +<p> +"I know you don't mean to, Iry," she crooned. Married couples like +the Balls, where the man has been at home only for brief visits +between voyages, if they really love each other, never grow weary of +the little frills on connubial bliss usually worn shabby by other +people before the honeymoon is past. "I know you don't mean to. But +when you sneeze I think it's the crack o' doom." +</p> +<p> +"I'm sorry about them potatoes," repeated Cap'n Ira. "I make you a +lot of extry work, Prue. Sometimes I feel, fixed as I be in health, +I oughter be in the Sailors' Snug Harbor over to Paulmouth. I do, +for a fact." +</p> +<p> +"And what would become of me?" cried the old woman, appalled. +</p> +<p> +"Well," returned Cap'n Ira, "you couldn't be no worse off than you +be. We'd miss each other a heap, I know." +</p> +<p> +"Ira!" cried his wife. "Ira, I'd just <i>die</i> without you now that +I've got you to myself at last. Those long years you were away so +much, and us not being blessed with children—" +</p> +<p> +Ira Ball made a sudden clucking sound with his tongue. That was a +sore topic of conversation, and he always tried to dodge it. +</p> +<p> +"It did seem sometimes," pursued Prudence, wiping her eyes with a +bit of a handkerchief that she took from her bosom, "as though I +wasn't an honestly married woman. I know that sounds awful"—and she +shook her head—"but it was so, you only getting home as you did +between voyages. But I was always looking forward to the time when +you would be home for good." +</p> +<p> +"Don't you s'pose I looked forward to casting anchor?" he demanded +warmly. "Seemed like the time never would come. I was always trying +to speculate a little so as to make something besides my skipper's +pay and share. That—that's why I got bit in that Sea-Gold +proposition. That feller's prospectus did read mighty reasonable, +Prudence." +</p> +<p> +"I know it did, Ira," she agreed cordially. "I believed in it just +as strong as you did. You warn't none to blame." +</p> +<p> +"Well, I dunno. It's mighty nice of you to say so, Prue. But they +told me afterward that I might have knowed that a feller couldn't +extract ten dollars' wuth of gold from the whole Atlantic Ocean, not +if he bailed it dry!" +</p> +<p> +"We've got enough left to keep us, Ira." +</p> +<p> +"Just about. Just about. That is just it. When I was taken down with +this rheumatiz and the hospital doctors in New York told me I could +never think of pacing my own quarter no more, we had just enough +left invested in good securities for us to live on the int'rest." +</p> +<p> +"And the old place, here, Ira," added his wife cheerfully. +</p> +<p> +"Which ain't much more than a shelter," he rejoined rather bitterly. +"And just as I say, it isn't fit for two old folks like us to live +alone in. Why, we can't even raise our own potatoes no more. And I +never yet heard of pollack swimmin' ashore and begging to be split +and dried against winter. No, sir!" +</p> +<p> +"The Lord's been good to us, Ira. We ain't never suffered yet," she +told him softly. +</p> +<p> +"I know that. We ain't suffering for food and shelter. But, I swan, +Prue, we be suffering for some young person about the house. Now, +hold on! 'Twarn't for us to have children. That warn't meant. We've +been all through that, and it's settled. But that don't change the +fact that we need somebody to live with us if we're going to live +comfortable." +</p> +<p> +"Oh, dear, if my niece Sarah had lived! She used to stay with me +when she was a gal and you was away," sighed Prudence. +</p> +<p> +"But she married and had a gal of her own. She brought her here that +time I was home after my first v'y'ge on the <i>Susan Gatskill</i>. A +pretty baby if ever there was one." +</p> +<p> +"Ida May Bostwick! Bostwick was Sarah's married name. I heard +something about Ida May only the other day." +</p> +<p> +"You did?" exclaimed Cap'n Ira, much interested. +</p> +<p> +"Yes, Ira. Annabell Coffin, she who was a Cuttle, was visiting his +folks in Boston, and she learned that Sarah Bostwick's daughter was +working behind the counter in some store there. She has to work for +her livin', poor child." +</p> +<p> +"I swan!" ejaculated the captain. +</p> +<p> +Much as he had been about the world, Cap'n Ira looked upon most +mundane affairs with the eyes of the true Cape man. Independence is +bred in the bone of his tribe. A tradesman or storekeeper is, after +all, not of the shipmaster caste. And a clerk, working "behind the +counter" of any store, is much like a man before the mast. +</p> +<p> +"It does seem too bad," sighed Prudence. "She was a pretty baby, as +you say, Ira." +</p> +<p> +"Sarah was nice as she could be to you," was the old man's +thoughtful comment. +</p> +<p> +"Yes. But her husband, Bostwick, was only a mechanic. Of course, he +left nothing. Them city folks are so improvident," said Prudence. "I +wish't we was able to do something for little Ida May, Ira. Think of +her workin' behind a counter!" +</p> +<p> +"I am a-thinkin'," growled the old captain. "See here, Prue. What's +to hinder us doin' something for her?" +</p> +<p> +Prudence looked at him, startled. +</p> +<p> +"Why, Iry, you say yourself we can scurce help ourselves." +</p> +<p> +"It's a mighty ill wind that don't blow fair for some craft," +declared the ancient mariner, nodding. "We do need help right here, +Prudence, and that gal of Sarah Bostwick's could certainly fill the +bill. On the other hand, she'd be a sight better off here on the +Cape, living with us, getting rosy and healthy, and having this old +place and what we've got left when we die, than she would be slavin' +behind a counter in any city store. What d'you think?" +</p> +<p> +"Ira!" exclaimed his wife, clasping her hands, potato knife and all. +"Ira! I think that's a most wonderful idea. It takes you to think up +things. You're just wonderful!" +</p> +<p> +Cap'n Ira preened himself like the proud old gander he was. He +heaved himself out of the chair by the aid of his cane, a present +from one grateful group of passengers that had sailed in his charge, +on the <i>Susan Gatskill</i>. +</p> +<p> +"Well, well!" he said. "Let's think of it. Let's see, where's my +glass? Here 'tis." +</p> +<p> +He seized the old-fashioned collapsible spyglass, which he favored +rather than the newer binoculars, and started off to "pace the +quarter," as he called the path from the back door to the grassy +cart track which joined the road at the lower corner of the Ball +premises. This highway wandered down from the Head into the fishing +village along the inner beach of Big Wreck Cove. Prudence watched +Ira with fond but comprehending eyes. She saw how broken he was, how +stumbling his feet when he first started off, and the swaying +locomotion that betrayed that feebleness of both brain and body that +can never be denied. +</p> +<p> +Somewhere on the Head in the old days the wreckers had kept their +outlook for ships in distress. Those harpies of the coast had +fattened on the bones of storm-racked craft. It was one of those +battered freighters that, nearly two centuries before, had been +driven into the cove itself, to become embalmed in Cape history as +"the big wreck." +</p> +<p> +The Balls and the Lathams, the Honeys and the Coffins of that +ancient day had "wracked" the stranded craft most thoroughly. But +they had not overlooked the salvation of her ship's company of +foreigners. She had been a Portuguese vessel, and although the Cape +Codder, then, as now, was opposed to "foreigners," refuge was +extended to the people saved from the big wreck. +</p> +<p> +Near the straggling settlement at the cove a group of shacks had +sprung up to shelter the "Portygees" from the stranded-vessel. As +her bones were slowly engulfed in the marching sands, through the +decades that passed, the people who had come ashore from the big +wreck had waxed well to do, bred families of strong, handsome, brown +men and black-eyed, glossy-haired women who flashed their white +teeth in smiles that were almost startling. Now one end of "the +port," as the village of Big Wreck Cove was usually called by the +natives, was known as Portygee Town. +</p> +<p> +Wreckers' Head boasted of several homes of retired shipmasters and +owners of Cap'n Ira's ilk. These ancient sea dogs, on such a day as +this, were unfailingly found "walking the poop" of their front +yards, or wherever they could take their diurnal exercise, +binoculars or spyglass in hand, their vision more often fixed +seaward than on the land. +</p> +<p> +Cap'n Ira had scarcely put the glass to his eye for a first squint +at his "position" when he exclaimed: +</p> +<p> +"I swan! That's a master-pretty sight. I ain't <a name="p11"></a> seen a prettier in +many a day. Come here and look at this craft, Prudence." +</p> +<p> +She hurried to join him. Her motions when she was on her feet were +birdlike, yet there was the same unsteadiness in her walk as in +Cap'n Ira's. Only, at the moment, he did not see it, for his eye was +glued to the telescope. +</p> +<p> +"What do you see, Ira?" she asked. +</p> +<p> +"Clap this glass to your eye," said her husband. He steadied the +telescope, having pointed it for her. "See that suit of sails? Ain't +they grand? And the taper of them masts? She's a bird!" +</p> +<p> +"Why, what schooner is it?" asked Prudence. "I never saw her before, +did I? She's bearing in for the cove." +</p> +<p> +"I cal'late she is," agreed Cap'n Ira. "And I cal'late by the +newness of that suit of sails and her lines and all that she's Tunis +Latham's new craft that he went up to Marblehead last week to bring +down here and put into commission." +</p> +<p> +"The <i>Seamew!</i>" cried Prudence, in a pleased voice. "Isn't she a +pretty sight?" +</p> +<p> +"She's a sightly craft. Looks more like a racing yacht than a cargo +boat. Still and all, Tunis has got judgment. And he's put nigh every +cent he's got, all Peke Latham left him, into this schooner. And she +not new." +</p> +<p> +"I hope Tunis has made no mistake," sighed Prudence, releasing the +glass for Ira to look through once more. "There has been trouble +enough over Peleg Latham's money." +</p> +<p> +"More trouble than the money amounted to. Split the family wide +open. 'Rion Latham was saying to me he believed Peke never meant the +money should go all one way. The Medway Lathams, them 'Rion belongs +to, is all as sore as carbuncles about Tunis getting it. But I tell +Tunis as long as the court says the money should be his, let 'Rion +and all them yap like the hungry dogs they be. Tunis has got the +marrer bone." +</p> +<p> +"Does seem a pity," the old woman said, still watching the white +splotch against the background of gray and blue. "Families ought to +be at peace." +</p> +<p> +"Peace! I swan!" snorted Cap'n Ira. "'Rion Latham is about as much +given to peace as a wild tagger. But he knows which half of his +biscuit's buttered. He'll sail with Tunis as long as Tunis pays him +wages." +</p> +<p> +The captain continued to study the approaching schooner while +Prudence went back to her household tasks. +</p> +<a name="2HCH0002"><!-- H2 anchor --></a> + +<div style="height: 4em;"><br /><br /><br /><br /></div> + +<h2> + CHAPTER II +</h2> +<h3> + THE CAPTAIN OF THE SEAMEW +</h3> +<p> +Tunis Latham's <i>Seamew</i>, tacking for the channel into Big Wreck +Cove, wings full-spread, skimming the heaving blue of the summer +sea, looked like a huge member of the tern family. From Wreckers' +Head and the other sand bluffs guarding this roadstead from the +heave of the Atlantic rollers, the schooner with her yachtlike lines +was truly a picture to please the most exacting mariner. +</p> +<p> +On her deck paced the young captain whose personal affairs had been +a subject of comment between Cap'n Ira Ball and his wife. He was a +heavy-set, upstanding, blue-jerseyed figure, lithe and as spry on +his feet as a cat. Tunis Latham was thirty, handsome in the bold way +of longshore men, and ruddy-faced. He had crisp, short, sandy hair; +his cheeks, chin, and lip were scraped as clean as his palm; his +eyes were like blue-steel points, but with humorous wrinkles at the +outer corners of them, matched by a faint smile that almost always +wreathed his lips. Altogether he was a man that a woman would be +sure to look at twice. +</p> +<p> +The revelation of the lighter traits of his character counteracted +the otherwise sober look of Tunis Latham. His sternness and fitness +to command were revealed at first glance; his softer attributes +dawned upon one later. +</p> +<p> +As he swayed back and forth across the deck of the flying <i>Seamew</i>, +rolling easily in sailor gait to the pitching of the schooner, his +sharp glance cast alow and then aloft betrayed the keen perception +and attentive mind of the master mariner, while his surface +appearance merely suggested a young man pridefully enjoying the +novelty of pacing the deck of his first command. For this was the +maiden trip of the <i>Seamew</i> under this name and commanded by this +master. +</p> +<p> +She was not a new vessel, but neither was she old. At least, her +decks were not marred, her rails were ungashed with the wear of +lines, and even her fenders were almost shop-new. Of course, any +craft may have a fresh suit of sails; and new paint and gilding on +the figurehead or a new name board under the stern do not bespeak a +craft just off the builder's ways. Yet there was an appearance about +the schooner-yacht which would assure any able seaman at first +glance that she was still to be sea-tried. She was like a maiden at +her first dance, just venturing out upon the floor. +</p> +<p> +An old salt hung to the <i>Seamew's</i> wheel as the bonny craft sped +channelward. Horace Newbegin was a veritable sea dog. He had sailed +every navigable sea in all this watery world, and sailed in almost +every conceivable sort of craft. And he had sailed many voyages +under Tunis Latham's father, who had owned and commanded the +four-master <i>Ada May</i>, which, ill-freighted and ill-fated at last, +had struck and sunk on the outer Hebrides, carrying to the bottom +most of the hands as well as the commander of the partially insured +ship. +</p> +<p> +This misfortune had kept Tunis Latham out of a command of his own +until he was thirty; for Cape Cod boys that come of masters' +families and are born navigators usually tread their own decks years +before the age at which Tunis was pacing that of the <i>Seamew</i> on +this summer day. +</p> +<p> +"How does she handle now, Horry?" asked the skipper, wheeling +suddenly to face the old steersman. +</p> +<p> +"Thar's still that tug to sta'bo'd, Captain Tunis," growled the old +man. +</p> +<p> +"But you keep her full on her course." +</p> +<p> +"Spite o' that? In course. But I can feel her tuggin' like a big +bluefish trying to bolt with hook and sinker. Never did feel that +same tug to sta'bo'd but once before on any craft. I told you that." +</p> +<p> +Tunis Latham nodded. The old man's keen eyes tried to read the +skipper's face. He could scan the signs in sea and sky at a glance, +but he confessed that the captain of the <i>Seamew</i> revealed no more +of his inner thoughts than had the mahogany countenance of the older +Captain Latham with whom Horry Newbegin had so long sailed. +</p> +<p> +"Well," the steersman said finally, "I've told ye all I can tell ye. +That other schooner that had a tug to sta'bo'd like this, the +<i>Marlin B.</i>, got a bad name from the Georges to Monomoy P'int. You +know that." +</p> +<p> +"Cat's foot!" ejaculated Tunis cheerfully. "The <i>Marlin B.</i> was sold +for a pleasure yacht and taken half around the world. A Chilean +guano millionaire bought her the year after the Sutro Brothers took +her off the Banks." +</p> +<p> +"Ye-as. That's what Sutro Brothers says," and the old man wagged his +head doubtfully. "But there's just as much difference in ships, as +there is in men. Ain't never been two men just per<i>zact</i>-ly alike. +No two craft ever sailed or steered same as same, Captain Tunis. I +steered the <i>Martin B.</i> out o' Salem on her second trip, without +knowing what she'd been through, you can believe, on her first." +</p> +<p> +"Well, well!" Tunis broke in sharply. "Just keep your mind on what +you are doing now, Horry. You're supposed to be steering the +<i>Seamew</i> into Big Wreck Cove. Don't undertake to shave a piece off +the Lighthouse Point reef." +</p> +<p> +The steersman did not answer. From long experience with these +Lathams, Horace Newbegin knew just how much interference or advice +they would stand. +</p> +<p> +"And, by gum, that ain't much!" he growled to himself. +</p> +<p> +He took the beautifully sailing schooner in through the channel in a +masterly manner. He knew that more ancient skippers than Cap'n Ira +Ball, up there on Wreckers' Head, would be watching the <i>Seamew</i> +make the cove, and old Horry Newbegin wanted them to say it was well +done. +</p> +<p> +Half an hour later the anchor was dropped fifty yards off Portygee +Town. Captain Tunis ordered the gig lowered to take him ashore and, +after giving the mate some instructions regarding stowage and the +men's shore leave, he was rowed over to Luiz Wharf. 'Rion Latham, a +red-headed, pimply faced young man, sidled up to Horace Newbegin. +</p> +<p> +"Well, what do you think of the hoodoo ship, Horrors?" he hoarsely +whispered. +</p> +<p> +Newbegin stared at him unwaveringly, and the red-haired one repeated +the question. The old salt finally batted one eye, slowly and +impressively. +</p> +<p> +"D'you know what answer the little boy got that asked the quahog the +time o' day?" he drawled. "Not a word. Not a derned word, 'Rion." +</p> +<p> +Landing at the fish wharf, Tunis Latham walked up the straggling +street of the district inhabited for the most part by smiling brown +men and women. Fayal and Cape Cod are strangely analogous, +especially upon a summer's day. The houses he passed had one room; +they were little more than shacks. But there were gay colors +everywhere in the dress of both men and women. It was believed that +these Portygee fishermen would have their seines dyed red and yellow +if the fish would swim into them. +</p> +<p> +A young woman sitting upon a doorstep, nursing a little, bald, +brown-headed baby, dropped a gay handkerchief over her bared bosom +but nodded and smiled at the captain of the <i>Seamew</i> with right good +fellowship. He knew all these people, and most of them, the young +women at least, admired Tunis; but he was too self-centered and +busied with his own thoughts and affairs to comprehend this. +</p> +<p> +At the corner of one of the houses a girl stood—a tall, +lean-flanked, but deep-bosomed creature, as graceful as a well-grown +sapling. Her calico frock clung to the lines of her matured figure +as though she had just stepped up out of the sea itself. Around her +head she had banded a crimson bandanna, but it allowed the escape of +glossy black hair that waved prettily. Her lips were as red as +poppies, full, voluptuous; her eyes were sloe-black and as soft as a +cow's. Fortunately for the languishing girl's peace of mind—she had +placed herself there at the corner of the house to wait for Tunis +since the moment the <i>Seamew</i> had dropped anchor—she did not know +that the young captain had noticed her only as "that cow" as he +swung by on his way to the road that wound up the slope of Wreckers' +Head. +</p> +<p> +Neither Eunez Pareta—nor any other girl of the port, Portygee or +Yankee—had ever made Tunis Latham's heart flutter. He was not +impervious to the blandishments of all feminine beauty. As Cap'n Ira +Ball would have said, Tunis was "a general admirer of the sect." And +as the young man passed the languishing Eunez with a cheerful nod +and smile there flashed into his memory an entirely different +picture, but one of a girl nevertheless. Somehow the memory of that +girl in Scollay Square kept coming back to his mind. +</p> +<p> +He had gone up by train for the <i>Seamew</i> and her crew, and naturally +he had spent one night in Boston. Coming up out of the North End +after a late supper, he had stopped upon one side of the square to +watch the passing throng, some hurrying home from work, some +hurrying to theaters and other places of amusement, but all +hurrying. Nowhere did he see the slow, but carrying, stride of a man +used to open spaces. And the narrow-skirted girls could scarcely +hobble. +</p> +<p> +A narrow skirt, however, had not led Tunis Latham to give particular +note to one certain girl in the throng. She had stepped through the +door of a cheap but garish restaurant. Somebody had thrown a peeling +on the sidewalk, and she had slipped on it. Tunis had leaped and +caught her before she measured her length. She looked up into his +face with startled, violet eyes that seemed, in that one moment, to +hold in them a fascination and power that the Cape man had never +dreamed a woman's eyes could possess. +</p> +<p> +"You're all right, ma'am," he said, confused, setting her firmly on +her feet. +</p> +<p> +"My skirt!" She almost whispered it. There seemed to be not a +shyness, but a terrified timidity in her voice and manner. Tunis saw +that the shabby skirt was torn widely at the hem. +</p> +<p> +"Let's go somewhere and get that fixed," he suggested awkwardly. +</p> +<p> +"Thank you, sir. I will go back into the restaurant. I work there. I +can get a pin or two." +</p> +<p> +He had to let her go, of course. Nor could he follow her. He lacked +the boldness that might have led another man to enter the restaurant +and order something to eat for the sake of seeing what became of the +girl with the violet eyes and colorless velvet cheeks. There had +been an appeal in her countenance that called Tunis more and more as +he dreamed about her. +</p> +<p> +And standing there on Scollay Square dreaming about her had done the +young captain of the <i>Seamew</i> positively no good! She did not come +out again, although he stood there for fully an hour. At the end of +that time he strolled up an alley and discovered that there was a +side door to the restaurant for the use of employees, and he judged +that the girl, seeing him lingering in front, had gone out by this +way. It made him flush to his ears when he thought of it. Of course, +he had been rude. +</p> +<p> +Marching up the winding road by the Ball homestead, Tunis Latham +revisioned this adventure—and the violet-eyed girl. Well, he +probably would never see her again. And in any case she was not the +sort of girl that he would ever take home to Aunt Lucretia. He was +headed toward home now, to the old brown house in the saucer-like +valley some distance beyond Cap'n Ira's. +</p> +<p> +As he came within hail of the old homestead in which the Balls had +been born and had died—if they were not lost at sea—for many +generations, the captain of the <i>Seamew</i> became suddenly aware that +something was particularly wrong there. He heard somebody shouting. +Was it for help? He hastened his stride. +</p> +<p> +Quite unexpectedly the hobbling figure of Cap'n Ira appeared in the +open barn door. He saw Tunis. He waved his cane in one hand and +beckoned wildly with the other. Then he disappeared. +</p> +<p> +The young captain vaulted the fence and ran across the ill-tended +garden adjoining the Balls' side yard. Again he heard Cap'n Ira's +hail. +</p> +<p> +"Come on in here, Tunis!" +</p> +<p> +"What's the matter, Cap'n Ira?" +</p> +<p> +"That dratted Queen of Sheby! I knowed she'd be the death of one of +us some day. I swan! Tunis Latham, come here! I can't get her out, +and you know derned well Prudence can't stand on her head that a way +without strangling. Lend us a hand, boy. This is something awful! +Something awful!" +</p> +<p> +Tunis Latham, much disturbed by the old man's words and excited +manner, pushed into the dimly lit interior of the barn. +</p> +<a name="2HCH0003"><!-- H2 anchor --></a> + +<div style="height: 4em;"><br /><br /><br /><br /></div> + +<h2> + CHAPTER III +</h2> +<h3> + THE QUEEN OF SHEBA +</h3> +<p> +The barn was a roomy place, as well built as the Ball house itself, +and quite as old. The wagon floor had a wide door, front and rear. +The stables were on either side of this floor and the mows were +above. In one mow was a small quantity of hay and some corn fodder, +but the upper reaches were filled only with a brown dusk. +</p> +<p> +The pale face of a gray mare was visible at the opening over one of +the mangers. She was the sole recognized occupant of the stable. In +a dark corner Tunis Latham saw a huge grain box, for once the Ball +farm had supported several span of oxen and a considerable dairy +herd, its cover raised and its maw gaping wide. There was something +moving there in the murk, something fluttering. +</p> +<p> +"Come here, boy!" gasped Cap'n Ira, hurrying across the barn door. +"I'm so crippled I can't git her up, and she's dove clean to the +lower hold, tryin' to scrape out a capful o' oats for that dratted +Queen of Sheby." +</p> +<p> +"Aunt Prue!" shouted Tunis, reverting to the title he had addressed +her by in his boyhood. "It's never her?" +</p> +<p> +A muffled voice stammered: +</p> +<p> +"Get me out! Get me out!" +</p> +<p> +"Heave hard, Tunis! All together now!" gasped Cap'n Ira, as the +younger man reached over the old woman's struggling heels and seized +her around the waist. +</p> +<p> +"Up she comes!" continued the excited old man, as though he were +bossing a capstan crew starting one of the <i>Susan Gatskill's</i> +anchors. +</p> +<p> +Tunis Latham set Prudence Ball on her feet, but the old woman was +forced to lean against the stalwart young man for a minute. She +addressed her husband in some heat. +</p> +<p> +"Goodness gracious gallop! Why don't you sing a chantey over me, I +want to know? You'd think I was a bale of jute being snaked out of a +ship's hold. Good land!" +</p> +<p> +"There, there, Prudence!" exclaimed Cap'n Ira. "You're safe, after +all! It—it was something awful!" +</p> +<p> +"I cal'late it was," rejoined the old woman rather bitterly. "And I +didn't get them oats, after all." +</p> +<p> +"I'll 'tend to all that, Aunt Prue," said Tunis. +</p> +<p> +"If it hadn't been for that dratted Queen of Sheby"—Cap'n Ira +glared malevolently at the rather surprised-looking countenance of +the gray mare in her box—"you wouldn't have got into that jam." +</p> +<p> +"If it hadn't been for you taking that dose of snuff when I was +expecting nothing of the kind, I wouldn't have dove into that feed +box, Ira, and you know it very well." +</p> +<p> +"I swan!" admitted her husband in a feeble voice. "I forgot again, +didn't I?" +</p> +<p> +"I don't know as you forgot, but I know you mighty near sneezed your +head off. You'll be the death of me some day, Ira, blowin' up that +way. I wonder I didn't jump clean through the bottom of that feed +box when I was just reaching down to get a measure of oats." +</p> +<p> +"Aunt Prue," Tunis interposed, "why do you keep the little tad of +feed you have to buy for Queenie in this big old chest?" +</p> +<p> +"There!" Cap'n Ira hastened to rejoin, glad likewise to turn the +trend of conversation. "That's all that dratted boy's doings, little +John-Ed Williams. Who else would have ever thought of dumping a +two-bushel bag of oats into a twenty-bushel bin? We always put feed +in that covered can yonder, so as to keep shet of the rats. But that +boy, when he brought the oats, dumped 'em into the box before I +could stop him. He's got less sense than his father; and you know, +Tunis, John-Ed himself ain't got much more wit than the law allows." +</p> +<p> +"But if you hadn't sneezed—" began Prudence again. +</p> +<p> +"You take her into the house, Cap'n Ira," said Tunis. "I'll feed +Queenie. What do you give her—this measure full of oats? And a hank +of that hay?" +</p> +<p> +"And a bunch of fodder. Might as well give her a dinner while you're +about it," grumbled the old man, leading his tottering wife toward +the door. "As I say, that old critter is eatin' her head off." +</p> +<p> +"Well, she long ago earned her keep in her old age," Tunis said, +laughing. +</p> +<p> +He could remember when the Queen of Sheba had come to the Ball barn +as a colt. Many a clandestine bareback ride had he enjoyed. He fed +the mare and petted her as if she were his own. Then he scraped the +oats out of the bin and poured them into the galvanized-iron can, so +that Cap'n Ira could more easily get at the mare's feed. +</p> +<p> +He went to the house afterward to see if there was any other little +chore he could do for the old couple before going on to his own +home. +</p> +<p> +"You can't do much for us, Tunis, unless you can furnish me a new +pair of legs," said Cap'n Ira. "I might as well have timber ones as +these I've got. What Prue and me needs is what you've got but can't +give away—youth." +</p> +<p> +"You ought to have somebody living with you to help, Cap'n Ira," +said the young man. +</p> +<p> +"I cal'late," said the other dryly, "that we've already made that +discovery, Tunis. Trouble is, we ain't fixed right to increase the +pay roll. I'd like to know who you'd think would want to sign up on +this craft that even the rats have deserted?" +</p> +<p> +"Never mind, Ira. Don't be downhearted," Prudence said, now +recovered from her excitement. "Perhaps the Lord has something good +in store for us." +</p> +<p> +Cap'n Ira pursed his lips. +</p> +<p> +"I ain't doubting the Lord's stores is plentiful," he returned +rather irreverently. "The trouble is for us poor mortals to get at +'em. Well, Tunis, I certainly am obliged to you." +</p> +<p> +The flurry of excitement was over. But Ira Ball was a determined +man. It was in his mind that the trouble of taking care of the old +mare was too great for Prudence, and he could not do the barn chores +himself. They really had no use for the gray mare, for nowadays the +neighbors did all their errands in town for them, and the few +remaining acres of the old farm lay fallow. +</p> +<p> +Nor, had he desired to sell the mare, would anybody be willing to +pay much for the twenty-two-year-old Queenie. In truth, Ira Ball was +too tender-hearted to think of giving the Queen of Sheba over to a +new owner and so sentence her to painful toil. +</p> +<p> +"She'd be a sight better off in the horse heaven, wherever that +is," he decided. But he was careful to say nothing like this in his +wife's hearing. "Women are funny that way," he considered. "She'd +rather let the decrepit old critter hang around eatin' her head off, +like I say, than mercifully put her out of her misery." +</p> +<p> +Stern times call for stern methods. Cap'n Ira Ball had seen the +tragic moment when he was forced to separate a bridegroom from his +bride with a sinking deck all but awash under his feet. What had to +be done had to be done! Prudence could no longer be endangered by +the stable tasks connected with the old mare. He could not relieve +her. They could scarcely afford a hired hand merely to take care of +Queenie. +</p> +<p> +He remained rather silent that evening, and even forgot to praise +Prue's hot biscuit, of which he ate a good many with his creamed +pollack. The sweet-tempered old woman chatted as she knitted on his +blue-wool hose, but she scarcely expected more than his occasional +grunted acknowledgment that he was listening. She always said it was +"a joy to have somebody besides the cat around to talk to." The +loneliness of shipmasters who sail the seven seas is often mentioned +in song and in story; the loneliness of their wives at home is not +usually marked. +</p> +<p> +They went to bed. Old men do not usually sleep much after second +cock-crow, and it was not far from three in the morning when Cap'n +Ira awoke. Like most mariners, he was wide awake when he opened his +eyes. He lay quietly for several moments in the broad bed he +occupied alone. The half-sobbing breathing of the old woman sounded +from her room, through the open door. +</p> +<p> +"It's got to be done," Cap'n Ira almost audibly repeated. +</p> +<p> +He got out of the bed with care. It was both a difficult and a +painful task to dress. When he had on all but his boots and hat he +tiptoed to a green sea chest in the corner, unlocked it, and from +beneath certain tarpaulins and other sea rubbish drew out something +which he examined carefully in the semidarkness of the chamber. He +finally tucked this into an inner pocket of the double-breasted +pilot coat he wore. It sagged the coat a good deal on that side. +</p> +<p> +He crept out of the chamber, crossed the sitting room, and went into +the ell-kitchen with his shoes in his hand. When he opened the back +door he faced the west, but even the sky at that point of the +compass showed the glow of the false dawn. Down in the cove the +night mist wrapped the shipping about in an almost opaque veil. Only +the lofty tops of craft like the <i>Seamew</i> were visible, black +streaks against the mother-of-pearl sky line. +</p> +<p> +The captain closed the kitchen door softly behind him. He sat down +on a bench and painfully pulled on his shoes and laced them. When he +tried to straighten up it was by a method which he termed, "easy, +by jerks." He sat and recovered his breath after the effort. +</p> +<p> +Then, taking his cane, he hobbled off to the barn. The big doors +were open, for it had been a warm night. The pungent odor from +Queenie's stall made his nostrils wrinkle. He stumbled in, and the +pale face of the old mare appeared at the opening above her manger. +She snorted her surprise. +</p> +<p> +"You'll snort more'n that afore I'm done with you," Cap'n Ira said, +trying to seem embittered. +</p> +<p> +But when he unknotted the halter and backed her out of the stable, +quite involuntarily he ran a tender hand down her sleek neck. He +sighed as he led her out of the rear door. +</p> +<p> +The old mare hung back, stretching first one hind leg and then the +other as old horses do when first they come from the stall in the +morning. +</p> +<p> +"Come on, you old nuisance!" exploded Cap'n Ira under his breath, +giving an impatient tug at the rope. +</p> +<p> +He did not look around at her, but set his face sternly toward the +distant lot which had once been known as the east meadow. It was no +longer in grass. Wild carrots sprang from its acidulous soil. The +herbage would scarcely have nourished sheep. There were patches of +that gray moss which blossoms with a tiny red flower, and there was +mullein and sour grass. Altogether the run-down condition of the +soil could not be mistaken by even the casual eye. +</p> +<p> +The hobbling old man and the hobbling old mare, making their way +across the bare lot, made as drab a picture in the early morning as +a Millet. At a distance their moving shapes would have seemed like +shadows only. There was no other sign of life upon Wreckers' Head. +</p> +<p> +A light but keen and salty breath blew in from the sea. Cap'n Ira +faced this breeze with twitching nostrils. The old mare's lower lip +hung down in depression. She groaned. She did not care to be led out +of her comfortable stall at this unconscionably early hour. +</p> +<p> +"Grunt, you old nuisance!" muttered Cap'n Ira bitterly. "You don't +even know what a dratted, useless thing you be, I swan!" +</p> +<p> +There was a depression in the field. When the heavy spring and fall +rains came the water ran down into this sink and stood, sometimes a +foot or two deep over several acres. In some past time of heavy +flood the water had washed out to the edge of the highland +overlooking the ocean beach. There it had crumbled the brink of the +Head away, the water gullying year after year a deeper and broader +channel, until now the slanting gutter began a hundred yards back +from the brink. +</p> +<p> +The recurrent downpours, aided by occasional landslips, had made a +slanting trough to the beach itself, which was all of two hundred +feet below the brink of Wreckers' Head. Many such water-worn gullies +are to be found along the face of the Cape headlands, up which the +fishermen and seaweed gatherers freight their cargoes from the +shore. There was no wheel track here; merely a trough of sliding +sand, treacherous under foot and almost continuously in motion. As +the gully progressed seaward, the banks on either hand became more +than forty feet high, the trough itself being scarcely half as wide. +</p> +<p> +Determinedly Cap'n Ira led the old mare into and down the slope of +this gully. +</p> +<p> +It was steep. He went ahead haltingly, trying to steady his +footsteps with the cane, which sank deeply into the sand, making +orifices which, in the pale light of the dawn, seemed to startle the +mare. She held back, scuffling and snorting. +</p> +<p> +"Come on, drat ye!" adjured the captain. "You needn't blow your +nose. You ain't been taking snuff." +</p> +<p> +The sand was so light and dry that it seemed to be on the move all +about them. There was a stealthy sound to the whispering particles, +too, as though they breathed. "Hush.' Hush-sh-sh!" The old man was +made nervous by it. He began to glance back over his shoulder at the +faintly objecting mare. When Queenie slipped a little and scrambled +in the unstable sand he uttered such an exclamation as might have +been wrung from him at time of stress upon his quarter-deck. +</p> +<p> +"I swan! I'd rather be keelhauled than do this," burst from his lips +finally. +</p> +<p> +But they were well into the gully now. The walls on either hand +towered far above their heads. He halted, and the mare stood still, +again blowing softly through her nostrils. +</p> +<p> +The old man, with shaking hands, took from under his coat the heavy +article that had sagged his pocket. It was a black, old-fashioned, +seven-chambered revolver, well oiled and as grim-looking as a rifled +cannon on a battleship. He produced three greased cartridges, broke +the weapon, inserted the cartridges, then closed it and spun the +cylinder. It was not an unfamiliar weapon, this. Its mere grim +appearance, stuck into Cap'n Ira's waistband, had once quelled +mutiny aboard the <i>Susan Gatskill</i>. +</p> +<p> +While he was thus engaged he had not even glanced around at the old +mare. Suddenly he felt a touch upon his shoulder, then upon the +sleeve of his coat. He felt a creepy chill the length of his spine. +It seemed as if the hand of Prudence had been laid softly upon him. +</p> +<p> +"I swan!" he gulped, shaking himself. "I'm as flighty as a gal. What +th'—" He looked back. Queenie was nuzzling his arm questioningly. +Her ears were cocked forward; her surprised face was almost +ridiculously human in its expression. +</p> +<p> +Cap'n Ira groaned again. He shuddered. But his gnarled hand gripped +the hard-rubber butt of the revolver with the desperation of the +deed he had screwed his courage to do. Better the old mare should be +put out of the way than that she should fall into hands that would +misuse her. And he feared what other accident might happen if +Prudence continued to take care of the animal. +</p> +<p> +"I swan! It's a wrench," admitted Cap'n Ira, swerving to point the +muzzle of the revolver at the gray mare. +</p> +<p> +He looked all about again. Yes, the position was right. If she fell +here, a man with a shovel could easily pry down tons of sand from +either bank upon her in a few minutes. The burial might be done by +himself without any other soul knowing what had become of Queenie. +</p> +<p> +He cocked the old revolver. +</p> +<p> +Suddenly the Queen of Sheba gave a snort of alarm. She looked back +over her withers. The light in the cut between the sand banks was +dim. Was somebody coming? +</p> +<p> +To tell the truth, Cap'n Ira had a vision of Prudence, having missed +him, getting out of her bed and traveling down through the lots +after him and the old mare. The idea shook him to his marrow, or was +it the weight of the heavy weapon that made his hand so unsteady? +</p> +<p> +"I swan!" His oft-repeated ejaculation was almost a prayer. +</p> +<p> +At the moment he felt the sand giving under his feet. The old mare +uttered again her terrified snort. He saw dimly the path behind them +moving—a swift, serpentlike slide. Heavy as the mare was, she felt +the landslip, too. +</p> +<p> +Cap'n Ira was not a man who easily lost his self-possession. He had +been through too much to show the white flag when danger menaced. He +realized that peril threatened now. +</p> +<p> +He turned squarely about and, cocked pistol in one hand and +huge-knobbed cane in the other, he started away from the spot at a +cripple's gallop. The whole trough of the gully of sand seemed to be +in motion. Behind him the old mare scrambled and whistled with fear, +quite as unable to keep her feet as was the captain. +</p> +<p> +For, before he had gone far, Cap'n Ira found himself seated on the +moving plane of sand. He glanced fearfully behind him. The Queen of +Sheba was seated on her tail, her forefeet braced against nothing +more stable than the avalanche itself, and she was sailing down the +slope behind him like a winged Pegasus! +</p> +<p> +"My soul and body!" ejaculated Cap'n Ira. "We're certainly on our +way." +</p> +<a name="2HCH0004"><!-- H2 anchor --></a> + +<div style="height: 4em;"><br /><br /><br /><br /></div> + +<h2> + CHAPTER IV +</h2> +<h3> + AT THE LATHAM HOUSE +</h3> +<p> +The Latham house stood in the middle of the shallow valley behind +Wreckers' Head. The fields surrounding it were arable and well kept. +The house was not as old as the Ball house and was of an entirely +different style of architecture. Whereas the Ball house was +low-roofed and sprawling, squatting like a huge and ugly toad on the +gale-swept Head, the house Tunis Latham's grandfather had built was +three-story, including the mansard roof, painted a tobacco brown, +and it was surrounded by wry-limbed cedars which could grow here +because they were sheltered from the gales. +</p> +<p> +It was a gloomy-looking house even in midsummer, standing like a +grim figure menaced by the tortured limbs of the trees surrounding +it, stark and alone. No other human habitation was in view from its +site. The Latham who had built the twelve-room house had built on +hope. He desired and expected to fill the great house with a breed +of Lathams that would do honor to the Cape on sea and on land. But +his young wife had died the next year, after giving birth to her +second child. +</p> +<p> +Tunis Latham's father, Randall Latham, had been the elder Latham's +sole hope of perpetuating the family name and filling the big, ugly +brown house behind Wreckers' Head with tow-headed little Lathams, +for the other child was a girl. +</p> +<p> +It was said that Medford Latham had seldom spoken to or of his +daughter, Lucretia. She must have led a very lonely and repressed +life while she was a little girl. Medford Latham did not go to sea, +for he had business that kept him on shore. +</p> +<p> +Medford Latham lived long enough to see Randall grow up, walk his +own quarter-deck, and marry a maiden from the port who promised to +be able to fulfill his hopes of a flourishing houseful of children. +She bore Tunis while young Captain Randall Latham was away, and he +came back in time to christen the boy with the name of the most +colorful city he had touched on the trip, not an uncommon practice +of seagoing fathers on the Cape. But Mrs. Randall Latham, watching +her husband's ship bear off to seaward in the face of a keen gale, +caught a severe cold, and when Captain Randall returned the next +time he came not to a cradle in the great living room of the big, +brown house, but to an already-sodden grave in the family plot on +the west side of the saucerlike valley. +</p> +<p> +Lucretia Latham had grown to be a tall, large-boned, silent, and +quick-stepping woman—a woman of understanding and infinite +tenderness, although this tenderness was exhibited in deeds, not +words. +</p> +<p> +The big, quiet-faced woman, who had never had a lover and on whom no +man had ever looked with admiration, seemed to the casual observer +cold and uncompromising. She might speak to the dog, call the fowls +to their meals, but she never otherwise spoke unless she was forced +to. When he was little, Tunis had found in her arms and against her +breast a refuge from all hurt and fear, but it was a wordless +comfort Aunt Lucretia gave him. +</p> +<p> +When he walked over from the cove that afternoon, after seeing the +anchor of the <i>Seamew</i> over-side for the first time in this +roadstead, Tunis found his Aunt Lucretia much as usual. She watched +him approach from the side porch, a warm smile of greeting on her +rather gaunt face. He knew that she must have watched the <i>Seamew</i> +skim by, making for the channel into the cove; for he had written +her when to expect him. But she would say nothing about it unless he +forced the gates of her silence by some direct question which +demanded more than a "yes" or a "no." +</p> +<p> +Lucretia folded him in her arms, however, and patted his broad +shoulder with little love pats as he put his arms about her. Her +kiss for him was as warm on his lips as a girl's. They understood +each other pretty well, these two; for Tunis had caught something of +her muteness, living so long alone with her. +</p> +<p> +He went to wash and change his shirt. Then he sat down in one of the +huge porch chairs and rocked quietly, waiting for supper. He could +see into the kitchen, which was the family dining room as well, and +when he saw his Aunt Lucretia take the coffee-pot from the stove and +put it on the square Dutch tile by her own place, Tunis knew it was +the only call to supper there would be. +</p> +<p> +He rose and went in, taking his place at the head of the table. His +aunt's head was bowed and her lips moved soundlessly. He respected +her whispered grace and always felt that he could add nothing to it +in thankfulness or reverence if he uttered an orison himself. During +the cheerful and plentiful meal the young captain of the <i>Seamew</i> +related certain matters he thought would interest the woman +regarding his purchase of the schooner and the voyage down to the +Cape. He told her he was sure the <i>Seamew</i> was fast enough for a +Boston market boat. +</p> +<p> +"Speed is what is wanted now to compete with the Old Colony," Tunis +declared. "We've got fish and clams and cranberries in season, and +some vegetables, that have to be shaken up and jounced together and +squashed on those jolting steam trains. I'll lay down a crate of +lobsters at the T-wharf without a hair being ruffled. I know how to +stow a cargo." +</p> +<p> +She nodded both her understanding and her belief that Tunis was +right. The legacy he had received from the estate of Peleg Latham, +Medford Latham's brother, had enabled Tunis to buy this beautiful +schooner. Undoubtedly an eye for the beauty of the craft had more +than a little drawn the young man into her purchase. Yet there was a +foundation of solid sense under his streak of romance. +</p> +<p> +In this day a man must serve a long apprenticeship before he gets a +command unless he owns the craft on which he is skipper. To own a +schooner of the size of the <i>Seamew</i> is not enough. One must be a +good merchant as well as a good skipper. +</p> +<p> +The coast trade from port to port along the North Atlantic shore +must be fostered and coaxed like a stumbling baby. The tentacles of +the hated railroad reach to many of the Cape ports. Yet everybody +knows that a cargo properly stowed in a seaworthy craft reaches +market in much the better condition than by rail, though perhaps it +is some hours longer on the way. +</p> +<p> +There were docks, too, at which Tunis Latham could pick up +well-paying freights which would have to be carted over bad roads to +the nearest railway station. And there were always full or part +cargoes to be had at Boston for certain single consignees along the +Cape, which would pay a fair profit on the upkeep of the schooner. +Medford Latham had lost almost all his fortune before he died so +unhappily, leaving only the homestead and small farm to his son. The +son, Captain Randall Latham, had lost the ship <i>Ada May</i> and every +cent he possessed. Tunis had only his great uncle's legacy to begin +on, and he had waited for that until he was thirty. +</p> +<p> +In the morning the young man arose early, for the tide was then low, +and started forth with basket and clam hoe on his arm. Aunt Lucretia +had promised him, by a smiling nod, a mess of fritters for dinner if +he would supply the necessary clams. Alongshore the soft clam is the +only clam used for fritters; the tough, long-keeping quahog is +shipped to the less-enlightened "city trade." +</p> +<p> +It was not yet sunrise, but as Tunis walked down through one of +those cuts in the edge of the headland, following a well-defined +cart track, he saw the rose-glow of the sun's round face staining +the mist on the eastern horizon. +</p> +<p> +He came down upon the hard sand of the beach and walked toward a +tiny cove into which the mud flats extended and on which he knew the +clams were plentiful and ripe. Glistening pools of black water, +showing where other diggers had raided the flat, were interspersed +with trembling patches of black sand. When Tunis began to cross the +flat the sand before his boots became alive with tiny, shooting +geysers of clean water. He set to work. +</p> +<p> +And while he was thus engaged he heard suddenly a shrill outcry and +a most mysterious sound up in one of the gullies toward the summit +of Wreckers' Head. Here thousands of tons of sand had run out of the +cut in the steep bank and formed a dykelike way to the beach itself. +More and more sand was slipping down this way all the time. A strong +man could scarcely make his way up the incline, the sand was so +unstable. +</p> +<p> +Tunis stood and stared up the slope. There shot into view, carried +rapidly upon the forefront of the avalanche, a white-haired old man +who waved a stick in one hand and a cocked pistol in the other, +while from his mouth came shrill cries of excitement, if not of +alarm. +</p> +<p> +But it was what followed Cap'n Ira Ball—whom Tunis immediately +recognized—that caused the captain of the <i>Seamew</i> such utter +surprise. Sitting on her rump, pawing at the sliding sand with her +front hoofs, and whistling her terror and amazement, the Queen of +Sheba appeared flying after the harassed old man. +</p> +<p> +It was a scene to surprise more than to entertain the beholder. The +avalanche promised disaster to the participants in it. Tons upon +tons of sand, undulating and sinuous in appearance, traveled faster +and yet faster behind the old gray mare and the gray old sea +captain. The smoke of the slide hid all that lay behind them, and +these wreaths of sand dust threatened a higher wave that might, at +any moment, entirely overwhelm both the equine and the human victim +of the catastrophe. +</p> +<p> +Tunis dropped his clam hoe and started for the dyke of sand on the +crest of which the old man and the old mare were sliding like +naughty children down a woodshed roof. +</p> +<p> +"Hey, Tunis! Tunis!" bawled the captain. "Take her off'n me! She'll +be afoul my hawser in another second, I do believe." +</p> +<p> +It was evident that he spoke of the Queen of Sheba, but Tunis could +not see how the mare was intentionally threatening Cap'n Ira's peace +of mind or safety of body. She was, however, "close aboard" Cap'n +Ira as he tobogganed down the sandy way. +</p> +<p> +"Stern all!" shouted the old man, throwing another startled, +backward glance at the Queen of Sheba. "Drat the derned old critter! +Don't she know nothin' at all? Tunis! Do you see what's goin' to +happen?" +</p> +<p> +While the young man had been running toward the ridge of sand, the +avalanche bearing Cap'n Ira and the Queen of Sheba on its bosom +swept down the slope of the huge windrow, but not altogether along +its spine. The mass slid over one pitch of the ridge, and suddenly, +following on the heels of Cap'n Ira's final question, the old man +was shot to the beach, several tons of loose sand and the snorting +mare almost on top of him. +</p> +<p> +In fact, he would have been overwhelmed, and perhaps seriously hurt, +had not Tunis Latham arrived at the spot at just the time Cap'n Ira +did, and suddenly pulled out the old man. +</p> +<p> +"What are you doing? Trying to run a race with Queenie?" demanded +the captain of the <i>Seamew</i>. +</p> +<p> +The mare had come down right side up, more by good luck than by good +management. She stood deep in the sand, her naturally surprised +expression vastly enhanced. In all her twenty-two years Queenie had +never before gone through such an experience. +</p> +<p> +"I swan!" ejaculated Cap'n Ira. "Ain't this the beatenest you ever +heard of, Tunis?" +</p> +<p> +Tunis stared from the old mare to the old mariner, especially at the +cocked revolver in the captain's hand. He pointed at the tightly +gripped weapon. +</p> +<p> +"What's that for, Cap'n Ira?" he asked. +</p> +<p> +"I—I—well, I swan!" stammered Cap'n Ira, now looking, himself, at +the old seven-chambered revolver as though he had never seen it +before. "I cal'late it does look sort o' funny to you, Tunis, to +see me come sailing down this way, armed like a pirate." +</p> +<p> +"I wouldn't call it exactly funny. But it is surprising," admitted +Tunis. "And Queenie looks as surprised as anybody." +</p> +<p> +"Yes, she does, for a fact," agreed Cap'n Ira, squinting across the +heap of loose sand at the gray mare. "I kind o' wonder what she's +thinking about." +</p> +<p> +"I'm wondering hard enough myself," put in Tunis pointedly. +</p> +<p> +"I swan!" murmured Cap'n Ira reflectively. +</p> +<p> +He carefully lowered the hammer of the pistol, his cane stuck +upright in the sand before him. Then he put the weapon back in the +inside pocket of his coat. He tapped the knob of his cane for a +pinch of snuff before he said another word. His mighty "A-choon!" +startled the Queen of Sheba almost as it startled Prudence. +</p> +<p> +"Avast!" exclaimed Cap'n Ira. "Did you ever see such a scary old +lubber, Tunis?" +</p> +<p> +"But what's it all about?" again demanded the younger man, seizing +the rope halter and aiding the mare to flounder out upon the firmer +sand below high-water mark. "What are you doing up so early? And +what were you going to do with Queenie?" +</p> +<p> +"I swan!" groaned Cap'n Ira again. "I don't wonder that you ask me +that. It don't really seem reasonable that a sane man would get in +such a jam, does it? Me and the Queen of Sheby sailin' down that +sand pile. Tunis! We'll never be able to get up it in this world." +</p> +<p> +"No. You must come along to our road, and get up that way," his +young friend told him. "It is longer, but easier. But tell me how +you came down that gully, you and Queenie?" +</p> +<p> +"I'm sort of ashamed to tell you, Tunis, and that's a fact," the old +captain said, wagging his head. "And don't you ever tell Prudence." +</p> +<p> +"I'll not say a word to Aunt Prue," promised the captain of the +<i>Seamew</i>. +</p> +<p> +"Yet," grumbled the old man, "that dratted Queen of Sheby is too +much for Prudence. You see yourself only yesterday how she is like +to come to her death because of the mare." +</p> +<p> +"I know that you should have somebody living with you, Cap'n Ira," +urged Tunis. "But what does <i>this</i> mean?" +</p> +<p> +"I—I can't scurcely tell you, Tunis. I swan! I was goin' to murder +the old critter." +</p> +<p> +"What do you mean?" gasped Tunis in apparent horror. "Not Aunt +Prue?" +</p> +<p> +"What's the matter with you?" snapped Cap'n Ira. "I mean that old +mare. I was going to murder her in cold blood, only the sand slide +wrecked my plans." +</p> +<p> +"If you had killed her, Aunt Prue would have had hard work to +forgive you. Come on now. I'll lead Queenie up to our barn. Let her +stay there for a spell. I tell you, Cap'n Ira, you and Aunt Prue +must have somebody to live with you." +</p> +<p> +"Who?" +</p> +<p> +"Get a girl from the port." +</p> +<p> +"Huh! One o' them Portygees? They're as dirty and useless in the +kitchen as their men folks are aboard ship." +</p> +<p> +"Oh, they are not all like that!" objected the captain of the +<i>Seamew</i>. "I've got a good crew of 'em aboard my schooner." +</p> +<p> +"You think so. Wait till you get in a jam. And the men ain't so bad +as the gals. All hussies." +</p> +<p> +"I don't know, then, what you'll do." +</p> +<p> +"I do," interrupted the old man, hobbling along the hard sand beside +Tunis and the horse. "It's just like I told Prudence yesterday. I +know just what we've got to do whether you or Prue or anybody else +knows," and he was very emphatic. +</p> +<p> +"Let's hear your plan, Cap'n," said Tunis. +</p> +<p> +"It's like this," went on Cap'n Ira. "Prudence ain't got but one +living relative, a grandniece, that's kin to her. That Ida May +Bostwick we must have come and live with us, and that's all there is +about it." +</p> +<p> +Tunis stared. He said: +</p> +<p> +"Never heard of her. She doesn't live anywhere around here, does +she?" +</p> +<p> +"No, no! Lives to Boston." +</p> +<p> +"Boston!" +</p> +<p> +Why was it Tunis Latham felt that his heart skipped a beat? Memory +of that pale, violet-eyed girl who worked in the restaurant on +Scollay Square flashed across his mind like a shooting star. Indeed, +he was so confused that he heard only a little at first of Cap'n +Ira's rambling explanation. Then he caught: +</p> +<p> +"And if you will go to that address—Prue's got the street and +number—and see Ida May Bostwick and tell her about us, you'd be +doing us a kindness, Tunis." +</p> +<p> +"Me?" exclaimed the startled captain of the <i>Seamew</i>. +</p> +<p> +"Yes, you. The gal won't bite you. You're going to Boston next week, +you say. Will you do it?" +</p> +<p> +"Sure I will, Cap'n Ira," said the young man heartily. "It's a good +move, and I'll say all I can to get the girl to come down here." +</p> +<p> +"That's the boy! You're going on an errand of mercy; that's as sure +as sure. Prue and me need that gal. And maybe she needs us. I don't +know what sort of a place she works at, but no city job for a gal +can be the equal of living down here on the Cape, with her own +folks, as you might say. Yes, Tunis, you'll be doing an errand of +mercy mebbe both ways." +</p> +<a name="2HCH0005"><!-- H2 anchor --></a> + +<div style="height: 4em;"><br /><br /><br /><br /></div> + +<h2> + CHAPTER V +</h2> +<h3> + LOOKING FOR IDA MAY +</h3> +<p> +The <i>Seamew</i> was put in commission in a very few days. Tunis Latham +had many friends in and about Big Wreck Cove, and he had little +difficulty in picking up a cargo, which was loaded right at the +port. +</p> +<p> +As for the schooner's crew, Tunis could have filled every billet +four times over had he so desired. But he had already picked his +crew with some care. Mason Chapin was mate, a perfectly capable +navigator who might have used his ticket to get a berth on a much +larger craft than the <i>Seamew</i>. But he had an invalid wife and +wished only to leave home on brief voyages. Johnny Lark was shipped +as cook, with a Portygee boy, Tony, to help him. +</p> +<p> +Forward, Horace Newbegin served as boatswain and Orion Latham was a +sort of supercargo and general handy man. He was Tunis' cousin, +several times removed. There were four Portygees to make up the +company, a full crew for a sailing vessel of the tonnage of the +<i>Seamew</i>. Yet every man was needed in handling her lofty canvas and +in loading and unloading freight. +</p> +<p> +With a well-stowed cargo below deck the schooner sailed even better +than she had in ballast. She slipped out of the cove through the +rather tortuous channel like an eel through the meshes of a broken +trap. In the dawn, and with a fresh outside breeze just ruffling the +sea into whitecaps, they broke out her upper sails and caught the +very last breath of the gale the canvas would draw. +</p> +<p> +Cap'n Ira, and even Prudence, had got up before daybreak to see the +schooner pass. They watched her, turn and turn about at the +spyglass, till she was blotted out by the distant fog bank. +</p> +<p> +"I swan," said the old man, "when she heaves into view again I hope +she'll have Ida May Bostwick aboard! That is what <i>I</i> hope." +</p> +<p> +"The dear girl!" breathed Prudence. +</p> +<p> +It never crossed their simple minds that Ida May Bostwick might see +this chance they offered her in a different light from that in which +they looked at it. The old couple made their innocent plans for the +welcoming of the "grandniece," positive that a happy future was in +store for both Ida May and themselves. +</p> +<p> +In Tunis Latham's mind there was more uncertainty regarding the +mysterious Ida May Bostwick than there was in the minds of Cap'n +Ira and Prudence. Whenever he considered his "errand of mercy" the +captain of the <i>Seamew</i> had a flash of that girl with the violet +eyes who worked in the restaurant on Scollay Square. The Balls did +not know where Ida May worked. Prudence only had obtained the +lodging-house address of her young relative from Annabell Coffin, +"she who was a Cuttle." +</p> +<p> +Of course, it was merely a faint and tenuous possibility that Ida +May was a waitress. Still fainter was the chance that she would +prove to be the girl with the violet eyes that Tunis Latham +remembered so distinctly. The Balls knew that she worked in a store, +and all stores were the same to them. There might be a few hundred +thousand other girls in Boston besides that particular girl whom he +had saved from falling on the square. +</p> +<p> +Nevertheless, when the <i>Seamew</i> had unloaded and been warped to a +berth in an outer tier of small craft to await her turn to load +barrels and box shooks for a concern at Paulmouth, Captain Tunis +started up into the city. He knew his way about Boston as well as +any one not a native, and his first objective point was that +restaurant on Scollay Square. +</p> +<p> +It was the dogwatch when Tunis Latham entered the eating place, but +the dogwatch here was not at the same time of day as aboard ship. +The captain's first startled glance about the room assured him that +there was not a girl employee in sight, not even at the cashier's +desk, and very few customers. +</p> +<p> +He ordered a late but hearty breakfast of the unshaven waiter in +half-spoiled apron and coat who lounged over his table. +</p> +<p> +"I thought they used to have girl waiters in this place?" the +captain said when the man brought the tableware and glass of water. +</p> +<p> +"On from 'leven till eight. You're too early if you got a jane in +your eye, bo," was the ribald reply. "The boss is a good guy." He +sneered in the direction of the black-haired, coarse-looking man in +the cashier's cage. "He hires them girls for five dollars less a +week than he'd have to pay union waiters, and he asks no questions." +He closed his recital with a wink so full of meaning that Tunis' +palm itched to slap him. +</p> +<p> +But the guest's wind-bitten face betrayed no confusion nor further +interest. The waiter judged he had mistaken his man, after all, and +sheered off until the ordered viands were ready at the slide. +</p> +<p> +He hesitated to question that coarse man, even to mention Ida May +Bostwick's name to him. The waiter had misinterpreted his first +remark about the waitresses. The proprietor might hold any question +he asked regarding Ida May against the record of the violet-eyed +girl, if by any wild possibility that should be her name. There was +time still, he thought, to find her at her lodgings before she +started for the restaurant, if she worked here. +</p> +<p> +So Tunis paid his check and strode forth. The lodging of Ida May +Bostwick was not in this neighborhood, of course, not even in the +West End. In fact, it was in the South End, in one of those streets +running more or less parallel to lower Shawmut Avenue. He took a car +in the subway and got off near the address Prudence Ball had given +him. +</p> +<p> +To the mind of the Cape man, used as he was to the open spaces of +both sea and land, these dingy blocks of brick houses, three and +four stories in height, all quite alike in smoke and squalor and +even in the pattern of the net curtains at their parlor windows, +made as dreary a picture as he had ever imagined. He thought of that +pale, slender, violet-eyed girl coming back to this ugly block at +night, after long hours at the restaurant, having to look forward to +nothing more beautiful, in all probability, inside the house where +she lodged. Who would not be glad, overjoyed, indeed, to get away +from such an environment? +</p> +<p> +He found the number. The house was no worse and no better than its +neighbors. By stains on the blistered bricks beside the door frame +he gathered that scraps of paper advertising empty rooms had often +been pasted there. He rang the bell at the top of the rail-guarded +steps. After a time he rang again. +</p> +<p> +He could hear the bell jangle somewhere in a distant part of the +house. Nobody came in answer to his summons, not even after his +third ring. At length the creaking, iron-barred gate in the area +warned him that the main door at which he rang was not in use at +that hour of the day. A woman in a house dress as ugly as the street +itself, and with untidy gray hair and a bar of smut on her cheek, +craned her neck from this opening to look up at him. +</p> +<p> +"There's no use your ringing. I ain't got an empty room, young man," +she announced. +</p> +<p> +He descended spryly into the area before she could close the gate. +Her near-sighted scowl misjudged him again, for she added: +</p> +<p> +"Nor I don't want to buy anything." +</p> +<p> +"One moment, ma'am," he cried. "I have nothing for sale. I'd like to +see somebody who lodges here." +</p> +<p> +"Who?" asked the woman, peering at him curiously. +</p> +<p> +"Miss Bostwick." +</p> +<p> +"You'll have to come this evening." +</p> +<p> +"Oh! She has—has gone to work already?" +</p> +<p> +"My stars! Do you know what time it is, young man?" demanded the +lodging-house keeper. "It's after ten o'clock." +</p> +<p> +Already Tunis Latham's hopes began to sink. +</p> +<p> +"Then—then she goes to work early?" +</p> +<p> +"Lemme tell you, them that works for Hoskin & Marl have to show up +by eight or they lose their jobs." +</p> +<p> +"And she will not be in until evening?" he repeated. +</p> +<p> +"'Bout seven. She gets her supper before she comes home. I don't +give meals." +</p> +<p> +"Where is this place she works at?" asked the captain of the +<i>Seamew</i>, with a suppressed sigh. +</p> +<p> +"Guess you are a stranger in town, aren't you?" said the curious +landlady. "I thought everybody knew Hoskin & Marl's. It's on Tremont +Street. The big department store." +</p> +<p> +"Oh! Miss Bostwick works there?" +</p> +<p> +"In the laces. You can't know her very well, young man." +</p> +<p> +"I come from her folks down on the Cape," he thought it his duty to +explain. "I've a message for her." +</p> +<p> +"On the Cape? My stars! I never knowed she had any country +relatives. Are they rich? They ain't died and left her a fortune, +have they?" were the eager questions. +</p> +<p> +"The ones I speak of are still alive," Tunis said gravely, backing +up the steps to the sidewalk. "Thank you, ma'am. I'll go to that +store and speak to her there. Thank you." +</p> +<p> +Before she could evolve another question, Tunis had escaped. He +walked smartly away, not only to outdistance the lodging-house +keeper's voice, but because he was confused and disappointed. Ida +May Bostwick could not work in a department store and in an eating +house as well. Of course not! And now that this point was an +established fact in his mind, he admitted that he had been utterly +foolish to imagine for a moment that he had already met her, that +she was the violet-eyed girl in whom he had taken an interest. +</p> +<p> +Right at the start he had known that a girl working in an eating +house like that was not the sort of person he could introduce to +Aunt Lucretia. And so why had he imagined that she would prove to be +the great-niece of Prudence Ball? It was ridiculous! +</p> +<p> +Of course, this Ida May came of good Cape stock. At least, on one +side of her family. The Honeys were as good as the Lathams or the +Balls. +</p> +<p> +Thus condemning his foolish fancies he strode downtown again. He +knew where Hoskin & Marl's was. He had been in the place. When he +reached the department store he marched straight in, meaning to have +an immediate interview with the girl at the lace counter. +</p> +<a name="2HCH0006"><!-- H2 anchor --></a> + +<div style="height: 4em;"><br /><br /><br /><br /></div> + +<h2> + CHAPTER VI +</h2> +<h3> + AN UNSATISFACTORY INTERVIEW +</h3> +<p> +Tunis Latham suffered all the timidity of the average man when he +got into the maze of that department store. There is a psychological +reason for the haberdashery goods, the line for the mere male, being +placed always within sight of a principal exit. The catacombs of +Rome would be no more terrifying in prospect for a man than a +venture into the farther intricacies of Hoskin & Marl's. +</p> +<p> +The captain of the <i>Seamew</i> could box the compass with the next +seafarer, but he lost all idea of the points on the card before he +had been three minutes in the store, and he had to hail a +floor-walker to get his bearings. +</p> +<p> +"Lace counter? Right this way, sir. Yes, sir. Just over there. +Our—er—Miss Bostwick will serve you, sir. Forward!" +</p> +<p> +The wind and sun had heightened Tunis Latham's naturally florid +complexion to about as deep a red as can easily be imagined, but he +felt the back of his neck and his ears burning as he approached the +counter to which he was directed. A girl had detached herself from a +group at the farther end, and now came toward him. All that he first +saw clearly, however, was a pair of eyes staring at him from behind +the counter. They were not violet eyes. +</p> +<p> +The girl who owned those twinkling, needle-sharp eyes was nothing +like that girl he had been thinking of so much since his previous +visit to Boston. She was rather small, dressed in the extreme mode +in a cheap way, wearing a tawdry gilt chain, several rings, and a +wrist watch. There was something about her which reminded Tunis very +strongly of the girls of Portygee Town, although she was a +pronounced blonde. +</p> +<p> +Her hair was really her only attractive possession. Those sharp +brown eyes did not please Tunis Latham at all. And there was a +certain smart boldness in her manner, too, which caused him a +distinct feeling of repugnance. +</p> +<p> +He plunged into his errand with all the boldness that a bashful man +usually displays when he finally gets his courage to the sticking +point. +</p> +<p> +"You are Miss Bostwick?" he asked. +</p> +<p> +"What kind of lace—goodness! Who are you?" asked the girl, her +stilted, saleslady manner changing to amazement with surprising +suddenness. +</p> +<p> +"I live at Big Wreck Cove. I guess you've heard of it," said Tunis. +</p> +<p> +"Big Wreck Cove? Do tell!" Her eyes danced. "You're from down on the +Cape, then. I guess you want some lace for your wife. What kind did +she send you for?" +</p> +<p> +Tunis brushed this aside bluntly. +</p> +<p> +"I don't want any lace," he told her. "I come from your aunt, Mrs. +Ira Ball." +</p> +<p> +"My aunt? Fancy!" +</p> +<p> +"She has heard about you," went on Tunis. "I guess she thought a +heap of your mother. She—she'd like to see you, Mrs. Ball would." +</p> +<p> +The girl patted her hair into place with a languid hand. Her lips +parted in a teasing smile. This "hick" really amused her. +</p> +<p> +"Just to think! Would she?" she drawled. "Is she in town?" +</p> +<p> +"Who? Mrs. Ball? I should say not. She's down at Big Wreck Cove, I +tell you." +</p> +<p> +"Oh, really? I thought by the way you spoke she was outside—in her +car." She tossed her head with that same tantalizing smile, almost a +grimace. "What did you want to tell me?" +</p> +<p> +Tunis realized that he could not talk to her here, after all. The +idle girls at the end of the counter were already whispering, and +their smiles were poignant javelins of ridicule. The captain of the +<i>Seamew</i> knew that he was far beyond his depth. +</p> +<p> +"Where can I talk to you?" he asked. +</p> +<p> +"I get away for my lunch hour in a few minutes. I could talk to you +then. But us girls ain't supposed to entertain our friends at the +counter." She flashed him another amused and quite comprehending +glance. +</p> +<p> +"I've a message for you from Aunt Prue and the captain. Captain Ira +Ball. He's her husband," explained Tunis jerkily. +</p> +<p> +"Oh, really? Mr. Judson is coming this way." She flirted open a card +of cheap lace lying on the counter. "Won't this do, sir?" +</p> +<p> +"Cat's foot! I don't want any lace," growled the captain of the +<i>Seamew</i>. +</p> +<p> +"And I don't want to lose my job," rejoined the girl sharply. +</p> +<p> +"Where'll I meet you so we can talk?" +</p> +<p> +"At twelve forty-five," hissed the girl out of the corner of her +mouth, beginning to wind up the lace again. "Back entrance to the +store." Then, aloud: "Sorry, sir. We haven't any cheaper quality in +that pattern." +</p> +<p> +He knew she was ridiculing him. He was cognizant, however, of the +department head's hard stare and the amused glances of the other +saleswomen. He strode out of the store, and on the sidewalk halted +to mop his face and neck with a blue-bordered handkerchief. +</p> +<p> +"She's as sassy as a chipmunk. I declare! What would Cap'n Ira and +Aunt Prue do with a girl like her around the house? And the way +she's dressed!" +</p> +<p> +In his mind the idea germinated that he would be doing a far better +thing if he did not go around to the employees' door and wait for +Ida May Bostwick. What sort of life would she lead the two old +people down there on Wreckers' Head? He actually shrank from being a +party to such an arrangement. +</p> +<p> +Not for a moment did he think that Miss Bostwick might not jump at +the chance to change her place of residence from a South End lodging +house to the Ball homestead overlooking Big Wreck Cove and the sea. +He had seen that she was afraid of her boss in the store. The rules +there must be very strict. He had noted that everything about the +girl, her apparel and her ornaments, was cheap and tawdry. She must +be both poor and unhappy. Why should she not jump at the chance of +bettering herself? +</p> +<p> +What would Cap'n Ira say when he caught his first glimpse of that +painted and powdered face? How could good Aunt Prue take to her +heart the bold, jeering shopgirl, evidently born and bred as far +from the old standards of Cape Cod breeding as could be imagined? No +matter how fine a girl Sarah Honey was, her daughter was of a cheap +city type. +</p> +<p> +But Tunis Latham did not stand in the position of a judge. He had +not been told to use his powers of observation before placing the +Balls' offer before Ida May Bostwick. He had no discretion in the +matter at all. +</p> +<p> +So he went around to the street behind Hoskin & Marl's at the +required time and spent five or ten minutes backed up against a +blank wall under the sharp scrutiny of every girl who hurried out of +the big store on her way to lunch. Ida May came, at last. +</p> +<p> +Tunis Latham in his go-ashore uniform and cap was no unsightly +figure. A stern tranquillity of countenance lent him dignity. He +attracted a certain respect wherever he went, but, as has been said, +there was nothing harsh in his appearance. +</p> +<p> +The girl gave him an appraising scrutiny as she walked toward him. +While covering those few yards she made up her mind about Tunis on +several points. One was that she would not lunch this noon at any +cafeteria or automat! +</p> +<p> +"Really," she said, with downcast glance, as the man got into step +beside her, "I don't feel that I know you well enough to talk to you +at all, Mister—Mister—" +</p> +<p> +"My name's Tunis Latham. I'm owner and skipper of the schooner +<i>Seamew</i>. I live right handy to your uncle and aunt." +</p> +<p> +"Goodness! You don't mean I've got an uncle and aunt down there on +the Cape? I never heard of them." +</p> +<p> +"They are your great-uncle and great-aunt. Aunt Prue must have been +your mother's own aunt." +</p> +<p> +"So you are my Cousin—er—Tunis?" +</p> +<p> +His face flamed and he did not look at her. +</p> +<p> +"That doesn't follow," he said. "Aunt Prue is my aunt only in a +manner of speaking. But she is your blood relation." +</p> +<p> +"Yes? I suppose she's a dear old soul?" +</p> +<p> +"They are mighty nice folks," Tunis replied stoutly. "As nice as any +in all Barnstable County." +</p> +<p> +"But—er—sort of simple?" +</p> +<p> +The girl asked it with a perfectly innocent countenance. Tunis +flashed her a look that showed comprehension. +</p> +<p> +"Just about as simple as I am," he said. +</p> +<p> +"Oh!" +</p> +<p> +"Where'll we go to eat?" he asked cheerfully, considering that he +had the best of it so far. +</p> +<p> +They came out upon Tremont Street and now started downtown. He +desired to get no nearer to that eating house on Scollay Square. At +least, not with his present companion. +</p> +<p> +"There's the Barquette," said Miss Bostwick, with the air of one +used daily to the grandeur of such hostelries. +</p> +<p> +But Tunis had seen her lodgings! However, her airs amused him, and +Tunis Latham was no penny-squeezer. He headed straight in for the +dining room, where a gloriously appareled negro head waiter +appraised him as being "all right," and Ida May got by, without +knowing it, upon the captain's substantial appearance. +</p> +<p> +While the waiter was away, Tunis bluntly put his errand before her. +He felt it his duty to make the offer as attractive as possible. But +he did not make small the fact that the Balls were old and needed +her services. +</p> +<p> +"Goodness! What do they want me for—a nurse?" she demanded tartly. +</p> +<p> +The question put Tunis on his mettle. He explained that Cap'n Ira +and his wife were comfortably "fixed," as Cape people considered +comfort, with a home free and clear of all encumbrances, and +investments that yielded a sufficient support. Ida May, as he +understood it, would share their home and their means. +</p> +<p> +"And you want I should go down to that place and live on pollack and +potatoes till them folks die, for the sake of just a <i>home</i>?" she +demanded, her brown eyes snapping. +</p> +<p> +"<i>I</i> don't want you to do anything," he pointed out coolly enough. +"I am merely repeating their offer. They are your folks." +</p> +<p> +"And I know all about what it is down there," the girl said quickly. +"My mother came from there. She was glad enough to get away, too, I +warrant. Why should I give up a good job and the city to live in +such a dead-and-alive hole?" +</p> +<p> +"That is for you to decide," Tunis replied, not without secret +relief. +</p> +<p> +He could not understand her attitude. He remembered that South End +lodging house with secret horror. But evidently Ida May Bostwick was +wedded to the tawdry conveniences and gayeties of city life. Tunis +could not wholly understand why any sane person should assume this +attitude; in fact, he suspected a good deal of it was put on. How +could a girl, even one as inconsequential and flighty as Ida May +evidently was, hold in contempt the offer he had brought her from +Cap'n Ira and his wife? +</p> +<p> +But he had done all that could be expected of him. All, indeed, that +he thought wise. Disappointed as the old couple would be by Ida +May's refusal, Tunis felt that to urge her to reconsider the matter +would not be in the best interests of her elderly relatives. They +needed a young companion there on Wreckers' Head, needed one very +sorely, but not such a person as Ida May Bostwick. +</p> +<p> +"Then, that will be your final answer, Miss Bostwick?" he said +slowly, as Ida May played with her ice. +</p> +<p> +"Say! I wouldn't go down to that hole for a million," scoffed the +girl. "I guess you wouldn't stand it yourself, only you're off on +your ship most of the time." +</p> +<p> +"I like the Cape," he said briefly. +</p> +<p> +"Never lived in the city, did you?" +</p> +<p> +"I never did." +</p> +<p> +"Then you don't know any better," she told him confidently. "And you +don't really look like such a dead one, at that." +</p> +<p> +"Thank you." +</p> +<p> +She smiled saucily into his rather grim face. Then she opened her +bag and deliberately powdered her nose before rising from the table. +</p> +<p> +"Thanks for a pleasant hour," she drawled. "You tell Auntie and +Uncle Josh to get a girl from the poor farm or somewhere to do their +chores and tuck 'em in nights. <i>Me</i>, I don't mean to live out of +sight of movie signs and electric lights. I'd like to see myself!" +</p> +<p> +She was both rude and common. Tunis was glad to get out of the +dining room. Ida May attracted altogether too much attention. And +she had quite openly eyed his well-lined wallet when he paid the +waiter. To a girl like Ida May, all was fish that swam into her net. +Crude as she considered him, Tunis Latham was a man with some money. +And he evidently knew how to spend it. +</p> +<p> +"When you're in town I'd be glad to see you any time, Mr. Latham. Or +do I say captain?" +</p> +<p> +She smiled up at the big, broad-shouldered fellow bravely as she +trotted along in the skirt that made her hobble like a cripple. The +captain of the <i>Seamew</i> did not respond very cordially, and quite +overlooked her personal question. +</p> +<p> +"I don't expect to spend much time in Boston," he said. "Thank you. +Then I shall report to Aunt Prue and Cap'n Ira that you will not +consider their offer at all?" +</p> +<p> +"I should say not!" She laughed lightly. "You don't know, I guess, +what we girls expect nowadays, if we give up our independence." +</p> +<p> +"Independence!" snorted Tunis. +</p> +<p> +"That's what I said," rejoined Ida May tartly. "When the store +closes my time's my own. I can do as I please. And I've got nobody +to please but myself. Oh, you don't understand at all, Captain +Latham!" +</p> +<p> +He said no more. Nor did he escort her farther than the corner. +There he lifted his cap and took her offered hand. Although it was +beringed and the nails were stained and polished, Tunis could not +help noticing that Ida May's hand was not altogether clean. +</p> +<p> +"Well, au revoir, captain!" she said lightly. "I hope I see you +again." +</p> +<p> +He bowed silently and watched her depart. The sunshine glinted +gloriously upon her fluffy hair. +</p> +<p> +"Fool's gold," he muttered. +</p> +<a name="2HCH0007"><!-- H2 anchor --></a> + +<div style="height: 4em;"><br /><br /><br /><br /></div> + +<h2> + CHAPTER VII +</h2> +<h3> + AT THE RESTAURANT +</h3> +<p> +The captain of the <i>Seamew</i> found himself facing an unpleasant +problem. How could he make the Balls, either Cap'n Ira or Prudence, +understand the kind of girl Ida May was? How could he even bring +them to understand that nothing he could have said would have ever +made Ida May Bostwick see the situation in its true light? +</p> +<p> +Why, the old couple could never be made to believe that a girl in +her sane senses would turn down cold such a proposition as they had +made. They would suspect that he had failed to put it to her in the +proper light. His "errand of mercy," as Cap'n Ira had called it, had +seemed so reasonable for both sides! +</p> +<p> +Tunis realized that he had not overurged the matter to the girl. But +there was a reason for that. The difficulty would be in explaining +to the Balls just how unsuitable Ida May was. They would never +believe that the daughter of Sarah Honey could be such a cheap and +inconsequential person as she had actually proved to be. +</p> +<p> +"It's going to hit 'em 'twixt wind and water, and hit 'em hard," +muttered the captain of the <i>Seamew</i>. "One thing that girl said was +right, I guess. They'd better get somebody from the poor farm, +rather than take her into their house. Such a creature would be +happier with the Balls, and make them happier. But it's pretty tough +when those of your own blood go back on you." +</p> +<p> +The experience had left a bad taste in Tunis Latham's mouth. He +hoped heartily that he would never see Ida May Bostwick again. He +never intended to if he could help it. To take his mind off the +fiasco entirely, he hopped on to a car and rode out to the art +museum and spent the afternoon in the quiet galleries where the +masters, little and great, are hung. +</p> +<p> +He came downtown at nightfall, threading the paths of the public +gardens and the common malls of Charles and Beacon Streets, with a +feeling of immense calm in his soul. Tunis Latham possessed keenly +contrasting attributes of character. On the one hand he was of a +rather practical mind and thought; on the other, his love of beauty +and appreciation of nature's greater forces might have made of him +an artist under more liberal conditions of birth and breeding. +</p> +<p> +Ida May Bostwick had rasped all the finer feelings of the captain +of the <i>Seamew</i>. He was happy to be able to get her out of his mind. +In fact, he had put aside thought of any girl. Romance no longer +enmeshed his cogitations. He was utterly calm, unruffled, serene, as +he descended by the twists and turns of certain streets beyond the +State House and came out finally upon the now lighted and bustling +square. +</p> +<p> +He halted, like a pointer dog, before the eating place where he had +had breakfast. +</p> +<p> +Tunis Latham felt a certain shock. That girl with the violet eyes +had been farthest from his thought at the moment, and for some hours +now. He had lumped together the whole girl question and had +relegated it to the back of his mind. +</p> +<p> +And perhaps he was cured. He looked at it more sensibly after the +first moment. It was not thought of the girl that had brought him +here. Habit is strong in most of us. The urge of a healthy appetite +was more likely what had caused him to halt before the restaurant +door. +</p> +<p> +It was after seven. Following his walk from the Back Bay it was +little wonder that he was hungry. But should he enter this place? +There were several other restaurants in sight of about the same +standard. Tunis Latham did not make a practice of patronizing places +similar to the Barquette when he ate alone. +</p> +<p> +To pass on and enter another restaurant would be to confess +weakness. He really cared nothing about that girl with the violet +eyes. She very probably was no better and no worse than Ida May +Bostwick. All these city shopgirls were about of a pattern. He had +allowed sentiment to sway him for a few hours. But sentiment had +received a jolt during his interview with the girl from the lace +department of Hoskin & Marl's. +</p> +<p> +"Cat's foot!" ejaculated the captain of the <i>Seamew</i>. "I guess I'm +not afraid to take another look at that girl, if she's in here. +Probably two looks will be about all I want," and he grinned rather +wryly as he approached the door. +</p> +<p> +The place was well patronized at this hour; and the "lady help" was +much in evidence, flying back and forth from tables to slide and +"dealing 'em off the arm" with a rapidity and dexterity that was +most amazing, Tunis thought. There was even a girl in the cashier's +cage, while the black-haired man he had paid his check to that +forenoon was walking about with a sharp eye for everything that went +on. +</p> +<p> +The Cape man started down the room for an empty seat. Somebody was +ahead of him and he backed away. A soft voice, a voice that thrilled +Tunis Latham before he saw the speaker at all, said just behind him: +</p> +<p> +"There is a seat here, sir." +</p> +<p> +He knew it was she of the violet eyes before he turned about. It +seemed to the seaman the voice matched the beautiful eyes of which +he had thought so often during the past few days. They must belong +together! +</p> +<p> +He turned to look at her. She was gathering up the soiled dishes +from a table at which was an empty seat. First of all, Tunis secured +it. Then he glanced keenly at the girl. +</p> +<p> +Would she remember him? Had his face and appearance been +photographed upon her memory as her face had been printed on his? +She did not look at him then. She was busy clearing the enameled top +of the table and wiping off the coffee stains and the wet rings made +by the water glass. +</p> +<p> +She had black hair and a great deal of it, deep black, glossy, fine +of texture, and very well brushed. Black hair and those velvety +violet eyes, the long, black lashes of which were a most delicate +fringe! The brows were boldly dashed on against her smooth, almost +colorless, but perfect skin. Tunis had never before seen any +feminine loveliness the equal of this girl, this waitress in a cheap +restaurant! Yet a casual glance would scarcely have discovered much +attractive about the girl. Had he not looked so deep into her violet +eyes at the instant of their first meeting, perhaps the captain of +the <i>Seamew</i> would never have given her the second glance. There was +a timidity about her, a shrinking in her very attitude, that would +naturally displease even an observant person. +</p> +<p> +Her nose, mouth, and chin, were only ordinarily well formed. Nothing +remarkable at all about them. But the texture of her skin, it seemed +to the man, was the finest he had ever beheld. Her figure was +slight, but supple. Every line, accentuated by the common black +dress she wore, was graceful. Her throat was bare and she wore no +ornament. His sharp gaze flashed to her left hand. It was guiltless +of any band. He had begun to flush at the thought which prompted +this last observation, and grabbed at a stained bill of fare to +cover his sudden confusion. +</p> +<p> +She moved away with the piled-up dishes. His gaze followed her +covertly. Even her walk was graceful, not at all the hobble or the +jerky pace or the slouch of the other waitresses. +</p> +<p> +By and by she came back. She brought tableware and a glass of water. +She placed them meticulously before him. Then, for the first time it +seemed, she looked at Tunis Latham. She halted, her hand still upon +the water glass. She quivered all over. The water slopped upon the +table. +</p> +<p> +"Oh, is it you, sir?" she said in that timid, breathless whisper he +so well remembered. +</p> +<p> +"Good evening," Tunis rejoined. "I hope you are well?" +</p> +<p> +"Oh, yes, sir! Quite well. What will you have, sir?" +</p> +<p> +She no longer looked at him. Her gaze was roving about her tables, +but more often fixed upon the broad, alpaca-coated shoulders of the +restaurant proprietor at the front of the room. +</p> +<p> +Tunis ordered almost at random. She repeated the viands named. There +was a tiny tendril of her hair that curled low upon her neck at one +side, caressing the pale satin sheen of the skin. He felt an +overpowering desire to lean forward and press his lips to the tiny +curl! +</p> +<p> +As though she comprehended his secret wish, a wave of color stained +her throat and cheeks from the line of her frock to her hair. It +poured up under the pallor of the skin, transfiguring her expression +ravishingly. Instead of her countenance being rather wan and weary +looking, in a moment it became as vivid as a freshly opened flower. +</p> +<p> +She turned swiftly, departing with his order. Tunis was conscious of +a hoarse voice at his elbow. He glanced aside. His neighbor in the +next chair was a little, common man, with a little, common face, on +which was a little, common leer. +</p> +<p> +"A pip, I'll tell the world," was the neighbor's comment. "Whadjer +s'pose brought her into this dump?" +</p> +<p> +"The necessity for earning her living," replied Tunis, without +looking again at the man. +</p> +<p> +"With a face like that?" suggested the man, and fell wordless +again, but not silent, as he attacked his soup. +</p> +<p> +If there was an opportunity to speak to the girl again, Tunis could +scarcely do so, he thought, for her own sake. It would attract the +attention not only of the fellow beside him, but of others. +</p> +<p> +He felt an overpowering desire, however, to talk with her. His +recently born determination to have nothing more to do with any girl +had melted like snow in July. That feeling, which had come through +his experience with Ida May Bostwick, seemed a sacrilege when he +considered this girl. +</p> +<p> +The man beside him, noisily finishing his soup, ordered +apple-meringue pie when the waitress returned with Tunis' order. The +latter noted that her fingers still trembled when she placed his +food before him. When she brought the pie she reached for the man's +check and punched another hole in it. Tunis was careful not to raise +his own eyes to her face. But all the time he was trying to invent +some way by which he might further his acquaintance with her. +</p> +<p> +He must be back at the <i>Seamew</i> that night. Tomorrow the cargo would +come aboard and, wind and tide being ordinarily favorable, the +schooner would put to sea as soon as the hatches were battened down. +He could not continue to come here to the restaurant for his meals +and so grasp the frail chance of bolstering his acquaintance with +the girl. Indeed, he felt that such an obvious course would utterly +wreck any chance he might naturally have of knowing her better. +</p> +<p> +The timidity she evinced was nothing put on. It was real. Its cause +he could not fathom, but to Tunis Latham it seemed that this girl +with the violet eyes was a gentle girl, if not gently bred, and that +she shrank from contact with the rougher elements of life. How she +came to be working in this place was not of moment to him. It would +not have mattered to Tunis Latham where he had met her or under what +circumstances; he only knew that there was a mysterious charm about +her which attracted and held his heart captive. +</p> +<p> +"Will you have anything more, sir?" The low, yet penetrating voice +was in his ear. She hovered over his chair and her near presence +thrilled him. He had not much more than played with the food. Now he +replied briefly, without thinking: +</p> +<p> +"Apple-meringue." +</p> +<p> +"Yes, sir." +</p> +<p> +His neighbor pushed back his chair and got up noisily. He picked up +his check, glanced at it, and snorted. +</p> +<p> +"Hey!" he said to the girl returning with Tunis' pie. "What's this +for?" +</p> +<p> +"Yes, sir?" +</p> +<p> +"You've rung me up an extry nickel. What's the idea?" +</p> +<p> +"Fifteen cents for meringue, sir." +</p> +<p> +"Huh? Who had meringue? I had apple pie, plain apple pie. It's ten +cents. This feller"—indicating Tunis—"ordered apple-meringue; not +me." +</p> +<p> +He held out the check for correction belligerently. +</p> +<p> +"You ordered apple-meringue, sir, and I brought it. You ate it. The +check is correct." +</p> +<p> +Low and timid as the voice was, gently as the words were spoken, +Tunis sensed an undercurrent of firmness and determination in the +girl's character that he had not before suspected. +</p> +<p> +"Say, you don't put nothing like that over on me!" exclaimed the man +loudly. +</p> +<p> +Tunis moved in his chair. He saw the black-haired man at the front +of the restaurant swing about to face down the room. He had heard +this unseemly disturbance. +</p> +<p> +"I will call the manager." +</p> +<p> +"And so will I—I'll call him good!" sneered the patron. "He knows +that you crooks in here over-charge. He puts you up to it. That's +why he hires jailbirds and—" +</p> +<p> +Tunis had got up, pushed back his chair with his foot, and as the +girl uttered a horrified gasp at the rough speech, he seized the +man. His grip on the back of the fellow's coat between his shoulders +brought a startled grunt from lips parted to continue his +blackguardism. +</p> +<p> +"Hey! What d'ye mean?" roared the fellow, as Tunis twisted him into +the aisle. +</p> +<p> +"You dog!" said the captain of the <i>Seamew</i> in a low voice. "Down on +your knees and ask the lady's pardon for that speech!" +</p> +<p> +The black-haired man started toward them. His coarse face had a +smile on it as vicious as the snarl of a tiger. He put up his hand +in a gesture of command. +</p> +<p> +"Beg her pardon!" repeated Tunis, and by the great weight of his +hand crushed the squalling patron of the restaurant to his knees +before the terrified girl. +</p> +<p> +"Stop that! What do you mean?" cried the manager of the restaurant, +still several yards away. +</p> +<p> +The patrons of the place had been thinning out for the last few +minutes. Most of those remaining were near the front. Some of the +waitresses were already seated at a table next to the kitchen slide, +eating their suppers. +</p> +<p> +"Take him off me!" roared the man squirming on the floor under Tunis +Latham's hand. "That thief of a girl set him on me. This is a nice +thing, be overcharged and then assaulted!" +</p> +<p> +He was talking for the benefit of the black-haired man. The latter +swooped down upon them. His face was purple with wrath and his fat +jowls trembled. +</p> +<p> +"Let him up! Do you hear me?" he exclaimed. +</p> +<p> +"He insulted this lady," said Tunis, indicating the waitress. "You +just heard him repeat it. He'll beg her pardon or I'll wring his +neck." +</p> +<p> +"What do you mean?" cried the restaurant man. "What's the girl to +you? One of her friends, are you? Well, you are doing her no good +with me, I assure you." +</p> +<p> +The captain of the <i>Seamew</i> flung the little man face down upon the +floor and held him there with his foot while he reached with both +hands for the proprietor. He got him. The latter uttered a squeak +like a captured rat. +</p> +<p> +"You're another of the same breed, are you?" Tunis demanded. "You'll +beg her pardon, too, or I'll crack the heads of the two of you +together! Come!" +</p> +<p> +He stood the man on his feet before the waitress with such force +that his teeth rattled. He stooped and yanked the other to an +upright posture likewise. The shrinking girl, Tunis noticed, was not +weeping. She looked at all he did as though she approved. The other +girls were shrieking. The cashier had run to the door and cried into +the street for the police. But that violet-eyed girl, timid as she +naturally was, did not open her lips. +</p> +<p> +"She's a plucky little lady," thought Tunis Latham. "But somebody's +got to stand up for her." +</p> +<a name="2HCH0008"><!-- H2 anchor --></a> + +<div style="height: 4em;"><br /><br /><br /><br /></div> + +<h2> + CHAPTER VIII +</h2> +<h3> + SHEILA +</h3> +<p> +The captain of the <i>Seamew</i> held the two struggling, cursing men as +though they were small boys. His eyes flamed a question at the girl. +She understood and nodded, if ever so faintly. +</p> +<p> +"I ought to send both of you to the hospital," said Tunis in a grim +voice. "But I'm satisfied if you beg her pardon and let her go." +This to the restaurant proprietor. +</p> +<p> +The man opened his lips to emit something besides an apology, +although the smaller man was already quelled. But the look in Tunis +Latham's face made the black-haired man pause. +</p> +<p> +"Well, she can't cause a disturbance here. But I meant no offense." +</p> +<p> +The smaller man hastened to add: +</p> +<p> +"So help me! I was that mad I didn't know what I said. I didn't mean +nothing." +</p> +<p> +Tunis nodded solemnly. +</p> +<p> +"Get your coat and hat, miss," he said. "I guess it won't be a +pleasant place for you to work in after this." +</p> +<p> +She slipped away. Tunis let the men go. They both stepped away from +him, panting, relaxing their shoulders, eyeing the young captain +with as much curiosity as apprehension. +</p> +<p> +Suddenly there was an added commotion at the front door. Tunis saw a +policeman enter. The coarse-featured proprietor of the restaurant +instantly recovered all his courage. +</p> +<p> +"This way, officer! This way!" he cried. "Here's the man." +</p> +<p> +At that moment Tunis felt a tug at his coat. He flashed a glance +over his shoulder. It was the girl. She wore a little hat pulled +down over all that black hair, and she was buttoning a shabby +jacket. There was a way out by the alley; he well knew it. Nor was +he anxious of appearing before either a police lieutenant or a +magistrate for creating a disturbance in the place. +</p> +<p> +"Run along. I'll be right behind you," he whispered. +</p> +<p> +The policeman was some distance, and several tables away. Tunis +looked to see if all was clear. The girl was just passing through +the swinging door into the kitchen. Tunis stepped back, turned +suddenly, while the restaurant proprietor was making ready to +address the policeman, and leaped for the rear exit. +</p> +<p> +"There he goes!" squealed the patron who had been the cause of the +trouble. +</p> +<p> +But nobody stopped Tunis Latham. At a flash, when he got into the +kitchen, he saw the girl opening the outer door. The way was clear. +He crossed the room in several quick strides and caught up with her. +The startled chef and his assistants merely stared. +</p> +<p> +The alley was empty, but they walked swiftly away from the square. +The arc lamp on the corner which they approached sputtered +continuously, like soda water bubbling out of a bottle. He looked +down at her curiously in the flickering illumination from this lamp +and found the girl looking up at him just as curiously. +</p> +<p> +"That was an unwise thing to do. You might have been arrested," she +said, ever so gently. Then she added: "And it has cost me my job." +</p> +<p> +"That is the only thing that worries me," he rejoined promptly. +</p> +<p> +"You need not mind, sir. I really am not sorry. I could not have +stood it much longer. And Mr. Sellers paid yesterday." +</p> +<p> +"So they don't owe you much on account, then," Tunis said soberly. +"I came away without paying for my dinner. I'll pay the worth of my +check to you; that'll help some." +</p> +<p> +For the first time she laughed. Once he had sat all afternoon in a +gully back of Big Wreck Cove in the pine woods and listened to the +cheerful gurgle of a spring bubbling from under a stone. That +silvery chuckle was repeated in this girl's laugh With all her +timidity and shyness, she was naturally a cheerful body. That laugh +was quite involuntary. +</p> +<p> +"I think I may be able to get along," she said, with that quiet tone +of finality which Tunis felt would keep the boldest man at a +distance. "It is difficult, however, to get a position without +references." +</p> +<p> +"I'll go back and wring one out of him—when the cop has gone," +grinned Tunis. +</p> +<p> +"I don't think a reference from Mr. Sellers would do me much good," +she sighed. "But at the time I took the place I was quite +desperate." +</p> +<p> +The captain of the <i>Seamew</i> made no comment. They were walking up +the hill through a quiet street. Of course, there was no pursuit. +But the young man began to feel that he might have done the girl +more harm than good by espousing her cause in the restaurant. +Perhaps he had been too impulsive. +</p> +<p> +"You—you can find other and more pleasant work, I am sure," he said +with hesitation. "I hope you will forgive me for thrusting myself +into your concerns, but I really could not stand for that man +backing up your customer instead of you. He did order meringue pie. +I heard him." +</p> +<p> +She smiled, and he caught the faint flicker of it as it curved her +lips and made her eyes shine for an instant. Minute following +minute, she was becoming more attractive. His voice trembled when he +spoke again: +</p> +<p> +"I—I hope you will forgive me." +</p> +<p> +"You did just what I should have expected my brother to do, if I had +a brother," she replied frankly. "But few girls who work at Sellers' +have brothers." +</p> +<p> +"No?" Something in her voice, rather than in the words, startled +Tunis. +</p> +<p> +"Let me put it differently," she said, still with that gentle +cadence which ameliorated the bitterness of her tone. "Girls who +have brothers seldom fall into Sellers' clutches. You see, he is a +last resort. He does not demand references, and he poses as a +philanthropist." +</p> +<p> +Tunis felt confused, in a maze. He could not imagine where the girl +was tacking. He was keenly aware, however, that there was a mystery +about her being employed at all in Sellers' restaurant. +</p> +<p> +They came out at last upon the brow of the hill overlooking the +Common. The lamps glimmered along Tremont Street through an +opalescent haze which was stealing over the city from the bay. +Without question they went down the steps side by side. There was a +bench in a shadow and, without touching her, Tunis steered the +girl's steps toward it. +</p> +<p> +She sat down with an involuntary sigh of weariness. She had been on +her feet most of the time since eleven o'clock. She relaxed in +contact with the back of the bench, and he could see the contour of +her throat and chin thrown up in relief against the background of +shadow. The whole relaxed attitude of her slim body betrayed +exhaustion. +</p> +<p> +"I hope you will not blame me too severely," Tunis stammered. +</p> +<p> +"I don't blame you." +</p> +<p> +"I fear you will after you have taken time to think it over. +But—but perhaps there may be some way in which I can repair the +damage I have done." +</p> +<p> +She looked at him levelly, curiously. +</p> +<p> +"You are a seaman, are you not?" +</p> +<p> +"I'm Tunis Latham. I own the schooner <i>Seamew</i>, and command her. We +are going to run back and forth from Boston to the Cape—Cape Cod." +</p> +<p> +"Oh! I could scarcely fill a position on your schooner, Captain +Latham." +</p> +<p> +She smiled again. It was a weary smile, however, not like the former +flash of amusement she had shown. Her head drooped as her mind sank +into unhappy retrospection. Tunis looked aside at her with a great +hunger in his heart to take all her trouble—no matter what it +was—upon his own mind and give her the freedom she needed. What or +who the girl was did not matter. Even what she had done, or what +she had not done meant little to Tunis Latham. +</p> +<p> +She was the one girl in all this world who had ever interested him +beyond a passing moment, and he was convinced that she alone would +ever interest him. The cheap environment of their meeting meant +nothing. If she was free, her own mistress, and he could get her, he +meant to make this girl his wife. +</p> +<p> +"You didn't tell me your name," he said directly. "Won't you? I have +been frank with you." +</p> +<p> +"Why, so you have," said the girl. There might have been a strata of +laughter underlying the words; yet her face was sober enough. "If +you really wish to know, Captain Latham, my name is Macklin." +</p> +<p> +"<i>Miss</i> Macklin?" he asked, a positive tremor in his voice. +</p> +<p> +"Certainly. Sheila Macklin, spinster." +</p> +<p> +Tunis drew a long breath. That was enough! He would take his chance +in the game with any other man as long as she was not promised. But +there was no use in spoiling everything by being too precipitate. +The captain of the <i>Seamew</i> might be simple, but he was not the man +to ruin a thing through impulsiveness. That exhibition in the +restaurant was hooked up with wrath. +</p> +<p> +There had been an undercurrent of thought in his mind ever since he +had met this girl for the second time, and it was quite a natural +thought, comparing her with Ida May Bostwick. If Sheila Macklin had +only been Ida May, after all! It was a ridiculous idea. Not a +feature or betrayed trait of character was like any that the +disappointing great-niece of Prudence Ball possessed. This girl +sitting beside Tunis on the bench and Ida May Bostwick were as +little alike as though they were inhabitants of two different +worlds. +</p> +<p> +He had begun to imagine, too, how well this girl beside him would +fit into the needs of the old couple living there alone on Wreckers' +Head. It was an idle thought, of course. He had no plan, or scheme, +or definite suggestion in his mind. It was only a wish, a keen +longing for an impossible conjunction of circumstances which would +have enabled him to present Sheila Macklin to Cap'n Ira and Prudence +and say: +</p> +<p> +"This is the girl you sent me for." +</p> +<p> +"Just what will you do now that you have lost that job, Miss +Macklin?" Tunis asked abruptly. +</p> +<p> +"Oh, after I am rested, I will go home!" +</p> +<p> +He had a sudden flash of the memory of that stark lodging house +where Ida May Bostwick lived, and he felt assured this girl's home +could be no better. But he did not mention this thought. +</p> +<p> +"I did not mean it just that way," he told her, smiling. "First you +and I will go and get supper somewhere. I did not half finish mine, +and you have had none at all." +</p> +<p> +"I don't know about that," she interposed. "It is generous of you. +But ought I to accept?" +</p> +<p> +"You need not question that. We are going to be friends, Miss +Macklin. Is it necessary for me to bring you references?" +</p> +<p> +"It may be necessary for me to obtain a sponsor," she said, quite +seriously. "You do not know a thing about me, Captain Latham." +</p> +<p> +"You know nothing about me, except what I have told you." And he +laughed. +</p> +<p> +"And what I read in your countenance," she said soberly. +</p> +<p> +He grinned at her, but rather ruefully. +</p> +<p> +"I never knew my thoughts were advertised in my face." +</p> +<p> +"Oh, no! Not that! But your character is. Otherwise I would not be +sitting here with you." +</p> +<p> +"I guess that's all right then," he declared with satisfaction. +"Well, let's call it a draw. If you take me at face value, I'll take +you at the same rating. Anyhow, we can risk going to supper +together." +</p> +<p> +"Well, somewhere to a quiet place. Don't take me where you are +known, Captain Latham." +</p> +<p> +"No?" He was puzzled again. "But, then, I am not known anywhere in +Boston." +</p> +<p> +"All the better. I ought not to lend myself in any way to making you +possible future trouble." +</p> +<p> +"I do not understand you, Miss Macklin." +</p> +<p> +He sat up suddenly on the bench to look at her more sharply. There +was an underlying, but important, meaning to her speech. +</p> +<p> +"I know you do not understand," she rejoined gently. She sighed. "I +must make you clearly see just who I am and the risk you run in +associating with me." +</p> +<p> +"The risk I run!" +</p> +<p> +He uttered the words in both amazement and ridicule. +</p> +<p> +"You do not quite understand, Captain Latham," she repeated in the +same gentle tone. +</p> +<p> +There was no raillery in her voice now. She was altogether serious. +Her eyes, luminous, yet darkly unfathomable, were held full upon his +face. He felt rather than saw that she was under a mental strain. +The revelation she was about to make throbbed in her voice when she +spoke again. +</p> +<p> +"You do not quite understand. Sellers gives girls work in his +restaurant who could by no possibility offer proper references, +girls from the Protectory, from homes, as they are called; some, +even, who have served jail sentences. I had been two years in the +St. Andrew's School for Girls when I went to work for Sellers." +</p> +<a name="2HCH0009"><!-- H2 anchor --></a> + +<div style="height: 4em;"><br /><br /><br /><br /></div> + +<h2> + CHAPTER IX +</h2> +<h3> + A GIRL'S STORY +</h3> +<p> +There was a ringing in Tunis Latham's ears. As you make Paulmouth +Harbor coming from seaward, on a thick day you hear the insistent +tolling of the bell buoy over Bitter Reef. That was the distant, but +incessant sound that the captain of the <i>Seamew</i> seemed to hear as +he sat on that bench on Boston Common beside this strange girl. +</p> +<p> +Without being a prig, Tunis Latham was undeniably a good man. +Whether he was altogether a wise man was perhaps a subject for +argument. At least, his future conduct must settle that point. +</p> +<p> +But for the moment, when Sheila Macklin had made her last statement, +it seemed that every atom of thought and all ability to consider +matters logically were drained out of the man's mind. That mind was +perfectly blank. What the girl had said seemed mere sound, sound +without meaning. He could not grasp its significance. +</p> +<p> +And yet he knew it was tragic. It was something that had made the +girl what she was. It explained all Tunis had been unable heretofore +to understand about Sheila Macklin. That timidity, that whispering +shyness, the shrinking from observation and from any attention, were +all explained. She had suffered persecution and punishment, harsh +and undeserved, that made her recoil from contact with other more +fortunate people. She felt herself outcast, ostracized, and was +unable to defend herself from malign fortune. +</p> +<p> +Gradually Tunis regained his usual self-control. +</p> +<p> +If Sheila had said anything following the bare statement that she +had spent two years in the St. Andrew's Reformatory for Women, he +had not comprehended it. Nor could he have told how long he sat +silent on the bench getting control of his voice and of his tongue. +When he did speak he said quite casually: +</p> +<p> +"And what kind of a place is that—er—school, Miss Macklin?" +</p> +<p> +"You can imagine. It harbors the weak-minded, the vicious, and the +unfortunate runaway girls, thieves' consorts, and women of the +streets. It is, I think, a little like hell, if there really is such +a place, Captain Latham." +</p> +<p> +The poignancy of expression in her voice and words made the man +tremble. And yet she did not speak bitterly nor angrily. Her feeling +was beyond all passion. It was the expression of a soul that had +suffered everything and could no longer feel. That was just it, +Tunis told himself. It explained her attitude, even the tone of her +voice. She had endured and seen so much misery and heartache that +there seemed nothing left for her to experience. +</p> +<p> +"Can you bear to tell me what misfortune took you to that place?" he +asked gently, yet fighting down all the time that desire to roar +with rage. +</p> +<p> +"Why do you not say 'crime,' Captain Latham?" she asked in that same +low, strained voice. +</p> +<p> +"Because I know that crime and you could not be associated, Miss +Macklin," he said hoarsely. +</p> +<p> +At that she began suddenly to weep. Not aloud, but with her hands +pressed over her eyes and her shoulders, shaking with long, +shuddering sobs which betrayed how the horror of past thoughts and +experiences controlled her when once she gave way. Tunis Latham +could have behaved like a madman. That berserk rage that had seized +him in the restaurant welled up in his heart now. He gripped the +back of the bench till the slat cracked. But there was no opponent +here upon whom he could vent his violence that he longed to express. +</p> +<p> +"Don't cry! For God's sake, don't cry!" he whispered hoarsely. "I +know it was all a mistake. It must have been a mistake. How could +anybody have been so wicked, so utterly senseless, as to believe +you guilty of—of—what did they accuse you of?" +</p> +<p> +"Stealing," whispered the girl. +</p> +<p> +"'Stealing?' What nonsense!" +</p> +<p> +He put a wealth of disdain into the words. She sat up straighter. +She dropped her hands from her face and looked at him. Dark as it +was on the bench, he could see that her expression was one of +wonder. +</p> +<p> +"Do—do you really feel that way about it, Captain Latham?" +</p> +<p> +"It is ridiculous!" he acclaimed heartily. +</p> +<p> +She sighed. Her momentary animation fell and she spoke again: +</p> +<p> +"It did not seem ridiculous to the police or to the magistrate. I +worked in a store. A piece of sterling silverware disappeared. Other +pieces had previously been stolen. The police traced the last +missing piece to a pawnshop. The pawnbroker testified that a girl +pawned it. His identification of me was close enough to satisfy the +judge." +</p> +<p> +"My God!" +</p> +<p> +"I was what they call a first offender. At least, I had no police +record. Ordinarily I might have been let go under suspended sentence +or been put on probation. But I had nobody to say a good word for +me. I had been in Boston only a year, and I could not let people +where I came from know about my trouble. Even if the judge had +given me a jail sentence, I could have shortened it by good +behavior. He did what he thought was best, I suppose. He considered +me a hardened young criminal. He sent me to the St. Andrew's School +until I was twenty-one—two years. Two long, long years. +</p> +<p> +"Six months ago I got out and Sellers gave me a job. Now, that is +all, Captain Latham. You will readily see my position. I do not want +to go anywhere with you to eat where your friends are likely to see +you." +</p> +<p> +He uttered a sudden, stinging, harsh sound; then he removed his cap +and bent toward her. +</p> +<p> +"But what you have said—Why, were they all crazy? Couldn't they see +that such a thing would be impossible for you? Impossible!" +</p> +<p> +She put a hand gently on his arm to quiet his excitement, for others +were passing. Her eyes glowed up into his for an instant. Her lips +parted in a happier smile than he had seen on them before. +</p> +<p> +"Then you will not get up from this bench, Captain Latham, and +excuse yourself? I should not blame you if you did so." +</p> +<p> +"Do you think I'm that kind of a fellow?" he demanded bluntly. +</p> +<p> +"I—I told you I thought I had quite read your character in your +face. But that is no reason why I should take advantage of your +kindness to do you harm." +</p> +<p> +"Harm? How do you mean, 'harm?'" +</p> +<p> +"Sheila Macklin is a creature from a reformatory. She has been +sentenced by a magistrate. She was arrested by the police. She was +accused by her employers of theft, and the theft was proved. If any +of your friends should see you with me, and I should be identified +as the Sheila Macklin who was sentenced for stealing—" +</p> +<p> +"Cat's foot!" ejaculated Tunis with a sudden reversion to his usual +cheerful manner. "Are you going through the rest of your life +feeling like that?" +</p> +<p> +"Why shouldn't I? I am always expecting somebody to see and +recognize me. Even in Sellers' place. That man this evening, when he +called me 'jailbird'—" +</p> +<p> +"I wish I had wrung his neck!" exclaimed the captain of the <i>Seamew</i> +heartily. +</p> +<p> +"I appreciate your kindness." Her eyes twinkled. For a moment he +caught a glimpse of what Sheila Macklin must have been before +tragedy had come into her life. "You are a good, kind man, Captain +Latham." +</p> +<p> +"You just look on me as though I were your brother," he said +sturdily. "You are not going to be alone any more, not really. If +you had had friends before, when it happened, somebody to speak for +you, I am sure nothing like what did happen to you could have +happened." +</p> +<p> +"I come of respectable people," she said quietly. "But they are all +dead. I was an orphan before I came to Boston. The friends I had in +the little inland town I came from would not have understood. They +did not approve of my coming to the city at all. Oh, I wish I had +not come!" +</p> +<p> +"And now you ought not to stay here. Should you?" +</p> +<p> +"What can I do? I must support myself. I cannot go back. I could not +explain those two years. Yet I am always expecting somebody to make +inquiry for Sheila Macklin. And then I cannot conceal my story +longer." +</p> +<p> +He nodded thoughtfully. It seemed that, once she had opened the dam +of speech, she was glad to talk about herself and her trouble. +</p> +<p> +"I do hate the city. I have been so unhappy here. If I were only a +man I would start right out into the country. I would tramp until I +found a place to work. You don't know what it means to be a girl, +Captain Latham, and be in trouble." +</p> +<p> +"I guess all city girls aren't alike after all," he said with a +short laugh. Then he looked at her keenly again. "Do you know what +sort of an errand brought me up into the city from T-Wharf to-day?" +</p> +<p> +"What errand? I cannot imagine." +</p> +<p> +"There are two old people down on the Cape that I am much interested +in. They live near my home." +</p> +<p> +He told her quietly, yet with earnestness, about Cap'n Ira and +Prudence. He described their home and their need of some young +person to live with them, somebody who would not only help them, but +who would love to help them. Then he related, perhaps rather tartly, +his experience with Ida May Bostwick. +</p> +<p> +"What a foolish girl!" she breathed. "And she would not accept a +chance like that?" +</p> +<p> +"Lucky for Cap'n Ira and for Aunt Prue that she won't take up with +their offer," he said grimly. "But I dread taking back word to them +about her. It will be hard to make them understand. And then, they +need the help a good girl could give them." +</p> +<p> +"Captain Latham, if I only had a chance like that!" she exclaimed. +"I'd work my fingers to the bone for a home like that, for shelter, +and kindness, and—and—oh, well, some girls have all the best of +it, I guess!" +</p> +<p> +She sighed. It was half a sob. He saw her hands clasp tightly before +her in the dusk. The gesture was like a prayer. He knew that her +pale face was flushed with earnestness. He cleared his throat. +</p> +<p> +"You have the chance, if you want it, Miss Macklin," he said. +</p> +<a name="2HCH0010"><!-- H2 anchor --></a> + +<div style="height: 4em;"><br /><br /><br /><br /></div> + +<h2> + CHAPTER X +</h2> +<h3> + THE PLOT +</h3> +<p> +There was a long minute of utter silence following Tunis Latham's +last words. Then the girl's whisper, tense, yet shaking like a +frightened child's: +</p> +<p> +"You do not know what you are saying." +</p> +<p> +"I know exactly what I am saying," he replied. +</p> +<p> +"They—they would not have me." +</p> +<p> +"They will welcome you—gladly." +</p> +<p> +"Never! I am a stranger. They must be told all about me. They could +never welcome Sheila Macklin." +</p> +<p> +He knew that. He knew it only too well. She was just the sort of +girl to make Cap'n Ira Ball and Prudence happy, to bring to their +latter years the comfort and joy the old couple should have. But the +Puritanism which, after all, ingrained their characters would never +allow the Balls to welcome a girl with the stain Sheila Macklin bore +upon her name. Tunis remembered clearly how scornfully Cap'n Ira +had spoken of the possibility of their taking in a girl from the +poor farm. Pride of family and of name is inbred in their class of +New Englanders. +</p> +<p> +The old people wanted a girl whom they could love and look upon as +their own. They would welcome nobody else. They had set their minds +and hearts upon Ida May Bostwick. The fact that Ida May failed to +come up to their expectations, that she was perfectly worthless and +inconsequential, did not open the way for another girl to be +substituted for Ida May. Possibly Tunis might be successful in an +attempt to interest the Balls in Sheila Macklin's case. But the girl +did not want charity, not charity as the word is used in its general +and harsher sense. +</p> +<p> +Should she carry with her wherever she went this name which had been +so smirched—the identity of Sheila Macklin, the ghost of whose past +misfortune might rise to shame her at any time—the girl could never +be happy. Did Tunis Latham succeed in getting the Balls to take +Sheila in and give her a home, this story that so bowed her down +would continually threaten its revelation, like a pirate ship +hovering in the offing! +</p> +<p> +And there was, too, a deeper reason why he could not introduce +Sheila Macklin to Big Wreck Cove folk. It was no reason he could +give the girl at this time. In some ways the captain of the <i>Seamew</i> +was wise enough. He felt that this was no time to put forward his +personal and particular desires. Enough that she had admitted him +to her friendship and had given him her confidence. +</p> +<p> +She had accepted him in all good faith in a brotherly sense. He +dared not spoil his influence with her by revealing a deeper +interest. +</p> +<p> +"We may as well look at this thing calmly and sensibly," Tunis said, +answering her statement of what was indubitably a fact. "It is quite +true my old neighbors would not accept you as Sheila Macklin. But +they need you; no other kind of a girl would so suit their need. And +you could not help loving them; nor they you, once they learned to +know you." +</p> +<p> +"I am sure I should love them," breathed Sheila. +</p> +<p> +"Then, as you are just the person they want and their home is just +the place you need for shelter, I am going to take you back with +me." +</p> +<p> +"Oh, Captain Latham! We—we can't do it. My name—somebody will some +time be sure to hear about me, and the dreadful secret will come +out." +</p> +<p> +"No, it won't," said Tunis doggedly. "There will be no secret, not +such as you mean, to come out." +</p> +<p> +She gazed upon him in open-eyed surprise, her lips parted, her face +aglow. +</p> +<p> +"You mean—" +</p> +<p> +"We'll leave Sheila Macklin sitting on this bench, if you will +agree. She need never be traced from this point. Let her drop out of +the ken of the whole world that knew her. The name can only bring +you harm; it has brought you harm. Through it you are threatened +with trouble, with disaster. Your whole future is menaced through +that name and the stain upon it." +</p> +<p> +She looked at him still, scarcely breathing. Latham did not realize +the power he held over this girl at the moment. He was to her a +living embodiment of the All Good. Almost any suggestion, no matter +how reckless, he might have made, would have found an echo in her +heart and the will to do it. +</p> +<p> +To few is vouchsafed that knowledge which makes all clear before the +mental vision. Tunis Latham's perspicacity did not compass this +thing. He did not grasp the psychological moment, as we moderns call +it, and consummate there and then the only reasonable and righteous +plan that it was given him to complete. +</p> +<p> +The captain of the <i>Seamew</i> was a young man very much in love. He +did not question this fact at all. But in his wildest imaginings he +could never have believed that the girl beside him on this bench +returned his passion, that she would even listen to his +protestations of affection. Not for a long time, at least. +</p> +<p> +Nor had he ever considered marriage as possible in any case when +there was not love on both sides. Although he commiserated Sheila +Macklin's situation most deeply, he could not dream of those depths +of despair into which the girl's heart had sunk before he came upon +the scene of action. He did not understand that she was at that +bitterly desperate point where she would grasp at any means of +rescue which promised respectability. +</p> +<p> +He almost feared to put before her the proposition he did have in +his mind. In the dusk, even, those violet eyes seemed to look to the +very bottom of his soul. Fortunate for him that its clarity was +visible to the girl at that moment. +</p> +<p> +He bent closer. His lips almost brushed her ear. He whispered +several swift sentences into it. She listened. Some of that glow of +exaltation drained out of her countenance, but it registered no +disagreement. They sat for some time thereafter, talking, planning, +this desperate young girl and the captain of the <i>Seamew</i>. +</p> +<hr /> +<p> +"What do you know about this?" Orion Latham growled. "The mate +bunkin' in with cooky and the skipper slingin' a hammock in the +fo'c's'le while the whole cabin's to be given up to a girl. A woman +aboard! Never knew no good to come of that on any craft. What is +this schooner, a passenger packet?" +</p> +<p> +"You was sayin' she was already hoodooed," chuckled Horace Newbegin. +"I cal'late a gal sailing one trip won't materially harm the +<i>Seamew</i> nor her crew." +</p> +<p> +"Who is she? That's what I want to know," said the supercargo, who +seemed to consider the matter a personal affront. +</p> +<p> +"Skipper says she's going to live with Cap'n Ira Ball. She's some +kin of his wife's. And they need somebody with 'em, up there in that +lonesome place," said the ancient seaman reflectively. "That's what +the skipper was doin' all day yesterday, lookin' this gal up and +making arrangements for her going back to the <i>Seamew</i>. He's gone up +town to get her now. We'll get away come the turn of the tide, if +he's back in time." +</p> +<p> +The taxicab with Tunis and the girl arrived in season for the tide. +It was quite dark on the dock to which the <i>Seamew</i> was still +moored. The Captain hailed, and two of the hands were sent up for +the trunk. Tunis carried the girl's hand bag. +</p> +<p> +Every member of the crew was loitering on deck, even Johnny Lark and +Tony, the boy, to get a glimpse of the mysterious passenger. They +saw only a slender, graceful, quick-stepping figure, her face +veiled, her hands neatly gloved. Just how she was dressed and what +she really looked like only daylight would reveal. +</p> +<p> +Tunis went below with her and remained until the men brought down +the trunk. It was a small trunk and brand-new, as was the bag. Had +one observed, the hat she wore, and even her simple frock, were +likewise just out of the shop. At least the girl who was going with +the <i>Seamew</i> to Big Wreck Cove seemed to have made certain +preparations for a new life. +</p> +<p> +The captain came out on deck and closed the slide. The commercial +tug was puffing in toward the <i>Seamew's</i> berth. +</p> +<p> +"Come alive, boys!" said Captain Latham, taking instant command of +the deck. "Cast off those lines! Get that tug hawser inboard, Horry. +Mr. Chapin, will you see that those lines are coiled down properly? +Keep the deck shipshape. Make less work for your watch when we get +under canvas. +</p> +<p> +"Lay aft here with your men now, Horry. Tail on to those mainsheets. +All together! Get away on her so we can cast loose as soon as +possible from that smoky scuttle butt." +</p> +<p> +He referred to the tug. He stepped aft to take the wheel himself. +The mainsail was going up smartly. The old boatswain and the +Portygees swung upon the lines with vehemence. There was not more +than a capful of wind; but once let the canvas fill, and the +schooner would get steerageway. +</p> +<p> +"I'd rather take my chance through the channel under sail than +depend on that tug," the captain added. "Like a puppy dragging +around an old rubber boot. Lively there! Ready to cast off, Mr. +Chapin." +</p> +<p> +The schooner was freed of the "puffing abomination," the smoke of +which sooted the <i>Seamew's</i> clean sails. The heavy hawser splashed +overboard and the schooner staggered away rather drunkenly at +first, tacking among the larger craft anchored out there in the +harbor. +</p> +<p> +The wind was not a very helpful one and soon after midnight it fell +almost calm. There were only light airs to urge the <i>Seamew</i> on. Yet +she glided through the starlit murk in a ghostly fashion as though +some monstrous submarine hand forced her seaward. +</p> +<p> +The water chuckled and gurgled under her bow, flashing in ripples +now and then. There was no phosphorescence, no glitter or sparkle. +The schooner moved on as through a tideless sea. Now and then a +clutter of spars or a suit of listless sails loomed up in the dark. +But even if the other craft likewise was tacking seaward, the +<i>Seamew</i> passed it and dropped it behind. +</p> +<p> +Tunis paced the deck—Horry was at the wheel—and quite approved of +the feat his schooner was performing. +</p> +<p> +"If she can sail like this on only a breath of wind, what can she do +in a gale?" he said buoyantly in the old man's hearing. +</p> +<p> +"That's all right. She sails pretty. But I don't like that tug to +sta'bo'd," growled Horry. "It 'minds me too much of the <i>Marlin B.</i>" +</p> +<p> +Captain Latham gave no heed. +</p> +<p> +The sun stretched red beams from the horizon and took the <i>Seamew</i>, +all dressed out at sunrise in her full suit of canvas, in his arms. +She danced as lightly over the whitecaps that had sprung up with the +breeze at dawn as though she had not a ton of ballast in her hold. +Yet she was pretty well down to her Plimsoll mark. +</p> +<p> +The girl's first glimpse through the cabin window at sea and sky was +a heartening one. If she had sought repose with doubt, uncertainty, +and some fear weighing upon her spirit, this beautiful morning was +one to revive her courage. She was fully dressed and prepared to go +on deck when Tunis tapped at the slide. +</p> +<p> +"Miss Bostwick," he called, "any time you are ready the boy will +come in and lay the table for breakfast." +</p> +<p> +She ran to the companionway, pushed back the door, and appeared +smiling in the frame of the doorway. +</p> +<p> +"Good morning, captain!" +</p> +<p> +Her cheerfulness was infectious. All night Tunis Latham, even while +lying in his hammock in the forecastle, had been ruminating in +anything but a cheerful mood. Determined as he was to carry his plan +through, and confident as he was of its being a good one and +eminently practical, he had been considering many chances which at +first blush had not appeared to him. +</p> +<p> +With his first look into her smiling countenance all those anxieties +seemed dissipated. He met her smile with one which transfigured his +own handsome face. +</p> +<p> +"May I come out on deck, captain?" +</p> +<p> +"We shall be honored by your company up here, Miss Bostwick." +</p> +<p> +She even made him a little face in secret for the formality of his +address, as she flashed past him. There was a dancing light in her +eye he had not seen before—at least, not in the openness of day. +There was something daring about her that was a revelation. He knew +at once that he need not fear her attitude when they reached the +point where she must carry on her part without his aid. She +displayed an innocent boldness that must dissipate suspicion in the +mind of the keenest critic. +</p> +<p> +Tunis introduced Mason Chapin to her, who quite evidently liked the +girl at once. Orion Latham lounged aft to meet her, his pale eyes +betraying surprise as well as admiration. +</p> +<p> +"Hi golly!" said the supercargo. "I guess you come honest by the +Honey side of your family tree, Miss Bostwick, though you don't +favor them much in looks." +</p> +<p> +"'Rion is given to flattery," said the captain dryly. +</p> +<p> +Horace Newbegin touched his forelock. He had been a naval man in his +prime and knew what was expected when a lady trod the deck. The +Portygees were all widely asmile. Indeed, the entire company of the +<i>Seamew</i> was cheered by the girl's presence. +</p> +<p> +At breakfast time, which was served by Tony to the guest and the +mate as well as Captain Latham, her sweet laughter floated out of +the cabin and caught the attention of everybody on deck. Horry +grinned wryly upon Orion. +</p> +<p> +"How 'bout this schooner being hoodooed?" he rumbled in his deep +bass. "Lemme tell you, boy, I'd sail to ary end o' the world with +that gal for mascot. This won't be no Jonah ship while she's +aboard." +</p> +<p> +"Hi golly! Tunis Latham has all the luck," whined Orion. "Taking her +down to live with Cap'n Ball and Prudence! Huh! She won't live with +'em long." +</p> +<p> +"Why not?" demanded the old salt. +</p> +<p> +"Can't you see what he's up to?" sneered Orion. "Aunt 'Cretia will +be takin' a back seat 'fore long. 'Latham's Folly' will be getting a +new mistress." +</p> +<p> +"Latham's Folly" was a name Medway Latham's big brown house behind +Wreckers' Head had gained soon after it was built. Such a huge house +for so limited a family had suggested the term to the sharp-tongued +Cape Codders. +</p> +<p> +Horry Newbegin turned the idea and his quid over several times, then +commented: +</p> +<p> +"Well, the skipper wouldn't be doing so bad at that!" +</p> +<a name="2HCH0011"><!-- H2 anchor --></a> + +<div style="height: 4em;"><br /><br /><br /><br /></div> + +<h2> + CHAPTER XI +</h2> +<h3> + AT BIG WRECK COVE +</h3> +<p> +The girl had never been to sea before, not even on a pleasure boat +down the harbor. The delights of a sail to Nantasket were quite +unknown to her. Naturally this voyage out through the bay and into +the illimitable ocean was sure to be either a delight or a most +unpleasant experience. +</p> +<p> +Happily it was the former. She proved to be a good sailor. +</p> +<p> +"You was born for a sailor's bride, miss," Horry told her. +</p> +<p> +But he said it when nobody else was by to see the blush which +stained her cheek. And yet she did not look happy after the old +salt's observation. He hastened to interest her in another theme. +</p> +<p> +It was the tail of the afternoon watch. Because of the light and +shifting airs the <i>Seamew</i>, in spite of her wonderful sailing +qualities, had only then raised the northern extremity of the Cape +and, turning on her heel, was now running out to sea again on the +long leg of a tack into the southeast. +</p> +<p> +Horry hung to the spokes of the wheel while the skipper was helping +Orion make up the manifest. The steersman had jettisoned his usual +quid of tobacco when the girl approached him, and without that aid +to complacency Horry just had to talk. +</p> +<p> +"Did you see the wheel jerk then, miss? That tug to sta'bo'd is the +only fault I find with this here schooner. She's a right tidy craft, +and Cap'n Tunis is a good judge of sailing ships, as his father was +afore him. +</p> +<p> +"But although this <i>Seamew</i> looks like a new craft, she isn't. Sure, +he knowed she wasn't new, Cap'n Tunis did, when he bought her up +there to Marblehead. Only trouble is, he didn't seem to go quite +deep enough into her antecedents, as the feller said. He bought her +on the strength of her condition and the way she sailed on a trial +trip." +</p> +<p> +"Well, isn't that all right?" asked his listener. "How would one go +about buying a ship?" +</p> +<p> +"Huh—ship? Well, a schooner ain't a ship, Miss Bostwick. +Howsomever, buying a schooner is like buying a race horse. You want +to know <i>his</i> pedigree. They said the <i>Seamew</i> had been brought up +from the Gulf to sell. And maybe she was. But she is Yankee built, +every timber and rope of her. She warn't built down South none." +</p> +<p> +"Shouldn't that make the bargain all the more satisfactory?" +queried the girl, smiling. +</p> +<p> +"Ordinarily, yes, ma'am. But it looks like they was hidin' +something. It looks like, too, she was built for sailing and +fishing, not to be a cargo boat." +</p> +<p> +"I think she is beautiful." +</p> +<p> +"She is sightly, I grant ye," said Horace. "But there's something to +be considered 'sides looks when a man is putting his money into a +craft. As I say, her pedigree oughter be looked up. What was the +schooner before they changed the slant of them masts, painted her +over, and put a new name under her stern?" +</p> +<p> +"I don't understand you at all, Mr. Newbegin," said the girl, +staring at him with a strange look dawning in her own countenance. +</p> +<p> +He bent toward her, after casting a knowing glance aloft. His +weather-bitten face was preternaturally solemn. +</p> +<p> +"Ye can't help havin' your suspicions 'bout ships or folks that are +sailin' under cover. There's got to be some reason for a man +changing his name and trying to get by on one that ain't his'n. Same +with a schooner like this." +</p> +<p> +"Oh!" +</p> +<p> +"There is such things as hoodooed ships, Miss Bostwick, just like +there is hoodooed folks," he said hoarsely, without seeming to +notice her shrinking from him and her changed countenance. +</p> +<p> +"Oh! Is there?" she inquired faintly. +</p> +<p> +"Surest thing you know," acclaimed the old seaman with his most +impressive manner. "There was a hoodooed schooner sailed out o' +Salem some years back, the <i>Marlin B.</i> She had the same tug to +sta'bo'd that I feel when I'm steerin' of this here schooner." +</p> +<p> +The girl was recovering from her momentary excitement. She saw that +Newbegin had no ulterior meaning in his speech. He shook his head +and cast a wary glance toward the companionway to see that the +skipper was not appearing from below. +</p> +<p> +"Listen here, Miss Bostwick," he said hoarsely. "It's a mighty +curious thing. I had just come back from a v'y'ge to New Guinea, and +I thinks I'd like a trip to the Banks, not having been fishin' since +I was a boy. I went to Sutro Brothers in Salem and got me a berth on +the <i>Marlin B.</i> I marked that every man aboard her, skipper and all, +warn't Salem men, nor yet from Gloucester nor Marblehead. But I +didn't suspicion nothing. +</p> +<p> +"Tell you, Miss Bostwick, them that goes down to the sea in ships +runs against more than natur's wonders. There's mysteries that ain't +to be explained, scurce to be spoke of. I dunno why we shouldn't +believe in spirits and ghosts and dead men come alive. The Bible's +full of such, ain't it? +</p> +<p> +"Well, then! And what I tell you is as sure, as sure. I took the +<i>Marlin B.</i> out of that harbor, being at the wheel. It was +February, and a nasty snow squall come up and smothered us complete +and proper. That schooner was a hummer; she sailed just so pretty as +this one. She did for a fact. But I felt that tug to sta'bo'd. Do +you know, Miss Bostwick, as I was tellin' Cap'n Tunis, there ain't +never two craft just alike, no more than there is two men." +</p> +<p> +"Is that so?" she said. +</p> +<p> +"Ships is almost human. I never did see two so much alike as this +<i>Seamew</i> and the <i>Marlin B.</i> Well, to continue, as the feller said, +we was smothered in that snow squall for 'bout ten minutes. At the +wheel there I heard off to windward the rushing sound of another +craft. She was a tall ship, too, and she had as much canvas spread +as we had. She came down on us like a shot. +</p> +<p> +"I shouted to the mate, but he had heard it too. He yelled for all +hands on deck. We both knowed the <i>Marlin B.</i> was due to be run +under unless a miracle intervened. It was a moment I ain't likely to +forget, for we stood there, the whole ship's company, hanging on by +backstay and rail, peering out into the smother of the snow, while +the amazing rush of that unknown craft deafened us. +</p> +<p> +"Then out of her upper works—I swear I could see the tangle of +ropes and slatting canvas—came a voice that rang in my ears for +many a day, no matter how the others heard it. It shouted: +</p> +<p> +"We're the spirits of them ye run under! We're the spirits of them +ye run under!" +</p> +<p> +"My soul and body, Miss Bostwick, but I was scairt!" confessed the +old salt. "That rushing sound and the voices crashed on through our +rigging and went down wind in a most amazing style. It was a ghost +warning like nothing I'd ever heard before or since. And it struck +the whole crew the same way. We begun to question what the <i>Marlin +B.</i> was. She was a new schooner and had made but one trip to the +Banks previous to this one we was on. We began to ask why her +original crew had not stayed with her. +</p> +<p> +"You can't fool sailormen, Miss Bostwick," continued the old man, +shaking his head with great solemnity. "They sees too much and they +knows too much. Sutro Brothers had got rid of the <i>Marlin B.'s</i> +first crew and picked up strangers, but murder will out. The story +come to us through the night and in the snow squall. We couldn't +stand for no murder ship. We made the skipper put back." +</p> +<p> +"Why, wasn't that mutiny?" gasped the girl. +</p> +<p> +"He was glad enough to turn back hisself. Even if he lost his ticket +he would have turned back. Then we learned what it meant. On her +first trip for fish, returning to Salem, the <i>Marlin B.</i> run under a +smaller fishing craft and every soul aboard of her was lost. And it +stands to reason that every time that murder schooner went out of +the harbor and came to the spot where she'd run the other craft +down, those uneasy souls would rise up and denounce the <i>Marlin B.</i>" +</p> +<p> +"Oh!" gasped the girl, startled, for Tunis Latham and Orion stood +behind her. +</p> +<p> +"Your tongue's hung in the middle and wags both ends, Horry," +growled the young skipper. "You trying to scare Miss Bostwick out of +her wits? What you poor, weak-minded, misguided fellows heard that +time in the snow squall was a flock of black gulls coming down +with the wind. And somebody aboard of the <i>Marlin B.</i> was a +ventriloquist. Your whole crew weren't ignorant of the accident that +happened on her first trip. Somebody had it in for Sutro Brothers, +and made much of little, same as usual." +</p> +<p> +"Oh, they <i>did</i>?" muttered Horry. +</p> +<p> +"Anyway," said Captain Latham, "that's neither here nor there. We +aren't sailing the <i>Marlin B.</i>, for she's in Chilean waters, owned +by a South American millionaire. You can stow that kind of talk, +Horry—anyway, while Miss Bostwick is aboard." +</p> +<p> +They were until late in the evening beating into Paulmouth Harbor, +but the heavens were starlit and the air as soft as spring. The +tolling of the bell buoy over Bitter Reef was mellow and soothing; +they heard it for a long time before the <i>Seamew</i> made the short leg +of the final tack and went rushing in past the danger mark under +the urge of a sudden puff of the fitful breeze. +</p> +<p> +"The old bell is welcoming us, Ida May," Captain Latham said to the +girl who reclined in a canvas chair which the cook had raked out of +the lazaret for her use. "I've beat my way in here when it hasn't +sounded so cheerful." +</p> +<p> +"I am wondering what sort of welcome I shall receive when we get +to—Wreckers' Head, do you call it?" she asked softly. +</p> +<p> +"That'll be all right, too," he told her with confidence. "Just wait +and see." +</p> +<p> +They dropped anchor near the Main Street dock in order that they +should be able to warp the schooner in to unload her cargo in the +morning. Tunis allowed shore leave, late as the hour was. But he sat +beside the passenger on the <i>Seamew's</i> deck, and they talked. It was +surprising how much those two found to talk about! Perhaps a good +deal of their inconsequential chatter was to hide the anxiety each +felt in secret as to the future. +</p> +<p> +However, that talk was a memorable one for both Tunis Latham and the +girl posing as Ida May Bostwick. Two young people can tell a great +deal to each other under certain circumstances in the mid-watch of a +starlit night. The lap, lap of the wavelets whispering against the +schooner's hull, the drone of the surf on a distant bar, and the +sounds of insect life from the shore were accompaniments to their +long talk. +</p> +<p> +Orion Latham, tumbling over the forward rail from a waterside +dinghy, whispered hoarsely in Johnny Lark's ear: +</p> +<p> +"What do you know about that? There they are, billin' and cooin', +just where we left 'em when we went ashore. Wouldn't it sicken you?" +</p> +<p> +But Johnny only grinned and chuckled, shaking the tiny gold rings in +his ears till they sparkled in the faint light. He had a girl +himself in Portygee Town, at Big Wreck Cove. +</p> +<p> +The creaking of the hawsers and the "heave hos" of the crew as they +warped the <i>Seamew</i> in to the wharf awoke the girl passenger in the +cabin. There was little fancy about the schooner's after house, but +it was comfortable. +</p> +<p> +There was a tarry smell about the place that rather pleased the +girl. The lamp over the round table vibrated in its gimbals, but did +not swing. There were several prints upon the walls of the cabin, +prints which showed the rather exceptional taste of the <i>Seamew's</i> +master, for they had been tacked up since she had come into Tunis +Latham's possession. +</p> +<p> +There was, too, a somewhat faded photograph on a background of +purple velvet, boxed in with glass, screwed to the forward +stanchion. It was the photograph of an overhealthy-looking young +woman, with scallops of hair pasted to her forehead undoubtedly +with quince-seed pomatum, her basque wrinkled across her bust +because of the high-shouldered cut of it. But it had been in the +extreme mode when it was made and worn, in the eighties. +</p> +<p> +The brooch which fastened the lace collar had been painted yellow by +the "artist photographer" of that day, and even the earrings she +wore had been touched up, or perhaps painted on with the air brush. +</p> +<p> +This was Tunis Latham's mother, the girl who had seemed so promising +an addition to the family in the opinion of Medway Latham, the +builder of "Latham's Folly." The rather blowzy prettiness of Captain +Randall Latham's young wife had been translated into real beauty in +her son; for Tunis had got his physique and open, bold physiognomy +from his mother. +</p> +<p> +The girl lying in an upper berth, a close cap tied over her neatly +braided hair, parted the cretonne curtains to look at these +ornaments hung about the cabin. She realized that the photograph, so +strangely contrasting with the prints of some of the world's +masterpieces, was a sort of shrine to Tunis Latham. He revered the +mother whom he had told the girl he could not remember of ever +having seen. His love and admiration for that unknown mother had +helped make the captain of the <i>Seamew</i> what he was. +</p> +<p> +He was a good man, a safe man for any girl to trust. And yet he was +lending himself to a species of masquerade which, if ever it became +known, would bring upon his head both derision and scorn. He risked +this contumely cheerfully and with a reckless disregard for what +might arise through the plans they had made while sitting beside +each other on that bench on Boston Common. +</p> +<p> +He would not admit the point of his own risk. He would not consider +it when they had talked, only the night before, on the deck of the +schooner. He scouted every possibility of any harm coming to him +through their attempt to replace the girl in a firm niche in society +and give the Cap'n Ira Balls what they needed of companionship and +care. +</p> +<p> +The girl sat up in the berth and let her bare legs dangle a moment +before dropping to the rug. In her bare feet she padded to the +photograph of Captain Randall Latham's young wife. +</p> +<p> +The girl stood before the old photograph, her hands clasped, her +gaze raised to the pictured face, as a votary might stand before the +Madonna. There were tears in the girl's violet eyes. At that moment +she was uplifted, carried out of herself by the wealth of feeling in +her heart. Her lips moved. +</p> +<p> +"I promise," she said softly, "I promise you that I will never do +anything that will hurt him. I promise you that I will never let him +do anything that may harm him. He has given me my chance. I promise +before you and God that he shall not be sorry, ever, that he has +raised me out of the dust." +</p> +<p> +She stood on tiptoe and pressed her lips to the glass which covered +the photograph. +</p> +<p> +The wind held fair, a quartering offshore blow, and the schooner, +having discharged her cargo, just past noon spread her upper sails, +caught a gentle breeze of old Boreas, and shot out of the harbor and +so to the southward with a following wind which brought her to the +mouth of Big Wreck Cove long before nightfall. +</p> +<p> +Upon the bluff of Wreckers' Head was to be dimly seen the sprawling +Ball homestead. Tunis pointed it out to the passenger. +</p> +<p> +"That is where you are going to be happy, Ida May," he said to her +softly. +</p> +<p> +"I wonder," murmured the girl. +</p> +<p> +He looked down into her rapt face. The violet eyes were fixed upon +the old house and the brown-and-green fields immediately surrounding +it. Perhaps Cap'n Ira and Prudence were out there now, watching from +the front yard the white-winged <i>Seamew</i> threading so saucily the +crooked passage into the cove, the sand bars on one hand and the +serried teeth of the Lighthouse Point Reef on the other. +</p> +<p> +Inside the cove the schooner's canvas was reduced smartly to merely +a topsail and jib, the wind in which carried her close enough to +Luiz Wharf for a line to be cast ashore. Tier upon tier of barrels +of clams were stored under the open sheds, ready to be packed away +in the <i>Seamew's</i> hold. Orion loudly acclaimed against a malign +fate. +</p> +<p> +"Hi golly! Ain't we goin' to have no spare time at all? This running +in a coasting packet is plain slavery; that's what it is! A man +don't have a chance even to go home and change his socks 'tween +trips." +</p> +<p> +"Have a clean pair in your duffel bag; then you won't have to go +home for 'em, 'Rion," advised Tunis. "We've got to make hay while +the sun shines. There'll be loafing enough to cut into the profits +by and by when bad weather breaks." +</p> +<p> +Orion grunted pessimistically. Little in this world ever just suited +Orion. +</p> +<p> +"She's a hoodooed packet. I said it from the first," he muttered to +Horry. "You know well enough what she was before they gave her a +lick of paint and a new name. We'll all pay high yet for sailin' in +her." +</p> +<p> +"I wouldn't let Cap'n Tunis hear me say that 'nless I was seekin' a +new berth," rejoined the old mariner. +</p> +<p> +Tunis left the mate and Horry to carry on while he took the +passenger ashore, meaning to spend the night himself at home with +Aunt Lucretia. He stopped to get Eunez Pareta's father to harness up +his old horse and transfer Miss Bostwick's trunk and bag to the Ball +homestead. Eunez was in evidence—as she always was when Tunis came +by—a bird of paradise indeed. Her languishing glances at Tunis +flashed in their change to suspicious glares at the girl waiting in +the roadway. +</p> +<p> +"You have a guest, Tunis Latham?" she asked with a composure which +scarcely hid her jealousy and doubt. +</p> +<p> +"I'm taking her up to the Balls'. She's Mrs. Ball's niece, Eunez," +Tunis said good-naturedly. He was always friendly with these +Portygees. That was why he got along so well with them and they +liked to work for him. Many of the Big Wreck Cove folk looked upon +them even now as "furriners" who had to be shouted at if one would +make them understood. +</p> +<p> +"What does she come for?" asked Eunez sharply. +</p> +<p> +"They need her up there. Mrs. Ball is feeble and so is the captain. +She is going to live with them right along." +</p> +<p> +"Ah-ha!" whispered Eunez, as he passed her to step outside the house +again. She seized his arm and swung him around to face her, for she +was strong. "You think she is pretty, Tunis?" she demanded. +</p> +<p> +"Eh? What's eating on you, Eunez? I never stopped to think whether +she was or not?" +</p> +<p> +But he flushed, and she saw it. Eunez smiled in a way which might +have puzzled Tunis Latham had he stopped to consider it. But he +joined the girl who was waiting for him, and they went on up the +road and out of the town without his giving a backward glance or +thought to the fiery Portygee girl. +</p> +<p> +When they mounted to the windswept headland the visitor looked about +with glowing eyes, breathing deeply. The flush of excitement rose in +her cheek. He knew that as far as the physical aspect of the place +went, she was more rejoiced than ever she had expected to be. +</p> +<p> +"Beautiful—and free," she whispered. +</p> +<p> +"You've said it, now, Ida May," he agreed. "From up here it looks +like the whole world was freer and a whole lot brighter. It is a +great outlook." +</p> +<p> +"And is that the house?" the girl asked, for in approaching the Ball +homestead from this angle it looked different from its appearance as +viewed standing on the deck of the inbound <i>Seamew</i>. +</p> +<p> +"That is the Ball house, and Aunt Prue taking in her wash," Tunis +replied. "I suppose she had John-Ed Williams' wife over to wash for +her, but Myra will have gone home before this to get the supper. +Tush! Aunt Prue ought not to try to do that." +</p> +<p> +The fresh wind blowing over the headland filled every garment on the +lines like ballooning sails. The frail, little old woman had to +stand on tiptoe to get each article unpinned from the line. The +wind wickedly sought to drag the linen from her grasp. +</p> +<p> +Cap'n Ira, hobbling around from the front of the house, hailed his +wife in some rancor: +</p> +<p> +"I don't see why you have to do that. Don't we pay that woman for +washing them clothes? And ain't she supposed to take 'em down off'n +the halyards? I swan! You'll be inter that basket headfirst, yet, +like ye was inter the grain chist. Look out!" +</p> +<p> +"They wasn't all dry when Myra Williams went home, Ira. And I don't +dare leave 'em out all night. Half of 'em would blow over the edge +of the bluff. The wind is terrible strong." +</p> +<p> +It was much too strong for her frail arms, that was sure. The +captain turned in anger to look for help about the open common. He +saw the two figures briskly moving up the road toward the house. +</p> +<p> +"I swan! Who's this here?" he exclaimed. "Tunis Latham, and—and Ida +May!" +</p> +<p> +His face broadened into a delighted smile. He had seen the <i>Seamew</i> +come in, and had prayerfully hoped her master had brought the girl +that he believed would be their salvation. This person with the +captain of the <i>Seamew</i> could only be Ida May Bostwick! +</p> +<p> +At the moment Prudence was taking down her own starched, blue house +dress from the line. It was hung like a pirate in chains by its +sleeves, was blown out as round as a barrel, and was as stiff as a +board. Just as the pins came out an extra heavy puff of wind +shrieked around the corner of the house, as though it had been lying +in wait for just this opportunity. +</p> +<p> +The dress was whipped out of Aunt Prue's hands. She herself, as +Cap'n Ira had warned her, was cast, face downward, into the +half-filled clothes basket. The blue dress was whirled high in the +air, skirt downward. Before the old man was warned by Prudence's +muffled scream that something had gone wrong, the starched dress +plumped down over his head and shoulders, and he was bound fast and +blinded in its folds. +</p> +<p> +"Drat the thing! What did I tell ye?" bawled Cap'n Ira. "Take this +here thing off'n me! Want to make me more of an old Betty than I be +a'ready—a-dressin' me in women's clothes? I swan!" +</p> +<a name="2HCH0012"><!-- H2 anchor --></a> + +<div style="height: 4em;"><br /><br /><br /><br /></div> + +<h2> + CHAPTER XII +</h2> +<h3> + A NEW HAND AT THE HELM +</h3> +<p> +Tunis ran to the old man's rescue, but it was the girl who lifted +Prudence from out the laundry-basket. +</p> +<p> +"Drat the thing!" ejaculated Cap'n Ira, fighting off the starched +dress. "Feel like I was being smothered by a complete suit of sails. +That you, Tunis?" +</p> +<p> +"Yes, Cap'n Ira. You're all right now. Hold on! Don't let's mess up +Aunt Prue's wrapper more than can be helped. 'Vast there!" +</p> +<p> +"I swan! Don't it beat all what a pickle we get into? We ain't no +more fit to be alone, me an' Prue, than a pair o' babies. For the +lan's sake, Tunis! Who is that?" +</p> +<p> +He was staring at the girl, who led forward the trembling old woman, +her strong, young arms about the thin shoulders. Prudence was +tearful but smiling. +</p> +<p> +"This is the girl you sent me for," said the captain of the +<i>Seamew</i>. +</p> +<p> +The girl was smiling, too. To the delight of the young man there was +no suspicion of fear or shyness in her expression. Her eyes were +luminous. Her smile he thought would have ravished the heart of a +misogynist. +</p> +<p> +"I swan!" murmured Cap'n Ira, almost prayerfully. +</p> +<p> +"Ain't she pretty, Ira?" cried Prudence, almost girlish herself in +her new happiness. "Just like Sarah Honey was when she was Ida May's +age. And ain't it sweet, her coming to us this way? She's brought +her trunk. She's going to stay." +</p> +<p> +"And I know I shall be happy here, Uncle Ira," said the girl, giving +him her hand. +</p> +<p> +Cap'n Ira's smile was as ecstatic as that of his wife. He looked +sidewise at Tunis, a glance of considerable admiration. +</p> +<p> +"It takes you to do it, Tunis. I couldn't have brought home a nicer +lookin' gal myself. I swan!" +</p> +<p> +"Now, you hesh your foolin', Ira," cried his wife, while the younger +man's blush admitted unmistakably his feelings. "Don't you mind him, +Ida May. Come into the house, now, and you, too, Tunis. We'll have +supper in a jiffy." +</p> +<p> +"No," said the captain of the <i>Seamew</i>. "I must be getting on. Aunt +Lucretia will be expecting me, for, of course, she saw the schooner +heading in for the cove. Good night, Ida May." He shook hands with +her quietly. "I know you will be happy here, with your own folks." +</p> +<p> +The girl looked deep into the young man's eyes; nor did she free her +hand from his clasp immediately. At one side stood the two old +people, both smiling, and not a little knowingly and slyly at each +other, while the captain of the <i>Seamew</i> and the girl bade each +other good night. Cap'n Ira whispered in his wife's ear: +</p> +<p> +"Look at that now! How long d'you think we'll be able to keep Ida +May with us? I cal'late we'd better build our boundary fence a great +sight higher and shut him out o' walkin' across this farm." +</p> +<p> +But Prudence only struck at him with a gently admonitory hand. Tunis +and Ida May had taken down the remainder of the wash and the former +carried it into the house before he started on for his own home. +</p> +<p> +The girl, walking behind the old couple into the homelike kitchen, +sensed the warming hospitality of the place. It was just as though +she had known all this before, as though, in some past time, she had +called the Ball homestead <i>home</i>. +</p> +<p> +"Lay off your hat and coat, Ida May, on the sitting-room lounge," +said Prudence. "We'll have supper before I show you upstairs. Me and +Ira sleep down here, but there's a nice, big room up there I've +fixed up for you." +</p> +<p> +"Before you were sure I could come?" the girl asked in some wonder. +</p> +<p> +"She's got faith enough to move mountains, Prudence has," broke in +Cap'n Ira proudly. "At least, I cal'late she's got enough to move +this here Wreckers' Head if she set out to." And he chuckled. +</p> +<p> +"But you believed Ida May would come, too. You said so, Ira," cried +his wife. +</p> +<p> +"I swan! I had to say it to keep up with you," he returned. +"Otherwise you'd have sailed fathoms ahead of me. However, if you +hadn't come, gal, neither of us could have well said to the other +them bitterest of all human words: 'I told you so!'" +</p> +<p> +"How could you suppose I would not come?" asked the girl gayly. "Who +would refuse such a generous offer?" +</p> +<p> +"I knowed you'd see it that way," said Prudence happily. +</p> +<p> +"But there might have been circumstances we could not foresee," +Cap'n Ira said. "You—you didn't have many friends where you was +stopping?" +</p> +<p> +"No <i>real</i> friends." +</p> +<p> +"Well, there is a difference, I cal'late. No young man, o' course, +like Tunis Latham, for instance?" +</p> +<p> +"Now, Ira!" admonished Prudence. +</p> +<p> +But Ida May only laughed. +</p> +<p> +"Nobody half as nice as Captain Latham," she said with honesty. +</p> +<p> +"Well, I cal'late he would be hard to beat, even here on the Cape," +agreed the inquisitive old man. +</p> +<p> +He took a pinch of snuff and prepared to enjoy it. Suddenly +remembering his wife's nervousness, he shouted in a high key: +</p> +<p> +"Looker—out—Prue! <i>A-choon!</i>" +</p> +<p> +"Good—Well, ye did warn me that time, Ira, for a fact. But if I +had a cake in the oven 'stead of biscuit, I guess 'twould have fell +flat with that shock. I do wish you could take snuff quiet. Look an' +see, will you, Ida May, if those biscuits are burning?" +</p> +<p> +The girl opened the oven door to view briefly the two pans of +biscuit. +</p> +<p> +"They are not even brown yet, Aunt Prue. But soon." +</p> +<p> +"The creamed fish is done. I hope you like salt fish, Ida May?" +</p> +<p> +"I adore it!" +</p> +<p> +"Lucky you do," put in Cap'n Ira. "I can't say that I think it is +actually 'adorable.' But then, I ain't been eatin' it as a steady +shore diet much more'n sixty-five year." +</p> +<p> +"Don't you run down your victuals, Ira," said his wife. +</p> +<p> +"No, I don't cal'late to. But if I may be allowed to express my +likes and dislikes, I got to be honest and say that there's victuals +I eat that would have suited me better for a steady diet than +pollack and potatoes. And now we don't even have the potatoes, +'cause we can't raise 'em no more." +</p> +<p> +"But you have land. I see a garden," said Ida May briskly. +</p> +<p> +"Yes, it's land," said Cap'n Ira, in the same pessimistic way. "But +it ain't had a coat of shack fish for three years and this spring +not much seaweed. Besides that, after the potatoes are planted, who +is to hoe 'em and knock the bugs off?" +</p> +<p> +"Oh!" commented Ida May, with a small shudder. +</p> +<p> +He grinned broadly. +</p> +<p> +"There's a whole lot o' work to farming. I'd rather plow the sea +than plow the land, and that's no idle jest! Never could see how a +man could be downright honest when he says he likes to putter with a +garden. Why, it's working in one place all the time. When he looks +up from his job, there's the same old reefs and shoals he's been +beatin' about for years. No matter how often he shoots the sun, the +computation's bound to be just the same. He's there, or thereabout." +</p> +<p> +"That's the way with most longshoremen, Ida May," said Prudence, +sighing. "They make awful poor farmers if they are good seamen. +Can't seem to combine the two trades." +</p> +<p> +"I cal'late that's so," agreed Cap'n Ira, his eyes twinkling. +"They'd ought to examine all the babies born on the Cape first off, +and them that ain't web-footed ought to be sent to agricultural +school 'stead of to the fishing. But that ain't why our potato +crop's a failure this year. And as far as I see, talking won't cure +many fish, either." +</p> +<p> +"Can't I help?" asked Ida May in her gentle voice. "You know, I've +come here to work. I don't expect to play lady." +</p> +<p> +"Well, I don't know. It ain't the kind of work you are used to." +</p> +<p> +"I've been used to work all my life, and all kinds of work," +interposed the girl bravely. +</p> +<p> +"But you seem so eddicated," Prudence said. +</p> +<p> +"Getting an education did not keep me from learning how to use my +hands." +</p> +<p> +"Well, Sarah Honey was a right good housekeeper," granted Prudence. +</p> +<p> +At that the girl fell suddenly silent, as she did whenever Sarah +Honey's name was mentioned. And yet she knew she must get used to +such references to her presumed mother. Prudence frequently recalled +incidents which had happened when Sarah Honey visited the Ball house +before she was married. +</p> +<p> +They had supper, a plentiful meal if there was not much variety. +Prudence had made a "two-egg cake" and opened a jar of beach-plum +preserves to follow the creamed fish and biscuits. +</p> +<p> +"I must learn to make biscuit as good as these," said Ida May. +</p> +<p> +"I expect you are more used to riz bread. City folks are. But on +the Cape we don't have that much. Our men folks want hot bread at +every meal. We pamper 'em," said Prudence. +</p> +<p> +"I'm pampered 'most to death, that's a fact," grumbled Cap'n Ira. +</p> +<p> +Ida May briskly cleared the table and washed the dishes. She would +not allow Prudence even to wipe them. +</p> +<p> +"I'm sitting here like a lady, Ira," said the little old woman. +"This child will work herself to death if we let her." +</p> +<p> +"A willin' horse always does get driv' too fast," commented Cap'n +Ira. +</p> +<p> +"A new broom sweeps clean," laughed the girl, rinsing out the +dishcloths and hanging them on the line behind the stove. +</p> +<p> +They went outside in the gloaming and sat in a sheltered nook where +they could watch the lights twinkling all along the coast to the +southward, the revolving lantern at Lighthouse Point, the steady +beacon on Eagle's Head, and now and then the flash of the great one +of Monomoy Point so far away. It was peaceful, quiet, assuring, and, +the girl thought, heavenly! She thought for a moment of Sellers' +restaurant and the little room she had occupied on Hanover Street. +<i>This</i> was contentment. +</p> +<p> +Old Pareta had brought her trunk and bag and carried them up to the +big, well-furnished room she was to occupy. By and by Prudence went +up with her to see that she was made comfortable there, and to watch +her unpack, for the old woman was not without curiosity regarding +the "city fashions." +</p> +<p> +One window of the room looked to the north. Through this Ida May saw +the steady beam of a lamp shining from a house down in what seemed +to be a depression behind the Head. She asked Prudence what that +was. +</p> +<p> +"That must be a light at 'Latham's Folly,' Tunis' house, you know," +said the little old woman, likewise peering through the window. +"Shouldn't be surprised if 'twas right in his room. He sleeps this +end of the house. Yes, that's what it is." +</p> +<p> +"So Captain Latham lives just there?" the girl said softly. +</p> +<p> +"When he's ashore. He and his Aunt Lucretia. They are the only +Lathams left of their branch of the family." +</p> +<p> +Afterward, when Ida May had come upstairs to go to bed, she looked +to the northward again. The light was still there. She knelt by the +open window in her nightgown and watched the light for a long time. +When it finally was extinguished she crept into bed. +</p> +<p> +She heard the nasal tones of the two old people below, for her door +on the stairs was open. She heard, too, the occasional cry of a +night fowl and, in the distance, the barking of an uneasy watchdog. +</p> +<p> +But after all, and in spite of the many, many thoughts which +shuttled to and fro in her mind, she did not lie awake for long. It +was a clear and sparkling night; there were no foghorns to disturb +her dreams with their raucous warnings, and the surf along the +beaches below the Head merely scuffed its way up and down the strand +with a soothing "Hush! Hush-sh!" +</p> +<p> +At dawn, however, there came a noise which roused the newcomer to +Wreckers' Head. She awoke with a start. Something had clattered upon +her window sill, that window looking toward the north. She sat +upright in bed to listen. The clatter was repeated. In the dim, gray +light she saw several tiny objects bounding into the room. +</p> +<p> +She scrambled out of the high four-poster and shrugged her feet into +slippers. She crept to the window, holding the nightgown close at +the neck. She felt one of the tiny objects under the soft sole of +her slipper and stooped to secure it. It was a pebble. +</p> +<p> +More pebbles rattled on the window sill. She stepped forward then +with considerable bravery, and looked down. What she saw at first +startled her. A tall, misty, gray object stood below the window, +something quite ghostly in appearance, something which moved in the +dim light. +</p> +<p> +"Why, what—" +</p> +<p> +Then the thing stamped and blew a faint whinny. She saw a pale, +long face raised and two pointed ears twitching above it. +</p> +<p> +"A horse!" +</p> +<p> +A darker figure rose up suddenly from before the strange animal. +</p> +<p> +"Ida May!" +</p> +<p> +"Why, Captain Latham!" +</p> +<p> +"Cat's foot!" exclaimed the captain of the <i>Seamew</i>. "I thought I'd +never wake you up without disturbing the old folks. No need to ask +<i>you</i> if you rested well." +</p> +<p> +"Oh, gloriously!" whispered the girl, beaming down upon him, but +keeping out of the full range of his vision. +</p> +<p> +"Sorry I had to wake you, but I'm due at the wharf right now to see +that the hands get those clams stowed aboard. We want to get away on +the morning tide. I brought Queenie home and thought I'd better tell +you." +</p> +<p> +"Queenie?" +</p> +<p> +"The Queen of Sheba, you know. I was telling you about Cap'n Ira's +old mare." +</p> +<p> +"Oh, yes! Wait. I'll dress and be right down." +</p> +<p> +"That's all right," said Tunis. "I'll wait." +</p> +<p> +She scurried into the clothes she had laid out before going to bed. +In five minutes she crept down the stairs into the kitchen and out +of the back door. Tunis, holding the sleepy mare by her rope bridle, +met her between the kitchen ell and the barn. +</p> +<p> +"You look as bright as a new penny," he chuckled. "But it's early +yet for you to be astir. I'll put Queenie in her stable and show you +where the feed is. Aunt Prue will like to have her back. She sets +great store by the old mare. She won't be much bother to you, Ida +May." +</p> +<p> +"Nothing will ever be a bother to me here, Captain Latham," said the +girl cheerfully. +</p> +<p> +"That's the way to talk," he said, with satisfaction. "Just you keep +on that tack, Ida May, and things will go swimmingly, I've no +doubt." +</p> +<p> +In ten minutes he was briskly on his way to the town. The girl +watched him from the back stoop as long as he was to be seen in the +morning mist. Then she went back into the house, made a more careful +toilet, and when Cap'n Ira came hobbling into the kitchen an hour +later breakfast was in preparation on the glowing stove. +</p> +<p> +"I swan! This is comfort, and no mistake," chuckled the old man, +rubbing his chin reflectively. "You're going to be a blessing in +this house, Ida May." +</p> +<p> +"I hope you'll always say so, Uncle Ira," returned the girl, smiling +at him. +</p> +<p> +"I cal'late. Now I'll get washed, but that derned shavin'." +</p> +<p> +"You sit down in that rocker and I'll shave you," she said briskly. +"Oh, I can do it! I shaved my own father when he was sick last—" +</p> +<p> +She stopped, turned away, and fell silent. It was the first time +she had spoken of either of her parents, but Cap'n Ira did not +notice her sudden confusion. He prepared for the ordeal, making his +own lather and opening the razor. +</p> +<p> +"I can't strop it, Ida May," he groaned. "That's one of the things +that's beyont my powers." +</p> +<p> +She came to him with a clean towel which she tucked carefully in at +the neckband of his shirt. Practically she lathered his face and +rubbed the lather into the stubble with brisk hands. He grunted +ecstatically, lying back in the chair in solid comfort. He eyed her +manipulation of the razor on the strop with approval. +</p> +<p> +For the first time in many a morning he was shaved neatly and with +dispatch. When Prudence came feebly into the room, he hailed her +delightedly. +</p> +<p> +"You've lost your job, old woman!" he cried. +</p> +<p> +"And ain't there a thing for me to do?" queried Prudence softly, yet +smiling. +</p> +<p> +"Just sit down at the table, auntie," said the girl. "The coffee is +made. How long do you want your eggs boiled? The water is bubbling." +</p> +<p> +"Eggs!" exclaimed Cap'n Ira. "I thought them hens of Prue's had give +up layin' altogether." +</p> +<p> +"I found some stolen nests in the barn," returned Ida May. "They +have been playing tricks on you." +</p> +<p> +It was near noon when Ida May from an upper window saw the <i>Seamew</i> +beating out of the cove on her return trip to Boston. She watched +the schooner as long as the white sails were visible. But her heart +was not wholly with the beautiful schooner. A great content filled +her soul. Afterward she bustled about, straightening up the house, +her cheerful smile always ready when the old folks spoke. They +watched her with such a feeling of thankfulness as they could not +openly express. +</p> +<p> +After dinner she started on the ironing and proved herself to be as +capable in that line as in everything else. +</p> +<p> +"Maybe she's been a shopgirl, Ira," Prudence observed in private to +her husband; "but Sarah Honey didn't neglect teaching her how to +keep any man's home neat and proper." +</p> +<p> +"Sh!" admonished Cap'n Ira. "Don't put no such ideas in the gal's +head." +</p> +<p> +"What ideas?" the old woman asked wonderingly. +</p> +<p> +His eyes twinkled and he rewarded himself with a generous pinch of +snuff before repeating his bon mot: +</p> +<p> +"If you don't tell her she'll make some man a good wife, maybe she +won't never know it! Looker out, Prudence! <i>A-choon!</i>" +</p> +<a name="2HCH0013"><!-- H2 anchor --></a> + +<div style="height: 4em;"><br /><br /><br /><br /></div> + +<h2> + CHAPTER XIII +</h2> +<h3> + SOME YOUNG MEN APPEAR +</h3> +<p> +A house plant brought out into the May sunshine and air expands +almost immediately under the rejuvenating influences of improved +conditions. Its leaves uncurl; its buds develop; it turns at once +and gratefully to the business of growing which has been restricted +during its incarceration indoors. +</p> +<p> +So with Sheila Macklin—she who now proclaimed herself Ida May +Bostwick and who was gladly welcomed as such by the old people at +the Ball homestead on Wreckers' Head. After the girl's experiences +of more than three years since leaving her home town, the +surroundings of the house on the headland seemed an estate in +paradise. +</p> +<p> +As for the work which fell to her share, she enjoyed it. She felt +that she could not do too much for the old people to repay them for +this refuge they had given her. That Cap'n Ira and Prudence had no +idea of the terrible predicament in which she had been placed +previous to her coming made no difference to the girl's feeling of +gratitude toward them. She had been serving a sentence in purgatory, +and Tunis Latham's bold plan had opened the door of heaven to her. +</p> +<p> +The timidity which had so marked her voice and manner when Tunis had +first met her soon wore away. With Cap'n Ira and Prudence she was +never shy, and when the captain of the <i>Seamew</i> came back again he +found such a different girl at the old house on Wreckers' Head that +he could scarcely believe she was the Sheila Macklin who had told +him her history on the bench on Boston Common. +</p> +<p> +"I swan, Tunis," hoarsely announced Cap'n Ira, "you done a deed that +deserves a monument equal to that over there to Plymouth. Them +Pilgrim fathers—to say nothing of the mothers—never done no more +beneficial thing than you did in bringing Ida May down here to stay +along o' Prudence and me. And I cal'late Prue and me are more +thankful to you than the red Indians was to the Pilgrims for coming +ashore in Plymouth County and so puttin' the noses of Provincetown +people out o' joint." +</p> +<p> +He chuckled. +</p> +<p> +"She's as sweet as them rose geraniums of Prue's and just as sightly +looking. Did you ever notice how that black hair of hers sort of +curls about her ears, and them ears like little, tiny seashells ye +pick up 'long shore? Them curls just lays against her neck that +pretty! I swan! I don't see how the young fellers kept their hands +off her where she come from. Do you?" +</p> +<p> +"Why, you old Don Juan!" exclaimed Tunis, grinning. "Ain't you +ashamed of yourself?" +</p> +<p> +"Me? Aha! I've come to that point of age and experience, Tunis, +where whatever I say about the female sect can't be misconstrued. +That's where I have the advantage of you." +</p> +<p> +"Uh-huh!" agreed Tunis, nodding. +</p> +<p> +"Now, if you begun raving about that gal's black hair—An' come to +think of it, Tunis, her mother, Sarah Honey's hair was near 'bout +red. Funny, ain't it?" +</p> +<p> +"The Bostwicks must have been dark people," said Tunis evenly. +</p> +<p> +But he remembered in a flash the "fool's gold" which had adorned in +rich profusion the head of the girl in the lace department of Hoskin +& Marl's. +</p> +<p> +"Well, the Honeys warn't. None I ever see, leastways," announced +Cap'n Ira. "Howsomever, Ida May fits her mother's maiden name in +disposition, if ever a gal did. She's pure honey, Tunis; right from +the comb! And she takes to everything around the house that handy." +</p> +<p> +Prudence was equally enthusiastic. And Tunis Latham could see for +himself many things which marked the régime of the newcomer at the +Ball homestead as one of vast improvement over that past régime of +the old couple, who had been forced to manage of late in ways which +troubled their orderly souls. +</p> +<p> +"Catch as catch can," was Cap'n Ball's way of expressing the +condition of the household and other affairs before the advent of +Ida May. Now matters were already getting to be "shipshape," and no +observer could fail to note the increased comfort enjoyed by Cap'n +Ira and Prudence. +</p> +<p> +Nor need Tunis feel anxious, either, regarding the girl's state of +mind or body. She was so blithe and cheerful that he could scarcely +recall the picture of that girl who had waited upon him in the cheap +restaurant on Scollay Square. Here was a transformation indeed! +</p> +<p> +Nor had Ida May's activities been confined wholly to the house and +the old folks' comfort. He noted that the wire fence of the chicken +run was handily repaired; that Aunt Prue's few languishing flowers +had been weeded; and that one end of the garden was the neater for +the use of hoe and rake. +</p> +<p> +It was too late in the season, of course, for much new growth in the +vegetable beds; but the half-hearted attention of John-Ed, junior, +had never brought about this metamorphosis, Tunis well knew. He went +on to the Latham house, feeling well pleased. Aside from all other +considerations, he was glad to know that his Machiavellian plan had +brought about these good results. +</p> +<p> +He did not have much time to spend with Sheila, for the <i>Seamew's</i> +freighting business was good. He never remained ashore but one night +between trips, and he spent that evening with his Aunt Lucretia, +whose enjoyment of his presence in the house was none the less keen +because inarticulate. +</p> +<p> +But when he started off across the fields for the port in the early +morning he saw Sheila's rising light, and she was at the back door +to greet him when he went past. They stole a little time to be +together there, whispering outside the door so as not to awaken +Cap'n Ira and Prudence. And Tunis Latham went on to the wharf where +the <i>Seamew</i> tied up with a warmth at his heart which he had never +experienced before. +</p> +<p> +That another girl rose betimes on these mornings and waited and +watched for him to pass, the young schooner captain never noticed. +That Eunez Pareta should be lingering about the edge of Portygee +Town as he came down from the Head made small impression on his +mind. He never particularly remarked her presence or her smile as +being for him alone. It was that Eunez did not count in any of his +calculations. +</p> +<p> +"That girl at Cap'n Ball's place, Tunis," said the Portygee girl. +"Does she like it up there?" +</p> +<p> +"Oh, yes! She's getting on fine," was his careless response. +</p> +<p> +"And will they keep her?" +</p> +<p> +"Of course they will keep her." He laughed. "Who wouldn't, if they +got the chance?" +</p> +<p> +"<i>Si?</i>" Eunez commented sibilantly. +</p> +<p> +Naturally, many people besides Eunez Pareta in and about Big Wreck +Cove were interested in the coming of the stranger to Cap'n Ira +Ball's. Those housewives who lived on Wreckers' Head and in the +vicinity were able more easily to call at the Ball homestead for the +express purpose of meeting and becoming acquainted with "Sarah +Honey's daughter." And they did so. +</p> +<p> +"I'd got into the way of thinking," remarked Cap'n Ball dryly, "that +most folks—'ceptin' John-Ed and his wife—had got the notion we'd +dried up here, Prue and me, and blowed away. Some of 'em ain't never +come near in six months. I swan!" +</p> +<p> +"Now, Ira," admonished his wife, "do have charity." +</p> +<p> +"Charity? Huh! I'll take a pinch of snuff instead. That's a warnin', +Prudence! <i>A-choon!</i>" +</p> +<p> +Not until the second Sunday after the <i>Seamew</i> had brought Ida May +from Boston did Big Wreck Cove folk in general get a "good slant," +as they expressed it, at the Balls' visitor. There was an ancient +carryall in the barn, and on the Saturday previous little John-Ed +was caught and made to clean this vehicle, rub up the green-molded +harness, and give the Queen of Sheba more than "a lick and a +promise" with the currycomb and brush. +</p> +<p> +At ten o'clock on Sunday morning Sheila herself backed the gray mare +out of her stable and harnessed her into the shafts of the carryall. +</p> +<p> +"For a city gal, you are the handiest creature!" sighed Prudence, +marveling. +</p> +<p> +The girl only smiled. She was now used to such comments. They did +not make her heart flutter as had any reference to her past life at +first. +</p> +<p> +The bell in the steeple of the green-blinded, white-painted church +on the farther edge of the port was tinkling tinnily as the girl +drove the old mare down the hill, with Cap'n Ira and Prudence in the +rear seat of the carriage. +</p> +<p> +"We ain't felt we could undertake churchgoing for months, Ida May," +the old woman said. "And I miss Elder Minnett's sermons." +</p> +<p> +"So do I," agreed her husband, with his usual caustic turn of +speech. "I swan! I can sleep better under the elder's preaching than +I can to home." +</p> +<p> +"If you go to sleep to-day, Ira, I shall step on your foot," warned +his wife. +</p> +<p> +"You'd better take care which one you step on," rejoined Cap'n Ira. +"I got a corn on one that jumps like an ulcerated tooth. If you +touch that I shall likely surprise you more'n I do when I take +snuff." +</p> +<p> +The Portygees had a chapel devoted to their faith. The carriage +passed that on the way to the Congregational Church. A girl, very +dark as to features, very red as to lips, and dressed in very gay +colors in spite of her destination, was mounting the chapel steps. +She halted to stare particularly at the quietly dressed girl driving +the gray mare. +</p> +<p> +"Ain't that Pareta's girl, Ira?" asked Prudence. +</p> +<p> +"I cal'late." +</p> +<p> +"What a bold-looking thing she's grown to be! But she's pretty." +</p> +<p> +"As a piney," agreed Cap'n Ira. "I reckon she sets all these +Portygee boys by the ears. I hear tell two of 'em had a knife fight +over her in Luiz's fish house some time ago. She'll raise real +trouble in the town 'fore she's well and safely married." +</p> +<p> +"That is awful," murmured the old woman, casting another glance back +at the girl and wondering why Eunez Pareta scowled so hatefully +after them. +</p> +<p> +Following service, as usual, there was social intercourse on the +steps of the church and at the horse sheds back of it. Particularly +did the women gather about Aunt Prudence and Sheila. As for the men, +both young and old, the newcomer's city ways and unmistakable beauty +gave them much to gossip about. Several of the younger masculine +members of Elder Minnett's congregation came almost to blows over +the settlement of who should take the fly cloth off Queenie, back +her around, and lead her out to the front of the church when the +time came to drive back to the Head. +</p> +<p> +In addition, Cap'n Ira found himself as popular with the young men +as he was wont to be in the old days when he was making up his crew +at the port for the <i>Susan Gatskill</i>. +</p> +<p> +"Prudence," he said to his wife, but quite loud enough for the girl +to hear as they drove sedately homeward, "I cal'late I shall have to +buy me some shot and powder and load up the old gun I put away in +the attic, thinking I wouldn't never go hunting no more." +</p> +<p> +"Goodness gracious gallop!" ejaculated his wife. "What for? I +cal'late you <i>won't</i> go hunting at your time of life!" +</p> +<p> +"I dunno. I may be forced to load it up for protection. But maybe +rock salt will do instead of shot," said Cap'n Ira, still with +soberness. "A feller has got a right to protect himself and his +family." +</p> +<p> +"Against what, I want to know?" +</p> +<p> +"I can see the Ball place is about to be overrun with a passel of +young sculpins that are going to be more annoying than a dose of +snuff in your eye. That's right." +</p> +<p> +"Why, how you talk!" +</p> +<p> +"Didn't ye see 'em all standing around as we drove away from the +church, casting sheep's eyes? And they're hating each other already +like a hen hates dishwater. I swan!" +</p> +<p> +"For the land's sake!" +</p> +<p> +"No. For Ida May's sake," chuckled Cap'n Ira. "That's who I've got +to defend with a shotgun." +</p> +<p> +The girl flushed rosily, but she laughed, too. +</p> +<p> +"You can leave them to me, Uncle Ira. I shall know how to get rid of +them." +</p> +<p> +"Maybe they won't come," said Prudence. +</p> +<p> +"They won't? I swan!" snorted her husband. "They all see she's +more'n half Honey. Couldn't keep 'em away any more than you can +flies." +</p> +<p> +It was quite as Cap'n Ira prophesied. The path from Big Wreck Cove +across the fields to the Head, a path which had become grass-grown +of late years, was soon worn smooth. It was a shorter way from the +town than the wagon road. +</p> +<p> +The errands invented by the youthful and more or less unattached +male inhabitants of the port to bring them by this path through the +Ball premises were most ingenious indeed. Early on Monday morning, +while Sheila was hanging out her first lineful of clothes, Andrew +Roby, clam basket and hoe on arm, appeared as the first of a long +line of itinerant pedestrians who more or less bashfully bade Cap'n +Ira good day as he sat in his armchair in the sun. +</p> +<p> +"What's the matter?" asked the old man soberly. "All the clams give +out down to the cove? I heard they was getting scarce. You got to +come clean over here to the beaches, I cal'late, to find you a mess +for dinner, Andy?" +</p> +<p> +"Well—er—Cap'n Ira, mother was wishing for some big chowder +clams," said young Roby, his eyes squinting sidewise at the slim +figure of Sheila on tiptoe to reach the line. +</p> +<p> +"Ye-as," considered the old man. "You got that cat still, Andy?" +</p> +<p> +"The <i>Maybird?</i> Oh, yes, sir!" +</p> +<p> +"And there's a fair wind. She'd have taken you in half the time to +the outer beaches, and saved your legs," said the caustic speaker. +"But exercise is good for you, I don't dispute." +</p> +<p> +A match, one might think, could easily have been touched off at +Andrew's face. He had not much more to say, and went on without +having the joy of more than a nod and smile from the busy Sheila. +</p> +<p> +Then came Joshua Jones. Joshua usually was to be found behind his +father's counter, the elder Jones being proprietor of one of the +general stores in Big Wreck Cove. Joshua was a bustling young man +with a reddish ruff of hair back of a bald brow, "side tabs" of the +same hue as his hair before each red and freckled ear, and a nose a +good deal like an eagle's beak. In fact, the upper part of his +face—Cap'n Ira had often remarked it—was of noble proportions, +while the lower part fell away surprisingly in a receding chin which +seemed saved from being swallowed completely only by a very +prominent Adam's apple. +</p> +<p> +"I swan!" the captain had said judiciously. "It's more by good luck +than good management that Josh's chin didn't fall into his stomach. +Only that knob in his neck acts like a stopper." +</p> +<p> +But when the lanky young storekeeper appeared on this occasion, +Cap'n Ira hailed him cheerfully before Joshua could reach the back +door. +</p> +<p> +"Hi, Josh! You ain't goin' for clams, too, be ye?" +</p> +<p> +"No, no, Cap'n Ira!" cried young Jones cheerfully. "I'm looking to +pick up some eggs regular. We want to begin to ship again, and eggs +seem to be staying in the nests. He, he! Has Mrs. Ball got any to +spare?" +</p> +<p> +"I don't cal'late she has. You see," said Cap'n Ira soberly, "we got +another mouth to feed eggs to now. Did you know we had Ida May +Bostwick visiting us? A young lady from Boston. Prue's niece, once +removed." +</p> +<p> +"Why—I—I—ahem! I saw her at church, Cap'n Ira," faltered Joshua. +</p> +<p> +"Did ye, now?" rejoined Cap'n Ira, in apparent wonder. "I didn't +suppose you would ever notice her, you not being much for the +ladies, Joshua." +</p> +<p> +"Oh, I ain't so blind!" giggled the young man, peering in through +the kitchen door, where Sheila was stepping briskly from tubs to +sink and back again. +</p> +<p> +"That's a fortunate thing," agreed the old man. "But you've got a +long v'y'ge before you, if you cal'late to go to all the houses on +the Head to pick up eggs. Good luck to you, Joshua!" +</p> +<p> +Josh found himself passed along like a country politician in line at +a presidential reception. His legs got to working without volition, +it seemed, and he was several rods away before he realized that he +had not spoken to the girl at all. +</p> +<p> +Zebedee Pauling, whose ancestor had been an admiral and was never +forgotten by the Pauling family—Paulmouth was said to have been +named in their honor—arrived at the Ball back door just as the +family was finishing the usual "picked-up" washday dinner. Zebedee +took off his cap with a flourish, and his grin advertised to all +beholders the fact that he felt shy but pleased at his own courage +in appearing thus on the Head. +</p> +<p> +"Why, Zeb!" exclaimed Prudence. "We haven't seen you up here for a +dog's age. Won't you set?" +</p> +<p> +"Oh, no'm, no'm! I was just stopping by and thought I'd ask how are +you all, Aunt Prue." +</p> +<p> +He bobbed and smiled, but kept his gaze fixed upon Sheila to the +exclusion of the two old people. But Cap'n Ira was never to be +overlooked. +</p> +<p> +"You're going to be mighty neighborly, now, Zeb," he said. "We shall +see you often." +</p> +<p> +"Er—I don't know, Cap'n Ira," stammered Zebedee, rather taken +aback. +</p> +<p> +The old man rose and hobbled toward the door with the aid of his +cane, fumbling in his pocket meanwhile. +</p> +<p> +"Here, Zeb," he said, producing a dime. "You're a willin' friend, I +know. I'm running low on snuff. Get me a packet, will ye? American +Affection is my brand. Just slip it in your pocket and bring it +along with you when you come by to-morrow." +</p> +<p> +"But—but I don't know as I shall be up this way to-morrow, Cap'n +Ira. Though maybe I shall." And he glanced again at the smiling +girl. +</p> +<p> +"Course you will, or next day at the latest," said the old man +stoutly. "I can see plainly that you ain't going to neglect Prue and +me no more. And I shall want that snuff." +</p> +<p> +"Well—er—Cap'n—" +</p> +<p> +"If you don't come," pursued the perfectly sober captain, "you can +hand the snuff to Andy Roby, or to Josh Jones, or to 'most any of +the boys. They'll be up this way pretty near every day, I shouldn't +wonder." +</p> +<p> +Zebedee took the hint and the dime. +</p> +<p> +He was no "slow coach" if he was longshore bred. He got the chance +of carrying another heavy basket of clothes out to the lines for +Sheila, who rewarded him with a smile, and then he nodded to the old +man as he left. +</p> +<p> +"I'll bring that snuff myself, Cap'n Ira," he assured him. +</p> +<p> +"Don't it beat all?" queried the captain, shaking his head +reflectively, as he resumed his seat. "Don't it beat all? For old +folks, Prue, we do certainly seem to be popular." +</p> +<p> +"Oh, you hesh!" exclaimed his wife. +</p> +<p> +But Sheila giggled delightedly. The way Cap'n Ira handled the +several visitors who thereafter came to Wreckers' Head continued to +amuse the girl immensely. Nor did the visits cease. The Ball +homestead was no longer a lonely habitation. Somebody was forever +"just stopping by," as the expression ran; and the path from the +port was trodden brown and sere as autumn drew on apace. +</p> +<a name="2HCH0014"><!-- H2 anchor --></a> + +<div style="height: 4em;"><br /><br /><br /><br /></div> + +<h2> + CHAPTER XIV +</h2> +<h3> + THE HARVEST HOME FESTIVAL +</h3> +<p> +It was not that Sheila Macklin had no graver moments. There were +nights when, in spite of her healthful weariness of body, arising +from the work of the household, she lay awake for long hours of +restless, anxious thought. And sometimes her pillow was wet with +tears. Yet she was not of a lachrymose disposition. She could not +invent imaginary troubles or build in her mind gibbets on which +remorse and sorrow might hang in chains. +</p> +<p> +Indeed, how could she be sorrowful? Why should she feel remorse? She +had taken another girl's name and claim of parentage, and she filled +a place which the other girl might have had. But the rightful owner +of the name had scorned this refuge. The real Ida May Bostwick had +no appreciation of what the Balls had to offer, and she had been +unwilling even to open communication with her relatives down on the +Cape. +</p> +<p> +Besides, Tunis Latham always cheered the girl who was playing an +imposter's part with the declaration that she had done just +right—that without her presence on Wreckers' Head Cap'n Ira and his +wife would be in a very bad way, indeed. +</p> +<p> +She could see that this was so. Her coming to them had been as great +a blessing in their lives as it had been in her own. +</p> +<p> +She fully realized that Cap'n Ira and his wife would not have +admitted her to their home and to their hearts had she come in her +own person and identity. This was not so much because of their +strict morality as because of their strict Puritanism. For a puritan +may not be moral always, but he must be just. And justice of that +character is seldom tempered by mercy. What they might have forgiven +the real Ida May they could scarcely be expected to forgive a +stranger. +</p> +<p> +In spite of this situation, the Balls were being blessed by the +presence of a girl in their household who had been tainted with a +sentence to a reformatory. Even now, when she knew they loved her +and could scarcely imagine what they would do without her, Sheila +Macklin was quite convinced that a whisper about these hidden +miseries would turn Cap'n Ball, and even Prudence, against her. +</p> +<p> +Therefore she was careful, putting a guard upon her tongue and +almost keeping watch upon her secret thoughts. She never allowed +herself to lapse into reverie in their presence for fear the old +people might suspect that she had a past that would not endure open +discussion. +</p> +<p> +And, deliberately and with forethought, the intelligent girl went +about strengthening her position with the Balls and making her +identity as Ida May Bostwick unassailable. She had a retentive +memory. Nothing Aunt Prudence ever said in her hearing about Sarah +Honey, her ways when she was young, or what the old woman knew or +surmised about her dead niece's marriage and her life thereafter, +escaped the girl. She treasured it all. +</p> +<p> +When visitors were by—especially the neighboring women who likewise +remembered Sarah Honey—the masquerader often spoke in a way to +reduce to a minimum any suspicion that she was not the rightful Ida +May. Even a visit from Annabell Coffin—"she who was a Cuttle"—went +off without a remark being made which would yield a grain of doubt. +</p> +<p> +Mrs. Coffin had heard of Ida May while she visited "his folks" in +Boston, in a most roundabout way. She did say to the girl, however: +</p> +<p> +"Let's see, Ida May, didn't they tell me that you worked for a spell +in one of them great stores? I wish you could see 'em, Aunt Prue! +The Marshall & Denham department store on Washington Street covers +acres—<i>acres</i>! Was it there that you worked, Ida May?" +</p> +<p> +"No," replied Ida May calmly. +</p> +<p> +"What store did you work in?" +</p> +<p> +"Hoskin & Marl's," said the girl, still unruffled. +</p> +<p> +"To be sure. That's what Esther Coffin said she heard, I remember. +But I never got to that store. Couldn't go to all of 'em. It tired +me to death, just going around Marshall & Denham's." +</p> +<p> +This and similar incidents were building blocks in the structure +which she was raising. Nor did she consider it a structure of +deceit. The foundation only was of doubtful veracity. These people +had accepted her as somebody she was not, it was true; but she +gained nothing thereby that the real Ida May would not have had to +win for herself. +</p> +<p> +With Tunis approving and encouraging her, how could the girl spend +much time in doubt or any at all in despair? She felt that she was a +much better girl—morally as well as physically—in this environment +than she had been for many, many months. Instead of being conscience +wrung in playing the part of impostor and living under an assumed +name and identity, she felt a sense of self-congratulation. +</p> +<p> +And when in the company of the captain of the <i>Seamew</i> she felt +almost exalted. There was a pact between them that made their tie +more than that of sister and brother. Yet, of love they never +spoke—not during those first weeks on Wreckers' Head. He never +failed to talk with Sheila as he came up from the town when the +schooner lay at her moorings in the cove or was docked ready to +discharge or take aboard freight. Business remained good, but all +was not plain sailing for the young shipmaster. He confided in the +girl many of his perplexities. When he went away again, rain or +shine, the girl did not fail to be up and about when he passed the +Ball homestead. He knew that she did this purposely—that she was on +the watch for him. Her reason for doing so was not so clear to the +young man, but he appreciated her interest. +</p> +<p> +Was he overmodest? Perhaps. He might have gained courage regarding +the girl's attitude toward him had he known that, on the nights he +was at home, she sat in her darkened, upper room and watched the +lamp he burned until it was extinguished. On the other hand, Tunis +Latham's brotherly manner and cheerful kindness were a puzzle to +Sheila. She knew that he had been kinder to her than any other man +she had ever met. But what was the root of that kindness? +</p> +<p> +There were many pleasant thoughts in Sheila's heart just now; nor +did she allow the secret of her past to leave its acid scars upon +her soul. She was the life and joy of the old house on the Head; she +was the center of amusement when she went into company at the church +or elsewhere. She managed, too, to be that marvelous specimen of +beautiful womankind who can attract other girls as well as men. +</p> +<p> +For one thing, the girl played no favorites. She treated them all +alike. None of the young men of Big Wreck Cove could honestly crow +because Ida May Bostwick had showed him any special favor. +</p> +<p> +And none of them suspected that Tunis Latham had the inside track +with the girl from the city. At least, this was unsuspected by all +before the occasion of the "harvest-home festival"—that important +affair held yearly by the ladies' aid of the Big Wreck Cove church. +</p> +<p> +For the first time in more than a year, Cap'n Ira and Prudence +ventured to town in the evening. Church socials, in the past, and +while Cap'n Ira was so much at sea, had been Prudence Ball's chief +relaxation. She was naturally of a social disposition, and the +simple pleasure of being with and of a party of other matrons of the +church was almost the height of Prudence's mundane desire. +</p> +<p> +When Cap'n Ira heard her express the wish to go to the harvest-home +festival he took an extra pinch of snuff. +</p> +<p> +"I swan!" he said. "If we take that Queen of Sheby out at night, +she'll near have a conniption. She'll think the world's come to an +end. She ain't been out o' her stable at night since Hector was a +pup—and Hector is a big dog now! How can you think of such a thing, +Prudence?" +</p> +<p> +"Queenie won't mind, I guess," said his wife calmly. "I shouldn't be +surprised if you was saying one word for her and a good many more'n +one for yourself, Ira." +</p> +<p> +However, they went to the harvest-home festival. It was bound to be +a very gay and enjoyable occasion, and Queenie did not stumble more +than three times going down the hill into the port. +</p> +<p> +"That old critter would be the death of us, if she could do it +without being the death of herself, too," fumed Cap'n Ira. +</p> +<p> +There were half a dozen young men almost fighting for the privilege +of taking Queenie around to the sheds and blanketing her, the winner +hopeful of a special smile and word from Sheila. +</p> +<p> +The decorated church was well filled when the trio from Wreckers' +Head entered, and most delicious odors rose from the basement, where +the tables were laid. +</p> +<p> +Sheila was immediately surrounded by her own little coterie of young +people and was enjoying herself quietly when a newcomer, whose +appearance created some little surprise at the door, approached the +group of which the girl was the center. +</p> +<p> +"Why, here's Orion Latham!" exclaimed one girl. "I didn't know the +<i>Seamew</i> was in." +</p> +<p> +"We just made it by the skin of our teeth," Orion said, making it a +point to shake hands with Sheila. "How are you, Miss Bostwick? I +never did see such a Jonah of an old tub as that dratted schooner! I +thought she never would get back this trip." +</p> +<p> +"I cal'late you wouldn't think she was Jonahed if the <i>Seamew</i> was +yours, 'Rion," snickered Andrew Roby. +</p> +<p> +"I wouldn't even take her as a gift," snarled Orion. +</p> +<p> +"Guess you won't get her that way—if any," chuckled Joshua Jones. +"Tunis, he knows which side o' the bread his butter's on. He's doin' +well. We cal'late—pa and me—to have all our freight come down from +Boston on the <i>Seamew</i>." +</p> +<p> +Orion glowered at him. +</p> +<p> +"You'd better have a care, Josh," he growled. "That schooner is +hoodooed, as sure as sure! She'll stub her nose some night on +Lighthouse Point Reef, if she don't do worse. You can't scurcely +steer her proper." +</p> +<p> +"Nonsense, 'Rion!" spoke up Zebedee Pauling. "I'd like to sail on +her myself." +</p> +<p> +"Perhaps," Sheila interposed, rather flushed, and looking at Orion +with unmistakable displeasure, "Orion will give up his berth to you, +Zebedee. He seems so very sure that the schooner is unlucky. I came +down from Boston in her, and I saw nothing about her save to +admire." +</p> +<p> +"And if you found her all right, Miss Bostwick," struck in the +gallant Joshua, "she's good enough for me. Of course, I heard tell +some thought the <i>Seamew</i> had a bad reputation—that she run under +a fishing boat once and was haunted. But I cal'late that's all +bosh." +</p> +<p> +"Yah!" growled Orion. "Have it your own way. But after the dratted +schooner is sunk and you lose a mess of freight, Josh Jones, I guess +you'll sing small." +</p> +<p> +"I've heard," said Andrew Roby gravely, "that it's mighty bad +manners to bite the hand that feeds you. You never was overpolite, +'Rion Latham." +</p> +<p> +"Not only that, but he's clean reckless with his own livelihood," +added Zebedee Pauling. +</p> +<a name="2HCH0015"><!-- H2 anchor --></a> + +<div style="height: 4em;"><br /><br /><br /><br /></div> + +<h2> + CHAPTER XV +</h2> +<h3> + AN INVITATION ACCEPTED +</h3> +<p> +It was a small incident, of course; scarcely to be noted at all when +it was over. Yet the impression left upon Sheila's mind was that +Orion Latham was deliberately endeavoring to injure his cousin's +business with the <i>Seamew</i>. If he talked like this before the more +or less superstitious Portygees, how long would Tunis manage to keep +a crew to work the schooner? +</p> +<p> +Had she dared she would have taken Orion to task there and then for +his unfaithfulness. The fellow was, as Cap'n Ira had once observed, +one of those yapping curs always envious of the braver dog's bone. +</p> +<p> +To the girl's disgust, too, Orion Latham showed plainly that he +considered that he, as an older acquaintance of the girl, could +presume upon that fact. He clung to her throughout the evening like +a mussel to duck grass. Of all the Big Wreck Cove youth, he was the +only one that she could not put in his place. +</p> +<p> +She did not think it wise to snub him so openly that Orion would +take offense. This course might do the captain of the <i>Seamew</i> harm. +She foresaw trouble in the offing for Tunis, in any case, and she +did not wish to do anything that would spur Orion to further and +more successful attempts to harm his cousin's business. +</p> +<p> +There was another matter troubling Sheila's mind after Orion had +come to the harvest-home festival. Mason Chapin likewise appeared at +the church. But Tunis did not come. He knew, of course, of the +festival, and he had known when he sailed last for Boston that the +Balls and Ida May intended to go. It did seem as if Tunis might have +come, if for only a little while, before going home. +</p> +<p> +These thoughts made Sheila rather inattentive to other proposals, +and she found herself obliged to go down to supper with Orion, since +he had outsat and outtalked all the other young men who had hovered +about her. She was nice to Orion; the girl could scarcely be +otherwise, even to those she disliked, unless some very important +matter arose to disturb her, but she did not enjoy the remainder of +the evening, and she was glad when Cap'n Ira and Prudence were ready +to go home. It was full time, the girl thought. +</p> +<p> +Even then Orion Latham assumed altogether too much authority. +Sheila had been about to send little John-Ed around for Queenie and +the carryall, but Orion put the boy aside with a self-assured grin. +</p> +<p> +"Nobody ain't going to put you in the carriage, Ida May, but me," he +declared. "I'll get the old mare." +</p> +<p> +He seized his cap and went out. In a few minutes they had said +good-bye, and the old couple and the girl went out on the church +steps. Sheila saw the carryall standing before the door. A figure +stood at the old mare's head which she presumed to be Orion's. +</p> +<p> +"The chariot is ready, I cal'late," said Cap'n Ira. "Come on, +Prudence." +</p> +<p> +Sheila helped the old woman into the rear seat and then aided Cap'n +Ira as well. She got in quickly in front, but as she was about to +gather up the reins the man holding Queenie's head came around +swiftly and stepped in beside her to the driver's place. +</p> +<p> +"I swan! That you, Tunis?" exclaimed Cap'n Ira. +</p> +<p> +"Looks like it," the captain of the <i>Seamew</i> said gravely. "All +clear aft?" +</p> +<p> +"You can pay off, Tunis," returned the old man. "Tuck that robe +around your knees, Prudence. This night air is as chill as a breath +off the ice barrens." +</p> +<p> +Orion loafed into the lamplight by the steps before Queenie got +into action. His scowl was unseen, but his voice was audible—as it +was meant to be—to Sheila's ears. +</p> +<p> +"There he is—hoggin' everything, same as usual. How did I know he +was hanging around outside here, waiting to drive her home? Just as +though he owned her! Huh! He may be skipper aboard that dratted +schooner, but that gives him no right to boss me ashore. I won't +stand it." +</p> +<p> +"Sit down to it, then, 'Rion," snickered one of the other young +fellows. "I cal'late Tunis has got the inside course on all of us." +</p> +<p> +The girl said nothing to the captain of the <i>Seamew</i> at first. It +was Prudence who asked him why he had not been in the church. +</p> +<p> +"I could not get over here until just now," Tunis replied quietly. +</p> +<p> +Sheila wondered if he really had been detained on the schooner. +Perhaps he had refrained from coming to the festival for fear the +good people of Big Wreck Cove would notice his attentions to her. He +had never been publicly in her company since he had brought her down +from Boston. Orion Latham's outburst there at the church door was +the first cue people might have gained of anything more than a +passing acquaintanceship between the captain of the <i>Seamew</i> and the +girl who had come to live with the Balls. +</p> +<p> +These thoughts bore down the girl's spirits tremendously. The +simple pleasure of the evening was quite erased from her memory. She +remained speechless while old Queenie climbed the hill to the Head. +</p> +<p> +The desultory conversation between Cap'n Ira, Prudence, and the +young shipmaster scarcely attracted the girl's attention. If Tunis +looked at her curiously now and then, she did not see his glances. +And she merely nodded her understanding of his statement when Tunis +said, speaking directly to her: +</p> +<p> +"The <i>Seamew's</i> going to lie here over Sunday this time, Ida May." +</p> +<p> +"That'll be nice for you, Tunis," Aunt Prue put in. "You can go to +church. You don't often have that privilege. Seafarin' is an awful +godless life." +</p> +<p> +Queenie sprang ahead gallantly at the sound of a hearty sneeze from +Cap'n Ira, just then, and they were soon at home. Tunis jumped out +and aided the old woman and then the captain to alight. Sheila got +out on the other side of the carriage. She would have preferred to +run on into the house, but she could not really do that. Queenie +must be unharnessed and put in her stable and given a measure of +oats to munch. Of course, Tunis would offer to do this, but she +could not leave him to attend to it without a word. +</p> +<p> +"I'll help you with Queenie, Ida May," said the captain of the +<i>Seamew</i>. +</p> +<p> +That settled it. She had to remain outside while Cap'n Ira and +Prudence went into the house. Tunis led the old mare toward the +barn. A lantern, burning very dimly, was in a box just outside the +big door, and Sheila got this and held it while Tunis busied himself +with the buckles. +</p> +<p> +"I didn't mean to interfere," the man said, suddenly breaking the +silence between them. "But as I was coming this way, of course, I +expected to ride along with you. So—" +</p> +<p> +"What do you mean, Captain Latham?" the girl asked wonderingly. +</p> +<p> +"Orion said you sent him out to get Queenie." +</p> +<p> +"Why, I—" +</p> +<p> +"Of course, you didn't know I was there. I had just reached the +church. But 'Rion is so fresh—" +</p> +<p> +"He took it upon himself to go," said the girl calmly. "I did not +send him. I guess you know how your cousin is." +</p> +<p> +"He is too fresh. I'd like to punch him," growled Tunis, to the +girl's secret delight. It sounded boyish, but real. "I don't know +that I can stand him aboard the <i>Seamew</i> much longer. He attends to +everybody's business but his own." +</p> +<p> +"He means you no good, Captain Latham," she said frankly. "To-night +he was repeating that silly story about the <i>Seamew</i> being haunted." +</p> +<p> +"Cat's-foot!" ejaculated Tunis. "I wish I'd fired old Horry Newbegin +for starting <i>that</i>." +</p> +<p> +"But 'Rion keeps it up." +</p> +<p> +"If he believed she was hoodoed, you wouldn't get him aboard with a +wire cable," growled Tunis. +</p> +<p> +"It would be better for you and for the success of your business, +Captain Latham, if 'Rion was really afraid of going aboard the +<i>Seamew</i>," she said with confidence. +</p> +<p> +"Well, I don't see how I can fire him. He's my cousin—in a way. And +there is enough ill feeling in the family now. Gran'ther Peleg left +all his money to me, and it made Orion and his folks as sore as can +be." +</p> +<p> +"You are inclined to be too kind. I am not sure it is always wise to +be too easy." +</p> +<p> +"Like chopping off the dog's tail an inch at a time, so's not to +hurt him so much, eh?" he chuckled. +</p> +<p> +"Something like that." +</p> +<p> +"Well, I'm almost tempted to give 'Rion his walking ticket. I've +reason enough. He can't even keep a manifest straight." +</p> +<p> +"Does he even try?" +</p> +<p> +"And that also is in my mind," acknowledged Tunis. "I'm pretty well +fed up on 'Rion, I do allow. But I don't know what Aunt 'Cretia +would say." Then he laughed again. "Just about what she usually +says, I guess; nothing at all. But she abhors family squabbles. +</p> +<p> +"That reminds me, Ida May. This being the first Sunday I've been +home since you came here, I want you should go over with me after +church to-morrow and have dinner at our house." +</p> +<p> +"Oh, Captain Latham! I—" +</p> +<p> +"And don't you guess you could employ some other term when speaking +to me, Ida May?" he interrupted. "I get 'captained' almost enough +aboard the schooner and up to Boston. Just plain 'Tunis' for those +that are my friends suits me a sight better." +</p> +<p> +"I shall call you 'Tunis,' if you like," she said composedly. "But +about taking dinner with you—I am not so sure." +</p> +<p> +"Why not?" he demanded. +</p> +<p> +"Your aunt has never called here since I have been on the Head." +</p> +<p> +"She don't call anywhere. She never did that I can remember. She +goes to church on Sunday sometimes. Occasionally she has to go to +town to buy things. Once in a dog's age she leaves anchor and gets +as far as Paulmouth. But other times she's never off the place." +</p> +<p> +"I—I feel hesitant about doing what you ask, Captain—Tunis, I +mean." +</p> +<p> +"Why?" +</p> +<p> +"You know well enough," said Sheila. "If anything should turn up—if +the truth should come out—" +</p> +<p> +"Now, are you still worrying about that, Ida May?" +</p> +<p> +"Don't you think of it—Tunis?" +</p> +<p> +"Not a bit! We're as safe as a church. That girl will never show up +here on Wreckers' Head. Of course not!" +</p> +<p> +He seemed absolutely confident. In the dim illumination of the +lantern she looked very closely into his face. Then it was not fear +of exposure that kept Tunis Latham silent. She moved closer to him, +looking up into his countenance, holding the lantern so that her own +face was in the shadow. +</p> +<p> +"Who suggested my coming to dinner, Tunis? You, or your Aunt +Lucretia?" +</p> +<p> +"If you knew my aunt! Well! She seldom says a word. But when I have +anything to say, I talk along just as though she answered back like +an ordinary person would. I can tell if she's interested." +</p> +<p> +"Yes?" +</p> +<p> +"She's been interested in you from the start, I know. She showed it +in her look the very first time I spoke of you—that day I brought +you here to Wreckers' Head." +</p> +<p> +"But—but you have never spoken of this before. She did not come to +call." +</p> +<p> +"I'll tell you," said Tunis earnestly. "I wanted to be sure. Aunt +'Cretia knew your—er—Sarah Honey very well." +</p> +<p> +"Oh." +</p> +<p> +"Just about as well as Mrs. Ball did. When she was staying here +with Aunt Prue, she used to run over to our place a lot. +</p> +<p> +"You don't remember it," continued Tunis, grinning suddenly; "but +you were taken over there when you were a baby." +</p> +<p> +"Oh, don't! Don't!" cried the girl. "Let us not speak so lightly—so +carelessly. Suppose—suppose—" +</p> +<p> +"Suppose nothing!" exclaimed Tunis. "Don't have any fears. She +wanted to know just how you looked—every particular. Oh, she has +ways of showing what she wants without getting what you'd call +voluble! I told her about your hair—your eyes—everything. I know +from the way she looked that she accepts the fact of your being the +real Ida May without more question than Cap'n Ira and Aunt Prue." +</p> +<p> +She was silent, thinking. Then she sighed. +</p> +<p> +"I will accept the invitation, Tunis. But I feel—I feel that all is +not for the best. But what must be must be. So—oh, I'll go!" +</p> +<a name="2HCH0016"><!-- H2 anchor --></a> + +<div style="height: 4em;"><br /><br /><br /><br /></div> + +<h2> + CHAPTER XVI +</h2> +<h3> + MEMORIES—AND TUNIS +</h3> +<p> +The benison of that most beautiful season of all the year, the +autumn, lay upon Wreckers' Head and the adjacent coast on that +Sunday morning. Alongshore there is never any sad phase of the fall. +One reason is the lack of deciduous trees. The brushless hills and +fields are merely turned to golden brown when the frosts touch them. +</p> +<p> +The sea—ever changing in aspect, yet changeless in tide and +restraint—was as bright and sparkling as at midsummer. Along the +distant beaches the white ruffle of the surf seemed to have just +been laundered. The green of the shallows and the blue of the deeper +sea were equally vivid. +</p> +<p> +When she first arose Sheila Macklin looked abroad from that favorite +north window of her bedroom, and saw that all the world was good. If +she had felt secret misgivings and the tremor of a nervous +apprehension, these feelings were sloughed away by this promising +morning. The fear she had expressed to Tunis Latham the evening +before did not obsess her. She continued placid and outwardly +cheerful. Whatever threatened in the immediate future, she +determined to meet it with as much composure as she could summon. +</p> +<p> +Nobody but Sheila Macklin knew wholly what she had endured since +leaving her childhood's home. When Tunis Latham had come so +dramatically into her life she had been almost at the limit of her +endurance. To him, even, she had not confessed all her miseries. To +escape from them she would have embraced a much more desperate +expedient than posing as Ida May Bostwick. +</p> +<p> +The ethics of the situation had not really impressed her at first. +The desire to get away from her unfortunate environment, from the +city itself, and to go where nobody knew her history, not even her +name, was the main thought at that time in the girl's mind. Tunis +Latham's confident assurances that she would be accepted without +question by Cap'n Ball and Prudence caused her to put aside all fear +of consequences at the moment. It was a desperate stroke, but she +had been in desperate need, and she had carried the matter through +boldly. +</p> +<p> +Now that she seemed so securely established in the Ball household +and was accepted by all the community of Big Wreck Cove as the real +Ida May, it seemed foolish to give way to anxiety. Discovery of the +imposture was remote. +</p> +<p> +Yet, as she had hinted to Tunis, she had an undercurrent of +feeling—a more-than-faint apprehension—that all was not right. +Something was lurking in the shadows of the future which menaced +their peace and security. +</p> +<p> +She was ever mindful of the fact that Tunis had gone sponsor for her +identity as Ida May. Should her imposture be revealed, her first +duty would be to protect him. How could she do this? What tale could +she concoct to make it seem that he was as much duped as were Cap'n +Ball and Prudence? +</p> +<p> +This seemed impossible. She saw no way out. He had met the real Ida +May Bostwick, and then had deliberately introduced Sheila Macklin as +the girl he had been sent for! If the truth were revealed, what +explanation could be offered? +</p> +<p> +Had she allowed her mind to dwell upon this phase of the affair she +would surely have revealed to those about her, unobservant as they +might be, that she had a secret cause for worry. She must drive it +into the back of her mind—ignore it utterly. +</p> +<p> +And this she did on this beautiful Sabbath morning. When Tunis came +up to the Head to accompany the Balls to church—Aunt Lucretia did +not attend service on this day—a very close observer would have +seen nothing in the girl's look or manner to suggest that so keen +an anxiety had touched her. +</p> +<p> +This should have been Sheila's happy day—and it was. For the first +time, the young captain of the <i>Seamew</i> linked his interest with her +in a deliberate public appearance. Although she feared in secret the +result of that appearance at church with Tunis Latham, it +nevertheless thrilled her. +</p> +<p> +He harnessed Queenie after giving that surprised animal such a +curry-combing and polishing as she had not suffered in many a day. +Sheila rode with Prudence on the rear seat of the carryall. +</p> +<p> +"I'm berthed on the for'ard deck along o' you, Tunis," said the old +man, hoisting himself with difficulty into the front seat. "If the +afterguard is all ready, I be. Trip the anchor, boy, and set sail!" +</p> +<p> +As they passed down through Portygee Town the denizens of that part +of Big Wreck Cove were streaming to their own place of worship. It +was a saint's day, and the brown people—both men and women, ringed +of ears and garbed in the very gayest colors—gave way with smiles +and bows for the jogging old mare and the rumbling carryall. Some of +the <i>Seamew's</i> crew were overtaken, and they swept off their hats to +Prudence and the supposed Ida May, grinning up at Tunis with more +than usual friendliness. +</p> +<p> +"Ah!" exclaimed Eunez Pareta to Johnny Lark, the <i>Seamew's</i> cook. +"So you know she of the evil eye, eh?" +</p> +<p> +"What do you mean?" asked Johnny. "That pretty girl who rides behind +Captain Latham?" +</p> +<p> +"<i>Si!</i>" +</p> +<p> +"She has no evil eye," declared the cook stoutly. +</p> +<p> +"It is told me that she has," said the smiling girl. "And she has +put what you call the 'hoodoo' on that schooner. She come down in +her from Boston." +</p> +<p> +"What of it?" retorted the cook. "She is a fine lady—and a pretty +lady." +</p> +<p> +"So Tunis Latham think—heh?" demanded Eunez fiercely. +</p> +<p> +"And why not?" grinned Johnny. +</p> +<p> +"Bah! Has not all gone wrong with that <i>Seamew</i> ever since she sail +in the schooner?" demanded the girl. "An anchor chain breaks; a rope +parts; you lost a topmast—yes? How about Tony? Has he not left and +will not return aboard the schooner for a price? Do you not find +calm where other schooners find fair winds? Ah!" +</p> +<p> +"Pooh!" ejaculated Johnny Lark. "Old woman's talk!" +</p> +<p> +"Not!" cried the girl hotly. "It is a truth. The saints defend us +from the evil eye! And Tunis Latham is under that girl's spell." +</p> +<p> +Johnny Lark tried to laugh again, but with less success. Many little +things had marred the fair course of the <i>Seamew</i> and her captain's +business. He, however, shook his head. +</p> +<p> +"Not that pretty girl yonder," he said, "has brought bad luck to the +<i>Seamew</i>. No, no!" +</p> +<p> +"What, then?" asked Eunez, staring sidewise at him from eyes which +seemed almost green. +</p> +<p> +"See!" said Johnny, seizing her wrist. "If the <i>Seamew</i> is a Jonahed +schooner, it is because of something different. Yes!" +</p> +<p> +"Bah!" cried Eunez, yet with continued eagerness. "Tell me what it +may be if it is not that girl with the evil eye?" +</p> +<p> +"Ask 'Rion Latham," whispered Johnny. "You know him—huh?" +</p> +<p> +The Portygee girl looked for a moment rather taken aback. Then she +said, tossing her head: +</p> +<p> +"What if I do know 'Rion?" +</p> +<p> +"Ask him," repeated Johnny Lark. "He is cousin of our captain. He +knows—if anybody knows—what is the trouble with the <i>Seamew</i>." And +he shook his head. +</p> +<p> +Eunez stared at him. +</p> +<p> +"You know something you do not tell me, Juan?" +</p> +<p> +"Ask 'Rion Latham," the cook said again, and left her at the door of +the church. +</p> +<hr /> +<p> +Those swains who had been "cluttering the course"—to quote Cap'n +Ira—did not interfere in any way with the Balls' equipage on this +Sunday at the church. There was none who seemed bold enough to +enter the lists with Tunis Latham. He put Queenie in the shed and +backed her out again and brought her around to the door when the +service was ended without having to fight for the privilege. +</p> +<p> +'Rion Latham, however, was the center of a group of young fellows +who were all glad to secure a smile and bow from the girl, but who +only sheepishly grinned at Tunis. 'Rion was not smiling; there was a +settled scowl upon his ugly face. +</p> +<p> +"I cal'late," said Cap'n Ira, as they drove away, "that 'Rion must +have eat sour pickles for breakfast to-day and nothing much else. +Yet he seemed perky enough last night at the sociable. I wonder +what's got into him." +</p> +<p> +"I'd like to get something out of him," growled Tunis, to whom the +remark was addressed. +</p> +<p> +"What's that?" +</p> +<p> +"Some work, for one thing," said the captain of the <i>Seamew</i>. "He's +as lazy a fellow as I ever saw. And his tongue's too long." +</p> +<p> +"Trouble is," Cap'n Ira rejoined, "these trips you take in the +schooner are too short to give you any chance to lick your crew into +shape. They get back home too often. Too much shore leave, if ye ask +me." +</p> +<p> +"I'd lose Mason Chapin if the <i>Seamew</i> made longer voyages. And I +have lost one of the hands already—Tony." +</p> +<p> +"I swan! What's the matter with him?" +</p> +<p> +"His mother says Tony is scared to sail again with the <i>Seamew</i>. +Some Portygee foolishness." +</p> +<p> +"I told you them Portygees warn't worth the grease they sop their +bread in," declared Cap'n Ira. +</p> +<p> +The two on the rear seat of the carryall paid no attention to this +conversation. +</p> +<p> +"I'm real pleased," said the old woman, "that you are going to +dinner with Lucretia Latham, Ida May. Your mother thought a sight of +her, and 'Cretia did of Sarah Honey, too. Sarah was one of the few +who seemed to understand Lucretia. She's so dumb. I declare I can't +never get used to her myself. I like folks lively about me, and I +don't care how much they talk—the more the better. +</p> +<p> +"Lucretia Latham might have got her a good man and been happily +married long ago, if it hadn't been that when a feller dropped in to +call on her she sat mum all the evening and never said no more than +the cat. +</p> +<p> +"I remember Silas Payson, who lived over beyond the port, took quite +a shine to Lucretia, seeing her at church. Or, at least, we thought +he did. Silas began going down to Latham's Folly of an evening, now +and then, and setting up with Lucretia. But after a while he left +off going and said he cal'lated he'd join the Quakers over to +Seetawket. Playing Quaker meeting with just one girl to look at +didn't suit, noway." And the old woman laughed placidly. +</p> +<p> +"Tunis says he understands his aunt," ventured the girl. +</p> +<p> +"Tunis has had to put up with her. But he can say nothing a good +deal himself, if anybody should ask ye. That's the only fault I've +found with Tunis. I've heard Ira talk at him for a straight hour in +our kitchen, and all the answer Tunis made was to say 'yes' twice." +</p> +<p> +The girl did not find the captain of the <i>Seamew</i> at all +inarticulate later, as they crossed the old fields of the Ball place +and walked down the slope into the saucerlike valley where lay +Latham's Folly. She had never known Tunis to be more companionable +than on this occasion. He seemed to have gained the courage to +talk on more intimate topics than at any time since their +acquaintanceship had begun. +</p> +<p> +"I guess you know," he observed, "that most all the money Uncle Peke +left me—after what the lawyers got—I put into that schooner. +There's a mortgage on her, too. You see, although the old place will +come to me by and by, Aunt Lucretia has rights in it while she +lives. It's sort of entailed, you know. I could not raise a dollar +on Latham's Folly, if I wanted to. So I am pretty well tied up, you +see. +</p> +<p> +"But the schooner is doing well. That is, I mean, business is good, +Ida May. Other things being equal, I will make more money with her +the way I am doing now than I could in any other business. My line +is the sea; I know that. I am fitted for it. +</p> +<p> +"And if I had invested Uncle Peke's legacy and kept on fishing, or +tried for a berth in a deep bottom somewhere, I would not get ahead +any faster or make so much money. Besides, long voyages would take +me away from home, and, after all, Aunt Lucretia is my only kin and +she would miss me sore." +</p> +<p> +"I am sure she would," said the girl with sympathy. +</p> +<p> +"But all ain't plain sailing," added the young skipper wistfully. "I +am running too close to the reefs right now to crow any." +</p> +<p> +"But I am sure you will be successful in the end. Of course you +will!" +</p> +<p> +"That's mighty nice of you," he said, smiling down into her vivid +face. "With you and Aunt Lucretia both pulling for me, I ought to +win out, sure enough. +</p> +<p> +"You can't fail to like her," he added. "If you just get the right +slant on her character, I mean, Ida May. Hers has been a lonely +life. Not that there has not almost always been somebody in the +house with her. But she has lived with her own thoughts. She reads a +great deal. There is not one topic I can broach of which she has +not at least a general knowledge. I was sent away to school, but +when I came home vacations I brought my books and she read them all. +</p> +<p> +"And she is a splendid listener." He laughed. "You'll find that out +for yourself, I fancy. And I know she likes people to talk to +her—when they have anything to say. Tell her things; that is what +she enjoys." +</p> +<p> +In spite of his assurances, Sheila Macklin approached the old, brown +house behind the cedars with much secret trepidation. Although Aunt +Lucretia had a neighbor's girl come in to help her almost daily, she +had preferred to prepare the dinner on this occasion with her own +hands. And, perhaps, she did not care to have the neighbor's child +around when the supposed Ida May came to the house for the first +time. +</p> +<p> +They saw her watching from the side door—a tall, angular figure in +a black dress. Her hair was done plainly and in no arrangement to +soften the gaunt outline of her face, but there was much of it, and +Sheila longed to make a change in that grim coiffure. +</p> +<p> +The woman smiled so warmly when she saw the two approach that almost +instantly the girl forgot the grim contour of Aunt Lucretia's face. +That smile was like a flash of sunshine playing over one of those +barren, brown fields through which they had passed so quickly on +the way down from the Ball house. +</p> +<p> +"This is Ida May, Aunt Lucretia," said Tunis, as they reached the +porch. +</p> +<p> +The smiling woman stretched forth a hand to the girl. Her eyes, +peering through the spectacles, were very keen, and when their gaze +was centered upon the girl's face it seemed that Aunt Lucretia was +suddenly smitten by some thought, or by some discovery about the +visitor, which made her greeting slow. +</p> +<p> +Yet that may have been her usual manner. Tunis did not appear to +observe anything extraordinary. But Sheila thought Aunt Lucretia had +been about to greet her with a kiss, and then had thought better of +it. +</p> +<a name="2HCH0017"><!-- H2 anchor --></a> + +<div style="height: 4em;"><br /><br /><br /><br /></div> + +<h2> + CHAPTER XVII +</h2> +<h3> + AUNT LUCRETIA +</h3> +<p> +There was nothing thereafter in Aunt Lucretia's manner—surely not +in her speech—to lead Sheila to fear the woman did not accept her +at face value. Why should she suspect a masquerade when nobody else +did? The girl took her cue from Tunis and placidly accepted his +aunt's manner as natural. +</p> +<p> +Aunt Lucretia put the dinner on the table at once. They ate, when +there was special company, in the dining room. The meal was generous +in quantity and well cooked. It was evident that, like most country +housewives, Lucretia Latham took pride in her table. Had the visitor +come for the meal alone she would have been amply recompensed. +</p> +<p> +But the woman seldom uttered a word, and then only brief questions +regarding the service of the food. She listened smilingly to the +conversation between Tunis and the visitor, but did not enter into +it. It was difficult for the girl to feel at ease under these +circumstances. +</p> +<p> +Especially was this so after dinner, when she asked to help Aunt +Lucretia clear off the table and wash and dry the dishes. The woman +made no objection; indeed, she seemed to accept the girl's +assistance placidly enough. But while they were engaged in the +task—a time when two women usually have much to chatter about, if +nothing of great importance—Aunt Lucretia uttered scarcely a word, +preferring even to instruct her companion in dumb show where the +dried dishes should be placed. +</p> +<p> +Yet, all the time, the girl could not trace anything in Aunt +Lucretia's manner or look which actually suggested suspicion or +dislike. Tunis seemed eminently satisfied with his aunt's attitude. +He whispered to Sheila, when they were alone together: +</p> +<p> +"She certainly likes you, Ida May." +</p> +<p> +"Are you sure?" the girl asked. +</p> +<p> +"Couldn't be mistaken. But don't expect her to tell you so in just +so many words." +</p> +<p> +Later they walked about the dooryard and out-buildings—Tunis and +the visitor—and Aunt Lucretia watched them from her rocking-chair +on the porch. What her thoughts were regarding her nephew and the +girl it would be hard to guess, but whatever they were, they made +her face no grimmer than usual, and the light in her bespectacled +eyes was scarcely one of dislike or even of disapproval. Yet there +was a strange something in the woman's look or manner which +suggested that she watched the visitor with thoughts or feelings +which she wished neither the girl nor Tunis to observe. +</p> +<p> +Late in the afternoon the two young people started back for the Ball +house, taking a roundabout way. They did not even follow the patrol +path, well defined along the brink of Wreckers' Head as far as the +beach. Instead, they went down by the wagon track to the beach +itself, intending to follow the edge of the sea and the channel +around to a path that led up the face of the bluff to the Ball +homestead. It was a walk the girl had never taken. +</p> +<p> +The reaction she experienced after having successfully met and +become acquainted with Aunt Lucretia put Sheila in high spirits. +Tunis had never seen her in quite this mood. Although she was always +cheerful and not a little gay about the Ball homestead, she suddenly +achieved a spirit of sportiveness which surprised the captain of the +<i>Seamew</i>. But he wholly liked and approved of this new mood. +</p> +<p> +She had made herself a new fall frock and a pretty, close-fitting +hat—something entirely different, as he had noticed, from the +styles displayed by the other girls of Big Wreck Cove. And he was +observant enough to see that this outfit was more like what the +girls in Boston wore. +</p> +<p> +She ran ahead to pick up a shell or pebble that gleamed at the +water's edge from a long way off. She escaped a wetting from the +surf by a scant margin, and laughed delightedly at the chance she +took. Back against the foot of the bluff certain brilliant flowers +grew—fall blossoms that equaled any in Prudence Ball's garden—and +the girl gathered these and arranged them in an attractive bouquet +with a regard for color that delighted her companion. +</p> +<p> +They came, finally, in sight of a cabin back under the bank on the +far side of the little cove, where once Tunis had reaped clams while +Cap'n Ira and the Queen of Sheba made their unfortunate slide down +the face of the bluff. The sea was so low now that Tunis could aid +the girl across the mouth of the tiny inlet on the sand bar which +defended it from the sea. There was but one channel over which she +need leap with his help. +</p> +<p> +The cabin captivated Sheila, especially when she learned it was no +longer occupied. It had a tight tin roof and a cement-pipe chimney +with a cap to keep the rain out. The window sashes had been carried +away and the door hung by a single hinge. However, the one-roomed +cabin was otherwise tight and dry. +</p> +<p> +"Sometimes fishing parties from the port come around here and camp +for a day or two," explained Tunis. "But Hosea Westcott used to live +here altogether. Even in the winter. He caught his own fish and +split and dried them; he dug clams and picked beach plums and sold +them in town, or swapped them for what he needed. Sometimes the +neighbors gave him a day's work." +</p> +<p> +"An old and lonely man, Tunis?" the girl murmured. +</p> +<p> +"That is what he was. All his immediate family was gone. So, when he +fell ill one winter and one of the coast guards found him here +almost starved and helpless, they took him away to the poor farm." +</p> +<p> +They went on around the end of the headland and walked up the beach +toward the port. Before they reached the path by which they intended +to mount to the summit of Wreckers' Head, they observed another +couple going in the same direction, following the edge of the water +on the firm strand. The woman was dressed in such brilliant hues +that she could be mistaken for nobody but a resident of Portygee +Town. +</p> +<p> +"That is the daughter of Pareta, who brought up your trunk when you +came here, Ida May," said Tunis carelessly. +</p> +<p> +"But do you see who the man is?" she said, with some surprise. "It +is your cousin." +</p> +<p> +"'Rion? So it is. Well," he added rather scornfully, "no accounting +for tastes. She's a decent-enough girl, I guess, but we don't mix +much with the Portygees. Although most of them are all right folks, +at that. But fooling around those girls sometimes starts trouble, +as 'Rion ought to know by this time." +</p> +<p> +As they climbed the path, Tunis aiding his companion at certain +places, the girl, looking down, thought they were being closely +watched by the other couple on the beach. There was nothing in this +to disturb her mind; a feeling of confidence had overcome her since +her experience with Aunt Lucretia. Her present environment was so +far from the scenes of her old pain and misery that it seemed +nothing actually could disturb her again. +</p> +<p> +The peacefulness of the scene impressed Tunis as well. When they +came up finally upon the brink of the headland they saw a spiral of +smoke rising from one of the chimneys of the distant Ball homestead. +The man pointed to it and, smiling down upon her, repeated a verse +he had read somewhere which he knew expressed the hope she held: +</p> +<p class="poem"> + "I knew by the smoke that so gracefully curled<br /> + Above the green elms that a cottage was near;<br /> + And I said, 'if there's peace to be found in the world,<br /> + A heart that was humble might hope for it here.'" +</p> +<p> +"That is pretty near right, don't you think, Ida May?" +</p> +<p> +"It is, indeed! Oh, it is!" she cried. "And my heart <i>is</i> humble, +Tunis. I feel that God has been very good to me—and you," she added +softly. +</p> +<p> +"I've been mighty good to myself," he responded. "Ida May, there +never was a girl just like you, I guess. Anyway, I never saw such a +one. I—I don't know just how to put it, but I feel that you are the +only girl in the world I can ever feel the same toward." +</p> +<p> +"Tunis!" +</p> +<p> +He took her hand, looking so hungrily into her face that she, +blushing, if not confused, could not bear his gaze, and the long +lashes drooped to veil the violet eyes. +</p> +<p> +"You understand me, Ida May?" whispered the captain of the <i>Seamew</i> +eagerly. "I don't know, fixed as I am, that I've any right to talk +to you like this. But—but I can't wait any longer!" +</p> +<p> +She allowed her hand to remain in his warm clasp, and now she looked +up at him again. +</p> +<p> +"Have you thought of what all this may mean, Tunis?" she asked. +</p> +<p> +"You bet I have. I haven't been thinking of much else—not since the +first time I saw you." +</p> +<p> +"What? You felt—felt that you could like me that night when we sat +on the bench so long on the Common?" +</p> +<p> +"My Godfrey, Ida May!" he exclaimed. "Since that time you slipped on +the sidewalk in front of that restaurant and I caught you. That's +when I first knew that you were the most wonderful girl in the +world!" +</p> +<p> +"Oh, Tunis! Do you mean that?" +</p> +<p> +"I certainly do," he said stoutly. +</p> +<p> +"That—that you thought <i>that</i>? At very first sight?" +</p> +<p> +"I couldn't get you out of my mind. I went about in a sort of dream. +Why, Ida May, when Cap'n Ira and Aunt Prue talked so much about +wanting that other girl down here, all I could think of was you! I +half believed it must be you that they sent me for—until I came +face to face with that other girl." +</p> +<p> +Her face dimpled suddenly; her eyes shone. The look she gave him +passed through Tunis Latham like an electric shock. He trembled. He +would have drawn her closer. +</p> +<p> +"Not here, Tunis," she whispered. "But if you dare take me—knowing +what and who I am—I am all yours. Whenever you feel that you can +take me I shall be ready. Can I say more, Tunis?" +</p> +<p> +He looked at her solemnly. "I am the happiest man alive. I am the +happiest man alive, Ida May!" he breathed. +</p> +<a name="2HCH0018"><!-- H2 anchor --></a> + +<div style="height: 4em;"><br /><br /><br /><br /></div> + +<h2> + CHAPTER XVIII +</h2> +<h3> + IDA MAY THINKS IT OVER +</h3> +<p> +The <i>Seamew</i> sailed next day, short-handed. Not only had Tony, the +boy, left, but one of the foremast hands did not put in an +appearance. A grinning Portygee boy came to the wharf and announced +that "Paul, he iss ver' seek." +</p> +<p> +Tunis knew it would be useless to go after the man, just as it had +been useless to go after Tony. He had been unable to ship another +boy in Tony's place, and when he let it be known among the dock +laborers and loungers about Luiz Wharf that there was a berth open +in the <i>Seamew's</i> forecastle, nobody applied for it. +</p> +<p> +"What is the matter with those fellows?" the skipper asked Mason +Chapin. "They were tumbling over each other a few weeks ago to join +us, and now there isn't an offer." +</p> +<p> +"Some Portygee foolishness," grumbled the mate. +</p> +<p> +"I wonder," muttered Tunis. +</p> +<p> +"You wonder if it's so?" queried the mate. "You know how silly +these people are once they get a crazy notion in their heads." +</p> +<p> +"What's the crazy notion, Mr. Chapin?" +</p> +<p> +The mate flung up his hands and shrugged his shoulders. +</p> +<p> +"A haunt—a jinx—<i>something</i>. The Lord knows!" +</p> +<p> +"I wonder if it is a Portygee notion or something else," said Tunis +Latham, his eyes fixed on the back of Orion, busy, for once, at the +other rail. +</p> +<p> +"Whatever it is, Captain Latham," said Mason Chapin with gravity, "I +suggest you fill your berths at Boston." +</p> +<p> +"Guess I'll have to. But the offscourings of the city docks! They +will be worse than these Portygees." +</p> +<p> +It was not a prospect he welcomed. He well knew the sort of dock +rats he must put up with if he wished to make up his crew with city +hands for a short trip. The sea tramps who are within reach of +coasting skippers are the same kind of worthless material that +shiftless farmers must depend upon in harvest time. +</p> +<p> +Even the lack of one man forward, to say nothing of the cook's boy, +made a considerable difference in the working of the schooner. 'Rion +Latham loudly proclaimed that he was being imposed upon when he was +forced to work with the captain's watch. He had shipped as +supercargo and clerk, he had! This treatment was an imposition. +</p> +<p> +"You know what you can do about it, 'Rion, if you like," the skipper +said to him calmly, but aside. "I wouldn't want to feel that I was +holding you to a job that you did not like. You can leave the +<i>Seamew</i> any time you want." +</p> +<p> +"Huh! The rats will be doing that soon enough," growled 'Rion. +</p> +<p> +But he did not say this where Captain Latham could hear. It was +Horry Newbegin who heard him. +</p> +<p> +"It strikes me, young feller, that if I quarreled with my victuals +and drink the way you do, I'd get me another berth and get shet of +all this." And the old salt wagged his head. "I don't get you at +all, 'Rion." +</p> +<p> +"You wait," growled the younger man. "I'll leave at the right time. +And if things go as I expect, everybody else will leave him flat, +too." +</p> +<p> +"You're taking a chance talking that way," admonished the old man. +"It's just as much mutiny as though you turned and hit the skipper +or the mate." +</p> +<p> +"It is, is it? I'll show him!" +</p> +<p> +"Show who?" asked Horry, in some wonder at the other's spitefulness. +</p> +<p> +"That dratted cousin of mine. Thinks he owns the earth and sea, as +well as this hoodooed tub of a schooner. Gets the best of +everything. But he won't always. He never ought to have got the +money to buy this old tub." +</p> +<p> +"You said you wouldn't have her for a gift," chuckled the old man. +</p> +<p> +"But that don't make it any the more right that he should have her. +And she is hoodooed. You know she is, Horry." +</p> +<p> +The old mariner was silent. 'Rion craftily went on: +</p> +<p> +"Look what a number of things have happened since he put this derned +schooner into commission. We broke an anchor chain in Paulmouth +Harbor, didn't we? And the old mud hook lies there to this day. Did +you ever see so many halyards snap in your life, and in just a +capful of wind? Didn't we have a tops'l carried away—clean—in that +squall off Swampscott? And now the hands are leaving her." +</p> +<p> +"Guess you know something about that," growled Horry. +</p> +<p> +'Rion grinned. +</p> +<p> +"Maybe I do. I don't say 'no' and I don't say 'yes.' However, we've +all got to work like dogs to make up for being short-handed." +</p> +<p> +"Nobody is kicking much but you," said the older man. +</p> +<p> +"That's all right. I've got pluck enough not to stand being imposed +upon. Them Portygees—well, there's no figuring on what they will +do." +</p> +<p> +"I can see you are bent on making them do something that will raise +trouble," Newbegin said, shaking his head once more. +</p> +<p> +"What do you expect? You know the <i>Seamew</i> is hoodooed. Huh! +<i>Seamew</i>! That ain't no more her rightful name than it is mine." +</p> +<p> +"I wouldn't say that." +</p> +<p> +"I would!" snapped 'Rion. "She's the <i>Marlin B.</i>, out o' Salem. No +matter what he says, or anybody else. She's the murder ship. If he +sailed her over that place outside o' Salem Harbor where those poor +fellows was drowned, they'd rise again and curse the schooner and +all aboard her." +</p> +<p> +The old man shuddered. He turned his face away and spat reflectively +over the rail. The tug of the steering chains to starboard was even +then thrilling the cords of his hands and arms with an almost +electric shock. 'Rion watched him slyly. He knew the impression he +was making on the old man's superstitious mind. He played upon it as +he did upon the childish minds of some of the Portygee seamen. +</p> +<p> +So Captain Tunis Latham did not arrive in Boston in a very calm +frame of mind. Although he had no words with 'Rion, and really no +trouble with the crew in general, he felt that trouble was brewing. +And the worst of it was, it was trouble which he did not know how to +avert. +</p> +<p> +It was not so easy to fill the empty berth in the forecastle, even +from the offscourings of the docks. It was a time when dock labor +was at a premium. And short voyages never did interest good +sailormen. In addition, knowing that the <i>Seamew</i> sailed from her +home port, decent seafarers wanted to know what was the matter with +her that the captain could not fill his forecastle at that end. +</p> +<p> +These men wondered about Captain Latham, too. They judged that +infirmities of temper must be the reason his men did not stay with +the schooner. He was, perhaps, a driver—too quick with his fist or +the toe of his boot. Questions along this line were bound to breed +answers—and answers from those members of the <i>Seamew's</i> crew who +were not friendly to the skipper. +</p> +<p> +In some little den off Commercial Street 'Rion Latham had +forgathered with certain dock loiterers, and, after that, word went +to and fro that the <i>Seamew</i> was haunted. If she ever sailed off +Great Misery Island, the crew of a run-under Salem fishing smack +would rise up to curse the schooner's company. And that curse would +follow those who sailed aboard her—either for'ard or in the +afterguard—for all time. In consequence of this the only man who +applied for the empty berth aboard the <i>Seamew</i> was more than a +little drunk and so dirty that Captain Latham would not let him +come over the rail. +</p> +<p> +Nor could the young shipmaster give much time to looking up hands. +He had freight ready for his return trip. It must be got aboard, +stowed properly, and advantage taken of the tide and a fair wind to +get back to the Cape. He had not been in the habit of going up into +the city at all of late. If that girl behind the lace counter of +Hoskin & Marl's had expected to see Tunis Latham again, she had been +disappointed. Her warm invitation to him to call on her—possibly to +take her again to lunch—had borne only Dead Sea fruit. He had +accepted her decision regarding the Balls and Cape Cod as final and +irrevocable. At least, he had had no intention of ever going back +and discussing the suggestion again. +</p> +<p> +The possibility of the real Ida May Bostwick changing her mind and +reconsidering her refusal to communicate with the Balls or visit +Wreckers' Head never once entered Tunis' mind, if it had Sheila +Macklin's. He had seen how scornfully the cheap little shop-girl had +refused the kind offer extended to her by her old relatives. He +could not have imagined her thinking of the old people and their +home and Big Wreck Cove in any different way. +</p> +<p> +He was quite right in this. Ida May Bostwick never would have looked +upon these several matters differently. The thing was settled. Born +and bred in the city, she could not conceive of any sane girl like +herself deliberately burying herself down on the Cape, to "live on +pollock and potatoes," as she had heard it expressed, and be the +slave of a pair of old fogies. +</p> +<p> +Not for her! She would not think of it. Indeed, this phase of the +offer Tunis had brought her really made Ida May Bostwick angry. What +did he think she was, anyway? In fact, she was inclined to think +that that seafaring person had almost insulted her. Although she had +deliberately spoken of him as her "Cousin Tunis" to the girls who +were her confidantes in the store and to her landlady, who was +likewise curious about him, Ida May Bostwick was much pleased by the +thought of him. +</p> +<p> +Then she began to compare Tunis with the young men she knew in +Boston. She knew that the young men she got acquainted with were +either very light minded or downright objectionable. If any of them +contemplated marriage at all, they knew it could not be undertaken +upon the meager salaries they were paid. Marriage meant teamwork, +with the girl working down-town just as hard as ever, and then +working at night when she went home, and on Sundays, even if she and +her bridegroom lived only in a furnished room and did light +housekeeping. +</p> +<p> +Ida May Bostwick had a brain explosion one day when she considered +these all-too-evident facts. She said: +</p> +<p> +"I bet <i>that</i> fellow wouldn't expect his wife to stand behind a lace +counter and take the sass of floorwalkers and buyers, as well as +lady customers, all day long. Not much! He's a regular guy, if he is +a hick. My gracious! Don't I wish he'd come back! If I ever get my +claws on him again—" +</p> +<p> +Just what she might do to Tunis under those circumstances she did +not even explain to herself. But she began to think of Tunis a good +deal. He was a good-looking man, too. And he spent freely. Ida May +Bostwick remembered the lunch at Barquette's. +</p> +<p> +It was true that Sarah Honey had been all Prudence Ball and Aunt +Lucretia Latham and other Wreckers' Head folk believed her to be. +But she died when Ida May was small, and the girl had been brought +up wholly under the influence of the Bostwicks. That family had +lacked refinement and breeding and graciousness of manner to a +degree that would have amazed and shocked Sarah Honey's relatives +down on the Cape. +</p> +<p> +Not that the girl thought of Tunis Latham's refinement with any +wistfulness. She thought of his well-filled wallet, that he was +something more than a common sailor, that he undoubtedly owned a +good home, even if it was down at Big Wreck Cove, and that he seemed +"soft" and "easy." +</p> +<p> +"A girl might wind him right around her finger, if she went at it +right," Ida May Bostwick finally decided. "Some girl will. I wonder +how long it would take to get him to sell out down there and live up +here in town? My mother came from that awful hole, and she caught a +city fellow. I bet I could do this, if it was worth my while. My +goodness! Why not? +</p> +<p> +"There's property there, too. I wonder how much those old creatures +are worth. And how long they will live. He spoke like they needed +somebody because they were sick. Ugh! I don't like folks when they +are sick. Ma was <i>awful</i>. I can remember it. And there was pa, when +he was cripped with rheumatism before he died." +</p> +<p> +This phase of the matter fairly staggered Ida May Bostwick. She put +the faint glimmerings of the idea out of her mind—or tried to. Yet +that summer she kept delaying her vacation until all the other girls +had come back and related all their adventures—those that had +actually happened and those that they had imagined. +</p> +<p> +"Ain't you going to take any time off, Ida May?" they asked. +</p> +<p> +At last she said she expected to visit her folks "down on the Cape." +</p> +<p> +"You remember that nice-looking farmer that came in to speak to me +that time and took me to lunch at Barquette's?" she asked Miss +Leary. +</p> +<p> +"I know you <i>said</i> he took you there." +</p> +<p> +"Well, he did, smarty! He's my cousin—of course, not too close." +And Ida May giggled. "Well, we've been corresponding." +</p> +<p> +"I hope it's all perfectly proper," grinned Miss Leary. +</p> +<p> +Ida May Bostwick stuck out her tongue. But she laughed. +</p> +<p> +"I've got a good mind," she said to her friend, "to go down and see +that fellow's folks. They're well fixed, I guess. And the store pays +you for one week of your vacation. I wouldn't lose much, even if it +did turn out to be a dead-and-alive hole." +</p> +<a name="2HCH0019"><!-- H2 anchor --></a> + +<div style="height: 4em;"><br /><br /><br /><br /></div> + +<h2> + CHAPTER XIX +</h2> +<h3> + THE ARRIVAL +</h3> +<p> +There was a driving road down past Latham's Folly and on across +certain sand flats and by cranberry bogs to a small settlement where +Prudence had a stepsister still living. This old woman lived with +her granddaughter's husband's kinsfolk, who were so distantly +related to Cap'n Ira's wife that the relationship could scarcely be +followed. +</p> +<p> +"It takes us Cape Codders," remarked Cap'n Ira, "to study out the +shoals and channels of kinship. It's 'cause we're such good +navigators that we're able to do it." +</p> +<p> +"And now that we've got Ida May to harness up Queenie for us and +look after the house while we're gone, and you feel so much spryer +yourself, Ira, I don't see why we can't visit our folks a little," +Prudence said. +</p> +<p> +He agreed, and they set off in high fettle just before noon, +expecting to return before dark. Sheila was upstairs dusting when, +not long after the noon hour, she saw from one of the windows the +spread canvas of the <i>Seamew</i>—there was no mistaking the +schooner—making through the channel into the cove. +</p> +<p> +"Tunis is coming! Tunis is coming! Tunis is coming soon!" +</p> +<p> +Her heart sang the refrain over and over again. She fairly danced +about the household tasks she had set herself to do while the old +couple were absent. Now and again she ran to some point where she +could watch the <i>Seamew</i>. The memory of Tunis' kisses were on her +lips and in her heart. In the dusk of the previous Monday morning, +when he was on his way to the port to take command of his schooner, +the young shipmaster had held her in his arms at the back door +there, and had told her over and over again of his love for her. +Thought of that moment was an exquisite memory to the girl. +</p> +<p> +She saw the schooner drop anchor off Portygee Town, with all its +canvas rattling down in windrows of white. She even saw the little +gig launched. Tunis was coming ashore. He would soon be up the hill. +His long strides would soon bring him to her side again—open-eyed, +ruddy-faced, a veritable sea god among men! +</p> +<p> +She ran out a dozen times to gaze down the road and wonder what kept +him. Then she turned her back on the road and spent the next half +hour in beating the dust out of all the parlor and sitting room +sofa pillows and one or two of the covered chairs. +</p> +<p> +Peace, like the sunshine itself, lay over all of Wreckers' Head. +Here and there a spiral of smoke rose from a chimney, and fowl +wandered about the well-reaped fields. But not much other life was +visible. The fall haze gave to distant objects a dimmer outline, +softening the sharp lineaments of the more rugged landscape. Color +and form took on new beauty. +</p> +<p> +It was all so lovely, so peaceful, that it was impossible that the +girl should have dreamed of what was approaching. Since she had come +her mind had not been so far from apprehension of disaster. Since +Sunday, when she had wandered with Tunis along the shore, it had +seemed to the young woman that no harm could assail her. She was +secure, sheltered, impregnably fortified both in Tunis' love and in +the situation she had gained with the Balls and in the community. +</p> +<p> +She knew, at last, that somebody was on the road, but she would not +look. She heard the latch of the gate and the creak of its hinges. +Somebody was behind her. How softly Tunis stepped! She thought that +he was approaching her quietly, believing he could surprise her. In +a moment she would feel his arms about her and would surprise him by +laying her head back against his breast and putting up her lips to +be kissed. +</p> +<p> +But, as he delayed, she turned her head ever so slyly. It was not +the heavily shod feet of Tunis Latham she saw. What she saw was a +pair of the very lightest of pearl-gray shoes, wonderful of arch and +heel. Above were slim ankles and calves incased in fiber-silk hose +the hue of the shoes. +</p> +<p> +She flashed a glance at the face of the stranger, and her gaze was +immediately held by a pair of fixed brown eyes. There were green +glints in the eyes—sharp, suspicious gleams that warned Sheila, +before the other uttered a word, to set watch and ward upon her own +lips. Not that she suspected who the stranger was. +</p> +<p> +"Good afternoon," was her greeting. +</p> +<p> +"Is this where the Balls live?" was the demand, with a note in the +voice which betokened both weariness and vexation. +</p> +<p> +"Yes." +</p> +<p> +The girl set down her bag and gave a sigh of relief. +</p> +<p> +"Well, I am glad! I thought I'd never get here. I never did hear of +such a hick place! No taxi, of course, and not even a hack or any +other carriage to be hired. I've walked <i>miles</i>. And such a rough +road!" +</p> +<p> +The parlor settee and easy-chairs had just been brought outdoors +for their weekly beating and dusting. Sheila pointed to a seat. +</p> +<p> +"Do sit down," she urged. "It is a long walk from the port." +</p> +<p> +"You said it! And after riding over from Paulmouth in that dinky old +stagecoach, too," went on the stranger, as though holding Sheila +responsible for some measure of her discomfort. "Say, ain't the +folks home?" She cast a sour look around the premises. "Gee! It's a +lonesome place in winter, I bet." +</p> +<p> +"Did you wish to see Mrs. Ball?" asked Sheila, eying the visitor +with nothing more than curiosity. +</p> +<p> +"I guess so. She is Mrs. Prudence Ball, isn't she?" +</p> +<p> +"Yes. Mrs. Ball and the captain have gone away for the day. I am +ever so sorry. You wished to see her particularly?" +</p> +<p> +"I guess I did." The stranger looked her over with more interest. +"Say, how old are the Balls?" +</p> +<p> +The abrupt question drew a more penetrating look from Sheila. The +visitor certainly was not Cape bred. Her smart cheapness did not +attract Sheila at all. There was something so unwholesome about her +that the observer had difficulty in suppressing a shudder. Yet her +prettiness was orchidlike. But there are poisonous orchids. +</p> +<p> +"They are quite old people," Sheila said, finally answering the +question. "Cap'n Ira is over seventy and Prudence is not far from +that age. You—you are not acquainted with them?" +</p> +<p> +"I never saw 'em. But I've heard a lot about 'em," said the +stranger, with a light laugh. "They are sort of relations of mine." +</p> +<p> +"You are a relative?" asked the girl. Even then she had no thought +of who this newcomer was. "Cap'n Ira's relative? Or Mrs. Ball's, if +I may ask?" +</p> +<p> +"Well, I guess it is the old woman's. But I'm kind of curious to see +'em first, you know, before I make any strong play in the +relationship game. Gee! Is this the parlor furniture?" +</p> +<p> +"Some of it," was the wondering rejoinder. +</p> +<p> +"Looks like the house, don't it? Down at the heel and shabby. Say, +have they got much money, after all—them Balls? You're a neighbor, +I suppose? You must know 'em well." +</p> +<p> +"I live here," said the other girl rather sternly. +</p> +<p> +"Huh? You mean around here?" +</p> +<p> +"I live here with Cap'n Ira and Mrs, Ball," was the further +explanation. +</p> +<p> +"You <i>do</i>? You?" +</p> +<p> +Her voice suddenly became shrill. It rose half an octave with +surprise. Her gaze, which had merely been insolent, now became +suspicious. She scrutinized Sheila closely. +</p> +<p> +"I didn't know the Balls had anybody living with 'em," she resumed +at length. "You ain't been here long, have you?" +</p> +<p> +"Oh, for some time," was the cheerful rejoinder. +</p> +<p> +"They hire you?" +</p> +<p> +"Not—not exactly. You see, I am sort of related to them, too." +</p> +<p> +"A relation of this old Cap'n Ira?" +</p> +<p> +"Of Mrs. Ball." +</p> +<p> +"Huh! Say, what's you name?" +</p> +<p> +"My name is Bostwick," was the composed reply. "You did not mention +yours, did you?" +</p> +<p> +"<i>Bostwick?</i>" +</p> +<p> +"They call me Ida May Bostwick," said Sheila, demurely smiling, and +even then without a suspicion of the vortex into which she was being +drawn. +</p> +<p> +"<i>Ida May Bostwick!</i>" +</p> +<p> +The visitor rose out of her seat as though a spring had been +released under her. Her eyes flattened, distended, and sparked like +micaceous rock in the dark. Her hands clenched till the pointed, +highly polished nails bit into the palms. +</p> +<p> +"What do you say? <i>You</i> are Ida May Bostwick?" +</p> +<p> +At that moment Sheila Macklin saw the light. It smote upon her brain +like a shaft from a great searchlight; a penetrating, cleaving beam +that might have laid bare her very soul before the accusing +stranger. She staggered, retreating, shrinking, but only for a +moment. +</p> +<p> +The pallor that had come into her face left it. Color rose softly +under the exquisite skin and there came a haughty uplift of her +chin. She stared back into the blazing, greenish-brown eyes of the +other, her own eyes unafraid, challenging. +</p> +<p> +"Do you doubt me?" she demanded, with as much composure as though a +secure position and a conscience quite at ease were hers. "Who are +you? In what way are you interested in my name or in my identity?" +</p> +<p> +"Why, you—you—" The visitor was for the moment stricken +speechless. But it was the speechlessness of rage—of wild and +uncontrollable fury. Then she caught her breath. "You dirty cheat, +you! You stand there and tell me you are Ida Bostwick? You've got +gall—you certainly <i>have</i> got gall! +</p> +<p> +"I'd like to know who the devil you are? Comin' right here, wormin' +your way into a place that don't belong to you, gettin' on the soft +side of my aunt an' uncle, I s'pose, and thinkin' to grab all they +got when they die. Oh, I know <i>your</i> kind, miss! +</p> +<p> +"But I'll show you up. I'll let 'em know what's what and who's who. +They must be precious soft to take a girl like you in and think +she's Ida Bostwick. How <i>dare</i> you?" +</p> +<p> +She stamped her foot. She advanced upon the other threateningly. But +the girl she had accused did not retreat. The flush of outrage and +that haughty expression were still upon her countenance. She spoke +very firmly but in a voice so low that it contrasted the more +sharply with the enraged squall of her opponent. She asked: +</p> +<p> +"Who are <i>you</i>, if you please?" +</p> +<p> +"You've cheek to ask me. I'd ought to spit on you, so I had! But +I'll tell you who I am—and it'll hold you for a while, I guess. I +am Ida May Bostwick. You know full and well you are makin' out to +these rich relations of mine that you are me. I'll show you up, +miss! I'll have you whipped—or jailed—or something. The gall of +you!" +</p> +<p> +The other girl heard her with unchanging face. Somehow, that steady, +unshrinking look gave Ida May Bostwick pause. It was she who +recoiled. +</p> +<a name="2HCH0020"><!-- H2 anchor --></a> + +<div style="height: 4em;"><br /><br /><br /><br /></div> + +<h2> + CHAPTER XX +</h2> +<h3> + THE LIE +</h3> +<p> +The girl who had seized upon the chance of becoming Ida May +Bostwick, and so escaping the horror and despair that enshrouded +Sheila Macklin like a filthy mantle, stood after the first blast as +firm as a rock under the torrent of vituperation and rage which +poured from the other girl's lips. +</p> +<p> +The real Ida May—weak, save in venomous hate, unstable as water, as +shallow as a pool of glass—could have joined issue in a +hair-pulling, face-scratching brawl. She was of that breed and +up-bringing. +</p> +<p> +Sheila Macklin's very dignity held Ida May Bostwick at arm's length. +With all right and title to the name and place Sheila had usurped, +the new arrival was awed by the impostor's look. Following that +first—and merely instantaneous—expression of horrified surprise at +Ida May's announcement of her identity, this girl, who was so secure +in the confidence of the Balls and the community, proceeded to look +down at the claimant of her achieved position with utter calmness. +</p> +<p> +It made the real Ida May almost afraid. Certain as she was of her +own name and the assertion of her own personality, the bold and +unshaken opposition confronting her in the very look of the impostor +abashed Ida May Bostwick. After her first outbreak she was silenced. +</p> +<p> +"Do you really know what you are saying?" the girl in possession +asked. "Are you aware that I am Ida May Bostwick? There certainly +cannot be two girls of the same name, both related to Mrs. Prudence +Ball. That is too ridiculous." +</p> +<p> +The other gasped. Though red and white by turn, from impotence and +rage, her fury was quelled under the look of the more composed young +woman. +</p> +<p> +"There are twenty people almost within call who know me and who can +swear to my name and my assertions that I am Miss Bostwick," went on +Sheila, with a calmness which both frightened and daunted the other. +"Just why you should come here and make such a preposterous claim I +cannot understand. Where do you come from? Who are you—really?" +</p> +<p> +Ida May stared, flaccid, helpless. For the time being all her rage, +her rudeness, her amazement, even, drained out of her. For this +impostor to face her down in this way; for her to claim Ida May's +name and identity with such utter calm—such sangfroid; for Sheila +to stand before her and deliberately declare that what Ida May had +known to be her own all her life long—her name and distinctive +character—was actually another's—all this was so monstrous a thing +that Ida May was stunned. +</p> +<p> +Suppose—suppose something had really happened to her mind? People +did go mad, Ida May had heard. She had rather a vague idea as to +what insanity was like, but she felt her mind slipping. +</p> +<p> +The sure and unafraid expression of the other girl's countenance +gave Ida May no help at all. She was sure that her opponent had not +lost her mind. She was just a wicked, bad, horrid girl who had +somehow got something that belonged to Ida May Bostwick, and meant +to keep it if she could. +</p> +<p> +Self-pity filled the visitor's mind in place of the fury she had +expended in her first outburst. She dared not attack the other with +tooth and nail, for she saw now that this girl was as much her +superior in physical strength as she was in strength of character. +</p> +<p> +Therefore, Ida May fell back upon tears. She blubbered right +heartily, and, being really weary after her walk from the port, she +fell back into the spring rocker, which squeaked almost as +protestingly as she did, put her beringed hands before her face, and +gave herself to grief. +</p> +<p> +Sheila Macklin's expression did not change. She revealed no sympathy +for Ida May Bostwick. If she felt sympathy, it was for that girl +who had been persecuted, unfairly accused of stealing, sent to a +place worse than prison, afterward branded with the stigma of +"jailbird"; that girl whom Tunis Latham had befriended, had rescued +from a situation which she could not think of now without a feeling +of creeping horror. +</p> +<p> +Was she going to give over without a fight to this new claimant a +place which had been and still was her only refuge? It could not be +expected that she would do this. She had had no warning of this +catastrophe. There had been no opportunity to prepare for a +situation which must have shocked her terribly in any case. But if +she had only had time— +</p> +<p> +Time? Time for what? To run away? Or to prepare the Balls, for +instance, for the coming of this new claimant? And who knew this +girl who said she was Ida May Bostwick? Sheila Macklin was fully +aware of the history of Sarah Honey, of her marriage which had quite +cut her off from her Cape Cod friends, and of the little that was +known at Big Wreck Cove about her daughter, who, since babyhood, had +never been seen here. +</p> +<p> +How was one to be sure if this were really the right Ida May? If one +girl could make the claim and carry it through so easily, why not +another? How could this girl, crying in the rocking-chair, prove her +statement that she was Mrs. Ball's niece? +</p> +<p> +These thoughts seethed in Sheila Macklin's brain. She must keep +cool! She must hold herself down, keep control of her own mind, and +keep the whip hand of this girl before her. +</p> +<p> +And, then, there was Tunis to think of. The appearance of the real +Ida May Bostwick wrecked all her happiness, of course, with Tunis. +Sheila could not let him continue his association with her. Yet what +course should she pursue to save him? That suddenly became the first +consideration in Sheila Macklin's mind. +</p> +<p> +How to do this? How to save Tunis from being overwhelmed by the +result of his own ill-considered deed? Impulse and love on Tunis +Latham's part had brought about this terrible situation. Not that +the girl blamed him in the least. Her thought was to protect the +captain of the <i>Seamew</i> from being sucked into the whirlpool which +she clearly beheld beside her path. +</p> +<p> +Save Tunis! It must be done. This little, inconsequential, +weak-minded, loose-lipped girl must not be allowed to wreck Tunis +Latham's life. If people came to accept as true the tale the girl +could relate, Tunis' reputation would be smirched utterly in the +opinion of all Big Wreck Cove folk. +</p> +<p> +Much as Sheila Macklin felt that her own happiness with Tunis was +now impossible—a flash of Aunt Lucretia made this realization the +more poignant—he must be sheltered from any folly regarding this +thing. She knew well his impulsive, generous nature. Who had a +fuller knowledge of it than she? +</p> +<p> +She must think and act for herself, without any conference with +Tunis. But she must do the only thing, after all, that would balk +this wretched girl from the city—for a time, at least. +</p> +<p> +The real Ida May Bostwick had no friends here and no acquaintances +among the people of Big Wreck Cove. It would be no easy matter for +her to establish either credit or the fact of her identity in the +community. It would take time and perhaps be very difficult for Ida +May to bring forward conclusive evidence that would convince the +Balls, or anybody else, of her real personality and prove that the +girl in possession was an impostor. +</p> +<p> +All the latter had to do was to maintain her already-accepted +standing, deny the true Ida May's claim, and demand that the latter +show proof of her apparently preposterous statement. At least, some +considerable delay must ensue through Sheila's course before the +girl could convince anybody that she only claimed what was her own. +</p> +<p> +Nor need the battle end there. Ida May Bostwick might find it very +difficult to prove to the satisfaction of all concerned that she was +the actual niece of Prudence Ball. The very fact that Tunis had +brought Sheila and introduced her as the girl he had been sent for +was proof so strong that it could not be lightly denied. +</p> +<p> +That phase of the matter—that Tunis was as deep in the conspiracy +as she was herself—made Sheila Macklin desperate. She grasped at +this only salvation—straw as it was!—for his sake more than for +her own. +</p> +<p> +Later, when she was able to think and plan and plot again, she would +evolve some method of rescuing Tunis from the results of his own +impulsiveness and her weakness in accepting his suggestion as a way +out of her personal difficulties. She should have known better! She +should have scouted the idea at its inception! +</p> +<p> +She saw that this position in which she was placed was far and away +more serious than that she had been in when she sat with Tunis upon +the Boston Common bench. She had thought at that time that it needed +little more to make her condition too desperate to bear. She would +now, she felt, give life itself for the privilege of being back +there and able to refuse the reckless plan of escape the captain of +the <i>Seamew</i> had submitted to her. +</p> +<p> +She did not for a breath's length blame Tunis for the misfortune +that had overtaken her—overtaken them both, indeed. She had +accepted his plan with open eyes. In her desperation she had even +foreseen the possibility of this outcome. She must blame nobody but +herself. +</p> +<p> +But all these thoughts were futile. No use in considering for a +single moment past situations and possibilities. She was confronted +by a grim and adamant present! And that grim present was in the +person of a girl with tear-streaked face who looked up at her, +sobbing. +</p> +<p> +"You're the meanest girl I ever heard of. I'll pay you for this. +Think of the gall of you comin' here and tellin' my rich relations +you was me. I never heard of such a thing! It beats the movies, and +and I thought they was just lies. Gee, but you must be a regular +crook! I expect the very clothes you got on my aunt bought and gave +you. I'll put you where you belong!" +</p> +<p> +"And suppose I put you where you seem to belong?" interrupted the +girl in possession. "There is such a place as an insane hospital in +this county, I believe. I think you must have either escaped from +such a place, or that you belong in one." +</p> +<p> +"Oh!" gasped the other girl, staring up at her amazedly and not a +little terrified by Sheila's emphatic speech. +</p> +<p> +"If you really are some distant relative of the family," the latter +continued, "Mrs. Ball may wish to see you. Come into the house and I +will make you a cup of tea. You need it. And you can wait for Mrs. +Ball and the captain to return, if you like." +</p> +<p> +Ida May darted to her feet again. +</p> +<p> +"A cup of tea of <i>your</i> making!" she cried. "You'd put poison in it! +You must be a wicked girl—anybody can see that. I wouldn't put +anything bad past you. I guess them stories in the movies ain't so +much lies, after all. +</p> +<p> +"I want nothing from you, whoever you are, only my name back and the +chance you have grabbed off here. I'll go to the neighbors about it. +I'll tell 'em what you've done. I guess I can find somebody to +believe me." +</p> +<p> +Her abrupt halt warned Sheila that there was somebody approaching. +Before she could turn to see who it was, the other girl ejaculated: +</p> +<p> +"My goodness! What is it—a junk wagon? Look at that horse, will +you! Say! who's these folks? What a pair of old dubs!" +</p> +<p> +Cap'n Ira and Prudence had returned somewhat earlier than Sheila had +expected. Old Queenie came up the lane and turned in at the open +gateway beyond the garden. +</p> +<p> +The new girl tugged excitedly at Sheila's arm. +</p> +<p> +"Say! Who are they?" she demanded huskily. +</p> +<p> +"This is Cap'n Ball and Mrs. Ball," was the reply, and the girl in +possession hurried forward to help them out of the carriage. +</p> +<p> +"Ahoy, Ida May!" the captain hailed cheerfully. "What's the good +word?" +</p> +<p> +He prepared to climb down. The girl assisted Prudence first. +</p> +<p> +"Who's that with you, Ida May?" asked the old woman. Then, with +keener eyes than the captain, she observed the change in the girl's +face. "What's happened? Something has gone wrong, Ida May, I know. +What is it?" +</p> +<p> +"That—that girl—" +</p> +<p> +Sheila almost choked. How could she prevaricate to the good old +woman who had been so kind to her? +</p> +<p> +"Who is she, Ida May?" +</p> +<p> +"She says she is your niece," whispered the girl. +</p> +<p> +"My niece? Land's sake! I ain't got no niece but you, Ida May. Say, +Ira, do you know this young woman? She ain't none o' your relations, +is she?" +</p> +<p> +Cap'n Ira came to the ground finally with a thump of his cane. He +straightened up and started at the new arrival. +</p> +<p> +"Red-headed, I swan!" he muttered. "Never was a Ball that I know of +with that color topknot. And she looks like one o' these sandpipers +ye see along shore. Look at that hat!" +</p> +<p> +"Ida May says she claims to be our niece," Prudence told him. +</p> +<p> +"I swan! I told you we was gettin' mighty popular." +</p> +<p> +Sheila, her limbs now trembling so that she feared she would fall, +took Queenie by the head and backed the carriage around. The old +mare would have to be put in her stall and the carryall run under +cover. But the girl was fearful of moving out of earshot. +</p> +<p> +Cap'n Ira and Prudence approached the real Ida May. The latter had +been staring at them, marveling. Unlike Sheila, almost everything +that Ida May Bostwick thought was advertised upon her face. +</p> +<p> +"My goodness!" considered Ida May. "What a pair of hicks!" +</p> +<p> +"You was lookin' for somebody named Ball, I cal'late?" Cap'n Ira +said within Sheila's hearing as she led the gray mare away. +</p> +<p> +She could not catch the reply. Whatever the real Ida May said, she +could not stand by to deny it. Besides, the matter must rest for the +present on the evidence, and she did not know yet how much proof Ida +May might be able to advance to strengthen her case. If it rested +upon mere assertion, then Sheila need merely deny its truth and hold +her own! +</p> +<p> +And, frightened as she was, that was exactly what Sheila intended to +do. For the sake of Tunis, as well as for her own salvation, she +must stand up against the new girl and hold by her own first +claim—that she was the girl the Balls had sent Tunis for. +</p> +<a name="2HCH0021"><!-- H2 anchor --></a> + +<div style="height: 4em;"><br /><br /><br /><br /></div> + +<h2> + CHAPTER XXI +</h2> +<h3> + AT SWORDS' POINTS +</h3> +<p> +Sheila Macklin got Queenie to the stable and unharnessed her. She +ran the carryall into the barn and then closed the big door for the +night, although the sun was still an hour high. She stopped to fling +grain to the poultry, too. These chores she did with the thought in +her mind that she might never do them again for Cap'n Ira and +Prudence. +</p> +<p> +If that girl could prove her claim, if she could satisfy the old +people that they had been cheated by Sheila and Tunis Latham, they +might be indignant enough to put her right out—to-night! +</p> +<p> +The trio had disappeared into the house. She heard voices from the +sitting room. But she wanted to return the furniture to the front +room and finish the task which the real Ida May's coming had +interrupted. +</p> +<p> +She had been strong enough when she carried the chairs and the +settee into the yard, but she could scarcely get them back again. +The strength seemed to have deserted her arms. She staggered in with +the last article of furniture and set it in place. +</p> +<p> +The murmur of voices from the room across the hall was steady. What +were they saying? What had Ida May told them? How were the Balls +taking it? Could that cheap, little thing convince the old people +that she was their niece and that the girl they had come to love and +trust was an impostor? Sheila Macklin's heart bled for Cap'n Ira and +Prudence! +</p> +<p> +If she must go and they took this other girl in her place, would +they be happy? And they had been happy during these last months! +Would they not miss her if she left them to the mercy of this new +claimant? +</p> +<p> +Yes, Sheila loved Cap'n Ira and Prudence. She loved them as though +they were her very own! Not since her father had died had the girl +been so fond of anybody—except Tunis, of course. And what would +Tunis say when he came? +</p> +<p> +What would he expect her to do? To admit the truth of Ida May's +claim and give up without a battle? If she did this, she would +expose him as well as herself to infamy. It was a situation that +would have appalled a person of much stronger character than Sheila +Macklin, and she was no weakling. +</p> +<p> +No! She could not give up—not without a struggle. As she had first +decided, she must confront the new girl boldly and deny, if she +could, any claim Ida May Bostwick put forward. She must do this for +Tunis even more than for herself. +</p> +<p> +She arose determinedly. With this thought, strength surged back into +her limbs as well as into her mind. For a time she had been weak, +undecided. Once more she gathered her energies to oppose the sea of +adversity which threatened to overwhelm her. +</p> +<p> +She crossed the hall and opened the sitting room door. Cap'n Ira sat +in his usual chair, leaning forward, with his hands clasped over the +knob of his cane. Prudence, with a wondering look on her face, sat +beside him, and just as far from the new girl as the length of the +room would allow. The latter had been speaking with her usual +vehemence, and she did not even glance at Sheila when the latter +came quietly into the room. +</p> +<p> +"Oh, Ida May!" gasped Prudence, and almost ran to her. "Do you know +what she is saying? I never heard of such a thing!" +</p> +<p> +"I tell you she <i>ain't</i> Ida Bostwick," cried the other. "Don't you +dare call her that. I'll—" +</p> +<p> +"Hoity-toity, young woman! Avast there!" said the captain gruffly. +"We won't get to the rights of this by quarreling. Wait!" +</p> +<p> +He looked at Sheila, and his weatherhued countenance was as kindly +of expression as usual. +</p> +<p> +"You know what this young woman says?" he asked. +</p> +<p> +Sheila nodded, but she held Prudence closely. The old woman was +sobbing. +</p> +<p> +"This won't do, you know," said Cap'n Ira. "I swan! It beats my +time. I expect you've got friends somewhere, young woman, and you +ought to be given into their charge. I'm real sorry for you, but +what you say don't sound sensible. Ain't you made a mistake? I +cal'late you heard about us and Ida May—" +</p> +<p> +"I tell you," cried the girl, starting to her feet again, the brown +eyes flashing spitefully, "that that thing there is an impostor. +She's got my place. She's took my name. Why, I'll—I'll have her +arrested. Ain't there no police in this awful place?" +</p> +<p> +"There's a constable all right," said Cap'n Ira calmly. "But I +wouldn't want to call him in. Not just now, anyway. It looks to me +you wanted a doctor more than you wanted a constable." +</p> +<p> +"You think I'm crazy!" gasped Ida May. +</p> +<p> +"Well, it looks as though you was a leetle off your course," the old +man told her calmly. "You don't talk with sense, to say the least. +Making the claim you do would make most anybody think you was a +little flighty. Yes, a little flighty, to say the least." And he +wagged his head. +</p> +<p> +"Look here," he pursued soothingly. "Have you been sick, perhaps? +You ain't quite yourself, be ye? I knowed a feller once that +thought he was the angel Gabriel and went around with a tin fish +horn, tooting it at all hours of the day and night. But no graves +opened for him and nobody was resurrected. They finally put him in +the booby hatch, poor feller." +</p> +<p> +"I'm your niece, I tell you," interrupted Ida May, pointing at +Prudence, who shrank from her immediately in undeniable fear. "My +mother was Sarah Honey before she was married. I guess there must be +enough people in this Big Wreck Cove place who knew her and remember +her to prove who I am." +</p> +<p> +"I wouldn't try to do that," said Cap'n Ira thoughtfully. "Telling +such a thing as this among the neighbors would be the surest way of +getting into trouble. That's right. If Prudence—Mrs. Ball—don't +know ye, do you think strangers would be likely to back you up? +Don't you think it would be better to sit down quietly and rest a +while? Maybe you'd better stay with us overnight." +</p> +<p> +"Oh, Ira!" gasped his wife. "I wouldn't scurce dare have her stay. +She—she's out of her head. She might do something." +</p> +<p> +"I'll do something fast enough!" cried Ida May, stamping her foot. +"I'll do something to that hussy!" +</p> +<p> +"You hear her, Ira?" murmured Prudence, trying to draw Sheila away +from the enraged girl. +</p> +<p> +"Threatening damage never broke no bones yet," said the captain +calmly. +</p> +<p> +"I'll do <i>her</i> some damage," declared Ida May bitterly. "If none of +you won't listen to me, I'll find somebody that will. I'll—" +</p> +<p> +She halted suddenly in her wild and angry speech. Her face changed +as if by magic. The flush died in it and the expression of her +sparkling eyes became subdued. A simpering look overspread Ida May +Bostwick's countenance that warned the other girl, at least, that +another person had entered the house. +</p> +<p> +Before Sheila could turn to look toward the kitchen door, Ida May +cried: +</p> +<p> +"Oh, Cousin Tunis! If you ain't my cousin exactly, I guess you are +pretty near. And ain't I glad you've come! Do you know what this +awful girl is saying—what she is doing here? And these old fools +won't believe me! I never heard of such a thing. Just you tell them +who I am, and I guess they'll make her pack up and get out in a +hurry." +</p> +<p> +In the doorway stood the captain of the <i>Seamew</i>. The two old people +welcomed his appearance with a satisfaction that could not be +mistaken. +</p> +<p> +"I swan, Tunis, you come at a mighty handy time," declared Cap'n +Ira. +</p> +<p> +"Oh, Tunis! Take that girl away," cried Prudence faintly, pointing +at Ida May. +</p> +<p> +The most difficult thing Sheila Macklin had ever done in all her +life was what she did now. To act and speak a deliberate falsehood +before Tunis Latham! +</p> +<p> +She disengaged herself from Prudence, and before the simpering Ida +May could speak again Sheila ran to him. In her face was, for the +moment, all the fear and horror of the situation which she felt. It +was a warning to him, and he was acute enough to understand it even +before she spoke. +</p> +<p> +"Oh, Tunis! This girl must be beside herself. She says her name is +Ida May Bostwick and that she is Mrs. Ball's niece." +</p> +<p> +Involuntarily Tunis had stretched forth his hands to welcome Sheila. +He drew her closer without giving the Balls any attention +whatsoever. One flashing glance he gave to the girl he held so +gently—a look which was both a promise and a reassurance. Then he +gazed over her head at the smirking Ida May. +</p> +<p> +"What's the matter here?" he demanded. +</p> +<p> +"Matter enough," said Cap'n Ira, not without marking, however, the +attitude of the two young people he and Prudence loved. He even +nudged his wife, who now stood close beside him. "Matter enough. +That gal there, Tunis, seems to have lost her top-hamper. Leastways, +some of it is mighty loose." +</p> +<p> +"Tunis Latham!" gasped the new claimant. "You know who I am. Tell +that girl—" +</p> +<p> +She halted again, realizing the young man's expression of +countenance and his attitude with the other girl. She was quick +enough of comprehension to see that this other girl had the +advantage of her with the captain of the <i>Seamew</i> as well as with +her relatives. +</p> +<p> +In Ida May's own artful mind she had decided that a smart girl could +easily "twist that fellow around her finger." This girl who had +usurped her name and identity had already succeeded in doing just +that! The girl from Hoskin & Marl's halted, the wrathful flush came +back into her pretty, insipid face, and she almost screamed: +</p> +<p> +"What's got into you folks? Are you all crazy? Why, that fellow +knows who I am well enough! I bet he brought that girl here himself +and palmed her off on you." She turned to blaze at Cap'n Ira and +Prudence. "He picked her up somewhere—some low creature! But I'll +show them both up; that's what I'll do. I'll make them both sorry +for cheating me. I guess you folks have got a heap of money, and +that fellow and that girl are trying to get it all. But they won't. +I'll have my rights or—" +</p> +<p> +"Belay that!" exclaimed Cap'n Ira suddenly. "We won't listen to no +more such talk. Whatever we have got—Prudence and me—and whoever +you be, young woman, I cal'late we'll do about as we please with it. +I think you have broke loose from them that had you in charge. And +they ought to be hunting for you. Leastways, I guess you'd better +be sent back to 'em." +</p> +<p> +"I'm her niece, I tell you!" reiterated Ida May, pointing at +Prudence, who shrank again from the vehement girl. +</p> +<p> +Then she whirled on Tunis. She clasped her hands. Into her rage was +distilled some fear because of Cap'n Ira's grim words. +</p> +<p> +"You got to help me," she said to the younger man. "You know who I +am, and you daren't deny it!" +</p> +<p> +No man can pace the quarter-deck—even of a packet of no greater +importance than the <i>Seamew</i>—without having developed the sterner +side of his character. And Tunis Latham came of a long line of +shipmasters who had handled all sorts and conditions of men. If a +skipper does not command the respect of his crew, he'll not get far! +</p> +<p> +The grim mask that had settled upon the countenance of the captain +of the <i>Seamew</i> might have stayed the tongue of a more courageous +person than Ida May Bostwick. His severe look and manner appalled +her. +</p> +<p> +"See here, young woman, I don't like your tone; nor do I understand +what you mean. Who do you say this is, Ida May?" he added more +gently, looking down into Sheila's face again. +</p> +<p> +"She—" +</p> +<p> +"<i>I'm</i> Ida May Bostwick. You know I am!" wailed the visitor. +"Why—why, you must remember me, Tunis Latham. Don't you call her by +my name. I won't stand it." +</p> +<p> +"Mad as a hatter! Mad as a hatter!" muttered Cap'n Ira to Prudence. +</p> +<p> +"There's something the matter with her, is there?" proceeded Tunis +thoughtfully, eying the claimant as though she was indeed an utter +stranger. "How did she get here? What does she want?" +</p> +<p> +"She wants a strait-jacket, I cal'late," said Cap'n Ira. "I don't +know what is best to do about her. Prudence says she won't have her +in the house overnight. 'Twould be too bad to have to put her in the +town lockup." +</p> +<p> +"You <i>dare</i> to!" shrieked Ida May, with courage born of desperation. +</p> +<p> +Tunis put Sheila tenderly aside. He crossed the room to the other +girl. He showed no manner of sympathy for her, but he spoke quietly. +</p> +<p> +"This won't do, you know. Mr. and Mrs. Ball don't want you here. You +have no claim on them—none at all. Even if you chanced to be a +relation, they have not got to take you in if they don't want to." +</p> +<p> +"They've taken that other girl in!" cried Ida May wildly. +</p> +<p> +"That is their business. They want her. They don't want you. You +have no more standing here than you would have if you went into the +house of the governor of the State and demanded recognition there." +</p> +<p> +"What a wicked man you are!" gasped Ida May. "And—and I thought you +was a simp!" +</p> +<p> +Tunis did not even change color. He addressed her as though he +believed she was not right in her mind. Sheila watched him, not now +in fear, but in wonder. She had thought she must battle with this +girl for Tunis' name and reputation. But the captain of the <i>Seamew</i> +had seized the reins of affairs himself and was likely to do much +better in the emergency than Sheila could ever dream of doing. +</p> +<p> +"Come, now," said Tunis Latham calmly. "I do not know where you +belong or where you came from last. But you cannot stay here. Cap'n +Ira and Aunt Prue do not want you. If you have any friends near—" +</p> +<p> +"I've got friends all right! You'll find out that I've got 'em!" +gasped the girl threateningly. +</p> +<p> +"You know anybody in Big Wreck Cove?" +</p> +<p> +"No, I don't. I've just come here. But I mean to stay here till I +get my rights. I'll show you all!" +</p> +<p> +"You can't show us anything to-night," interposed Tunis firmly. +"Whatever you mean to try to do cannot be done right now, you know. +You will have to sleep somewhere, and I shall have to do one of two +things—no, one of three things." +</p> +<p> +She looked at him wonderingly, but she was listening. +</p> +<p> +"I will take you back to the port. You cannot go home—wherever you +live—to-night. In the morning you can go over with Ben Craddock on +the stage to Paulmouth." +</p> +<p> +"I won't!" The girl's determination was roused. There was a stubborn +streak in her character that would make her a bitter antagonist. +Tunis, as well as Sheila, realized this. +</p> +<p> +"All right," said the captain of the <i>Seamew</i> calmly. "Then I'll get +you a place to stay down in the port. Or I shall have to see the +justice of the peace and have you committed for your own safety." +</p> +<p> +"You don't dare!" cried Ida May again. +</p> +<p> +"You tempt me too far, young woman," he said sternly, "and you'll +find just how much I dare. Will you come along with me now and +behave yourself?" +</p> +<p> +"That's the ticket, Tunis," muttered Cap'n Ira. "Put her where she +belongs." +</p> +<p> +"So my own folks turn me out, do they?" cried Ida May, hatefully, +staring at the two old people. "If anybody is crazy it is those +two," and she pointed to the Balls. "Take in a drab like that girl +and throw <i>me</i> out. Why, I believe I've seen her before. Somehow, +she looks familiar," she added, her sharp gaze fixed on Sheila +again. "Well, wherever it was, she was up to no good, I'll be +bound." +</p> +<p> +"Are you coming with me willingly, and now?" put in Tunis more +harshly. "You are taking a chance, young woman, in talking this +way." +</p> +<p> +"Oh, she's got <i>you</i> going. That's plain to be seen! I thought you +was a nice fellow. But I guess you're like other sailors. I always +heard they was a bad lot—running after women—" +</p> +<p> +"Will you come without any more words?" interrupted Tunis grimly. +</p> +<p> +"I'll have to go back to the town, I suppose. But remember! This +ain't the end of this," she weakly blustered. +</p> +<p> +"This your bag?" said Tunis calmly, picking up Ida May's satchel. +"All right. We'll go." +</p> +<p> +He did not attempt to look at Sheila again, nor at Cap'n Ira and +Prudence. He walked behind Ida May, but rather hustled her out of +the door. She might have cast back some final defiance, but he gave +her no chance. +</p> +<p> +It was almost twilight when they went out at the kitchen door. They +left the trio in the sitting room speechless for the moment. But +Sheila Macklin's speechlessness arose through different thoughts +from those of the Balls. +</p> +<p> +The girl left behind realized that this almost unexpected outcome +was but the momentary triumph of falsehood. +</p> +<a name="2HCH0022"><!-- H2 anchor --></a> + +<div style="height: 4em;"><br /><br /><br /><br /></div> + +<h2> + CHAPTER XXII +</h2> +<h3> + A WAY OUT +</h3> +<p> +"Ida May, you'd better sit down. You look like you'd had a stroke," +declared the captain. +</p> +<p> +"Why wouldn't she, the dear child?" cried Prudence. "What do you +suppose is the matter with that girl? Is she crazy?" +</p> +<p> +"Crazy ain't no name for it," her husband rejoined. "Her top-hamper +is all askew, I cal'late. I never see the beat." +</p> +<p> +But just now Sheila could not endure any discussion of the strange +girl. She rose as quickly as she had seated herself. +</p> +<p> +"I must fix supper," she said briskly. "You sit still, Aunt +Prudence. You're flustered, I can see. There is nothing for you to +do." +</p> +<p> +"That's right," put in Cap'n Ira. "Get a bite ready against Tunis +comes back. He'll want something fillin' after handling that crazy +gal." +</p> +<p> +He winked at Prudence and nudged her. The outstanding incident for +the old man was the unmistakable signs Tunis and Sheila had given +that they were in love with each other. +</p> +<p> +"What did I tell ye when that gal first come here?" whispered Cap'n +Ira hoarsely, when the girl had left the room. "I knowed that the +hull generation here on the Cape hadn't been struck blind, not by a +jugful! And it's evident to my mind, Prudence, that Tunis Latham has +had his eyes pretty wide open from the first." +</p> +<p> +"Oh! I hope—it can't be that Ida May would leave us," murmured +Prudence. "I don't mean to be selfish." +</p> +<p> +"Looks like we could get another gal easy enough if we wanted her," +remarked the old man, with some bitterness. "I swan, Prue! S'pose +Ida May had turned out to be the sort of a gal that flyaway critter +is? We are blessed; we certainly are." And he treated himself to a +liberal pinch of snuff. +</p> +<p> +Sheila did not wish to hear the two old people talk about the real +Ida May Bostwick. When Tunis took the girl away it was an enormous +relief. Of that she was quite sure. The malevolent attitude of the +frustrated Ida May was sufficient to frighten anybody. +</p> +<p> +Shelia was positive enough that, as Ida May had promised, the matter +was not ended. That venomous girl would not be content to leave Big +Wreck Cove without making a further attempt—perhaps many—to +establish herself in her right identity and in what she considered +her rightful place with the Balls. +</p> +<p> +Supper was late that evening. They were only just seated at the +table when Tunis returned. +</p> +<p> +"Come on, boy," said Cap'n Ira. "There's a place set for you. Tell +us what you did with that crazy girl." +</p> +<p> +Sheila was busy between the stove and the table and did not come to +the side of the captain of the <i>Seamew</i> as he took the chair +indicated. He was not smiling as usual, but neither did he seem +alarmed. He replied to the questions of the old people with +tranquillity. +</p> +<p> +"I did not advise her to go to the Burchell House," Tunis said. "You +know what a talker Sally Burchell is. I remember that Mrs. Pauling +took boarders in the summer, and I went to her with that girl." +</p> +<p> +"You mean Zeb's mother?" asked Prudence. "Well, she'll take care of +her, I guess. And Zeb is strong and willing. If she gets crazy in +the night, they ought to be able to hold her." +</p> +<p> +A faint smile flickered for a moment about Tunis Latham's stern +lips. +</p> +<p> +"I don't guess she will act up so very bad with strangers." +</p> +<p> +"I swan! We was strangers enough to her, it would seem," exclaimed +Cap'n Ira. +</p> +<p> +"But she seems to consider that you ought not to be," Tunis pointed +out. +</p> +<p> +"Never heard of such a thing!" muttered the old man. +</p> +<p> +"I would have been glad to get her out of town this very night," +Tunis observed quietly. "But it could not be done. She is convinced +that she has what she calls 'rights,' and she proposes to remain and +fight for them." +</p> +<p> +"I swan!" +</p> +<p> +"You will have to be firm with her. I explained to Zeb's mother what +we thought was the matter with her. And I'll try to find her +friends. She says she comes from Boston." +</p> +<p> +"Goodness gracious gallop!" exclaimed the old woman, more angry than +frightened now. "She certainly can't stay here and tell those awful +things she was saying about Ida May." +</p> +<p> +"I don't really see how we are going to stop her, right at first," +Tunis rejoined. "Of course, if she continues to come up here and +bother you, you can have her arrested." +</p> +<p> +"Oh!" gasped Sheila. +</p> +<p> +"Now, gal," said Cap'n Ira firmly, "don't you let your tender heart +deceive you. That crazy critter ain't worth worrying about. She +shan't be hurt. But I won't have her coming round here frightening +you and Prudence. No, sir!" +</p> +<p> +"Quite right," said Tunis, agreeing. +</p> +<p> +"Oh, Tunis!" murmured the girl. +</p> +<p> +"But she will make talk. No doubt she will make talk," said Prudence +in a worried tone. "We ought to stop her, somehow, from telling such +things about our Ida May." +</p> +<p> +"Does she want money?" asked Cap'n Ira gruffly. "She talked as +though she did." +</p> +<p> +"I think to offer her money would be the very worst possible way of +shutting her up," said Tunis. "She wants to come here and live and +be accepted as your niece." +</p> +<p> +"I never did!" gasped Prudence. +</p> +<p> +"She says nothing else will suit her. She seems to think she can +prove what she had claimed. I think the best thing to do is to let +her try it." +</p> +<p> +Sheila could not eat. She merely stared from one to the other of the +three and listened to the discussion. In no way could she see a +shadow of escape from ultimate disaster; yet she saw that Tunis was +determined to fight it out on this line, to deny the stranger's +claim and hold to what had already been gained for the girl in +possession! +</p> +<p> +"Well," Prudence said, with a sigh, "I can see plainly it is going +to stir up a puddle of muddy water. Unless she says or does +something that makes the authorities take her and put her away, +there will be them that will believe her—or half believe her." +</p> +<p> +"Let 'em talk," growled Cap'n Ira. "'Twon't be the first time Big +Wreck Cove folks got a mouthful to chew." +</p> +<p> +"But it will hurt Ida May," said Prudence, her voice trembling, as +she squeezed the girl's hand and held it. +</p> +<p> +"'Sticks and stones may break my bones, but names will never hurt +me,'" began Cap'n Ira. Then he broke off in anger when he saw the +girl's face, and exclaimed: "But, I swan! They'll keep you dodging, +and that's a fact! Ought to be some way of shutting her up, Tunis." +</p> +<p> +"I don't know how that is going to be done. Not just at first, +anyway. Perhaps something will turn up. And, anyway, she hasn't +begun to talk yet." +</p> +<p> +"It's like being tied down to one o' them railroad tracks and +waiting for the fast express to come along and crunch ye," grumbled +the old man. "I know how Ida May feels. But you keep a stiff upper +lip, my gal. You've got plenty of friends that won't listen to any +such crazy notions as that other gal's got in her noodle." +</p> +<p> +In this manner the old folks comforted themselves in part. But +nothing that was said could comfort Sheila. Tunis smoked a pipe with +Cap'n Ira after supper, while the girl cleared off the table and +washed and dried the dishes. Then he got her outside just after he +had bidden Cap'n Ira and Prudence good night. +</p> +<p> +They walked away silently from the kitchen door into the deep murk +of a starless night. The moaning of a rising sea upon the outer +reefs was the requiem of Sheila's hopes. One thing, she saw clearly, +she must do. If she remained and fought for her place with the +Balls, she must stand alone. Whether or not she held her place, she +must not allow Tunis to be linked with her in this situation. As she +slipped deeper and deeper into the morass, she could not cling to +him and drag him as well into infamy and disgrace. +</p> +<p> +Away from the house, fully out of earshot from the kitchen, she +halted. Tunis had taken her hand in his warm, encouraging grasp. She +let it remain, but she did not return his pressure. +</p> +<p> +"Dear, this is dreadful," he whispered, "I know. But leave it to me. +I'll find some way out." +</p> +<p> +"There is no way out, Tunis," she said confidently. +</p> +<p> +"Cat's-foot! Don't say that," he cried in exasperation. "There is +always a way out of every jam." +</p> +<p> +"This girl will do one of two things," said Sheila firmly. "Either +she will prove her claim, or she will give up and go back to Boston. +You know that." +</p> +<p> +"She'll fight hard, I guess" he admitted. +</p> +<p> +"Either way, Tunis," the girl pursued, "there is bound to be much +doubt cast upon my character—upon <i>me</i>. If the truth becomes known, +I am utterly lost. If it is hushed up, I must go on living a +lie—if I stay here." +</p> +<p> +"Don't talk that way!" he exclaimed gruffly. "Of course you'll stay +here. If not with the Balls, then with me." +</p> +<p> +"Stop!" she begged him. "Wait! I am going to state the matter +plainly as it is. We can no longer dodge it. This is the <i>truth</i> +which we have been trying to ignore. I have not been foolish only; I +have been wicked. And my greatest sin was in allowing you to link +yourself with me so closely." +</p> +<p> +"What do you mean?" he gasped. +</p> +<p> +"Just what I say. It was wrong for me to allow you to be friendly +with me before the Balls and other people. I should not have gone to +your house last Sunday. I should not have allowed you to introduce +me to your Aunt Lucretia." +</p> +<p> +"Ida May!" +</p> +<p> +"That is not my name," she whispered. "Let there be no further +mockery between you and me, Tunis. I have been wicked; <i>we</i> have +been wicked. We must pay for what we have done. There is no escaping +that. I must not keep you as my lover, Tunis. I was wrong—oh! so +wrong—last Sunday. Reckless, wicked, drifting with a current, I +scarcely knew where." +</p> +<p> +"My dear girl—" +</p> +<p> +"Now I see the rocks ahead, Tunis. I can shut my eyes to them no +longer. Disaster is at hand. You shall not be overwhelmed, as I may +be overwhelmed at any time. I will not have your ruin on my +conscience!" +</p> +<p> +"My ruin?" he repeated. "Ridiculous! My dear girl, you are talking +like a mad woman. You cannot snap the tie that binds us. You cannot +shoulder all the responsibility for this situation. The sin is as +much mine as yours, if it is a sin. I'm in it as deep as you are." +</p> +<p> +"You must not be," she cried. "You can escape. You <i>shall</i> escape." +</p> +<p> +"Suppose I refuse to do so?" And he said it confidently. +</p> +<p> +"Tunis, I have thought of a way out for you," she cried suddenly. +</p> +<p> +"I don't want to hear it." +</p> +<p> +"But you must hear it!" +</p> +<p> +"I will not accept it." +</p> +<p> +"You cannot help yourself," she told him firmly. "Oh, I know what I +am about! You may be angry; you will perhaps be laughed at a bit. +But to be laughed at is better than to be scorned." +</p> +<p> +"What under the sun do you mean, girl?" he exclaimed, both startled +and horrified by her determined words. "Do you think I would desert +you in the middle of the current and swim ashore?" +</p> +<p> +"But I will desert you. I am determined to desert you. I refuse to +cling to you, a millstone about your neck to drag you down. Ah, +Tunis, whether or not that girl makes her claim good, what you and +I had hoped for cannot be! An explanation must be made of your part +in this frightful affair. That, in itself, must separate you and +me." +</p> +<p> +"What explanation? There is no such explanation that can be made. I +glory in the fact that we are together in this, Sheila, and whatever +comes of it, we stand or fall together!" +</p> +<p> +"Ah, Tunis, you <i>are</i> a man! I knew that before. But nothing you can +say will bend my determination. I withdraw all I said to you Sunday +and on Monday morning before you went away. I positively withdraw +all I promised you. It cannot be, Tunis. We cannot look forward to +any happiness when we began so unwisely." +</p> +<p> +"'Unwisely?' What do you mean?" demanded the captain of the +<i>Seamew</i>. "Chance threw us together. <i>Providence</i>, I tell you! I +needed you fully as much as you needed me. And surely these poor old +folks needed you, Sheila. Consider what you have been to them." +</p> +<p> +"It makes no difference in our association, Tunis," she said, +shaking her head. +</p> +<p> +"Why, that night we talked upon that bench on Boston Common, had I +dared propose such a thing, I would have said: 'Come and marry me +now.' I would, indeed, Sheila." +</p> +<p> +The girl clenched her hands and drew in a breath. She raised her +face to his, and in the darkness Tunis Latham saw it shine with a +light from within. A great and desperate longing filled her voice +when she cried: +</p> +<p> +"Oh, why didn't you do just that, Tunis Latham? I would have said +'yes.' And all this—<i>this</i> need not have been." +</p> +<p> +Swiftly she caught him around the neck, pressed her lips fiercely to +his, while the tears rained down her face, wetting his face as well. +Then she was gone. He heard her sobbing wildly in the dark. He was +alone. +</p> +<a name="2HCH0023"><!-- H2 anchor --></a> + +<div style="height: 4em;"><br /><br /><br /><br /></div> + +<h2> + CHAPTER XXIII +</h2> +<h3> + A CALL UNANNOUNCED +</h3> +<p> +Cap'n Ira and Prudence did not see Sheila again that evening, for +she slipped in by the kitchen door after they had gone into the +sitting room and went up to her own chamber. They heard her mount +the stairs and marked the tread of her light feet overhead. +</p> +<p> +The girl was not thinking of the old people just then. Their need +entered into her determination to remain if she could. But this +night was one time when Sheila Macklin thought almost altogether of +herself and her personal difficulties. +</p> +<p> +Her present and acknowledged love for the young captain of the +<i>Seamew</i> had been of no mushroom growth. She might not say, as Tunis +did, that she had fallen in love at first sight. But very soon after +meeting the young shipmaster from Big Wreck Cove she had appreciated +his full value and realized that he was far and away the best man +she had ever met. +</p> +<p> +Indeed, in that moment when Tunis Latham had caught Sheila in his +arms as she had slipped in front of the restaurant on Scollay +Square, the girl's mind had been stabbed through by such a poignant +feeling, such a desire to know more about him, that she was actually +frightened by the strength of this concern. +</p> +<p> +She knelt before her north window with the frosty air breathing in +like a balm upon her fevered body, and strained her eyes for a +glimpse of the light that always burned in Tunis' window when he was +at home. It was a long time before she saw it. For Tunis Latham had +walked about the fields a long time after she left him, and it was +late when he finally entered the big brown house behind the cedars. +</p> +<p> +Aunt Lucretia, who had been expecting him, after she had seen the +<i>Seamew</i> heading for the cove that afternoon, was still sitting in +the kitchen when her nephew entered. Composed as the man's features +were, there was still an expression upon them which startled the +woman. It brought her out of her chair, even if it did not bring an +audible question to her lips. +</p> +<p> +"I was delayed, Aunt 'Cretia," he said. "No; nothing new about the +<i>Seamew</i> or about business. It's—there's trouble up to the Balls'." +</p> +<p> +He knew her first thought would be for the health of the two old +people, and he had to explain a little more. +</p> +<p> +"They are all right—Cap'n Ira and Aunt Prue. It's about Sh—Ida +May." +</p> +<p> +"Tunis! Nothing has happened to the girl?" +</p> +<p> +He must take Aunt Lucretia into his confidence—at least, to some +extent. Just how much could he tell her? How much dared he tell her? +</p> +<p> +From somebody, he felt sure, she would hear about this other girl +who had appeared to claim kinship with the Balls and demand that +Sheila give over to her the place she had with Cap'n Ira and +Prudence. For Ida May Bostwick was going to talk. Tunis knew that +well enough. Although he had warned her sternly that evening against +talking, he knew well enough that after the girl had recovered from +her first fright she would spit out the venomous tale that she had +already concocted in her mind about Sheila and himself. +</p> +<p> +He could not bring himself to confess to Aunt Lucretia all the truth +about his first meeting and subsequent association with Sheila. +Indeed, he hoped he would never be obliged to tell it. +</p> +<p> +But he must tell Aunt Lucretia nothing but the truth. He did this by +beginning at the coming of the real Ida May Bostwick to the Ball +house that afternoon and her claim to Sheila's place with the +family. As he told the story, Aunt Lucretia gazed upon him so +fixedly, so intently, that the captain of the <i>Seamew</i> was +disturbed. He could not understand her expression. +</p> +<p> +Perhaps he told the story haltingly of how Ida May had been turned +out and he had taken her back to the port and housed her with Mrs. +Pauling. He made few comments, however; he left Aunt Lucretia to +draw her own conclusions. It was not until he had quite finished +that she spoke again. +</p> +<p> +"That crazy girl, is she—" +</p> +<p> +"I don't know that she's crazy," said Tunis gruffly. +</p> +<p> +"It would seem so. Does she look like Ida May?" +</p> +<p> +Tunis started. The question seemed to probe into a matter that he +had not before considered. But he shook his head negatively. +</p> +<p> +"Nothing like her," he said. "Reddish hair. Brown eyes—or kind of +brown. When she's maddest there are green lights in 'em. Not nice +eyes at all." +</p> +<p> +Aunt Lucretia nodded and said no more upon that point. What her +question had dealt with in her own mind, Tunis could not guess. She +watched his face, now pale and sadly drawn. Then she placed a firm +hand upon his arm to arouse his attention. +</p> +<p> +"Tunis! This—this girl at Cap'n Ira's is something to you?" +</p> +<p> +"My God! Aunt 'Cretia, she's <i>everything</i> to me," he groaned, his +reticence breaking down. +</p> +<p> +"Is she a good girl, Tunis?" +</p> +<p> +"As good as gold. On my honor, there was never a nobler or better +girl. I—I love her!" The words burst from him now in a great gush +of emotion. These Lathams, when they did break up, often ran over. +"I can't tell you the hold she has on me. If I lose her through this +or any other cause, I'm done for! +</p> +<p> +"She thinks she isn't good enough for me. She is afraid of this girl +who claims her place. She fears that I am going to be looked down on +if I have anything more to do with her. And I tell you, if she was +not the girl I know her to be, I would still cling to her. I must +have her. I tell you, I must!" +</p> +<p> +Tears came to his eyes. His voice, hoarse and broken, carried to the +woman's heart the knowledge that the one and overpowering passion of +the man's life was rampant within him. What or whoever the girl at +the Ball homestead might be, Tunis Latham was bound to her by ties +which could not be broken. +</p> +<p> +She did the thing most generous; quite in accordance with her +unselfish disposition. She stepped nearer to her nephew and put her +arms about his neck. She kissed him. She gave no further evidence of +doubt or disapproval. Indeed, when he left her to go to his room, he +was assured that, however the world might look upon him, Aunt +Lucretia was his supporter. +</p> +<p> +The girl in the Ball house saw the glimmer of his lamp that night +for a very few minutes. There was a day's work before him, and +Tunis Latham, like other hard-working men, must have his sleep. +</p> +<p> +Sheila kept the night watches alone. She went to bed, but the lids +of her eyes could not close. Sleep was as far from her as heaven +itself. She went over the entire happenings of the previous +afternoon and evening with care, giving to each incident its +rightful importance, judging the weight of each word said, each look +granted her. Did the Balls suspect her in the least? Had the story +Ida May Bostwick told made any real impression upon their minds? +</p> +<p> +No! She finally told herself that thus far she was secure. Ida May +must bring something besides assertion to influence the minds of the +two old people. And if she had had documentary proof in her +possession yesterday, the new claimant would have shown it. +</p> +<p> +Nobody carries about with him birth certificate or memoranda of +identification and relationship. If Ida May had been warned of what +she was to meet at the old house on Wreckers' Head, without doubt +she would have tried to equip herself in some such way for the +interview. +</p> +<p> +It might be very difficult for the girl to obtain any evidence that +would assure the Balls of her actual relationship to them. Sheila +had foreseen this possibility from the first. She was still quite +determined to hold on, to make the other girl do all the talking +and all the proving. She herself would rest upon the foundation of +her establishment in the place Ida May Bostwick claimed. +</p> +<p> +The latter certainly could not know Sheila's true history. Sheila +was as much a stranger to Ida May as she had been to the Balls when +Tunis had brought her to Wreckers' Head. +</p> +<p> +And then, suddenly, a thought seared through the girl's mind. +Something that Ida May Bostwick had said just before Tunis hurried +her out of the house! +</p> +<p> +"I believe I've seen her before. Somehow, she looks familiar." +</p> +<p> +These two sentences, spoken in Ida May's sneering way, had made +little impression on the excited Sheila at the time they were +spoken. But now they made the girl's heart beat wildly. +</p> +<p> +Suppose it were true! Suppose Ida May should really remember who +Sheila was? It was not impossible that the girl from the lace +counter of Hoskin & Marl's knew of Sheila's disgrace. +</p> +<p> +Sleep was not within her reach. The long hours of the night dragged +past. Dimly dawn crept along the dark line of the horizon, circling +all her world as far as Sheila could see it from her bed. But it was +still dark below her north window when she caught the sound of a +familiar step, the crunch of gravel under Tunis' boot. +</p> +<p> +She lay shaking for a moment, holding her breath. She heard the tiny +pebbles rattle upon the window sill. For the first time she had not +been downstairs to greet Tunis on his way to the port. Could she let +him go now without a word? +</p> +<p> +But she must! She must be firm. +</p> +<p> +Nevertheless, she slipped softly out of bed. The pebbles rattled +again. She caught up a dark veil from her bureau and wrapped it +about her face. She crept to the north window. The veil would mask +her face so that he could not distinguish it in the shadow. +</p> +<p> +But she could look down upon him. She saw him standing there so +firmly—so determinedly. His was no nature to give over easily +anything he had set his heart on. All the more reason why Sheila +should not appear to weaken. +</p> +<p> +She crouched there breathlessly as he tossed up more pebbles. Then +she heard him sigh. Then he turned slowly away, and his feet dragged +off along the path, and he went out of sight. +</p> +<p> +The girl crept back into bed. She hid her face in the pillow and dry +sobs racked her frame. This was the hardest of all the hard things +she had to do. She had wounded Tunis to the heart! +</p> +<a name="2HCH0024"><!-- H2 anchor --></a> + +<div style="height: 4em;"><br /><br /><br /><br /></div> + +<h2> + CHAPTER XXIV +</h2> +<h3> + EUNEZ PARETA +</h3> +<p> +Tunis Latham went down the track toward the port as the dull dawn +glimmered behind him in a frame of mind so dismal and despairing +that more than Sheila Macklin would have pitied the captain of the +<i>Seamew</i>. Against the tide of emotions which now surged in his heart +he scarcely had the energy to battle. +</p> +<p> +Never had he felt less like approaching his usual tasks as commander +and owner of the schooner and facing the trials he knew would meet +him upon this coming trip to Boston. Freight was waiting upon Luiz +Wharf, and he would be able to pick up the remainder of his cargo at +Hollis, which, with the wind as it was now, he could reach that +afternoon by four o'clock. Given good luck, he would warp into the +T-wharf next day before nightfall. +</p> +<p> +The uncertain point which troubled him most was the matter of the +crew of the <i>Seamew</i>. The Portygees remaining with him—even Johnny +Lark, the cook—had been in a most unhappy temper all the way back +from Boston on the last trip. Tunis could depend upon Mate Chapin, +Boatswain Newbegin, and 'Rion Latham himself to stick by the +schooner. For, in spite of his quarreling and long tongue about a +hoodoo, Tunis thought that his cousin was a man above any real fear +of the very superstitions he talked about. +</p> +<p> +But four men could not safely work the schooner to Boston, nor in +season to keep his contract with the consignees of freight which the +<i>Seamew</i> carried. Troubled as he had been at Boston, and delayed, +Tunis wished now that he had remained there even longer while he +made search for and engaged a proper crew for the schooner. He had +better, perhaps, have paid the fare of the Portygees back to Big +Wreck Cove and so saved quarreling with them. +</p> +<p> +When he had been about to leave the schooner the afternoon before, +the foolish fellows had sent a spokesman to him asking if he was +sure the <i>Seamew</i> was not the old <i>Marlin B.</i>, the Salem fishing +craft which had been acclaimed "the murder ship" from the Banks to +the Cape by all coasting seamen several years before. To answer this +question rasped the pride of the owner of the <i>Seamew</i>. For a seaman +to ask a question of one of the officers—a question of such a +nature—was flaunting authority in any case. +</p> +<p> +Although Captain Latham considered the question ridiculous and +utterly unworthy of a serious answer, he had replied to it. +</p> +<p> +He had told the sailor that to the best of his knowledge and belief +the old <i>Marlin B.</i> was several thousand miles away from the Cape at +that time, and that the <i>Seamew</i> was herself and no other. In any +case, he had said he had no personal fear of sailing in the schooner +as long as he could keep a decent crew of seamen aboard her, but +that he would stand for no more foolishness from his present crew. +</p> +<p> +Tunis had spoken quite boldly. But, to tell the truth, he did not +know where or how he was to sign another crew and a cook if the +Portygees deserted the schooner. Not at Big Wreck Cove. He had heard +too many whispers about the curse upon his schooner from people of +all classes in the port. Even Joshua Jones, who was supposed to be a +pretty hard-headed merchant, had been influenced by the story 'Rion +Latham had first told about the <i>Seamew</i>. He and his father had +hesitated to give Tunis an order for another lot of freight now +waiting on the dock at Boston. They wanted to be sure that the +schooner was not going to sail from the latter port undermanned. +Whether or not the Joneses believed in the hoodoo, they did know +that if the <i>Seamew</i> sailed without a proper crew their insurance on +the freight would be invalid. +</p> +<p> +So the farther Tunis walked down toward the wharves, the more these +thoughts assailed and overcame his mind, to the exclusion even of +the tragic happenings back there on the Head the night before. He +could not consider Ida May Bostwick—not even Sheila—now. The +schooner, with her affairs, was a harsh mistress. His all was +invested in the <i>Seamew</i>, and business had not been so good thus far +that he could withdraw with a profit. Far from that! There were +financial reefs and shoals on either hand, and that fact the young +skipper knew right well. +</p> +<p> +As he drew near to Portygee Town, he glanced toward the open door of +Pareta's cottage and saw the girl, Eunez, seated upon the step. She +did not come out to meet him, as had been her wont, but she hailed +him as he approached—though in a sharper tone than usual. +</p> +<p> +"So Captain Tunis Latham has still another girl? He is a lion with +the ladies, it is plain to be seen. Ah!" +</p> +<p> +"You don't mind, do you, Eunez?" replied the young man, trying to +assume his usual careless manner of speech. "You have the reputation +of being pretty popular with the fellows yourself." +</p> +<p> +"Ah!" she said again, tossing her head. "Who is this new girl I see +you walk with last evening, Tunis?" +</p> +<p> +"She is a stranger in Big Wreck Cove," was his noncommittal reply. +</p> +<p> +"So I see. They come and go for you, Tunis Latham. You are the +fickle man, eh?" +</p> +<p> +"Tut, tut, Eunez!" he laughed. "Those who live in glass houses +should not throw stones. How about yourself? Didn't I see you going +to church with Johnny Lark last Sunday? And then, in the afternoon, +you had another cavalier along the beaches. Oh, I saw you!" +</p> +<p> +The color flashed into her dark cheek, and her black eyes reflected +some unexplained anger. Beside her, leaning against the house wall, +was the handle end of a broken oar. Tunis chanced to mark that there +was a streak of dull blue paint on it. +</p> +<p> +"You have sharp eyes. Tunis Latham," hissed the girl. "Not all of +the Lathams are too proud to walk with Eunez Pareta—or too proud to +think of her. But <i>you</i>—bah!" +</p> +<p> +She got up suddenly, turned her back upon him, and entered the +cottage. Tunis walked on, just a little puzzled. +</p> +<p> +Horry Newbegin sat on the rail of the schooner smoking, and +evidently looking anxiously for the appearance of the skipper. There +was no smoke rising from the galley chimney. +</p> +<p> +"What's the matter with cooky?" demanded Tunis briskly. +</p> +<p> +"The dratted Portygee's gone off to Paulmouth. He left word that he +couldn't sail with us this trip." +</p> +<p> +"Then he'll never sail on the <i>Seamew</i> again," declared the skipper +grimly. +</p> +<p> +"And <i>that</i> won't bother him none," said the boatswain gloomily. +</p> +<p> +"I'll get breakfast for all hands," said Tunis. "I'm not above that. +Where are the hands?" +</p> +<p> +"As far as I know, Cap'n Tunis, they are where Johnny Lark is. +Haven't shown up, and don't mean to," said Horry doggedly. +</p> +<p> +Tunis Latham cursed his delinquent crew soundly. The rage which +flamed into his eyes, added to the pallor of his face, made an ugly +mask indeed. It was not often that he gave way to such an outburst, +but Horry had seen the same deadly anger displayed on occasion by +Captain Randall Latham. +</p> +<p> +"Where's Mr. Chapin?" +</p> +<p> +"He was here before you, Cap'n Tunis. He's gone up to town to see if +he can drum up some hands." +</p> +<p> +"Where's 'Rion?" +</p> +<p> +"He says he'll be here by the time you get ready to wheel the stuff +aboard." And the old man pointed with his pipe-stem toward the open +door of the shed. +</p> +<p> +"Ha!" ejaculated Tunis. "Feared I'd set him to work, eh? Well, +they're all dogs together—the whole litter of 'em. I'll make the +coffee. Tell me when Mr. Chapin comes. I suppose we can hire enough +hands to get the freight aboard." +</p> +<p> +"But we can't work the schooner with three men, Cap'n Tunis; nor +yet with four." +</p> +<p> +"Don't I know that? I'll get a crew if I have to shanghai them," +promised Tunis grimly. +</p> +<p> +Mason Chapin came along with half a dozen fellows after a while. One +was a negro who could cook. But there was no breakfast worthy of the +name served aboard the <i>Seamew</i> that morning. They were late already +in getting to work. +</p> +<p> +It was the middle of the forenoon before the schooner left port. +There was a crew, such as it was. But Mason Chapin had been obliged +to promise them extra pay to get them aboard the schooner at all. +</p> +<p> +When 'Rion Latham slipped aboard finally, half the loading of the +cargo had been accomplished. Tunis himself was keeping tally. The +skipper beckoned his cousin to him. +</p> +<p> +"'Rion," he said, "you certainly are about as useless a fellow as I +ever had anything to do with. These Portygees who have left me in +the lurch have some excuse for their actions. They are ignorant and +superstitious. You know mighty well that the stuff you have been +repeating about the schooner being cursed is nothing but lies and +old-women's gossip! You've done it to make trouble. I ought to have +had booted you overboard at the start." +</p> +<p> +"Aw—you—" +</p> +<p> +"Close your hatch!" ejaculated Tunis. "And keep it closed. I'm +talking, and I won't take any of your slack in return. I am not +married to you, thanks be! I think you've got pretty near enough of +me, and I'm sure I have of you, 'Rion. I give you warning—" +</p> +<p> +"Oh! You do?" snarled 'Rion, his ugly face aflame. +</p> +<p> +"Yes. I give you <i>fair</i> warning. When the <i>Seamew</i> gets back here to +Big Wreck Cove again, you're through! You can take your dunnage +ashore now if you like, but you go without pay if you do. Or you can +do your work properly on this trip and return. <i>Then</i> you get +through. Take your choice." +</p> +<p> +He expected 'Rion would leave the <i>Seamew</i> then and there. Tunis +half hoped, indeed, that he would do so. But to his surprise, Orion +suddenly snatched the book and pencil out of the skipper's hand and, +growling that "he'd stay the voyage out," shuffled away to the rail +and began taking tally of the barrels and cases being hauled aboard. +</p> +<p> +Working smartly, the new crew got the <i>Seamew</i> under sail and out of +the cove two hours later. The wind held in a favorable quarter, and +they reached Hollis betimes. There they finished the schooner's +loading, and about dark went out to sea on a long tack and got +plenty of sea room before they made the short leg of it. +</p> +<p> +Supper was the first good meal they had had aboard that day. After +everything was cleaned up, the black cook joined the crew forward. +In whispers the men talked over both the skipper and his schooner. +The story of the curse was known to everybody in Big Wreck Cove by +this time, and none of these new men was ignorant of it. They had, +however, merely used it as a means of getting more pay than ordinary +seamen were getting in such vessels. +</p> +<p> +"'Tain't nothing as I can see," one of the older men said, "that is +likely to hurt us. It's a curse on the schooner, not on us folks +that warn't aboard her when she run under that other boat. And as +long as we keep away from the spot where the poor devils was +drowned, we ain't likely to see no ha'nts." +</p> +<p> +The cook's eyes rolled tremendously. +</p> +<p> +"You thinks likely this yere is that <i>Marlin B.</i>?" +</p> +<p> +"Bah!" exclaimed one, whose name was Carney. "It's only talk. Maybe +she ain't that schooner at all. Mr. Chapin says she ain't." +</p> +<p> +"Is that so?" sneered the voice of 'Rion Latham behind them. "You +fellows don't want to believe what the skipper and the mate say. It +ain't to their benefit for you to believe the truth. Look here!" +</p> +<p> +"What's that?" asked Carney, looking at the article Orion pushed +forward in the dark. "A broken oar?" +</p> +<p> +"That's what it is. I found it only this morning in the hold, when I +was helping stow the last of the cargo. It was wedged in behind a +timber of her frame." +</p> +<p> +"Well? What of it?" +</p> +<p> +"Strike a match somebody. See what's burned into that handle?" +</p> +<p> +Their heads were clustered about the faint glimmer of the match +flame. But the light was sufficient to reveal what 'Rion pointed +out. Burned more or less unevenly were the letters M A R L I N B. +</p> +<p> +"What do you think of that?" exclaimed 'Rion. "Would that broken oar +be aboard of this dratted schooner if she wasn't the <i>Marlin B.</i> +painted over and a new name give her? What do you fellows think of +it?" +</p> +<p> +There was silence in the group when the match flame died out. It was +finally the negro cook who made comment: +</p> +<p> +"Lawsy me!" he groaned. "Ef I had only de faith of Peter I'd up an' +walk ashore from dis here cussed schooner right now!" +</p> +<a name="2HCH0025"><!-- H2 anchor --></a> + +<div style="height: 4em;"><br /><br /><br /><br /></div> + +<h2> + CHAPTER XXV +</h2> +<h3> + TO LOVE AND BE LOVED +</h3> +<p> +The girl whom Cap'n Ira Ball found in the kitchen of the old house +on Wreckers' Head when he hobbled out of his bedroom the next +morning was not the Ida May he had been wont to find of late, ready +with his shaving materials, hot water, and a clean and voluminous +checked apron to be tucked in about the neckband of his shirt. +</p> +<p> +All was in readiness as usual, but the girl herself was smileless, +heavy-eyed, and slack of step. That she had suffered both in body +and mind since the day before, the least observant person in the +world would have easily comprehended. +</p> +<p> +"I swan, Ida May!" gasped the old man. "Whatever's happened to you?" +</p> +<p> +"I did not sleep well, Uncle Ira," she told him faintly. +</p> +<p> +"Sleep? Why you look as though you'd been standing double watch for +a week of Sundays! I never see the beat! Has that crazy gal coming +here set ye all aback this way?" +</p> +<p> +"I—I am afraid so." +</p> +<p> +"'Tis a shame. I won't stand to have that gal come here again. +Prudence has been starting and crying out all night, too. She's as +much upset as you be. I cal'late you don't feel like shaving of me +this morning, Ida May." +</p> +<p> +"Oh, yes, I do, Uncle Ira! Don't mind how I look." +</p> +<p> +"But I do mind," he grumbled. "Folks' looks is a great p'int. I've +always held to it. Talk about a singed cat being better than it +looks—I doubt it!" +</p> +<p> +"People of my complexion always look worse after a sleepless night," +explained Sheila, trying to smile at him. +</p> +<p> +"That's a pity, too. And I feel the need of being spruced up a good +deal myself this morning, Ida May," he continued. "D'you see how +straggly my hair is gettin'? Do you think you could trim it a mite?" +</p> +<p> +"Why, of course I can, Uncle Ira," she rejoined cheerfully. +</p> +<p> +"I swan! You be a likely gal, Ida May," said the old man, both +reflectively and gratefully. "What would Prue and me do without you? +And no other girl but just you would have begun to fill the bill o' +lading. That's as sure as sure! See now," he went on, with emphasis, +"suppose you'd been such a one as that half-crazy critter that come +here yesterday! Where'd Prudence and me been with her in the house? +Well!" +</p> +<p> +"She—she may not be as bad as she seemed under those particular +circumstances," Sheila said hesitatingly. "If she had come here—had +come here first and you and Aunt Prue had not known me at all—" +</p> +<p> +"I swan! Don't say no more! Don't say no more, I tell ye!" gasped +Cap'n Ira. "It's bad luck to talk such a way; I do believe it is. +Come on, Ida May. You tackle my hair and let's see what you can do +with it. I know right well you'll make it look better than Prudence +used to do." +</p> +<p> +Cap'n Ira was talking for effect, and the result he wished to +achieve was bringing a smile to Sheila's face and a brighter light +into her eyes, the violet hues of which were far more subdued than +he desired. His success was not marked, but he changed to some +degree the forlorn expression of the girl's countenance, so that +when Prudence appeared in the midst of the operation of shaving, +Sheila could greet the old woman with a tremulous smile. +</p> +<p> +"You deary-dear!" crooned Prudence, with her withered arms about the +strong, young frame of the girl, drawing her close. "I know you've +suffered this night. That mad girl was enough to put us all out o' +kilter. But don't let any thought of her bother you, Ida May. Your +uncle and I love you, and if forty people said you didn't belong +here, we should keep you just the same. Ain't that so, Ira?" +</p> +<p> +"Sure is," declared the captain vigorously. "No two ways about it. +We couldn't get along without Ida May, and I cal'late, the way +things look, that I'd better get that high fence I spoke of built +around this place at once. We're likely to have somebody come here +and carry the gal off almost any time. I can see that danger as +plain as plain!" +</p> +<p> +Prudence laughed, yet there was a catch in her voice too. She kissed +the girl's tear-wet face tenderly. Sheila's heart throbbed so that +she could scarcely go on with the task of shaving Cap'n Ira. How +could she continue to live this lie before two people who were so +infinitely kind to her and who loved her so tenderly? +</p> +<p> +And the girl loved them in return. It was no selfish thought which +held Sheila Macklin here in the old house on Wreckers' Head. She had +put aside all concern for her own personal comfort or ease. Had it +not been for her desire to shield Tunis and continue to aid and +comfort Cap'n Ira and Prudence, she might quickly and quietly have +left the place and thus have escaped all possibility of punishment +for the deception she had practiced. +</p> +<p> +Yes, had these other considerations not been involved, she would +have run away! Although she chanced to have no money just at this +time, she would have left the Ball homestead and Wreckers' Head and +the town itself and walked so far away that nobody who knew her +would ever see her again. She had thought of doing this even as far +back as the time when she was so lonely and miserable in Boston. +Now, she would willingly have become a tramp for the purpose of +getting out of the affliction which enmeshed her. +</p> +<p> +She could not, nevertheless, yield to this temptation. If she ran +away from the Balls and Big Wreck Cove, she would tacitly admit the +truth of all Ida May Bostwick's claims, and possibly involve Tunis +in the wreckage. Therefore she held to her determination of keeping +her place here until she was actually driven forth. +</p> +<p> +As a last resort, having now worked out the detail of that plan in +her mind, she believed she could save Tunis from much calumny if it +became positively necessary for her to depart under this cloud and +abandon her place to the real Ida May. The latter must, however, +come with positive proof of her identity—evidence sufficient to +convince Cap'n Ira and Prudence—before Sheila Macklin would release +her grasp upon what she had obtained by trickery and deceit. +</p> +<p> +Not for a moment did the girl try to excuse to herself what she had +done. In spite of the Balls' need of her, and in spite of Tunis' +love, Sheila did not try to deceive herself with any sophistry about +the end justifying the deed. Such thinking could not satisfy her +now. +</p> +<p> +Sheila's eyes were opened. She beheld before her both the wide and +the narrow way. If she took the pleasanter path, it was with a full +knowledge of what she did. Yet would it be the pleasanter path? She +doubted this. If she continued to fight for a place which was not +hers by right, she must walk for all time in a slippery way. This +claim of the real Ida May might be perennial; the girl might return +again and again to the attack. For years—as long as the Balls lived +and Sheila remained with them—she must be ever on the alert to +defend her position with them. +</p> +<p> +And after the good old people died—what then? Their property here +on the Head and their money would no more belong to Sheila Macklin +than it did now. She shrank in horror from the thought of swindling +the real Ida May out of anything which might legally be hers when +the Balls were gone. Of course, Cap'n Ira and Prudence could will +their property to whom they pleased. Still, Ida May was Prudence's +niece! +</p> +<p> +As the day dragged on, Ida May did not appear, but the old folks +talked about her continually, until Sheila thought she must cry +aloud to them to stop. +</p> +<p> +"The poor thing must be half-witted, of course," Mrs. Ball said +ruminatively. "Can't be otherwise. But she must have known +something about Sarah Honey and her folks." +</p> +<p> +"Seems likely," agreed Cap'n Ira. +</p> +<p> +"Now, you know, Ira, Sarah was an orphan and I was her mother's only +relation—and only that in a kind of a left-handed way, for I wasn't +really her aunt. That branch of the Honeys—Sarah's father's +folks—had all died out. Sarah lived about—kinder from pillar to +post as you might say—till she went to Boston and met Mr. Bostwick. +Isn't that so, Ida May?" +</p> +<p> +"Yes. So I understand," agreed the girl faintly. +</p> +<p> +"Now, you don't remember your mother much, Ida May," pursued +Prudence confidently. "You was too young when she died. And you +being brought up among the Bostwicks, you didn't know much about us +down here on the Cape. But don't you remember any neighbor that +lived near you there in Boston that had a gal something like this +crazy one that come here?" +</p> +<p> +"I swan!" ejaculated Cap'n Ira. "You're coming out strong, old +woman, I do say." +</p> +<p> +Sheila could only shake her head. +</p> +<p> +"Why, see," said Prudence, encouraged by her husband's commendation, +"there might have been a neighbor woman that Sarah—your mother, you +know, Ida May—was close acquainted with. Maybe she used to talk +with this neighbor a good deal about her young days, and how she +lived down here. You know women often gossip that way." +</p> +<p> +"I'll say they do!" put in Cap'n Ira, tapping the knob of his cane. +</p> +<p> +"Well, now," said the old woman, greatly interested in her own idea, +and a little proud of it, "suppose that neighbor had a little girl +who heard all these things Sarah Bostwick might have said. And if +that child's brain wasn't just right—if she was a little +weak-minded, poor thing—what's more reasonable than that she +treasured it all up in her mind and after years, in one of her +spells of weak-mindedness, she got the idea <i>she</i> was Ida May +Bostwick, and determined to come here and visit us!" +</p> +<p> +"I swan, Prudence!" exclaimed Cap'n Ira. "It's like a story-book—a +reg'lar novel." +</p> +<p> +"Well, it might be," said his wife, smiling quite proudly. +</p> +<p> +"Only after all, that gal didn't seem so very weak-minded," muttered +Cap'n Ira. "She seemed more mean and ugly than weak." +</p> +<p> +Sheila had thought somewhat along this line herself. At least, she +knew how weak the real Ida May's story must sound to most people in +the neighborhood, unless the claimant had actual proof of birth and +name to bolster her attempt to win the Balls. There was but a +tenuous thread connecting Ida May with Big Wreck Cove, or any other +part of Cape Cod. The Bostwicks—the girl's immediate family, at +least—were dead. +</p> +<p> +These facts, already gathered by Sheila from Aunt Prudence's +conversation with the neighboring women, were the foundation on +which she had built her desperate hope of keeping up the deception +and thwarting the other girl, no matter how bitterly the latter +might press her claim. +</p> +<p> +Nor was she, Sheila felt, depriving Ida May of anything which the +latter, if she obtained it, would actually prize. The shallow girl +was not the sort of person to appreciate the kindness of the two old +people or give them any comfort and sympathy in return. Why, both +Cap'n Ira and Prudence already shrank from the new claimant! +</p> +<p> +This fact, however, did not cause Sheila, the imposter, to lose +sight of the point that Cap'n Ira and his wife could both be very +stern in attitude and speech toward the evildoer. They made no +compromises with evil. +</p> +<p> +Even the old man, philosophical as he was and wont to look upon most +human frailities with a lenient if not a humorous eye, would not +excuse actual crime. And something very like a crime had been +committed. +</p> +<p> +The day passed without any reappearance of Ida May upon Wreckers' +Head, but just after nightfall and while the supper dishes were +being cleared away, Zebedee Pauling knocked at the kitchen door. All +three of the Ball household looked upon the young fellow +expectantly when he stepped in. +</p> +<p> +"I was just passing by and thought I'd look in and see how you all +were," said Zeb, with his usual shy manner and apologetic smile. +</p> +<p> +"Come in and set down, Zeb," said the captain eagerly. "I cal'late +you've got some news for us." +</p> +<p> +"I don't know," said Zeb thoughtfully, "but what you've got some +news that might satisfy mom and me. That is, about that girl Tunis +brought to the house." +</p> +<p> +"What about her, Zeb?" queried Prudence anxiously. +</p> +<p> +"Mom and I would be glad to know what you know about her," said +Zebedee. "She—she 'pears to have a—a great imagination." +</p> +<p> +"I shouldn't wonder," Cap'n Ira snorted. +</p> +<p> +"She don't act crazy, but she certainly talks crazy," the visitor +went on emphatically. "Why, she says the most ridiculous things +about—about Miss Bostwick!" He bowed and blushed as he spoke the +name and looked penitently toward Sheila. "Why, she declares <i>her</i> +name is Bostwick!" +</p> +<p> +"That's what she done up here," said Cap'n Ira grimly. "I cal'late +she means to kick up a fuss. Is she still stopping with your mother, +Zeb?" +</p> +<p> +"Yes. She paid a week's board money down. I expect mom wouldn't have +taken her, or it, if Tunis hadn't brought her." +</p> +<p> +"That wasn't Tunis' fault," snapped the old man. "He had to get +shet of her somehow. We expect she'll try to make trouble." +</p> +<p> +"Oh, as for that," said Zeb, with some relief, "I don't see, even if +she is your niece, why she should expect you to take her in if you +don't want to!" +</p> +<p> +"She ain't," said Cap'n Ira flatly. "You can take that from me, +Zeb." +</p> +<p> +"Not any relation at all?" +</p> +<p> +"None at all, as far as we know," declared the captain. +</p> +<p> +"Then what does she want to talk the way she does, for?" cried the +young man. "I told mom she was crazy, and now I know she is." +</p> +<p> +"I guess likely," agreed the old man, taking upon himself the burden +of the explanation. "None of us up here ever saw the gal before. +Neither Prudence nor me nor Ida May. She's loony!" +</p> +<p> +"I told mom so," reiterated Zeb, with a great sigh of relief. "I +know what she said must be a pack of foolishness. But you know how +mom is. I—" +</p> +<p> +"She's soft. I know," returned Cap'n Ira. +</p> +<p> +"She's so tender-hearted," explained Zeb. "The girl talks so. She's +talked mom not into believing in her, but into kind of listening and +sympathizing with her. And now, to-night, she's took her to see +Elder Minnett." +</p> +<p> +"What? I swan! To see the elder!" ejaculated Cap'n Ira. "What she +needs is a doctor, not a minister. What do you think of that, +Prudence?" +</p> +<p> +"I hope Elder Minnett will be able to put her in better mind," +sighed his wife. "That girl must have a very wicked heart, indeed, +if she isn't really crazy." +</p> +<a name="2HCH0026"><!-- H2 anchor --></a> + +<div style="height: 4em;"><br /><br /><br /><br /></div> + +<h2> + CHAPTER XXVI +</h2> +<h3> + ELDER MINNETT HAS HIS SAY +</h3> +<p> +Another night counted among the interminable nights which have +dragged their slow length across the couch of sleeplessness. To +Sheila, lying in the four-poster—a downy couch, indeed, for a quiet +conscience—the space of time after she blew out her lamp and until +the dawn passed like the sluggish coils of some Midgard serpent. An +eternity in itself. +</p> +<p> +She came down to her daily tasks again with no change in her looks, +although her voice had the same placid, kindly tone which had +cheered the old people for these many weeks. But they both were +worried about her. +</p> +<p> +"Maybe she's been working too hard, Prudence," ventured the old man. +"Can it be so, d'ye think?" +</p> +<p> +"She says she likes to work. She's a marvel of a housekeeper, Ira. I +don't mean to put too much on her, but I can't do much myself, spry +as I do feel this fall. And she won't let me, anyway." +</p> +<p> +"I know, I know," muttered Cap'n Ira. "She's with you like she is +with me. Always running to help me, or to pick up something I let +fall, or to fetch and carry. A kinder girl never breathed. I swan! +What should we do without her, Prue? That Tunis—" +</p> +<p> +"Sh!" Prudence begged him. "Don't chaff no more about that, Ira." +</p> +<p> +"Why not?" he asked. "Though I don't feel much like chaffing when I +think of them getting married. 'Tis a pretty serious business for +us, Prudence." +</p> +<p> +"I had a chance to hint about it last night when you went outside +with Zebedee," whispered his wife, "I spoke about Tunis. She—she +says she'll never leave us to marry Tunis or any other man." +</p> +<p> +"What's that?" ejaculated Cap'n Ira. "He wouldn't agree to come and +live here, I reckon. What would become of his Aunt 'Cretia? I don't +guess there's any fear of her getting married, is there?" +</p> +<p> +"No, no! Don't be funnin'! But Ida May said just that—in so many +words." +</p> +<p> +"She's mad with him, do you cal'late? They had a tiff!" cried her +husband. "And they were like two turtledoves the night that other +gal come here. It don't seem possible. I swan! <i>That's</i> why she's so +on her beam ends, I bet a cake!" +</p> +<p> +"It may be. She wouldn't say much. I didn't understand, though, +that they had quarreled. Only that she'd made up her mind that she +wouldn't marry." +</p> +<p> +"Oh, she'll change her mind!" said Cap'n Ira, wagging his head. +</p> +<p> +"Do you think so? Not so easy. You'd ought to know by this time how +firm Ida May can be." +</p> +<p> +"The Lord help Tunis then," said Cap'n Ira emphatically. "But his +loss is our gain. Ain't no two ways about that." +</p> +<p> +Sheila's secret thoughts were not calculated to calm her soul. Her +determination braced her body as well as her mind to go about her +daily tasks with her usual thoroughness, but she could not confront +the old people with even a ghost of her usual smile. So she kept out +of their way as much as possible and communed alone with her bitter +thoughts. +</p> +<p> +The uncertainty of what Ida May was doing and saying down there in +Big Wreck Cove was not all that agitated Sheila. Her conscience, so +long lulled by her peaceful existence here with the two old people, +was now continually censuring her. +</p> +<p> +Sin brings its own secret punishment, though the sinner may hide the +effects of the punishment for a long time. But Sheila could not now +conceal the effect of the mental pain and the remorse she suffered. +</p> +<p> +Of one thing she might be sure. The neighbors had not as yet heard +about the real Ida May or heard her story. Otherwise some of the +women living on the Head would have been in to hear the particulars +from Prudence. +</p> +<p> +But that afternoon the throaty chug of Elder Minnett's little +car—it had created almost a scandal in Big Wreck Cove when he +bought it—was heard mounting the road to the Head. +</p> +<p> +"I swan!" commented Cap'n Ira, who sat at the sunny sitting-room +window, for it was a cold day. "Here comes that tin wagon of the +elder's. But he's alone. Get on your best bib and tucker, Prudence, +for there ain't any doubt but what he's headin' in this way." +</p> +<p> +"Oh, dear me!" fluttered his wife. "I wonder what he's going to say. +Make the tea strong, Ida May. The elder likes it so it'll about bear +up an egg. And open a jar of that quince jam. I wish we had fresh +biscuits, although them you made for dinner were light as feathers." +</p> +<p> +"I'll make some now. There's a hot oven," replied the girl. +</p> +<p> +"No, no," interposed Cap'n Ira firmly. "I want you should sit in +here with us and hear all the elder's got to say." +</p> +<p> +"Perhaps, Uncle Ira, he will want to talk to you and Aunt Prue +privately." +</p> +<p> +"There won't be no private talk about you, Ida May," snorted the +captain, his keen eyes sparkling. "Not much! If he's got anything to +say to your aunt and me, he's got to say it in your hearing." +</p> +<p> +The elder was a tall and bony man with a stiff brush of gray beard +and bushy hair to match, which seemed as uncompromising as his +doctrinal discourses in the pulpit. He was an old-fashioned +preacher, but not wholly an old-fashioned thinker. +</p> +<p> +Sheila had thought, on the few occasions when she had met him away +from his pulpit, that there was an undercurrent of humanity in him +quite equal to that in Cap'n Ira Ball, but his personal appearance +and rather gruff manner made it difficult for one to be sure of the +measure of his tenderness. +</p> +<p> +How Elder Minnett appeared in the sick room or in the house of +sorrow, she did not know. She could not very well imagine his being +tender at any time with the sinner at whom he thundered from the +pulpit. Secretly she trembled at the old clergyman's approach. +</p> +<p> +"Well, Elder!" was the warm greeting of Prudence at the front door +when the rattling automobile came to a wheezing halt before the +gate. "Do tell! Ira said he see you coming up the road, and I was +determined you shouldn't drive by without speaking. Do come in." +</p> +<p> +"I propose to, Sister Ball," was the grim-lipped reply. +</p> +<p> +He came into the house and took the proffered chair in the sitting +room. They spoke of the weather, of the tide, and of the clam +harvest. The farm crops back of Big Wreck Cove did not interest +Cap'n Ira. +</p> +<p> +"Well," said the elder finally, clearing his throat, "I've come up +here on an errand you can possibly guess, Cap'n Ira and Sister +Ball." +</p> +<p> +"Maybe we can and maybe we can't," observed the captain with a +countenance quite as wooden as the elder himself displayed. +</p> +<p> +"I come on behalf of that young woman who was here to see you the +other day." +</p> +<p> +"It's my opinion you'd done better to have gone to the insane asylum +folks about her," rejoined Cap'n Ira. +</p> +<p> +"Now, Ira!" said Prudence softly. +</p> +<p> +"Seeing it as you do, Cap'n Ira," the elder remarked quite equably, +"I conclude that you might think that. But you formed your judgment +in the heat of—well, not anger, of course—but without sufficient +reflection." +</p> +<p> +"Humph!" grunted Cap'n Ira noncommittally. +</p> +<p> +"I have talked with that young woman on two occasions," said the +elder. +</p> +<p> +"With what young woman?" interrupted Cap'n Ira. +</p> +<p> +"With the girl staying at the Widow Pauling's. The girl who claims +to be your niece." +</p> +<p> +"You'd better talk with the other young woman," said Cap'n Ira +sternly. "Ida May! Just you come in here and sit down. You are as +much interested as we be, I guess. <i>This</i> is Ida May Bostwick, +Elder Minnett," he added, as Sheila entered. +</p> +<p> +"Yes, yes. I have had the pleasure," said the elder, bowing gravely +without offering to shake hands. He turned abruptly to Prudence. +"You are quite convinced in your own mind, Sister Ball, that the +young woman at the Pauling's is not your niece?" +</p> +<p> +"Why, Elder Minnett," returned Prudence, "how <i>can</i> she be? Ida May +is Sarah Honey's only child, and Sarah was only distantly related to +me. There never was another girl in the family—not like that one +that came here the other day, for sure!" And the old woman shook her +head emphatically. +</p> +<p> +"That girl you got down there at the port, Elder, is crazy—crazy as +a loon," put in Cap'n Ira harshly. +</p> +<p> +"I am not so sure of that," the clergyman said shortly. +</p> +<p> +"I swan! Beg your pardon, Elder. No offense. But you don't mean to +say that she seems sane and sensible to you?" +</p> +<p> +"Sane—yes! As for being sensible, that is another thing," confessed +Elder Minnett. +</p> +<p> +"Huh! What do you mean by that?" asked Cap'n Ira curiously. +</p> +<p> +"She has told her story in full to me, and told it twice alike," +said the grim-visaged minister, looking at Sheila as he answered the +query. "An insane person is not so likely to do that, I believe. But +she is not what I would call a sensible young woman. Not at all." +</p> +<p> +"I should say not!" gasped Prudence. +</p> +<p> +"But I have heard her, and I have reflected on what she has said. I +do not see, if she is an impostor, how she could have made up that +story." +</p> +<p> +"Then she <i>must</i> be loony," muttered Cap'n Ira. +</p> +<p> +"I presume she told the same story to you that she did to me," +pursued Elder Minnett. "I do not understand Tunis Latham's part in +it, but the rest of her story seems quite reasonable." +</p> +<p> +"Reasonable?" repeated Prudence, with some warmth. "Do you call it +reasonable to say what she did about Ida May?" +</p> +<p> +"In speaking of the young woman's reasonableness I mean in regard to +the personal details she gave me. What she said in her anger to, or +of, other people has no influence whatsoever on my judgment." +</p> +<p> +"Well, it has on mine!" exclaimed Cap'n Ira. "I'd have drove out a +dozen gals that spoke as she did to Prudence and Ida May—crazy or +not!" +</p> +<p> +"You would be wrong, Cap'n Ball," said the elder severely. +</p> +<p> +"Well, let's have the p'ints the girl makes!" growled the old +shipmaster. "I will listen to 'em." +</p> +<p> +Elder Minnett bowed formally and began Ida May's story, checking off +the several assertions she had made when she was at the Ball house +far more clearly than the girl herself had done. As Sheila +listened, her heart sank even lower. It was so very reasonable! How +could the Balls fail to be impressed? +</p> +<p> +But Cap'n Ira and Prudence listened with more of a puzzled +expression in their countenances than anything else. It seemed +altogether wild and improbable to them. Why! There sat Ida May +before them. There could not be two Ida May Bostwicks! +</p> +<p> +"Say!" exclaimed Cap'n Ira suddenly, after Elder Minnett had +concluded, "that girl says she worked at Hoskin & Marl's?" +</p> +<p> +"Yes." +</p> +<p> +"Why, ain't that where you worked, Ida May?" +</p> +<p> +"Yes," was Sheila's faint admission. +</p> +<p> +"You never see her there, did you?" +</p> +<p> +"I do not remember of having seen her until she came here," the girl +said quite truthfully. +</p> +<p> +"Ought to be some way of proving up that," muttered Cap'n Ira. +</p> +<p> +"I have written to Hoskin & Marl, at the other young woman's +instigation, and have asked about her," said Elder Minnett. +</p> +<p> +"Well, I never!" gasped Prudence, and her withered, old face grew +pink. +</p> +<p> +"I hope you will not take offense," said the visitor evenly. "You +must understand that the young woman has come to me in trouble, and +it is my duty to aid her if I can—in any proper way. That is my +office. <i>Any</i> young woman"—he looked directly at Sheila again as he +said it—"will find in me an adviser and a friend whenever she may +need my help." +</p> +<p> +"We all know how good you are, Elder Minnett," Prudence hastened to +say. "But that girl—" +</p> +<p> +"That girl," he interrupted, "is a human being needing help. I have +advised her. Now I want to advise you." +</p> +<p> +"Out with it, Elder," said Cap'n Ira. "Good advice ain't to be +sneezed at—not as I ever heard." +</p> +<p> +"I have the other young woman's promise that she will tell her story +to nobody else—nobody at all—until I can hear from those whom she +says are her employers. But with the understanding that you will do +your part." +</p> +<p> +"What's that?" asked Cap'n Ira quickly. +</p> +<p> +"She wants to come up here and stay with you. She says she is sure +you are her relatives. She says if you will let her come, she +will be able to prove to you that she is the real niece you +expected—whom you sent for last summer." +</p> +<p> +"Why, she's crazy!" again cried Cap'n Ira. +</p> +<p> +"I—I am almost afraid of her," murmured Prudence, looking from +Sheila to her husband. +</p> +<p> +"I assure you, Sister Ball, she is not insane. She is harmless." +</p> +<p> +"She didn't talk as though she was when she was here—not by a +jugful," declared Cap'n Ira bitterly. +</p> +<p> +"That was because she was angry," explained Elder Minnett +patiently. "You must not judge her by her appearance when she came +here the other day and found—as she declares—another girl in her +rightful place." +</p> +<p> +"I swan!" exclaimed the old shipmaster, bursting out again. "I won't +stand for that. Her rightful place, indeed! Why, if she was forty +times Prudence's niece and we didn't want her here, what's to make +us take her, I want to know?" +</p> +<p> +"Do you think we ought to, Elder?" questioned Prudence faintly. +</p> +<p> +"I think, under all the circumstances, that it is your Christian +duty. Know the girl better. See if there is not something in her +that reminds you—" +</p> +<p> +"Avast there!" shouted Cap'n Ira, pounding with his cane on the +floor. "That's going a deal too far. 'Christian duty,' indeed! How +about our duty to Ida May setting there, and to ourselves? Prudence +is afraid of that crazy gal in the first place." +</p> +<p> +"I give you my word she is not insane." +</p> +<p> +"That's your opinion," said the captain grimly. "I wouldn't back it +with my word, Elder, unless I was prepared to go the whole v'y'ge. +Do you mean to say that you accept that gal's story as true—in all +partic'lars?" +</p> +<p> +"I don't say that." +</p> +<p> +"Then I shall stick to my opinion. She's as loony as she can be. And +I am plumb against insulting our Ida May by letting the girl come +up here. What do you say, Prudence?" +</p> +<p> +The old woman was much perturbed. Elder Minnett was a minister of +the gospel. To be told by him that it was her Christian duty to take +a certain course bore much weight with Prudence Ball. +</p> +<p> +But when she looked at Sheila, sitting there so pale and silent, and +realized that on her head all this was falling, the old woman rose +up, burst into tears, and threw herself into the girl's arms. +</p> +<p> +"No, no!" she sobbed. "Don't let her come here, Ira. We don't want +her. We don't want anybody but Ida May whom we love so dear, and who +we know loves us. We can't do it, Elder Minnett! Why, if they should +come and tell me—and prove it—that Ida May wasn't our niece and +that other girl was, I couldn't bear the creature 'round. No, I +couldn't. I couldn't forgive anybody that would separate us from +this dear, dear girl!" +</p> +<p> +Cap'n Ira had got upon his feet and was leaning forward on his cane. +With a shaking finger he drew the elder's attention to the two +women, rocking in each other's arms. +</p> +<p> +"You hear that? You see that?" demanded the captain brokenly, the +tears starting from his own eyes and finding gutters down his +cleanly shaved cheeks. "That's your answer, Elder! You have some +idea how Prudence and I longed for young company in this house, and +somebody to help and comfort us. <i>And we got her.</i> +</p> +<p> +"Ida May come to us like the falling of manna in the wilderness for +them spent and wandering Israelites. She has been to us more than +ever we dared hope for. If she was our own child and had growed up +here on Wreckers' Head our own born daughter, I couldn't think no +more of her. +</p> +<p> +"And you come here and ask us to give countenance for a moment to a +half-witted girl that says she belongs here in Ida May's place, and +claiming Ida May's name. More than that, she saying that our own +girl that we love so is a liar and an impostor and altogether +bad—such as she must be if she had fooled us so. I swan! Elder, I +should think you'd have more sense." And Cap'n Ira concluded +abruptly and with a return to his usual self-control. +</p> +<p> +The silence which ensued was only broken by the old woman's sobs. +Cap'n Ira, frankly wiping his own eyes with the great silk +handkerchief which he usually flourished when he took snuff, strode +across the room and patted Prudence's withered shoulder. He said +nothing, nor did the elder. It was Sheila who broke the silence at +last. +</p> +<p> +She had stood up. Now she put Prudence tenderly into Cap'n Ira's +arms. She gave him, too, such a thankful, beaming glance that the +old man was almost staggered. For he had not seen one of those +smiles for more than two days. +</p> +<p> +"Elder Minnett," Sheila said, and her voice was quite steady, "I +think it is my place to speak." +</p> +<p> +"Yes?" was the noncommittal response of the grim old minister. +</p> +<p> +"I should not think for a moment of doubting your judgment in such a +matter. If you say Cap'n Ira and Mrs. Ball should receive this—this +girl here while the matter is being examined, I hope they will agree +with you and allow her to come." +</p> +<p> +"Why, Ida May!" gasped Prudence. +</p> +<p> +"That gal's an angel! She ain't nothing but an angel!" marveled +Cap'n Ira. +</p> +<p> +"But I think," said Sheila, "that the girl should be made to promise +that while she is here, and if she comes here, that she will not +speak to anybody outside this room at the present time of the claim +she makes—especially as it seems to affect Captain Latham." +</p> +<p> +"I swan! That's so! He's got a wage and share in this thing, ain't +he? And he ain't here to defend himself, if we be." +</p> +<p> +The elder nodded slowly. His gaze did not leave Sheila's face. +</p> +<p> +"I think I can promise that in her name. Indeed, I had already +extracted such a promise before I would undertake to come up here. I +have warned Mrs. Pauling not to repeat a word the girl said to her. +And Zebedee is a prudent young man." +</p> +<p> +"I told Zeb myself to keep his hatch battened," growled Cap'n Ira. +"But, I swan, Ida May! I don't see how you can bear to have the +crazy critter here. And Prudence—" +</p> +<p> +"If Ida May says she is willing," sighed the old woman, glad to be +able to set a course not opposed to her minister's advice. +</p> +<p> +"Thank you, young woman," Elder Minnett said, speaking grimly enough +to Sheila. "Those who have nothing to fear can afford to be +generous. You have done right." +</p> +<p> +The subject was dropped—to the relief of all of them. Tea was +poured from the marble-topped, black-walnut table, and Sheila passed +biscuit, jam, cakes, and other delicacies. She performed her part of +the ceremony with apparent calm. She did not speak to the elder +again, nor he to her, save when she ran out to carry forgotten +gloves to him when he had climbed into the automobile. +</p> +<p> +The grim old man shot her through with the keenest of keen glances +as he accepted the gloves. +</p> +<p> +"I don't think, young woman," he said softly, "that you are likely +to put poison in that other girl's tea—as she says she's afraid you +will." +</p> +<p> +Then he drove away. +</p> +<a name="2HCH0027"><!-- H2 anchor --></a> + +<div style="height: 4em;"><br /><br /><br /><br /></div> + +<h2> + CHAPTER XXVII +</h2> +<h3> + CAP'N IRA SPEAKS OUT +</h3> +<p> +Wrung as Sheila's heart had been by the expression of the old +woman's utter confidence in her and by Cap'n Ira's warm words of +approbation spoken before the elder, it was nevertheless for Tunis +Latham's sake that she had abetted the minister's desire and had +agreed that the real Ida May Bostwick should come to the Ball house +on Wreckers' Head. +</p> +<p> +By extracting a promise from Ida May that she would talk to nobody +for the present—especially about the connection of the captain of +the <i>Seamew</i> with Ida May's affairs—Sheila believed she had entered +a wedge which might open the way for the young man to escape from a +situation which threatened both his reputation and his peace of +mind. +</p> +<p> +To save Tunis! She was fairly obsessed by that thought. Her vow +before the picture of Tunis' mother in the <i>Seamew's</i> cabin must be +in Sheila's view to the very end. She had a sufficient share of +that vision of the Celt to be deeply impressed by a promise made as +that had been made—though in secret. It was a sacred pledge. +</p> +<p> +It was no easy matter for any of the Ball household to consider the +coming of Ida May with serenity. Prudence, at heart, shrank from the +claimant on her hospitality almost as much as Sheila did. If Cap'n +Ira hid his perturbation better than the others, he nevertheless +hobbled about with a very solemn countenance. +</p> +<p> +"I swan!" he muttered within Sheila's hearing. "It's most like there +was a corpse in the house. This ain't no way to live. I do wish +Elder Minnett could have minded his own business and let well enough +alone. Let the girl talk, and other folks, too. Trying to stop +gossip is like trying to put your finger on a drop of quicksilver. +There won't be no good come o' that girl being here. That's as sure +as sure." +</p> +<p> +The elder's car came wheezing up the hill again about the middle of +the forenoon. He did not alight himself, but Ida May needed the +presence of nobody to lend her assurance. She hopped out of the car +with her bag and flaunted her cheap finery through the gate and in +at the front door. +</p> +<p> +Her reception at this end of the house marked the unmistakable fact +that Prudence and Cap'n Ira received her as a stranger rather than +in a confidential way. +</p> +<p> +"Well, Aunt Prue! For you are my aunt whatever you may say," was +Ida May's prologue. "And you are my uncle," she added, her +greenish-brown eyes flashing a glance at the grimly observant +captain. "I must say it's pretty shabby treatment I've got from you +so far. But I don't blame you—not at all. I blame that girl and +Tunis Latham." +</p> +<p> +"Avast there!" put in Cap'n Ira so sternly and with so threatening a +tone of voice and visage that even Ida May was silenced. "We've let +you come here, my girl, because Elder Minnett asked us to; and not +at all because our opinion of you is changed. Far from it. You're +here on sufferance and you'd best be civil spoken while you remain. +Ain't that the ticket, Prudence?" +</p> +<p> +His wife nodded, in full accord with his statement of the situation, +although she could not bear to look so sternly on any person as +Cap'n Ira now looked at Ida May. +</p> +<p> +"Well! I like that!" sniffed the girl, tossing her head, but she +actually shrank from the captain. +</p> +<p> +"Furthermore, as regards Tunis Latham, you was to say nothing about +him outside of this house if you was let come here. And I warn you, +we don't care to hear nothing in his disfavor <i>in</i> this house." +</p> +<p> +"Oh! I can see he's a favorite with you," muttered Ida May. +</p> +<p> +"Then trim your sails according," admonished the old man. "In +addition, you mentioned the young woman we already got here in a way +we don't like none too well. I want to impress on your mind that it +was only through her saying she was agreeable to your coming here +that we agreed to the elder's request and let you come." +</p> +<p> +"She did, eh?" cried Ida May, flouncing in her chair. "Well, I don't +thank her." +</p> +<p> +"No. I cal'late you ain't of a thanking disposition," said Cap'n +Ira. "But you like enough won't drop your bread butter-side down. +That's all." +</p> +<p> +Ida May, startled by his speech, stared with less impudence at the +old man. For his part, the captain watched her pretty closely, and +he had met and judged too many people in his day not to form +gradually, as the hours passed, a decided opinion regarding Ida May. +</p> +<p> +Nor did he cling to his first impression—the one made in haste and +some vexation, when she had first tried to thrust herself into the +Ball household and demanded the place filled by Sheila Macklin. This +girl certainly was not insane. But with all her apparent smartness, +Cap'n Ira easily saw that she was not intelligent—that she had +scarcely ordinary understanding. Beside the newcomer's shallow +nature and even more shallow endowments, Sheila seemed to be from a +different world. +</p> +<p> +"I swan!" whispered Cap'n Ira to Prudence some time later. "The +difference between them two girls! They ain't to be spoke of in the +same county, I declare. Look at that one, Prudence," he said, with a +side glance at the newcomer. "Ain't she a sight with them thin and +flashy clothes?" +</p> +<p> +"I can't see anything about her that looks like any of the Honeys, +let alone Sarah." +</p> +<p> +"Huh! No. Only that her hair's sorter red," returned Cap'n Ira, +"like Sarah's was." +</p> +<p> +The visitor proved her position in the household by sitting idly in +a rocking-chair looking over some pictures which were on the table +or staring out of the window. She offered to do nothing for +Prudence. But, of course, Ida May was not very domestic. Living in a +furnished room and working behind the counter in a department store +does not develop the domestic virtues to any appreciable degree. +</p> +<p> +She did not see Sheila until dinner was on the table and she was +called to the meal with Cap'n Ira and the old woman. The stiff, +little bow with which Ida May favored the girl in possession was +returned by the latter quite as formally. +</p> +<p> +Sheila had regained complete control of voice and face now. Although +she did not actually address Ida May, her manner was such that there +was no restraint put upon the company. It was the newcomer's manner, +if anything, that curtailed the usual friendly intercourse at the +Ball table. +</p> +<p> +Ida May possessed some powers of observation. She would have said +herself that she was able to "put two and two together." The way the +meal had been cooked, the way it was served, and the work entailed +in doing both these things, were matters not overlooked by the +visitor. +</p> +<p> +She knew that Prudence had given neither thought nor attention to +getting the dinner. The girl the Balls had received in Ida May's +name and supposed identity had done it all herself. It seemed to be +expected of her! +</p> +<p> +She saw, before the day was over, that Sheila was a very busy person +indeed. That she not only did the housework, but that she waited +upon Prudence and Cap'n Ira "hand and foot." She did it with such +unconcern that the new girl could be sure these tasks were quite +what was expected of her. +</p> +<p> +"Why," exclaimed Ida May to herself, "she's just hired help! Is +<i>that</i> what they wanted me for when they sent Tunis Latham up to +Boston after me? I'd like to see myself!" +</p> +<p> +She had foreseen something of this kind when she had refused so +unconditionally to come down here to the Cape. And her observation +of the house and its furnishings, as well as the appearance of the +old couple, had confirmed her suspicion that her belief in the Balls +"being pretty well fixed" was groundless. +</p> +<p> +After her interview with Elder Minnett, although she had refrained +from detailing her story and her spiteful comments about Sheila and +Tunis Latham to the Paulings, she had not ceased to question Zebedee +and his mother about the financial condition of the Balls. +</p> +<p> +She had learned that a couple of thousand dollars would probably buy +all the real property the old people owned on Wreckers' Head. There +was a certain invested sum which secured them a fair living. Beyond +that, the Big Wreck Cove people knew of no wealth belonging to +either Cap'n Ira or Prudence. +</p> +<p> +Ida May already considered that she had come down here to the Cape +on a fool's errand. She would like to make herself solid, however, +with the old folks so as to benefit when they were dead and gone, if +that were possible. But to make herself a kitchen drudge for them? +She would like to see herself! +</p> +<p> +There was a phase of the situation which held Ida May to the course +she had set sail upon, and one which would hold her to it to the +bitter end. Her spitefulness and determination to be revenged upon +this unknown girl who had usurped the place originally offered her +by the Balls, and who had stolen her name as well, was quite +sufficient to cause a person of Ida May Bostwick's character to +fight for her rights. +</p> +<p> +She would be revenged on Tunis, too. Or, at least, she would make +him, as well as the other girl, suffer for the slight he had put +upon her. +</p> +<p> +Had she not preened her feathers and strutted her very best on the +occasion when he interviewed her at Hoskin & Marl's and taken her +out to lunch? And to no end at all! He had been quite unimpressed by +Ida May's airs and graces. +</p> +<p> +Yet he would take up with this other girl—a mere nobody. Worse than +a nobody, of course. She must be both a bad and a cunning woman to +have done what it was plain she had done. She had wound Tunis Latham +around her finger, and had hoodwinked the old people in the bargain! +</p> +<p> +Ida May saw the other girl waiting on Prudence and Cap'n Ira; she +observed her tenderness toward them and their delight in her +ministrations; and these things which she regarded with her +green-glinting eyes made her taste the bitterness of wormwood. She +hated Sheila more and more as the day wore on; and she scorned the +old people both for what she considered this niggardliness and for +their simplicity, as well, in being fooled by this other girl. +</p> +<p> +For, of course, to Ida May's mind, Sheila's kindness and the love +shown for the Balls on her part was all put on. It could not be +otherwise. Ida May Bostwick could not, in the first place, imagine +any sane girl "falling for the two old hicks." +</p> +<p> +Prudence could seldom show herself other than kindly toward any +person whether she exactly approved of that person or not. So she +chatted cheerfully at Ida May, if not with her. She was quite as +insistent as Cap'n Ira, however, in keeping away from the vexing +question of the identity of the two girls. +</p> +<p> +Right at the first the question had been raised: where should the +visitor be put to sleep? Ida May was prepared to object strenuously +if any slight was put upon her, such as being given some little, +tucked-up attic room away from the rest of the family. Had she +dared, she would have demanded the use of the room the false Ida May +occupied; only she was not sure, after seeing the position Sheila +seemed to hold in the household, that she cared to be put to sleep +in the room of the "hired help." +</p> +<p> +But Sheila herself settled that question. +</p> +<p> +"The guest room is ready. Aunt Prue," she said to Prudence. "I +cleaned it this week and the little stove is set up in there if it +should grow cold overnight. All the bed needs is aired sheets. I'll +get them out of the press." +</p> +<p> +So Prudence took Ida May to the guest chamber, which was beyond the +parlor. A black-walnut set, which had been the height of +magnificence when Cap'n Ira and Prudence were married, filled the +shade-drawn room with shadows. There was an ingrain carpet on the +floor of a green groundwork with pale-yellow flowers on it, of a +genus known to no botanist. The tidies on the chair backs were so +stiff with starch that it would be a punishment to lay one's head +against them. +</p> +<p> +On a little marble-topped table between the windows was something +made of shells and seaweed in a glass-topped case. It looked to Ida +May like a dead baby in a coffin. +</p> +<p> +"Of all the junk!" she muttered to herself when Prudence left her to +arrange the contents of her bag as she chose. "And that girl likes +it here! Well, I'll show her who's who and what's what! +</p> +<p> +"I'd like to know where I ever saw her face before? I bet it was +somewhere she'd no business to be—just as she has sneaked in here +where she doesn't belong. The nasty, hateful thing! +</p> +<p> +"If Bessie Dole or Mayme Leary could only see this dump!" she added, +looking over the room again. "Anyhow, I've made 'em give me the best +they've got. I'll show 'em how to treat a <i>real</i> relation that comes +to see 'em." +</p> +<p> +Supper time came and passed no more cheerfully than had the midday +meal. The society of the old people was anything but enlivening for +Ida May. In desperation she began to talk, and out of sheer +perverseness she lighted upon the subject of the establishment of +Hoskin & Marl. +</p> +<p> +Now Prudence found this topic of interest, for since Annabel +Coffin—she who was a Buttle—had dilated upon those great marts of +trade in Boston, the old woman had been vastly curious. Sheila had +never cared to talk of her experiences as saleswoman behind the +counter. +</p> +<p> +"They tell me they sell most everything you could name in those +stores," Prudence said reflectively. "Heaps of dry goods, I suppose. +Let me see, what did you sell, my dear?" +</p> +<p> +"I'm in the laces," said Ida May. "But Hoskin & Marl sell lots +besides dry goods." +</p> +<p> +"Oh, yes! Annabel did say something about automobiles and—and +plasters; didn't she, Ira?" +</p> +<p> +"Goodness knows," rejoined her husband with a groan. "Annabel Coffin +said so much the last time she was here that my head buzzes now when +I think of her." +</p> +<p> +"Now, you hesh!" said Prudence. "Never can interest a man in such +things. So you sold laces, did you, my dear? Oh, Ida May!" she +exclaimed suddenly to Sheila, sitting on the other side of the +table. "Ida May, what did you say you sold in that store? You worked +for Hoskin & Marl, didn't you?" +</p> +<p> +"Ye-es. I—I was in the silverware and jewelry department," +stammered Sheila, the question coming so unexpectedly that she could +not exercise consideration before making answer. +</p> +<p> +"Now, is that so?" cried Prudence. "That must have been nice. To +handle all them pretty things. But lace is pretty, too," she added, +turning quickly to the guest again. "I expect you find it so." +</p> +<p> +The old woman was startled into silence by the expression she saw +upon Ida May's face. The latter was glaring across the table at +Sheila. No other word could so express the intense and malevolent +look in those greenish-brown eyes and on that sharp countenance. +</p> +<p> +Sheila's gaze was enthralled as well by Ida May's sudden emotion. +She half rose from her chair. But her strength left her limbs again, +and she fell back into the seat. +</p> +<p> +"What's the matter, Ida May?" demanded Cap'n Ira, in wonder and +alarm. +</p> +<p> +The real Ida May sprang up with a shriek. She shook her hand at +Sheila and for a moment could not articulate. Then she said: +</p> +<p> +"I know her now! I knew I'd seen that creature before and I thought +I'd remember what and who she is. And she dares come down here and +sneak her way into honest people's houses! The gall of her!" +</p> +<a name="2HCH0028"><!-- H2 anchor --></a> + +<div style="height: 4em;"><br /><br /><br /><br /></div> + +<h2> + CHAPTER XXVIII +</h2> +<h3> + GONE +</h3> +<p> +"Looker here, girl!" exclaimed Cap'n Ira sternly. Putting his hand +upon Ida May's shoulder, he forced her down into her chair again. +His own eyes gleamed angrily, and his countenance expressed his +wrath. "What was you told on coming here? Didn't you promise to keep +a taut line on all that foolishness? I won't stand for it. No, +Prudence!" he exclaimed, as his wife tried to interfere. "I won't +stand for it. She must either keep away from that business, or I'll +put her right out of the house. Leastways, it being night, I'll send +her to her room." +</p> +<p> +"Do you think you can boss me like that?" cried Ida May hotly, so +angry herself that she forgot her fear of him. "I'm not your slave, +nor your hired help, like that creature." She pointed scornfully at +Sheila. "And you'll just listen to something I've got to say. If you +don't, I'll go out to-morrow and tell everybody in this hick town. +I'll hire a hall to tell 'em in!" +</p> +<p> +"Won't—won't you be good, deary?" begged Prudence, before her +husband could make any rejoinder to this defiance. "You know you +promised Elder Minnett you would be if we let you come here." +</p> +<p> +"I don't want to stay here. I've seen enough of this place and you +all! And I would be ashamed to stay any longer than I can help with +folks that take in such a girl as she is." +</p> +<p> +Again Ida May's little claw indicated Sheila, who stared, +speechless, helpless, at least for the time being. The harassed girl +could fight for herself no longer. She knew that she was on the +verge of betrayal. She could not stem the tide of Ida May's venom. +The latter must make the revelation which had threatened ever since +she had come to Wreckers' Head. There was no way of longer +smothering the truth. It would come out! +</p> +<p> +"Look here," Cap'n Ira said, his curiosity finally aroused, "the +elder says you ain't crazy! But it looks to me—" +</p> +<p> +"I'm not crazy, I can tell you," snapped Ida May, taking him up +short. "But I guess you and Aunt Prue must be. Why, you don't even +know the name of this girl you took in instead of me—in my rightful +place. But I can tell you who she is—and what she's done. I +remember her now. I knew I'd seen her before—the hussy!" +</p> +<p> +"Belay that!" exclaimed Cap'n Ira. +</p> +<p> +But he said it faintly. He was looking at the other girl now, and +something in her expression and in her attitude made him lose +confidence. His voice died in his throat. Ida May Bostwick had the +upper hand at last—and she kept it. +</p> +<p> +"Look at her," she exulted, the green lights in her brown eyes +glinting like the sparkling eyes of a serpent. "Look at her. She +knows that I know. She's come down here and fooled you all, but she +can't fool you any longer. And that Tunis Latham! Why, it can't be +possible he knew what she was from the first!" +</p> +<p> +"See here," said Cap'n Ira shakily. "What do you mean? What are you +getting at—or trying to? If you got anything to say about Ida May, +get it out and be over with it." +</p> +<p> +"Oh, Ira! Don't! Stop her!" wailed Prudence. +</p> +<p> +Like the old man, Prudence finally realized that there was something +wrong—something very wrong, indeed—with the girl they had known +for months as Ida May and whom they had learned to love so dearly. +</p> +<p> +Nobody looking at Sheila could doubt this for a moment. Her tortured +expression of countenance, the wild light in her eyes, her trembling +lips, advertised to the beholders that the last bastion of her +fortress was taken, that the wall was breached and into that breach +now marched the triumphant phrases of the real Ida May's bitter, +gloating speech. +</p> +<p> +"Look at her!" repeated the latter. "She can't deny it now. She +knows I know her and what she is. Why, Aunt Prue—and you, Captain +Ball—have been fooled nice, I must say. And that Tunis Latham! +Well, he can't be much!" +</p> +<p> +"Don't—don't say anything against Tunis!" +</p> +<p> +It was not a voice at all like the usual mellow tones of Sheila +Macklin which uttered those faint words. Hoarse, strained, +uncertain, there was yet a note of command in the phrase which had +its influence on the wildly excited Ida May. +</p> +<p> +"I'll say what I've got to say about <i>you</i>, miss!" she exclaimed +with exultation. "And you—nor they—shan't stop me. You're the girl +that was arrested in the store for stealing. It must have been +two—why, it must have been more than three years ago. I hadn't +worked there but a little while. No wonder I didn't remember you at +first." +</p> +<p> +Cap'n Ira vented a groan and caught at his wife's hand. She was +sobbing frantically. She still murmured her plea for the captain to +stop the awful revelation Ida May was bent on making. But the latter +gave no heed and the captain himself was speechless. +</p> +<p> +"And I can't remember her name even now," went on Ida May, flashing +a look at the Balls. Their pitiful appearance made no impression +upon her. "But that don't matter. I guess they've got your record at +Hoskin & Marl's. You worked there all right; sure you worked there, +in the jewelry section. You stole something. I saw the store +detective, Miss Hopwell, take you up to the manager's office. I +never heard what they did to you, but they did a plenty, I bet." +</p> +<p> +She turned confidently again to the horrified captain and his wife. +</p> +<p> +"Just see how she looks. She don't deny it. How she managed to work +that Tunis Latham into bringing her down here, I don't know. She +pulled the wool over his eyes all right. +</p> +<p> +"Why, she's a thief! She was arrested! I guess you can see now that +I'm not crazy—far from it. She won't dare say again that she is Ida +May Bostwick. I—guess—not!" +</p> +<p> +The malevolent exultation of the girl was fearful to behold. But +neither Cap'n Ira nor Prudence now looked at Ida May. Leaning +against her husband, the tears coursing over her withered cheeks, +Prudence joined Cap'n Ira in gazing at the other girl. +</p> +<p> +She rose slowly to her feet. Something like strength came back to +her; even into her voice, as Sheila again spoke. Nor did she look at +Ida May, but fixed her feverish gaze upon the two old people. +</p> +<p> +"What—what she says is true—as far as I am concerned. But—but +Tunis did not know. It is not his fault. I was desperate. I heard +what he said to—to Miss Bostwick. I chanced to overhear it. I was +desperate; I hated the city. I was willing to take a chance for the +sake of getting among people who would be kind to me—who were +good." +</p> +<p> +"Bah!" exclaimed Ida May raucously. "You're not fit to go among good +people!" +</p> +<p> +Sheila did not heed her. She spoke slowly—haltingly, but what she +said held the old people silent. +</p> +<p> +"Tunis is not to blame. I told him this—this girl"—she pointed to +Ida May, but did not look at her—"was not the right Miss Bostwick. +I said that I was the girl he wanted to see. I made him think so. I +tricked him. Don't listen to her!" she added wildly, as the enraged +Ida May would have interposed. "Tunis thought she had talked to him +just for a joke. I made him believe that. I—I would have done +anything then to get away from the city and to come down here. +Perhaps he was at fault because he did not take more time to find +out about me—to be sure I was the right girl. But he cannot be +blamed for anything else. I tell you, it was all my fault." +</p> +<p> +"I don't believe it!" snapped Ida May. +</p> +<p> +But Cap'n Ira put her aside with his hand, and there was returned +firmness in his voice. +</p> +<p> +"Is this the truth? Are you what she says you are?" he asked. +</p> +<p> +"Oh, don't, Ira!" gasped his sobbing wife. "She—" +</p> +<p> +"We've got to learn the straight of it," said the old man sternly. +"If we've been bamboozled, we've got to know it. Now's the time for +her to speak." +</p> +<p> +Sheila was still gazing at him. She nodded, indicating that his +question was already answered. +</p> +<p> +"You—you mean to say you stole—like she says?" +</p> +<p> +"I was arrested in Hoskin & Marl's. They accused me of stealing. +Yes." +</p> +<p> +She said no more. She turned, when he did not speak again, and +walked slowly to the stairway door. She opened it and went up, +closing the door behind her. +</p> +<p> +It was Ida May who moved first when she was gone. She jumped up once +more and started for the stairway. +</p> +<p> +"I'll tell her what's what!" she ejaculated. "The gall of her to +come here and say she was me and get my rightful place! I'll put her +out with my own hands!" +</p> +<p> +Somehow—it would be hard to say just how—Cap'n Ira was before her, +ere she could arrive at the stairway door. +</p> +<p> +"Avast!" he said throatily. "Don't take too much upon yourself, +young woman. You don't quite own these premises—yet." +</p> +<p> +"You ain't going to stand for her stayin' here any longer, are you?" +demanded the amazed Ida May. +</p> +<p> +"Whether or not she stays here is more my business and Prudence's +business than it is yours," said the old man. "But there's one thing +sure, and you may as well l'arn it first as last: you're not to +speak to her nor do anything else to annoy her. Understand?" +</p> +<p> +"You—you—" +</p> +<p> +"Heed what I tell ye!" said Cap'n Ira, grim-lipped and with flashing +eyes. "You interfere with that girl in any way and it won't be her +I'll put out o' the house. I'll put you out—night though it is—and +you'll march yourself down to the port and to the Widder Pauling's +alone. Understand me?" +</p> +<p> +There was silence again in the kitchen, save for Prudence's pitiful +sobbing. +</p> +<hr /> +<p> +In Tunis Latham's mind as he came up from the port four days later +was visioned no part of the tragedy which had occurred at the Ball +homestead during his absence on this last voyage to Boston. He had +suffered trouble enough during the trip even to dull the smart of +Sheila's renunciation of him before he had left the Head. Indeed, he +could scarcely realize even now that she had meant what she +said—that she could mean it! +</p> +<p> +So brief had been their dream of love—only since that recent Sunday +when they walked the beaches about the foot of Wreckers' Head—that +it seemed to the captain of the <i>Seamew</i> it could not be so soon +over. If Sheila really and truly loved him, how could anything part +them? +</p> +<p> +When he considered her wild manner and her trenchant words when last +he had seen her, however, his heart sank. He had gained during the +few months of their acquaintance a pretty accurate idea of how firm +she could be—how unwavering in face of any difficulty. He realized +that her obstinacy, when her mind was once settled on a course of +action, was not easily overcome. She had declared that they could +not be lovers any longer; that the situation which had arisen +through the appearance of the real Ida May upon Wreckers' Head had +made her decision necessary; and she had refused to consider any +other outcome of this dreadful affair. +</p> +<p> +In his business there was much which would have disturbed Tunis in +any event. The negro cook had deserted the <i>Seamew</i> the moment after +she touched the Boston wharf. Although the other hands had remained +by the schooner until she had just now dropped anchor in the cove +below, he was not at all sure that they would sail with him for +another voyage. +</p> +<p> +Why these new men should be more troubled by the silly tattle of the +hoodoo than even the Portygees had been was a problem Tunis could +not solve. And seamen were so scarce just then in Boston that he had +been obliged to risk another voyage without engaging strangers to +man the <i>Seamew</i>. Besides, being a true Cape Codder, he disliked +hiring other than Cape men to work the schooner. +</p> +<p> +For one thing he could be grateful. Orion Latham had taken his chest +ashore this very day. And Zebedee Pauling had offered himself in +Orion's place on the wharf as Tunis had just now come ashore. +</p> +<p> +He had been glad to take on Zeb in place of his cousin. And from +young Pauling he had learned at least one piece of news connected +with affairs on Wreckers' Head. Zeb told him that the girl he had +brought to the Pauling house had talked with Elder Minnett and that +the elder had later taken her up to the Ball house, where she had +remained. +</p> +<p> +There was not much gossip about the matter it seemed. Nobody seemed +to know who the young woman was; nor did Zeb know what was going on +at the Ball homestead. It was with this slight information only that +Tunis now approached the old place. He saw Cap'n Ira hobbling into +the barn, but he saw nobody else about. +</p> +<p> +The day was gray, and a chill wind crept over the brown earth, +rustling the dead stalks of the weeds and curling little spirals of +dust in the road which rose no more than a foot or two, then fell +again, despairingly. In any event the young shipmaster must have +felt the oppression of the day and the lingering season. His spirits +fell lower, and he came to the Ball place with such a feeling of +depression that he hesitated about turning in at the gate at all. +</p> +<p> +As Cap'n Ira did not at once come out of the barn, the younger man +made his way there instead of going first to the kitchen door. He +shrank from meeting the real Ida May again. At any rate, he wanted +first to get the lay of the land from the old man. +</p> +<p> +He looked into the dim interior of the place and for a moment did +not see Cap'n Ira at all. The ghostly face of the Queen of Sheba +appeared at the opening over her manger. Tunis was about to call +when he saw the old man straining upon the lower rungs of the ladder +to reach the loft to pitch down a bunch of fodder. Queenie whinnied +softly. +</p> +<p> +"Hello, Cap'n Ira!" Tunis hailed. "What are you doing that for?" He +hastened to cross the barn floor to his aid. "Where's Ida May that +she lets you do this?" +</p> +<p> +"Ida May?" The old man repeated the name with such disgust that +Tunis was all but stunned and stopped to eye Cap'n Ira amazedly. +"D'ye think she'd take a step to save me a dozen? Or lift them +lily-white hands of hers to keep Prudence from doing all the work +she has to do? I swan!" +</p> +<p> +"What do you mean?" demanded Tunis. "You sound mighty funny, Cap'n +Ira. Hasn't Ida May been doing all and sundry for you for months? Is +she sick?" +</p> +<p> +"I—I don't mean <i>that</i> gal," quavered Cap'n Ira. "I mean the real +Ida May." +</p> +<p> +He half tumbled off the ladder into Tunis Latham's arms. He clung to +the young man tightly, and, although it was dark in the barn, Tunis +could have sworn that there were tears on the old man's cheeks. +</p> +<p> +"Don't you know we've got the right Ida May with us at +last—Prudence's niece that has come here to visit for a while and +play lady? Yes, you was fooled; we was bamboozled. That—that other +gal, Tunis, is a real bad one, I ain't no doubt. She pulled the wool +over your eyes and made a monkey of most everybody, it seems. She—" +</p> +<p> +"Who are you talking about?" cried Tunis, in his alarm almost +shaking the old man. +</p> +<p> +"I'm telling you the girl you brought down here, thinking she was +Ida May Bostwick, turned out to be somebody else. I don't know who. +Anyway, she ain't no relation of Prudence or me. I ain't blaming you +none, boy; she told us we musn't blame you, for you didn't know the +truth about her, either." +</p> +<p> +"Cap'n Ira, where is she?" demanded the younger man hoarsely. +</p> +<p> +"She ain't here. She's gone. She left four nights ago—after Ida May +had remembered what she'd done in that big store in Boston. Oh, she +admitted it—" +</p> +<p> +"You mean to tell me she's gone? That you don't know where she is?" +almost shouted Tunis. +</p> +<p> +"Easy, boy! Remember I got some feeling yet in them arms you was +squeezing. It ain't our fault she went. She left us in the +night—stole out with just a bundle of clothes and things. Left, +Prudence says, every enduring thing she'd got since she come +here—that we give her." +</p> +<p> +Tunis groaned. +</p> +<p> +"Yes, she's gone. And she's left that other dratted girl in her +place. I swan, Tunis, I'd just as leave have the figgerhead of the +old <i>Susan Gatskill</i> sittin' by our kitchen stove as to have that +useless critter about. She ain't no good to Prudence and me—not at +all!" +</p> +<a name="2HCH0029"><!-- H2 anchor --></a> + +<div style="height: 4em;"><br /><br /><br /><br /></div> + +<h2> + CHAPTER XXIX +</h2> +<h3> + ON THE TRAIL +</h3> +<p> +There was but a single idea in Sheila Macklin's mind when she left +those three people in the kitchen and mounted to her room. Indeed, +there was scarcely left to the sadly distracted girl another sane +thought. +</p> +<p> +She must leave the house before she could be further questioned. She +hoped that she had said enough to exonerate Tunis. If she said more, +it might be to raise some doubt in the minds of Cap'n Ira and +Prudence as to Tunis' ignorance of her true reputation. She must +escape any cross-examination—on that or any other topic. +</p> +<p> +She believed that the captain of the <i>Seamew</i> possessed sufficient +caution to keep secret the particulars of their first meeting until +he had heard from the old people the few false details she had left +in their minds. She had done all she could to make Tunis' reputation +secure in the eyes of those who must know any particulars of his +connection with her. She had kept her vow to the dead woman whom the +young shipmaster had, throughout his life, so revered—his mother. +</p> +<p> +She did not light her bedroom lamp until she knew by the sounds from +below that the family had retired for the night. Then, stepping +softly, she went over her small possessions and made a bundle of +those which she had brought with her when she came from Boston. The +articles of apparel purchased with money given her by the Balls she +left in the closet or in the bureau drawers. +</p> +<p> +This done, she did not lie down on the bed, but sat by the north +window staring out into the starlit dark. There was no lamp to watch +in the window of Latham's Folly to-night. Tunis was far away. Had +she been prepared for this unexpected catastrophe, she would have +been far, far away from Wreckers' Head before Tunis returned. +</p> +<p> +As it chanced, she possessed very little money—scarcely more than +enough to take her to Paulmouth. There she would be no better off +than she was at Big Wreck Cove. Sheila was not, in truth, quite +accountable for her actions at this time. To get away from the Ball +house was her only really clear thought. What followed must fall as +fate directed. +</p> +<p> +At the first faint gleam of dawn in the sky, and as the distant +stars paled and disappeared, the girl crept down the stairs with +her bundle, her shoes in her hand, and went out by the kitchen door. +She heard only the deep breathing of the old captain from across the +sitting room and now and then the sobbing breath of Prudence, like +the breathing of a hurt child that has fallen asleep in pain and +half wakes to a realization of it. +</p> +<p> +As she turned to close the outer door softly behind her, the girl's +heart throbbed in response to the old woman's sorrow. While she sat +on the bench to lace her shoes the cat, old Tabby, came rubbing and +purring about her skirts. Muffled, as though from a great distance, +a rooster vented a questioning crow as though he doubted that it was +yet time to announce the birth of another day. +</p> +<p> +She went to the barn to feed Queenie for the last time. That +outraged old creature displayed her surprised countenance at the +opening above her manger and blew sonorously through her nostrils. +Perhaps the gray mare remembered how she had been aroused at a +similar hour once before, and by Cap'n Ira himself. That experience +must have been keen in the Queen of Sheba's memory if she had any +memory at all. +</p> +<p> +But the troubled girl gave the mare less attention than usual, +throwing down some fodder and pouring a measure of corn into the +manger. The mare turned to that with appetite. Corn came not amiss +to Queenie, no matter at what hour it was vouchsafed her. Her sound +old teeth did not stop crunching the kernels as Sheila went out of +the barn. +</p> +<p> +From the shed she secured an ax and a spade, as well as a basket. +In spite of her condition of mind she knew exactly what she wanted +to do—and she did it. Had she thought out her intention for +months she could have gone about the matter no more directly and +practically. Yet, had one stopped Sheila and asked her what she +was about—exactly what her intentions were—the query would have +found her unprepared with an answer. +</p> +<p> +Both her physical and mental condition precluded Sheila from going +far from the Ball homestead. What she had been through during these +past few days had drained out of her physical vigor as well as all +intellectual freshness. +</p> +<p> +When Cap'n Ira Ball had led the feebly protesting Queen of Sheba +across these empty fields to her intended sacrifice, the two had +made no more dreary picture against the dim dawn than did Sheila +now. She carried the bundle she had made slung over one shoulder by +a length of rope. The spade, ax, and basket balanced her figure on +the other side; she bent forward as she walked and, from a distance, +Prudence herself would have looked no older or more decrepit than +did the girl now leaving the Ball premises. +</p> +<p> +She did not follow the same course that the captain and Queenie had +followed on that memorable occasion, but took a path that led to a +cart track to the beach behind John-Ed Williams' house. Nobody was +astir anywhere on Wreckers' Head but herself. +</p> +<p> +In an hour she arrived at the objective point toward which she had +been headed from the first. Why and how she had thought of this +refuge it would be hard to tell. Least of all could Sheila have +explained her reason for coming here. It was in her mind, it was +away from all other human habitations, and she did not think anybody +would have the right to drive her from it. +</p> +<p> +The cabin formerly occupied by Hosea Westcott was well above the +tide, was, or could be made, perfectly dry, was roughly, if not +comfortably furnished, and offered the girl a shelter in which she +thought she would be safe. +</p> +<p> +To one who had spent such weary months in a narrow room in a Hanover +Street lodging house, going in and out with speech with scarcely any +one save the person to whom she paid her weekly dole of rent, there +could be no loneliness in a place like this, where the surf soughed +continually in one's ear, a hundred feathered forms flashed by in an +hour, sails dotted the dimpling sea, and the strand itself was +spread thick with many varieties of nature's wonders. +</p> +<p> +During the summer and early fall, Sheila had become a splendid +oarswoman. In a skiff belonging to little John-Ed which was drawn up +on the sands not far from the cabin she had paddled out through the +narrow neck of the tiny cove's entrance and pulled bravely through +the surf and out upon the sea beyond. She had learned more than a +bit of sea lore, too, from Cap'n Ira and Tunis. And regarding the +edible shellfish to be found along the beaches, she was well +informed. +</p> +<p> +If an old man such as Hosea Westcott, feeble and spent, no doubt, +could pick up a living here, why could not she? Sheila did not fear +starvation. Indeed, she did not even look forward to such a +possibility. She did not fear work of any kind. With every salt +breath she drew, strength, like the tide itself, flowed into her +body. Although her mind remained in a partially stunned condition, +her muscles soon recovered their vigor. +</p> +<p> +Of course the girl's presence here in the abandoned cabin, her +taking up a hermit life on the shore, could not remain unknown to +the neighbors on Wreckers' Head for long. Yet at this season of the +year the men were all busy elsewhere and the women almost never came +down to the beaches. It is a remarkable fact that most longshore +women have little interest in the beauties or wonders to be found +along the beaches, even in the sea itself. Perhaps this is because +the latter is such a hard mistress to their menfolk. +</p> +<p> +Nevertheless, Sheila could not hide herself away from +everybody—not even on that first day. The Balls made no outcry when +they found that she had disappeared. And no near-port fishing craft +came by. But the smoke from the chimney of the cabin, when she had +swept and made comfortable its interior and built a fire of +driftwood in the rusty pot stove, attracted at least one sharp eye. +</p> +<p> +Down the bank, along with a small avalanche of sand and gravel, +plunged little John-Ed and his freckled face appeared at the +doorway. +</p> +<p> +"By the great jib boom!" he cried. "What you doing here? Playing +castaway?" +</p> +<p> +"Yes, John-Ed," said Sheila. "That is it exactly. I am a castaway." +</p> +<p> +He stared at her. She could not take this boy into her confidence. +But already little John-Ed was a henchman of hers, in spite of the +fact that Sheila often had made him work. +</p> +<p> +"I am going to stay here for a while," she told him. "But I would +rather nobody but you knew about it." +</p> +<p> +"By the great jib boom!" exploded the boy for a second time. "Not +even Cap'n Ira and Aunt Prudence?" +</p> +<p> +"Not even them," sighed the girl. +</p> +<p> +"I bet it's because you don't want to stay there while that other +girl is visitin' them. Ain't that it? She's a snippy thing!" +</p> +<p> +"You must not say so to anybody," urged Sheila. "It will not be +wrong for you to say nothing about my being here to your father and +mother. Do you understand?" +</p> +<p> +"I can keep a secret, all right," he assured her proudly. +</p> +<p> +"I believe you can. And do you think you could get off to go down to +the store for me this evening?" +</p> +<p> +"Going down anyway for mom," he assured her. +</p> +<p> +Sheila had a dollar and a little change besides. She had already +planned just what the dollar would buy in the way of necessaries. +There were cooking utensils in the cabin sufficient for her modest +needs. She gave little John-Ed the dollar and her list and warned +him to hide her purchases safely until the next morning and bring +them to her on his way to school. +</p> +<p> +"What you going to eat to-night?" he asked her bluntly. +</p> +<p> +"I dug some clams at low water and caught a big horseshoe crab." +</p> +<p> +"Cousin Phineas brought us more squeteague than we can eat. Mom told +me to cut one up for the hens. I'll bring it down to you in a +little. It's a fresh one." +</p> +<p> +In spite of her refusal, he did this, and brought along, too, a box +of sweet crackers which he had bought and hidden away in his bedroom +closet in preparation for some time when he might wake up in the +night and feel that he was on the verge of famine. +</p> +<p> +"Though I never did wake up in the night that I can remember, 'cept +that time I had the toothache," he observed. +</p> +<p> +And in this way Sheila began her hermit life in the fisherman's +cabin. +</p> +<p> +But Sheila was not without a practical design as to her future. In +her determination to accept no further aid from the Balls she had +crippled her finances. Back in the inland town where she had spent +her girlhood, and where Dr. Macklin had served the community so +long, there were those who, in disapproving Sheila's venture into +the city, at least had a sense of justice. Some of these critical +friends whom the young woman had shrunk from appealing to +heretofore, still owed for Dr. Macklin's services; and Sheila felt +that in this present tragic emergency she must attempt the +collection of these old debts. +</p> +<p> +She wrote letters praying that money might be sent her by express to +Paulmouth, but with the orders addressed under cover to "John-Ed +Williams, Jr." at the Big Wreck Cove post office. She explained her +design to her juvenile confidant and little John-Ed was made +immensely proud of such mark of her trust. She could have found no +more faithful adherent than the boy, and with him the secret of her +dwelling on the lonely shore and in her hermit-like state was safe. +</p> +<p> +But her presence there could not be hidden for long; of that she was +well aware. Little John-Ed, however, told nobody of her whereabouts +until the day Tunis Latham came back from Boston and learned that +the girl he loved had stolen away from her home in the Ball house. +</p> +<p> +Coming out of the rear door of the barn, fresh from the interview +with the old captain which had so shocked him, Tunis saw a small boy +astride the low stone fence that marked the rear boundary of the +Ball farm. The captain of the <i>Seamew</i> was in no mood to bandy words +with little John-Ed Williams, but the sharp tooth of his troubled +thought fastened upon one indubitable fact: if there is anything odd +going on in a community, the small boy of that community knows all +about it—or, at least, as much about it as it is possible to know. +</p> +<p> +Tunis could not have walked up to any adult person on Wreckers' Head +and asked the question which he put to little John-Ed on the spur of +the moment: +</p> +<p> +"Where is she?" +</p> +<p> +He did not have to utter Sheila's name. Indeed, he was doubtful by +what name it would be wise to call her. But he did not have to be +plainer with little John-Ed. He saw in the sly expression of the +boy's eyes that he knew whom he meant. But he shook his head. +</p> +<p> +"You know where she went," was the schooner captain's accusation. +"Where is she?" +</p> +<p> +"I—I can't tell you," stammered the boy. "I promised not." +</p> +<p> +A promise is a promise, especially to a small boy who scorns to +"snitch." Tunis thought a moment. +</p> +<p> +"Show me," he said, and his voice had in it that tone which made the +foremast hands jump to obey when a squall was coming. +</p> +<p> +The boy got promptly off the wall. +</p> +<p> +"All right," he said gruffly. "But don't you tell her I showed you, +Cap'n Tunis Latham." +</p> +<p> +"Trust me," agreed the captain of the <i>Seamew</i>, and followed after +little John-Ed with such tremendous strides that the latter had to +run to keep ahead of him. +</p> +<p> +Tunis was led to that point on the bluff from which a curl of smoke +from the cabin chimney could be seen. He halted almost in +horror—stricken to the heart when he understood. +</p> +<p> +"Alone?" he muttered. +</p> +<p> +"Yep," was the reply. "She's playing she's a castaway. Nobody but me +knows it." +</p> +<p> +Then, fearing he had said too much, John-Ed ran away. +</p> +<p> +Tunis descended the bluff by a perilous path—he would not delay to +go around by the cart track—and came in plain view of the cabin. +The door hinge had been repaired, and the door now swung freely. A +strip of cotton cloth had been tacked over the gaping window. There +was that neatness about the abandoned cabin which must always be +associated in his mind with Sheila Macklin, even had he not seen her +sitting pensively upon a driftwood timber by the door. +</p> +<p> +The ax had been doing good service, for there was a great +heap of wood cut into stove lengths. The fragrant odor of +something—chowder, perhaps—simmering on the stove, floated +through the open door. +</p> +<p> +It was the coarse sand crunching under his boots which aroused her. +She did not start at his approach, but raised her eyes languidly. He +wondered if she had expected him. She must have seen the <i>Seamew</i> +pass several hours earlier as they headed in toward the channel. +</p> +<p> +"My God, Sheila!" he exclaimed with bitterness, but without anger. +"You can't stay here." +</p> +<p> +"I must—for a while. No. Don't talk about it, please, Tunis." Her +gesture had a finality to it which silenced the objections rising to +his lips. "Nothing you can say will change my determination. And you +must not come here again." +</p> +<p> +"What will people say?" he gasped. +</p> +<p> +The violet eyes blazed suddenly while she surveyed him. This was not +the girl he had known before. At least, she was not the same as +when he had seen her last. Even at that previous interview her look +and manner had not so reminded him of the girl he had sat beside on +the bench on Boston Common. +</p> +<p> +She was alone again. The flower of her nature that had expanded +while she lived her all too brief and happy life with the Balls was +now withered. She was hopeless again; she had become once more the +Sheila Macklin that he had met under such wretched circumstances at +that past time. But in spite of her helplessness and her +wretchedness, there was something in the girl's expression which +convinced Tunis Latham before he again spoke that nothing he could +say would in any degree change her determination. +</p> +<p> +"That confounded girl never should have been allowed to come back to +the house up there," he cried almost wildly. "Why did Elder Minnett +want to interfere? It was not his business! No one need have known +the truth." +</p> +<p> +"Don't you see, Tunis, that just because it was the truth it was +sure to become known? At least, the main points in the whole matter +were sure to come out. But if you are careful, if you are wise, +nobody need know more of your share in the transaction than I have +told already." +</p> +<p> +"Cap'n Ira asked me if it was true. He told me what you said. +Sheila, you ruined your own reputation with the old folks to save +me. Girl—" +</p> +<p> +"Did I have any reputation to lose, Tunis?" she interrupted, yet +speaking softly. "I could not save myself. I have tried to save you. +Don't be ill-advised; don't be foolish. Say nothing, and it will all +blow over—for you." +</p> +<p> +"You think I'll accept such a sacrifice on your part?" he demanded +fiercely. +</p> +<p> +"I am making no sacrifice. Nothing I can do or say; nothing you can +do or say; nothing anybody can do or say; will change my situation. +We need not both be ruined in the eyes of the community. Soon I will +get away. They will forget me. It will all blow over. You need not +suffer." +</p> +<p> +"What do you think I am?" he cried again. "Am I the sort of a +fellow, you think, to shelter myself behind you?" +</p> +<p> +"Shelter your Aunt Lucretia. Shelter your business prospects. +Shelter the good name of your mother's son. You can do me absolutely +no good by telling any different story from the one I was forced to +tell. Let it be, Tunis." +</p> +<p> +She said it wearily. She dropped her eyes again, looking away from +him. But when he would have stepped nearer and caught her to him, +she leaped up and with look and tone warded him away. +</p> +<p> +"Don't touch me! Be at least so kind, Tunis. Make it no harder for +me than you can help." +</p> +<p> +"You are breaking my heart, Sheila!" +</p> +<p> +"Mine is already broken," she told him. "And I do not blame you, +Tunis. It is the punishment for my own sins. I attempted to escape +from my overwhelming troubles in a wrong way. I see it now. I know +it to be so. I must go somewhere else and build again—if I may. But +never again upon a foundation of trickery and deceit. Oh! Never! +Never!" +</p> +<p> +She stepped around the big block on which she had been sitting, +entered the cabin, and closed the door behind her. She left him +standing there hopeless, miserable, almost distraught by all the +entanglements of this tragedy that had come upon them. +</p> +<a name="2HCH0030"><!-- H2 anchor --></a> + +<div style="height: 4em;"><br /><br /><br /><br /></div> + +<h2> + CHAPTER XXX +</h2> +<h3> + THE STORM +</h3> +<p> +Captain Tunis Latham, pacing the deck of the <i>Seamew</i>, had come to a +conclusion which was by no means complimentary to his own +self-respect. During his manifold duties and the business bothers +connected with the sailing of the undermanned schooner, his mind had +seized upon and grappled with a train of ideas which brought him +logically to the decision that he was playing a weak and piffling +part. +</p> +<p> +Strong in most things, Tunis Latham had allowed his better sense to +be throttled and his purpose balked in the thing which meant more to +him than the schooner, his business success, or anything else in +life. The broader the rift grew between Sheila and himself, the +clearer he saw that without her he was a ship without a rudder and +that nothing could come of his life save wreck and disaster. +</p> +<p> +She had renounced him for his own good, as she believed, and he had +tacitly consented to her ruling. He might be slow of thought +regarding such things, but once having made up his mind—and it was +made up now—he was of the kind that obstacles do not frighten. +</p> +<p> +Not only did he realize that by bowing to the girl's will he had +been weak, but he was determined to take matters in the future into +his own hands. He should not have allowed Sheila, in the first +place, to shoulder the responsibility of handling the emergency of +the appearance of the real Ida May Bostwick at Big Wreck Cove. +</p> +<p> +Sheila, in an attempt to save his reputation, to save his +self-respect in the eyes of the home folks and of the world in +general, had uttered a direct falsehood and cut herself off from him +and from those who loved her. This was too much for any decent man +to stand. Was he a coward? Would he shelter himself—as he had told +her—behind her skirts? +</p> +<p> +Tunis believed that Cap'n Ira and Prudence, when once the shock of +the girl's revelation was past, loved her so dearly that they would +forgive Sheila if they knew all the truth—if they knew the girl as +he knew her. He was not so sure of Aunt Lucretia. He had feared to +tell her the night before that Sheila had gone to live in the old +fisherman's cabin, in spite of the sympathy Lucretia had previously +shown him. But he believed his silent aunt fully appreciated the +better qualities of the girl she had seen on but one occasion, and +that she would, in time, admit that Sheila was more than worthy of +her nephew's love. +</p> +<p> +In any event he had his own life to make or mar. Without Sheila he +knew it would be utterly fruitless and without an object. Rather +than lose Sheila he would sell the schooner, cut himself off from +friends and home, and, with her, face the world anew. He was +determined, if Sheila left Big Wreck Cove, that he would go with +her. Nobody—not even the girl herself—could shake this +determination now born in the mind of the captain of the <i>Seamew</i>. +</p> +<p> +Sheila had borne his reputation upon her heart from the beginning, +but he should have at first thought of her good name and the opinion +the world must needs hold of Sheila Macklin. She had been unfairly +accused. She had been abused, ill-treated, punished for a sin which +was not hers. It was not enough that he had tried to help her hide +away from those who knew of her persecution. The only right thing to +do—the only sane course, and the one which should have been pursued +from the start—was to attempt to disprove the accusation under +which the girl had suffered and set her right not only before Big +Wreck Cove folk, but before the whole world. +</p> +<p> +The poignant feeling of sin committed, with which Sheila herself was +now burdened, did not influence Tunis Latham. It was the logic of +the idea which convinced him that they had been totally wrong in +what they had done. He should have married Sheila on the night they +had met in Boston and set about first of all tracing back her +trouble and disproving the flimsy evidence which must have convicted +her of stealing from Hoskin & Marl's. +</p> +<p> +He told himself it was not piety, but hard common sense which +suggested this as the only and practical way to handle the matter. +It was, in truth, the awakened hope in a loving heart. +</p> +<p> +Tunis had been able to keep scarcely enough of his crew to handle +the <i>Seamew</i> in fair weather; and the barometer was falling, with +every indication in sea and sky of the approach of bad weather. He +feared the few hands he had would desert when they reached Boston. +Zebedee Pauling was a young host in himself—far and away a better +seaman than Orion Latham, as well as a better fellow. But the +schooner could not be sailed with good will. +</p> +<p> +Tunis' mind, however, remained fixed upon Sheila's troubles rather +than upon his own; and as soon as the schooner docked, he went up +into the town and wended his way directly to the great department +store in which he had once interviewed the troublesome Ida May +Bostwick. +</p> +<hr /> +<p> +The cargo was out, and the <i>Seamew</i> had already been warped into +another wharf where freight was awaiting her when the skipper +returned to the water front that afternoon. The three men remaining +of the forecastle crew were still at work, assisted by Zebedee and +Horry Newbegin. They had not had a regular cook for two trips now. +</p> +<p> +But a new complication had arisen. Mason Chapin stood at the rail +waiting his return, and a taxicab had been summoned. The mate +carried a bag. +</p> +<p> +"A telegram from Doctor Norris. My wife's worse, Mr. Latham. I've +got to go back just as fast as steam will get me there," was his +greeting to the skipper of the <i>Seamew</i>. +</p> +<p> +This was according to the agreement Mason Chapin had made in the +beginning. His wife was sorely ill, and surely Tunis would not stand +between a man and his sick wife! +</p> +<p> +But it left a very serious situation upon the schooner when the mate +drove away in the taxicab. Six men, forward and aft, to handle a +suit of sails which equaled those of any seagoing racing yacht. If +it had not been for the freight—some of which was perishable—the +master of the <i>Seamew</i> would have laid up until he could have got +together a more numerous crew at least. +</p> +<p> +But instead of going to the seamen's employment offices, Tunis had +to turn to himself, while the heavier pieces of freight were lowered +down the hatchway of the schooner. It was near evening when the +hatch was battened down and a small tug snaked them out of the dock +and from among the greater shipping, and gave them a whistled +blessing in midstream. +</p> +<p> +All hands and the skipper tailed on to the sheets and got her canvas +spread. Then the skipper went below to the galley and prepared +supper. Tunis Latham could be no stickler for quarter-deck etiquette +on this voyage, that was sure. +</p> +<p> +But although the hands growled, and even Horry looked sour, Tunis +seemed strangely excited; indeed, he looked less woebegone than he +had for many a day. Something seemed to have given him a new zest in +life. He even spoke to the hands cheerfully, and they were a trio of +as surly dogs as ever quarreled with their food and a ship's +officers. +</p> +<p> +"I'll lay up at the cove until I get a decent crew this time, if I +lose all my existing contracts," Tunis said to Zebedee. "I'll find a +bunch of men who are not afraid of their shadows. Huh! Hoodooed, is +she? I'll show 'em that she can sail, even if Davy Jones himself +sits on her bowsprit!" +</p> +<p> +There was wind enough, in all good conscience. They discovered that +before they were out of the bay. It had shifted into the northeast, +and the <i>Seamew</i> went roaring away on her course under reefed +canvas, heeling over to it like a racing yacht. +</p> +<p> +But the long tacks to seaward which the gale enforced made it +impossible for the schooner to beat back to Hollis where the first +of her freight must be discharged until after breakfast the next +morning. By that time the three foremast hands who had been obliged +to work double watches were fairly stewing in their own rage. +</p> +<p> +Tunis had to see his consignees while the freight was being +discharged; when he got back to the wharf there was nobody aboard +the schooner save Horry and Zebedee. The latter had a broken oar in +his hand and he and the ancient seaman seemed to be in a condition +of utter amazement. +</p> +<p> +"What's to do now?" demanded the skipper. +</p> +<p> +"They've gone, Cap'n Latham," stammered Zebedee. "Say they won't put +foot on the <i>Seamew's</i> deck again. That—that confounded 'Rion—" +</p> +<p> +"What's the matter with Orion now?" exclaimed Tunis. "I hoped I was +well rid of him. Has he turned up here at Hollis?" +</p> +<p> +"Look at this," said Zebedee, shaking the broken oar. "Here's what +it seems 'Rion found in the hold two trips back. So those fellows +say. He left it with 'em. And they say the schooner is a murder ship +and they won't try to work her no further." +</p> +<p> +Tunis seized the piece of oar. Along one side was a streak of faint +blue paint. He knew immediately where he had seen that broken oar +before—leaning against the door frame of Pareta's cottage in +Portygee Town, when he had last talked with the old man's daughter. +</p> +<p> +"What in thunder!" +</p> +<p> +He had turned it over and saw the straggling letters burned into +the wood: MARLIN B. Newbegin looked at Tunis with an expression +which betrayed a great perturbation of soul. The old man could +scarcely show pallor under the mahogany of his face, but it was +plain that superstition had him by the throat. +</p> +<p> +"So this is the thing that rotten 'Rion played them with, is it?" +Tunis demanded. "Trying to make them think my beautiful <i>Seamew</i> was +once the <i>Marlin B.</i>? Why, the poor fools, this broken oar came out +of Mike Pareta's woodpile, or I'm a dog-fish! See that blue streak? +I saw this broken oar at Pareta's house. Bet you anything Eunez had +something to do with it, too. Though why she should want to harm me, +who never said a cross word to her, I can't see." +</p> +<p> +"She and your cousin are mighty thick," Zebedee said reflectively. +"That's a fact." +</p> +<p> +"Thicker than they ought to be for the girl's good, I guess," agreed +Tunis. Then he said to Horry: "What's the matter with you, old man? +Do you want to desert me, too, all along of a broken oar with some +silly letters burned into it?" +</p> +<p> +The ancient mariner had got a grip upon himself. The simple +explanation that punctured the bubble of superstition so +convincingly might not have altogether satisfied Horry. But he was a +true and just man. +</p> +<p> +"I never deserted your father, Cap'n Randall Latham, not even when +his ship sunk under him," the old man declared. "I was saved from +that wreck by chance, not because I tried to be. And I ain't likely +to desert his son." +</p> +<p> +"How about you, Zebedee?" demanded the captain of the <i>Seamew</i>. +</p> +<p> +"I am not afraid of any foolish talk, anyway, Captain Latham. Had I +been I wouldn't have applied for the berth. I had heard enough about +it. Eunez Pareta, I believe, talked too much to the Portygees, and +that is why you couldn't keep them. But I'm not a Portygee." +</p> +<p> +"I'll say you're not," agreed Tunis. "But we're left in something of +a fix. This freight for Josh Jones and his father is needed. Some +other stuff consigned to Big Wreck Cove ought to be there by +to-night. And I can't get a man for love or money here to help us +out. I tried while I was uptown." +</p> +<p> +Zeb showed no hesitation. He shrugged his blue-jerseyed shoulders. +</p> +<p> +"Don't you cal'late we can beat down there under a reefed mainsail +and jib? It'll take time, but she's the sweetest sailing craft I was +ever in in my life," he said. +</p> +<p> +"She's certainly all right, 'cept for that pull to sta'bbo'd," +muttered Horry. +</p> +<p> +"Humph! Three men to sail a schooner of this tonnage. And this isn't +any capsize wind at that," murmured the captain of the <i>Seamew</i>. +"But it's got to be done. Come! Will you risk it with me?" +</p> +<p> +They looked aloft and then at each other. There was little save +reflection in their several glances. Men of this caliber do not +hesitate over a risk of life or ship. Cautious as Tunis Latham was, +his agreement with those he had contracted with called for a prompt +fulfillment of the details of the pact. Nor did the prospect of the +rising gale and rising sea cause any of the trio to blanch. It was +not a long run to Big Wreck Cove. Properly manned, the <i>Seamew</i> +should make it prettily in three or four hours. In addition, there +was little but an open roadstead before the port of Hollis. The +breakwater was scarcely strong enough to fend off the waves in a +real gale. And they knew that a gale was coming. +</p> +<p> +This was no place for a schooner of the <i>Seamew's</i> size to ride out +the storm. She might easily drag her anchors and go ashore on the +Hollis sands that in the past had buried many a good ship. So the +trio of Cape men nodded grimly to each other and took the better +chance. +</p> +<a name="2HCH0031"><!-- H2 anchor --></a> + +<div style="height: 4em;"><br /><br /><br /><br /></div> + +<h2> + CHAPTER XXXI +</h2> +<h3> + BITTER WATERS +</h3> +<p> +Ah, yes! youth, and romance linked with a self-scrutiny born of her +New England ancestry if not of her father's Celtic blood, had +brought Sheila Macklin to her dreadful pass. One might have said, if +one were hardened enough, that had the young woman "possessed an +ounce of sense" she would not have made herself penniless, an +outcast, and so suffered because she could not escape quickly from +an environment well-nigh poignant enough to turn her brain. +</p> +<p> +She was days in recovering from the shock of the appearance of the +real Ida May Bostwick at the Ball homestead. And those hours of +torture that had followed had eaten like acid into Sheila's soul. +</p> +<p> +She had by no means recovered herself when Tunis had his brief +interview with her. Had she not shut herself away from him—refused +to even discuss the situation with the troubled skipper of the +<i>Seamew</i>—she must have broken down, given way to that womanly +weakness born of love for the man of her choice. +</p> +<p> +For Sheila knew how Tunis Latham suffered. She felt that her course +was right; nevertheless she fully appreciated how keen the blow of +her decision fell upon the partner in her sin. +</p> +<p> +A sin it was—almost, it seemed to her now, an unpardonable crime. +To seize upon another girl's identity; to usurp another's chance; to +foist herself upon the unsuspecting and kindly souls at the Ball +homestead in a way that raised for them a happiness that was merely +a phantom—the thought of it all was now a draught of which the +dregs were very, very bitter. +</p> +<p> +Over and over again she recalled all that Ida May Bostwick had said +to and of her. It was all true! Coarse and unfeeling as the shopgirl +was, Sheila lashed her troubled soul with the thought that what Ida +May had said was deserved. Neither circumstances nor the fact that +Tunis had suggested the masquerade excused the transgression. +</p> +<p> +The days of her waiting on fate, alone in the cabin under Wreckers' +Head, gave no surcease to her mental castigation. Her sin loomed the +more huge as the hours dragged their slow length by. +</p> +<p> +And yet, with it all, Sheila's keenest anguish came through her +renunciation of Tunis' love. She could see no possible way of +holding to that if she would purge herself of the fault she had +committed. +</p> +<p> +And above the stain of her false position since she had come to the +Cape was the overcloud of that accusation which had first warped +Sheila Macklin's life and humbled her spirit. She believed that she +could never escape the shame of that prosecution and punishment for +a crime she had not committed. +</p> +<p> +She believed that, no matter where she might go nor how blamelessly +she might live, the fact that she had been sentenced to a woman's +reformatory would crop up like the ugly memory of a horrid dream to +embitter her existence. Was her life linked with Tunis Latham's, he +must suffer also from that misfortune. +</p> +<p> +And so Sheila Macklin waited from hour to hour, from day to day, +dully and in a brooding spirit, for release from a situation which +must in time embitter her whole nature. +</p> +<hr /> +<p> +From the cabin at the foot of the seaward bluff of Wreckers' Head, +the coming of the black gale out of the northeast was watched +anxiously by Sheila, from the very break of this day. Tunis might be +on the sea. She doubted if the threat of bad weather would hold the +<i>Seamew</i> in port. +</p> +<p> +There was no rain—just a wind which tore across the waste of waters +within view of her station, scattering their crests in foam and +spoondrift, and rolling them in huger and still huger breakers on +the strand. It was a magnificent sight, but a terrifying one as +well. The girl watched almost continually for a white patch against +the black of the storm which might mark a sailing craft in peril. +</p> +<p> +Steam vessels went past, several of them. They, surely, were in +little danger, were their hulls ordinarily sound and their engines +perfect. All the fishing craft had made for cover the night before. +The New York-Boston steamers would keep to the inside passage in +this gale. +</p> +<p> +Sheila had made all taut and trim inside the cabin. She had plenty +of firewood and sufficient provisions to last her for a time. +</p> +<p> +About noon she heard the crunch of footsteps on the sand. It was +little John-Ed who first appeared before her eyes. He thrust a +letter into Sheila's hand. +</p> +<p> +"Dad brought it up from the port this morning, and I got it away +from him. Say," he continued, evidently much disturbed, "he's coming +here." +</p> +<p> +"Who is coming here—your father?" +</p> +<p> +"No, no! Not dad. I—I couldn't help it. I didn't tell him. I said +you wanted to play alone here at being shipwrecked, and I was just +like you said—your man Friday." +</p> +<p> +"Who do you mean?" asked Sheila, greatly agitated. "Not—" +</p> +<p> +"I bet 'twas that Tunis Latham told him you was here," continued +John-Ed. "Anyway, don't blame me. All I done was to help him down +the path." +</p> +<p> +He disappeared. Sheila stepped to the door. Cap'n Ira was laboring +over the sands toward the cabin, leaning on his cane, his coat +flapping in the wind and his cap screwed on so tightly that a +hurricane could not possibly have blown it away. +</p> +<p> +But in addition and aside from the buffeting he had suffered from +the wind, the old man looked much less trim and taut than Sheila had +ever before seen him. He had not been shaved for at least three +days; a button hung by a thread upon his coat; there was a coffee +stain on the bosom of his shirt. +</p> +<p> +He looked so miserable, and so faint, and so buffeted about, that +the girl cried out, running from the door of the cabin to meet him. +The sweat of his hard effort stood on his brow, and he panted for +breath. +</p> +<p> +"I swan! Ida May—er—well, whoever you be, gal, let me set down! +I'm near spent, and that's a fact." +</p> +<p> +"Oh, Cap'n Ball, you should not have done this!" cried the girl, +letting him lean upon her and aiding him as rapidly as possible to +the cabin door. "You should not have done this. You—you can do +nothing for me. You can do no good by coming here." +</p> +<p> +"Humph! P'r'aps not. Mebbe you're right. Let me set down on that +box, gal," he muttered. +</p> +<p> +He eased himself down upon the rough seat against the wall. He +removed the cap with an effort and took his huge handkerchief from +its crown. He mopped his brow and face and finally heaved a huge +sigh. +</p> +<p> +"I swan! That was a pull," he said. "So you're settled here. Gone to +housekeeping on your own hook, have ye?" he said. +</p> +<p> +"Just for a little while, Cap'n Ira. Only—only until I can get +away. I—I have been expecting some money—payment of one of my +father's old bills." +</p> +<p> +She slit the envelope of the letter little John-Ed had just brought +her. Inside was a pale-blue slip—a money order. +</p> +<p> +"Yes," she said. "I can get away now. I must go somewhere to earn my +living, and as far away from here as I can get." +</p> +<p> +"So you think on traveling, do you?" said the old man. "You ain't +content with Big Wreck Cove and the Head?" +</p> +<p> +"Oh, Cap'n Ira!" she cried. "You know I can't stay here. Winter is +coming. Besides, the people here—" +</p> +<p> +"Ain't none of 'em asked ye to come an' live with them?" +</p> +<p> +"Cap'n Ball!" +</p> +<p> +"Ain't ye seen Tunis?" +</p> +<p> +The girl hid her face from him. She put her hands over her eyes. Her +shoulders shook with her sobbing. Cap'n Ira took a reflective pinch +of snuff. +</p> +<p> +"I cal'late," he said, after wiping his eyes, "that it ain't Tunis' +fault that you are going away any more than it is mine and +Prudence's. You just made up your mind to go." +</p> +<p> +"Cap'n Ball!" she exclaimed faintly, and again raised her eyes to +his. "Can—can I help it? <i>Now?</i>" +</p> +<p> +"I don't know," he said, pursing his lips. "I don't know, gal, as +anybody is driving you away from Wreckers' Head and them that loves +ye here." +</p> +<p> +She was speechless. She gazed at him with drenched eyes, her face +quivering uncontrollably. A hand pressed tightly to her breast +seemed endeavoring to still the wild fluttering there. +</p> +<p> +"I don't know," he repeated, "that we got much to offer a gal like +you, and that's a fact. We learned to know you pretty well while you +stayed with us, Prue and me did. Somehow, we can't just seem to get +the straight of what you told us that night you left. It—it ain't +possible that you made some mistake, is it? Mebbe you was talking +about some other gal?" +</p> +<p> +"Oh, Cap'n Ball!" she sighed. "I am able to tell you nothing that +will change your opinion of me." +</p> +<p> +"Well, I don't know. I don't know. What you did say," he observed in +that same reflective, gentle tone, "didn't seem to change our +opinion much. Not mine and Prudence's." +</p> +<p> +"Cap'n Ball!" +</p> +<p> +"No," he went on, wagging his head. "You committing such a fault as +you say you was accused of, and you coming down here as you did, +through a trick—somehow those facts, if they be facts, don't seem +to have much effect on our opinion. Me and the old woman feel that +somehow—we don't know how—what you told us that night and what you +done for us before that night don't fit together nohow." +</p> +<p> +She stared at him without understanding. He cleared his throat and +mopped his brow again with the big silk handkerchief. +</p> +<p> +"No, gal, we can't understand how anybody as good and loving as you +have been to us can be at heart as bad as—as other folks might try +to make out. Fact is, we know you can't be bad." +</p> +<p> +"What—what do you mean, Cap'n Ball?" she asked faintly. +</p> +<p> +"I swan! I tell ye what I'm getting at," burst out the old man. "We +want you to come back. Prudence, she wants you to come back. I swan! +I want you to come back. Why, even that dratted Queen of Sheby needs +you, Ida May—or, whatever your name is! We've got to have you!" +</p> +<p> +"Prudence can't scurcely get around the house. And that niece of +hers sits there like a stick or a stun, not willin' to scurce lift +her hand to help. Thank the Lord <i>she's</i> goin' home to-day. Her +visit's come to an end. She don't like it down here. She says we're +all a set of—er—hicks, I believe she calls us. +</p> +<p> +"Howsomever, we're all high and dry on the reefs, gal, and it seems +likely you're the only one can get us off. You ain't got to go away +from here, if you don't want to. I've made it pretty average plain +to that Bostwick gal that no matter what happens, she's got no +expectations as far as Prudence and me are concerned. It was money +and nothing but money she was after. Her being Prudence's niece in +kind of a far-fetched way don't make it our duty—not even our +Christian duty, as Elder Minnett calls it—to keep a gal in the +house that we don't want, nor yet die at her convenience and leave +her our money. And so I'll tell the elder if he undertakes to put +his spoon in the dish again." +</p> +<p> +Sheila was listening to words that she had never expected to hear +from the old captain. Could this be true? Were Cap'n Ira and +Prudence, in spite of what they knew about her—what she had told +them and Ida May had told them—desirous of having her back? Was +there a chance, no matter what the real Ida May Bostwick could say, +for Sheila to return and take up her peaceful life with the Balls? +</p> +<p> +Could this be real? Indeed, was it right for her to do this? Tunis— +</p> +<p> +She arose and walked to the open door, looking out almost blindly +at first upon the gale-smitten sea. It was like her heart—so tossed +about and fretted by winds of opinion. What should she do? Which way +should she turn? Not to save Sheila Macklin from trouble or +disgrace. Not even to save Tunis from possible scorn. The question +that assailed her now was only: <i>Was it right?</i> +</p> +<p> +Suddenly, out upon the mountainous waves, she spied a sail. It was +reefed, flattened down, almost tri-cornered. The two sticks of the +schooner and the jaunty bowsprit pointing skyward heaved again into +view. She stood so long gazing at the craft that Cap'n Ira spoke +again. +</p> +<p> +"What d'ye say, gal?" he asked anxiously. +</p> +<p> +"Look—look here, Cap'n Ira!" she exclaimed. "Can it be the +<i>Seamew</i>? Is she trying to head in for the channel? Oh! Are they in +danger out there?" +</p> +<p> +The old man rose with his usual difficulty and hobbled to the door, +leaning on his cane. He peered out over her shoulder, and his keen +and experienced eyes saw and identified the laboring vessel almost +at once. +</p> +<p> +"I swan! That is the <i>Seamew</i>, Ida May," he exclaimed. "Tut, tut! +What's Tunis got himself into such a pickle for? 'Tain't reasonable +he should—being as good a seaman as he is. +</p> +<p> +"My, my! Why don't he get some cloth on her? He can't have lost all +his upper canvas. Don't he know he needs tops'ls to beat up aslant +of this gale and get into the shelter of the Head? I swan! If +there's men enough there to man her proper, why don't they do the +right thing?" +</p> +<p> +"Oh, Cap'n Ball," gasped the girl, "perhaps there are not enough men +with him. Perhaps his crew has deserted again." +</p> +<p> +"I swan!" rejoined the old man. "What did he set sail for, then? +Ain't he got a mite of sense? But, I tell ye, Ida May, if he don't +get more canvas on her, and get under better way, he'll never make +that channel in this world." +</p> +<p> +"Oh!" +</p> +<p> +"The schooner's sure to go on the outer reef. She never can claw off +the land now. Without help—if that's his trouble—Tunis Latham will +never get that schooner into Big Wreck Cove. And God help him and +them that's with him!" added the captain reverently. +</p> +<a name="2HCH0032"><!-- H2 anchor --></a> + +<div style="height: 4em;"><br /><br /><br /><br /></div> + +<h2> + CHAPTER XXXII +</h2> +<h3> + A GIRL TO THE RESCUE +</h3> +<p> +On shore the gale seemed a stiff and dangerous blow. At sea, even +with a stanch deck under one's feet, the wind proved to have passed +the hurricane mark long since. The captain of the <i>Seamew</i> felt that +the elements had conspired bitterly to assail his schooner. Before +they were a mile beyond the end of the Hollis breakwater, Tunis knew +that he had the fight of his seagoing experience on his hands. +</p> +<p> +When they were fairly out of the semi-shelter of the point behind +which Hollis lay, Tunis and his two companions realized very quickly +just what they had to contend with. They had spread a handbreadth of +mainsail, but the jib was blown out of the boltropes by one big +swoop of wind and carried down to leeward, looking like a giant's +shirt. +</p> +<p> +"Still feel that tug to sta'bbo'd," grumbled Horry. "Just like—" +</p> +<p> +"Belay that!" commanded Tunis. "I begin to believe that's bad luck, +anyway. If you hadn't got on to that tack when we first put the +schooner into commission, those Portygees wouldn't have even +remembered the <i>Marlin B.</i> And <i>that</i> schooner thousands of miles +away from these seas!" +</p> +<p> +"I cal'late 'Rion Latham would have found something else to harp on +then," said Zebedee. "He was bound to ruin you if he could." +</p> +<p> +Quickly the gale increased instead of abating, and it was utterly +impossible for the trio to get topsails on her. She needed the pull +of upper canvas if she was to tack properly for the mouth of the +channel into Big Wreck Cove. +</p> +<p> +They fought for two hours to bring this much-desired object to pass, +hoping for a lull or a shifting of the gale which might aid them. +The yellow sands of Wreckers' Head were plainly in view all that +time. To give up the attempt and run before the gale was a folly of +which Tunis Latham had no intention of being guilty if it could +possibly be avoided. Manned as she was, the schooner might never be +worked back to a landfall if they did so. +</p> +<p> +The keen old eyes of Horace Newbegin first spied the thing which +promised hope. From his station at the wheel he shouted something +which the younger men did not catch, but his pointing arm drew their +gaze shoreward. +</p> +<p> +Coming out from the Head was an open boat. Four figures pulled at +the oars while another held the steering sweep. The daring crew was +heading the boat straight on for the pitching schooner! +</p> +<p> +"The coast guard!" the old man was now heard to shout. "God bless +them fellers!" +</p> +<p> +But Tunis knew it was not the lifeboat from the distant station. He +knew the boat, if he could not at first identify those who manned +it. It was an old lifeboat that had been stored in a shed below +John-Ed Williams' place, and these men attempting their rescue were +some of the neighbors from Wreckers' Head. +</p> +<p> +They came on steadily, the steersman standing at his post and +handling the long oar as though it was a feather's weight. His huge +figure soon identified him. It was Captain John Dunn, who, like Ira +Ball, had left the sea, and he had left his right forearm, too, +because of some accident somewhere on the other side of the globe. +But with the steel hook screwed to its stump and the good hand +remaining to him, Captain Dunn handled that steering oar with more +skill than most other men with two good hands could have done. +</p> +<p> +How the four at the oars pulled the heavy boat! Tunis sought to +identify them as well. He saw John-Ed Williams—in a place at last +where he was forced to keep up his end, though he was notably a lazy +man. Ben Brewster had the oar directly behind John-Ed. +</p> +<p> +The third figure Tunis could not identify—not at once. The man at +the bow oar was Marvin Pike, who pulled a splendid stroke. So did +that unknown oarsman. They were all bravely tugging at the heavy +oars. Tunis had faith in them. +</p> +<p> +Zebedee suddenly plunged across the pitching deck and reached the +rail where Tunis stood. Discipline—at least seagoing etiquette—had +been somewhat in abeyance aboard the <i>Seamew</i> during the last few +hours. Zeb caught the skipper by the arm. +</p> +<p> +"See her?" he bawled into the ear of the surprised Tunis. +</p> +<p> +"What's that?" +</p> +<p> +"See her hair? It's a girl! As I'm a living sinner, it's a girl! +Pulling number three oar, Captain Latham! Did you ever?" +</p> +<p> +Clinging to a stay, the captain of the <i>Seamew</i> flung himself far +over the rail as the schooner chanced to roll. He could look down +into the approaching lifeboat. He saw the loosened, dark locks of +the girl who was pulling at number three oar. On the very heels of +Zeb's words the captain was confident of the girl's identity. +</p> +<p> +"Sheila!" +</p> +<p> +His voice could not have reached her ear because of the rush and +roar of the wind and sea, but, as though in answer to his shout, the +girl glanced back and up, over her shoulder. For a moment Tunis got +a flash of the face he so dearly loved. +</p> +<p> +What a woman she was! She lacked no more in courage than she did in +beauty and sweetness of disposition. What other girl along all this +coast—even one born of the Cape strain—would have dared take an +oar in that lifeboat in face of such dire peril as this? +</p> +<p> +"Good Lord, Cap'n Latham!" shrieked Zeb. "That's Miss Bostwick!" +</p> +<p> +Tunis straightened up, squared his shoulders, and looked at Zebedee +proudly. He wanted Zeb to know—he wanted the whole world to know, +if he could spread the news abroad—that the girl pulling number +three oar was the girl he loved, and was going to marry! +</p> +<hr /> +<p> +An hour later the <i>Seamew</i>, her topsails drawing full and her lower +canvas properly handled, drove on like the bird she was through the +channel into the cove, trailing the old lifeboat behind her. The +skipper had taken the wheel himself, but that "tug to sta'bbo'd" did +not disturb his equanimity as it sometimes did Horry's. +</p> +<p> +Sheila, muffled in oilskins and sea boots, but with her wet hair +flowing over her shoulders, stood beside the skipper. No matter how +satisfied and confident Tunis might appear, the girl was still in an +uncertain state of mind. +</p> +<p> +"And so," she said to him anxiously, "I do not know what to tell +them. Cap'n Ira seemed so poorly and so unhappy. And he says Aunt +Prue is almost ill. +</p> +<p> +"But it was Cap'n Ira who told me what to do when we saw the +<i>Seamew</i> in danger; how to get the men together and how to launch +the boat! Oh, it was wonderful! He was not too overcome to be +practical and realize your need, Tunis." +</p> +<p> +"Trust Cap'n Ira," agreed the young man. "And what other girl could +have done what you did, Sheila? Hear what Cap'n John Dunn says? You +ought to be a sailor's daughter. <i>I</i> can tell him you are going to +be a sailor's wife." +</p> +<p> +"No, no! Oh, Tunis! It can't—" +</p> +<p> +"No 'can't' in the dictionary," interrupted the captain of the +<i>Seamew</i>. "You and I are going to have one big talk, Sheila, after I +take you up home." +</p> +<p> +"Up home?" she repeated. +</p> +<p> +"You are going back to Cap'n Ira's. You know you are. That other +girl has beat it for Boston, you say, and there's not a living +reason why you shouldn't return to the Balls. Besides, they need +you. I could see that with half an eye when I went away the other +morning. The old man hobbling around the barn trying to catch an old +hen was a sight to make the angels weep." +</p> +<p> +"Poor, poor Cap'n Ira!" she murmured. +</p> +<p> +"And poor Aunt Prudence—and poor <i>me</i>!" exclaimed Tunis. "What do +you think is going to happen to me? If you go away, I shall have to +sell all I own in the world and follow you." +</p> +<p> +"Tunis!" she cried, almost in fear. "You wouldn't." +</p> +<p> +"I certainly would. I am going to have you, one way or another. +Nobody else shall get you, Sheila. And you can't go far enough or +fast enough to lose me." +</p> +<p> +"Don't!" she said faintly. "You cannot be in earnest. Do you know +what it means if you and I have any association whatsoever? Oh! I +thought this was all over—that you would not tear open the wound—" +</p> +<p> +"I don't mean to hurt you, Sheila," he said softly. But he was +smiling. "I have got something to tell you that will, I believe, put +an entirely different complexion on your affairs." +</p> +<p> +"What—what can you mean?" she burst out. "Oh, tell me!" +</p> +<p> +"I'll tell you a little of it now. Just enough to keep you from +thinking I am crazy. The rest I will not tell you save in the Balls' +sitting room before Cap'n Ira and Aunt Prue." +</p> +<p> +"Tunis!" she murmured with clasped hands. +</p> +<p> +"Yesterday I spent two hours in the manager's office of Hoskin & +Marl's. They have been looking for you for more than six months. +Naturally, there was no record of you after you left that—that +school when your time was out. They didn't seem to guess you'd have +got work in that Seller's place." +</p> +<p> +"What do you mean? What did they want me for?" gasped the girl. +</p> +<p> +"Near as I could find out from the old gentleman who seemed to be in +charge there at the store, they wanted to find you to beg your +pardon. He cried, that manager did. He broke down and cried like a +baby—especially after I had told him a few things that had happened +to you, and some things that might have happened if you hadn't found +such good friends in Cap'n Ira and Prudence. That's right. He was +all broke up." +</p> +<p> +The girl stood before him, straight as a reed. She rocked with the +pitching of the schooner, but it seemed as though her feet were +glued to the planks. She could not have fallen! +</p> +<p> +"They—they know—" +</p> +<p> +"They know they sent to jail the wrong girl. The woman that stole +the goods is dead, and before she died she wrote 'em all about it +from the sanitarium where the firm sent her. They are sending you +papers signed by the judge, the prosecuting attorney, even the +pawnbroker and the store detective, and—and a lot of other folks. +Why, Sheila, you are fully exonerated." +</p> +<p> +She began suddenly to weep, the great tears raining down her face, +although she still stood erect and kept her gaze fixed upon him. +</p> +<p> +"Six months! As long as I have been down here! Oh, Tunis! While we +were making up our plot on that bench on Boston Common and planning +to lie to these dear, good people down here—and everybody; while we +were beginning this coil of deceit and trouble, I might have gone +back there to the store and found all this out. And—and I would +never have needed to lie and deceive as I have done." +</p> +<p> +"Huh! Yes. I cal'late that's so, Sheila," he said. "But how about +me? Where would I have come in, if you had found out that your name +had been cleared and Hoskin & Marl were anxious to do well by you? +Seems to me, Sheila, there must be some compensation in that +thought. There is for me, at any rate." +</p> +<p> +She flashed him a look then that cleaved its way to Tunis Latham's +very soul. His tale did not remove from her heart all its burden. +She was still penitent for the falsehood she had told in direct +words to Cap'n Ira and Prudence about her first meeting with Tunis. +But that prevarication, at least, had been for no purpose of self +gain. +</p> +<p> +And so Sheila looked at her lover for just that passing moment with +all the passion which filled her heart for him. Had Tunis not been +steering the <i>Seamew</i> through a pretty tortuous channel at just that +moment there is no knowing what he would have done—spurred by +Sheila's look! +</p> +<a name="2HCH0033"><!-- H2 anchor --></a> + +<div style="height: 4em;"><br /><br /><br /><br /></div> + +<h2> + CHAPTER XXXIII +</h2> +<h3> + A HAVEN OF REST +</h3> +<p> +Wreckers' Head so shelters the cove from the northeast that the +schooner could be brought safely in to Luiz Wharf, instead of +dropping her anchor in deep water. Half the port, and all of +Portygee Town, crowded nearby wharves and streets to welcome Tunis +Latham's schooner; for news of her peril and the way in which help +had reached the <i>Seamew</i> had come down from the Head as on the wings +of the wind itself. +</p> +<p> +There was one face on the wharf Tunis Latham sought out with grim +persistency as the schooner was made fast. He had purposely placed +Sheila in Zebedee Pauling's care. Tunis kept, directly under his +hand, the broken oar which had helped to make so much of his recent +trouble. When the <i>Seamew</i> was safe, her skipper leaped ashore. And +he carried the broken oar with him. +</p> +<p> +Orion, grinning and sneering by turns, saw his cousin coming. It +must have been preternatural sagacity which caused him to see and +recognize the broken oar. Having seen it, he jumped for the head of +the wharf. +</p> +<p> +Tunis leaped away on his cousin's trail. The crowd parted to let +them through, and then joined in a streaming, excited tail to their +kite of progress. Most of the spectators lived in Portygee Town. +Some of them had been members of the <i>Seamew's</i> deserting crews. +They were afraid of Tunis Latham, but they had little sympathy for +Orion. +</p> +<p> +The skipper caught up with him in the middle of the road and almost +opposite the Pareta cottage. Orion had picked up a cobblestone as he +reached the street and, finding himself about to be overtaken, he +turned and threw the missile at Tunis' head. The latter dodged it +and, with a single, savage blow of the oar felled his cousin to the +roadway. +</p> +<p> +"You unmitigated scoundrel!" Tunis roared. "I ought to take your +life. Because of you I nearly lost my own to-day—and the lives of +two other men and my schooner into the bargain. You villain!" +</p> +<p> +As Orion tried to scramble up, the skipper of the <i>Seamew</i> made +another pass at him with the oar, and the fellow fell again. +</p> +<p> +"Don't hit me! Don't hit me again, Tunis! Remember I'm your cousin. +I—I haven't done a thing—true an' honest, I haven't!" +</p> +<p> +The listeners gathered closer. Tunis Latham's face displayed such +rage that the Portygees expected him to continue his attack with the +oar. But instead he shook it before their eyes—and Orion's. +</p> +<p> +"See it?" he demanded of the bystanders. "That's the scurvy trick +the dog played me. Found this broken oar in somebody's woodpile, +burned the name of the <i>Marlin B.</i> into the handle, and foisted it +on a fool crew to prove that my schooner was once called by that +name. I ought to pound him to death!" +</p> +<p> +Suddenly a brilliant figure whirled into the midst of the crowd and +reached the angry skipper and his victim. Eunez, her black eyes +ablaze, her face ruddy with anger, planted herself before Tunis +Latham, hands on hips, confronting him boldly. One glance at the +prostrate Orion assured her that, although there was blood upon his +face, he was not much hurt. She tossed her head and snapped her +fingers under the nose of the captain of the <i>Seamew</i>. +</p> +<p> +"So now, Tunis Latham! It is that you have waked up! Of a gr-r-reat +smartness are you, eh?" she cried. "You scorn us all, and tr-r-reat +us as you would dogs. Heh! All you shipmasters are alike. +</p> +<p> +"But <i>you</i>—we put the laugh on you, eh? That oar in your hand—ha, +ha! Do not lay the blame altogether upon your cousin. <i>I</i> burned +those letters into that wood with my curling irons. Fooled by a +girl, eh, Tunis Latham? Ah! Learn your lesson, Captain Latham! We +Portygee women are not to be scorned by <i>any</i> schooner captain. No!" +</p> +<p> +She snapped her fingers again in his face and turned away, swaying +her hips and tossing her head as she disappeared into her father's +cottage. When Tunis looked around for his cousin, he found that that +facile young man, taking advantage of the girl's intervention, had +slipped away. +</p> +<hr /> +<p> +A winter hurricane had pounced upon the Cape and torn at it with +teeth and claws, as though seeking to dismember it—to wrench the +forty-mile curved claw of the Cape from the remainder of Barnstable +County. +</p> +<p> +The driven snow masked everything—earth, houses, trees, and the +shivering bushes; it clung to these objects, iced upon them like +frosting. No craft ventured out of Big Wreck Cove, least of all the +<i>Seamew</i>, although she had a cargo in her hold and a complete and +satisfied crew in her forecastle. +</p> +<p> +Tunis Latham was speaking of the latter fact to Aunt Lucretia in the +warm and homelike kitchen of Latham's Folly. +</p> +<p> +"Zeb is a good fellow. He has got together a bunch of hands that +aren't afraid of ghosts or bogies. You couldn't make those Portygees +or some of the other hands we had see the ridiculousness of their +fear of the <i>Seamew</i>—bless her! But with this bunch Zeb has got +together I wouldn't fear to sail around the Horn." +</p> +<p> +His aunt looked startled at the suggestion and shook her head. +</p> +<p> +"I know you wouldn't want I should go for such a long voyage, Aunt +Lucretia," he replied. "And I don't want to myself. But I couldn't +be content here if I didn't see the prospect bright before me of +getting Ida—I mean, of getting Sheila." +</p> +<p> +His aunt looked at him again not unkindly, but said not a word. +</p> +<p> +"I've told you all about it, Aunt Lucretia," the skipper of the +<i>Seamew</i> pursued. "Everything. If Sheila did wrong to come down here +as she did, I did a greater wrong in encouraging her to come and in +tempting her with the chance of escaping from the mess she was in. +And she's paid—we've both paid—for our folly. +</p> +<p> +"As for folks talking, if that Bostwick girl wants to keep her job +with Hoskin & Marl's she'll keep her mouth shut about Sheila. She +understands that. And Hoskin & Marl—everybody, in fact that was +connected with that awful thing that happened to Sheila—have done +all in their power to make amends." +</p> +<p> +For the first time his aunt's lips opened. +</p> +<p> +"The poor child!" she said. +</p> +<p> +"I want more than your sympathy for Sheila, auntie," he urged +earnestly. "I want your approval of what Sheila and I mean to +do—in time. Of course, I must be better established first and be +making money enough to support a—a family. And Sheila would not +think of leaving the old people up there. They need her so sorely." +</p> +<p> +"But you may as well know, first as last, Aunt Lucretia, that I mean +to marry Sheila. I know it was wrong in me to try to palm her off on +you as somebody she wasn't—to try to fool you—" +</p> +<p> +"You did not fool me, Tunis; not for a moment," she told him softly. +</p> +<p> +He stared at her in amazement. +</p> +<p> +"No," went on his usually inarticulate aunt. "The moment I first +looked into her face I knew she was not Sarah Honey's daughter. That +baby's eyes were brown when Sarah brought her here years ago; and no +brown eyes could change to such a beautiful violet-blue as—as +Sheila's. I knew you and she were trying to deceive me, but I could +not help loving the dear girl from my first sight of her." +</p> +<p> +That was a very long speech indeed for Aunt Lucretia to make. She +put her arms about Tunis Latham's neck and said all the rest she +might have said in a loving kiss. +</p> +<p> +Driving as the storm was, there remained something that took the +skipper of the <i>Seamew</i> out into the welter of it. With the wet snow +plastering his back he climbed out of the saucerlike valley to the +rear premises of the Ball place. He even gave a look in at the barn +to make sure that all the chores were done for the night. The gray +ghost of the Queen of Sheba's face was raised a moment from her +manger while she looked at him inquiringly, blowing softly through +her nostrils the while. +</p> +<p> +"You're all right, anyway," said Tunis, chuckling as he closed the +barn door. "You've got a friend for life." +</p> +<p> +He went on to the kitchen door. Inside he could hear the bustle of +Sheila's swift feet, the croon of Prudence's gentle voice, and then +a mighty "A-choon!" as Cap'n Ira relieved his pent-up feelings. +</p> +<p> +"Don't let them fish cakes burn, gal," the old man drawled. "If +Tunis ain't here mighty quick he can eat his cold. Oh! Here he +is—right to the nick o' time, like the second mate's watch comin' +to breakfast." +</p> +<p> +Tunis had shaken his peacoat free of the clinging snow and now +stamped his sea-boots on the rug. He smiled broadly and confidently +at Sheila and she returned it so happily that her whole face seemed +to irradiate sunshine. Prudence nudged Cap'n Ira's elbow. +</p> +<p> +"Ain't it a pretty sight, Ira?" she whispered. +</p> +<p> +"She looks 'most as sweet as you did, Prue, when I took you to the +altar," sighed the old man windily. "I swan! Women is most alike, +young an' old. All but that dratted Ida May Bostwick. <i>She</i> was a +caution to cats." +</p> +<p> +"Now you hush, Ira. She's our own rel'tive and we ought not to speak +ill of her." +</p> +<p> +"Ha!" blew Cap'n Ira, reminding Tunis of the old mare when she +snorted. "Ha! Maybe she is. But even so I want none o' her. An' I +told Elder Minnett so. I got kinder of an idee that the elder won't +be so brash, puttin' his spoon into other folks' porridge again." +</p> +<p> +"Hush, Ira! Don't be irreverent. Remember he's a minister." +</p> +<p> +"So he is. So he is," concluded Cap'n Ira. "They say charity covers +a multitude of sins; and I expect the call to be a preacher covers a +multitude of sinners." He chuckled mellowly again. "But sometimes +I've thought that the 'call' some of our preachers hear 'stead o' +being the voice of God is some other noise they mistook for it. +Well, there, Prudence, I won't say no more. But you must allow that +Elder Minnett's buttin' in, as the boys say, come pretty nigh +bustin' everything to flinders. +</p> +<p> +"Come, Tunis. Do sit down or that gal won't be able to dish up +supper, and I'm as hungry as a wolf. Pull up your chair, Prudence. +Ain't this livin', I want to know?" He shuddered luxuriously at the +howl and rattle of the wind without. "Now, folks: 'For that with +which we are about to be blessed make us truly thankful. Amen.' Put +your teeth in one o' them biscuit, Tunis. I want to recommend 'em +to you. Ain't none better on this endurin' Cape—no, sir. We got the +best cook on the Head. If you are ever lucky enough to get one ha'f +as good, Tunis—" +</p> +<p> +"Now, you be still, Ira," admonished Prudence, smiling comfortingly +at the blushing girl. +</p> +<p> +"You better sing small, Cap'n Ira," said the skipper of the <i>Seamew</i> +hoarsely. "It's mebbe just because we're good-natured and forbearing +that you are keeping your cook for a while." +</p> +<p> +"Ha! So that's the way the wind blows, eh?" croaked Cap'n Ira. "You +talk big, young man. But we know Sheila better than you do, p'r'aps. +Don't we, Prue?" +</p> +<p> +His little old wife, with her winter-apple face wrinkled in a smile +of utter confidence, leaned nearer Sheila to pat her hand. The girl +seized the wrinkled claw suddenly and pressed it with both of +hers—pressed it gratefully and with a full-charged heart. +</p> +<p> +"Don't be disturbed. Don't fear," she whispered so that the old +woman only might not hear. "I will not leave you." +</p> +<p> +The two men looked deeply into each other's eyes and with a great +understanding. They are not demonstrative, these Cape men, not as a +rule; but Cap'n Ira and Tunis Latham understood all entailed in that +promise so softly given, and they subscribed to it. Sheila was to +have her way. +</p> +<p> +Hours later Tunis lit the lamp in his bedroom and then stood before +his window, gazing out into the driving snow. Almost immediately he +saw the gleam of another lamp, far up the slope, showing from that +north window of Sheila's chamber in the old Ball house. +</p> +<p> +This was the signal they had agreed upon—their good-night symbol +whenever he was at home. He stood there a long time, looking out. +</p> +<p> +Although the wintry wind raved across Wreckers' Head and the snow +scurried wildly before it, there was springtime in the hearts of +Tunis Latham and Sheila—the springtime of their hopes. +</p> +<h4>THE END</h4> + +<div style="height: 6em;"><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /></div> + + + + + + + + +<pre> + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's Sheila of Big Wreck Cove, by James A. 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You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Sheila of Big Wreck Cove + A Story of Cape Cod + +Author: James A. Cooper + +Release Date: January 2, 2005 [EBook #14563] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK SHEILA OF BIG WRECK COVE *** + + + + +Produced by Janet Kegg and the Project Gutenberg Online Distributed +Proofreading Team + + + + + + + + + +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 + + +[Frontispiece: "Come here and look at this craft, Prudence." +Page 11 (_Sheila of Big Wreck Cove._)] + + + + + + +CONTENTS + + +CHAPTER + 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 day, and +was a bit of a dandy still. The niceties of maritime full dress were +as important to his mind now that he had retired from the sea to +spend his remaining days in the Ball homestead on Wreckers' Head as +when he had trod the quarter-deck of the old _Susan Gatskill_, or +had occupied the chief seat at her saloon table. + +"I don't know what's to become of us," repeated Cap'n Ira, wagging a +thoughtful head, his gaze, as that of old people often is, fixed +upon a point too distant for youthful eyes to see. + +"I can't see into the future, Ira, any clearer than you can," +rejoined his wife, glancing at his sagging, blue-coated shoulders +with some gentle apprehension. + +She was a frail, little, old woman, one of those women who, after a +robust middle age, seem gradually to shrivel to the figure of what +they were in their youth, but with no charm of girlish lines +remaining. Her face was wrinkled like a russet apple in February, +and it had the colorings of that grateful fruit. She sat on the +stone slab which served for a back door stoop peeling potatoes. + +"I swan, Prue, you cut me in two places this mornin' when you shaved +me," said Cap'n Ira suddenly and in some slight exasperation. "And I +can't handle that dratted razor myself." + +"Maybe you could get John-Ed Williams to come over and shave you, +Ira." + +"John-Ed's got his work to do. Then again, how're we going to pay +him for such jobs? I swan! I can't afford a vally, Prue. Besides, +you need help about the house more than I need a steward. I can get +along without being shaved so frequent, I s'pose, but there's times +when you can't scurce lift a pot of potatoes off the stove." + +"Oh, now, Ira, I ain't so bad as all that!" declared his wife +mildly. + +"Yes, you be. I am always expecting you to fall down, or hurt +yourself some way. And as for looking out for the Queen of Sheby--" + +"Now, Ira, Queenie ain't no trouble scurcely." + +"Huh! She's more trouble than all our money, that's sure. And she's +eating her head off." + +"Now, don't say that," urged his wife in that soothing tone which +often irritated Cap'n Ira more than it mollified him. + +He tapped the metal top of the huge knob of his cane and the spring +cover flew open. Ira took a pinch of snuff, inhaled it, closed the +cover of the box, delicately brushed a few flecks of the pungent +powder from his coat lapel and shirt front, and then, burying his +nose in a large silk handkerchief, vented a prodigious: + +"_A-choon!_" + +Prudence uttered a surprised squeak, like a mouse being stepped on, +jerked herself to a half-standing posture, and the potatoes rolled +to every point of the compass. + +"Goodness gracious gallop!" she ejaculated, quite shaken out of her +usual calm. "I should think, Ira, as many times as I've told you +that scares me most into a conniption, that you'd signal me when +you're going to take snuff. I--I'm all of a shake, I be." + +"I swan! I'm sorry, Prue. I oughter fire a gun, I allow, before +speakin' the ship." + +"Fire a gun!" repeated the old woman, panting as she scrambled for +the potatoes. "That's what I object to, Ira. You want to speak +_this_ ship 'fore you shoot that awful noise. I never can get used +to it." + +"There, there!" he said, trying to poke the more distant potatoes +toward her with his cane. He could not himself stoop; or, if he did, +he could only sit erect again after the method of a ratchet wheel. +"I won't do so again, Prudence. I be an onthoughtful critter, if +ever there was one." + +Prudence had recovered the last potato. She stopped to pat his ruddy +cheek, nor was it much wrinkled, before she returned to peeling the +potatoes. + +"I know you don't mean to, Iry," she crooned. Married couples like +the Balls, where the man has been at home only for brief visits +between voyages, if they really love each other, never grow weary of +the little frills on connubial bliss usually worn shabby by other +people before the honeymoon is past. "I know you don't mean to. But +when you sneeze I think it's the crack o' doom." + +"I'm sorry about them potatoes," repeated Cap'n Ira. "I make you a +lot of extry work, Prue. Sometimes I feel, fixed as I be in health, +I oughter be in the Sailors' Snug Harbor over to Paulmouth. I do, +for a fact." + +"And what would become of me?" cried the old woman, appalled. + +"Well," returned Cap'n Ira, "you couldn't be no worse off than you +be. We'd miss each other a heap, I know." + +"Ira!" cried his wife. "Ira, I'd just _die_ without you now that +I've got you to myself at last. Those long years you were away so +much, and us not being blessed with children--" + +Ira Ball made a sudden clucking sound with his tongue. That was a +sore topic of conversation, and he always tried to dodge it. + +"It did seem sometimes," pursued Prudence, wiping her eyes with a +bit of a handkerchief that she took from her bosom, "as though I +wasn't an honestly married woman. I know that sounds awful"--and she +shook her head--"but it was so, you only getting home as you did +between voyages. But I was always looking forward to the time when +you would be home for good." + +"Don't you s'pose I looked forward to casting anchor?" he demanded +warmly. "Seemed like the time never would come. I was always trying +to speculate a little so as to make something besides my skipper's +pay and share. That--that's why I got bit in that Sea-Gold +proposition. That feller's prospectus did read mighty reasonable, +Prudence." + +"I know it did, Ira," she agreed cordially. "I believed in it just +as strong as you did. You warn't none to blame." + +"Well, I dunno. It's mighty nice of you to say so, Prue. But they +told me afterward that I might have knowed that a feller couldn't +extract ten dollars' wuth of gold from the whole Atlantic Ocean, not +if he bailed it dry!" + +"We've got enough left to keep us, Ira." + +"Just about. Just about. That is just it. When I was taken down with +this rheumatiz and the hospital doctors in New York told me I could +never think of pacing my own quarter no more, we had just enough +left invested in good securities for us to live on the int'rest." + +"And the old place, here, Ira," added his wife cheerfully. + +"Which ain't much more than a shelter," he rejoined rather bitterly. +"And just as I say, it isn't fit for two old folks like us to live +alone in. Why, we can't even raise our own potatoes no more. And I +never yet heard of pollack swimmin' ashore and begging to be split +and dried against winter. No, sir!" + +"The Lord's been good to us, Ira. We ain't never suffered yet," she +told him softly. + +"I know that. We ain't suffering for food and shelter. But, I swan, +Prue, we be suffering for some young person about the house. Now, +hold on! 'Twarn't for us to have children. That warn't meant. We've +been all through that, and it's settled. But that don't change the +fact that we need somebody to live with us if we're going to live +comfortable." + +"Oh, dear, if my niece Sarah had lived! She used to stay with me +when she was a gal and you was away," sighed Prudence. + +"But she married and had a gal of her own. She brought her here that +time I was home after my first v'y'ge on the _Susan Gatskill_. A +pretty baby if ever there was one." + +"Ida May Bostwick! Bostwick was Sarah's married name. I heard +something about Ida May only the other day." + +"You did?" exclaimed Cap'n Ira, much interested. + +"Yes, Ira. Annabell Coffin, she who was a Cuttle, was visiting his +folks in Boston, and she learned that Sarah Bostwick's daughter was +working behind the counter in some store there. She has to work for +her livin', poor child." + +"I swan!" ejaculated the captain. + +Much as he had been about the world, Cap'n Ira looked upon most +mundane affairs with the eyes of the true Cape man. Independence is +bred in the bone of his tribe. A tradesman or storekeeper is, after +all, not of the shipmaster caste. And a clerk, working "behind the +counter" of any store, is much like a man before the mast. + +"It does seem too bad," sighed Prudence. "She was a pretty baby, as +you say, Ira." + +"Sarah was nice as she could be to you," was the old man's +thoughtful comment. + +"Yes. But her husband, Bostwick, was only a mechanic. Of course, he +left nothing. Them city folks are so improvident," said Prudence. "I +wish't we was able to do something for little Ida May, Ira. Think of +her workin' behind a counter!" + +"I am a-thinkin'," growled the old captain. "See here, Prue. What's +to hinder us doin' something for her?" + +Prudence looked at him, startled. + +"Why, Iry, you say yourself we can scurce help ourselves." + +"It's a mighty ill wind that don't blow fair for some craft," +declared the ancient mariner, nodding. "We do need help right here, +Prudence, and that gal of Sarah Bostwick's could certainly fill the +bill. On the other hand, she'd be a sight better off here on the +Cape, living with us, getting rosy and healthy, and having this old +place and what we've got left when we die, than she would be slavin' +behind a counter in any city store. What d'you think?" + +"Ira!" exclaimed his wife, clasping her hands, potato knife and all. +"Ira! I think that's a most wonderful idea. It takes you to think up +things. You're just wonderful!" + +Cap'n Ira preened himself like the proud old gander he was. He +heaved himself out of the chair by the aid of his cane, a present +from one grateful group of passengers that had sailed in his charge, +on the _Susan Gatskill_. + +"Well, well!" he said. "Let's think of it. Let's see, where's my +glass? Here 'tis." + +He seized the old-fashioned collapsible spyglass, which he favored +rather than the newer binoculars, and started off to "pace the +quarter," as he called the path from the back door to the grassy +cart track which joined the road at the lower corner of the Ball +premises. This highway wandered down from the Head into the fishing +village along the inner beach of Big Wreck Cove. Prudence watched +Ira with fond but comprehending eyes. She saw how broken he was, how +stumbling his feet when he first started off, and the swaying +locomotion that betrayed that feebleness of both brain and body that +can never be denied. + +Somewhere on the Head in the old days the wreckers had kept their +outlook for ships in distress. Those harpies of the coast had +fattened on the bones of storm-racked craft. It was one of those +battered freighters that, nearly two centuries before, had been +driven into the cove itself, to become embalmed in Cape history as +"the big wreck." + +The Balls and the Lathams, the Honeys and the Coffins of that +ancient day had "wracked" the stranded craft most thoroughly. But +they had not overlooked the salvation of her ship's company of +foreigners. She had been a Portuguese vessel, and although the Cape +Codder, then, as now, was opposed to "foreigners," refuge was +extended to the people saved from the big wreck. + +Near the straggling settlement at the cove a group of shacks had +sprung up to shelter the "Portygees" from the stranded-vessel. As +her bones were slowly engulfed in the marching sands, through the +decades that passed, the people who had come ashore from the big +wreck had waxed well to do, bred families of strong, handsome, brown +men and black-eyed, glossy-haired women who flashed their white +teeth in smiles that were almost startling. Now one end of "the +port," as the village of Big Wreck Cove was usually called by the +natives, was known as Portygee Town. + +Wreckers' Head boasted of several homes of retired shipmasters and +owners of Cap'n Ira's ilk. These ancient sea dogs, on such a day as +this, were unfailingly found "walking the poop" of their front +yards, or wherever they could take their diurnal exercise, +binoculars or spyglass in hand, their vision more often fixed +seaward than on the land. + +Cap'n Ira had scarcely put the glass to his eye for a first squint +at his "position" when he exclaimed: + +"I swan! That's a master-pretty sight. I ain't seen a prettier in +many a day. Come here and look at this craft, Prudence." + +She hurried to join him. Her motions when she was on her feet were +birdlike, yet there was the same unsteadiness in her walk as in +Cap'n Ira's. Only, at the moment, he did not see it, for his eye was +glued to the telescope. + +"What do you see, Ira?" she asked. + +"Clap this glass to your eye," said her husband. He steadied the +telescope, having pointed it for her. "See that suit of sails? Ain't +they grand? And the taper of them masts? She's a bird!" + +"Why, what schooner is it?" asked Prudence. "I never saw her before, +did I? She's bearing in for the cove." + +"I cal'late she is," agreed Cap'n Ira. "And I cal'late by the +newness of that suit of sails and her lines and all that she's Tunis +Latham's new craft that he went up to Marblehead last week to bring +down here and put into commission." + +"The _Seamew!_" cried Prudence, in a pleased voice. "Isn't she a +pretty sight?" + +"She's a sightly craft. Looks more like a racing yacht than a cargo +boat. Still and all, Tunis has got judgment. And he's put nigh every +cent he's got, all Peke Latham left him, into this schooner. And she +not new." + +"I hope Tunis has made no mistake," sighed Prudence, releasing the +glass for Ira to look through once more. "There has been trouble +enough over Peleg Latham's money." + +"More trouble than the money amounted to. Split the family wide +open. 'Rion Latham was saying to me he believed Peke never meant the +money should go all one way. The Medway Lathams, them 'Rion belongs +to, is all as sore as carbuncles about Tunis getting it. But I tell +Tunis as long as the court says the money should be his, let 'Rion +and all them yap like the hungry dogs they be. Tunis has got the +marrer bone." + +"Does seem a pity," the old woman said, still watching the white +splotch against the background of gray and blue. "Families ought to +be at peace." + +"Peace! I swan!" snorted Cap'n Ira. "'Rion Latham is about as much +given to peace as a wild tagger. But he knows which half of his +biscuit's buttered. He'll sail with Tunis as long as Tunis pays him +wages." + +The captain continued to study the approaching schooner while +Prudence went back to her household tasks. + + + + +CHAPTER II + +THE CAPTAIN OF THE SEAMEW + + +Tunis Latham's _Seamew_, tacking for the channel into Big Wreck +Cove, wings full-spread, skimming the heaving blue of the summer +sea, looked like a huge member of the tern family. From Wreckers' +Head and the other sand bluffs guarding this roadstead from the +heave of the Atlantic rollers, the schooner with her yachtlike lines +was truly a picture to please the most exacting mariner. + +On her deck paced the young captain whose personal affairs had been +a subject of comment between Cap'n Ira Ball and his wife. He was a +heavy-set, upstanding, blue-jerseyed figure, lithe and as spry on +his feet as a cat. Tunis Latham was thirty, handsome in the bold way +of longshore men, and ruddy-faced. He had crisp, short, sandy hair; +his cheeks, chin, and lip were scraped as clean as his palm; his +eyes were like blue-steel points, but with humorous wrinkles at the +outer corners of them, matched by a faint smile that almost always +wreathed his lips. Altogether he was a man that a woman would be +sure to look at twice. + +The revelation of the lighter traits of his character counteracted +the otherwise sober look of Tunis Latham. His sternness and fitness +to command were revealed at first glance; his softer attributes +dawned upon one later. + +As he swayed back and forth across the deck of the flying _Seamew_, +rolling easily in sailor gait to the pitching of the schooner, his +sharp glance cast alow and then aloft betrayed the keen perception +and attentive mind of the master mariner, while his surface +appearance merely suggested a young man pridefully enjoying the +novelty of pacing the deck of his first command. For this was the +maiden trip of the _Seamew_ under this name and commanded by this +master. + +She was not a new vessel, but neither was she old. At least, her +decks were not marred, her rails were ungashed with the wear of +lines, and even her fenders were almost shop-new. Of course, any +craft may have a fresh suit of sails; and new paint and gilding on +the figurehead or a new name board under the stern do not bespeak a +craft just off the builder's ways. Yet there was an appearance about +the schooner-yacht which would assure any able seaman at first +glance that she was still to be sea-tried. She was like a maiden at +her first dance, just venturing out upon the floor. + +An old salt hung to the _Seamew's_ wheel as the bonny craft sped +channelward. Horace Newbegin was a veritable sea dog. He had sailed +every navigable sea in all this watery world, and sailed in almost +every conceivable sort of craft. And he had sailed many voyages +under Tunis Latham's father, who had owned and commanded the +four-master _Ada May_, which, ill-freighted and ill-fated at last, +had struck and sunk on the outer Hebrides, carrying to the bottom +most of the hands as well as the commander of the partially insured +ship. + +This misfortune had kept Tunis Latham out of a command of his own +until he was thirty; for Cape Cod boys that come of masters' +families and are born navigators usually tread their own decks years +before the age at which Tunis was pacing that of the _Seamew_ on +this summer day. + +"How does she handle now, Horry?" asked the skipper, wheeling +suddenly to face the old steersman. + +"Thar's still that tug to sta'bo'd, Captain Tunis," growled the old +man. + +"But you keep her full on her course." + +"Spite o' that? In course. But I can feel her tuggin' like a big +bluefish trying to bolt with hook and sinker. Never did feel that +same tug to sta'bo'd but once before on any craft. I told you that." + +Tunis Latham nodded. The old man's keen eyes tried to read the +skipper's face. He could scan the signs in sea and sky at a glance, +but he confessed that the captain of the _Seamew_ revealed no more +of his inner thoughts than had the mahogany countenance of the older +Captain Latham with whom Horry Newbegin had so long sailed. + +"Well," the steersman said finally, "I've told ye all I can tell ye. +That other schooner that had a tug to sta'bo'd like this, the +_Marlin B._, got a bad name from the Georges to Monomoy P'int. You +know that." + +"Cat's foot!" ejaculated Tunis cheerfully. "The _Marlin B._ was sold +for a pleasure yacht and taken half around the world. A Chilean +guano millionaire bought her the year after the Sutro Brothers took +her off the Banks." + +"Ye-as. That's what Sutro Brothers says," and the old man wagged his +head doubtfully. "But there's just as much difference in ships, as +there is in men. Ain't never been two men just per_zact_-ly alike. +No two craft ever sailed or steered same as same, Captain Tunis. I +steered the _Martin B._ out o' Salem on her second trip, without +knowing what she'd been through, you can believe, on her first." + +"Well, well!" Tunis broke in sharply. "Just keep your mind on what +you are doing now, Horry. You're supposed to be steering the +_Seamew_ into Big Wreck Cove. Don't undertake to shave a piece off +the Lighthouse Point reef." + +The steersman did not answer. From long experience with these +Lathams, Horace Newbegin knew just how much interference or advice +they would stand. + +"And, by gum, that ain't much!" he growled to himself. + +He took the beautifully sailing schooner in through the channel in a +masterly manner. He knew that more ancient skippers than Cap'n Ira +Ball, up there on Wreckers' Head, would be watching the _Seamew_ +make the cove, and old Horry Newbegin wanted them to say it was well +done. + +Half an hour later the anchor was dropped fifty yards off Portygee +Town. Captain Tunis ordered the gig lowered to take him ashore and, +after giving the mate some instructions regarding stowage and the +men's shore leave, he was rowed over to Luiz Wharf. 'Rion Latham, a +red-headed, pimply faced young man, sidled up to Horace Newbegin. + +"Well, what do you think of the hoodoo ship, Horrors?" he hoarsely +whispered. + +Newbegin stared at him unwaveringly, and the red-haired one repeated +the question. The old salt finally batted one eye, slowly and +impressively. + +"D'you know what answer the little boy got that asked the quahog the +time o' day?" he drawled. "Not a word. Not a derned word, 'Rion." + +Landing at the fish wharf, Tunis Latham walked up the straggling +street of the district inhabited for the most part by smiling brown +men and women. Fayal and Cape Cod are strangely analogous, +especially upon a summer's day. The houses he passed had one room; +they were little more than shacks. But there were gay colors +everywhere in the dress of both men and women. It was believed that +these Portygee fishermen would have their seines dyed red and yellow +if the fish would swim into them. + +A young woman sitting upon a doorstep, nursing a little, bald, +brown-headed baby, dropped a gay handkerchief over her bared bosom +but nodded and smiled at the captain of the _Seamew_ with right good +fellowship. He knew all these people, and most of them, the young +women at least, admired Tunis; but he was too self-centered and +busied with his own thoughts and affairs to comprehend this. + +At the corner of one of the houses a girl stood--a tall, +lean-flanked, but deep-bosomed creature, as graceful as a well-grown +sapling. Her calico frock clung to the lines of her matured figure +as though she had just stepped up out of the sea itself. Around her +head she had banded a crimson bandanna, but it allowed the escape of +glossy black hair that waved prettily. Her lips were as red as +poppies, full, voluptuous; her eyes were sloe-black and as soft as a +cow's. Fortunately for the languishing girl's peace of mind--she had +placed herself there at the corner of the house to wait for Tunis +since the moment the _Seamew_ had dropped anchor--she did not know +that the young captain had noticed her only as "that cow" as he +swung by on his way to the road that wound up the slope of Wreckers' +Head. + +Neither Eunez Pareta--nor any other girl of the port, Portygee or +Yankee--had ever made Tunis Latham's heart flutter. He was not +impervious to the blandishments of all feminine beauty. As Cap'n Ira +Ball would have said, Tunis was "a general admirer of the sect." And +as the young man passed the languishing Eunez with a cheerful nod +and smile there flashed into his memory an entirely different +picture, but one of a girl nevertheless. Somehow the memory of that +girl in Scollay Square kept coming back to his mind. + +He had gone up by train for the _Seamew_ and her crew, and naturally +he had spent one night in Boston. Coming up out of the North End +after a late supper, he had stopped upon one side of the square to +watch the passing throng, some hurrying home from work, some +hurrying to theaters and other places of amusement, but all +hurrying. Nowhere did he see the slow, but carrying, stride of a man +used to open spaces. And the narrow-skirted girls could scarcely +hobble. + +A narrow skirt, however, had not led Tunis Latham to give particular +note to one certain girl in the throng. She had stepped through the +door of a cheap but garish restaurant. Somebody had thrown a peeling +on the sidewalk, and she had slipped on it. Tunis had leaped and +caught her before she measured her length. She looked up into his +face with startled, violet eyes that seemed, in that one moment, to +hold in them a fascination and power that the Cape man had never +dreamed a woman's eyes could possess. + +"You're all right, ma'am," he said, confused, setting her firmly on +her feet. + +"My skirt!" She almost whispered it. There seemed to be not a +shyness, but a terrified timidity in her voice and manner. Tunis saw +that the shabby skirt was torn widely at the hem. + +"Let's go somewhere and get that fixed," he suggested awkwardly. + +"Thank you, sir. I will go back into the restaurant. I work there. I +can get a pin or two." + +He had to let her go, of course. Nor could he follow her. He lacked +the boldness that might have led another man to enter the restaurant +and order something to eat for the sake of seeing what became of the +girl with the violet eyes and colorless velvet cheeks. There had +been an appeal in her countenance that called Tunis more and more as +he dreamed about her. + +And standing there on Scollay Square dreaming about her had done the +young captain of the _Seamew_ positively no good! She did not come +out again, although he stood there for fully an hour. At the end of +that time he strolled up an alley and discovered that there was a +side door to the restaurant for the use of employees, and he judged +that the girl, seeing him lingering in front, had gone out by this +way. It made him flush to his ears when he thought of it. Of course, +he had been rude. + +Marching up the winding road by the Ball homestead, Tunis Latham +revisioned this adventure--and the violet-eyed girl. Well, he +probably would never see her again. And in any case she was not the +sort of girl that he would ever take home to Aunt Lucretia. He was +headed toward home now, to the old brown house in the saucer-like +valley some distance beyond Cap'n Ira's. + +As he came within hail of the old homestead in which the Balls had +been born and had died--if they were not lost at sea--for many +generations, the captain of the _Seamew_ became suddenly aware that +something was particularly wrong there. He heard somebody shouting. +Was it for help? He hastened his stride. + +Quite unexpectedly the hobbling figure of Cap'n Ira appeared in the +open barn door. He saw Tunis. He waved his cane in one hand and +beckoned wildly with the other. Then he disappeared. + +The young captain vaulted the fence and ran across the ill-tended +garden adjoining the Balls' side yard. Again he heard Cap'n Ira's +hail. + +"Come on in here, Tunis!" + +"What's the matter, Cap'n Ira?" + +"That dratted Queen of Sheby! I knowed she'd be the death of one of +us some day. I swan! Tunis Latham, come here! I can't get her out, +and you know derned well Prudence can't stand on her head that a way +without strangling. Lend us a hand, boy. This is something awful! +Something awful!" + +Tunis Latham, much disturbed by the old man's words and excited +manner, pushed into the dimly lit interior of the barn. + + + + +CHAPTER III + +THE QUEEN OF SHEBA + + +The barn was a roomy place, as well built as the Ball house itself, +and quite as old. The wagon floor had a wide door, front and rear. +The stables were on either side of this floor and the mows were +above. In one mow was a small quantity of hay and some corn fodder, +but the upper reaches were filled only with a brown dusk. + +The pale face of a gray mare was visible at the opening over one of +the mangers. She was the sole recognized occupant of the stable. In +a dark corner Tunis Latham saw a huge grain box, for once the Ball +farm had supported several span of oxen and a considerable dairy +herd, its cover raised and its maw gaping wide. There was something +moving there in the murk, something fluttering. + +"Come here, boy!" gasped Cap'n Ira, hurrying across the barn door. +"I'm so crippled I can't git her up, and she's dove clean to the +lower hold, tryin' to scrape out a capful o' oats for that dratted +Queen of Sheby." + +"Aunt Prue!" shouted Tunis, reverting to the title he had addressed +her by in his boyhood. "It's never her?" + +A muffled voice stammered: + +"Get me out! Get me out!" + +"Heave hard, Tunis! All together now!" gasped Cap'n Ira, as the +younger man reached over the old woman's struggling heels and seized +her around the waist. + +"Up she comes!" continued the excited old man, as though he were +bossing a capstan crew starting one of the _Susan Gatskill's_ +anchors. + +Tunis Latham set Prudence Ball on her feet, but the old woman was +forced to lean against the stalwart young man for a minute. She +addressed her husband in some heat. + +"Goodness gracious gallop! Why don't you sing a chantey over me, I +want to know? You'd think I was a bale of jute being snaked out of a +ship's hold. Good land!" + +"There, there, Prudence!" exclaimed Cap'n Ira. "You're safe, after +all! It--it was something awful!" + +"I cal'late it was," rejoined the old woman rather bitterly. "And I +didn't get them oats, after all." + +"I'll 'tend to all that, Aunt Prue," said Tunis. + +"If it hadn't been for that dratted Queen of Sheby"--Cap'n Ira +glared malevolently at the rather surprised-looking countenance of +the gray mare in her box--"you wouldn't have got into that jam." + +"If it hadn't been for you taking that dose of snuff when I was +expecting nothing of the kind, I wouldn't have dove into that feed +box, Ira, and you know it very well." + +"I swan!" admitted her husband in a feeble voice. "I forgot again, +didn't I?" + +"I don't know as you forgot, but I know you mighty near sneezed your +head off. You'll be the death of me some day, Ira, blowin' up that +way. I wonder I didn't jump clean through the bottom of that feed +box when I was just reaching down to get a measure of oats." + +"Aunt Prue," Tunis interposed, "why do you keep the little tad of +feed you have to buy for Queenie in this big old chest?" + +"There!" Cap'n Ira hastened to rejoin, glad likewise to turn the +trend of conversation. "That's all that dratted boy's doings, little +John-Ed Williams. Who else would have ever thought of dumping a +two-bushel bag of oats into a twenty-bushel bin? We always put feed +in that covered can yonder, so as to keep shet of the rats. But that +boy, when he brought the oats, dumped 'em into the box before I +could stop him. He's got less sense than his father; and you know, +Tunis, John-Ed himself ain't got much more wit than the law allows." + +"But if you hadn't sneezed--" began Prudence again. + +"You take her into the house, Cap'n Ira," said Tunis. "I'll feed +Queenie. What do you give her--this measure full of oats? And a hank +of that hay?" + +"And a bunch of fodder. Might as well give her a dinner while you're +about it," grumbled the old man, leading his tottering wife toward +the door. "As I say, that old critter is eatin' her head off." + +"Well, she long ago earned her keep in her old age," Tunis said, +laughing. + +He could remember when the Queen of Sheba had come to the Ball barn +as a colt. Many a clandestine bareback ride had he enjoyed. He fed +the mare and petted her as if she were his own. Then he scraped the +oats out of the bin and poured them into the galvanized-iron can, so +that Cap'n Ira could more easily get at the mare's feed. + +He went to the house afterward to see if there was any other little +chore he could do for the old couple before going on to his own +home. + +"You can't do much for us, Tunis, unless you can furnish me a new +pair of legs," said Cap'n Ira. "I might as well have timber ones as +these I've got. What Prue and me needs is what you've got but can't +give away--youth." + +"You ought to have somebody living with you to help, Cap'n Ira," +said the young man. + +"I cal'late," said the other dryly, "that we've already made that +discovery, Tunis. Trouble is, we ain't fixed right to increase the +pay roll. I'd like to know who you'd think would want to sign up on +this craft that even the rats have deserted?" + +"Never mind, Ira. Don't be downhearted," Prudence said, now +recovered from her excitement. "Perhaps the Lord has something good +in store for us." + +Cap'n Ira pursed his lips. + +"I ain't doubting the Lord's stores is plentiful," he returned +rather irreverently. "The trouble is for us poor mortals to get at +'em. Well, Tunis, I certainly am obliged to you." + +The flurry of excitement was over. But Ira Ball was a determined +man. It was in his mind that the trouble of taking care of the old +mare was too great for Prudence, and he could not do the barn chores +himself. They really had no use for the gray mare, for nowadays the +neighbors did all their errands in town for them, and the few +remaining acres of the old farm lay fallow. + +Nor, had he desired to sell the mare, would anybody be willing to +pay much for the twenty-two-year-old Queenie. In truth, Ira Ball was +too tender-hearted to think of giving the Queen of Sheba over to a +new owner and so sentence her to painful toil. + +"She'd be a sight better off in the horse heaven, wherever that +is," he decided. But he was careful to say nothing like this in his +wife's hearing. "Women are funny that way," he considered. "She'd +rather let the decrepit old critter hang around eatin' her head off, +like I say, than mercifully put her out of her misery." + +Stern times call for stern methods. Cap'n Ira Ball had seen the +tragic moment when he was forced to separate a bridegroom from his +bride with a sinking deck all but awash under his feet. What had to +be done had to be done! Prudence could no longer be endangered by +the stable tasks connected with the old mare. He could not relieve +her. They could scarcely afford a hired hand merely to take care of +Queenie. + +He remained rather silent that evening, and even forgot to praise +Prue's hot biscuit, of which he ate a good many with his creamed +pollack. The sweet-tempered old woman chatted as she knitted on his +blue-wool hose, but she scarcely expected more than his occasional +grunted acknowledgment that he was listening. She always said it was +"a joy to have somebody besides the cat around to talk to." The +loneliness of shipmasters who sail the seven seas is often mentioned +in song and in story; the loneliness of their wives at home is not +usually marked. + +They went to bed. Old men do not usually sleep much after second +cock-crow, and it was not far from three in the morning when Cap'n +Ira awoke. Like most mariners, he was wide awake when he opened his +eyes. He lay quietly for several moments in the broad bed he +occupied alone. The half-sobbing breathing of the old woman sounded +from her room, through the open door. + +"It's got to be done," Cap'n Ira almost audibly repeated. + +He got out of the bed with care. It was both a difficult and a +painful task to dress. When he had on all but his boots and hat he +tiptoed to a green sea chest in the corner, unlocked it, and from +beneath certain tarpaulins and other sea rubbish drew out something +which he examined carefully in the semidarkness of the chamber. He +finally tucked this into an inner pocket of the double-breasted +pilot coat he wore. It sagged the coat a good deal on that side. + +He crept out of the chamber, crossed the sitting room, and went into +the ell-kitchen with his shoes in his hand. When he opened the back +door he faced the west, but even the sky at that point of the +compass showed the glow of the false dawn. Down in the cove the +night mist wrapped the shipping about in an almost opaque veil. Only +the lofty tops of craft like the _Seamew_ were visible, black +streaks against the mother-of-pearl sky line. + +The captain closed the kitchen door softly behind him. He sat down +on a bench and painfully pulled on his shoes and laced them. When he +tried to straighten up it was by a method which he termed, "easy, +by jerks." He sat and recovered his breath after the effort. + +Then, taking his cane, he hobbled off to the barn. The big doors +were open, for it had been a warm night. The pungent odor from +Queenie's stall made his nostrils wrinkle. He stumbled in, and the +pale face of the old mare appeared at the opening above her manger. +She snorted her surprise. + +"You'll snort more'n that afore I'm done with you," Cap'n Ira said, +trying to seem embittered. + +But when he unknotted the halter and backed her out of the stable, +quite involuntarily he ran a tender hand down her sleek neck. He +sighed as he led her out of the rear door. + +The old mare hung back, stretching first one hind leg and then the +other as old horses do when first they come from the stall in the +morning. + +"Come on, you old nuisance!" exploded Cap'n Ira under his breath, +giving an impatient tug at the rope. + +He did not look around at her, but set his face sternly toward the +distant lot which had once been known as the east meadow. It was no +longer in grass. Wild carrots sprang from its acidulous soil. The +herbage would scarcely have nourished sheep. There were patches of +that gray moss which blossoms with a tiny red flower, and there was +mullein and sour grass. Altogether the run-down condition of the +soil could not be mistaken by even the casual eye. + +The hobbling old man and the hobbling old mare, making their way +across the bare lot, made as drab a picture in the early morning as +a Millet. At a distance their moving shapes would have seemed like +shadows only. There was no other sign of life upon Wreckers' Head. + +A light but keen and salty breath blew in from the sea. Cap'n Ira +faced this breeze with twitching nostrils. The old mare's lower lip +hung down in depression. She groaned. She did not care to be led out +of her comfortable stall at this unconscionably early hour. + +"Grunt, you old nuisance!" muttered Cap'n Ira bitterly. "You don't +even know what a dratted, useless thing you be, I swan!" + +There was a depression in the field. When the heavy spring and fall +rains came the water ran down into this sink and stood, sometimes a +foot or two deep over several acres. In some past time of heavy +flood the water had washed out to the edge of the highland +overlooking the ocean beach. There it had crumbled the brink of the +Head away, the water gullying year after year a deeper and broader +channel, until now the slanting gutter began a hundred yards back +from the brink. + +The recurrent downpours, aided by occasional landslips, had made a +slanting trough to the beach itself, which was all of two hundred +feet below the brink of Wreckers' Head. Many such water-worn gullies +are to be found along the face of the Cape headlands, up which the +fishermen and seaweed gatherers freight their cargoes from the +shore. There was no wheel track here; merely a trough of sliding +sand, treacherous under foot and almost continuously in motion. As +the gully progressed seaward, the banks on either hand became more +than forty feet high, the trough itself being scarcely half as wide. + +Determinedly Cap'n Ira led the old mare into and down the slope of +this gully. + +It was steep. He went ahead haltingly, trying to steady his +footsteps with the cane, which sank deeply into the sand, making +orifices which, in the pale light of the dawn, seemed to startle the +mare. She held back, scuffling and snorting. + +"Come on, drat ye!" adjured the captain. "You needn't blow your +nose. You ain't been taking snuff." + +The sand was so light and dry that it seemed to be on the move all +about them. There was a stealthy sound to the whispering particles, +too, as though they breathed. "Hush.' Hush-sh-sh!" The old man was +made nervous by it. He began to glance back over his shoulder at the +faintly objecting mare. When Queenie slipped a little and scrambled +in the unstable sand he uttered such an exclamation as might have +been wrung from him at time of stress upon his quarter-deck. + +"I swan! I'd rather be keelhauled than do this," burst from his lips +finally. + +But they were well into the gully now. The walls on either hand +towered far above their heads. He halted, and the mare stood still, +again blowing softly through her nostrils. + +The old man, with shaking hands, took from under his coat the heavy +article that had sagged his pocket. It was a black, old-fashioned, +seven-chambered revolver, well oiled and as grim-looking as a rifled +cannon on a battleship. He produced three greased cartridges, broke +the weapon, inserted the cartridges, then closed it and spun the +cylinder. It was not an unfamiliar weapon, this. Its mere grim +appearance, stuck into Cap'n Ira's waistband, had once quelled +mutiny aboard the _Susan Gatskill_. + +While he was thus engaged he had not even glanced around at the old +mare. Suddenly he felt a touch upon his shoulder, then upon the +sleeve of his coat. He felt a creepy chill the length of his spine. +It seemed as if the hand of Prudence had been laid softly upon him. + +"I swan!" he gulped, shaking himself. "I'm as flighty as a gal. What +th'--" He looked back. Queenie was nuzzling his arm questioningly. +Her ears were cocked forward; her surprised face was almost +ridiculously human in its expression. + +Cap'n Ira groaned again. He shuddered. But his gnarled hand gripped +the hard-rubber butt of the revolver with the desperation of the +deed he had screwed his courage to do. Better the old mare should be +put out of the way than that she should fall into hands that would +misuse her. And he feared what other accident might happen if +Prudence continued to take care of the animal. + +"I swan! It's a wrench," admitted Cap'n Ira, swerving to point the +muzzle of the revolver at the gray mare. + +He looked all about again. Yes, the position was right. If she fell +here, a man with a shovel could easily pry down tons of sand from +either bank upon her in a few minutes. The burial might be done by +himself without any other soul knowing what had become of Queenie. + +He cocked the old revolver. + +Suddenly the Queen of Sheba gave a snort of alarm. She looked back +over her withers. The light in the cut between the sand banks was +dim. Was somebody coming? + +To tell the truth, Cap'n Ira had a vision of Prudence, having missed +him, getting out of her bed and traveling down through the lots +after him and the old mare. The idea shook him to his marrow, or was +it the weight of the heavy weapon that made his hand so unsteady? + +"I swan!" His oft-repeated ejaculation was almost a prayer. + +At the moment he felt the sand giving under his feet. The old mare +uttered again her terrified snort. He saw dimly the path behind them +moving--a swift, serpentlike slide. Heavy as the mare was, she felt +the landslip, too. + +Cap'n Ira was not a man who easily lost his self-possession. He had +been through too much to show the white flag when danger menaced. He +realized that peril threatened now. + +He turned squarely about and, cocked pistol in one hand and +huge-knobbed cane in the other, he started away from the spot at a +cripple's gallop. The whole trough of the gully of sand seemed to be +in motion. Behind him the old mare scrambled and whistled with fear, +quite as unable to keep her feet as was the captain. + +For, before he had gone far, Cap'n Ira found himself seated on the +moving plane of sand. He glanced fearfully behind him. The Queen of +Sheba was seated on her tail, her forefeet braced against nothing +more stable than the avalanche itself, and she was sailing down the +slope behind him like a winged Pegasus! + +"My soul and body!" ejaculated Cap'n Ira. "We're certainly on our +way." + + + + +CHAPTER IV + +AT THE LATHAM HOUSE + + +The Latham house stood in the middle of the shallow valley behind +Wreckers' Head. The fields surrounding it were arable and well kept. +The house was not as old as the Ball house and was of an entirely +different style of architecture. Whereas the Ball house was +low-roofed and sprawling, squatting like a huge and ugly toad on the +gale-swept Head, the house Tunis Latham's grandfather had built was +three-story, including the mansard roof, painted a tobacco brown, +and it was surrounded by wry-limbed cedars which could grow here +because they were sheltered from the gales. + +It was a gloomy-looking house even in midsummer, standing like a +grim figure menaced by the tortured limbs of the trees surrounding +it, stark and alone. No other human habitation was in view from its +site. The Latham who had built the twelve-room house had built on +hope. He desired and expected to fill the great house with a breed +of Lathams that would do honor to the Cape on sea and on land. But +his young wife had died the next year, after giving birth to her +second child. + +Tunis Latham's father, Randall Latham, had been the elder Latham's +sole hope of perpetuating the family name and filling the big, ugly +brown house behind Wreckers' Head with tow-headed little Lathams, +for the other child was a girl. + +It was said that Medford Latham had seldom spoken to or of his +daughter, Lucretia. She must have led a very lonely and repressed +life while she was a little girl. Medford Latham did not go to sea, +for he had business that kept him on shore. + +Medford Latham lived long enough to see Randall grow up, walk his +own quarter-deck, and marry a maiden from the port who promised to +be able to fulfill his hopes of a flourishing houseful of children. +She bore Tunis while young Captain Randall Latham was away, and he +came back in time to christen the boy with the name of the most +colorful city he had touched on the trip, not an uncommon practice +of seagoing fathers on the Cape. But Mrs. Randall Latham, watching +her husband's ship bear off to seaward in the face of a keen gale, +caught a severe cold, and when Captain Randall returned the next +time he came not to a cradle in the great living room of the big, +brown house, but to an already-sodden grave in the family plot on +the west side of the saucerlike valley. + +Lucretia Latham had grown to be a tall, large-boned, silent, and +quick-stepping woman--a woman of understanding and infinite +tenderness, although this tenderness was exhibited in deeds, not +words. + +The big, quiet-faced woman, who had never had a lover and on whom no +man had ever looked with admiration, seemed to the casual observer +cold and uncompromising. She might speak to the dog, call the fowls +to their meals, but she never otherwise spoke unless she was forced +to. When he was little, Tunis had found in her arms and against her +breast a refuge from all hurt and fear, but it was a wordless +comfort Aunt Lucretia gave him. + +When he walked over from the cove that afternoon, after seeing the +anchor of the _Seamew_ over-side for the first time in this +roadstead, Tunis found his Aunt Lucretia much as usual. She watched +him approach from the side porch, a warm smile of greeting on her +rather gaunt face. He knew that she must have watched the _Seamew_ +skim by, making for the channel into the cove; for he had written +her when to expect him. But she would say nothing about it unless he +forced the gates of her silence by some direct question which +demanded more than a "yes" or a "no." + +Lucretia folded him in her arms, however, and patted his broad +shoulder with little love pats as he put his arms about her. Her +kiss for him was as warm on his lips as a girl's. They understood +each other pretty well, these two; for Tunis had caught something of +her muteness, living so long alone with her. + +He went to wash and change his shirt. Then he sat down in one of the +huge porch chairs and rocked quietly, waiting for supper. He could +see into the kitchen, which was the family dining room as well, and +when he saw his Aunt Lucretia take the coffee-pot from the stove and +put it on the square Dutch tile by her own place, Tunis knew it was +the only call to supper there would be. + +He rose and went in, taking his place at the head of the table. His +aunt's head was bowed and her lips moved soundlessly. He respected +her whispered grace and always felt that he could add nothing to it +in thankfulness or reverence if he uttered an orison himself. During +the cheerful and plentiful meal the young captain of the _Seamew_ +related certain matters he thought would interest the woman +regarding his purchase of the schooner and the voyage down to the +Cape. He told her he was sure the _Seamew_ was fast enough for a +Boston market boat. + +"Speed is what is wanted now to compete with the Old Colony," Tunis +declared. "We've got fish and clams and cranberries in season, and +some vegetables, that have to be shaken up and jounced together and +squashed on those jolting steam trains. I'll lay down a crate of +lobsters at the T-wharf without a hair being ruffled. I know how to +stow a cargo." + +She nodded both her understanding and her belief that Tunis was +right. The legacy he had received from the estate of Peleg Latham, +Medford Latham's brother, had enabled Tunis to buy this beautiful +schooner. Undoubtedly an eye for the beauty of the craft had more +than a little drawn the young man into her purchase. Yet there was a +foundation of solid sense under his streak of romance. + +In this day a man must serve a long apprenticeship before he gets a +command unless he owns the craft on which he is skipper. To own a +schooner of the size of the _Seamew_ is not enough. One must be a +good merchant as well as a good skipper. + +The coast trade from port to port along the North Atlantic shore +must be fostered and coaxed like a stumbling baby. The tentacles of +the hated railroad reach to many of the Cape ports. Yet everybody +knows that a cargo properly stowed in a seaworthy craft reaches +market in much the better condition than by rail, though perhaps it +is some hours longer on the way. + +There were docks, too, at which Tunis Latham could pick up +well-paying freights which would have to be carted over bad roads to +the nearest railway station. And there were always full or part +cargoes to be had at Boston for certain single consignees along the +Cape, which would pay a fair profit on the upkeep of the schooner. +Medford Latham had lost almost all his fortune before he died so +unhappily, leaving only the homestead and small farm to his son. The +son, Captain Randall Latham, had lost the ship _Ada May_ and every +cent he possessed. Tunis had only his great uncle's legacy to begin +on, and he had waited for that until he was thirty. + +In the morning the young man arose early, for the tide was then low, +and started forth with basket and clam hoe on his arm. Aunt Lucretia +had promised him, by a smiling nod, a mess of fritters for dinner if +he would supply the necessary clams. Alongshore the soft clam is the +only clam used for fritters; the tough, long-keeping quahog is +shipped to the less-enlightened "city trade." + +It was not yet sunrise, but as Tunis walked down through one of +those cuts in the edge of the headland, following a well-defined +cart track, he saw the rose-glow of the sun's round face staining +the mist on the eastern horizon. + +He came down upon the hard sand of the beach and walked toward a +tiny cove into which the mud flats extended and on which he knew the +clams were plentiful and ripe. Glistening pools of black water, +showing where other diggers had raided the flat, were interspersed +with trembling patches of black sand. When Tunis began to cross the +flat the sand before his boots became alive with tiny, shooting +geysers of clean water. He set to work. + +And while he was thus engaged he heard suddenly a shrill outcry and +a most mysterious sound up in one of the gullies toward the summit +of Wreckers' Head. Here thousands of tons of sand had run out of the +cut in the steep bank and formed a dykelike way to the beach itself. +More and more sand was slipping down this way all the time. A strong +man could scarcely make his way up the incline, the sand was so +unstable. + +Tunis stood and stared up the slope. There shot into view, carried +rapidly upon the forefront of the avalanche, a white-haired old man +who waved a stick in one hand and a cocked pistol in the other, +while from his mouth came shrill cries of excitement, if not of +alarm. + +But it was what followed Cap'n Ira Ball--whom Tunis immediately +recognized--that caused the captain of the _Seamew_ such utter +surprise. Sitting on her rump, pawing at the sliding sand with her +front hoofs, and whistling her terror and amazement, the Queen of +Sheba appeared flying after the harassed old man. + +It was a scene to surprise more than to entertain the beholder. The +avalanche promised disaster to the participants in it. Tons upon +tons of sand, undulating and sinuous in appearance, traveled faster +and yet faster behind the old gray mare and the gray old sea +captain. The smoke of the slide hid all that lay behind them, and +these wreaths of sand dust threatened a higher wave that might, at +any moment, entirely overwhelm both the equine and the human victim +of the catastrophe. + +Tunis dropped his clam hoe and started for the dyke of sand on the +crest of which the old man and the old mare were sliding like +naughty children down a woodshed roof. + +"Hey, Tunis! Tunis!" bawled the captain. "Take her off'n me! She'll +be afoul my hawser in another second, I do believe." + +It was evident that he spoke of the Queen of Sheba, but Tunis could +not see how the mare was intentionally threatening Cap'n Ira's peace +of mind or safety of body. She was, however, "close aboard" Cap'n +Ira as he tobogganed down the sandy way. + +"Stern all!" shouted the old man, throwing another startled, +backward glance at the Queen of Sheba. "Drat the derned old critter! +Don't she know nothin' at all? Tunis! Do you see what's goin' to +happen?" + +While the young man had been running toward the ridge of sand, the +avalanche bearing Cap'n Ira and the Queen of Sheba on its bosom +swept down the slope of the huge windrow, but not altogether along +its spine. The mass slid over one pitch of the ridge, and suddenly, +following on the heels of Cap'n Ira's final question, the old man +was shot to the beach, several tons of loose sand and the snorting +mare almost on top of him. + +In fact, he would have been overwhelmed, and perhaps seriously hurt, +had not Tunis Latham arrived at the spot at just the time Cap'n Ira +did, and suddenly pulled out the old man. + +"What are you doing? Trying to run a race with Queenie?" demanded +the captain of the _Seamew_. + +The mare had come down right side up, more by good luck than by good +management. She stood deep in the sand, her naturally surprised +expression vastly enhanced. In all her twenty-two years Queenie had +never before gone through such an experience. + +"I swan!" ejaculated Cap'n Ira. "Ain't this the beatenest you ever +heard of, Tunis?" + +Tunis stared from the old mare to the old mariner, especially at the +cocked revolver in the captain's hand. He pointed at the tightly +gripped weapon. + +"What's that for, Cap'n Ira?" he asked. + +"I--I--well, I swan!" stammered Cap'n Ira, now looking, himself, at +the old seven-chambered revolver as though he had never seen it +before. "I cal'late it does look sort o' funny to you, Tunis, to +see me come sailing down this way, armed like a pirate." + +"I wouldn't call it exactly funny. But it is surprising," admitted +Tunis. "And Queenie looks as surprised as anybody." + +"Yes, she does, for a fact," agreed Cap'n Ira, squinting across the +heap of loose sand at the gray mare. "I kind o' wonder what she's +thinking about." + +"I'm wondering hard enough myself," put in Tunis pointedly. + +"I swan!" murmured Cap'n Ira reflectively. + +He carefully lowered the hammer of the pistol, his cane stuck +upright in the sand before him. Then he put the weapon back in the +inside pocket of his coat. He tapped the knob of his cane for a +pinch of snuff before he said another word. His mighty "A-choon!" +startled the Queen of Sheba almost as it startled Prudence. + +"Avast!" exclaimed Cap'n Ira. "Did you ever see such a scary old +lubber, Tunis?" + +"But what's it all about?" again demanded the younger man, seizing +the rope halter and aiding the mare to flounder out upon the firmer +sand below high-water mark. "What are you doing up so early? And +what were you going to do with Queenie?" + +"I swan!" groaned Cap'n Ira again. "I don't wonder that you ask me +that. It don't really seem reasonable that a sane man would get in +such a jam, does it? Me and the Queen of Sheby sailin' down that +sand pile. Tunis! We'll never be able to get up it in this world." + +"No. You must come along to our road, and get up that way," his +young friend told him. "It is longer, but easier. But tell me how +you came down that gully, you and Queenie?" + +"I'm sort of ashamed to tell you, Tunis, and that's a fact," the old +captain said, wagging his head. "And don't you ever tell Prudence." + +"I'll not say a word to Aunt Prue," promised the captain of the +_Seamew_. + +"Yet," grumbled the old man, "that dratted Queen of Sheby is too +much for Prudence. You see yourself only yesterday how she is like +to come to her death because of the mare." + +"I know that you should have somebody living with you, Cap'n Ira," +urged Tunis. "But what does _this_ mean?" + +"I--I can't scurcely tell you, Tunis. I swan! I was goin' to murder +the old critter." + +"What do you mean?" gasped Tunis in apparent horror. "Not Aunt +Prue?" + +"What's the matter with you?" snapped Cap'n Ira. "I mean that old +mare. I was going to murder her in cold blood, only the sand slide +wrecked my plans." + +"If you had killed her, Aunt Prue would have had hard work to +forgive you. Come on now. I'll lead Queenie up to our barn. Let her +stay there for a spell. I tell you, Cap'n Ira, you and Aunt Prue +must have somebody to live with you." + +"Who?" + +"Get a girl from the port." + +"Huh! One o' them Portygees? They're as dirty and useless in the +kitchen as their men folks are aboard ship." + +"Oh, they are not all like that!" objected the captain of the +_Seamew_. "I've got a good crew of 'em aboard my schooner." + +"You think so. Wait till you get in a jam. And the men ain't so bad +as the gals. All hussies." + +"I don't know, then, what you'll do." + +"I do," interrupted the old man, hobbling along the hard sand beside +Tunis and the horse. "It's just like I told Prudence yesterday. I +know just what we've got to do whether you or Prue or anybody else +knows," and he was very emphatic. + +"Let's hear your plan, Cap'n," said Tunis. + +"It's like this," went on Cap'n Ira. "Prudence ain't got but one +living relative, a grandniece, that's kin to her. That Ida May +Bostwick we must have come and live with us, and that's all there is +about it." + +Tunis stared. He said: + +"Never heard of her. She doesn't live anywhere around here, does +she?" + +"No, no! Lives to Boston." + +"Boston!" + +Why was it Tunis Latham felt that his heart skipped a beat? Memory +of that pale, violet-eyed girl who worked in the restaurant on +Scollay Square flashed across his mind like a shooting star. Indeed, +he was so confused that he heard only a little at first of Cap'n +Ira's rambling explanation. Then he caught: + +"And if you will go to that address--Prue's got the street and +number--and see Ida May Bostwick and tell her about us, you'd be +doing us a kindness, Tunis." + +"Me?" exclaimed the startled captain of the _Seamew_. + +"Yes, you. The gal won't bite you. You're going to Boston next week, +you say. Will you do it?" + +"Sure I will, Cap'n Ira," said the young man heartily. "It's a good +move, and I'll say all I can to get the girl to come down here." + +"That's the boy! You're going on an errand of mercy; that's as sure +as sure. Prue and me need that gal. And maybe she needs us. I don't +know what sort of a place she works at, but no city job for a gal +can be the equal of living down here on the Cape, with her own +folks, as you might say. Yes, Tunis, you'll be doing an errand of +mercy mebbe both ways." + + + + +CHAPTER V + +LOOKING FOR IDA MAY + + +The _Seamew_ was put in commission in a very few days. Tunis Latham +had many friends in and about Big Wreck Cove, and he had little +difficulty in picking up a cargo, which was loaded right at the +port. + +As for the schooner's crew, Tunis could have filled every billet +four times over had he so desired. But he had already picked his +crew with some care. Mason Chapin was mate, a perfectly capable +navigator who might have used his ticket to get a berth on a much +larger craft than the _Seamew_. But he had an invalid wife and +wished only to leave home on brief voyages. Johnny Lark was shipped +as cook, with a Portygee boy, Tony, to help him. + +Forward, Horace Newbegin served as boatswain and Orion Latham was a +sort of supercargo and general handy man. He was Tunis' cousin, +several times removed. There were four Portygees to make up the +company, a full crew for a sailing vessel of the tonnage of the +_Seamew_. Yet every man was needed in handling her lofty canvas and +in loading and unloading freight. + +With a well-stowed cargo below deck the schooner sailed even better +than she had in ballast. She slipped out of the cove through the +rather tortuous channel like an eel through the meshes of a broken +trap. In the dawn, and with a fresh outside breeze just ruffling the +sea into whitecaps, they broke out her upper sails and caught the +very last breath of the gale the canvas would draw. + +Cap'n Ira, and even Prudence, had got up before daybreak to see the +schooner pass. They watched her, turn and turn about at the +spyglass, till she was blotted out by the distant fog bank. + +"I swan," said the old man, "when she heaves into view again I hope +she'll have Ida May Bostwick aboard! That is what _I_ hope." + +"The dear girl!" breathed Prudence. + +It never crossed their simple minds that Ida May Bostwick might see +this chance they offered her in a different light from that in which +they looked at it. The old couple made their innocent plans for the +welcoming of the "grandniece," positive that a happy future was in +store for both Ida May and themselves. + +In Tunis Latham's mind there was more uncertainty regarding the +mysterious Ida May Bostwick than there was in the minds of Cap'n +Ira and Prudence. Whenever he considered his "errand of mercy" the +captain of the _Seamew_ had a flash of that girl with the violet +eyes who worked in the restaurant on Scollay Square. The Balls did +not know where Ida May worked. Prudence only had obtained the +lodging-house address of her young relative from Annabell Coffin, +"she who was a Cuttle." + +Of course, it was merely a faint and tenuous possibility that Ida +May was a waitress. Still fainter was the chance that she would +prove to be the girl with the violet eyes that Tunis Latham +remembered so distinctly. The Balls knew that she worked in a store, +and all stores were the same to them. There might be a few hundred +thousand other girls in Boston besides that particular girl whom he +had saved from falling on the square. + +Nevertheless, when the _Seamew_ had unloaded and been warped to a +berth in an outer tier of small craft to await her turn to load +barrels and box shooks for a concern at Paulmouth, Captain Tunis +started up into the city. He knew his way about Boston as well as +any one not a native, and his first objective point was that +restaurant on Scollay Square. + +It was the dogwatch when Tunis Latham entered the eating place, but +the dogwatch here was not at the same time of day as aboard ship. +The captain's first startled glance about the room assured him that +there was not a girl employee in sight, not even at the cashier's +desk, and very few customers. + +He ordered a late but hearty breakfast of the unshaven waiter in +half-spoiled apron and coat who lounged over his table. + +"I thought they used to have girl waiters in this place?" the +captain said when the man brought the tableware and glass of water. + +"On from 'leven till eight. You're too early if you got a jane in +your eye, bo," was the ribald reply. "The boss is a good guy." He +sneered in the direction of the black-haired, coarse-looking man in +the cashier's cage. "He hires them girls for five dollars less a +week than he'd have to pay union waiters, and he asks no questions." +He closed his recital with a wink so full of meaning that Tunis' +palm itched to slap him. + +But the guest's wind-bitten face betrayed no confusion nor further +interest. The waiter judged he had mistaken his man, after all, and +sheered off until the ordered viands were ready at the slide. + +He hesitated to question that coarse man, even to mention Ida May +Bostwick's name to him. The waiter had misinterpreted his first +remark about the waitresses. The proprietor might hold any question +he asked regarding Ida May against the record of the violet-eyed +girl, if by any wild possibility that should be her name. There was +time still, he thought, to find her at her lodgings before she +started for the restaurant, if she worked here. + +So Tunis paid his check and strode forth. The lodging of Ida May +Bostwick was not in this neighborhood, of course, not even in the +West End. In fact, it was in the South End, in one of those streets +running more or less parallel to lower Shawmut Avenue. He took a car +in the subway and got off near the address Prudence Ball had given +him. + +To the mind of the Cape man, used as he was to the open spaces of +both sea and land, these dingy blocks of brick houses, three and +four stories in height, all quite alike in smoke and squalor and +even in the pattern of the net curtains at their parlor windows, +made as dreary a picture as he had ever imagined. He thought of that +pale, slender, violet-eyed girl coming back to this ugly block at +night, after long hours at the restaurant, having to look forward to +nothing more beautiful, in all probability, inside the house where +she lodged. Who would not be glad, overjoyed, indeed, to get away +from such an environment? + +He found the number. The house was no worse and no better than its +neighbors. By stains on the blistered bricks beside the door frame +he gathered that scraps of paper advertising empty rooms had often +been pasted there. He rang the bell at the top of the rail-guarded +steps. After a time he rang again. + +He could hear the bell jangle somewhere in a distant part of the +house. Nobody came in answer to his summons, not even after his +third ring. At length the creaking, iron-barred gate in the area +warned him that the main door at which he rang was not in use at +that hour of the day. A woman in a house dress as ugly as the street +itself, and with untidy gray hair and a bar of smut on her cheek, +craned her neck from this opening to look up at him. + +"There's no use your ringing. I ain't got an empty room, young man," +she announced. + +He descended spryly into the area before she could close the gate. +Her near-sighted scowl misjudged him again, for she added: + +"Nor I don't want to buy anything." + +"One moment, ma'am," he cried. "I have nothing for sale. I'd like to +see somebody who lodges here." + +"Who?" asked the woman, peering at him curiously. + +"Miss Bostwick." + +"You'll have to come this evening." + +"Oh! She has--has gone to work already?" + +"My stars! Do you know what time it is, young man?" demanded the +lodging-house keeper. "It's after ten o'clock." + +Already Tunis Latham's hopes began to sink. + +"Then--then she goes to work early?" + +"Lemme tell you, them that works for Hoskin & Marl have to show up +by eight or they lose their jobs." + +"And she will not be in until evening?" he repeated. + +"'Bout seven. She gets her supper before she comes home. I don't +give meals." + +"Where is this place she works at?" asked the captain of the +_Seamew_, with a suppressed sigh. + +"Guess you are a stranger in town, aren't you?" said the curious +landlady. "I thought everybody knew Hoskin & Marl's. It's on Tremont +Street. The big department store." + +"Oh! Miss Bostwick works there?" + +"In the laces. You can't know her very well, young man." + +"I come from her folks down on the Cape," he thought it his duty to +explain. "I've a message for her." + +"On the Cape? My stars! I never knowed she had any country +relatives. Are they rich? They ain't died and left her a fortune, +have they?" were the eager questions. + +"The ones I speak of are still alive," Tunis said gravely, backing +up the steps to the sidewalk. "Thank you, ma'am. I'll go to that +store and speak to her there. Thank you." + +Before she could evolve another question, Tunis had escaped. He +walked smartly away, not only to outdistance the lodging-house +keeper's voice, but because he was confused and disappointed. Ida +May Bostwick could not work in a department store and in an eating +house as well. Of course not! And now that this point was an +established fact in his mind, he admitted that he had been utterly +foolish to imagine for a moment that he had already met her, that +she was the violet-eyed girl in whom he had taken an interest. + +Right at the start he had known that a girl working in an eating +house like that was not the sort of person he could introduce to +Aunt Lucretia. And so why had he imagined that she would prove to be +the great-niece of Prudence Ball? It was ridiculous! + +Of course, this Ida May came of good Cape stock. At least, on one +side of her family. The Honeys were as good as the Lathams or the +Balls. + +Thus condemning his foolish fancies he strode downtown again. He +knew where Hoskin & Marl's was. He had been in the place. When he +reached the department store he marched straight in, meaning to have +an immediate interview with the girl at the lace counter. + + + + +CHAPTER VI + +AN UNSATISFACTORY INTERVIEW + + +Tunis Latham suffered all the timidity of the average man when he +got into the maze of that department store. There is a psychological +reason for the haberdashery goods, the line for the mere male, being +placed always within sight of a principal exit. The catacombs of +Rome would be no more terrifying in prospect for a man than a +venture into the farther intricacies of Hoskin & Marl's. + +The captain of the _Seamew_ could box the compass with the next +seafarer, but he lost all idea of the points on the card before he +had been three minutes in the store, and he had to hail a +floor-walker to get his bearings. + +"Lace counter? Right this way, sir. Yes, sir. Just over there. +Our--er--Miss Bostwick will serve you, sir. Forward!" + +The wind and sun had heightened Tunis Latham's naturally florid +complexion to about as deep a red as can easily be imagined, but he +felt the back of his neck and his ears burning as he approached the +counter to which he was directed. A girl had detached herself from a +group at the farther end, and now came toward him. All that he first +saw clearly, however, was a pair of eyes staring at him from behind +the counter. They were not violet eyes. + +The girl who owned those twinkling, needle-sharp eyes was nothing +like that girl he had been thinking of so much since his previous +visit to Boston. She was rather small, dressed in the extreme mode +in a cheap way, wearing a tawdry gilt chain, several rings, and a +wrist watch. There was something about her which reminded Tunis very +strongly of the girls of Portygee Town, although she was a +pronounced blonde. + +Her hair was really her only attractive possession. Those sharp +brown eyes did not please Tunis Latham at all. And there was a +certain smart boldness in her manner, too, which caused him a +distinct feeling of repugnance. + +He plunged into his errand with all the boldness that a bashful man +usually displays when he finally gets his courage to the sticking +point. + +"You are Miss Bostwick?" he asked. + +"What kind of lace--goodness! Who are you?" asked the girl, her +stilted, saleslady manner changing to amazement with surprising +suddenness. + +"I live at Big Wreck Cove. I guess you've heard of it," said Tunis. + +"Big Wreck Cove? Do tell!" Her eyes danced. "You're from down on the +Cape, then. I guess you want some lace for your wife. What kind did +she send you for?" + +Tunis brushed this aside bluntly. + +"I don't want any lace," he told her. "I come from your aunt, Mrs. +Ira Ball." + +"My aunt? Fancy!" + +"She has heard about you," went on Tunis. "I guess she thought a +heap of your mother. She--she'd like to see you, Mrs. Ball would." + +The girl patted her hair into place with a languid hand. Her lips +parted in a teasing smile. This "hick" really amused her. + +"Just to think! Would she?" she drawled. "Is she in town?" + +"Who? Mrs. Ball? I should say not. She's down at Big Wreck Cove, I +tell you." + +"Oh, really? I thought by the way you spoke she was outside--in her +car." She tossed her head with that same tantalizing smile, almost a +grimace. "What did you want to tell me?" + +Tunis realized that he could not talk to her here, after all. The +idle girls at the end of the counter were already whispering, and +their smiles were poignant javelins of ridicule. The captain of the +_Seamew_ knew that he was far beyond his depth. + +"Where can I talk to you?" he asked. + +"I get away for my lunch hour in a few minutes. I could talk to you +then. But us girls ain't supposed to entertain our friends at the +counter." She flashed him another amused and quite comprehending +glance. + +"I've a message for you from Aunt Prue and the captain. Captain Ira +Ball. He's her husband," explained Tunis jerkily. + +"Oh, really? Mr. Judson is coming this way." She flirted open a card +of cheap lace lying on the counter. "Won't this do, sir?" + +"Cat's foot! I don't want any lace," growled the captain of the +_Seamew_. + +"And I don't want to lose my job," rejoined the girl sharply. + +"Where'll I meet you so we can talk?" + +"At twelve forty-five," hissed the girl out of the corner of her +mouth, beginning to wind up the lace again. "Back entrance to the +store." Then, aloud: "Sorry, sir. We haven't any cheaper quality in +that pattern." + +He knew she was ridiculing him. He was cognizant, however, of the +department head's hard stare and the amused glances of the other +saleswomen. He strode out of the store, and on the sidewalk halted +to mop his face and neck with a blue-bordered handkerchief. + +"She's as sassy as a chipmunk. I declare! What would Cap'n Ira and +Aunt Prue do with a girl like her around the house? And the way +she's dressed!" + +In his mind the idea germinated that he would be doing a far better +thing if he did not go around to the employees' door and wait for +Ida May Bostwick. What sort of life would she lead the two old +people down there on Wreckers' Head? He actually shrank from being a +party to such an arrangement. + +Not for a moment did he think that Miss Bostwick might not jump at +the chance to change her place of residence from a South End lodging +house to the Ball homestead overlooking Big Wreck Cove and the sea. +He had seen that she was afraid of her boss in the store. The rules +there must be very strict. He had noted that everything about the +girl, her apparel and her ornaments, was cheap and tawdry. She must +be both poor and unhappy. Why should she not jump at the chance of +bettering herself? + +What would Cap'n Ira say when he caught his first glimpse of that +painted and powdered face? How could good Aunt Prue take to her +heart the bold, jeering shopgirl, evidently born and bred as far +from the old standards of Cape Cod breeding as could be imagined? No +matter how fine a girl Sarah Honey was, her daughter was of a cheap +city type. + +But Tunis Latham did not stand in the position of a judge. He had +not been told to use his powers of observation before placing the +Balls' offer before Ida May Bostwick. He had no discretion in the +matter at all. + +So he went around to the street behind Hoskin & Marl's at the +required time and spent five or ten minutes backed up against a +blank wall under the sharp scrutiny of every girl who hurried out of +the big store on her way to lunch. Ida May came, at last. + +Tunis Latham in his go-ashore uniform and cap was no unsightly +figure. A stern tranquillity of countenance lent him dignity. He +attracted a certain respect wherever he went, but, as has been said, +there was nothing harsh in his appearance. + +The girl gave him an appraising scrutiny as she walked toward him. +While covering those few yards she made up her mind about Tunis on +several points. One was that she would not lunch this noon at any +cafeteria or automat! + +"Really," she said, with downcast glance, as the man got into step +beside her, "I don't feel that I know you well enough to talk to you +at all, Mister--Mister--" + +"My name's Tunis Latham. I'm owner and skipper of the schooner +_Seamew_. I live right handy to your uncle and aunt." + +"Goodness! You don't mean I've got an uncle and aunt down there on +the Cape? I never heard of them." + +"They are your great-uncle and great-aunt. Aunt Prue must have been +your mother's own aunt." + +"So you are my Cousin--er--Tunis?" + +His face flamed and he did not look at her. + +"That doesn't follow," he said. "Aunt Prue is my aunt only in a +manner of speaking. But she is your blood relation." + +"Yes? I suppose she's a dear old soul?" + +"They are mighty nice folks," Tunis replied stoutly. "As nice as any +in all Barnstable County." + +"But--er--sort of simple?" + +The girl asked it with a perfectly innocent countenance. Tunis +flashed her a look that showed comprehension. + +"Just about as simple as I am," he said. + +"Oh!" + +"Where'll we go to eat?" he asked cheerfully, considering that he +had the best of it so far. + +They came out upon Tremont Street and now started downtown. He +desired to get no nearer to that eating house on Scollay Square. At +least, not with his present companion. + +"There's the Barquette," said Miss Bostwick, with the air of one +used daily to the grandeur of such hostelries. + +But Tunis had seen her lodgings! However, her airs amused him, and +Tunis Latham was no penny-squeezer. He headed straight in for the +dining room, where a gloriously appareled negro head waiter +appraised him as being "all right," and Ida May got by, without +knowing it, upon the captain's substantial appearance. + +While the waiter was away, Tunis bluntly put his errand before her. +He felt it his duty to make the offer as attractive as possible. But +he did not make small the fact that the Balls were old and needed +her services. + +"Goodness! What do they want me for--a nurse?" she demanded tartly. + +The question put Tunis on his mettle. He explained that Cap'n Ira +and his wife were comfortably "fixed," as Cape people considered +comfort, with a home free and clear of all encumbrances, and +investments that yielded a sufficient support. Ida May, as he +understood it, would share their home and their means. + +"And you want I should go down to that place and live on pollack and +potatoes till them folks die, for the sake of just a _home_?" she +demanded, her brown eyes snapping. + +"_I_ don't want you to do anything," he pointed out coolly enough. +"I am merely repeating their offer. They are your folks." + +"And I know all about what it is down there," the girl said quickly. +"My mother came from there. She was glad enough to get away, too, I +warrant. Why should I give up a good job and the city to live in +such a dead-and-alive hole?" + +"That is for you to decide," Tunis replied, not without secret +relief. + +He could not understand her attitude. He remembered that South End +lodging house with secret horror. But evidently Ida May Bostwick was +wedded to the tawdry conveniences and gayeties of city life. Tunis +could not wholly understand why any sane person should assume this +attitude; in fact, he suspected a good deal of it was put on. How +could a girl, even one as inconsequential and flighty as Ida May +evidently was, hold in contempt the offer he had brought her from +Cap'n Ira and his wife? + +But he had done all that could be expected of him. All, indeed, that +he thought wise. Disappointed as the old couple would be by Ida +May's refusal, Tunis felt that to urge her to reconsider the matter +would not be in the best interests of her elderly relatives. They +needed a young companion there on Wreckers' Head, needed one very +sorely, but not such a person as Ida May Bostwick. + +"Then, that will be your final answer, Miss Bostwick?" he said +slowly, as Ida May played with her ice. + +"Say! I wouldn't go down to that hole for a million," scoffed the +girl. "I guess you wouldn't stand it yourself, only you're off on +your ship most of the time." + +"I like the Cape," he said briefly. + +"Never lived in the city, did you?" + +"I never did." + +"Then you don't know any better," she told him confidently. "And you +don't really look like such a dead one, at that." + +"Thank you." + +She smiled saucily into his rather grim face. Then she opened her +bag and deliberately powdered her nose before rising from the table. + +"Thanks for a pleasant hour," she drawled. "You tell Auntie and +Uncle Josh to get a girl from the poor farm or somewhere to do their +chores and tuck 'em in nights. _Me_, I don't mean to live out of +sight of movie signs and electric lights. I'd like to see myself!" + +She was both rude and common. Tunis was glad to get out of the +dining room. Ida May attracted altogether too much attention. And +she had quite openly eyed his well-lined wallet when he paid the +waiter. To a girl like Ida May, all was fish that swam into her net. +Crude as she considered him, Tunis Latham was a man with some money. +And he evidently knew how to spend it. + +"When you're in town I'd be glad to see you any time, Mr. Latham. Or +do I say captain?" + +She smiled up at the big, broad-shouldered fellow bravely as she +trotted along in the skirt that made her hobble like a cripple. The +captain of the _Seamew_ did not respond very cordially, and quite +overlooked her personal question. + +"I don't expect to spend much time in Boston," he said. "Thank you. +Then I shall report to Aunt Prue and Cap'n Ira that you will not +consider their offer at all?" + +"I should say not!" She laughed lightly. "You don't know, I guess, +what we girls expect nowadays, if we give up our independence." + +"Independence!" snorted Tunis. + +"That's what I said," rejoined Ida May tartly. "When the store +closes my time's my own. I can do as I please. And I've got nobody +to please but myself. Oh, you don't understand at all, Captain +Latham!" + +He said no more. Nor did he escort her farther than the corner. +There he lifted his cap and took her offered hand. Although it was +beringed and the nails were stained and polished, Tunis could not +help noticing that Ida May's hand was not altogether clean. + +"Well, au revoir, captain!" she said lightly. "I hope I see you +again." + +He bowed silently and watched her depart. The sunshine glinted +gloriously upon her fluffy hair. + +"Fool's gold," he muttered. + + + + +CHAPTER VII + +AT THE RESTAURANT + + +The captain of the _Seamew_ found himself facing an unpleasant +problem. How could he make the Balls, either Cap'n Ira or Prudence, +understand the kind of girl Ida May was? How could he even bring +them to understand that nothing he could have said would have ever +made Ida May Bostwick see the situation in its true light? + +Why, the old couple could never be made to believe that a girl in +her sane senses would turn down cold such a proposition as they had +made. They would suspect that he had failed to put it to her in the +proper light. His "errand of mercy," as Cap'n Ira had called it, had +seemed so reasonable for both sides! + +Tunis realized that he had not overurged the matter to the girl. But +there was a reason for that. The difficulty would be in explaining +to the Balls just how unsuitable Ida May was. They would never +believe that the daughter of Sarah Honey could be such a cheap and +inconsequential person as she had actually proved to be. + +"It's going to hit 'em 'twixt wind and water, and hit 'em hard," +muttered the captain of the _Seamew_. "One thing that girl said was +right, I guess. They'd better get somebody from the poor farm, +rather than take her into their house. Such a creature would be +happier with the Balls, and make them happier. But it's pretty tough +when those of your own blood go back on you." + +The experience had left a bad taste in Tunis Latham's mouth. He +hoped heartily that he would never see Ida May Bostwick again. He +never intended to if he could help it. To take his mind off the +fiasco entirely, he hopped on to a car and rode out to the art +museum and spent the afternoon in the quiet galleries where the +masters, little and great, are hung. + +He came downtown at nightfall, threading the paths of the public +gardens and the common malls of Charles and Beacon Streets, with a +feeling of immense calm in his soul. Tunis Latham possessed keenly +contrasting attributes of character. On the one hand he was of a +rather practical mind and thought; on the other, his love of beauty +and appreciation of nature's greater forces might have made of him +an artist under more liberal conditions of birth and breeding. + +Ida May Bostwick had rasped all the finer feelings of the captain +of the _Seamew_. He was happy to be able to get her out of his mind. +In fact, he had put aside thought of any girl. Romance no longer +enmeshed his cogitations. He was utterly calm, unruffled, serene, as +he descended by the twists and turns of certain streets beyond the +State House and came out finally upon the now lighted and bustling +square. + +He halted, like a pointer dog, before the eating place where he had +had breakfast. + +Tunis Latham felt a certain shock. That girl with the violet eyes +had been farthest from his thought at the moment, and for some hours +now. He had lumped together the whole girl question and had +relegated it to the back of his mind. + +And perhaps he was cured. He looked at it more sensibly after the +first moment. It was not thought of the girl that had brought him +here. Habit is strong in most of us. The urge of a healthy appetite +was more likely what had caused him to halt before the restaurant +door. + +It was after seven. Following his walk from the Back Bay it was +little wonder that he was hungry. But should he enter this place? +There were several other restaurants in sight of about the same +standard. Tunis Latham did not make a practice of patronizing places +similar to the Barquette when he ate alone. + +To pass on and enter another restaurant would be to confess +weakness. He really cared nothing about that girl with the violet +eyes. She very probably was no better and no worse than Ida May +Bostwick. All these city shopgirls were about of a pattern. He had +allowed sentiment to sway him for a few hours. But sentiment had +received a jolt during his interview with the girl from the lace +department of Hoskin & Marl's. + +"Cat's foot!" ejaculated the captain of the _Seamew_. "I guess I'm +not afraid to take another look at that girl, if she's in here. +Probably two looks will be about all I want," and he grinned rather +wryly as he approached the door. + +The place was well patronized at this hour; and the "lady help" was +much in evidence, flying back and forth from tables to slide and +"dealing 'em off the arm" with a rapidity and dexterity that was +most amazing, Tunis thought. There was even a girl in the cashier's +cage, while the black-haired man he had paid his check to that +forenoon was walking about with a sharp eye for everything that went +on. + +The Cape man started down the room for an empty seat. Somebody was +ahead of him and he backed away. A soft voice, a voice that thrilled +Tunis Latham before he saw the speaker at all, said just behind him: + +"There is a seat here, sir." + +He knew it was she of the violet eyes before he turned about. It +seemed to the seaman the voice matched the beautiful eyes of which +he had thought so often during the past few days. They must belong +together! + +He turned to look at her. She was gathering up the soiled dishes +from a table at which was an empty seat. First of all, Tunis secured +it. Then he glanced keenly at the girl. + +Would she remember him? Had his face and appearance been +photographed upon her memory as her face had been printed on his? +She did not look at him then. She was busy clearing the enameled top +of the table and wiping off the coffee stains and the wet rings made +by the water glass. + +She had black hair and a great deal of it, deep black, glossy, fine +of texture, and very well brushed. Black hair and those velvety +violet eyes, the long, black lashes of which were a most delicate +fringe! The brows were boldly dashed on against her smooth, almost +colorless, but perfect skin. Tunis had never before seen any +feminine loveliness the equal of this girl, this waitress in a cheap +restaurant! Yet a casual glance would scarcely have discovered much +attractive about the girl. Had he not looked so deep into her violet +eyes at the instant of their first meeting, perhaps the captain of +the _Seamew_ would never have given her the second glance. There was +a timidity about her, a shrinking in her very attitude, that would +naturally displease even an observant person. + +Her nose, mouth, and chin, were only ordinarily well formed. Nothing +remarkable at all about them. But the texture of her skin, it seemed +to the man, was the finest he had ever beheld. Her figure was +slight, but supple. Every line, accentuated by the common black +dress she wore, was graceful. Her throat was bare and she wore no +ornament. His sharp gaze flashed to her left hand. It was guiltless +of any band. He had begun to flush at the thought which prompted +this last observation, and grabbed at a stained bill of fare to +cover his sudden confusion. + +She moved away with the piled-up dishes. His gaze followed her +covertly. Even her walk was graceful, not at all the hobble or the +jerky pace or the slouch of the other waitresses. + +By and by she came back. She brought tableware and a glass of water. +She placed them meticulously before him. Then, for the first time it +seemed, she looked at Tunis Latham. She halted, her hand still upon +the water glass. She quivered all over. The water slopped upon the +table. + +"Oh, is it you, sir?" she said in that timid, breathless whisper he +so well remembered. + +"Good evening," Tunis rejoined. "I hope you are well?" + +"Oh, yes, sir! Quite well. What will you have, sir?" + +She no longer looked at him. Her gaze was roving about her tables, +but more often fixed upon the broad, alpaca-coated shoulders of the +restaurant proprietor at the front of the room. + +Tunis ordered almost at random. She repeated the viands named. There +was a tiny tendril of her hair that curled low upon her neck at one +side, caressing the pale satin sheen of the skin. He felt an +overpowering desire to lean forward and press his lips to the tiny +curl! + +As though she comprehended his secret wish, a wave of color stained +her throat and cheeks from the line of her frock to her hair. It +poured up under the pallor of the skin, transfiguring her expression +ravishingly. Instead of her countenance being rather wan and weary +looking, in a moment it became as vivid as a freshly opened flower. + +She turned swiftly, departing with his order. Tunis was conscious of +a hoarse voice at his elbow. He glanced aside. His neighbor in the +next chair was a little, common man, with a little, common face, on +which was a little, common leer. + +"A pip, I'll tell the world," was the neighbor's comment. "Whadjer +s'pose brought her into this dump?" + +"The necessity for earning her living," replied Tunis, without +looking again at the man. + +"With a face like that?" suggested the man, and fell wordless +again, but not silent, as he attacked his soup. + +If there was an opportunity to speak to the girl again, Tunis could +scarcely do so, he thought, for her own sake. It would attract the +attention not only of the fellow beside him, but of others. + +He felt an overpowering desire, however, to talk with her. His +recently born determination to have nothing more to do with any girl +had melted like snow in July. That feeling, which had come through +his experience with Ida May Bostwick, seemed a sacrilege when he +considered this girl. + +The man beside him, noisily finishing his soup, ordered +apple-meringue pie when the waitress returned with Tunis' order. The +latter noted that her fingers still trembled when she placed his +food before him. When she brought the pie she reached for the man's +check and punched another hole in it. Tunis was careful not to raise +his own eyes to her face. But all the time he was trying to invent +some way by which he might further his acquaintance with her. + +He must be back at the _Seamew_ that night. Tomorrow the cargo would +come aboard and, wind and tide being ordinarily favorable, the +schooner would put to sea as soon as the hatches were battened down. +He could not continue to come here to the restaurant for his meals +and so grasp the frail chance of bolstering his acquaintance with +the girl. Indeed, he felt that such an obvious course would utterly +wreck any chance he might naturally have of knowing her better. + +The timidity she evinced was nothing put on. It was real. Its cause +he could not fathom, but to Tunis Latham it seemed that this girl +with the violet eyes was a gentle girl, if not gently bred, and that +she shrank from contact with the rougher elements of life. How she +came to be working in this place was not of moment to him. It would +not have mattered to Tunis Latham where he had met her or under what +circumstances; he only knew that there was a mysterious charm about +her which attracted and held his heart captive. + +"Will you have anything more, sir?" The low, yet penetrating voice +was in his ear. She hovered over his chair and her near presence +thrilled him. He had not much more than played with the food. Now he +replied briefly, without thinking: + +"Apple-meringue." + +"Yes, sir." + +His neighbor pushed back his chair and got up noisily. He picked up +his check, glanced at it, and snorted. + +"Hey!" he said to the girl returning with Tunis' pie. "What's this +for?" + +"Yes, sir?" + +"You've rung me up an extry nickel. What's the idea?" + +"Fifteen cents for meringue, sir." + +"Huh? Who had meringue? I had apple pie, plain apple pie. It's ten +cents. This feller"--indicating Tunis--"ordered apple-meringue; not +me." + +He held out the check for correction belligerently. + +"You ordered apple-meringue, sir, and I brought it. You ate it. The +check is correct." + +Low and timid as the voice was, gently as the words were spoken, +Tunis sensed an undercurrent of firmness and determination in the +girl's character that he had not before suspected. + +"Say, you don't put nothing like that over on me!" exclaimed the man +loudly. + +Tunis moved in his chair. He saw the black-haired man at the front +of the restaurant swing about to face down the room. He had heard +this unseemly disturbance. + +"I will call the manager." + +"And so will I--I'll call him good!" sneered the patron. "He knows +that you crooks in here over-charge. He puts you up to it. That's +why he hires jailbirds and--" + +Tunis had got up, pushed back his chair with his foot, and as the +girl uttered a horrified gasp at the rough speech, he seized the +man. His grip on the back of the fellow's coat between his shoulders +brought a startled grunt from lips parted to continue his +blackguardism. + +"Hey! What d'ye mean?" roared the fellow, as Tunis twisted him into +the aisle. + +"You dog!" said the captain of the _Seamew_ in a low voice. "Down on +your knees and ask the lady's pardon for that speech!" + +The black-haired man started toward them. His coarse face had a +smile on it as vicious as the snarl of a tiger. He put up his hand +in a gesture of command. + +"Beg her pardon!" repeated Tunis, and by the great weight of his +hand crushed the squalling patron of the restaurant to his knees +before the terrified girl. + +"Stop that! What do you mean?" cried the manager of the restaurant, +still several yards away. + +The patrons of the place had been thinning out for the last few +minutes. Most of those remaining were near the front. Some of the +waitresses were already seated at a table next to the kitchen slide, +eating their suppers. + +"Take him off me!" roared the man squirming on the floor under Tunis +Latham's hand. "That thief of a girl set him on me. This is a nice +thing, be overcharged and then assaulted!" + +He was talking for the benefit of the black-haired man. The latter +swooped down upon them. His face was purple with wrath and his fat +jowls trembled. + +"Let him up! Do you hear me?" he exclaimed. + +"He insulted this lady," said Tunis, indicating the waitress. "You +just heard him repeat it. He'll beg her pardon or I'll wring his +neck." + +"What do you mean?" cried the restaurant man. "What's the girl to +you? One of her friends, are you? Well, you are doing her no good +with me, I assure you." + +The captain of the _Seamew_ flung the little man face down upon the +floor and held him there with his foot while he reached with both +hands for the proprietor. He got him. The latter uttered a squeak +like a captured rat. + +"You're another of the same breed, are you?" Tunis demanded. "You'll +beg her pardon, too, or I'll crack the heads of the two of you +together! Come!" + +He stood the man on his feet before the waitress with such force +that his teeth rattled. He stooped and yanked the other to an +upright posture likewise. The shrinking girl, Tunis noticed, was not +weeping. She looked at all he did as though she approved. The other +girls were shrieking. The cashier had run to the door and cried into +the street for the police. But that violet-eyed girl, timid as she +naturally was, did not open her lips. + +"She's a plucky little lady," thought Tunis Latham. "But somebody's +got to stand up for her." + + + + +CHAPTER VIII + +SHEILA + + +The captain of the _Seamew_ held the two struggling, cursing men as +though they were small boys. His eyes flamed a question at the girl. +She understood and nodded, if ever so faintly. + +"I ought to send both of you to the hospital," said Tunis in a grim +voice. "But I'm satisfied if you beg her pardon and let her go." +This to the restaurant proprietor. + +The man opened his lips to emit something besides an apology, +although the smaller man was already quelled. But the look in Tunis +Latham's face made the black-haired man pause. + +"Well, she can't cause a disturbance here. But I meant no offense." + +The smaller man hastened to add: + +"So help me! I was that mad I didn't know what I said. I didn't mean +nothing." + +Tunis nodded solemnly. + +"Get your coat and hat, miss," he said. "I guess it won't be a +pleasant place for you to work in after this." + +She slipped away. Tunis let the men go. They both stepped away from +him, panting, relaxing their shoulders, eyeing the young captain +with as much curiosity as apprehension. + +Suddenly there was an added commotion at the front door. Tunis saw a +policeman enter. The coarse-featured proprietor of the restaurant +instantly recovered all his courage. + +"This way, officer! This way!" he cried. "Here's the man." + +At that moment Tunis felt a tug at his coat. He flashed a glance +over his shoulder. It was the girl. She wore a little hat pulled +down over all that black hair, and she was buttoning a shabby +jacket. There was a way out by the alley; he well knew it. Nor was +he anxious of appearing before either a police lieutenant or a +magistrate for creating a disturbance in the place. + +"Run along. I'll be right behind you," he whispered. + +The policeman was some distance, and several tables away. Tunis +looked to see if all was clear. The girl was just passing through +the swinging door into the kitchen. Tunis stepped back, turned +suddenly, while the restaurant proprietor was making ready to +address the policeman, and leaped for the rear exit. + +"There he goes!" squealed the patron who had been the cause of the +trouble. + +But nobody stopped Tunis Latham. At a flash, when he got into the +kitchen, he saw the girl opening the outer door. The way was clear. +He crossed the room in several quick strides and caught up with her. +The startled chef and his assistants merely stared. + +The alley was empty, but they walked swiftly away from the square. +The arc lamp on the corner which they approached sputtered +continuously, like soda water bubbling out of a bottle. He looked +down at her curiously in the flickering illumination from this lamp +and found the girl looking up at him just as curiously. + +"That was an unwise thing to do. You might have been arrested," she +said, ever so gently. Then she added: "And it has cost me my job." + +"That is the only thing that worries me," he rejoined promptly. + +"You need not mind, sir. I really am not sorry. I could not have +stood it much longer. And Mr. Sellers paid yesterday." + +"So they don't owe you much on account, then," Tunis said soberly. +"I came away without paying for my dinner. I'll pay the worth of my +check to you; that'll help some." + +For the first time she laughed. Once he had sat all afternoon in a +gully back of Big Wreck Cove in the pine woods and listened to the +cheerful gurgle of a spring bubbling from under a stone. That +silvery chuckle was repeated in this girl's laugh With all her +timidity and shyness, she was naturally a cheerful body. That laugh +was quite involuntary. + +"I think I may be able to get along," she said, with that quiet tone +of finality which Tunis felt would keep the boldest man at a +distance. "It is difficult, however, to get a position without +references." + +"I'll go back and wring one out of him--when the cop has gone," +grinned Tunis. + +"I don't think a reference from Mr. Sellers would do me much good," +she sighed. "But at the time I took the place I was quite +desperate." + +The captain of the _Seamew_ made no comment. They were walking up +the hill through a quiet street. Of course, there was no pursuit. +But the young man began to feel that he might have done the girl +more harm than good by espousing her cause in the restaurant. +Perhaps he had been too impulsive. + +"You--you can find other and more pleasant work, I am sure," he said +with hesitation. "I hope you will forgive me for thrusting myself +into your concerns, but I really could not stand for that man +backing up your customer instead of you. He did order meringue pie. +I heard him." + +She smiled, and he caught the faint flicker of it as it curved her +lips and made her eyes shine for an instant. Minute following +minute, she was becoming more attractive. His voice trembled when he +spoke again: + +"I--I hope you will forgive me." + +"You did just what I should have expected my brother to do, if I had +a brother," she replied frankly. "But few girls who work at Sellers' +have brothers." + +"No?" Something in her voice, rather than in the words, startled +Tunis. + +"Let me put it differently," she said, still with that gentle +cadence which ameliorated the bitterness of her tone. "Girls who +have brothers seldom fall into Sellers' clutches. You see, he is a +last resort. He does not demand references, and he poses as a +philanthropist." + +Tunis felt confused, in a maze. He could not imagine where the girl +was tacking. He was keenly aware, however, that there was a mystery +about her being employed at all in Sellers' restaurant. + +They came out at last upon the brow of the hill overlooking the +Common. The lamps glimmered along Tremont Street through an +opalescent haze which was stealing over the city from the bay. +Without question they went down the steps side by side. There was a +bench in a shadow and, without touching her, Tunis steered the +girl's steps toward it. + +She sat down with an involuntary sigh of weariness. She had been on +her feet most of the time since eleven o'clock. She relaxed in +contact with the back of the bench, and he could see the contour of +her throat and chin thrown up in relief against the background of +shadow. The whole relaxed attitude of her slim body betrayed +exhaustion. + +"I hope you will not blame me too severely," Tunis stammered. + +"I don't blame you." + +"I fear you will after you have taken time to think it over. +But--but perhaps there may be some way in which I can repair the +damage I have done." + +She looked at him levelly, curiously. + +"You are a seaman, are you not?" + +"I'm Tunis Latham. I own the schooner _Seamew_, and command her. We +are going to run back and forth from Boston to the Cape--Cape Cod." + +"Oh! I could scarcely fill a position on your schooner, Captain +Latham." + +She smiled again. It was a weary smile, however, not like the former +flash of amusement she had shown. Her head drooped as her mind sank +into unhappy retrospection. Tunis looked aside at her with a great +hunger in his heart to take all her trouble--no matter what it +was--upon his own mind and give her the freedom she needed. What or +who the girl was did not matter. Even what she had done, or what +she had not done meant little to Tunis Latham. + +She was the one girl in all this world who had ever interested him +beyond a passing moment, and he was convinced that she alone would +ever interest him. The cheap environment of their meeting meant +nothing. If she was free, her own mistress, and he could get her, he +meant to make this girl his wife. + +"You didn't tell me your name," he said directly. "Won't you? I have +been frank with you." + +"Why, so you have," said the girl. There might have been a strata of +laughter underlying the words; yet her face was sober enough. "If +you really wish to know, Captain Latham, my name is Macklin." + +"_Miss_ Macklin?" he asked, a positive tremor in his voice. + +"Certainly. Sheila Macklin, spinster." + +Tunis drew a long breath. That was enough! He would take his chance +in the game with any other man as long as she was not promised. But +there was no use in spoiling everything by being too precipitate. +The captain of the _Seamew_ might be simple, but he was not the man +to ruin a thing through impulsiveness. That exhibition in the +restaurant was hooked up with wrath. + +There had been an undercurrent of thought in his mind ever since he +had met this girl for the second time, and it was quite a natural +thought, comparing her with Ida May Bostwick. If Sheila Macklin had +only been Ida May, after all! It was a ridiculous idea. Not a +feature or betrayed trait of character was like any that the +disappointing great-niece of Prudence Ball possessed. This girl +sitting beside Tunis on the bench and Ida May Bostwick were as +little alike as though they were inhabitants of two different +worlds. + +He had begun to imagine, too, how well this girl beside him would +fit into the needs of the old couple living there alone on Wreckers' +Head. It was an idle thought, of course. He had no plan, or scheme, +or definite suggestion in his mind. It was only a wish, a keen +longing for an impossible conjunction of circumstances which would +have enabled him to present Sheila Macklin to Cap'n Ira and Prudence +and say: + +"This is the girl you sent me for." + +"Just what will you do now that you have lost that job, Miss +Macklin?" Tunis asked abruptly. + +"Oh, after I am rested, I will go home!" + +He had a sudden flash of the memory of that stark lodging house +where Ida May Bostwick lived, and he felt assured this girl's home +could be no better. But he did not mention this thought. + +"I did not mean it just that way," he told her, smiling. "First you +and I will go and get supper somewhere. I did not half finish mine, +and you have had none at all." + +"I don't know about that," she interposed. "It is generous of you. +But ought I to accept?" + +"You need not question that. We are going to be friends, Miss +Macklin. Is it necessary for me to bring you references?" + +"It may be necessary for me to obtain a sponsor," she said, quite +seriously. "You do not know a thing about me, Captain Latham." + +"You know nothing about me, except what I have told you." And he +laughed. + +"And what I read in your countenance," she said soberly. + +He grinned at her, but rather ruefully. + +"I never knew my thoughts were advertised in my face." + +"Oh, no! Not that! But your character is. Otherwise I would not be +sitting here with you." + +"I guess that's all right then," he declared with satisfaction. +"Well, let's call it a draw. If you take me at face value, I'll take +you at the same rating. Anyhow, we can risk going to supper +together." + +"Well, somewhere to a quiet place. Don't take me where you are +known, Captain Latham." + +"No?" He was puzzled again. "But, then, I am not known anywhere in +Boston." + +"All the better. I ought not to lend myself in any way to making you +possible future trouble." + +"I do not understand you, Miss Macklin." + +He sat up suddenly on the bench to look at her more sharply. There +was an underlying, but important, meaning to her speech. + +"I know you do not understand," she rejoined gently. She sighed. "I +must make you clearly see just who I am and the risk you run in +associating with me." + +"The risk I run!" + +He uttered the words in both amazement and ridicule. + +"You do not quite understand, Captain Latham," she repeated in the +same gentle tone. + +There was no raillery in her voice now. She was altogether serious. +Her eyes, luminous, yet darkly unfathomable, were held full upon his +face. He felt rather than saw that she was under a mental strain. +The revelation she was about to make throbbed in her voice when she +spoke again. + +"You do not quite understand. Sellers gives girls work in his +restaurant who could by no possibility offer proper references, +girls from the Protectory, from homes, as they are called; some, +even, who have served jail sentences. I had been two years in the +St. Andrew's School for Girls when I went to work for Sellers." + + + + +CHAPTER IX + +A GIRL'S STORY + + +There was a ringing in Tunis Latham's ears. As you make Paulmouth +Harbor coming from seaward, on a thick day you hear the insistent +tolling of the bell buoy over Bitter Reef. That was the distant, but +incessant sound that the captain of the _Seamew_ seemed to hear as +he sat on that bench on Boston Common beside this strange girl. + +Without being a prig, Tunis Latham was undeniably a good man. +Whether he was altogether a wise man was perhaps a subject for +argument. At least, his future conduct must settle that point. + +But for the moment, when Sheila Macklin had made her last statement, +it seemed that every atom of thought and all ability to consider +matters logically were drained out of the man's mind. That mind was +perfectly blank. What the girl had said seemed mere sound, sound +without meaning. He could not grasp its significance. + +And yet he knew it was tragic. It was something that had made the +girl what she was. It explained all Tunis had been unable heretofore +to understand about Sheila Macklin. That timidity, that whispering +shyness, the shrinking from observation and from any attention, were +all explained. She had suffered persecution and punishment, harsh +and undeserved, that made her recoil from contact with other more +fortunate people. She felt herself outcast, ostracized, and was +unable to defend herself from malign fortune. + +Gradually Tunis regained his usual self-control. + +If Sheila had said anything following the bare statement that she +had spent two years in the St. Andrew's Reformatory for Women, he +had not comprehended it. Nor could he have told how long he sat +silent on the bench getting control of his voice and of his tongue. +When he did speak he said quite casually: + +"And what kind of a place is that--er--school, Miss Macklin?" + +"You can imagine. It harbors the weak-minded, the vicious, and the +unfortunate runaway girls, thieves' consorts, and women of the +streets. It is, I think, a little like hell, if there really is such +a place, Captain Latham." + +The poignancy of expression in her voice and words made the man +tremble. And yet she did not speak bitterly nor angrily. Her feeling +was beyond all passion. It was the expression of a soul that had +suffered everything and could no longer feel. That was just it, +Tunis told himself. It explained her attitude, even the tone of her +voice. She had endured and seen so much misery and heartache that +there seemed nothing left for her to experience. + +"Can you bear to tell me what misfortune took you to that place?" he +asked gently, yet fighting down all the time that desire to roar +with rage. + +"Why do you not say 'crime,' Captain Latham?" she asked in that same +low, strained voice. + +"Because I know that crime and you could not be associated, Miss +Macklin," he said hoarsely. + +At that she began suddenly to weep. Not aloud, but with her hands +pressed over her eyes and her shoulders, shaking with long, +shuddering sobs which betrayed how the horror of past thoughts and +experiences controlled her when once she gave way. Tunis Latham +could have behaved like a madman. That berserk rage that had seized +him in the restaurant welled up in his heart now. He gripped the +back of the bench till the slat cracked. But there was no opponent +here upon whom he could vent his violence that he longed to express. + +"Don't cry! For God's sake, don't cry!" he whispered hoarsely. "I +know it was all a mistake. It must have been a mistake. How could +anybody have been so wicked, so utterly senseless, as to believe +you guilty of--of--what did they accuse you of?" + +"Stealing," whispered the girl. + +"'Stealing?' What nonsense!" + +He put a wealth of disdain into the words. She sat up straighter. +She dropped her hands from her face and looked at him. Dark as it +was on the bench, he could see that her expression was one of +wonder. + +"Do--do you really feel that way about it, Captain Latham?" + +"It is ridiculous!" he acclaimed heartily. + +She sighed. Her momentary animation fell and she spoke again: + +"It did not seem ridiculous to the police or to the magistrate. I +worked in a store. A piece of sterling silverware disappeared. Other +pieces had previously been stolen. The police traced the last +missing piece to a pawnshop. The pawnbroker testified that a girl +pawned it. His identification of me was close enough to satisfy the +judge." + +"My God!" + +"I was what they call a first offender. At least, I had no police +record. Ordinarily I might have been let go under suspended sentence +or been put on probation. But I had nobody to say a good word for +me. I had been in Boston only a year, and I could not let people +where I came from know about my trouble. Even if the judge had +given me a jail sentence, I could have shortened it by good +behavior. He did what he thought was best, I suppose. He considered +me a hardened young criminal. He sent me to the St. Andrew's School +until I was twenty-one--two years. Two long, long years. + +"Six months ago I got out and Sellers gave me a job. Now, that is +all, Captain Latham. You will readily see my position. I do not want +to go anywhere with you to eat where your friends are likely to see +you." + +He uttered a sudden, stinging, harsh sound; then he removed his cap +and bent toward her. + +"But what you have said--Why, were they all crazy? Couldn't they see +that such a thing would be impossible for you? Impossible!" + +She put a hand gently on his arm to quiet his excitement, for others +were passing. Her eyes glowed up into his for an instant. Her lips +parted in a happier smile than he had seen on them before. + +"Then you will not get up from this bench, Captain Latham, and +excuse yourself? I should not blame you if you did so." + +"Do you think I'm that kind of a fellow?" he demanded bluntly. + +"I--I told you I thought I had quite read your character in your +face. But that is no reason why I should take advantage of your +kindness to do you harm." + +"Harm? How do you mean, 'harm?'" + +"Sheila Macklin is a creature from a reformatory. She has been +sentenced by a magistrate. She was arrested by the police. She was +accused by her employers of theft, and the theft was proved. If any +of your friends should see you with me, and I should be identified +as the Sheila Macklin who was sentenced for stealing--" + +"Cat's foot!" ejaculated Tunis with a sudden reversion to his usual +cheerful manner. "Are you going through the rest of your life +feeling like that?" + +"Why shouldn't I? I am always expecting somebody to see and +recognize me. Even in Sellers' place. That man this evening, when he +called me 'jailbird'--" + +"I wish I had wrung his neck!" exclaimed the captain of the _Seamew_ +heartily. + +"I appreciate your kindness." Her eyes twinkled. For a moment he +caught a glimpse of what Sheila Macklin must have been before +tragedy had come into her life. "You are a good, kind man, Captain +Latham." + +"You just look on me as though I were your brother," he said +sturdily. "You are not going to be alone any more, not really. If +you had had friends before, when it happened, somebody to speak for +you, I am sure nothing like what did happen to you could have +happened." + +"I come of respectable people," she said quietly. "But they are all +dead. I was an orphan before I came to Boston. The friends I had in +the little inland town I came from would not have understood. They +did not approve of my coming to the city at all. Oh, I wish I had +not come!" + +"And now you ought not to stay here. Should you?" + +"What can I do? I must support myself. I cannot go back. I could not +explain those two years. Yet I am always expecting somebody to make +inquiry for Sheila Macklin. And then I cannot conceal my story +longer." + +He nodded thoughtfully. It seemed that, once she had opened the dam +of speech, she was glad to talk about herself and her trouble. + +"I do hate the city. I have been so unhappy here. If I were only a +man I would start right out into the country. I would tramp until I +found a place to work. You don't know what it means to be a girl, +Captain Latham, and be in trouble." + +"I guess all city girls aren't alike after all," he said with a +short laugh. Then he looked at her keenly again. "Do you know what +sort of an errand brought me up into the city from T-Wharf to-day?" + +"What errand? I cannot imagine." + +"There are two old people down on the Cape that I am much interested +in. They live near my home." + +He told her quietly, yet with earnestness, about Cap'n Ira and +Prudence. He described their home and their need of some young +person to live with them, somebody who would not only help them, but +who would love to help them. Then he related, perhaps rather tartly, +his experience with Ida May Bostwick. + +"What a foolish girl!" she breathed. "And she would not accept a +chance like that?" + +"Lucky for Cap'n Ira and for Aunt Prue that she won't take up with +their offer," he said grimly. "But I dread taking back word to them +about her. It will be hard to make them understand. And then, they +need the help a good girl could give them." + +"Captain Latham, if I only had a chance like that!" she exclaimed. +"I'd work my fingers to the bone for a home like that, for shelter, +and kindness, and--and--oh, well, some girls have all the best of +it, I guess!" + +She sighed. It was half a sob. He saw her hands clasp tightly before +her in the dusk. The gesture was like a prayer. He knew that her +pale face was flushed with earnestness. He cleared his throat. + +"You have the chance, if you want it, Miss Macklin," he said. + + + + +CHAPTER X + +THE PLOT + + +There was a long minute of utter silence following Tunis Latham's +last words. Then the girl's whisper, tense, yet shaking like a +frightened child's: + +"You do not know what you are saying." + +"I know exactly what I am saying," he replied. + +"They--they would not have me." + +"They will welcome you--gladly." + +"Never! I am a stranger. They must be told all about me. They could +never welcome Sheila Macklin." + +He knew that. He knew it only too well. She was just the sort of +girl to make Cap'n Ira Ball and Prudence happy, to bring to their +latter years the comfort and joy the old couple should have. But the +Puritanism which, after all, ingrained their characters would never +allow the Balls to welcome a girl with the stain Sheila Macklin bore +upon her name. Tunis remembered clearly how scornfully Cap'n Ira +had spoken of the possibility of their taking in a girl from the +poor farm. Pride of family and of name is inbred in their class of +New Englanders. + +The old people wanted a girl whom they could love and look upon as +their own. They would welcome nobody else. They had set their minds +and hearts upon Ida May Bostwick. The fact that Ida May failed to +come up to their expectations, that she was perfectly worthless and +inconsequential, did not open the way for another girl to be +substituted for Ida May. Possibly Tunis might be successful in an +attempt to interest the Balls in Sheila Macklin's case. But the girl +did not want charity, not charity as the word is used in its general +and harsher sense. + +Should she carry with her wherever she went this name which had been +so smirched--the identity of Sheila Macklin, the ghost of whose past +misfortune might rise to shame her at any time--the girl could never +be happy. Did Tunis Latham succeed in getting the Balls to take +Sheila in and give her a home, this story that so bowed her down +would continually threaten its revelation, like a pirate ship +hovering in the offing! + +And there was, too, a deeper reason why he could not introduce +Sheila Macklin to Big Wreck Cove folk. It was no reason he could +give the girl at this time. In some ways the captain of the _Seamew_ +was wise enough. He felt that this was no time to put forward his +personal and particular desires. Enough that she had admitted him +to her friendship and had given him her confidence. + +She had accepted him in all good faith in a brotherly sense. He +dared not spoil his influence with her by revealing a deeper +interest. + +"We may as well look at this thing calmly and sensibly," Tunis said, +answering her statement of what was indubitably a fact. "It is quite +true my old neighbors would not accept you as Sheila Macklin. But +they need you; no other kind of a girl would so suit their need. And +you could not help loving them; nor they you, once they learned to +know you." + +"I am sure I should love them," breathed Sheila. + +"Then, as you are just the person they want and their home is just +the place you need for shelter, I am going to take you back with +me." + +"Oh, Captain Latham! We--we can't do it. My name--somebody will some +time be sure to hear about me, and the dreadful secret will come +out." + +"No, it won't," said Tunis doggedly. "There will be no secret, not +such as you mean, to come out." + +She gazed upon him in open-eyed surprise, her lips parted, her face +aglow. + +"You mean--" + +"We'll leave Sheila Macklin sitting on this bench, if you will +agree. She need never be traced from this point. Let her drop out of +the ken of the whole world that knew her. The name can only bring +you harm; it has brought you harm. Through it you are threatened +with trouble, with disaster. Your whole future is menaced through +that name and the stain upon it." + +She looked at him still, scarcely breathing. Latham did not realize +the power he held over this girl at the moment. He was to her a +living embodiment of the All Good. Almost any suggestion, no matter +how reckless, he might have made, would have found an echo in her +heart and the will to do it. + +To few is vouchsafed that knowledge which makes all clear before the +mental vision. Tunis Latham's perspicacity did not compass this +thing. He did not grasp the psychological moment, as we moderns call +it, and consummate there and then the only reasonable and righteous +plan that it was given him to complete. + +The captain of the _Seamew_ was a young man very much in love. He +did not question this fact at all. But in his wildest imaginings he +could never have believed that the girl beside him on this bench +returned his passion, that she would even listen to his +protestations of affection. Not for a long time, at least. + +Nor had he ever considered marriage as possible in any case when +there was not love on both sides. Although he commiserated Sheila +Macklin's situation most deeply, he could not dream of those depths +of despair into which the girl's heart had sunk before he came upon +the scene of action. He did not understand that she was at that +bitterly desperate point where she would grasp at any means of +rescue which promised respectability. + +He almost feared to put before her the proposition he did have in +his mind. In the dusk, even, those violet eyes seemed to look to the +very bottom of his soul. Fortunate for him that its clarity was +visible to the girl at that moment. + +He bent closer. His lips almost brushed her ear. He whispered +several swift sentences into it. She listened. Some of that glow of +exaltation drained out of her countenance, but it registered no +disagreement. They sat for some time thereafter, talking, planning, +this desperate young girl and the captain of the _Seamew_. + + * * * * * + +"What do you know about this?" Orion Latham growled. "The mate +bunkin' in with cooky and the skipper slingin' a hammock in the +fo'c's'le while the whole cabin's to be given up to a girl. A woman +aboard! Never knew no good to come of that on any craft. What is +this schooner, a passenger packet?" + +"You was sayin' she was already hoodooed," chuckled Horace Newbegin. +"I cal'late a gal sailing one trip won't materially harm the +_Seamew_ nor her crew." + +"Who is she? That's what I want to know," said the supercargo, who +seemed to consider the matter a personal affront. + +"Skipper says she's going to live with Cap'n Ira Ball. She's some +kin of his wife's. And they need somebody with 'em, up there in that +lonesome place," said the ancient seaman reflectively. "That's what +the skipper was doin' all day yesterday, lookin' this gal up and +making arrangements for her going back to the _Seamew_. He's gone up +town to get her now. We'll get away come the turn of the tide, if +he's back in time." + +The taxicab with Tunis and the girl arrived in season for the tide. +It was quite dark on the dock to which the _Seamew_ was still +moored. The Captain hailed, and two of the hands were sent up for +the trunk. Tunis carried the girl's hand bag. + +Every member of the crew was loitering on deck, even Johnny Lark and +Tony, the boy, to get a glimpse of the mysterious passenger. They +saw only a slender, graceful, quick-stepping figure, her face +veiled, her hands neatly gloved. Just how she was dressed and what +she really looked like only daylight would reveal. + +Tunis went below with her and remained until the men brought down +the trunk. It was a small trunk and brand-new, as was the bag. Had +one observed, the hat she wore, and even her simple frock, were +likewise just out of the shop. At least the girl who was going with +the _Seamew_ to Big Wreck Cove seemed to have made certain +preparations for a new life. + +The captain came out on deck and closed the slide. The commercial +tug was puffing in toward the _Seamew's_ berth. + +"Come alive, boys!" said Captain Latham, taking instant command of +the deck. "Cast off those lines! Get that tug hawser inboard, Horry. +Mr. Chapin, will you see that those lines are coiled down properly? +Keep the deck shipshape. Make less work for your watch when we get +under canvas. + +"Lay aft here with your men now, Horry. Tail on to those mainsheets. +All together! Get away on her so we can cast loose as soon as +possible from that smoky scuttle butt." + +He referred to the tug. He stepped aft to take the wheel himself. +The mainsail was going up smartly. The old boatswain and the +Portygees swung upon the lines with vehemence. There was not more +than a capful of wind; but once let the canvas fill, and the +schooner would get steerageway. + +"I'd rather take my chance through the channel under sail than +depend on that tug," the captain added. "Like a puppy dragging +around an old rubber boot. Lively there! Ready to cast off, Mr. +Chapin." + +The schooner was freed of the "puffing abomination," the smoke of +which sooted the _Seamew's_ clean sails. The heavy hawser splashed +overboard and the schooner staggered away rather drunkenly at +first, tacking among the larger craft anchored out there in the +harbor. + +The wind was not a very helpful one and soon after midnight it fell +almost calm. There were only light airs to urge the _Seamew_ on. Yet +she glided through the starlit murk in a ghostly fashion as though +some monstrous submarine hand forced her seaward. + +The water chuckled and gurgled under her bow, flashing in ripples +now and then. There was no phosphorescence, no glitter or sparkle. +The schooner moved on as through a tideless sea. Now and then a +clutter of spars or a suit of listless sails loomed up in the dark. +But even if the other craft likewise was tacking seaward, the +_Seamew_ passed it and dropped it behind. + +Tunis paced the deck--Horry was at the wheel--and quite approved of +the feat his schooner was performing. + +"If she can sail like this on only a breath of wind, what can she do +in a gale?" he said buoyantly in the old man's hearing. + +"That's all right. She sails pretty. But I don't like that tug to +sta'bo'd," growled Horry. "It 'minds me too much of the _Marlin B._" + +Captain Latham gave no heed. + +The sun stretched red beams from the horizon and took the _Seamew_, +all dressed out at sunrise in her full suit of canvas, in his arms. +She danced as lightly over the whitecaps that had sprung up with the +breeze at dawn as though she had not a ton of ballast in her hold. +Yet she was pretty well down to her Plimsoll mark. + +The girl's first glimpse through the cabin window at sea and sky was +a heartening one. If she had sought repose with doubt, uncertainty, +and some fear weighing upon her spirit, this beautiful morning was +one to revive her courage. She was fully dressed and prepared to go +on deck when Tunis tapped at the slide. + +"Miss Bostwick," he called, "any time you are ready the boy will +come in and lay the table for breakfast." + +She ran to the companionway, pushed back the door, and appeared +smiling in the frame of the doorway. + +"Good morning, captain!" + +Her cheerfulness was infectious. All night Tunis Latham, even while +lying in his hammock in the forecastle, had been ruminating in +anything but a cheerful mood. Determined as he was to carry his plan +through, and confident as he was of its being a good one and +eminently practical, he had been considering many chances which at +first blush had not appeared to him. + +With his first look into her smiling countenance all those anxieties +seemed dissipated. He met her smile with one which transfigured his +own handsome face. + +"May I come out on deck, captain?" + +"We shall be honored by your company up here, Miss Bostwick." + +She even made him a little face in secret for the formality of his +address, as she flashed past him. There was a dancing light in her +eye he had not seen before--at least, not in the openness of day. +There was something daring about her that was a revelation. He knew +at once that he need not fear her attitude when they reached the +point where she must carry on her part without his aid. She +displayed an innocent boldness that must dissipate suspicion in the +mind of the keenest critic. + +Tunis introduced Mason Chapin to her, who quite evidently liked the +girl at once. Orion Latham lounged aft to meet her, his pale eyes +betraying surprise as well as admiration. + +"Hi golly!" said the supercargo. "I guess you come honest by the +Honey side of your family tree, Miss Bostwick, though you don't +favor them much in looks." + +"'Rion is given to flattery," said the captain dryly. + +Horace Newbegin touched his forelock. He had been a naval man in his +prime and knew what was expected when a lady trod the deck. The +Portygees were all widely asmile. Indeed, the entire company of the +_Seamew_ was cheered by the girl's presence. + +At breakfast time, which was served by Tony to the guest and the +mate as well as Captain Latham, her sweet laughter floated out of +the cabin and caught the attention of everybody on deck. Horry +grinned wryly upon Orion. + +"How 'bout this schooner being hoodooed?" he rumbled in his deep +bass. "Lemme tell you, boy, I'd sail to ary end o' the world with +that gal for mascot. This won't be no Jonah ship while she's +aboard." + +"Hi golly! Tunis Latham has all the luck," whined Orion. "Taking her +down to live with Cap'n Ball and Prudence! Huh! She won't live with +'em long." + +"Why not?" demanded the old salt. + +"Can't you see what he's up to?" sneered Orion. "Aunt 'Cretia will +be takin' a back seat 'fore long. 'Latham's Folly' will be getting a +new mistress." + +"Latham's Folly" was a name Medway Latham's big brown house behind +Wreckers' Head had gained soon after it was built. Such a huge house +for so limited a family had suggested the term to the sharp-tongued +Cape Codders. + +Horry Newbegin turned the idea and his quid over several times, then +commented: + +"Well, the skipper wouldn't be doing so bad at that!" + + + + +CHAPTER XI + +AT BIG WRECK COVE + + +The girl had never been to sea before, not even on a pleasure boat +down the harbor. The delights of a sail to Nantasket were quite +unknown to her. Naturally this voyage out through the bay and into +the illimitable ocean was sure to be either a delight or a most +unpleasant experience. + +Happily it was the former. She proved to be a good sailor. + +"You was born for a sailor's bride, miss," Horry told her. + +But he said it when nobody else was by to see the blush which +stained her cheek. And yet she did not look happy after the old +salt's observation. He hastened to interest her in another theme. + +It was the tail of the afternoon watch. Because of the light and +shifting airs the _Seamew_, in spite of her wonderful sailing +qualities, had only then raised the northern extremity of the Cape +and, turning on her heel, was now running out to sea again on the +long leg of a tack into the southeast. + +Horry hung to the spokes of the wheel while the skipper was helping +Orion make up the manifest. The steersman had jettisoned his usual +quid of tobacco when the girl approached him, and without that aid +to complacency Horry just had to talk. + +"Did you see the wheel jerk then, miss? That tug to sta'bo'd is the +only fault I find with this here schooner. She's a right tidy craft, +and Cap'n Tunis is a good judge of sailing ships, as his father was +afore him. + +"But although this _Seamew_ looks like a new craft, she isn't. Sure, +he knowed she wasn't new, Cap'n Tunis did, when he bought her up +there to Marblehead. Only trouble is, he didn't seem to go quite +deep enough into her antecedents, as the feller said. He bought her +on the strength of her condition and the way she sailed on a trial +trip." + +"Well, isn't that all right?" asked his listener. "How would one go +about buying a ship?" + +"Huh--ship? Well, a schooner ain't a ship, Miss Bostwick. +Howsomever, buying a schooner is like buying a race horse. You want +to know _his_ pedigree. They said the _Seamew_ had been brought up +from the Gulf to sell. And maybe she was. But she is Yankee built, +every timber and rope of her. She warn't built down South none." + +"Shouldn't that make the bargain all the more satisfactory?" +queried the girl, smiling. + +"Ordinarily, yes, ma'am. But it looks like they was hidin' +something. It looks like, too, she was built for sailing and +fishing, not to be a cargo boat." + +"I think she is beautiful." + +"She is sightly, I grant ye," said Horace. "But there's something to +be considered 'sides looks when a man is putting his money into a +craft. As I say, her pedigree oughter be looked up. What was the +schooner before they changed the slant of them masts, painted her +over, and put a new name under her stern?" + +"I don't understand you at all, Mr. Newbegin," said the girl, +staring at him with a strange look dawning in her own countenance. + +He bent toward her, after casting a knowing glance aloft. His +weather-bitten face was preternaturally solemn. + +"Ye can't help havin' your suspicions 'bout ships or folks that are +sailin' under cover. There's got to be some reason for a man +changing his name and trying to get by on one that ain't his'n. Same +with a schooner like this." + +"Oh!" + +"There is such things as hoodooed ships, Miss Bostwick, just like +there is hoodooed folks," he said hoarsely, without seeming to +notice her shrinking from him and her changed countenance. + +"Oh! Is there?" she inquired faintly. + +"Surest thing you know," acclaimed the old seaman with his most +impressive manner. "There was a hoodooed schooner sailed out o' +Salem some years back, the _Marlin B._ She had the same tug to +sta'bo'd that I feel when I'm steerin' of this here schooner." + +The girl was recovering from her momentary excitement. She saw that +Newbegin had no ulterior meaning in his speech. He shook his head +and cast a wary glance toward the companionway to see that the +skipper was not appearing from below. + +"Listen here, Miss Bostwick," he said hoarsely. "It's a mighty +curious thing. I had just come back from a v'y'ge to New Guinea, and +I thinks I'd like a trip to the Banks, not having been fishin' since +I was a boy. I went to Sutro Brothers in Salem and got me a berth on +the _Marlin B._ I marked that every man aboard her, skipper and all, +warn't Salem men, nor yet from Gloucester nor Marblehead. But I +didn't suspicion nothing. + +"Tell you, Miss Bostwick, them that goes down to the sea in ships +runs against more than natur's wonders. There's mysteries that ain't +to be explained, scurce to be spoke of. I dunno why we shouldn't +believe in spirits and ghosts and dead men come alive. The Bible's +full of such, ain't it? + +"Well, then! And what I tell you is as sure, as sure. I took the +_Marlin B._ out of that harbor, being at the wheel. It was +February, and a nasty snow squall come up and smothered us complete +and proper. That schooner was a hummer; she sailed just so pretty as +this one. She did for a fact. But I felt that tug to sta'bo'd. Do +you know, Miss Bostwick, as I was tellin' Cap'n Tunis, there ain't +never two craft just alike, no more than there is two men." + +"Is that so?" she said. + +"Ships is almost human. I never did see two so much alike as this +_Seamew_ and the _Marlin B._ Well, to continue, as the feller said, +we was smothered in that snow squall for 'bout ten minutes. At the +wheel there I heard off to windward the rushing sound of another +craft. She was a tall ship, too, and she had as much canvas spread +as we had. She came down on us like a shot. + +"I shouted to the mate, but he had heard it too. He yelled for all +hands on deck. We both knowed the _Marlin B._ was due to be run +under unless a miracle intervened. It was a moment I ain't likely to +forget, for we stood there, the whole ship's company, hanging on by +backstay and rail, peering out into the smother of the snow, while +the amazing rush of that unknown craft deafened us. + +"Then out of her upper works--I swear I could see the tangle of +ropes and slatting canvas--came a voice that rang in my ears for +many a day, no matter how the others heard it. It shouted: + +"We're the spirits of them ye run under! We're the spirits of them +ye run under!" + +"My soul and body, Miss Bostwick, but I was scairt!" confessed the +old salt. "That rushing sound and the voices crashed on through our +rigging and went down wind in a most amazing style. It was a ghost +warning like nothing I'd ever heard before or since. And it struck +the whole crew the same way. We begun to question what the _Marlin +B._ was. She was a new schooner and had made but one trip to the +Banks previous to this one we was on. We began to ask why her +original crew had not stayed with her. + +"You can't fool sailormen, Miss Bostwick," continued the old man, +shaking his head with great solemnity. "They sees too much and they +knows too much. Sutro Brothers had got rid of the _Marlin B.'s_ +first crew and picked up strangers, but murder will out. The story +come to us through the night and in the snow squall. We couldn't +stand for no murder ship. We made the skipper put back." + +"Why, wasn't that mutiny?" gasped the girl. + +"He was glad enough to turn back hisself. Even if he lost his ticket +he would have turned back. Then we learned what it meant. On her +first trip for fish, returning to Salem, the _Marlin B._ run under a +smaller fishing craft and every soul aboard of her was lost. And it +stands to reason that every time that murder schooner went out of +the harbor and came to the spot where she'd run the other craft +down, those uneasy souls would rise up and denounce the _Marlin B._" + +"Oh!" gasped the girl, startled, for Tunis Latham and Orion stood +behind her. + +"Your tongue's hung in the middle and wags both ends, Horry," +growled the young skipper. "You trying to scare Miss Bostwick out of +her wits? What you poor, weak-minded, misguided fellows heard that +time in the snow squall was a flock of black gulls coming down +with the wind. And somebody aboard of the _Marlin B._ was a +ventriloquist. Your whole crew weren't ignorant of the accident that +happened on her first trip. Somebody had it in for Sutro Brothers, +and made much of little, same as usual." + +"Oh, they _did_?" muttered Horry. + +"Anyway," said Captain Latham, "that's neither here nor there. We +aren't sailing the _Marlin B._, for she's in Chilean waters, owned +by a South American millionaire. You can stow that kind of talk, +Horry--anyway, while Miss Bostwick is aboard." + +They were until late in the evening beating into Paulmouth Harbor, +but the heavens were starlit and the air as soft as spring. The +tolling of the bell buoy over Bitter Reef was mellow and soothing; +they heard it for a long time before the _Seamew_ made the short leg +of the final tack and went rushing in past the danger mark under +the urge of a sudden puff of the fitful breeze. + +"The old bell is welcoming us, Ida May," Captain Latham said to the +girl who reclined in a canvas chair which the cook had raked out of +the lazaret for her use. "I've beat my way in here when it hasn't +sounded so cheerful." + +"I am wondering what sort of welcome I shall receive when we get +to--Wreckers' Head, do you call it?" she asked softly. + +"That'll be all right, too," he told her with confidence. "Just wait +and see." + +They dropped anchor near the Main Street dock in order that they +should be able to warp the schooner in to unload her cargo in the +morning. Tunis allowed shore leave, late as the hour was. But he sat +beside the passenger on the _Seamew's_ deck, and they talked. It was +surprising how much those two found to talk about! Perhaps a good +deal of their inconsequential chatter was to hide the anxiety each +felt in secret as to the future. + +However, that talk was a memorable one for both Tunis Latham and the +girl posing as Ida May Bostwick. Two young people can tell a great +deal to each other under certain circumstances in the mid-watch of a +starlit night. The lap, lap of the wavelets whispering against the +schooner's hull, the drone of the surf on a distant bar, and the +sounds of insect life from the shore were accompaniments to their +long talk. + +Orion Latham, tumbling over the forward rail from a waterside +dinghy, whispered hoarsely in Johnny Lark's ear: + +"What do you know about that? There they are, billin' and cooin', +just where we left 'em when we went ashore. Wouldn't it sicken you?" + +But Johnny only grinned and chuckled, shaking the tiny gold rings in +his ears till they sparkled in the faint light. He had a girl +himself in Portygee Town, at Big Wreck Cove. + +The creaking of the hawsers and the "heave hos" of the crew as they +warped the _Seamew_ in to the wharf awoke the girl passenger in the +cabin. There was little fancy about the schooner's after house, but +it was comfortable. + +There was a tarry smell about the place that rather pleased the +girl. The lamp over the round table vibrated in its gimbals, but did +not swing. There were several prints upon the walls of the cabin, +prints which showed the rather exceptional taste of the _Seamew's_ +master, for they had been tacked up since she had come into Tunis +Latham's possession. + +There was, too, a somewhat faded photograph on a background of +purple velvet, boxed in with glass, screwed to the forward +stanchion. It was the photograph of an overhealthy-looking young +woman, with scallops of hair pasted to her forehead undoubtedly +with quince-seed pomatum, her basque wrinkled across her bust +because of the high-shouldered cut of it. But it had been in the +extreme mode when it was made and worn, in the eighties. + +The brooch which fastened the lace collar had been painted yellow by +the "artist photographer" of that day, and even the earrings she +wore had been touched up, or perhaps painted on with the air brush. + +This was Tunis Latham's mother, the girl who had seemed so promising +an addition to the family in the opinion of Medway Latham, the +builder of "Latham's Folly." The rather blowzy prettiness of Captain +Randall Latham's young wife had been translated into real beauty in +her son; for Tunis had got his physique and open, bold physiognomy +from his mother. + +The girl lying in an upper berth, a close cap tied over her neatly +braided hair, parted the cretonne curtains to look at these +ornaments hung about the cabin. She realized that the photograph, so +strangely contrasting with the prints of some of the world's +masterpieces, was a sort of shrine to Tunis Latham. He revered the +mother whom he had told the girl he could not remember of ever +having seen. His love and admiration for that unknown mother had +helped make the captain of the _Seamew_ what he was. + +He was a good man, a safe man for any girl to trust. And yet he was +lending himself to a species of masquerade which, if ever it became +known, would bring upon his head both derision and scorn. He risked +this contumely cheerfully and with a reckless disregard for what +might arise through the plans they had made while sitting beside +each other on that bench on Boston Common. + +He would not admit the point of his own risk. He would not consider +it when they had talked, only the night before, on the deck of the +schooner. He scouted every possibility of any harm coming to him +through their attempt to replace the girl in a firm niche in society +and give the Cap'n Ira Balls what they needed of companionship and +care. + +The girl sat up in the berth and let her bare legs dangle a moment +before dropping to the rug. In her bare feet she padded to the +photograph of Captain Randall Latham's young wife. + +The girl stood before the old photograph, her hands clasped, her +gaze raised to the pictured face, as a votary might stand before the +Madonna. There were tears in the girl's violet eyes. At that moment +she was uplifted, carried out of herself by the wealth of feeling in +her heart. Her lips moved. + +"I promise," she said softly, "I promise you that I will never do +anything that will hurt him. I promise you that I will never let him +do anything that may harm him. He has given me my chance. I promise +before you and God that he shall not be sorry, ever, that he has +raised me out of the dust." + +She stood on tiptoe and pressed her lips to the glass which covered +the photograph. + +The wind held fair, a quartering offshore blow, and the schooner, +having discharged her cargo, just past noon spread her upper sails, +caught a gentle breeze of old Boreas, and shot out of the harbor and +so to the southward with a following wind which brought her to the +mouth of Big Wreck Cove long before nightfall. + +Upon the bluff of Wreckers' Head was to be dimly seen the sprawling +Ball homestead. Tunis pointed it out to the passenger. + +"That is where you are going to be happy, Ida May," he said to her +softly. + +"I wonder," murmured the girl. + +He looked down into her rapt face. The violet eyes were fixed upon +the old house and the brown-and-green fields immediately surrounding +it. Perhaps Cap'n Ira and Prudence were out there now, watching from +the front yard the white-winged _Seamew_ threading so saucily the +crooked passage into the cove, the sand bars on one hand and the +serried teeth of the Lighthouse Point Reef on the other. + +Inside the cove the schooner's canvas was reduced smartly to merely +a topsail and jib, the wind in which carried her close enough to +Luiz Wharf for a line to be cast ashore. Tier upon tier of barrels +of clams were stored under the open sheds, ready to be packed away +in the _Seamew's_ hold. Orion loudly acclaimed against a malign +fate. + +"Hi golly! Ain't we goin' to have no spare time at all? This running +in a coasting packet is plain slavery; that's what it is! A man +don't have a chance even to go home and change his socks 'tween +trips." + +"Have a clean pair in your duffel bag; then you won't have to go +home for 'em, 'Rion," advised Tunis. "We've got to make hay while +the sun shines. There'll be loafing enough to cut into the profits +by and by when bad weather breaks." + +Orion grunted pessimistically. Little in this world ever just suited +Orion. + +"She's a hoodooed packet. I said it from the first," he muttered to +Horry. "You know well enough what she was before they gave her a +lick of paint and a new name. We'll all pay high yet for sailin' in +her." + +"I wouldn't let Cap'n Tunis hear me say that 'nless I was seekin' a +new berth," rejoined the old mariner. + +Tunis left the mate and Horry to carry on while he took the +passenger ashore, meaning to spend the night himself at home with +Aunt Lucretia. He stopped to get Eunez Pareta's father to harness up +his old horse and transfer Miss Bostwick's trunk and bag to the Ball +homestead. Eunez was in evidence--as she always was when Tunis came +by--a bird of paradise indeed. Her languishing glances at Tunis +flashed in their change to suspicious glares at the girl waiting in +the roadway. + +"You have a guest, Tunis Latham?" she asked with a composure which +scarcely hid her jealousy and doubt. + +"I'm taking her up to the Balls'. She's Mrs. Ball's niece, Eunez," +Tunis said good-naturedly. He was always friendly with these +Portygees. That was why he got along so well with them and they +liked to work for him. Many of the Big Wreck Cove folk looked upon +them even now as "furriners" who had to be shouted at if one would +make them understood. + +"What does she come for?" asked Eunez sharply. + +"They need her up there. Mrs. Ball is feeble and so is the captain. +She is going to live with them right along." + +"Ah-ha!" whispered Eunez, as he passed her to step outside the house +again. She seized his arm and swung him around to face her, for she +was strong. "You think she is pretty, Tunis?" she demanded. + +"Eh? What's eating on you, Eunez? I never stopped to think whether +she was or not?" + +But he flushed, and she saw it. Eunez smiled in a way which might +have puzzled Tunis Latham had he stopped to consider it. But he +joined the girl who was waiting for him, and they went on up the +road and out of the town without his giving a backward glance or +thought to the fiery Portygee girl. + +When they mounted to the windswept headland the visitor looked about +with glowing eyes, breathing deeply. The flush of excitement rose in +her cheek. He knew that as far as the physical aspect of the place +went, she was more rejoiced than ever she had expected to be. + +"Beautiful--and free," she whispered. + +"You've said it, now, Ida May," he agreed. "From up here it looks +like the whole world was freer and a whole lot brighter. It is a +great outlook." + +"And is that the house?" the girl asked, for in approaching the Ball +homestead from this angle it looked different from its appearance as +viewed standing on the deck of the inbound _Seamew_. + +"That is the Ball house, and Aunt Prue taking in her wash," Tunis +replied. "I suppose she had John-Ed Williams' wife over to wash for +her, but Myra will have gone home before this to get the supper. +Tush! Aunt Prue ought not to try to do that." + +The fresh wind blowing over the headland filled every garment on the +lines like ballooning sails. The frail, little old woman had to +stand on tiptoe to get each article unpinned from the line. The +wind wickedly sought to drag the linen from her grasp. + +Cap'n Ira, hobbling around from the front of the house, hailed his +wife in some rancor: + +"I don't see why you have to do that. Don't we pay that woman for +washing them clothes? And ain't she supposed to take 'em down off'n +the halyards? I swan! You'll be inter that basket headfirst, yet, +like ye was inter the grain chist. Look out!" + +"They wasn't all dry when Myra Williams went home, Ira. And I don't +dare leave 'em out all night. Half of 'em would blow over the edge +of the bluff. The wind is terrible strong." + +It was much too strong for her frail arms, that was sure. The +captain turned in anger to look for help about the open common. He +saw the two figures briskly moving up the road toward the house. + +"I swan! Who's this here?" he exclaimed. "Tunis Latham, and--and Ida +May!" + +His face broadened into a delighted smile. He had seen the _Seamew_ +come in, and had prayerfully hoped her master had brought the girl +that he believed would be their salvation. This person with the +captain of the _Seamew_ could only be Ida May Bostwick! + +At the moment Prudence was taking down her own starched, blue house +dress from the line. It was hung like a pirate in chains by its +sleeves, was blown out as round as a barrel, and was as stiff as a +board. Just as the pins came out an extra heavy puff of wind +shrieked around the corner of the house, as though it had been lying +in wait for just this opportunity. + +The dress was whipped out of Aunt Prue's hands. She herself, as +Cap'n Ira had warned her, was cast, face downward, into the +half-filled clothes basket. The blue dress was whirled high in the +air, skirt downward. Before the old man was warned by Prudence's +muffled scream that something had gone wrong, the starched dress +plumped down over his head and shoulders, and he was bound fast and +blinded in its folds. + +"Drat the thing! What did I tell ye?" bawled Cap'n Ira. "Take this +here thing off'n me! Want to make me more of an old Betty than I be +a'ready--a-dressin' me in women's clothes? I swan!" + + + + +CHAPTER XII + +A NEW HAND AT THE HELM + + +Tunis ran to the old man's rescue, but it was the girl who lifted +Prudence from out the laundry-basket. + +"Drat the thing!" ejaculated Cap'n Ira, fighting off the starched +dress. "Feel like I was being smothered by a complete suit of sails. +That you, Tunis?" + +"Yes, Cap'n Ira. You're all right now. Hold on! Don't let's mess up +Aunt Prue's wrapper more than can be helped. 'Vast there!" + +"I swan! Don't it beat all what a pickle we get into? We ain't no +more fit to be alone, me an' Prue, than a pair o' babies. For the +lan's sake, Tunis! Who is that?" + +He was staring at the girl, who led forward the trembling old woman, +her strong, young arms about the thin shoulders. Prudence was +tearful but smiling. + +"This is the girl you sent me for," said the captain of the +_Seamew_. + +The girl was smiling, too. To the delight of the young man there was +no suspicion of fear or shyness in her expression. Her eyes were +luminous. Her smile he thought would have ravished the heart of a +misogynist. + +"I swan!" murmured Cap'n Ira, almost prayerfully. + +"Ain't she pretty, Ira?" cried Prudence, almost girlish herself in +her new happiness. "Just like Sarah Honey was when she was Ida May's +age. And ain't it sweet, her coming to us this way? She's brought +her trunk. She's going to stay." + +"And I know I shall be happy here, Uncle Ira," said the girl, giving +him her hand. + +Cap'n Ira's smile was as ecstatic as that of his wife. He looked +sidewise at Tunis, a glance of considerable admiration. + +"It takes you to do it, Tunis. I couldn't have brought home a nicer +lookin' gal myself. I swan!" + +"Now, you hesh your foolin', Ira," cried his wife, while the younger +man's blush admitted unmistakably his feelings. "Don't you mind him, +Ida May. Come into the house, now, and you, too, Tunis. We'll have +supper in a jiffy." + +"No," said the captain of the _Seamew_. "I must be getting on. Aunt +Lucretia will be expecting me, for, of course, she saw the schooner +heading in for the cove. Good night, Ida May." He shook hands with +her quietly. "I know you will be happy here, with your own folks." + +The girl looked deep into the young man's eyes; nor did she free her +hand from his clasp immediately. At one side stood the two old +people, both smiling, and not a little knowingly and slyly at each +other, while the captain of the _Seamew_ and the girl bade each +other good night. Cap'n Ira whispered in his wife's ear: + +"Look at that now! How long d'you think we'll be able to keep Ida +May with us? I cal'late we'd better build our boundary fence a great +sight higher and shut him out o' walkin' across this farm." + +But Prudence only struck at him with a gently admonitory hand. Tunis +and Ida May had taken down the remainder of the wash and the former +carried it into the house before he started on for his own home. + +The girl, walking behind the old couple into the homelike kitchen, +sensed the warming hospitality of the place. It was just as though +she had known all this before, as though, in some past time, she had +called the Ball homestead _home_. + +"Lay off your hat and coat, Ida May, on the sitting-room lounge," +said Prudence. "We'll have supper before I show you upstairs. Me and +Ira sleep down here, but there's a nice, big room up there I've +fixed up for you." + +"Before you were sure I could come?" the girl asked in some wonder. + +"She's got faith enough to move mountains, Prudence has," broke in +Cap'n Ira proudly. "At least, I cal'late she's got enough to move +this here Wreckers' Head if she set out to." And he chuckled. + +"But you believed Ida May would come, too. You said so, Ira," cried +his wife. + +"I swan! I had to say it to keep up with you," he returned. +"Otherwise you'd have sailed fathoms ahead of me. However, if you +hadn't come, gal, neither of us could have well said to the other +them bitterest of all human words: 'I told you so!'" + +"How could you suppose I would not come?" asked the girl gayly. "Who +would refuse such a generous offer?" + +"I knowed you'd see it that way," said Prudence happily. + +"But there might have been circumstances we could not foresee," +Cap'n Ira said. "You--you didn't have many friends where you was +stopping?" + +"No _real_ friends." + +"Well, there is a difference, I cal'late. No young man, o' course, +like Tunis Latham, for instance?" + +"Now, Ira!" admonished Prudence. + +But Ida May only laughed. + +"Nobody half as nice as Captain Latham," she said with honesty. + +"Well, I cal'late he would be hard to beat, even here on the Cape," +agreed the inquisitive old man. + +He took a pinch of snuff and prepared to enjoy it. Suddenly +remembering his wife's nervousness, he shouted in a high key: + +"Looker--out--Prue! _A-choon!_" + +"Good--Well, ye did warn me that time, Ira, for a fact. But if I +had a cake in the oven 'stead of biscuit, I guess 'twould have fell +flat with that shock. I do wish you could take snuff quiet. Look an' +see, will you, Ida May, if those biscuits are burning?" + +The girl opened the oven door to view briefly the two pans of +biscuit. + +"They are not even brown yet, Aunt Prue. But soon." + +"The creamed fish is done. I hope you like salt fish, Ida May?" + +"I adore it!" + +"Lucky you do," put in Cap'n Ira. "I can't say that I think it is +actually 'adorable.' But then, I ain't been eatin' it as a steady +shore diet much more'n sixty-five year." + +"Don't you run down your victuals, Ira," said his wife. + +"No, I don't cal'late to. But if I may be allowed to express my +likes and dislikes, I got to be honest and say that there's victuals +I eat that would have suited me better for a steady diet than +pollack and potatoes. And now we don't even have the potatoes, +'cause we can't raise 'em no more." + +"But you have land. I see a garden," said Ida May briskly. + +"Yes, it's land," said Cap'n Ira, in the same pessimistic way. "But +it ain't had a coat of shack fish for three years and this spring +not much seaweed. Besides that, after the potatoes are planted, who +is to hoe 'em and knock the bugs off?" + +"Oh!" commented Ida May, with a small shudder. + +He grinned broadly. + +"There's a whole lot o' work to farming. I'd rather plow the sea +than plow the land, and that's no idle jest! Never could see how a +man could be downright honest when he says he likes to putter with a +garden. Why, it's working in one place all the time. When he looks +up from his job, there's the same old reefs and shoals he's been +beatin' about for years. No matter how often he shoots the sun, the +computation's bound to be just the same. He's there, or thereabout." + +"That's the way with most longshoremen, Ida May," said Prudence, +sighing. "They make awful poor farmers if they are good seamen. +Can't seem to combine the two trades." + +"I cal'late that's so," agreed Cap'n Ira, his eyes twinkling. +"They'd ought to examine all the babies born on the Cape first off, +and them that ain't web-footed ought to be sent to agricultural +school 'stead of to the fishing. But that ain't why our potato +crop's a failure this year. And as far as I see, talking won't cure +many fish, either." + +"Can't I help?" asked Ida May in her gentle voice. "You know, I've +come here to work. I don't expect to play lady." + +"Well, I don't know. It ain't the kind of work you are used to." + +"I've been used to work all my life, and all kinds of work," +interposed the girl bravely. + +"But you seem so eddicated," Prudence said. + +"Getting an education did not keep me from learning how to use my +hands." + +"Well, Sarah Honey was a right good housekeeper," granted Prudence. + +At that the girl fell suddenly silent, as she did whenever Sarah +Honey's name was mentioned. And yet she knew she must get used to +such references to her presumed mother. Prudence frequently recalled +incidents which had happened when Sarah Honey visited the Ball house +before she was married. + +They had supper, a plentiful meal if there was not much variety. +Prudence had made a "two-egg cake" and opened a jar of beach-plum +preserves to follow the creamed fish and biscuits. + +"I must learn to make biscuit as good as these," said Ida May. + +"I expect you are more used to riz bread. City folks are. But on +the Cape we don't have that much. Our men folks want hot bread at +every meal. We pamper 'em," said Prudence. + +"I'm pampered 'most to death, that's a fact," grumbled Cap'n Ira. + +Ida May briskly cleared the table and washed the dishes. She would +not allow Prudence even to wipe them. + +"I'm sitting here like a lady, Ira," said the little old woman. +"This child will work herself to death if we let her." + +"A willin' horse always does get driv' too fast," commented Cap'n +Ira. + +"A new broom sweeps clean," laughed the girl, rinsing out the +dishcloths and hanging them on the line behind the stove. + +They went outside in the gloaming and sat in a sheltered nook where +they could watch the lights twinkling all along the coast to the +southward, the revolving lantern at Lighthouse Point, the steady +beacon on Eagle's Head, and now and then the flash of the great one +of Monomoy Point so far away. It was peaceful, quiet, assuring, and, +the girl thought, heavenly! She thought for a moment of Sellers' +restaurant and the little room she had occupied on Hanover Street. +_This_ was contentment. + +Old Pareta had brought her trunk and bag and carried them up to the +big, well-furnished room she was to occupy. By and by Prudence went +up with her to see that she was made comfortable there, and to watch +her unpack, for the old woman was not without curiosity regarding +the "city fashions." + +One window of the room looked to the north. Through this Ida May saw +the steady beam of a lamp shining from a house down in what seemed +to be a depression behind the Head. She asked Prudence what that +was. + +"That must be a light at 'Latham's Folly,' Tunis' house, you know," +said the little old woman, likewise peering through the window. +"Shouldn't be surprised if 'twas right in his room. He sleeps this +end of the house. Yes, that's what it is." + +"So Captain Latham lives just there?" the girl said softly. + +"When he's ashore. He and his Aunt Lucretia. They are the only +Lathams left of their branch of the family." + +Afterward, when Ida May had come upstairs to go to bed, she looked +to the northward again. The light was still there. She knelt by the +open window in her nightgown and watched the light for a long time. +When it finally was extinguished she crept into bed. + +She heard the nasal tones of the two old people below, for her door +on the stairs was open. She heard, too, the occasional cry of a +night fowl and, in the distance, the barking of an uneasy watchdog. + +But after all, and in spite of the many, many thoughts which +shuttled to and fro in her mind, she did not lie awake for long. It +was a clear and sparkling night; there were no foghorns to disturb +her dreams with their raucous warnings, and the surf along the +beaches below the Head merely scuffed its way up and down the strand +with a soothing "Hush! Hush-sh!" + +At dawn, however, there came a noise which roused the newcomer to +Wreckers' Head. She awoke with a start. Something had clattered upon +her window sill, that window looking toward the north. She sat +upright in bed to listen. The clatter was repeated. In the dim, gray +light she saw several tiny objects bounding into the room. + +She scrambled out of the high four-poster and shrugged her feet into +slippers. She crept to the window, holding the nightgown close at +the neck. She felt one of the tiny objects under the soft sole of +her slipper and stooped to secure it. It was a pebble. + +More pebbles rattled on the window sill. She stepped forward then +with considerable bravery, and looked down. What she saw at first +startled her. A tall, misty, gray object stood below the window, +something quite ghostly in appearance, something which moved in the +dim light. + +"Why, what--" + +Then the thing stamped and blew a faint whinny. She saw a pale, +long face raised and two pointed ears twitching above it. + +"A horse!" + +A darker figure rose up suddenly from before the strange animal. + +"Ida May!" + +"Why, Captain Latham!" + +"Cat's foot!" exclaimed the captain of the _Seamew_. "I thought I'd +never wake you up without disturbing the old folks. No need to ask +_you_ if you rested well." + +"Oh, gloriously!" whispered the girl, beaming down upon him, but +keeping out of the full range of his vision. + +"Sorry I had to wake you, but I'm due at the wharf right now to see +that the hands get those clams stowed aboard. We want to get away on +the morning tide. I brought Queenie home and thought I'd better tell +you." + +"Queenie?" + +"The Queen of Sheba, you know. I was telling you about Cap'n Ira's +old mare." + +"Oh, yes! Wait. I'll dress and be right down." + +"That's all right," said Tunis. "I'll wait." + +She scurried into the clothes she had laid out before going to bed. +In five minutes she crept down the stairs into the kitchen and out +of the back door. Tunis, holding the sleepy mare by her rope bridle, +met her between the kitchen ell and the barn. + +"You look as bright as a new penny," he chuckled. "But it's early +yet for you to be astir. I'll put Queenie in her stable and show you +where the feed is. Aunt Prue will like to have her back. She sets +great store by the old mare. She won't be much bother to you, Ida +May." + +"Nothing will ever be a bother to me here, Captain Latham," said the +girl cheerfully. + +"That's the way to talk," he said, with satisfaction. "Just you keep +on that tack, Ida May, and things will go swimmingly, I've no +doubt." + +In ten minutes he was briskly on his way to the town. The girl +watched him from the back stoop as long as he was to be seen in the +morning mist. Then she went back into the house, made a more careful +toilet, and when Cap'n Ira came hobbling into the kitchen an hour +later breakfast was in preparation on the glowing stove. + +"I swan! This is comfort, and no mistake," chuckled the old man, +rubbing his chin reflectively. "You're going to be a blessing in +this house, Ida May." + +"I hope you'll always say so, Uncle Ira," returned the girl, smiling +at him. + +"I cal'late. Now I'll get washed, but that derned shavin'." + +"You sit down in that rocker and I'll shave you," she said briskly. +"Oh, I can do it! I shaved my own father when he was sick last--" + +She stopped, turned away, and fell silent. It was the first time +she had spoken of either of her parents, but Cap'n Ira did not +notice her sudden confusion. He prepared for the ordeal, making his +own lather and opening the razor. + +"I can't strop it, Ida May," he groaned. "That's one of the things +that's beyont my powers." + +She came to him with a clean towel which she tucked carefully in at +the neckband of his shirt. Practically she lathered his face and +rubbed the lather into the stubble with brisk hands. He grunted +ecstatically, lying back in the chair in solid comfort. He eyed her +manipulation of the razor on the strop with approval. + +For the first time in many a morning he was shaved neatly and with +dispatch. When Prudence came feebly into the room, he hailed her +delightedly. + +"You've lost your job, old woman!" he cried. + +"And ain't there a thing for me to do?" queried Prudence softly, yet +smiling. + +"Just sit down at the table, auntie," said the girl. "The coffee is +made. How long do you want your eggs boiled? The water is bubbling." + +"Eggs!" exclaimed Cap'n Ira. "I thought them hens of Prue's had give +up layin' altogether." + +"I found some stolen nests in the barn," returned Ida May. "They +have been playing tricks on you." + +It was near noon when Ida May from an upper window saw the _Seamew_ +beating out of the cove on her return trip to Boston. She watched +the schooner as long as the white sails were visible. But her heart +was not wholly with the beautiful schooner. A great content filled +her soul. Afterward she bustled about, straightening up the house, +her cheerful smile always ready when the old folks spoke. They +watched her with such a feeling of thankfulness as they could not +openly express. + +After dinner she started on the ironing and proved herself to be as +capable in that line as in everything else. + +"Maybe she's been a shopgirl, Ira," Prudence observed in private to +her husband; "but Sarah Honey didn't neglect teaching her how to +keep any man's home neat and proper." + +"Sh!" admonished Cap'n Ira. "Don't put no such ideas in the gal's +head." + +"What ideas?" the old woman asked wonderingly. + +His eyes twinkled and he rewarded himself with a generous pinch of +snuff before repeating his bon mot: + +"If you don't tell her she'll make some man a good wife, maybe she +won't never know it! Looker out, Prudence! _A-choon!_" + + + + +CHAPTER XIII + +SOME YOUNG MEN APPEAR + + +A house plant brought out into the May sunshine and air expands +almost immediately under the rejuvenating influences of improved +conditions. Its leaves uncurl; its buds develop; it turns at once +and gratefully to the business of growing which has been restricted +during its incarceration indoors. + +So with Sheila Macklin--she who now proclaimed herself Ida May +Bostwick and who was gladly welcomed as such by the old people at +the Ball homestead on Wreckers' Head. After the girl's experiences +of more than three years since leaving her home town, the +surroundings of the house on the headland seemed an estate in +paradise. + +As for the work which fell to her share, she enjoyed it. She felt +that she could not do too much for the old people to repay them for +this refuge they had given her. That Cap'n Ira and Prudence had no +idea of the terrible predicament in which she had been placed +previous to her coming made no difference to the girl's feeling of +gratitude toward them. She had been serving a sentence in purgatory, +and Tunis Latham's bold plan had opened the door of heaven to her. + +The timidity which had so marked her voice and manner when Tunis had +first met her soon wore away. With Cap'n Ira and Prudence she was +never shy, and when the captain of the _Seamew_ came back again he +found such a different girl at the old house on Wreckers' Head that +he could scarcely believe she was the Sheila Macklin who had told +him her history on the bench on Boston Common. + +"I swan, Tunis," hoarsely announced Cap'n Ira, "you done a deed that +deserves a monument equal to that over there to Plymouth. Them +Pilgrim fathers--to say nothing of the mothers--never done no more +beneficial thing than you did in bringing Ida May down here to stay +along o' Prudence and me. And I cal'late Prue and me are more +thankful to you than the red Indians was to the Pilgrims for coming +ashore in Plymouth County and so puttin' the noses of Provincetown +people out o' joint." + +He chuckled. + +"She's as sweet as them rose geraniums of Prue's and just as sightly +looking. Did you ever notice how that black hair of hers sort of +curls about her ears, and them ears like little, tiny seashells ye +pick up 'long shore? Them curls just lays against her neck that +pretty! I swan! I don't see how the young fellers kept their hands +off her where she come from. Do you?" + +"Why, you old Don Juan!" exclaimed Tunis, grinning. "Ain't you +ashamed of yourself?" + +"Me? Aha! I've come to that point of age and experience, Tunis, +where whatever I say about the female sect can't be misconstrued. +That's where I have the advantage of you." + +"Uh-huh!" agreed Tunis, nodding. + +"Now, if you begun raving about that gal's black hair--An' come to +think of it, Tunis, her mother, Sarah Honey's hair was near 'bout +red. Funny, ain't it?" + +"The Bostwicks must have been dark people," said Tunis evenly. + +But he remembered in a flash the "fool's gold" which had adorned in +rich profusion the head of the girl in the lace department of Hoskin +& Marl's. + +"Well, the Honeys warn't. None I ever see, leastways," announced +Cap'n Ira. "Howsomever, Ida May fits her mother's maiden name in +disposition, if ever a gal did. She's pure honey, Tunis; right from +the comb! And she takes to everything around the house that handy." + +Prudence was equally enthusiastic. And Tunis Latham could see for +himself many things which marked the regime of the newcomer at the +Ball homestead as one of vast improvement over that past regime of +the old couple, who had been forced to manage of late in ways which +troubled their orderly souls. + +"Catch as catch can," was Cap'n Ball's way of expressing the +condition of the household and other affairs before the advent of +Ida May. Now matters were already getting to be "shipshape," and no +observer could fail to note the increased comfort enjoyed by Cap'n +Ira and Prudence. + +Nor need Tunis feel anxious, either, regarding the girl's state of +mind or body. She was so blithe and cheerful that he could scarcely +recall the picture of that girl who had waited upon him in the cheap +restaurant on Scollay Square. Here was a transformation indeed! + +Nor had Ida May's activities been confined wholly to the house and +the old folks' comfort. He noted that the wire fence of the chicken +run was handily repaired; that Aunt Prue's few languishing flowers +had been weeded; and that one end of the garden was the neater for +the use of hoe and rake. + +It was too late in the season, of course, for much new growth in the +vegetable beds; but the half-hearted attention of John-Ed, junior, +had never brought about this metamorphosis, Tunis well knew. He went +on to the Latham house, feeling well pleased. Aside from all other +considerations, he was glad to know that his Machiavellian plan had +brought about these good results. + +He did not have much time to spend with Sheila, for the _Seamew's_ +freighting business was good. He never remained ashore but one night +between trips, and he spent that evening with his Aunt Lucretia, +whose enjoyment of his presence in the house was none the less keen +because inarticulate. + +But when he started off across the fields for the port in the early +morning he saw Sheila's rising light, and she was at the back door +to greet him when he went past. They stole a little time to be +together there, whispering outside the door so as not to awaken +Cap'n Ira and Prudence. And Tunis Latham went on to the wharf where +the _Seamew_ tied up with a warmth at his heart which he had never +experienced before. + +That another girl rose betimes on these mornings and waited and +watched for him to pass, the young schooner captain never noticed. +That Eunez Pareta should be lingering about the edge of Portygee +Town as he came down from the Head made small impression on his +mind. He never particularly remarked her presence or her smile as +being for him alone. It was that Eunez did not count in any of his +calculations. + +"That girl at Cap'n Ball's place, Tunis," said the Portygee girl. +"Does she like it up there?" + +"Oh, yes! She's getting on fine," was his careless response. + +"And will they keep her?" + +"Of course they will keep her." He laughed. "Who wouldn't, if they +got the chance?" + +"_Si?_" Eunez commented sibilantly. + +Naturally, many people besides Eunez Pareta in and about Big Wreck +Cove were interested in the coming of the stranger to Cap'n Ira +Ball's. Those housewives who lived on Wreckers' Head and in the +vicinity were able more easily to call at the Ball homestead for the +express purpose of meeting and becoming acquainted with "Sarah +Honey's daughter." And they did so. + +"I'd got into the way of thinking," remarked Cap'n Ball dryly, "that +most folks--'ceptin' John-Ed and his wife--had got the notion we'd +dried up here, Prue and me, and blowed away. Some of 'em ain't never +come near in six months. I swan!" + +"Now, Ira," admonished his wife, "do have charity." + +"Charity? Huh! I'll take a pinch of snuff instead. That's a warnin', +Prudence! _A-choon!_" + +Not until the second Sunday after the _Seamew_ had brought Ida May +from Boston did Big Wreck Cove folk in general get a "good slant," +as they expressed it, at the Balls' visitor. There was an ancient +carryall in the barn, and on the Saturday previous little John-Ed +was caught and made to clean this vehicle, rub up the green-molded +harness, and give the Queen of Sheba more than "a lick and a +promise" with the currycomb and brush. + +At ten o'clock on Sunday morning Sheila herself backed the gray mare +out of her stable and harnessed her into the shafts of the carryall. + +"For a city gal, you are the handiest creature!" sighed Prudence, +marveling. + +The girl only smiled. She was now used to such comments. They did +not make her heart flutter as had any reference to her past life at +first. + +The bell in the steeple of the green-blinded, white-painted church +on the farther edge of the port was tinkling tinnily as the girl +drove the old mare down the hill, with Cap'n Ira and Prudence in the +rear seat of the carriage. + +"We ain't felt we could undertake churchgoing for months, Ida May," +the old woman said. "And I miss Elder Minnett's sermons." + +"So do I," agreed her husband, with his usual caustic turn of +speech. "I swan! I can sleep better under the elder's preaching than +I can to home." + +"If you go to sleep to-day, Ira, I shall step on your foot," warned +his wife. + +"You'd better take care which one you step on," rejoined Cap'n Ira. +"I got a corn on one that jumps like an ulcerated tooth. If you +touch that I shall likely surprise you more'n I do when I take +snuff." + +The Portygees had a chapel devoted to their faith. The carriage +passed that on the way to the Congregational Church. A girl, very +dark as to features, very red as to lips, and dressed in very gay +colors in spite of her destination, was mounting the chapel steps. +She halted to stare particularly at the quietly dressed girl driving +the gray mare. + +"Ain't that Pareta's girl, Ira?" asked Prudence. + +"I cal'late." + +"What a bold-looking thing she's grown to be! But she's pretty." + +"As a piney," agreed Cap'n Ira. "I reckon she sets all these +Portygee boys by the ears. I hear tell two of 'em had a knife fight +over her in Luiz's fish house some time ago. She'll raise real +trouble in the town 'fore she's well and safely married." + +"That is awful," murmured the old woman, casting another glance back +at the girl and wondering why Eunez Pareta scowled so hatefully +after them. + +Following service, as usual, there was social intercourse on the +steps of the church and at the horse sheds back of it. Particularly +did the women gather about Aunt Prudence and Sheila. As for the men, +both young and old, the newcomer's city ways and unmistakable beauty +gave them much to gossip about. Several of the younger masculine +members of Elder Minnett's congregation came almost to blows over +the settlement of who should take the fly cloth off Queenie, back +her around, and lead her out to the front of the church when the +time came to drive back to the Head. + +In addition, Cap'n Ira found himself as popular with the young men +as he was wont to be in the old days when he was making up his crew +at the port for the _Susan Gatskill_. + +"Prudence," he said to his wife, but quite loud enough for the girl +to hear as they drove sedately homeward, "I cal'late I shall have to +buy me some shot and powder and load up the old gun I put away in +the attic, thinking I wouldn't never go hunting no more." + +"Goodness gracious gallop!" ejaculated his wife. "What for? I +cal'late you _won't_ go hunting at your time of life!" + +"I dunno. I may be forced to load it up for protection. But maybe +rock salt will do instead of shot," said Cap'n Ira, still with +soberness. "A feller has got a right to protect himself and his +family." + +"Against what, I want to know?" + +"I can see the Ball place is about to be overrun with a passel of +young sculpins that are going to be more annoying than a dose of +snuff in your eye. That's right." + +"Why, how you talk!" + +"Didn't ye see 'em all standing around as we drove away from the +church, casting sheep's eyes? And they're hating each other already +like a hen hates dishwater. I swan!" + +"For the land's sake!" + +"No. For Ida May's sake," chuckled Cap'n Ira. "That's who I've got +to defend with a shotgun." + +The girl flushed rosily, but she laughed, too. + +"You can leave them to me, Uncle Ira. I shall know how to get rid of +them." + +"Maybe they won't come," said Prudence. + +"They won't? I swan!" snorted her husband. "They all see she's +more'n half Honey. Couldn't keep 'em away any more than you can +flies." + +It was quite as Cap'n Ira prophesied. The path from Big Wreck Cove +across the fields to the Head, a path which had become grass-grown +of late years, was soon worn smooth. It was a shorter way from the +town than the wagon road. + +The errands invented by the youthful and more or less unattached +male inhabitants of the port to bring them by this path through the +Ball premises were most ingenious indeed. Early on Monday morning, +while Sheila was hanging out her first lineful of clothes, Andrew +Roby, clam basket and hoe on arm, appeared as the first of a long +line of itinerant pedestrians who more or less bashfully bade Cap'n +Ira good day as he sat in his armchair in the sun. + +"What's the matter?" asked the old man soberly. "All the clams give +out down to the cove? I heard they was getting scarce. You got to +come clean over here to the beaches, I cal'late, to find you a mess +for dinner, Andy?" + +"Well--er--Cap'n Ira, mother was wishing for some big chowder +clams," said young Roby, his eyes squinting sidewise at the slim +figure of Sheila on tiptoe to reach the line. + +"Ye-as," considered the old man. "You got that cat still, Andy?" + +"The _Maybird?_ Oh, yes, sir!" + +"And there's a fair wind. She'd have taken you in half the time to +the outer beaches, and saved your legs," said the caustic speaker. +"But exercise is good for you, I don't dispute." + +A match, one might think, could easily have been touched off at +Andrew's face. He had not much more to say, and went on without +having the joy of more than a nod and smile from the busy Sheila. + +Then came Joshua Jones. Joshua usually was to be found behind his +father's counter, the elder Jones being proprietor of one of the +general stores in Big Wreck Cove. Joshua was a bustling young man +with a reddish ruff of hair back of a bald brow, "side tabs" of the +same hue as his hair before each red and freckled ear, and a nose a +good deal like an eagle's beak. In fact, the upper part of his +face--Cap'n Ira had often remarked it--was of noble proportions, +while the lower part fell away surprisingly in a receding chin which +seemed saved from being swallowed completely only by a very +prominent Adam's apple. + +"I swan!" the captain had said judiciously. "It's more by good luck +than good management that Josh's chin didn't fall into his stomach. +Only that knob in his neck acts like a stopper." + +But when the lanky young storekeeper appeared on this occasion, +Cap'n Ira hailed him cheerfully before Joshua could reach the back +door. + +"Hi, Josh! You ain't goin' for clams, too, be ye?" + +"No, no, Cap'n Ira!" cried young Jones cheerfully. "I'm looking to +pick up some eggs regular. We want to begin to ship again, and eggs +seem to be staying in the nests. He, he! Has Mrs. Ball got any to +spare?" + +"I don't cal'late she has. You see," said Cap'n Ira soberly, "we got +another mouth to feed eggs to now. Did you know we had Ida May +Bostwick visiting us? A young lady from Boston. Prue's niece, once +removed." + +"Why--I--I--ahem! I saw her at church, Cap'n Ira," faltered Joshua. + +"Did ye, now?" rejoined Cap'n Ira, in apparent wonder. "I didn't +suppose you would ever notice her, you not being much for the +ladies, Joshua." + +"Oh, I ain't so blind!" giggled the young man, peering in through +the kitchen door, where Sheila was stepping briskly from tubs to +sink and back again. + +"That's a fortunate thing," agreed the old man. "But you've got a +long v'y'ge before you, if you cal'late to go to all the houses on +the Head to pick up eggs. Good luck to you, Joshua!" + +Josh found himself passed along like a country politician in line at +a presidential reception. His legs got to working without volition, +it seemed, and he was several rods away before he realized that he +had not spoken to the girl at all. + +Zebedee Pauling, whose ancestor had been an admiral and was never +forgotten by the Pauling family--Paulmouth was said to have been +named in their honor--arrived at the Ball back door just as the +family was finishing the usual "picked-up" washday dinner. Zebedee +took off his cap with a flourish, and his grin advertised to all +beholders the fact that he felt shy but pleased at his own courage +in appearing thus on the Head. + +"Why, Zeb!" exclaimed Prudence. "We haven't seen you up here for a +dog's age. Won't you set?" + +"Oh, no'm, no'm! I was just stopping by and thought I'd ask how are +you all, Aunt Prue." + +He bobbed and smiled, but kept his gaze fixed upon Sheila to the +exclusion of the two old people. But Cap'n Ira was never to be +overlooked. + +"You're going to be mighty neighborly, now, Zeb," he said. "We shall +see you often." + +"Er--I don't know, Cap'n Ira," stammered Zebedee, rather taken +aback. + +The old man rose and hobbled toward the door with the aid of his +cane, fumbling in his pocket meanwhile. + +"Here, Zeb," he said, producing a dime. "You're a willin' friend, I +know. I'm running low on snuff. Get me a packet, will ye? American +Affection is my brand. Just slip it in your pocket and bring it +along with you when you come by to-morrow." + +"But--but I don't know as I shall be up this way to-morrow, Cap'n +Ira. Though maybe I shall." And he glanced again at the smiling +girl. + +"Course you will, or next day at the latest," said the old man +stoutly. "I can see plainly that you ain't going to neglect Prue and +me no more. And I shall want that snuff." + +"Well--er--Cap'n--" + +"If you don't come," pursued the perfectly sober captain, "you can +hand the snuff to Andy Roby, or to Josh Jones, or to 'most any of +the boys. They'll be up this way pretty near every day, I shouldn't +wonder." + +Zebedee took the hint and the dime. + +He was no "slow coach" if he was longshore bred. He got the chance +of carrying another heavy basket of clothes out to the lines for +Sheila, who rewarded him with a smile, and then he nodded to the old +man as he left. + +"I'll bring that snuff myself, Cap'n Ira," he assured him. + +"Don't it beat all?" queried the captain, shaking his head +reflectively, as he resumed his seat. "Don't it beat all? For old +folks, Prue, we do certainly seem to be popular." + +"Oh, you hesh!" exclaimed his wife. + +But Sheila giggled delightedly. The way Cap'n Ira handled the +several visitors who thereafter came to Wreckers' Head continued to +amuse the girl immensely. Nor did the visits cease. The Ball +homestead was no longer a lonely habitation. Somebody was forever +"just stopping by," as the expression ran; and the path from the +port was trodden brown and sere as autumn drew on apace. + + + + +CHAPTER XIV + +THE HARVEST HOME FESTIVAL + + +It was not that Sheila Macklin had no graver moments. There were +nights when, in spite of her healthful weariness of body, arising +from the work of the household, she lay awake for long hours of +restless, anxious thought. And sometimes her pillow was wet with +tears. Yet she was not of a lachrymose disposition. She could not +invent imaginary troubles or build in her mind gibbets on which +remorse and sorrow might hang in chains. + +Indeed, how could she be sorrowful? Why should she feel remorse? She +had taken another girl's name and claim of parentage, and she filled +a place which the other girl might have had. But the rightful owner +of the name had scorned this refuge. The real Ida May Bostwick had +no appreciation of what the Balls had to offer, and she had been +unwilling even to open communication with her relatives down on the +Cape. + +Besides, Tunis Latham always cheered the girl who was playing an +imposter's part with the declaration that she had done just +right--that without her presence on Wreckers' Head Cap'n Ira and his +wife would be in a very bad way, indeed. + +She could see that this was so. Her coming to them had been as great +a blessing in their lives as it had been in her own. + +She fully realized that Cap'n Ira and his wife would not have +admitted her to their home and to their hearts had she come in her +own person and identity. This was not so much because of their +strict morality as because of their strict Puritanism. For a puritan +may not be moral always, but he must be just. And justice of that +character is seldom tempered by mercy. What they might have forgiven +the real Ida May they could scarcely be expected to forgive a +stranger. + +In spite of this situation, the Balls were being blessed by the +presence of a girl in their household who had been tainted with a +sentence to a reformatory. Even now, when she knew they loved her +and could scarcely imagine what they would do without her, Sheila +Macklin was quite convinced that a whisper about these hidden +miseries would turn Cap'n Ball, and even Prudence, against her. + +Therefore she was careful, putting a guard upon her tongue and +almost keeping watch upon her secret thoughts. She never allowed +herself to lapse into reverie in their presence for fear the old +people might suspect that she had a past that would not endure open +discussion. + +And, deliberately and with forethought, the intelligent girl went +about strengthening her position with the Balls and making her +identity as Ida May Bostwick unassailable. She had a retentive +memory. Nothing Aunt Prudence ever said in her hearing about Sarah +Honey, her ways when she was young, or what the old woman knew or +surmised about her dead niece's marriage and her life thereafter, +escaped the girl. She treasured it all. + +When visitors were by--especially the neighboring women who likewise +remembered Sarah Honey--the masquerader often spoke in a way to +reduce to a minimum any suspicion that she was not the rightful Ida +May. Even a visit from Annabell Coffin--"she who was a Cuttle"--went +off without a remark being made which would yield a grain of doubt. + +Mrs. Coffin had heard of Ida May while she visited "his folks" in +Boston, in a most roundabout way. She did say to the girl, however: + +"Let's see, Ida May, didn't they tell me that you worked for a spell +in one of them great stores? I wish you could see 'em, Aunt Prue! +The Marshall & Denham department store on Washington Street covers +acres--_acres_! Was it there that you worked, Ida May?" + +"No," replied Ida May calmly. + +"What store did you work in?" + +"Hoskin & Marl's," said the girl, still unruffled. + +"To be sure. That's what Esther Coffin said she heard, I remember. +But I never got to that store. Couldn't go to all of 'em. It tired +me to death, just going around Marshall & Denham's." + +This and similar incidents were building blocks in the structure +which she was raising. Nor did she consider it a structure of +deceit. The foundation only was of doubtful veracity. These people +had accepted her as somebody she was not, it was true; but she +gained nothing thereby that the real Ida May would not have had to +win for herself. + +With Tunis approving and encouraging her, how could the girl spend +much time in doubt or any at all in despair? She felt that she was a +much better girl--morally as well as physically--in this environment +than she had been for many, many months. Instead of being conscience +wrung in playing the part of impostor and living under an assumed +name and identity, she felt a sense of self-congratulation. + +And when in the company of the captain of the _Seamew_ she felt +almost exalted. There was a pact between them that made their tie +more than that of sister and brother. Yet, of love they never +spoke--not during those first weeks on Wreckers' Head. He never +failed to talk with Sheila as he came up from the town when the +schooner lay at her moorings in the cove or was docked ready to +discharge or take aboard freight. Business remained good, but all +was not plain sailing for the young shipmaster. He confided in the +girl many of his perplexities. When he went away again, rain or +shine, the girl did not fail to be up and about when he passed the +Ball homestead. He knew that she did this purposely--that she was on +the watch for him. Her reason for doing so was not so clear to the +young man, but he appreciated her interest. + +Was he overmodest? Perhaps. He might have gained courage regarding +the girl's attitude toward him had he known that, on the nights he +was at home, she sat in her darkened, upper room and watched the +lamp he burned until it was extinguished. On the other hand, Tunis +Latham's brotherly manner and cheerful kindness were a puzzle to +Sheila. She knew that he had been kinder to her than any other man +she had ever met. But what was the root of that kindness? + +There were many pleasant thoughts in Sheila's heart just now; nor +did she allow the secret of her past to leave its acid scars upon +her soul. She was the life and joy of the old house on the Head; she +was the center of amusement when she went into company at the church +or elsewhere. She managed, too, to be that marvelous specimen of +beautiful womankind who can attract other girls as well as men. + +For one thing, the girl played no favorites. She treated them all +alike. None of the young men of Big Wreck Cove could honestly crow +because Ida May Bostwick had showed him any special favor. + +And none of them suspected that Tunis Latham had the inside track +with the girl from the city. At least, this was unsuspected by all +before the occasion of the "harvest-home festival"--that important +affair held yearly by the ladies' aid of the Big Wreck Cove church. + +For the first time in more than a year, Cap'n Ira and Prudence +ventured to town in the evening. Church socials, in the past, and +while Cap'n Ira was so much at sea, had been Prudence Ball's chief +relaxation. She was naturally of a social disposition, and the +simple pleasure of being with and of a party of other matrons of the +church was almost the height of Prudence's mundane desire. + +When Cap'n Ira heard her express the wish to go to the harvest-home +festival he took an extra pinch of snuff. + +"I swan!" he said. "If we take that Queen of Sheby out at night, +she'll near have a conniption. She'll think the world's come to an +end. She ain't been out o' her stable at night since Hector was a +pup--and Hector is a big dog now! How can you think of such a thing, +Prudence?" + +"Queenie won't mind, I guess," said his wife calmly. "I shouldn't be +surprised if you was saying one word for her and a good many more'n +one for yourself, Ira." + +However, they went to the harvest-home festival. It was bound to be +a very gay and enjoyable occasion, and Queenie did not stumble more +than three times going down the hill into the port. + +"That old critter would be the death of us, if she could do it +without being the death of herself, too," fumed Cap'n Ira. + +There were half a dozen young men almost fighting for the privilege +of taking Queenie around to the sheds and blanketing her, the winner +hopeful of a special smile and word from Sheila. + +The decorated church was well filled when the trio from Wreckers' +Head entered, and most delicious odors rose from the basement, where +the tables were laid. + +Sheila was immediately surrounded by her own little coterie of young +people and was enjoying herself quietly when a newcomer, whose +appearance created some little surprise at the door, approached the +group of which the girl was the center. + +"Why, here's Orion Latham!" exclaimed one girl. "I didn't know the +_Seamew_ was in." + +"We just made it by the skin of our teeth," Orion said, making it a +point to shake hands with Sheila. "How are you, Miss Bostwick? I +never did see such a Jonah of an old tub as that dratted schooner! I +thought she never would get back this trip." + +"I cal'late you wouldn't think she was Jonahed if the _Seamew_ was +yours, 'Rion," snickered Andrew Roby. + +"I wouldn't even take her as a gift," snarled Orion. + +"Guess you won't get her that way--if any," chuckled Joshua Jones. +"Tunis, he knows which side o' the bread his butter's on. He's doin' +well. We cal'late--pa and me--to have all our freight come down from +Boston on the _Seamew_." + +Orion glowered at him. + +"You'd better have a care, Josh," he growled. "That schooner is +hoodooed, as sure as sure! She'll stub her nose some night on +Lighthouse Point Reef, if she don't do worse. You can't scurcely +steer her proper." + +"Nonsense, 'Rion!" spoke up Zebedee Pauling. "I'd like to sail on +her myself." + +"Perhaps," Sheila interposed, rather flushed, and looking at Orion +with unmistakable displeasure, "Orion will give up his berth to you, +Zebedee. He seems so very sure that the schooner is unlucky. I came +down from Boston in her, and I saw nothing about her save to +admire." + +"And if you found her all right, Miss Bostwick," struck in the +gallant Joshua, "she's good enough for me. Of course, I heard tell +some thought the _Seamew_ had a bad reputation--that she run under +a fishing boat once and was haunted. But I cal'late that's all +bosh." + +"Yah!" growled Orion. "Have it your own way. But after the dratted +schooner is sunk and you lose a mess of freight, Josh Jones, I guess +you'll sing small." + +"I've heard," said Andrew Roby gravely, "that it's mighty bad +manners to bite the hand that feeds you. You never was overpolite, +'Rion Latham." + +"Not only that, but he's clean reckless with his own livelihood," +added Zebedee Pauling. + + + + +CHAPTER XV + +AN INVITATION ACCEPTED + + +It was a small incident, of course; scarcely to be noted at all when +it was over. Yet the impression left upon Sheila's mind was that +Orion Latham was deliberately endeavoring to injure his cousin's +business with the _Seamew_. If he talked like this before the more +or less superstitious Portygees, how long would Tunis manage to keep +a crew to work the schooner? + +Had she dared she would have taken Orion to task there and then for +his unfaithfulness. The fellow was, as Cap'n Ira had once observed, +one of those yapping curs always envious of the braver dog's bone. + +To the girl's disgust, too, Orion Latham showed plainly that he +considered that he, as an older acquaintance of the girl, could +presume upon that fact. He clung to her throughout the evening like +a mussel to duck grass. Of all the Big Wreck Cove youth, he was the +only one that she could not put in his place. + +She did not think it wise to snub him so openly that Orion would +take offense. This course might do the captain of the _Seamew_ harm. +She foresaw trouble in the offing for Tunis, in any case, and she +did not wish to do anything that would spur Orion to further and +more successful attempts to harm his cousin's business. + +There was another matter troubling Sheila's mind after Orion had +come to the harvest-home festival. Mason Chapin likewise appeared at +the church. But Tunis did not come. He knew, of course, of the +festival, and he had known when he sailed last for Boston that the +Balls and Ida May intended to go. It did seem as if Tunis might have +come, if for only a little while, before going home. + +These thoughts made Sheila rather inattentive to other proposals, +and she found herself obliged to go down to supper with Orion, since +he had outsat and outtalked all the other young men who had hovered +about her. She was nice to Orion; the girl could scarcely be +otherwise, even to those she disliked, unless some very important +matter arose to disturb her, but she did not enjoy the remainder of +the evening, and she was glad when Cap'n Ira and Prudence were ready +to go home. It was full time, the girl thought. + +Even then Orion Latham assumed altogether too much authority. +Sheila had been about to send little John-Ed around for Queenie and +the carryall, but Orion put the boy aside with a self-assured grin. + +"Nobody ain't going to put you in the carriage, Ida May, but me," he +declared. "I'll get the old mare." + +He seized his cap and went out. In a few minutes they had said +good-bye, and the old couple and the girl went out on the church +steps. Sheila saw the carryall standing before the door. A figure +stood at the old mare's head which she presumed to be Orion's. + +"The chariot is ready, I cal'late," said Cap'n Ira. "Come on, +Prudence." + +Sheila helped the old woman into the rear seat and then aided Cap'n +Ira as well. She got in quickly in front, but as she was about to +gather up the reins the man holding Queenie's head came around +swiftly and stepped in beside her to the driver's place. + +"I swan! That you, Tunis?" exclaimed Cap'n Ira. + +"Looks like it," the captain of the _Seamew_ said gravely. "All +clear aft?" + +"You can pay off, Tunis," returned the old man. "Tuck that robe +around your knees, Prudence. This night air is as chill as a breath +off the ice barrens." + +Orion loafed into the lamplight by the steps before Queenie got +into action. His scowl was unseen, but his voice was audible--as it +was meant to be--to Sheila's ears. + +"There he is--hoggin' everything, same as usual. How did I know he +was hanging around outside here, waiting to drive her home? Just as +though he owned her! Huh! He may be skipper aboard that dratted +schooner, but that gives him no right to boss me ashore. I won't +stand it." + +"Sit down to it, then, 'Rion," snickered one of the other young +fellows. "I cal'late Tunis has got the inside course on all of us." + +The girl said nothing to the captain of the _Seamew_ at first. It +was Prudence who asked him why he had not been in the church. + +"I could not get over here until just now," Tunis replied quietly. + +Sheila wondered if he really had been detained on the schooner. +Perhaps he had refrained from coming to the festival for fear the +good people of Big Wreck Cove would notice his attentions to her. He +had never been publicly in her company since he had brought her down +from Boston. Orion Latham's outburst there at the church door was +the first cue people might have gained of anything more than a +passing acquaintanceship between the captain of the _Seamew_ and the +girl who had come to live with the Balls. + +These thoughts bore down the girl's spirits tremendously. The +simple pleasure of the evening was quite erased from her memory. She +remained speechless while old Queenie climbed the hill to the Head. + +The desultory conversation between Cap'n Ira, Prudence, and the +young shipmaster scarcely attracted the girl's attention. If Tunis +looked at her curiously now and then, she did not see his glances. +And she merely nodded her understanding of his statement when Tunis +said, speaking directly to her: + +"The _Seamew's_ going to lie here over Sunday this time, Ida May." + +"That'll be nice for you, Tunis," Aunt Prue put in. "You can go to +church. You don't often have that privilege. Seafarin' is an awful +godless life." + +Queenie sprang ahead gallantly at the sound of a hearty sneeze from +Cap'n Ira, just then, and they were soon at home. Tunis jumped out +and aided the old woman and then the captain to alight. Sheila got +out on the other side of the carriage. She would have preferred to +run on into the house, but she could not really do that. Queenie +must be unharnessed and put in her stable and given a measure of +oats to munch. Of course, Tunis would offer to do this, but she +could not leave him to attend to it without a word. + +"I'll help you with Queenie, Ida May," said the captain of the +_Seamew_. + +That settled it. She had to remain outside while Cap'n Ira and +Prudence went into the house. Tunis led the old mare toward the +barn. A lantern, burning very dimly, was in a box just outside the +big door, and Sheila got this and held it while Tunis busied himself +with the buckles. + +"I didn't mean to interfere," the man said, suddenly breaking the +silence between them. "But as I was coming this way, of course, I +expected to ride along with you. So--" + +"What do you mean, Captain Latham?" the girl asked wonderingly. + +"Orion said you sent him out to get Queenie." + +"Why, I--" + +"Of course, you didn't know I was there. I had just reached the +church. But 'Rion is so fresh--" + +"He took it upon himself to go," said the girl calmly. "I did not +send him. I guess you know how your cousin is." + +"He is too fresh. I'd like to punch him," growled Tunis, to the +girl's secret delight. It sounded boyish, but real. "I don't know +that I can stand him aboard the _Seamew_ much longer. He attends to +everybody's business but his own." + +"He means you no good, Captain Latham," she said frankly. "To-night +he was repeating that silly story about the _Seamew_ being haunted." + +"Cat's-foot!" ejaculated Tunis. "I wish I'd fired old Horry Newbegin +for starting _that_." + +"But 'Rion keeps it up." + +"If he believed she was hoodoed, you wouldn't get him aboard with a +wire cable," growled Tunis. + +"It would be better for you and for the success of your business, +Captain Latham, if 'Rion was really afraid of going aboard the +_Seamew_," she said with confidence. + +"Well, I don't see how I can fire him. He's my cousin--in a way. And +there is enough ill feeling in the family now. Gran'ther Peleg left +all his money to me, and it made Orion and his folks as sore as can +be." + +"You are inclined to be too kind. I am not sure it is always wise to +be too easy." + +"Like chopping off the dog's tail an inch at a time, so's not to +hurt him so much, eh?" he chuckled. + +"Something like that." + +"Well, I'm almost tempted to give 'Rion his walking ticket. I've +reason enough. He can't even keep a manifest straight." + +"Does he even try?" + +"And that also is in my mind," acknowledged Tunis. "I'm pretty well +fed up on 'Rion, I do allow. But I don't know what Aunt 'Cretia +would say." Then he laughed again. "Just about what she usually +says, I guess; nothing at all. But she abhors family squabbles. + +"That reminds me, Ida May. This being the first Sunday I've been +home since you came here, I want you should go over with me after +church to-morrow and have dinner at our house." + +"Oh, Captain Latham! I--" + +"And don't you guess you could employ some other term when speaking +to me, Ida May?" he interrupted. "I get 'captained' almost enough +aboard the schooner and up to Boston. Just plain 'Tunis' for those +that are my friends suits me a sight better." + +"I shall call you 'Tunis,' if you like," she said composedly. "But +about taking dinner with you--I am not so sure." + +"Why not?" he demanded. + +"Your aunt has never called here since I have been on the Head." + +"She don't call anywhere. She never did that I can remember. She +goes to church on Sunday sometimes. Occasionally she has to go to +town to buy things. Once in a dog's age she leaves anchor and gets +as far as Paulmouth. But other times she's never off the place." + +"I--I feel hesitant about doing what you ask, Captain--Tunis, I +mean." + +"Why?" + +"You know well enough," said Sheila. "If anything should turn up--if +the truth should come out--" + +"Now, are you still worrying about that, Ida May?" + +"Don't you think of it--Tunis?" + +"Not a bit! We're as safe as a church. That girl will never show up +here on Wreckers' Head. Of course not!" + +He seemed absolutely confident. In the dim illumination of the +lantern she looked very closely into his face. Then it was not fear +of exposure that kept Tunis Latham silent. She moved closer to him, +looking up into his countenance, holding the lantern so that her own +face was in the shadow. + +"Who suggested my coming to dinner, Tunis? You, or your Aunt +Lucretia?" + +"If you knew my aunt! Well! She seldom says a word. But when I have +anything to say, I talk along just as though she answered back like +an ordinary person would. I can tell if she's interested." + +"Yes?" + +"She's been interested in you from the start, I know. She showed it +in her look the very first time I spoke of you--that day I brought +you here to Wreckers' Head." + +"But--but you have never spoken of this before. She did not come to +call." + +"I'll tell you," said Tunis earnestly. "I wanted to be sure. Aunt +'Cretia knew your--er--Sarah Honey very well." + +"Oh." + +"Just about as well as Mrs. Ball did. When she was staying here +with Aunt Prue, she used to run over to our place a lot. + +"You don't remember it," continued Tunis, grinning suddenly; "but +you were taken over there when you were a baby." + +"Oh, don't! Don't!" cried the girl. "Let us not speak so lightly--so +carelessly. Suppose--suppose--" + +"Suppose nothing!" exclaimed Tunis. "Don't have any fears. She +wanted to know just how you looked--every particular. Oh, she has +ways of showing what she wants without getting what you'd call +voluble! I told her about your hair--your eyes--everything. I know +from the way she looked that she accepts the fact of your being the +real Ida May without more question than Cap'n Ira and Aunt Prue." + +She was silent, thinking. Then she sighed. + +"I will accept the invitation, Tunis. But I feel--I feel that all is +not for the best. But what must be must be. So--oh, I'll go!" + + + + +CHAPTER XVI + +MEMORIES--AND TUNIS + + +The benison of that most beautiful season of all the year, the +autumn, lay upon Wreckers' Head and the adjacent coast on that +Sunday morning. Alongshore there is never any sad phase of the fall. +One reason is the lack of deciduous trees. The brushless hills and +fields are merely turned to golden brown when the frosts touch them. + +The sea--ever changing in aspect, yet changeless in tide and +restraint--was as bright and sparkling as at midsummer. Along the +distant beaches the white ruffle of the surf seemed to have just +been laundered. The green of the shallows and the blue of the deeper +sea were equally vivid. + +When she first arose Sheila Macklin looked abroad from that favorite +north window of her bedroom, and saw that all the world was good. If +she had felt secret misgivings and the tremor of a nervous +apprehension, these feelings were sloughed away by this promising +morning. The fear she had expressed to Tunis Latham the evening +before did not obsess her. She continued placid and outwardly +cheerful. Whatever threatened in the immediate future, she +determined to meet it with as much composure as she could summon. + +Nobody but Sheila Macklin knew wholly what she had endured since +leaving her childhood's home. When Tunis Latham had come so +dramatically into her life she had been almost at the limit of her +endurance. To him, even, she had not confessed all her miseries. To +escape from them she would have embraced a much more desperate +expedient than posing as Ida May Bostwick. + +The ethics of the situation had not really impressed her at first. +The desire to get away from her unfortunate environment, from the +city itself, and to go where nobody knew her history, not even her +name, was the main thought at that time in the girl's mind. Tunis +Latham's confident assurances that she would be accepted without +question by Cap'n Ball and Prudence caused her to put aside all fear +of consequences at the moment. It was a desperate stroke, but she +had been in desperate need, and she had carried the matter through +boldly. + +Now that she seemed so securely established in the Ball household +and was accepted by all the community of Big Wreck Cove as the real +Ida May, it seemed foolish to give way to anxiety. Discovery of the +imposture was remote. + +Yet, as she had hinted to Tunis, she had an undercurrent of +feeling--a more-than-faint apprehension--that all was not right. +Something was lurking in the shadows of the future which menaced +their peace and security. + +She was ever mindful of the fact that Tunis had gone sponsor for her +identity as Ida May. Should her imposture be revealed, her first +duty would be to protect him. How could she do this? What tale could +she concoct to make it seem that he was as much duped as were Cap'n +Ball and Prudence? + +This seemed impossible. She saw no way out. He had met the real Ida +May Bostwick, and then had deliberately introduced Sheila Macklin as +the girl he had been sent for! If the truth were revealed, what +explanation could be offered? + +Had she allowed her mind to dwell upon this phase of the affair she +would surely have revealed to those about her, unobservant as they +might be, that she had a secret cause for worry. She must drive it +into the back of her mind--ignore it utterly. + +And this she did on this beautiful Sabbath morning. When Tunis came +up to the Head to accompany the Balls to church--Aunt Lucretia did +not attend service on this day--a very close observer would have +seen nothing in the girl's look or manner to suggest that so keen +an anxiety had touched her. + +This should have been Sheila's happy day--and it was. For the first +time, the young captain of the _Seamew_ linked his interest with her +in a deliberate public appearance. Although she feared in secret the +result of that appearance at church with Tunis Latham, it +nevertheless thrilled her. + +He harnessed Queenie after giving that surprised animal such a +curry-combing and polishing as she had not suffered in many a day. +Sheila rode with Prudence on the rear seat of the carryall. + +"I'm berthed on the for'ard deck along o' you, Tunis," said the old +man, hoisting himself with difficulty into the front seat. "If the +afterguard is all ready, I be. Trip the anchor, boy, and set sail!" + +As they passed down through Portygee Town the denizens of that part +of Big Wreck Cove were streaming to their own place of worship. It +was a saint's day, and the brown people--both men and women, ringed +of ears and garbed in the very gayest colors--gave way with smiles +and bows for the jogging old mare and the rumbling carryall. Some of +the _Seamew's_ crew were overtaken, and they swept off their hats to +Prudence and the supposed Ida May, grinning up at Tunis with more +than usual friendliness. + +"Ah!" exclaimed Eunez Pareta to Johnny Lark, the _Seamew's_ cook. +"So you know she of the evil eye, eh?" + +"What do you mean?" asked Johnny. "That pretty girl who rides behind +Captain Latham?" + +"_Si!_" + +"She has no evil eye," declared the cook stoutly. + +"It is told me that she has," said the smiling girl. "And she has +put what you call the 'hoodoo' on that schooner. She come down in +her from Boston." + +"What of it?" retorted the cook. "She is a fine lady--and a pretty +lady." + +"So Tunis Latham think--heh?" demanded Eunez fiercely. + +"And why not?" grinned Johnny. + +"Bah! Has not all gone wrong with that _Seamew_ ever since she sail +in the schooner?" demanded the girl. "An anchor chain breaks; a rope +parts; you lost a topmast--yes? How about Tony? Has he not left and +will not return aboard the schooner for a price? Do you not find +calm where other schooners find fair winds? Ah!" + +"Pooh!" ejaculated Johnny Lark. "Old woman's talk!" + +"Not!" cried the girl hotly. "It is a truth. The saints defend us +from the evil eye! And Tunis Latham is under that girl's spell." + +Johnny Lark tried to laugh again, but with less success. Many little +things had marred the fair course of the _Seamew_ and her captain's +business. He, however, shook his head. + +"Not that pretty girl yonder," he said, "has brought bad luck to the +_Seamew_. No, no!" + +"What, then?" asked Eunez, staring sidewise at him from eyes which +seemed almost green. + +"See!" said Johnny, seizing her wrist. "If the _Seamew_ is a Jonahed +schooner, it is because of something different. Yes!" + +"Bah!" cried Eunez, yet with continued eagerness. "Tell me what it +may be if it is not that girl with the evil eye?" + +"Ask 'Rion Latham," whispered Johnny. "You know him--huh?" + +The Portygee girl looked for a moment rather taken aback. Then she +said, tossing her head: + +"What if I do know 'Rion?" + +"Ask him," repeated Johnny Lark. "He is cousin of our captain. He +knows--if anybody knows--what is the trouble with the _Seamew_." And +he shook his head. + +Eunez stared at him. + +"You know something you do not tell me, Juan?" + +"Ask 'Rion Latham," the cook said again, and left her at the door of +the church. + + * * * * * + +Those swains who had been "cluttering the course"--to quote Cap'n +Ira--did not interfere in any way with the Balls' equipage on this +Sunday at the church. There was none who seemed bold enough to +enter the lists with Tunis Latham. He put Queenie in the shed and +backed her out again and brought her around to the door when the +service was ended without having to fight for the privilege. + +'Rion Latham, however, was the center of a group of young fellows +who were all glad to secure a smile and bow from the girl, but who +only sheepishly grinned at Tunis. 'Rion was not smiling; there was a +settled scowl upon his ugly face. + +"I cal'late," said Cap'n Ira, as they drove away, "that 'Rion must +have eat sour pickles for breakfast to-day and nothing much else. +Yet he seemed perky enough last night at the sociable. I wonder +what's got into him." + +"I'd like to get something out of him," growled Tunis, to whom the +remark was addressed. + +"What's that?" + +"Some work, for one thing," said the captain of the _Seamew_. "He's +as lazy a fellow as I ever saw. And his tongue's too long." + +"Trouble is," Cap'n Ira rejoined, "these trips you take in the +schooner are too short to give you any chance to lick your crew into +shape. They get back home too often. Too much shore leave, if ye ask +me." + +"I'd lose Mason Chapin if the _Seamew_ made longer voyages. And I +have lost one of the hands already--Tony." + +"I swan! What's the matter with him?" + +"His mother says Tony is scared to sail again with the _Seamew_. +Some Portygee foolishness." + +"I told you them Portygees warn't worth the grease they sop their +bread in," declared Cap'n Ira. + +The two on the rear seat of the carryall paid no attention to this +conversation. + +"I'm real pleased," said the old woman, "that you are going to +dinner with Lucretia Latham, Ida May. Your mother thought a sight of +her, and 'Cretia did of Sarah Honey, too. Sarah was one of the few +who seemed to understand Lucretia. She's so dumb. I declare I can't +never get used to her myself. I like folks lively about me, and I +don't care how much they talk--the more the better. + +"Lucretia Latham might have got her a good man and been happily +married long ago, if it hadn't been that when a feller dropped in to +call on her she sat mum all the evening and never said no more than +the cat. + +"I remember Silas Payson, who lived over beyond the port, took quite +a shine to Lucretia, seeing her at church. Or, at least, we thought +he did. Silas began going down to Latham's Folly of an evening, now +and then, and setting up with Lucretia. But after a while he left +off going and said he cal'lated he'd join the Quakers over to +Seetawket. Playing Quaker meeting with just one girl to look at +didn't suit, noway." And the old woman laughed placidly. + +"Tunis says he understands his aunt," ventured the girl. + +"Tunis has had to put up with her. But he can say nothing a good +deal himself, if anybody should ask ye. That's the only fault I've +found with Tunis. I've heard Ira talk at him for a straight hour in +our kitchen, and all the answer Tunis made was to say 'yes' twice." + +The girl did not find the captain of the _Seamew_ at all +inarticulate later, as they crossed the old fields of the Ball place +and walked down the slope into the saucerlike valley where lay +Latham's Folly. She had never known Tunis to be more companionable +than on this occasion. He seemed to have gained the courage to +talk on more intimate topics than at any time since their +acquaintanceship had begun. + +"I guess you know," he observed, "that most all the money Uncle Peke +left me--after what the lawyers got--I put into that schooner. +There's a mortgage on her, too. You see, although the old place will +come to me by and by, Aunt Lucretia has rights in it while she +lives. It's sort of entailed, you know. I could not raise a dollar +on Latham's Folly, if I wanted to. So I am pretty well tied up, you +see. + +"But the schooner is doing well. That is, I mean, business is good, +Ida May. Other things being equal, I will make more money with her +the way I am doing now than I could in any other business. My line +is the sea; I know that. I am fitted for it. + +"And if I had invested Uncle Peke's legacy and kept on fishing, or +tried for a berth in a deep bottom somewhere, I would not get ahead +any faster or make so much money. Besides, long voyages would take +me away from home, and, after all, Aunt Lucretia is my only kin and +she would miss me sore." + +"I am sure she would," said the girl with sympathy. + +"But all ain't plain sailing," added the young skipper wistfully. "I +am running too close to the reefs right now to crow any." + +"But I am sure you will be successful in the end. Of course you +will!" + +"That's mighty nice of you," he said, smiling down into her vivid +face. "With you and Aunt Lucretia both pulling for me, I ought to +win out, sure enough. + +"You can't fail to like her," he added. "If you just get the right +slant on her character, I mean, Ida May. Hers has been a lonely +life. Not that there has not almost always been somebody in the +house with her. But she has lived with her own thoughts. She reads a +great deal. There is not one topic I can broach of which she has +not at least a general knowledge. I was sent away to school, but +when I came home vacations I brought my books and she read them all. + +"And she is a splendid listener." He laughed. "You'll find that out +for yourself, I fancy. And I know she likes people to talk to +her--when they have anything to say. Tell her things; that is what +she enjoys." + +In spite of his assurances, Sheila Macklin approached the old, brown +house behind the cedars with much secret trepidation. Although Aunt +Lucretia had a neighbor's girl come in to help her almost daily, she +had preferred to prepare the dinner on this occasion with her own +hands. And, perhaps, she did not care to have the neighbor's child +around when the supposed Ida May came to the house for the first +time. + +They saw her watching from the side door--a tall, angular figure in +a black dress. Her hair was done plainly and in no arrangement to +soften the gaunt outline of her face, but there was much of it, and +Sheila longed to make a change in that grim coiffure. + +The woman smiled so warmly when she saw the two approach that almost +instantly the girl forgot the grim contour of Aunt Lucretia's face. +That smile was like a flash of sunshine playing over one of those +barren, brown fields through which they had passed so quickly on +the way down from the Ball house. + +"This is Ida May, Aunt Lucretia," said Tunis, as they reached the +porch. + +The smiling woman stretched forth a hand to the girl. Her eyes, +peering through the spectacles, were very keen, and when their gaze +was centered upon the girl's face it seemed that Aunt Lucretia was +suddenly smitten by some thought, or by some discovery about the +visitor, which made her greeting slow. + +Yet that may have been her usual manner. Tunis did not appear to +observe anything extraordinary. But Sheila thought Aunt Lucretia had +been about to greet her with a kiss, and then had thought better of +it. + + + + +CHAPTER XVII + +AUNT LUCRETIA + + +There was nothing thereafter in Aunt Lucretia's manner--surely not +in her speech--to lead Sheila to fear the woman did not accept her +at face value. Why should she suspect a masquerade when nobody else +did? The girl took her cue from Tunis and placidly accepted his +aunt's manner as natural. + +Aunt Lucretia put the dinner on the table at once. They ate, when +there was special company, in the dining room. The meal was generous +in quantity and well cooked. It was evident that, like most country +housewives, Lucretia Latham took pride in her table. Had the visitor +come for the meal alone she would have been amply recompensed. + +But the woman seldom uttered a word, and then only brief questions +regarding the service of the food. She listened smilingly to the +conversation between Tunis and the visitor, but did not enter into +it. It was difficult for the girl to feel at ease under these +circumstances. + +Especially was this so after dinner, when she asked to help Aunt +Lucretia clear off the table and wash and dry the dishes. The woman +made no objection; indeed, she seemed to accept the girl's +assistance placidly enough. But while they were engaged in the +task--a time when two women usually have much to chatter about, if +nothing of great importance--Aunt Lucretia uttered scarcely a word, +preferring even to instruct her companion in dumb show where the +dried dishes should be placed. + +Yet, all the time, the girl could not trace anything in Aunt +Lucretia's manner or look which actually suggested suspicion or +dislike. Tunis seemed eminently satisfied with his aunt's attitude. +He whispered to Sheila, when they were alone together: + +"She certainly likes you, Ida May." + +"Are you sure?" the girl asked. + +"Couldn't be mistaken. But don't expect her to tell you so in just +so many words." + +Later they walked about the dooryard and out-buildings--Tunis and +the visitor--and Aunt Lucretia watched them from her rocking-chair +on the porch. What her thoughts were regarding her nephew and the +girl it would be hard to guess, but whatever they were, they made +her face no grimmer than usual, and the light in her bespectacled +eyes was scarcely one of dislike or even of disapproval. Yet there +was a strange something in the woman's look or manner which +suggested that she watched the visitor with thoughts or feelings +which she wished neither the girl nor Tunis to observe. + +Late in the afternoon the two young people started back for the Ball +house, taking a roundabout way. They did not even follow the patrol +path, well defined along the brink of Wreckers' Head as far as the +beach. Instead, they went down by the wagon track to the beach +itself, intending to follow the edge of the sea and the channel +around to a path that led up the face of the bluff to the Ball +homestead. It was a walk the girl had never taken. + +The reaction she experienced after having successfully met and +become acquainted with Aunt Lucretia put Sheila in high spirits. +Tunis had never seen her in quite this mood. Although she was always +cheerful and not a little gay about the Ball homestead, she suddenly +achieved a spirit of sportiveness which surprised the captain of the +_Seamew_. But he wholly liked and approved of this new mood. + +She had made herself a new fall frock and a pretty, close-fitting +hat--something entirely different, as he had noticed, from the +styles displayed by the other girls of Big Wreck Cove. And he was +observant enough to see that this outfit was more like what the +girls in Boston wore. + +She ran ahead to pick up a shell or pebble that gleamed at the +water's edge from a long way off. She escaped a wetting from the +surf by a scant margin, and laughed delightedly at the chance she +took. Back against the foot of the bluff certain brilliant flowers +grew--fall blossoms that equaled any in Prudence Ball's garden--and +the girl gathered these and arranged them in an attractive bouquet +with a regard for color that delighted her companion. + +They came, finally, in sight of a cabin back under the bank on the +far side of the little cove, where once Tunis had reaped clams while +Cap'n Ira and the Queen of Sheba made their unfortunate slide down +the face of the bluff. The sea was so low now that Tunis could aid +the girl across the mouth of the tiny inlet on the sand bar which +defended it from the sea. There was but one channel over which she +need leap with his help. + +The cabin captivated Sheila, especially when she learned it was no +longer occupied. It had a tight tin roof and a cement-pipe chimney +with a cap to keep the rain out. The window sashes had been carried +away and the door hung by a single hinge. However, the one-roomed +cabin was otherwise tight and dry. + +"Sometimes fishing parties from the port come around here and camp +for a day or two," explained Tunis. "But Hosea Westcott used to live +here altogether. Even in the winter. He caught his own fish and +split and dried them; he dug clams and picked beach plums and sold +them in town, or swapped them for what he needed. Sometimes the +neighbors gave him a day's work." + +"An old and lonely man, Tunis?" the girl murmured. + +"That is what he was. All his immediate family was gone. So, when he +fell ill one winter and one of the coast guards found him here +almost starved and helpless, they took him away to the poor farm." + +They went on around the end of the headland and walked up the beach +toward the port. Before they reached the path by which they intended +to mount to the summit of Wreckers' Head, they observed another +couple going in the same direction, following the edge of the water +on the firm strand. The woman was dressed in such brilliant hues +that she could be mistaken for nobody but a resident of Portygee +Town. + +"That is the daughter of Pareta, who brought up your trunk when you +came here, Ida May," said Tunis carelessly. + +"But do you see who the man is?" she said, with some surprise. "It +is your cousin." + +"'Rion? So it is. Well," he added rather scornfully, "no accounting +for tastes. She's a decent-enough girl, I guess, but we don't mix +much with the Portygees. Although most of them are all right folks, +at that. But fooling around those girls sometimes starts trouble, +as 'Rion ought to know by this time." + +As they climbed the path, Tunis aiding his companion at certain +places, the girl, looking down, thought they were being closely +watched by the other couple on the beach. There was nothing in this +to disturb her mind; a feeling of confidence had overcome her since +her experience with Aunt Lucretia. Her present environment was so +far from the scenes of her old pain and misery that it seemed +nothing actually could disturb her again. + +The peacefulness of the scene impressed Tunis as well. When they +came up finally upon the brink of the headland they saw a spiral of +smoke rising from one of the chimneys of the distant Ball homestead. +The man pointed to it and, smiling down upon her, repeated a verse +he had read somewhere which he knew expressed the hope she held: + + "I knew by the smoke that so gracefully curled + Above the green elms that a cottage was near; + And I said, 'if there's peace to be found in the world, + A heart that was humble might hope for it here.'" + +"That is pretty near right, don't you think, Ida May?" + +"It is, indeed! Oh, it is!" she cried. "And my heart _is_ humble, +Tunis. I feel that God has been very good to me--and you," she added +softly. + +"I've been mighty good to myself," he responded. "Ida May, there +never was a girl just like you, I guess. Anyway, I never saw such a +one. I--I don't know just how to put it, but I feel that you are the +only girl in the world I can ever feel the same toward." + +"Tunis!" + +He took her hand, looking so hungrily into her face that she, +blushing, if not confused, could not bear his gaze, and the long +lashes drooped to veil the violet eyes. + +"You understand me, Ida May?" whispered the captain of the _Seamew_ +eagerly. "I don't know, fixed as I am, that I've any right to talk +to you like this. But--but I can't wait any longer!" + +She allowed her hand to remain in his warm clasp, and now she looked +up at him again. + +"Have you thought of what all this may mean, Tunis?" she asked. + +"You bet I have. I haven't been thinking of much else--not since the +first time I saw you." + +"What? You felt--felt that you could like me that night when we sat +on the bench so long on the Common?" + +"My Godfrey, Ida May!" he exclaimed. "Since that time you slipped on +the sidewalk in front of that restaurant and I caught you. That's +when I first knew that you were the most wonderful girl in the +world!" + +"Oh, Tunis! Do you mean that?" + +"I certainly do," he said stoutly. + +"That--that you thought _that_? At very first sight?" + +"I couldn't get you out of my mind. I went about in a sort of dream. +Why, Ida May, when Cap'n Ira and Aunt Prue talked so much about +wanting that other girl down here, all I could think of was you! I +half believed it must be you that they sent me for--until I came +face to face with that other girl." + +Her face dimpled suddenly; her eyes shone. The look she gave him +passed through Tunis Latham like an electric shock. He trembled. He +would have drawn her closer. + +"Not here, Tunis," she whispered. "But if you dare take me--knowing +what and who I am--I am all yours. Whenever you feel that you can +take me I shall be ready. Can I say more, Tunis?" + +He looked at her solemnly. "I am the happiest man alive. I am the +happiest man alive, Ida May!" he breathed. + + + + +CHAPTER XVIII + +IDA MAY THINKS IT OVER + + +The _Seamew_ sailed next day, short-handed. Not only had Tony, the +boy, left, but one of the foremast hands did not put in an +appearance. A grinning Portygee boy came to the wharf and announced +that "Paul, he iss ver' seek." + +Tunis knew it would be useless to go after the man, just as it had +been useless to go after Tony. He had been unable to ship another +boy in Tony's place, and when he let it be known among the dock +laborers and loungers about Luiz Wharf that there was a berth open +in the _Seamew's_ forecastle, nobody applied for it. + +"What is the matter with those fellows?" the skipper asked Mason +Chapin. "They were tumbling over each other a few weeks ago to join +us, and now there isn't an offer." + +"Some Portygee foolishness," grumbled the mate. + +"I wonder," muttered Tunis. + +"You wonder if it's so?" queried the mate. "You know how silly +these people are once they get a crazy notion in their heads." + +"What's the crazy notion, Mr. Chapin?" + +The mate flung up his hands and shrugged his shoulders. + +"A haunt--a jinx--_something_. The Lord knows!" + +"I wonder if it is a Portygee notion or something else," said Tunis +Latham, his eyes fixed on the back of Orion, busy, for once, at the +other rail. + +"Whatever it is, Captain Latham," said Mason Chapin with gravity, "I +suggest you fill your berths at Boston." + +"Guess I'll have to. But the offscourings of the city docks! They +will be worse than these Portygees." + +It was not a prospect he welcomed. He well knew the sort of dock +rats he must put up with if he wished to make up his crew with city +hands for a short trip. The sea tramps who are within reach of +coasting skippers are the same kind of worthless material that +shiftless farmers must depend upon in harvest time. + +Even the lack of one man forward, to say nothing of the cook's boy, +made a considerable difference in the working of the schooner. 'Rion +Latham loudly proclaimed that he was being imposed upon when he was +forced to work with the captain's watch. He had shipped as +supercargo and clerk, he had! This treatment was an imposition. + +"You know what you can do about it, 'Rion, if you like," the skipper +said to him calmly, but aside. "I wouldn't want to feel that I was +holding you to a job that you did not like. You can leave the +_Seamew_ any time you want." + +"Huh! The rats will be doing that soon enough," growled 'Rion. + +But he did not say this where Captain Latham could hear. It was +Horry Newbegin who heard him. + +"It strikes me, young feller, that if I quarreled with my victuals +and drink the way you do, I'd get me another berth and get shet of +all this." And the old salt wagged his head. "I don't get you at +all, 'Rion." + +"You wait," growled the younger man. "I'll leave at the right time. +And if things go as I expect, everybody else will leave him flat, +too." + +"You're taking a chance talking that way," admonished the old man. +"It's just as much mutiny as though you turned and hit the skipper +or the mate." + +"It is, is it? I'll show him!" + +"Show who?" asked Horry, in some wonder at the other's spitefulness. + +"That dratted cousin of mine. Thinks he owns the earth and sea, as +well as this hoodooed tub of a schooner. Gets the best of +everything. But he won't always. He never ought to have got the +money to buy this old tub." + +"You said you wouldn't have her for a gift," chuckled the old man. + +"But that don't make it any the more right that he should have her. +And she is hoodooed. You know she is, Horry." + +The old mariner was silent. 'Rion craftily went on: + +"Look what a number of things have happened since he put this derned +schooner into commission. We broke an anchor chain in Paulmouth +Harbor, didn't we? And the old mud hook lies there to this day. Did +you ever see so many halyards snap in your life, and in just a +capful of wind? Didn't we have a tops'l carried away--clean--in that +squall off Swampscott? And now the hands are leaving her." + +"Guess you know something about that," growled Horry. + +'Rion grinned. + +"Maybe I do. I don't say 'no' and I don't say 'yes.' However, we've +all got to work like dogs to make up for being short-handed." + +"Nobody is kicking much but you," said the older man. + +"That's all right. I've got pluck enough not to stand being imposed +upon. Them Portygees--well, there's no figuring on what they will +do." + +"I can see you are bent on making them do something that will raise +trouble," Newbegin said, shaking his head once more. + +"What do you expect? You know the _Seamew_ is hoodooed. Huh! +_Seamew_! That ain't no more her rightful name than it is mine." + +"I wouldn't say that." + +"I would!" snapped 'Rion. "She's the _Marlin B._, out o' Salem. No +matter what he says, or anybody else. She's the murder ship. If he +sailed her over that place outside o' Salem Harbor where those poor +fellows was drowned, they'd rise again and curse the schooner and +all aboard her." + +The old man shuddered. He turned his face away and spat reflectively +over the rail. The tug of the steering chains to starboard was even +then thrilling the cords of his hands and arms with an almost +electric shock. 'Rion watched him slyly. He knew the impression he +was making on the old man's superstitious mind. He played upon it as +he did upon the childish minds of some of the Portygee seamen. + +So Captain Tunis Latham did not arrive in Boston in a very calm +frame of mind. Although he had no words with 'Rion, and really no +trouble with the crew in general, he felt that trouble was brewing. +And the worst of it was, it was trouble which he did not know how to +avert. + +It was not so easy to fill the empty berth in the forecastle, even +from the offscourings of the docks. It was a time when dock labor +was at a premium. And short voyages never did interest good +sailormen. In addition, knowing that the _Seamew_ sailed from her +home port, decent seafarers wanted to know what was the matter with +her that the captain could not fill his forecastle at that end. + +These men wondered about Captain Latham, too. They judged that +infirmities of temper must be the reason his men did not stay with +the schooner. He was, perhaps, a driver--too quick with his fist or +the toe of his boot. Questions along this line were bound to breed +answers--and answers from those members of the _Seamew's_ crew who +were not friendly to the skipper. + +In some little den off Commercial Street 'Rion Latham had +forgathered with certain dock loiterers, and, after that, word went +to and fro that the _Seamew_ was haunted. If she ever sailed off +Great Misery Island, the crew of a run-under Salem fishing smack +would rise up to curse the schooner's company. And that curse would +follow those who sailed aboard her--either for'ard or in the +afterguard--for all time. In consequence of this the only man who +applied for the empty berth aboard the _Seamew_ was more than a +little drunk and so dirty that Captain Latham would not let him +come over the rail. + +Nor could the young shipmaster give much time to looking up hands. +He had freight ready for his return trip. It must be got aboard, +stowed properly, and advantage taken of the tide and a fair wind to +get back to the Cape. He had not been in the habit of going up into +the city at all of late. If that girl behind the lace counter of +Hoskin & Marl's had expected to see Tunis Latham again, she had been +disappointed. Her warm invitation to him to call on her--possibly to +take her again to lunch--had borne only Dead Sea fruit. He had +accepted her decision regarding the Balls and Cape Cod as final and +irrevocable. At least, he had had no intention of ever going back +and discussing the suggestion again. + +The possibility of the real Ida May Bostwick changing her mind and +reconsidering her refusal to communicate with the Balls or visit +Wreckers' Head never once entered Tunis' mind, if it had Sheila +Macklin's. He had seen how scornfully the cheap little shop-girl had +refused the kind offer extended to her by her old relatives. He +could not have imagined her thinking of the old people and their +home and Big Wreck Cove in any different way. + +He was quite right in this. Ida May Bostwick never would have looked +upon these several matters differently. The thing was settled. Born +and bred in the city, she could not conceive of any sane girl like +herself deliberately burying herself down on the Cape, to "live on +pollock and potatoes," as she had heard it expressed, and be the +slave of a pair of old fogies. + +Not for her! She would not think of it. Indeed, this phase of the +offer Tunis had brought her really made Ida May Bostwick angry. What +did he think she was, anyway? In fact, she was inclined to think +that that seafaring person had almost insulted her. Although she had +deliberately spoken of him as her "Cousin Tunis" to the girls who +were her confidantes in the store and to her landlady, who was +likewise curious about him, Ida May Bostwick was much pleased by the +thought of him. + +Then she began to compare Tunis with the young men she knew in +Boston. She knew that the young men she got acquainted with were +either very light minded or downright objectionable. If any of them +contemplated marriage at all, they knew it could not be undertaken +upon the meager salaries they were paid. Marriage meant teamwork, +with the girl working down-town just as hard as ever, and then +working at night when she went home, and on Sundays, even if she and +her bridegroom lived only in a furnished room and did light +housekeeping. + +Ida May Bostwick had a brain explosion one day when she considered +these all-too-evident facts. She said: + +"I bet _that_ fellow wouldn't expect his wife to stand behind a lace +counter and take the sass of floorwalkers and buyers, as well as +lady customers, all day long. Not much! He's a regular guy, if he is +a hick. My gracious! Don't I wish he'd come back! If I ever get my +claws on him again--" + +Just what she might do to Tunis under those circumstances she did +not even explain to herself. But she began to think of Tunis a good +deal. He was a good-looking man, too. And he spent freely. Ida May +Bostwick remembered the lunch at Barquette's. + +It was true that Sarah Honey had been all Prudence Ball and Aunt +Lucretia Latham and other Wreckers' Head folk believed her to be. +But she died when Ida May was small, and the girl had been brought +up wholly under the influence of the Bostwicks. That family had +lacked refinement and breeding and graciousness of manner to a +degree that would have amazed and shocked Sarah Honey's relatives +down on the Cape. + +Not that the girl thought of Tunis Latham's refinement with any +wistfulness. She thought of his well-filled wallet, that he was +something more than a common sailor, that he undoubtedly owned a +good home, even if it was down at Big Wreck Cove, and that he seemed +"soft" and "easy." + +"A girl might wind him right around her finger, if she went at it +right," Ida May Bostwick finally decided. "Some girl will. I wonder +how long it would take to get him to sell out down there and live up +here in town? My mother came from that awful hole, and she caught a +city fellow. I bet I could do this, if it was worth my while. My +goodness! Why not? + +"There's property there, too. I wonder how much those old creatures +are worth. And how long they will live. He spoke like they needed +somebody because they were sick. Ugh! I don't like folks when they +are sick. Ma was _awful_. I can remember it. And there was pa, when +he was cripped with rheumatism before he died." + +This phase of the matter fairly staggered Ida May Bostwick. She put +the faint glimmerings of the idea out of her mind--or tried to. Yet +that summer she kept delaying her vacation until all the other girls +had come back and related all their adventures--those that had +actually happened and those that they had imagined. + +"Ain't you going to take any time off, Ida May?" they asked. + +At last she said she expected to visit her folks "down on the Cape." + +"You remember that nice-looking farmer that came in to speak to me +that time and took me to lunch at Barquette's?" she asked Miss +Leary. + +"I know you _said_ he took you there." + +"Well, he did, smarty! He's my cousin--of course, not too close." +And Ida May giggled. "Well, we've been corresponding." + +"I hope it's all perfectly proper," grinned Miss Leary. + +Ida May Bostwick stuck out her tongue. But she laughed. + +"I've got a good mind," she said to her friend, "to go down and see +that fellow's folks. They're well fixed, I guess. And the store pays +you for one week of your vacation. I wouldn't lose much, even if it +did turn out to be a dead-and-alive hole." + + + + +CHAPTER XIX + +THE ARRIVAL + + +There was a driving road down past Latham's Folly and on across +certain sand flats and by cranberry bogs to a small settlement where +Prudence had a stepsister still living. This old woman lived with +her granddaughter's husband's kinsfolk, who were so distantly +related to Cap'n Ira's wife that the relationship could scarcely be +followed. + +"It takes us Cape Codders," remarked Cap'n Ira, "to study out the +shoals and channels of kinship. It's 'cause we're such good +navigators that we're able to do it." + +"And now that we've got Ida May to harness up Queenie for us and +look after the house while we're gone, and you feel so much spryer +yourself, Ira, I don't see why we can't visit our folks a little," +Prudence said. + +He agreed, and they set off in high fettle just before noon, +expecting to return before dark. Sheila was upstairs dusting when, +not long after the noon hour, she saw from one of the windows the +spread canvas of the _Seamew_--there was no mistaking the +schooner--making through the channel into the cove. + +"Tunis is coming! Tunis is coming! Tunis is coming soon!" + +Her heart sang the refrain over and over again. She fairly danced +about the household tasks she had set herself to do while the old +couple were absent. Now and again she ran to some point where she +could watch the _Seamew_. The memory of Tunis' kisses were on her +lips and in her heart. In the dusk of the previous Monday morning, +when he was on his way to the port to take command of his schooner, +the young shipmaster had held her in his arms at the back door +there, and had told her over and over again of his love for her. +Thought of that moment was an exquisite memory to the girl. + +She saw the schooner drop anchor off Portygee Town, with all its +canvas rattling down in windrows of white. She even saw the little +gig launched. Tunis was coming ashore. He would soon be up the hill. +His long strides would soon bring him to her side again--open-eyed, +ruddy-faced, a veritable sea god among men! + +She ran out a dozen times to gaze down the road and wonder what kept +him. Then she turned her back on the road and spent the next half +hour in beating the dust out of all the parlor and sitting room +sofa pillows and one or two of the covered chairs. + +Peace, like the sunshine itself, lay over all of Wreckers' Head. +Here and there a spiral of smoke rose from a chimney, and fowl +wandered about the well-reaped fields. But not much other life was +visible. The fall haze gave to distant objects a dimmer outline, +softening the sharp lineaments of the more rugged landscape. Color +and form took on new beauty. + +It was all so lovely, so peaceful, that it was impossible that the +girl should have dreamed of what was approaching. Since she had come +her mind had not been so far from apprehension of disaster. Since +Sunday, when she had wandered with Tunis along the shore, it had +seemed to the young woman that no harm could assail her. She was +secure, sheltered, impregnably fortified both in Tunis' love and in +the situation she had gained with the Balls and in the community. + +She knew, at last, that somebody was on the road, but she would not +look. She heard the latch of the gate and the creak of its hinges. +Somebody was behind her. How softly Tunis stepped! She thought that +he was approaching her quietly, believing he could surprise her. In +a moment she would feel his arms about her and would surprise him by +laying her head back against his breast and putting up her lips to +be kissed. + +But, as he delayed, she turned her head ever so slyly. It was not +the heavily shod feet of Tunis Latham she saw. What she saw was a +pair of the very lightest of pearl-gray shoes, wonderful of arch and +heel. Above were slim ankles and calves incased in fiber-silk hose +the hue of the shoes. + +She flashed a glance at the face of the stranger, and her gaze was +immediately held by a pair of fixed brown eyes. There were green +glints in the eyes--sharp, suspicious gleams that warned Sheila, +before the other uttered a word, to set watch and ward upon her own +lips. Not that she suspected who the stranger was. + +"Good afternoon," was her greeting. + +"Is this where the Balls live?" was the demand, with a note in the +voice which betokened both weariness and vexation. + +"Yes." + +The girl set down her bag and gave a sigh of relief. + +"Well, I am glad! I thought I'd never get here. I never did hear of +such a hick place! No taxi, of course, and not even a hack or any +other carriage to be hired. I've walked _miles_. And such a rough +road!" + +The parlor settee and easy-chairs had just been brought outdoors +for their weekly beating and dusting. Sheila pointed to a seat. + +"Do sit down," she urged. "It is a long walk from the port." + +"You said it! And after riding over from Paulmouth in that dinky old +stagecoach, too," went on the stranger, as though holding Sheila +responsible for some measure of her discomfort. "Say, ain't the +folks home?" She cast a sour look around the premises. "Gee! It's a +lonesome place in winter, I bet." + +"Did you wish to see Mrs. Ball?" asked Sheila, eying the visitor +with nothing more than curiosity. + +"I guess so. She is Mrs. Prudence Ball, isn't she?" + +"Yes. Mrs. Ball and the captain have gone away for the day. I am +ever so sorry. You wished to see her particularly?" + +"I guess I did." The stranger looked her over with more interest. +"Say, how old are the Balls?" + +The abrupt question drew a more penetrating look from Sheila. The +visitor certainly was not Cape bred. Her smart cheapness did not +attract Sheila at all. There was something so unwholesome about her +that the observer had difficulty in suppressing a shudder. Yet her +prettiness was orchidlike. But there are poisonous orchids. + +"They are quite old people," Sheila said, finally answering the +question. "Cap'n Ira is over seventy and Prudence is not far from +that age. You--you are not acquainted with them?" + +"I never saw 'em. But I've heard a lot about 'em," said the +stranger, with a light laugh. "They are sort of relations of mine." + +"You are a relative?" asked the girl. Even then she had no thought +of who this newcomer was. "Cap'n Ira's relative? Or Mrs. Ball's, if +I may ask?" + +"Well, I guess it is the old woman's. But I'm kind of curious to see +'em first, you know, before I make any strong play in the +relationship game. Gee! Is this the parlor furniture?" + +"Some of it," was the wondering rejoinder. + +"Looks like the house, don't it? Down at the heel and shabby. Say, +have they got much money, after all--them Balls? You're a neighbor, +I suppose? You must know 'em well." + +"I live here," said the other girl rather sternly. + +"Huh? You mean around here?" + +"I live here with Cap'n Ira and Mrs, Ball," was the further +explanation. + +"You _do_? You?" + +Her voice suddenly became shrill. It rose half an octave with +surprise. Her gaze, which had merely been insolent, now became +suspicious. She scrutinized Sheila closely. + +"I didn't know the Balls had anybody living with 'em," she resumed +at length. "You ain't been here long, have you?" + +"Oh, for some time," was the cheerful rejoinder. + +"They hire you?" + +"Not--not exactly. You see, I am sort of related to them, too." + +"A relation of this old Cap'n Ira?" + +"Of Mrs. Ball." + +"Huh! Say, what's you name?" + +"My name is Bostwick," was the composed reply. "You did not mention +yours, did you?" + +"_Bostwick?_" + +"They call me Ida May Bostwick," said Sheila, demurely smiling, and +even then without a suspicion of the vortex into which she was being +drawn. + +"_Ida May Bostwick!_" + +The visitor rose out of her seat as though a spring had been +released under her. Her eyes flattened, distended, and sparked like +micaceous rock in the dark. Her hands clenched till the pointed, +highly polished nails bit into the palms. + +"What do you say? _You_ are Ida May Bostwick?" + +At that moment Sheila Macklin saw the light. It smote upon her brain +like a shaft from a great searchlight; a penetrating, cleaving beam +that might have laid bare her very soul before the accusing +stranger. She staggered, retreating, shrinking, but only for a +moment. + +The pallor that had come into her face left it. Color rose softly +under the exquisite skin and there came a haughty uplift of her +chin. She stared back into the blazing, greenish-brown eyes of the +other, her own eyes unafraid, challenging. + +"Do you doubt me?" she demanded, with as much composure as though a +secure position and a conscience quite at ease were hers. "Who are +you? In what way are you interested in my name or in my identity?" + +"Why, you--you--" The visitor was for the moment stricken +speechless. But it was the speechlessness of rage--of wild and +uncontrollable fury. Then she caught her breath. "You dirty cheat, +you! You stand there and tell me you are Ida Bostwick? You've got +gall--you certainly _have_ got gall! + +"I'd like to know who the devil you are? Comin' right here, wormin' +your way into a place that don't belong to you, gettin' on the soft +side of my aunt an' uncle, I s'pose, and thinkin' to grab all they +got when they die. Oh, I know _your_ kind, miss! + +"But I'll show you up. I'll let 'em know what's what and who's who. +They must be precious soft to take a girl like you in and think +she's Ida Bostwick. How _dare_ you?" + +She stamped her foot. She advanced upon the other threateningly. But +the girl she had accused did not retreat. The flush of outrage and +that haughty expression were still upon her countenance. She spoke +very firmly but in a voice so low that it contrasted the more +sharply with the enraged squall of her opponent. She asked: + +"Who are _you_, if you please?" + +"You've cheek to ask me. I'd ought to spit on you, so I had! But +I'll tell you who I am--and it'll hold you for a while, I guess. I +am Ida May Bostwick. You know full and well you are makin' out to +these rich relations of mine that you are me. I'll show you up, +miss! I'll have you whipped--or jailed--or something. The gall of +you!" + +The other girl heard her with unchanging face. Somehow, that steady, +unshrinking look gave Ida May Bostwick pause. It was she who +recoiled. + + + + +CHAPTER XX + +THE LIE + + +The girl who had seized upon the chance of becoming Ida May +Bostwick, and so escaping the horror and despair that enshrouded +Sheila Macklin like a filthy mantle, stood after the first blast as +firm as a rock under the torrent of vituperation and rage which +poured from the other girl's lips. + +The real Ida May--weak, save in venomous hate, unstable as water, as +shallow as a pool of glass--could have joined issue in a +hair-pulling, face-scratching brawl. She was of that breed and +up-bringing. + +Sheila Macklin's very dignity held Ida May Bostwick at arm's length. +With all right and title to the name and place Sheila had usurped, +the new arrival was awed by the impostor's look. Following that +first--and merely instantaneous--expression of horrified surprise at +Ida May's announcement of her identity, this girl, who was so secure +in the confidence of the Balls and the community, proceeded to look +down at the claimant of her achieved position with utter calmness. + +It made the real Ida May almost afraid. Certain as she was of her +own name and the assertion of her own personality, the bold and +unshaken opposition confronting her in the very look of the impostor +abashed Ida May Bostwick. After her first outbreak she was silenced. + +"Do you really know what you are saying?" the girl in possession +asked. "Are you aware that I am Ida May Bostwick? There certainly +cannot be two girls of the same name, both related to Mrs. Prudence +Ball. That is too ridiculous." + +The other gasped. Though red and white by turn, from impotence and +rage, her fury was quelled under the look of the more composed young +woman. + +"There are twenty people almost within call who know me and who can +swear to my name and my assertions that I am Miss Bostwick," went on +Sheila, with a calmness which both frightened and daunted the other. +"Just why you should come here and make such a preposterous claim I +cannot understand. Where do you come from? Who are you--really?" + +Ida May stared, flaccid, helpless. For the time being all her rage, +her rudeness, her amazement, even, drained out of her. For this +impostor to face her down in this way; for her to claim Ida May's +name and identity with such utter calm--such sangfroid; for Sheila +to stand before her and deliberately declare that what Ida May had +known to be her own all her life long--her name and distinctive +character--was actually another's--all this was so monstrous a thing +that Ida May was stunned. + +Suppose--suppose something had really happened to her mind? People +did go mad, Ida May had heard. She had rather a vague idea as to +what insanity was like, but she felt her mind slipping. + +The sure and unafraid expression of the other girl's countenance +gave Ida May no help at all. She was sure that her opponent had not +lost her mind. She was just a wicked, bad, horrid girl who had +somehow got something that belonged to Ida May Bostwick, and meant +to keep it if she could. + +Self-pity filled the visitor's mind in place of the fury she had +expended in her first outburst. She dared not attack the other with +tooth and nail, for she saw now that this girl was as much her +superior in physical strength as she was in strength of character. + +Therefore, Ida May fell back upon tears. She blubbered right +heartily, and, being really weary after her walk from the port, she +fell back into the spring rocker, which squeaked almost as +protestingly as she did, put her beringed hands before her face, and +gave herself to grief. + +Sheila Macklin's expression did not change. She revealed no sympathy +for Ida May Bostwick. If she felt sympathy, it was for that girl +who had been persecuted, unfairly accused of stealing, sent to a +place worse than prison, afterward branded with the stigma of +"jailbird"; that girl whom Tunis Latham had befriended, had rescued +from a situation which she could not think of now without a feeling +of creeping horror. + +Was she going to give over without a fight to this new claimant a +place which had been and still was her only refuge? It could not be +expected that she would do this. She had had no warning of this +catastrophe. There had been no opportunity to prepare for a +situation which must have shocked her terribly in any case. But if +she had only had time-- + +Time? Time for what? To run away? Or to prepare the Balls, for +instance, for the coming of this new claimant? And who knew this +girl who said she was Ida May Bostwick? Sheila Macklin was fully +aware of the history of Sarah Honey, of her marriage which had quite +cut her off from her Cape Cod friends, and of the little that was +known at Big Wreck Cove about her daughter, who, since babyhood, had +never been seen here. + +How was one to be sure if this were really the right Ida May? If one +girl could make the claim and carry it through so easily, why not +another? How could this girl, crying in the rocking-chair, prove her +statement that she was Mrs. Ball's niece? + +These thoughts seethed in Sheila Macklin's brain. She must keep +cool! She must hold herself down, keep control of her own mind, and +keep the whip hand of this girl before her. + +And, then, there was Tunis to think of. The appearance of the real +Ida May Bostwick wrecked all her happiness, of course, with Tunis. +Sheila could not let him continue his association with her. Yet what +course should she pursue to save him? That suddenly became the first +consideration in Sheila Macklin's mind. + +How to do this? How to save Tunis from being overwhelmed by the +result of his own ill-considered deed? Impulse and love on Tunis +Latham's part had brought about this terrible situation. Not that +the girl blamed him in the least. Her thought was to protect the +captain of the _Seamew_ from being sucked into the whirlpool which +she clearly beheld beside her path. + +Save Tunis! It must be done. This little, inconsequential, +weak-minded, loose-lipped girl must not be allowed to wreck Tunis +Latham's life. If people came to accept as true the tale the girl +could relate, Tunis' reputation would be smirched utterly in the +opinion of all Big Wreck Cove folk. + +Much as Sheila Macklin felt that her own happiness with Tunis was +now impossible--a flash of Aunt Lucretia made this realization the +more poignant--he must be sheltered from any folly regarding this +thing. She knew well his impulsive, generous nature. Who had a +fuller knowledge of it than she? + +She must think and act for herself, without any conference with +Tunis. But she must do the only thing, after all, that would balk +this wretched girl from the city--for a time, at least. + +The real Ida May Bostwick had no friends here and no acquaintances +among the people of Big Wreck Cove. It would be no easy matter for +her to establish either credit or the fact of her identity in the +community. It would take time and perhaps be very difficult for Ida +May to bring forward conclusive evidence that would convince the +Balls, or anybody else, of her real personality and prove that the +girl in possession was an impostor. + +All the latter had to do was to maintain her already-accepted +standing, deny the true Ida May's claim, and demand that the latter +show proof of her apparently preposterous statement. At least, some +considerable delay must ensue through Sheila's course before the +girl could convince anybody that she only claimed what was her own. + +Nor need the battle end there. Ida May Bostwick might find it very +difficult to prove to the satisfaction of all concerned that she was +the actual niece of Prudence Ball. The very fact that Tunis had +brought Sheila and introduced her as the girl he had been sent for +was proof so strong that it could not be lightly denied. + +That phase of the matter--that Tunis was as deep in the conspiracy +as she was herself--made Sheila Macklin desperate. She grasped at +this only salvation--straw as it was!--for his sake more than for +her own. + +Later, when she was able to think and plan and plot again, she would +evolve some method of rescuing Tunis from the results of his own +impulsiveness and her weakness in accepting his suggestion as a way +out of her personal difficulties. She should have known better! She +should have scouted the idea at its inception! + +She saw that this position in which she was placed was far and away +more serious than that she had been in when she sat with Tunis upon +the Boston Common bench. She had thought at that time that it needed +little more to make her condition too desperate to bear. She would +now, she felt, give life itself for the privilege of being back +there and able to refuse the reckless plan of escape the captain of +the _Seamew_ had submitted to her. + +She did not for a breath's length blame Tunis for the misfortune +that had overtaken her--overtaken them both, indeed. She had +accepted his plan with open eyes. In her desperation she had even +foreseen the possibility of this outcome. She must blame nobody but +herself. + +But all these thoughts were futile. No use in considering for a +single moment past situations and possibilities. She was confronted +by a grim and adamant present! And that grim present was in the +person of a girl with tear-streaked face who looked up at her, +sobbing. + +"You're the meanest girl I ever heard of. I'll pay you for this. +Think of the gall of you comin' here and tellin' my rich relations +you was me. I never heard of such a thing! It beats the movies, and +and I thought they was just lies. Gee, but you must be a regular +crook! I expect the very clothes you got on my aunt bought and gave +you. I'll put you where you belong!" + +"And suppose I put you where you seem to belong?" interrupted the +girl in possession. "There is such a place as an insane hospital in +this county, I believe. I think you must have either escaped from +such a place, or that you belong in one." + +"Oh!" gasped the other girl, staring up at her amazedly and not a +little terrified by Sheila's emphatic speech. + +"If you really are some distant relative of the family," the latter +continued, "Mrs. Ball may wish to see you. Come into the house and I +will make you a cup of tea. You need it. And you can wait for Mrs. +Ball and the captain to return, if you like." + +Ida May darted to her feet again. + +"A cup of tea of _your_ making!" she cried. "You'd put poison in it! +You must be a wicked girl--anybody can see that. I wouldn't put +anything bad past you. I guess them stories in the movies ain't so +much lies, after all. + +"I want nothing from you, whoever you are, only my name back and the +chance you have grabbed off here. I'll go to the neighbors about it. +I'll tell 'em what you've done. I guess I can find somebody to +believe me." + +Her abrupt halt warned Sheila that there was somebody approaching. +Before she could turn to see who it was, the other girl ejaculated: + +"My goodness! What is it--a junk wagon? Look at that horse, will +you! Say! who's these folks? What a pair of old dubs!" + +Cap'n Ira and Prudence had returned somewhat earlier than Sheila had +expected. Old Queenie came up the lane and turned in at the open +gateway beyond the garden. + +The new girl tugged excitedly at Sheila's arm. + +"Say! Who are they?" she demanded huskily. + +"This is Cap'n Ball and Mrs. Ball," was the reply, and the girl in +possession hurried forward to help them out of the carriage. + +"Ahoy, Ida May!" the captain hailed cheerfully. "What's the good +word?" + +He prepared to climb down. The girl assisted Prudence first. + +"Who's that with you, Ida May?" asked the old woman. Then, with +keener eyes than the captain, she observed the change in the girl's +face. "What's happened? Something has gone wrong, Ida May, I know. +What is it?" + +"That--that girl--" + +Sheila almost choked. How could she prevaricate to the good old +woman who had been so kind to her? + +"Who is she, Ida May?" + +"She says she is your niece," whispered the girl. + +"My niece? Land's sake! I ain't got no niece but you, Ida May. Say, +Ira, do you know this young woman? She ain't none o' your relations, +is she?" + +Cap'n Ira came to the ground finally with a thump of his cane. He +straightened up and started at the new arrival. + +"Red-headed, I swan!" he muttered. "Never was a Ball that I know of +with that color topknot. And she looks like one o' these sandpipers +ye see along shore. Look at that hat!" + +"Ida May says she claims to be our niece," Prudence told him. + +"I swan! I told you we was gettin' mighty popular." + +Sheila, her limbs now trembling so that she feared she would fall, +took Queenie by the head and backed the carriage around. The old +mare would have to be put in her stall and the carryall run under +cover. But the girl was fearful of moving out of earshot. + +Cap'n Ira and Prudence approached the real Ida May. The latter had +been staring at them, marveling. Unlike Sheila, almost everything +that Ida May Bostwick thought was advertised upon her face. + +"My goodness!" considered Ida May. "What a pair of hicks!" + +"You was lookin' for somebody named Ball, I cal'late?" Cap'n Ira +said within Sheila's hearing as she led the gray mare away. + +She could not catch the reply. Whatever the real Ida May said, she +could not stand by to deny it. Besides, the matter must rest for the +present on the evidence, and she did not know yet how much proof Ida +May might be able to advance to strengthen her case. If it rested +upon mere assertion, then Sheila need merely deny its truth and hold +her own! + +And, frightened as she was, that was exactly what Sheila intended to +do. For the sake of Tunis, as well as for her own salvation, she +must stand up against the new girl and hold by her own first +claim--that she was the girl the Balls had sent Tunis for. + + + + +CHAPTER XXI + +AT SWORDS' POINTS + + +Sheila Macklin got Queenie to the stable and unharnessed her. She +ran the carryall into the barn and then closed the big door for the +night, although the sun was still an hour high. She stopped to fling +grain to the poultry, too. These chores she did with the thought in +her mind that she might never do them again for Cap'n Ira and +Prudence. + +If that girl could prove her claim, if she could satisfy the old +people that they had been cheated by Sheila and Tunis Latham, they +might be indignant enough to put her right out--to-night! + +The trio had disappeared into the house. She heard voices from the +sitting room. But she wanted to return the furniture to the front +room and finish the task which the real Ida May's coming had +interrupted. + +She had been strong enough when she carried the chairs and the +settee into the yard, but she could scarcely get them back again. +The strength seemed to have deserted her arms. She staggered in with +the last article of furniture and set it in place. + +The murmur of voices from the room across the hall was steady. What +were they saying? What had Ida May told them? How were the Balls +taking it? Could that cheap, little thing convince the old people +that she was their niece and that the girl they had come to love and +trust was an impostor? Sheila Macklin's heart bled for Cap'n Ira and +Prudence! + +If she must go and they took this other girl in her place, would +they be happy? And they had been happy during these last months! +Would they not miss her if she left them to the mercy of this new +claimant? + +Yes, Sheila loved Cap'n Ira and Prudence. She loved them as though +they were her very own! Not since her father had died had the girl +been so fond of anybody--except Tunis, of course. And what would +Tunis say when he came? + +What would he expect her to do? To admit the truth of Ida May's +claim and give up without a battle? If she did this, she would +expose him as well as herself to infamy. It was a situation that +would have appalled a person of much stronger character than Sheila +Macklin, and she was no weakling. + +No! She could not give up--not without a struggle. As she had first +decided, she must confront the new girl boldly and deny, if she +could, any claim Ida May Bostwick put forward. She must do this for +Tunis even more than for herself. + +She arose determinedly. With this thought, strength surged back into +her limbs as well as into her mind. For a time she had been weak, +undecided. Once more she gathered her energies to oppose the sea of +adversity which threatened to overwhelm her. + +She crossed the hall and opened the sitting room door. Cap'n Ira sat +in his usual chair, leaning forward, with his hands clasped over the +knob of his cane. Prudence, with a wondering look on her face, sat +beside him, and just as far from the new girl as the length of the +room would allow. The latter had been speaking with her usual +vehemence, and she did not even glance at Sheila when the latter +came quietly into the room. + +"Oh, Ida May!" gasped Prudence, and almost ran to her. "Do you know +what she is saying? I never heard of such a thing!" + +"I tell you she _ain't_ Ida Bostwick," cried the other. "Don't you +dare call her that. I'll--" + +"Hoity-toity, young woman! Avast there!" said the captain gruffly. +"We won't get to the rights of this by quarreling. Wait!" + +He looked at Sheila, and his weatherhued countenance was as kindly +of expression as usual. + +"You know what this young woman says?" he asked. + +Sheila nodded, but she held Prudence closely. The old woman was +sobbing. + +"This won't do, you know," said Cap'n Ira. "I swan! It beats my +time. I expect you've got friends somewhere, young woman, and you +ought to be given into their charge. I'm real sorry for you, but +what you say don't sound sensible. Ain't you made a mistake? I +cal'late you heard about us and Ida May--" + +"I tell you," cried the girl, starting to her feet again, the brown +eyes flashing spitefully, "that that thing there is an impostor. +She's got my place. She's took my name. Why, I'll--I'll have her +arrested. Ain't there no police in this awful place?" + +"There's a constable all right," said Cap'n Ira calmly. "But I +wouldn't want to call him in. Not just now, anyway. It looks to me +you wanted a doctor more than you wanted a constable." + +"You think I'm crazy!" gasped Ida May. + +"Well, it looks as though you was a leetle off your course," the old +man told her calmly. "You don't talk with sense, to say the least. +Making the claim you do would make most anybody think you was a +little flighty. Yes, a little flighty, to say the least." And he +wagged his head. + +"Look here," he pursued soothingly. "Have you been sick, perhaps? +You ain't quite yourself, be ye? I knowed a feller once that +thought he was the angel Gabriel and went around with a tin fish +horn, tooting it at all hours of the day and night. But no graves +opened for him and nobody was resurrected. They finally put him in +the booby hatch, poor feller." + +"I'm your niece, I tell you," interrupted Ida May, pointing at +Prudence, who shrank from her immediately in undeniable fear. "My +mother was Sarah Honey before she was married. I guess there must be +enough people in this Big Wreck Cove place who knew her and remember +her to prove who I am." + +"I wouldn't try to do that," said Cap'n Ira thoughtfully. "Telling +such a thing as this among the neighbors would be the surest way of +getting into trouble. That's right. If Prudence--Mrs. Ball--don't +know ye, do you think strangers would be likely to back you up? +Don't you think it would be better to sit down quietly and rest a +while? Maybe you'd better stay with us overnight." + +"Oh, Ira!" gasped his wife. "I wouldn't scurce dare have her stay. +She--she's out of her head. She might do something." + +"I'll do something fast enough!" cried Ida May, stamping her foot. +"I'll do something to that hussy!" + +"You hear her, Ira?" murmured Prudence, trying to draw Sheila away +from the enraged girl. + +"Threatening damage never broke no bones yet," said the captain +calmly. + +"I'll do _her_ some damage," declared Ida May bitterly. "If none of +you won't listen to me, I'll find somebody that will. I'll--" + +She halted suddenly in her wild and angry speech. Her face changed +as if by magic. The flush died in it and the expression of her +sparkling eyes became subdued. A simpering look overspread Ida May +Bostwick's countenance that warned the other girl, at least, that +another person had entered the house. + +Before Sheila could turn to look toward the kitchen door, Ida May +cried: + +"Oh, Cousin Tunis! If you ain't my cousin exactly, I guess you are +pretty near. And ain't I glad you've come! Do you know what this +awful girl is saying--what she is doing here? And these old fools +won't believe me! I never heard of such a thing. Just you tell them +who I am, and I guess they'll make her pack up and get out in a +hurry." + +In the doorway stood the captain of the _Seamew_. The two old people +welcomed his appearance with a satisfaction that could not be +mistaken. + +"I swan, Tunis, you come at a mighty handy time," declared Cap'n +Ira. + +"Oh, Tunis! Take that girl away," cried Prudence faintly, pointing +at Ida May. + +The most difficult thing Sheila Macklin had ever done in all her +life was what she did now. To act and speak a deliberate falsehood +before Tunis Latham! + +She disengaged herself from Prudence, and before the simpering Ida +May could speak again Sheila ran to him. In her face was, for the +moment, all the fear and horror of the situation which she felt. It +was a warning to him, and he was acute enough to understand it even +before she spoke. + +"Oh, Tunis! This girl must be beside herself. She says her name is +Ida May Bostwick and that she is Mrs. Ball's niece." + +Involuntarily Tunis had stretched forth his hands to welcome Sheila. +He drew her closer without giving the Balls any attention +whatsoever. One flashing glance he gave to the girl he held so +gently--a look which was both a promise and a reassurance. Then he +gazed over her head at the smirking Ida May. + +"What's the matter here?" he demanded. + +"Matter enough," said Cap'n Ira, not without marking, however, the +attitude of the two young people he and Prudence loved. He even +nudged his wife, who now stood close beside him. "Matter enough. +That gal there, Tunis, seems to have lost her top-hamper. Leastways, +some of it is mighty loose." + +"Tunis Latham!" gasped the new claimant. "You know who I am. Tell +that girl--" + +She halted again, realizing the young man's expression of +countenance and his attitude with the other girl. She was quick +enough of comprehension to see that this other girl had the +advantage of her with the captain of the _Seamew_ as well as with +her relatives. + +In Ida May's own artful mind she had decided that a smart girl could +easily "twist that fellow around her finger." This girl who had +usurped her name and identity had already succeeded in doing just +that! The girl from Hoskin & Marl's halted, the wrathful flush came +back into her pretty, insipid face, and she almost screamed: + +"What's got into you folks? Are you all crazy? Why, that fellow +knows who I am well enough! I bet he brought that girl here himself +and palmed her off on you." She turned to blaze at Cap'n Ira and +Prudence. "He picked her up somewhere--some low creature! But I'll +show them both up; that's what I'll do. I'll make them both sorry +for cheating me. I guess you folks have got a heap of money, and +that fellow and that girl are trying to get it all. But they won't. +I'll have my rights or--" + +"Belay that!" exclaimed Cap'n Ira suddenly. "We won't listen to no +more such talk. Whatever we have got--Prudence and me--and whoever +you be, young woman, I cal'late we'll do about as we please with it. +I think you have broke loose from them that had you in charge. And +they ought to be hunting for you. Leastways, I guess you'd better +be sent back to 'em." + +"I'm her niece, I tell you!" reiterated Ida May, pointing at +Prudence, who shrank again from the vehement girl. + +Then she whirled on Tunis. She clasped her hands. Into her rage was +distilled some fear because of Cap'n Ira's grim words. + +"You got to help me," she said to the younger man. "You know who I +am, and you daren't deny it!" + +No man can pace the quarter-deck--even of a packet of no greater +importance than the _Seamew_--without having developed the sterner +side of his character. And Tunis Latham came of a long line of +shipmasters who had handled all sorts and conditions of men. If a +skipper does not command the respect of his crew, he'll not get far! + +The grim mask that had settled upon the countenance of the captain +of the _Seamew_ might have stayed the tongue of a more courageous +person than Ida May Bostwick. His severe look and manner appalled +her. + +"See here, young woman, I don't like your tone; nor do I understand +what you mean. Who do you say this is, Ida May?" he added more +gently, looking down into Sheila's face again. + +"She--" + +"_I'm_ Ida May Bostwick. You know I am!" wailed the visitor. +"Why--why, you must remember me, Tunis Latham. Don't you call her by +my name. I won't stand it." + +"Mad as a hatter! Mad as a hatter!" muttered Cap'n Ira to Prudence. + +"There's something the matter with her, is there?" proceeded Tunis +thoughtfully, eying the claimant as though she was indeed an utter +stranger. "How did she get here? What does she want?" + +"She wants a strait-jacket, I cal'late," said Cap'n Ira. "I don't +know what is best to do about her. Prudence says she won't have her +in the house overnight. 'Twould be too bad to have to put her in the +town lockup." + +"You _dare_ to!" shrieked Ida May, with courage born of desperation. + +Tunis put Sheila tenderly aside. He crossed the room to the other +girl. He showed no manner of sympathy for her, but he spoke quietly. + +"This won't do, you know. Mr. and Mrs. Ball don't want you here. You +have no claim on them--none at all. Even if you chanced to be a +relation, they have not got to take you in if they don't want to." + +"They've taken that other girl in!" cried Ida May wildly. + +"That is their business. They want her. They don't want you. You +have no more standing here than you would have if you went into the +house of the governor of the State and demanded recognition there." + +"What a wicked man you are!" gasped Ida May. "And--and I thought you +was a simp!" + +Tunis did not even change color. He addressed her as though he +believed she was not right in her mind. Sheila watched him, not now +in fear, but in wonder. She had thought she must battle with this +girl for Tunis' name and reputation. But the captain of the _Seamew_ +had seized the reins of affairs himself and was likely to do much +better in the emergency than Sheila could ever dream of doing. + +"Come, now," said Tunis Latham calmly. "I do not know where you +belong or where you came from last. But you cannot stay here. Cap'n +Ira and Aunt Prue do not want you. If you have any friends near--" + +"I've got friends all right! You'll find out that I've got 'em!" +gasped the girl threateningly. + +"You know anybody in Big Wreck Cove?" + +"No, I don't. I've just come here. But I mean to stay here till I +get my rights. I'll show you all!" + +"You can't show us anything to-night," interposed Tunis firmly. +"Whatever you mean to try to do cannot be done right now, you know. +You will have to sleep somewhere, and I shall have to do one of two +things--no, one of three things." + +She looked at him wonderingly, but she was listening. + +"I will take you back to the port. You cannot go home--wherever you +live--to-night. In the morning you can go over with Ben Craddock on +the stage to Paulmouth." + +"I won't!" The girl's determination was roused. There was a stubborn +streak in her character that would make her a bitter antagonist. +Tunis, as well as Sheila, realized this. + +"All right," said the captain of the _Seamew_ calmly. "Then I'll get +you a place to stay down in the port. Or I shall have to see the +justice of the peace and have you committed for your own safety." + +"You don't dare!" cried Ida May again. + +"You tempt me too far, young woman," he said sternly, "and you'll +find just how much I dare. Will you come along with me now and +behave yourself?" + +"That's the ticket, Tunis," muttered Cap'n Ira. "Put her where she +belongs." + +"So my own folks turn me out, do they?" cried Ida May, hatefully, +staring at the two old people. "If anybody is crazy it is those +two," and she pointed to the Balls. "Take in a drab like that girl +and throw _me_ out. Why, I believe I've seen her before. Somehow, +she looks familiar," she added, her sharp gaze fixed on Sheila +again. "Well, wherever it was, she was up to no good, I'll be +bound." + +"Are you coming with me willingly, and now?" put in Tunis more +harshly. "You are taking a chance, young woman, in talking this +way." + +"Oh, she's got _you_ going. That's plain to be seen! I thought you +was a nice fellow. But I guess you're like other sailors. I always +heard they was a bad lot--running after women--" + +"Will you come without any more words?" interrupted Tunis grimly. + +"I'll have to go back to the town, I suppose. But remember! This +ain't the end of this," she weakly blustered. + +"This your bag?" said Tunis calmly, picking up Ida May's satchel. +"All right. We'll go." + +He did not attempt to look at Sheila again, nor at Cap'n Ira and +Prudence. He walked behind Ida May, but rather hustled her out of +the door. She might have cast back some final defiance, but he gave +her no chance. + +It was almost twilight when they went out at the kitchen door. They +left the trio in the sitting room speechless for the moment. But +Sheila Macklin's speechlessness arose through different thoughts +from those of the Balls. + +The girl left behind realized that this almost unexpected outcome +was but the momentary triumph of falsehood. + + + + +CHAPTER XXII + +A WAY OUT + + +"Ida May, you'd better sit down. You look like you'd had a stroke," +declared the captain. + +"Why wouldn't she, the dear child?" cried Prudence. "What do you +suppose is the matter with that girl? Is she crazy?" + +"Crazy ain't no name for it," her husband rejoined. "Her top-hamper +is all askew, I cal'late. I never see the beat." + +But just now Sheila could not endure any discussion of the strange +girl. She rose as quickly as she had seated herself. + +"I must fix supper," she said briskly. "You sit still, Aunt +Prudence. You're flustered, I can see. There is nothing for you to +do." + +"That's right," put in Cap'n Ira. "Get a bite ready against Tunis +comes back. He'll want something fillin' after handling that crazy +gal." + +He winked at Prudence and nudged her. The outstanding incident for +the old man was the unmistakable signs Tunis and Sheila had given +that they were in love with each other. + +"What did I tell ye when that gal first come here?" whispered Cap'n +Ira hoarsely, when the girl had left the room. "I knowed that the +hull generation here on the Cape hadn't been struck blind, not by a +jugful! And it's evident to my mind, Prudence, that Tunis Latham has +had his eyes pretty wide open from the first." + +"Oh! I hope--it can't be that Ida May would leave us," murmured +Prudence. "I don't mean to be selfish." + +"Looks like we could get another gal easy enough if we wanted her," +remarked the old man, with some bitterness. "I swan, Prue! S'pose +Ida May had turned out to be the sort of a gal that flyaway critter +is? We are blessed; we certainly are." And he treated himself to a +liberal pinch of snuff. + +Sheila did not wish to hear the two old people talk about the real +Ida May Bostwick. When Tunis took the girl away it was an enormous +relief. Of that she was quite sure. The malevolent attitude of the +frustrated Ida May was sufficient to frighten anybody. + +Shelia was positive enough that, as Ida May had promised, the matter +was not ended. That venomous girl would not be content to leave Big +Wreck Cove without making a further attempt--perhaps many--to +establish herself in her right identity and in what she considered +her rightful place with the Balls. + +Supper was late that evening. They were only just seated at the +table when Tunis returned. + +"Come on, boy," said Cap'n Ira. "There's a place set for you. Tell +us what you did with that crazy girl." + +Sheila was busy between the stove and the table and did not come to +the side of the captain of the _Seamew_ as he took the chair +indicated. He was not smiling as usual, but neither did he seem +alarmed. He replied to the questions of the old people with +tranquillity. + +"I did not advise her to go to the Burchell House," Tunis said. "You +know what a talker Sally Burchell is. I remember that Mrs. Pauling +took boarders in the summer, and I went to her with that girl." + +"You mean Zeb's mother?" asked Prudence. "Well, she'll take care of +her, I guess. And Zeb is strong and willing. If she gets crazy in +the night, they ought to be able to hold her." + +A faint smile flickered for a moment about Tunis Latham's stern +lips. + +"I don't guess she will act up so very bad with strangers." + +"I swan! We was strangers enough to her, it would seem," exclaimed +Cap'n Ira. + +"But she seems to consider that you ought not to be," Tunis pointed +out. + +"Never heard of such a thing!" muttered the old man. + +"I would have been glad to get her out of town this very night," +Tunis observed quietly. "But it could not be done. She is convinced +that she has what she calls 'rights,' and she proposes to remain and +fight for them." + +"I swan!" + +"You will have to be firm with her. I explained to Zeb's mother what +we thought was the matter with her. And I'll try to find her +friends. She says she comes from Boston." + +"Goodness gracious gallop!" exclaimed the old woman, more angry than +frightened now. "She certainly can't stay here and tell those awful +things she was saying about Ida May." + +"I don't really see how we are going to stop her, right at first," +Tunis rejoined. "Of course, if she continues to come up here and +bother you, you can have her arrested." + +"Oh!" gasped Sheila. + +"Now, gal," said Cap'n Ira firmly, "don't you let your tender heart +deceive you. That crazy critter ain't worth worrying about. She +shan't be hurt. But I won't have her coming round here frightening +you and Prudence. No, sir!" + +"Quite right," said Tunis, agreeing. + +"Oh, Tunis!" murmured the girl. + +"But she will make talk. No doubt she will make talk," said Prudence +in a worried tone. "We ought to stop her, somehow, from telling such +things about our Ida May." + +"Does she want money?" asked Cap'n Ira gruffly. "She talked as +though she did." + +"I think to offer her money would be the very worst possible way of +shutting her up," said Tunis. "She wants to come here and live and +be accepted as your niece." + +"I never did!" gasped Prudence. + +"She says nothing else will suit her. She seems to think she can +prove what she had claimed. I think the best thing to do is to let +her try it." + +Sheila could not eat. She merely stared from one to the other of the +three and listened to the discussion. In no way could she see a +shadow of escape from ultimate disaster; yet she saw that Tunis was +determined to fight it out on this line, to deny the stranger's +claim and hold to what had already been gained for the girl in +possession! + +"Well," Prudence said, with a sigh, "I can see plainly it is going +to stir up a puddle of muddy water. Unless she says or does +something that makes the authorities take her and put her away, +there will be them that will believe her--or half believe her." + +"Let 'em talk," growled Cap'n Ira. "'Twon't be the first time Big +Wreck Cove folks got a mouthful to chew." + +"But it will hurt Ida May," said Prudence, her voice trembling, as +she squeezed the girl's hand and held it. + +"'Sticks and stones may break my bones, but names will never hurt +me,'" began Cap'n Ira. Then he broke off in anger when he saw the +girl's face, and exclaimed: "But, I swan! They'll keep you dodging, +and that's a fact! Ought to be some way of shutting her up, Tunis." + +"I don't know how that is going to be done. Not just at first, +anyway. Perhaps something will turn up. And, anyway, she hasn't +begun to talk yet." + +"It's like being tied down to one o' them railroad tracks and +waiting for the fast express to come along and crunch ye," grumbled +the old man. "I know how Ida May feels. But you keep a stiff upper +lip, my gal. You've got plenty of friends that won't listen to any +such crazy notions as that other gal's got in her noodle." + +In this manner the old folks comforted themselves in part. But +nothing that was said could comfort Sheila. Tunis smoked a pipe with +Cap'n Ira after supper, while the girl cleared off the table and +washed and dried the dishes. Then he got her outside just after he +had bidden Cap'n Ira and Prudence good night. + +They walked away silently from the kitchen door into the deep murk +of a starless night. The moaning of a rising sea upon the outer +reefs was the requiem of Sheila's hopes. One thing, she saw clearly, +she must do. If she remained and fought for her place with the +Balls, she must stand alone. Whether or not she held her place, she +must not allow Tunis to be linked with her in this situation. As she +slipped deeper and deeper into the morass, she could not cling to +him and drag him as well into infamy and disgrace. + +Away from the house, fully out of earshot from the kitchen, she +halted. Tunis had taken her hand in his warm, encouraging grasp. She +let it remain, but she did not return his pressure. + +"Dear, this is dreadful," he whispered, "I know. But leave it to me. +I'll find some way out." + +"There is no way out, Tunis," she said confidently. + +"Cat's-foot! Don't say that," he cried in exasperation. "There is +always a way out of every jam." + +"This girl will do one of two things," said Sheila firmly. "Either +she will prove her claim, or she will give up and go back to Boston. +You know that." + +"She'll fight hard, I guess" he admitted. + +"Either way, Tunis," the girl pursued, "there is bound to be much +doubt cast upon my character--upon _me_. If the truth becomes known, +I am utterly lost. If it is hushed up, I must go on living a +lie--if I stay here." + +"Don't talk that way!" he exclaimed gruffly. "Of course you'll stay +here. If not with the Balls, then with me." + +"Stop!" she begged him. "Wait! I am going to state the matter +plainly as it is. We can no longer dodge it. This is the _truth_ +which we have been trying to ignore. I have not been foolish only; I +have been wicked. And my greatest sin was in allowing you to link +yourself with me so closely." + +"What do you mean?" he gasped. + +"Just what I say. It was wrong for me to allow you to be friendly +with me before the Balls and other people. I should not have gone to +your house last Sunday. I should not have allowed you to introduce +me to your Aunt Lucretia." + +"Ida May!" + +"That is not my name," she whispered. "Let there be no further +mockery between you and me, Tunis. I have been wicked; _we_ have +been wicked. We must pay for what we have done. There is no escaping +that. I must not keep you as my lover, Tunis. I was wrong--oh! so +wrong--last Sunday. Reckless, wicked, drifting with a current, I +scarcely knew where." + +"My dear girl--" + +"Now I see the rocks ahead, Tunis. I can shut my eyes to them no +longer. Disaster is at hand. You shall not be overwhelmed, as I may +be overwhelmed at any time. I will not have your ruin on my +conscience!" + +"My ruin?" he repeated. "Ridiculous! My dear girl, you are talking +like a mad woman. You cannot snap the tie that binds us. You cannot +shoulder all the responsibility for this situation. The sin is as +much mine as yours, if it is a sin. I'm in it as deep as you are." + +"You must not be," she cried. "You can escape. You _shall_ escape." + +"Suppose I refuse to do so?" And he said it confidently. + +"Tunis, I have thought of a way out for you," she cried suddenly. + +"I don't want to hear it." + +"But you must hear it!" + +"I will not accept it." + +"You cannot help yourself," she told him firmly. "Oh, I know what I +am about! You may be angry; you will perhaps be laughed at a bit. +But to be laughed at is better than to be scorned." + +"What under the sun do you mean, girl?" he exclaimed, both startled +and horrified by her determined words. "Do you think I would desert +you in the middle of the current and swim ashore?" + +"But I will desert you. I am determined to desert you. I refuse to +cling to you, a millstone about your neck to drag you down. Ah, +Tunis, whether or not that girl makes her claim good, what you and +I had hoped for cannot be! An explanation must be made of your part +in this frightful affair. That, in itself, must separate you and +me." + +"What explanation? There is no such explanation that can be made. I +glory in the fact that we are together in this, Sheila, and whatever +comes of it, we stand or fall together!" + +"Ah, Tunis, you _are_ a man! I knew that before. But nothing you can +say will bend my determination. I withdraw all I said to you Sunday +and on Monday morning before you went away. I positively withdraw +all I promised you. It cannot be, Tunis. We cannot look forward to +any happiness when we began so unwisely." + +"'Unwisely?' What do you mean?" demanded the captain of the +_Seamew_. "Chance threw us together. _Providence_, I tell you! I +needed you fully as much as you needed me. And surely these poor old +folks needed you, Sheila. Consider what you have been to them." + +"It makes no difference in our association, Tunis," she said, +shaking her head. + +"Why, that night we talked upon that bench on Boston Common, had I +dared propose such a thing, I would have said: 'Come and marry me +now.' I would, indeed, Sheila." + +The girl clenched her hands and drew in a breath. She raised her +face to his, and in the darkness Tunis Latham saw it shine with a +light from within. A great and desperate longing filled her voice +when she cried: + +"Oh, why didn't you do just that, Tunis Latham? I would have said +'yes.' And all this--_this_ need not have been." + +Swiftly she caught him around the neck, pressed her lips fiercely to +his, while the tears rained down her face, wetting his face as well. +Then she was gone. He heard her sobbing wildly in the dark. He was +alone. + + + + +CHAPTER XXIII + +A CALL UNANNOUNCED + + +Cap'n Ira and Prudence did not see Sheila again that evening, for +she slipped in by the kitchen door after they had gone into the +sitting room and went up to her own chamber. They heard her mount +the stairs and marked the tread of her light feet overhead. + +The girl was not thinking of the old people just then. Their need +entered into her determination to remain if she could. But this +night was one time when Sheila Macklin thought almost altogether of +herself and her personal difficulties. + +Her present and acknowledged love for the young captain of the +_Seamew_ had been of no mushroom growth. She might not say, as Tunis +did, that she had fallen in love at first sight. But very soon after +meeting the young shipmaster from Big Wreck Cove she had appreciated +his full value and realized that he was far and away the best man +she had ever met. + +Indeed, in that moment when Tunis Latham had caught Sheila in his +arms as she had slipped in front of the restaurant on Scollay +Square, the girl's mind had been stabbed through by such a poignant +feeling, such a desire to know more about him, that she was actually +frightened by the strength of this concern. + +She knelt before her north window with the frosty air breathing in +like a balm upon her fevered body, and strained her eyes for a +glimpse of the light that always burned in Tunis' window when he was +at home. It was a long time before she saw it. For Tunis Latham had +walked about the fields a long time after she left him, and it was +late when he finally entered the big brown house behind the cedars. + +Aunt Lucretia, who had been expecting him, after she had seen the +_Seamew_ heading for the cove that afternoon, was still sitting in +the kitchen when her nephew entered. Composed as the man's features +were, there was still an expression upon them which startled the +woman. It brought her out of her chair, even if it did not bring an +audible question to her lips. + +"I was delayed, Aunt 'Cretia," he said. "No; nothing new about the +_Seamew_ or about business. It's--there's trouble up to the Balls'." + +He knew her first thought would be for the health of the two old +people, and he had to explain a little more. + +"They are all right--Cap'n Ira and Aunt Prue. It's about Sh--Ida +May." + +"Tunis! Nothing has happened to the girl?" + +He must take Aunt Lucretia into his confidence--at least, to some +extent. Just how much could he tell her? How much dared he tell her? + +From somebody, he felt sure, she would hear about this other girl +who had appeared to claim kinship with the Balls and demand that +Sheila give over to her the place she had with Cap'n Ira and +Prudence. For Ida May Bostwick was going to talk. Tunis knew that +well enough. Although he had warned her sternly that evening against +talking, he knew well enough that after the girl had recovered from +her first fright she would spit out the venomous tale that she had +already concocted in her mind about Sheila and himself. + +He could not bring himself to confess to Aunt Lucretia all the truth +about his first meeting and subsequent association with Sheila. +Indeed, he hoped he would never be obliged to tell it. + +But he must tell Aunt Lucretia nothing but the truth. He did this by +beginning at the coming of the real Ida May Bostwick to the Ball +house that afternoon and her claim to Sheila's place with the +family. As he told the story, Aunt Lucretia gazed upon him so +fixedly, so intently, that the captain of the _Seamew_ was +disturbed. He could not understand her expression. + +Perhaps he told the story haltingly of how Ida May had been turned +out and he had taken her back to the port and housed her with Mrs. +Pauling. He made few comments, however; he left Aunt Lucretia to +draw her own conclusions. It was not until he had quite finished +that she spoke again. + +"That crazy girl, is she--" + +"I don't know that she's crazy," said Tunis gruffly. + +"It would seem so. Does she look like Ida May?" + +Tunis started. The question seemed to probe into a matter that he +had not before considered. But he shook his head negatively. + +"Nothing like her," he said. "Reddish hair. Brown eyes--or kind of +brown. When she's maddest there are green lights in 'em. Not nice +eyes at all." + +Aunt Lucretia nodded and said no more upon that point. What her +question had dealt with in her own mind, Tunis could not guess. She +watched his face, now pale and sadly drawn. Then she placed a firm +hand upon his arm to arouse his attention. + +"Tunis! This--this girl at Cap'n Ira's is something to you?" + +"My God! Aunt 'Cretia, she's _everything_ to me," he groaned, his +reticence breaking down. + +"Is she a good girl, Tunis?" + +"As good as gold. On my honor, there was never a nobler or better +girl. I--I love her!" The words burst from him now in a great gush +of emotion. These Lathams, when they did break up, often ran over. +"I can't tell you the hold she has on me. If I lose her through this +or any other cause, I'm done for! + +"She thinks she isn't good enough for me. She is afraid of this girl +who claims her place. She fears that I am going to be looked down on +if I have anything more to do with her. And I tell you, if she was +not the girl I know her to be, I would still cling to her. I must +have her. I tell you, I must!" + +Tears came to his eyes. His voice, hoarse and broken, carried to the +woman's heart the knowledge that the one and overpowering passion of +the man's life was rampant within him. What or whoever the girl at +the Ball homestead might be, Tunis Latham was bound to her by ties +which could not be broken. + +She did the thing most generous; quite in accordance with her +unselfish disposition. She stepped nearer to her nephew and put her +arms about his neck. She kissed him. She gave no further evidence of +doubt or disapproval. Indeed, when he left her to go to his room, he +was assured that, however the world might look upon him, Aunt +Lucretia was his supporter. + +The girl in the Ball house saw the glimmer of his lamp that night +for a very few minutes. There was a day's work before him, and +Tunis Latham, like other hard-working men, must have his sleep. + +Sheila kept the night watches alone. She went to bed, but the lids +of her eyes could not close. Sleep was as far from her as heaven +itself. She went over the entire happenings of the previous +afternoon and evening with care, giving to each incident its +rightful importance, judging the weight of each word said, each look +granted her. Did the Balls suspect her in the least? Had the story +Ida May Bostwick told made any real impression upon their minds? + +No! She finally told herself that thus far she was secure. Ida May +must bring something besides assertion to influence the minds of the +two old people. And if she had had documentary proof in her +possession yesterday, the new claimant would have shown it. + +Nobody carries about with him birth certificate or memoranda of +identification and relationship. If Ida May had been warned of what +she was to meet at the old house on Wreckers' Head, without doubt +she would have tried to equip herself in some such way for the +interview. + +It might be very difficult for the girl to obtain any evidence that +would assure the Balls of her actual relationship to them. Sheila +had foreseen this possibility from the first. She was still quite +determined to hold on, to make the other girl do all the talking +and all the proving. She herself would rest upon the foundation of +her establishment in the place Ida May Bostwick claimed. + +The latter certainly could not know Sheila's true history. Sheila +was as much a stranger to Ida May as she had been to the Balls when +Tunis had brought her to Wreckers' Head. + +And then, suddenly, a thought seared through the girl's mind. +Something that Ida May Bostwick had said just before Tunis hurried +her out of the house! + +"I believe I've seen her before. Somehow, she looks familiar." + +These two sentences, spoken in Ida May's sneering way, had made +little impression on the excited Sheila at the time they were +spoken. But now they made the girl's heart beat wildly. + +Suppose it were true! Suppose Ida May should really remember who +Sheila was? It was not impossible that the girl from the lace +counter of Hoskin & Marl's knew of Sheila's disgrace. + +Sleep was not within her reach. The long hours of the night dragged +past. Dimly dawn crept along the dark line of the horizon, circling +all her world as far as Sheila could see it from her bed. But it was +still dark below her north window when she caught the sound of a +familiar step, the crunch of gravel under Tunis' boot. + +She lay shaking for a moment, holding her breath. She heard the tiny +pebbles rattle upon the window sill. For the first time she had not +been downstairs to greet Tunis on his way to the port. Could she let +him go now without a word? + +But she must! She must be firm. + +Nevertheless, she slipped softly out of bed. The pebbles rattled +again. She caught up a dark veil from her bureau and wrapped it +about her face. She crept to the north window. The veil would mask +her face so that he could not distinguish it in the shadow. + +But she could look down upon him. She saw him standing there so +firmly--so determinedly. His was no nature to give over easily +anything he had set his heart on. All the more reason why Sheila +should not appear to weaken. + +She crouched there breathlessly as he tossed up more pebbles. Then +she heard him sigh. Then he turned slowly away, and his feet dragged +off along the path, and he went out of sight. + +The girl crept back into bed. She hid her face in the pillow and dry +sobs racked her frame. This was the hardest of all the hard things +she had to do. She had wounded Tunis to the heart! + + + + +CHAPTER XXIV + +EUNEZ PARETA + + +Tunis Latham went down the track toward the port as the dull dawn +glimmered behind him in a frame of mind so dismal and despairing +that more than Sheila Macklin would have pitied the captain of the +_Seamew_. Against the tide of emotions which now surged in his heart +he scarcely had the energy to battle. + +Never had he felt less like approaching his usual tasks as commander +and owner of the schooner and facing the trials he knew would meet +him upon this coming trip to Boston. Freight was waiting upon Luiz +Wharf, and he would be able to pick up the remainder of his cargo at +Hollis, which, with the wind as it was now, he could reach that +afternoon by four o'clock. Given good luck, he would warp into the +T-wharf next day before nightfall. + +The uncertain point which troubled him most was the matter of the +crew of the _Seamew_. The Portygees remaining with him--even Johnny +Lark, the cook--had been in a most unhappy temper all the way back +from Boston on the last trip. Tunis could depend upon Mate Chapin, +Boatswain Newbegin, and 'Rion Latham himself to stick by the +schooner. For, in spite of his quarreling and long tongue about a +hoodoo, Tunis thought that his cousin was a man above any real fear +of the very superstitions he talked about. + +But four men could not safely work the schooner to Boston, nor in +season to keep his contract with the consignees of freight which the +_Seamew_ carried. Troubled as he had been at Boston, and delayed, +Tunis wished now that he had remained there even longer while he +made search for and engaged a proper crew for the schooner. He had +better, perhaps, have paid the fare of the Portygees back to Big +Wreck Cove and so saved quarreling with them. + +When he had been about to leave the schooner the afternoon before, +the foolish fellows had sent a spokesman to him asking if he was +sure the _Seamew_ was not the old _Marlin B._, the Salem fishing +craft which had been acclaimed "the murder ship" from the Banks to +the Cape by all coasting seamen several years before. To answer this +question rasped the pride of the owner of the _Seamew_. For a seaman +to ask a question of one of the officers--a question of such a +nature--was flaunting authority in any case. + +Although Captain Latham considered the question ridiculous and +utterly unworthy of a serious answer, he had replied to it. + +He had told the sailor that to the best of his knowledge and belief +the old _Marlin B._ was several thousand miles away from the Cape at +that time, and that the _Seamew_ was herself and no other. In any +case, he had said he had no personal fear of sailing in the schooner +as long as he could keep a decent crew of seamen aboard her, but +that he would stand for no more foolishness from his present crew. + +Tunis had spoken quite boldly. But, to tell the truth, he did not +know where or how he was to sign another crew and a cook if the +Portygees deserted the schooner. Not at Big Wreck Cove. He had heard +too many whispers about the curse upon his schooner from people of +all classes in the port. Even Joshua Jones, who was supposed to be a +pretty hard-headed merchant, had been influenced by the story 'Rion +Latham had first told about the _Seamew_. He and his father had +hesitated to give Tunis an order for another lot of freight now +waiting on the dock at Boston. They wanted to be sure that the +schooner was not going to sail from the latter port undermanned. +Whether or not the Joneses believed in the hoodoo, they did know +that if the _Seamew_ sailed without a proper crew their insurance on +the freight would be invalid. + +So the farther Tunis walked down toward the wharves, the more these +thoughts assailed and overcame his mind, to the exclusion even of +the tragic happenings back there on the Head the night before. He +could not consider Ida May Bostwick--not even Sheila--now. The +schooner, with her affairs, was a harsh mistress. His all was +invested in the _Seamew_, and business had not been so good thus far +that he could withdraw with a profit. Far from that! There were +financial reefs and shoals on either hand, and that fact the young +skipper knew right well. + +As he drew near to Portygee Town, he glanced toward the open door of +Pareta's cottage and saw the girl, Eunez, seated upon the step. She +did not come out to meet him, as had been her wont, but she hailed +him as he approached--though in a sharper tone than usual. + +"So Captain Tunis Latham has still another girl? He is a lion with +the ladies, it is plain to be seen. Ah!" + +"You don't mind, do you, Eunez?" replied the young man, trying to +assume his usual careless manner of speech. "You have the reputation +of being pretty popular with the fellows yourself." + +"Ah!" she said again, tossing her head. "Who is this new girl I see +you walk with last evening, Tunis?" + +"She is a stranger in Big Wreck Cove," was his noncommittal reply. + +"So I see. They come and go for you, Tunis Latham. You are the +fickle man, eh?" + +"Tut, tut, Eunez!" he laughed. "Those who live in glass houses +should not throw stones. How about yourself? Didn't I see you going +to church with Johnny Lark last Sunday? And then, in the afternoon, +you had another cavalier along the beaches. Oh, I saw you!" + +The color flashed into her dark cheek, and her black eyes reflected +some unexplained anger. Beside her, leaning against the house wall, +was the handle end of a broken oar. Tunis chanced to mark that there +was a streak of dull blue paint on it. + +"You have sharp eyes. Tunis Latham," hissed the girl. "Not all of +the Lathams are too proud to walk with Eunez Pareta--or too proud to +think of her. But _you_--bah!" + +She got up suddenly, turned her back upon him, and entered the +cottage. Tunis walked on, just a little puzzled. + +Horry Newbegin sat on the rail of the schooner smoking, and +evidently looking anxiously for the appearance of the skipper. There +was no smoke rising from the galley chimney. + +"What's the matter with cooky?" demanded Tunis briskly. + +"The dratted Portygee's gone off to Paulmouth. He left word that he +couldn't sail with us this trip." + +"Then he'll never sail on the _Seamew_ again," declared the skipper +grimly. + +"And _that_ won't bother him none," said the boatswain gloomily. + +"I'll get breakfast for all hands," said Tunis. "I'm not above that. +Where are the hands?" + +"As far as I know, Cap'n Tunis, they are where Johnny Lark is. +Haven't shown up, and don't mean to," said Horry doggedly. + +Tunis Latham cursed his delinquent crew soundly. The rage which +flamed into his eyes, added to the pallor of his face, made an ugly +mask indeed. It was not often that he gave way to such an outburst, +but Horry had seen the same deadly anger displayed on occasion by +Captain Randall Latham. + +"Where's Mr. Chapin?" + +"He was here before you, Cap'n Tunis. He's gone up to town to see if +he can drum up some hands." + +"Where's 'Rion?" + +"He says he'll be here by the time you get ready to wheel the stuff +aboard." And the old man pointed with his pipe-stem toward the open +door of the shed. + +"Ha!" ejaculated Tunis. "Feared I'd set him to work, eh? Well, +they're all dogs together--the whole litter of 'em. I'll make the +coffee. Tell me when Mr. Chapin comes. I suppose we can hire enough +hands to get the freight aboard." + +"But we can't work the schooner with three men, Cap'n Tunis; nor +yet with four." + +"Don't I know that? I'll get a crew if I have to shanghai them," +promised Tunis grimly. + +Mason Chapin came along with half a dozen fellows after a while. One +was a negro who could cook. But there was no breakfast worthy of the +name served aboard the _Seamew_ that morning. They were late already +in getting to work. + +It was the middle of the forenoon before the schooner left port. +There was a crew, such as it was. But Mason Chapin had been obliged +to promise them extra pay to get them aboard the schooner at all. + +When 'Rion Latham slipped aboard finally, half the loading of the +cargo had been accomplished. Tunis himself was keeping tally. The +skipper beckoned his cousin to him. + +"'Rion," he said, "you certainly are about as useless a fellow as I +ever had anything to do with. These Portygees who have left me in +the lurch have some excuse for their actions. They are ignorant and +superstitious. You know mighty well that the stuff you have been +repeating about the schooner being cursed is nothing but lies and +old-women's gossip! You've done it to make trouble. I ought to have +had booted you overboard at the start." + +"Aw--you--" + +"Close your hatch!" ejaculated Tunis. "And keep it closed. I'm +talking, and I won't take any of your slack in return. I am not +married to you, thanks be! I think you've got pretty near enough of +me, and I'm sure I have of you, 'Rion. I give you warning--" + +"Oh! You do?" snarled 'Rion, his ugly face aflame. + +"Yes. I give you _fair_ warning. When the _Seamew_ gets back here to +Big Wreck Cove again, you're through! You can take your dunnage +ashore now if you like, but you go without pay if you do. Or you can +do your work properly on this trip and return. _Then_ you get +through. Take your choice." + +He expected 'Rion would leave the _Seamew_ then and there. Tunis +half hoped, indeed, that he would do so. But to his surprise, Orion +suddenly snatched the book and pencil out of the skipper's hand and, +growling that "he'd stay the voyage out," shuffled away to the rail +and began taking tally of the barrels and cases being hauled aboard. + +Working smartly, the new crew got the _Seamew_ under sail and out of +the cove two hours later. The wind held in a favorable quarter, and +they reached Hollis betimes. There they finished the schooner's +loading, and about dark went out to sea on a long tack and got +plenty of sea room before they made the short leg of it. + +Supper was the first good meal they had had aboard that day. After +everything was cleaned up, the black cook joined the crew forward. +In whispers the men talked over both the skipper and his schooner. +The story of the curse was known to everybody in Big Wreck Cove by +this time, and none of these new men was ignorant of it. They had, +however, merely used it as a means of getting more pay than ordinary +seamen were getting in such vessels. + +"'Tain't nothing as I can see," one of the older men said, "that is +likely to hurt us. It's a curse on the schooner, not on us folks +that warn't aboard her when she run under that other boat. And as +long as we keep away from the spot where the poor devils was +drowned, we ain't likely to see no ha'nts." + +The cook's eyes rolled tremendously. + +"You thinks likely this yere is that _Marlin B._?" + +"Bah!" exclaimed one, whose name was Carney. "It's only talk. Maybe +she ain't that schooner at all. Mr. Chapin says she ain't." + +"Is that so?" sneered the voice of 'Rion Latham behind them. "You +fellows don't want to believe what the skipper and the mate say. It +ain't to their benefit for you to believe the truth. Look here!" + +"What's that?" asked Carney, looking at the article Orion pushed +forward in the dark. "A broken oar?" + +"That's what it is. I found it only this morning in the hold, when I +was helping stow the last of the cargo. It was wedged in behind a +timber of her frame." + +"Well? What of it?" + +"Strike a match somebody. See what's burned into that handle?" + +Their heads were clustered about the faint glimmer of the match +flame. But the light was sufficient to reveal what 'Rion pointed +out. Burned more or less unevenly were the letters M A R L I N B. + +"What do you think of that?" exclaimed 'Rion. "Would that broken oar +be aboard of this dratted schooner if she wasn't the _Marlin B._ +painted over and a new name give her? What do you fellows think of +it?" + +There was silence in the group when the match flame died out. It was +finally the negro cook who made comment: + +"Lawsy me!" he groaned. "Ef I had only de faith of Peter I'd up an' +walk ashore from dis here cussed schooner right now!" + + + + +CHAPTER XXV + +TO LOVE AND BE LOVED + + +The girl whom Cap'n Ira Ball found in the kitchen of the old house +on Wreckers' Head when he hobbled out of his bedroom the next +morning was not the Ida May he had been wont to find of late, ready +with his shaving materials, hot water, and a clean and voluminous +checked apron to be tucked in about the neckband of his shirt. + +All was in readiness as usual, but the girl herself was smileless, +heavy-eyed, and slack of step. That she had suffered both in body +and mind since the day before, the least observant person in the +world would have easily comprehended. + +"I swan, Ida May!" gasped the old man. "Whatever's happened to you?" + +"I did not sleep well, Uncle Ira," she told him faintly. + +"Sleep? Why you look as though you'd been standing double watch for +a week of Sundays! I never see the beat! Has that crazy gal coming +here set ye all aback this way?" + +"I--I am afraid so." + +"'Tis a shame. I won't stand to have that gal come here again. +Prudence has been starting and crying out all night, too. She's as +much upset as you be. I cal'late you don't feel like shaving of me +this morning, Ida May." + +"Oh, yes, I do, Uncle Ira! Don't mind how I look." + +"But I do mind," he grumbled. "Folks' looks is a great p'int. I've +always held to it. Talk about a singed cat being better than it +looks--I doubt it!" + +"People of my complexion always look worse after a sleepless night," +explained Sheila, trying to smile at him. + +"That's a pity, too. And I feel the need of being spruced up a good +deal myself this morning, Ida May," he continued. "D'you see how +straggly my hair is gettin'? Do you think you could trim it a mite?" + +"Why, of course I can, Uncle Ira," she rejoined cheerfully. + +"I swan! You be a likely gal, Ida May," said the old man, both +reflectively and gratefully. "What would Prue and me do without you? +And no other girl but just you would have begun to fill the bill o' +lading. That's as sure as sure! See now," he went on, with emphasis, +"suppose you'd been such a one as that half-crazy critter that come +here yesterday! Where'd Prudence and me been with her in the house? +Well!" + +"She--she may not be as bad as she seemed under those particular +circumstances," Sheila said hesitatingly. "If she had come here--had +come here first and you and Aunt Prue had not known me at all--" + +"I swan! Don't say no more! Don't say no more, I tell ye!" gasped +Cap'n Ira. "It's bad luck to talk such a way; I do believe it is. +Come on, Ida May. You tackle my hair and let's see what you can do +with it. I know right well you'll make it look better than Prudence +used to do." + +Cap'n Ira was talking for effect, and the result he wished to +achieve was bringing a smile to Sheila's face and a brighter light +into her eyes, the violet hues of which were far more subdued than +he desired. His success was not marked, but he changed to some +degree the forlorn expression of the girl's countenance, so that +when Prudence appeared in the midst of the operation of shaving, +Sheila could greet the old woman with a tremulous smile. + +"You deary-dear!" crooned Prudence, with her withered arms about the +strong, young frame of the girl, drawing her close. "I know you've +suffered this night. That mad girl was enough to put us all out o' +kilter. But don't let any thought of her bother you, Ida May. Your +uncle and I love you, and if forty people said you didn't belong +here, we should keep you just the same. Ain't that so, Ira?" + +"Sure is," declared the captain vigorously. "No two ways about it. +We couldn't get along without Ida May, and I cal'late, the way +things look, that I'd better get that high fence I spoke of built +around this place at once. We're likely to have somebody come here +and carry the gal off almost any time. I can see that danger as +plain as plain!" + +Prudence laughed, yet there was a catch in her voice too. She kissed +the girl's tear-wet face tenderly. Sheila's heart throbbed so that +she could scarcely go on with the task of shaving Cap'n Ira. How +could she continue to live this lie before two people who were so +infinitely kind to her and who loved her so tenderly? + +And the girl loved them in return. It was no selfish thought which +held Sheila Macklin here in the old house on Wreckers' Head. She had +put aside all concern for her own personal comfort or ease. Had it +not been for her desire to shield Tunis and continue to aid and +comfort Cap'n Ira and Prudence, she might quickly and quietly have +left the place and thus have escaped all possibility of punishment +for the deception she had practiced. + +Yes, had these other considerations not been involved, she would +have run away! Although she chanced to have no money just at this +time, she would have left the Ball homestead and Wreckers' Head and +the town itself and walked so far away that nobody who knew her +would ever see her again. She had thought of doing this even as far +back as the time when she was so lonely and miserable in Boston. +Now, she would willingly have become a tramp for the purpose of +getting out of the affliction which enmeshed her. + +She could not, nevertheless, yield to this temptation. If she ran +away from the Balls and Big Wreck Cove, she would tacitly admit the +truth of all Ida May Bostwick's claims, and possibly involve Tunis +in the wreckage. Therefore she held to her determination of keeping +her place here until she was actually driven forth. + +As a last resort, having now worked out the detail of that plan in +her mind, she believed she could save Tunis from much calumny if it +became positively necessary for her to depart under this cloud and +abandon her place to the real Ida May. The latter must, however, +come with positive proof of her identity--evidence sufficient to +convince Cap'n Ira and Prudence--before Sheila Macklin would release +her grasp upon what she had obtained by trickery and deceit. + +Not for a moment did the girl try to excuse to herself what she had +done. In spite of the Balls' need of her, and in spite of Tunis' +love, Sheila did not try to deceive herself with any sophistry about +the end justifying the deed. Such thinking could not satisfy her +now. + +Sheila's eyes were opened. She beheld before her both the wide and +the narrow way. If she took the pleasanter path, it was with a full +knowledge of what she did. Yet would it be the pleasanter path? She +doubted this. If she continued to fight for a place which was not +hers by right, she must walk for all time in a slippery way. This +claim of the real Ida May might be perennial; the girl might return +again and again to the attack. For years--as long as the Balls lived +and Sheila remained with them--she must be ever on the alert to +defend her position with them. + +And after the good old people died--what then? Their property here +on the Head and their money would no more belong to Sheila Macklin +than it did now. She shrank in horror from the thought of swindling +the real Ida May out of anything which might legally be hers when +the Balls were gone. Of course, Cap'n Ira and Prudence could will +their property to whom they pleased. Still, Ida May was Prudence's +niece! + +As the day dragged on, Ida May did not appear, but the old folks +talked about her continually, until Sheila thought she must cry +aloud to them to stop. + +"The poor thing must be half-witted, of course," Mrs. Ball said +ruminatively. "Can't be otherwise. But she must have known +something about Sarah Honey and her folks." + +"Seems likely," agreed Cap'n Ira. + +"Now, you know, Ira, Sarah was an orphan and I was her mother's only +relation--and only that in a kind of a left-handed way, for I wasn't +really her aunt. That branch of the Honeys--Sarah's father's +folks--had all died out. Sarah lived about--kinder from pillar to +post as you might say--till she went to Boston and met Mr. Bostwick. +Isn't that so, Ida May?" + +"Yes. So I understand," agreed the girl faintly. + +"Now, you don't remember your mother much, Ida May," pursued +Prudence confidently. "You was too young when she died. And you +being brought up among the Bostwicks, you didn't know much about us +down here on the Cape. But don't you remember any neighbor that +lived near you there in Boston that had a gal something like this +crazy one that come here?" + +"I swan!" ejaculated Cap'n Ira. "You're coming out strong, old +woman, I do say." + +Sheila could only shake her head. + +"Why, see," said Prudence, encouraged by her husband's commendation, +"there might have been a neighbor woman that Sarah--your mother, you +know, Ida May--was close acquainted with. Maybe she used to talk +with this neighbor a good deal about her young days, and how she +lived down here. You know women often gossip that way." + +"I'll say they do!" put in Cap'n Ira, tapping the knob of his cane. + +"Well, now," said the old woman, greatly interested in her own idea, +and a little proud of it, "suppose that neighbor had a little girl +who heard all these things Sarah Bostwick might have said. And if +that child's brain wasn't just right--if she was a little +weak-minded, poor thing--what's more reasonable than that she +treasured it all up in her mind and after years, in one of her +spells of weak-mindedness, she got the idea _she_ was Ida May +Bostwick, and determined to come here and visit us!" + +"I swan, Prudence!" exclaimed Cap'n Ira. "It's like a story-book--a +reg'lar novel." + +"Well, it might be," said his wife, smiling quite proudly. + +"Only after all, that gal didn't seem so very weak-minded," muttered +Cap'n Ira. "She seemed more mean and ugly than weak." + +Sheila had thought somewhat along this line herself. At least, she +knew how weak the real Ida May's story must sound to most people in +the neighborhood, unless the claimant had actual proof of birth and +name to bolster her attempt to win the Balls. There was but a +tenuous thread connecting Ida May with Big Wreck Cove, or any other +part of Cape Cod. The Bostwicks--the girl's immediate family, at +least--were dead. + +These facts, already gathered by Sheila from Aunt Prudence's +conversation with the neighboring women, were the foundation on +which she had built her desperate hope of keeping up the deception +and thwarting the other girl, no matter how bitterly the latter +might press her claim. + +Nor was she, Sheila felt, depriving Ida May of anything which the +latter, if she obtained it, would actually prize. The shallow girl +was not the sort of person to appreciate the kindness of the two old +people or give them any comfort and sympathy in return. Why, both +Cap'n Ira and Prudence already shrank from the new claimant! + +This fact, however, did not cause Sheila, the imposter, to lose +sight of the point that Cap'n Ira and his wife could both be very +stern in attitude and speech toward the evildoer. They made no +compromises with evil. + +Even the old man, philosophical as he was and wont to look upon most +human frailities with a lenient if not a humorous eye, would not +excuse actual crime. And something very like a crime had been +committed. + +The day passed without any reappearance of Ida May upon Wreckers' +Head, but just after nightfall and while the supper dishes were +being cleared away, Zebedee Pauling knocked at the kitchen door. All +three of the Ball household looked upon the young fellow +expectantly when he stepped in. + +"I was just passing by and thought I'd look in and see how you all +were," said Zeb, with his usual shy manner and apologetic smile. + +"Come in and set down, Zeb," said the captain eagerly. "I cal'late +you've got some news for us." + +"I don't know," said Zeb thoughtfully, "but what you've got some +news that might satisfy mom and me. That is, about that girl Tunis +brought to the house." + +"What about her, Zeb?" queried Prudence anxiously. + +"Mom and I would be glad to know what you know about her," said +Zebedee. "She--she 'pears to have a--a great imagination." + +"I shouldn't wonder," Cap'n Ira snorted. + +"She don't act crazy, but she certainly talks crazy," the visitor +went on emphatically. "Why, she says the most ridiculous things +about--about Miss Bostwick!" He bowed and blushed as he spoke the +name and looked penitently toward Sheila. "Why, she declares _her_ +name is Bostwick!" + +"That's what she done up here," said Cap'n Ira grimly. "I cal'late +she means to kick up a fuss. Is she still stopping with your mother, +Zeb?" + +"Yes. She paid a week's board money down. I expect mom wouldn't have +taken her, or it, if Tunis hadn't brought her." + +"That wasn't Tunis' fault," snapped the old man. "He had to get +shet of her somehow. We expect she'll try to make trouble." + +"Oh, as for that," said Zeb, with some relief, "I don't see, even if +she is your niece, why she should expect you to take her in if you +don't want to!" + +"She ain't," said Cap'n Ira flatly. "You can take that from me, +Zeb." + +"Not any relation at all?" + +"None at all, as far as we know," declared the captain. + +"Then what does she want to talk the way she does, for?" cried the +young man. "I told mom she was crazy, and now I know she is." + +"I guess likely," agreed the old man, taking upon himself the burden +of the explanation. "None of us up here ever saw the gal before. +Neither Prudence nor me nor Ida May. She's loony!" + +"I told mom so," reiterated Zeb, with a great sigh of relief. "I +know what she said must be a pack of foolishness. But you know how +mom is. I--" + +"She's soft. I know," returned Cap'n Ira. + +"She's so tender-hearted," explained Zeb. "The girl talks so. She's +talked mom not into believing in her, but into kind of listening and +sympathizing with her. And now, to-night, she's took her to see +Elder Minnett." + +"What? I swan! To see the elder!" ejaculated Cap'n Ira. "What she +needs is a doctor, not a minister. What do you think of that, +Prudence?" + +"I hope Elder Minnett will be able to put her in better mind," +sighed his wife. "That girl must have a very wicked heart, indeed, +if she isn't really crazy." + + + + +CHAPTER XXVI + +ELDER MINNETT HAS HIS SAY + + +Another night counted among the interminable nights which have +dragged their slow length across the couch of sleeplessness. To +Sheila, lying in the four-poster--a downy couch, indeed, for a quiet +conscience--the space of time after she blew out her lamp and until +the dawn passed like the sluggish coils of some Midgard serpent. An +eternity in itself. + +She came down to her daily tasks again with no change in her looks, +although her voice had the same placid, kindly tone which had +cheered the old people for these many weeks. But they both were +worried about her. + +"Maybe she's been working too hard, Prudence," ventured the old man. +"Can it be so, d'ye think?" + +"She says she likes to work. She's a marvel of a housekeeper, Ira. I +don't mean to put too much on her, but I can't do much myself, spry +as I do feel this fall. And she won't let me, anyway." + +"I know, I know," muttered Cap'n Ira. "She's with you like she is +with me. Always running to help me, or to pick up something I let +fall, or to fetch and carry. A kinder girl never breathed. I swan! +What should we do without her, Prue? That Tunis--" + +"Sh!" Prudence begged him. "Don't chaff no more about that, Ira." + +"Why not?" he asked. "Though I don't feel much like chaffing when I +think of them getting married. 'Tis a pretty serious business for +us, Prudence." + +"I had a chance to hint about it last night when you went outside +with Zebedee," whispered his wife, "I spoke about Tunis. She--she +says she'll never leave us to marry Tunis or any other man." + +"What's that?" ejaculated Cap'n Ira. "He wouldn't agree to come and +live here, I reckon. What would become of his Aunt 'Cretia? I don't +guess there's any fear of her getting married, is there?" + +"No, no! Don't be funnin'! But Ida May said just that--in so many +words." + +"She's mad with him, do you cal'late? They had a tiff!" cried her +husband. "And they were like two turtledoves the night that other +gal come here. It don't seem possible. I swan! _That's_ why she's so +on her beam ends, I bet a cake!" + +"It may be. She wouldn't say much. I didn't understand, though, +that they had quarreled. Only that she'd made up her mind that she +wouldn't marry." + +"Oh, she'll change her mind!" said Cap'n Ira, wagging his head. + +"Do you think so? Not so easy. You'd ought to know by this time how +firm Ida May can be." + +"The Lord help Tunis then," said Cap'n Ira emphatically. "But his +loss is our gain. Ain't no two ways about that." + +Sheila's secret thoughts were not calculated to calm her soul. Her +determination braced her body as well as her mind to go about her +daily tasks with her usual thoroughness, but she could not confront +the old people with even a ghost of her usual smile. So she kept out +of their way as much as possible and communed alone with her bitter +thoughts. + +The uncertainty of what Ida May was doing and saying down there in +Big Wreck Cove was not all that agitated Sheila. Her conscience, so +long lulled by her peaceful existence here with the two old people, +was now continually censuring her. + +Sin brings its own secret punishment, though the sinner may hide the +effects of the punishment for a long time. But Sheila could not now +conceal the effect of the mental pain and the remorse she suffered. + +Of one thing she might be sure. The neighbors had not as yet heard +about the real Ida May or heard her story. Otherwise some of the +women living on the Head would have been in to hear the particulars +from Prudence. + +But that afternoon the throaty chug of Elder Minnett's little +car--it had created almost a scandal in Big Wreck Cove when he +bought it--was heard mounting the road to the Head. + +"I swan!" commented Cap'n Ira, who sat at the sunny sitting-room +window, for it was a cold day. "Here comes that tin wagon of the +elder's. But he's alone. Get on your best bib and tucker, Prudence, +for there ain't any doubt but what he's headin' in this way." + +"Oh, dear me!" fluttered his wife. "I wonder what he's going to say. +Make the tea strong, Ida May. The elder likes it so it'll about bear +up an egg. And open a jar of that quince jam. I wish we had fresh +biscuits, although them you made for dinner were light as feathers." + +"I'll make some now. There's a hot oven," replied the girl. + +"No, no," interposed Cap'n Ira firmly. "I want you should sit in +here with us and hear all the elder's got to say." + +"Perhaps, Uncle Ira, he will want to talk to you and Aunt Prue +privately." + +"There won't be no private talk about you, Ida May," snorted the +captain, his keen eyes sparkling. "Not much! If he's got anything to +say to your aunt and me, he's got to say it in your hearing." + +The elder was a tall and bony man with a stiff brush of gray beard +and bushy hair to match, which seemed as uncompromising as his +doctrinal discourses in the pulpit. He was an old-fashioned +preacher, but not wholly an old-fashioned thinker. + +Sheila had thought, on the few occasions when she had met him away +from his pulpit, that there was an undercurrent of humanity in him +quite equal to that in Cap'n Ira Ball, but his personal appearance +and rather gruff manner made it difficult for one to be sure of the +measure of his tenderness. + +How Elder Minnett appeared in the sick room or in the house of +sorrow, she did not know. She could not very well imagine his being +tender at any time with the sinner at whom he thundered from the +pulpit. Secretly she trembled at the old clergyman's approach. + +"Well, Elder!" was the warm greeting of Prudence at the front door +when the rattling automobile came to a wheezing halt before the +gate. "Do tell! Ira said he see you coming up the road, and I was +determined you shouldn't drive by without speaking. Do come in." + +"I propose to, Sister Ball," was the grim-lipped reply. + +He came into the house and took the proffered chair in the sitting +room. They spoke of the weather, of the tide, and of the clam +harvest. The farm crops back of Big Wreck Cove did not interest +Cap'n Ira. + +"Well," said the elder finally, clearing his throat, "I've come up +here on an errand you can possibly guess, Cap'n Ira and Sister +Ball." + +"Maybe we can and maybe we can't," observed the captain with a +countenance quite as wooden as the elder himself displayed. + +"I come on behalf of that young woman who was here to see you the +other day." + +"It's my opinion you'd done better to have gone to the insane asylum +folks about her," rejoined Cap'n Ira. + +"Now, Ira!" said Prudence softly. + +"Seeing it as you do, Cap'n Ira," the elder remarked quite equably, +"I conclude that you might think that. But you formed your judgment +in the heat of--well, not anger, of course--but without sufficient +reflection." + +"Humph!" grunted Cap'n Ira noncommittally. + +"I have talked with that young woman on two occasions," said the +elder. + +"With what young woman?" interrupted Cap'n Ira. + +"With the girl staying at the Widow Pauling's. The girl who claims +to be your niece." + +"You'd better talk with the other young woman," said Cap'n Ira +sternly. "Ida May! Just you come in here and sit down. You are as +much interested as we be, I guess. _This_ is Ida May Bostwick, +Elder Minnett," he added, as Sheila entered. + +"Yes, yes. I have had the pleasure," said the elder, bowing gravely +without offering to shake hands. He turned abruptly to Prudence. +"You are quite convinced in your own mind, Sister Ball, that the +young woman at the Pauling's is not your niece?" + +"Why, Elder Minnett," returned Prudence, "how _can_ she be? Ida May +is Sarah Honey's only child, and Sarah was only distantly related to +me. There never was another girl in the family--not like that one +that came here the other day, for sure!" And the old woman shook her +head emphatically. + +"That girl you got down there at the port, Elder, is crazy--crazy as +a loon," put in Cap'n Ira harshly. + +"I am not so sure of that," the clergyman said shortly. + +"I swan! Beg your pardon, Elder. No offense. But you don't mean to +say that she seems sane and sensible to you?" + +"Sane--yes! As for being sensible, that is another thing," confessed +Elder Minnett. + +"Huh! What do you mean by that?" asked Cap'n Ira curiously. + +"She has told her story in full to me, and told it twice alike," +said the grim-visaged minister, looking at Sheila as he answered the +query. "An insane person is not so likely to do that, I believe. But +she is not what I would call a sensible young woman. Not at all." + +"I should say not!" gasped Prudence. + +"But I have heard her, and I have reflected on what she has said. I +do not see, if she is an impostor, how she could have made up that +story." + +"Then she _must_ be loony," muttered Cap'n Ira. + +"I presume she told the same story to you that she did to me," +pursued Elder Minnett. "I do not understand Tunis Latham's part in +it, but the rest of her story seems quite reasonable." + +"Reasonable?" repeated Prudence, with some warmth. "Do you call it +reasonable to say what she did about Ida May?" + +"In speaking of the young woman's reasonableness I mean in regard to +the personal details she gave me. What she said in her anger to, or +of, other people has no influence whatsoever on my judgment." + +"Well, it has on mine!" exclaimed Cap'n Ira. "I'd have drove out a +dozen gals that spoke as she did to Prudence and Ida May--crazy or +not!" + +"You would be wrong, Cap'n Ball," said the elder severely. + +"Well, let's have the p'ints the girl makes!" growled the old +shipmaster. "I will listen to 'em." + +Elder Minnett bowed formally and began Ida May's story, checking off +the several assertions she had made when she was at the Ball house +far more clearly than the girl herself had done. As Sheila +listened, her heart sank even lower. It was so very reasonable! How +could the Balls fail to be impressed? + +But Cap'n Ira and Prudence listened with more of a puzzled +expression in their countenances than anything else. It seemed +altogether wild and improbable to them. Why! There sat Ida May +before them. There could not be two Ida May Bostwicks! + +"Say!" exclaimed Cap'n Ira suddenly, after Elder Minnett had +concluded, "that girl says she worked at Hoskin & Marl's?" + +"Yes." + +"Why, ain't that where you worked, Ida May?" + +"Yes," was Sheila's faint admission. + +"You never see her there, did you?" + +"I do not remember of having seen her until she came here," the girl +said quite truthfully. + +"Ought to be some way of proving up that," muttered Cap'n Ira. + +"I have written to Hoskin & Marl, at the other young woman's +instigation, and have asked about her," said Elder Minnett. + +"Well, I never!" gasped Prudence, and her withered, old face grew +pink. + +"I hope you will not take offense," said the visitor evenly. "You +must understand that the young woman has come to me in trouble, and +it is my duty to aid her if I can--in any proper way. That is my +office. _Any_ young woman"--he looked directly at Sheila again as he +said it--"will find in me an adviser and a friend whenever she may +need my help." + +"We all know how good you are, Elder Minnett," Prudence hastened to +say. "But that girl--" + +"That girl," he interrupted, "is a human being needing help. I have +advised her. Now I want to advise you." + +"Out with it, Elder," said Cap'n Ira. "Good advice ain't to be +sneezed at--not as I ever heard." + +"I have the other young woman's promise that she will tell her story +to nobody else--nobody at all--until I can hear from those whom she +says are her employers. But with the understanding that you will do +your part." + +"What's that?" asked Cap'n Ira quickly. + +"She wants to come up here and stay with you. She says she is sure +you are her relatives. She says if you will let her come, she +will be able to prove to you that she is the real niece you +expected--whom you sent for last summer." + +"Why, she's crazy!" again cried Cap'n Ira. + +"I--I am almost afraid of her," murmured Prudence, looking from +Sheila to her husband. + +"I assure you, Sister Ball, she is not insane. She is harmless." + +"She didn't talk as though she was when she was here--not by a +jugful," declared Cap'n Ira bitterly. + +"That was because she was angry," explained Elder Minnett +patiently. "You must not judge her by her appearance when she came +here the other day and found--as she declares--another girl in her +rightful place." + +"I swan!" exclaimed the old shipmaster, bursting out again. "I won't +stand for that. Her rightful place, indeed! Why, if she was forty +times Prudence's niece and we didn't want her here, what's to make +us take her, I want to know?" + +"Do you think we ought to, Elder?" questioned Prudence faintly. + +"I think, under all the circumstances, that it is your Christian +duty. Know the girl better. See if there is not something in her +that reminds you--" + +"Avast there!" shouted Cap'n Ira, pounding with his cane on the +floor. "That's going a deal too far. 'Christian duty,' indeed! How +about our duty to Ida May setting there, and to ourselves? Prudence +is afraid of that crazy gal in the first place." + +"I give you my word she is not insane." + +"That's your opinion," said the captain grimly. "I wouldn't back it +with my word, Elder, unless I was prepared to go the whole v'y'ge. +Do you mean to say that you accept that gal's story as true--in all +partic'lars?" + +"I don't say that." + +"Then I shall stick to my opinion. She's as loony as she can be. And +I am plumb against insulting our Ida May by letting the girl come +up here. What do you say, Prudence?" + +The old woman was much perturbed. Elder Minnett was a minister of +the gospel. To be told by him that it was her Christian duty to take +a certain course bore much weight with Prudence Ball. + +But when she looked at Sheila, sitting there so pale and silent, and +realized that on her head all this was falling, the old woman rose +up, burst into tears, and threw herself into the girl's arms. + +"No, no!" she sobbed. "Don't let her come here, Ira. We don't want +her. We don't want anybody but Ida May whom we love so dear, and who +we know loves us. We can't do it, Elder Minnett! Why, if they should +come and tell me--and prove it--that Ida May wasn't our niece and +that other girl was, I couldn't bear the creature 'round. No, I +couldn't. I couldn't forgive anybody that would separate us from +this dear, dear girl!" + +Cap'n Ira had got upon his feet and was leaning forward on his cane. +With a shaking finger he drew the elder's attention to the two +women, rocking in each other's arms. + +"You hear that? You see that?" demanded the captain brokenly, the +tears starting from his own eyes and finding gutters down his +cleanly shaved cheeks. "That's your answer, Elder! You have some +idea how Prudence and I longed for young company in this house, and +somebody to help and comfort us. _And we got her._ + +"Ida May come to us like the falling of manna in the wilderness for +them spent and wandering Israelites. She has been to us more than +ever we dared hope for. If she was our own child and had growed up +here on Wreckers' Head our own born daughter, I couldn't think no +more of her. + +"And you come here and ask us to give countenance for a moment to a +half-witted girl that says she belongs here in Ida May's place, and +claiming Ida May's name. More than that, she saying that our own +girl that we love so is a liar and an impostor and altogether +bad--such as she must be if she had fooled us so. I swan! Elder, I +should think you'd have more sense." And Cap'n Ira concluded +abruptly and with a return to his usual self-control. + +The silence which ensued was only broken by the old woman's sobs. +Cap'n Ira, frankly wiping his own eyes with the great silk +handkerchief which he usually flourished when he took snuff, strode +across the room and patted Prudence's withered shoulder. He said +nothing, nor did the elder. It was Sheila who broke the silence at +last. + +She had stood up. Now she put Prudence tenderly into Cap'n Ira's +arms. She gave him, too, such a thankful, beaming glance that the +old man was almost staggered. For he had not seen one of those +smiles for more than two days. + +"Elder Minnett," Sheila said, and her voice was quite steady, "I +think it is my place to speak." + +"Yes?" was the noncommittal response of the grim old minister. + +"I should not think for a moment of doubting your judgment in such a +matter. If you say Cap'n Ira and Mrs. Ball should receive this--this +girl here while the matter is being examined, I hope they will agree +with you and allow her to come." + +"Why, Ida May!" gasped Prudence. + +"That gal's an angel! She ain't nothing but an angel!" marveled +Cap'n Ira. + +"But I think," said Sheila, "that the girl should be made to promise +that while she is here, and if she comes here, that she will not +speak to anybody outside this room at the present time of the claim +she makes--especially as it seems to affect Captain Latham." + +"I swan! That's so! He's got a wage and share in this thing, ain't +he? And he ain't here to defend himself, if we be." + +The elder nodded slowly. His gaze did not leave Sheila's face. + +"I think I can promise that in her name. Indeed, I had already +extracted such a promise before I would undertake to come up here. I +have warned Mrs. Pauling not to repeat a word the girl said to her. +And Zebedee is a prudent young man." + +"I told Zeb myself to keep his hatch battened," growled Cap'n Ira. +"But, I swan, Ida May! I don't see how you can bear to have the +crazy critter here. And Prudence--" + +"If Ida May says she is willing," sighed the old woman, glad to be +able to set a course not opposed to her minister's advice. + +"Thank you, young woman," Elder Minnett said, speaking grimly enough +to Sheila. "Those who have nothing to fear can afford to be +generous. You have done right." + +The subject was dropped--to the relief of all of them. Tea was +poured from the marble-topped, black-walnut table, and Sheila passed +biscuit, jam, cakes, and other delicacies. She performed her part of +the ceremony with apparent calm. She did not speak to the elder +again, nor he to her, save when she ran out to carry forgotten +gloves to him when he had climbed into the automobile. + +The grim old man shot her through with the keenest of keen glances +as he accepted the gloves. + +"I don't think, young woman," he said softly, "that you are likely +to put poison in that other girl's tea--as she says she's afraid you +will." + +Then he drove away. + + + + +CHAPTER XXVII + +CAP'N IRA SPEAKS OUT + + +Wrung as Sheila's heart had been by the expression of the old +woman's utter confidence in her and by Cap'n Ira's warm words of +approbation spoken before the elder, it was nevertheless for Tunis +Latham's sake that she had abetted the minister's desire and had +agreed that the real Ida May Bostwick should come to the Ball house +on Wreckers' Head. + +By extracting a promise from Ida May that she would talk to nobody +for the present--especially about the connection of the captain of +the _Seamew_ with Ida May's affairs--Sheila believed she had entered +a wedge which might open the way for the young man to escape from a +situation which threatened both his reputation and his peace of +mind. + +To save Tunis! She was fairly obsessed by that thought. Her vow +before the picture of Tunis' mother in the _Seamew's_ cabin must be +in Sheila's view to the very end. She had a sufficient share of +that vision of the Celt to be deeply impressed by a promise made as +that had been made--though in secret. It was a sacred pledge. + +It was no easy matter for any of the Ball household to consider the +coming of Ida May with serenity. Prudence, at heart, shrank from the +claimant on her hospitality almost as much as Sheila did. If Cap'n +Ira hid his perturbation better than the others, he nevertheless +hobbled about with a very solemn countenance. + +"I swan!" he muttered within Sheila's hearing. "It's most like there +was a corpse in the house. This ain't no way to live. I do wish +Elder Minnett could have minded his own business and let well enough +alone. Let the girl talk, and other folks, too. Trying to stop +gossip is like trying to put your finger on a drop of quicksilver. +There won't be no good come o' that girl being here. That's as sure +as sure." + +The elder's car came wheezing up the hill again about the middle of +the forenoon. He did not alight himself, but Ida May needed the +presence of nobody to lend her assurance. She hopped out of the car +with her bag and flaunted her cheap finery through the gate and in +at the front door. + +Her reception at this end of the house marked the unmistakable fact +that Prudence and Cap'n Ira received her as a stranger rather than +in a confidential way. + +"Well, Aunt Prue! For you are my aunt whatever you may say," was +Ida May's prologue. "And you are my uncle," she added, her +greenish-brown eyes flashing a glance at the grimly observant +captain. "I must say it's pretty shabby treatment I've got from you +so far. But I don't blame you--not at all. I blame that girl and +Tunis Latham." + +"Avast there!" put in Cap'n Ira so sternly and with so threatening a +tone of voice and visage that even Ida May was silenced. "We've let +you come here, my girl, because Elder Minnett asked us to; and not +at all because our opinion of you is changed. Far from it. You're +here on sufferance and you'd best be civil spoken while you remain. +Ain't that the ticket, Prudence?" + +His wife nodded, in full accord with his statement of the situation, +although she could not bear to look so sternly on any person as +Cap'n Ira now looked at Ida May. + +"Well! I like that!" sniffed the girl, tossing her head, but she +actually shrank from the captain. + +"Furthermore, as regards Tunis Latham, you was to say nothing about +him outside of this house if you was let come here. And I warn you, +we don't care to hear nothing in his disfavor _in_ this house." + +"Oh! I can see he's a favorite with you," muttered Ida May. + +"Then trim your sails according," admonished the old man. "In +addition, you mentioned the young woman we already got here in a way +we don't like none too well. I want to impress on your mind that it +was only through her saying she was agreeable to your coming here +that we agreed to the elder's request and let you come." + +"She did, eh?" cried Ida May, flouncing in her chair. "Well, I don't +thank her." + +"No. I cal'late you ain't of a thanking disposition," said Cap'n +Ira. "But you like enough won't drop your bread butter-side down. +That's all." + +Ida May, startled by his speech, stared with less impudence at the +old man. For his part, the captain watched her pretty closely, and +he had met and judged too many people in his day not to form +gradually, as the hours passed, a decided opinion regarding Ida May. + +Nor did he cling to his first impression--the one made in haste and +some vexation, when she had first tried to thrust herself into the +Ball household and demanded the place filled by Sheila Macklin. This +girl certainly was not insane. But with all her apparent smartness, +Cap'n Ira easily saw that she was not intelligent--that she had +scarcely ordinary understanding. Beside the newcomer's shallow +nature and even more shallow endowments, Sheila seemed to be from a +different world. + +"I swan!" whispered Cap'n Ira to Prudence some time later. "The +difference between them two girls! They ain't to be spoke of in the +same county, I declare. Look at that one, Prudence," he said, with a +side glance at the newcomer. "Ain't she a sight with them thin and +flashy clothes?" + +"I can't see anything about her that looks like any of the Honeys, +let alone Sarah." + +"Huh! No. Only that her hair's sorter red," returned Cap'n Ira, +"like Sarah's was." + +The visitor proved her position in the household by sitting idly in +a rocking-chair looking over some pictures which were on the table +or staring out of the window. She offered to do nothing for +Prudence. But, of course, Ida May was not very domestic. Living in a +furnished room and working behind the counter in a department store +does not develop the domestic virtues to any appreciable degree. + +She did not see Sheila until dinner was on the table and she was +called to the meal with Cap'n Ira and the old woman. The stiff, +little bow with which Ida May favored the girl in possession was +returned by the latter quite as formally. + +Sheila had regained complete control of voice and face now. Although +she did not actually address Ida May, her manner was such that there +was no restraint put upon the company. It was the newcomer's manner, +if anything, that curtailed the usual friendly intercourse at the +Ball table. + +Ida May possessed some powers of observation. She would have said +herself that she was able to "put two and two together." The way the +meal had been cooked, the way it was served, and the work entailed +in doing both these things, were matters not overlooked by the +visitor. + +She knew that Prudence had given neither thought nor attention to +getting the dinner. The girl the Balls had received in Ida May's +name and supposed identity had done it all herself. It seemed to be +expected of her! + +She saw, before the day was over, that Sheila was a very busy person +indeed. That she not only did the housework, but that she waited +upon Prudence and Cap'n Ira "hand and foot." She did it with such +unconcern that the new girl could be sure these tasks were quite +what was expected of her. + +"Why," exclaimed Ida May to herself, "she's just hired help! Is +_that_ what they wanted me for when they sent Tunis Latham up to +Boston after me? I'd like to see myself!" + +She had foreseen something of this kind when she had refused so +unconditionally to come down here to the Cape. And her observation +of the house and its furnishings, as well as the appearance of the +old couple, had confirmed her suspicion that her belief in the Balls +"being pretty well fixed" was groundless. + +After her interview with Elder Minnett, although she had refrained +from detailing her story and her spiteful comments about Sheila and +Tunis Latham to the Paulings, she had not ceased to question Zebedee +and his mother about the financial condition of the Balls. + +She had learned that a couple of thousand dollars would probably buy +all the real property the old people owned on Wreckers' Head. There +was a certain invested sum which secured them a fair living. Beyond +that, the Big Wreck Cove people knew of no wealth belonging to +either Cap'n Ira or Prudence. + +Ida May already considered that she had come down here to the Cape +on a fool's errand. She would like to make herself solid, however, +with the old folks so as to benefit when they were dead and gone, if +that were possible. But to make herself a kitchen drudge for them? +She would like to see herself! + +There was a phase of the situation which held Ida May to the course +she had set sail upon, and one which would hold her to it to the +bitter end. Her spitefulness and determination to be revenged upon +this unknown girl who had usurped the place originally offered her +by the Balls, and who had stolen her name as well, was quite +sufficient to cause a person of Ida May Bostwick's character to +fight for her rights. + +She would be revenged on Tunis, too. Or, at least, she would make +him, as well as the other girl, suffer for the slight he had put +upon her. + +Had she not preened her feathers and strutted her very best on the +occasion when he interviewed her at Hoskin & Marl's and taken her +out to lunch? And to no end at all! He had been quite unimpressed by +Ida May's airs and graces. + +Yet he would take up with this other girl--a mere nobody. Worse than +a nobody, of course. She must be both a bad and a cunning woman to +have done what it was plain she had done. She had wound Tunis Latham +around her finger, and had hoodwinked the old people in the bargain! + +Ida May saw the other girl waiting on Prudence and Cap'n Ira; she +observed her tenderness toward them and their delight in her +ministrations; and these things which she regarded with her +green-glinting eyes made her taste the bitterness of wormwood. She +hated Sheila more and more as the day wore on; and she scorned the +old people both for what she considered this niggardliness and for +their simplicity, as well, in being fooled by this other girl. + +For, of course, to Ida May's mind, Sheila's kindness and the love +shown for the Balls on her part was all put on. It could not be +otherwise. Ida May Bostwick could not, in the first place, imagine +any sane girl "falling for the two old hicks." + +Prudence could seldom show herself other than kindly toward any +person whether she exactly approved of that person or not. So she +chatted cheerfully at Ida May, if not with her. She was quite as +insistent as Cap'n Ira, however, in keeping away from the vexing +question of the identity of the two girls. + +Right at the first the question had been raised: where should the +visitor be put to sleep? Ida May was prepared to object strenuously +if any slight was put upon her, such as being given some little, +tucked-up attic room away from the rest of the family. Had she +dared, she would have demanded the use of the room the false Ida May +occupied; only she was not sure, after seeing the position Sheila +seemed to hold in the household, that she cared to be put to sleep +in the room of the "hired help." + +But Sheila herself settled that question. + +"The guest room is ready. Aunt Prue," she said to Prudence. "I +cleaned it this week and the little stove is set up in there if it +should grow cold overnight. All the bed needs is aired sheets. I'll +get them out of the press." + +So Prudence took Ida May to the guest chamber, which was beyond the +parlor. A black-walnut set, which had been the height of +magnificence when Cap'n Ira and Prudence were married, filled the +shade-drawn room with shadows. There was an ingrain carpet on the +floor of a green groundwork with pale-yellow flowers on it, of a +genus known to no botanist. The tidies on the chair backs were so +stiff with starch that it would be a punishment to lay one's head +against them. + +On a little marble-topped table between the windows was something +made of shells and seaweed in a glass-topped case. It looked to Ida +May like a dead baby in a coffin. + +"Of all the junk!" she muttered to herself when Prudence left her to +arrange the contents of her bag as she chose. "And that girl likes +it here! Well, I'll show her who's who and what's what! + +"I'd like to know where I ever saw her face before? I bet it was +somewhere she'd no business to be--just as she has sneaked in here +where she doesn't belong. The nasty, hateful thing! + +"If Bessie Dole or Mayme Leary could only see this dump!" she added, +looking over the room again. "Anyhow, I've made 'em give me the best +they've got. I'll show 'em how to treat a _real_ relation that comes +to see 'em." + +Supper time came and passed no more cheerfully than had the midday +meal. The society of the old people was anything but enlivening for +Ida May. In desperation she began to talk, and out of sheer +perverseness she lighted upon the subject of the establishment of +Hoskin & Marl. + +Now Prudence found this topic of interest, for since Annabel +Coffin--she who was a Buttle--had dilated upon those great marts of +trade in Boston, the old woman had been vastly curious. Sheila had +never cared to talk of her experiences as saleswoman behind the +counter. + +"They tell me they sell most everything you could name in those +stores," Prudence said reflectively. "Heaps of dry goods, I suppose. +Let me see, what did you sell, my dear?" + +"I'm in the laces," said Ida May. "But Hoskin & Marl sell lots +besides dry goods." + +"Oh, yes! Annabel did say something about automobiles and--and +plasters; didn't she, Ira?" + +"Goodness knows," rejoined her husband with a groan. "Annabel Coffin +said so much the last time she was here that my head buzzes now when +I think of her." + +"Now, you hesh!" said Prudence. "Never can interest a man in such +things. So you sold laces, did you, my dear? Oh, Ida May!" she +exclaimed suddenly to Sheila, sitting on the other side of the +table. "Ida May, what did you say you sold in that store? You worked +for Hoskin & Marl, didn't you?" + +"Ye-es. I--I was in the silverware and jewelry department," +stammered Sheila, the question coming so unexpectedly that she could +not exercise consideration before making answer. + +"Now, is that so?" cried Prudence. "That must have been nice. To +handle all them pretty things. But lace is pretty, too," she added, +turning quickly to the guest again. "I expect you find it so." + +The old woman was startled into silence by the expression she saw +upon Ida May's face. The latter was glaring across the table at +Sheila. No other word could so express the intense and malevolent +look in those greenish-brown eyes and on that sharp countenance. + +Sheila's gaze was enthralled as well by Ida May's sudden emotion. +She half rose from her chair. But her strength left her limbs again, +and she fell back into the seat. + +"What's the matter, Ida May?" demanded Cap'n Ira, in wonder and +alarm. + +The real Ida May sprang up with a shriek. She shook her hand at +Sheila and for a moment could not articulate. Then she said: + +"I know her now! I knew I'd seen that creature before and I thought +I'd remember what and who she is. And she dares come down here and +sneak her way into honest people's houses! The gall of her!" + + + + +CHAPTER XXVIII + +GONE + + +"Looker here, girl!" exclaimed Cap'n Ira sternly. Putting his hand +upon Ida May's shoulder, he forced her down into her chair again. +His own eyes gleamed angrily, and his countenance expressed his +wrath. "What was you told on coming here? Didn't you promise to keep +a taut line on all that foolishness? I won't stand for it. No, +Prudence!" he exclaimed, as his wife tried to interfere. "I won't +stand for it. She must either keep away from that business, or I'll +put her right out of the house. Leastways, it being night, I'll send +her to her room." + +"Do you think you can boss me like that?" cried Ida May hotly, so +angry herself that she forgot her fear of him. "I'm not your slave, +nor your hired help, like that creature." She pointed scornfully at +Sheila. "And you'll just listen to something I've got to say. If you +don't, I'll go out to-morrow and tell everybody in this hick town. +I'll hire a hall to tell 'em in!" + +"Won't--won't you be good, deary?" begged Prudence, before her +husband could make any rejoinder to this defiance. "You know you +promised Elder Minnett you would be if we let you come here." + +"I don't want to stay here. I've seen enough of this place and you +all! And I would be ashamed to stay any longer than I can help with +folks that take in such a girl as she is." + +Again Ida May's little claw indicated Sheila, who stared, +speechless, helpless, at least for the time being. The harassed girl +could fight for herself no longer. She knew that she was on the +verge of betrayal. She could not stem the tide of Ida May's venom. +The latter must make the revelation which had threatened ever since +she had come to Wreckers' Head. There was no way of longer +smothering the truth. It would come out! + +"Look here," Cap'n Ira said, his curiosity finally aroused, "the +elder says you ain't crazy! But it looks to me--" + +"I'm not crazy, I can tell you," snapped Ida May, taking him up +short. "But I guess you and Aunt Prue must be. Why, you don't even +know the name of this girl you took in instead of me--in my rightful +place. But I can tell you who she is--and what she's done. I +remember her now. I knew I'd seen her before--the hussy!" + +"Belay that!" exclaimed Cap'n Ira. + +But he said it faintly. He was looking at the other girl now, and +something in her expression and in her attitude made him lose +confidence. His voice died in his throat. Ida May Bostwick had the +upper hand at last--and she kept it. + +"Look at her," she exulted, the green lights in her brown eyes +glinting like the sparkling eyes of a serpent. "Look at her. She +knows that I know. She's come down here and fooled you all, but she +can't fool you any longer. And that Tunis Latham! Why, it can't be +possible he knew what she was from the first!" + +"See here," said Cap'n Ira shakily. "What do you mean? What are you +getting at--or trying to? If you got anything to say about Ida May, +get it out and be over with it." + +"Oh, Ira! Don't! Stop her!" wailed Prudence. + +Like the old man, Prudence finally realized that there was something +wrong--something very wrong, indeed--with the girl they had known +for months as Ida May and whom they had learned to love so dearly. + +Nobody looking at Sheila could doubt this for a moment. Her tortured +expression of countenance, the wild light in her eyes, her trembling +lips, advertised to the beholders that the last bastion of her +fortress was taken, that the wall was breached and into that breach +now marched the triumphant phrases of the real Ida May's bitter, +gloating speech. + +"Look at her!" repeated the latter. "She can't deny it now. She +knows I know her and what she is. Why, Aunt Prue--and you, Captain +Ball--have been fooled nice, I must say. And that Tunis Latham! +Well, he can't be much!" + +"Don't--don't say anything against Tunis!" + +It was not a voice at all like the usual mellow tones of Sheila +Macklin which uttered those faint words. Hoarse, strained, +uncertain, there was yet a note of command in the phrase which had +its influence on the wildly excited Ida May. + +"I'll say what I've got to say about _you_, miss!" she exclaimed +with exultation. "And you--nor they--shan't stop me. You're the girl +that was arrested in the store for stealing. It must have been +two--why, it must have been more than three years ago. I hadn't +worked there but a little while. No wonder I didn't remember you at +first." + +Cap'n Ira vented a groan and caught at his wife's hand. She was +sobbing frantically. She still murmured her plea for the captain to +stop the awful revelation Ida May was bent on making. But the latter +gave no heed and the captain himself was speechless. + +"And I can't remember her name even now," went on Ida May, flashing +a look at the Balls. Their pitiful appearance made no impression +upon her. "But that don't matter. I guess they've got your record at +Hoskin & Marl's. You worked there all right; sure you worked there, +in the jewelry section. You stole something. I saw the store +detective, Miss Hopwell, take you up to the manager's office. I +never heard what they did to you, but they did a plenty, I bet." + +She turned confidently again to the horrified captain and his wife. + +"Just see how she looks. She don't deny it. How she managed to work +that Tunis Latham into bringing her down here, I don't know. She +pulled the wool over his eyes all right. + +"Why, she's a thief! She was arrested! I guess you can see now that +I'm not crazy--far from it. She won't dare say again that she is Ida +May Bostwick. I--guess--not!" + +The malevolent exultation of the girl was fearful to behold. But +neither Cap'n Ira nor Prudence now looked at Ida May. Leaning +against her husband, the tears coursing over her withered cheeks, +Prudence joined Cap'n Ira in gazing at the other girl. + +She rose slowly to her feet. Something like strength came back to +her; even into her voice, as Sheila again spoke. Nor did she look at +Ida May, but fixed her feverish gaze upon the two old people. + +"What--what she says is true--as far as I am concerned. But--but +Tunis did not know. It is not his fault. I was desperate. I heard +what he said to--to Miss Bostwick. I chanced to overhear it. I was +desperate; I hated the city. I was willing to take a chance for the +sake of getting among people who would be kind to me--who were +good." + +"Bah!" exclaimed Ida May raucously. "You're not fit to go among good +people!" + +Sheila did not heed her. She spoke slowly--haltingly, but what she +said held the old people silent. + +"Tunis is not to blame. I told him this--this girl"--she pointed to +Ida May, but did not look at her--"was not the right Miss Bostwick. +I said that I was the girl he wanted to see. I made him think so. I +tricked him. Don't listen to her!" she added wildly, as the enraged +Ida May would have interposed. "Tunis thought she had talked to him +just for a joke. I made him believe that. I--I would have done +anything then to get away from the city and to come down here. +Perhaps he was at fault because he did not take more time to find +out about me--to be sure I was the right girl. But he cannot be +blamed for anything else. I tell you, it was all my fault." + +"I don't believe it!" snapped Ida May. + +But Cap'n Ira put her aside with his hand, and there was returned +firmness in his voice. + +"Is this the truth? Are you what she says you are?" he asked. + +"Oh, don't, Ira!" gasped his sobbing wife. "She--" + +"We've got to learn the straight of it," said the old man sternly. +"If we've been bamboozled, we've got to know it. Now's the time for +her to speak." + +Sheila was still gazing at him. She nodded, indicating that his +question was already answered. + +"You--you mean to say you stole--like she says?" + +"I was arrested in Hoskin & Marl's. They accused me of stealing. +Yes." + +She said no more. She turned, when he did not speak again, and +walked slowly to the stairway door. She opened it and went up, +closing the door behind her. + +It was Ida May who moved first when she was gone. She jumped up once +more and started for the stairway. + +"I'll tell her what's what!" she ejaculated. "The gall of her to +come here and say she was me and get my rightful place! I'll put her +out with my own hands!" + +Somehow--it would be hard to say just how--Cap'n Ira was before her, +ere she could arrive at the stairway door. + +"Avast!" he said throatily. "Don't take too much upon yourself, +young woman. You don't quite own these premises--yet." + +"You ain't going to stand for her stayin' here any longer, are you?" +demanded the amazed Ida May. + +"Whether or not she stays here is more my business and Prudence's +business than it is yours," said the old man. "But there's one thing +sure, and you may as well l'arn it first as last: you're not to +speak to her nor do anything else to annoy her. Understand?" + +"You--you--" + +"Heed what I tell ye!" said Cap'n Ira, grim-lipped and with flashing +eyes. "You interfere with that girl in any way and it won't be her +I'll put out o' the house. I'll put you out--night though it is--and +you'll march yourself down to the port and to the Widder Pauling's +alone. Understand me?" + +There was silence again in the kitchen, save for Prudence's pitiful +sobbing. + + * * * * * + +In Tunis Latham's mind as he came up from the port four days later +was visioned no part of the tragedy which had occurred at the Ball +homestead during his absence on this last voyage to Boston. He had +suffered trouble enough during the trip even to dull the smart of +Sheila's renunciation of him before he had left the Head. Indeed, he +could scarcely realize even now that she had meant what she +said--that she could mean it! + +So brief had been their dream of love--only since that recent Sunday +when they walked the beaches about the foot of Wreckers' Head--that +it seemed to the captain of the _Seamew_ it could not be so soon +over. If Sheila really and truly loved him, how could anything part +them? + +When he considered her wild manner and her trenchant words when last +he had seen her, however, his heart sank. He had gained during the +few months of their acquaintance a pretty accurate idea of how firm +she could be--how unwavering in face of any difficulty. He realized +that her obstinacy, when her mind was once settled on a course of +action, was not easily overcome. She had declared that they could +not be lovers any longer; that the situation which had arisen +through the appearance of the real Ida May upon Wreckers' Head had +made her decision necessary; and she had refused to consider any +other outcome of this dreadful affair. + +In his business there was much which would have disturbed Tunis in +any event. The negro cook had deserted the _Seamew_ the moment after +she touched the Boston wharf. Although the other hands had remained +by the schooner until she had just now dropped anchor in the cove +below, he was not at all sure that they would sail with him for +another voyage. + +Why these new men should be more troubled by the silly tattle of the +hoodoo than even the Portygees had been was a problem Tunis could +not solve. And seamen were so scarce just then in Boston that he had +been obliged to risk another voyage without engaging strangers to +man the _Seamew_. Besides, being a true Cape Codder, he disliked +hiring other than Cape men to work the schooner. + +For one thing he could be grateful. Orion Latham had taken his chest +ashore this very day. And Zebedee Pauling had offered himself in +Orion's place on the wharf as Tunis had just now come ashore. + +He had been glad to take on Zeb in place of his cousin. And from +young Pauling he had learned at least one piece of news connected +with affairs on Wreckers' Head. Zeb told him that the girl he had +brought to the Pauling house had talked with Elder Minnett and that +the elder had later taken her up to the Ball house, where she had +remained. + +There was not much gossip about the matter it seemed. Nobody seemed +to know who the young woman was; nor did Zeb know what was going on +at the Ball homestead. It was with this slight information only that +Tunis now approached the old place. He saw Cap'n Ira hobbling into +the barn, but he saw nobody else about. + +The day was gray, and a chill wind crept over the brown earth, +rustling the dead stalks of the weeds and curling little spirals of +dust in the road which rose no more than a foot or two, then fell +again, despairingly. In any event the young shipmaster must have +felt the oppression of the day and the lingering season. His spirits +fell lower, and he came to the Ball place with such a feeling of +depression that he hesitated about turning in at the gate at all. + +As Cap'n Ira did not at once come out of the barn, the younger man +made his way there instead of going first to the kitchen door. He +shrank from meeting the real Ida May again. At any rate, he wanted +first to get the lay of the land from the old man. + +He looked into the dim interior of the place and for a moment did +not see Cap'n Ira at all. The ghostly face of the Queen of Sheba +appeared at the opening over her manger. Tunis was about to call +when he saw the old man straining upon the lower rungs of the ladder +to reach the loft to pitch down a bunch of fodder. Queenie whinnied +softly. + +"Hello, Cap'n Ira!" Tunis hailed. "What are you doing that for?" He +hastened to cross the barn floor to his aid. "Where's Ida May that +she lets you do this?" + +"Ida May?" The old man repeated the name with such disgust that +Tunis was all but stunned and stopped to eye Cap'n Ira amazedly. +"D'ye think she'd take a step to save me a dozen? Or lift them +lily-white hands of hers to keep Prudence from doing all the work +she has to do? I swan!" + +"What do you mean?" demanded Tunis. "You sound mighty funny, Cap'n +Ira. Hasn't Ida May been doing all and sundry for you for months? Is +she sick?" + +"I--I don't mean _that_ gal," quavered Cap'n Ira. "I mean the real +Ida May." + +He half tumbled off the ladder into Tunis Latham's arms. He clung to +the young man tightly, and, although it was dark in the barn, Tunis +could have sworn that there were tears on the old man's cheeks. + +"Don't you know we've got the right Ida May with us at +last--Prudence's niece that has come here to visit for a while and +play lady? Yes, you was fooled; we was bamboozled. That--that other +gal, Tunis, is a real bad one, I ain't no doubt. She pulled the wool +over your eyes and made a monkey of most everybody, it seems. She--" + +"Who are you talking about?" cried Tunis, in his alarm almost +shaking the old man. + +"I'm telling you the girl you brought down here, thinking she was +Ida May Bostwick, turned out to be somebody else. I don't know who. +Anyway, she ain't no relation of Prudence or me. I ain't blaming you +none, boy; she told us we musn't blame you, for you didn't know the +truth about her, either." + +"Cap'n Ira, where is she?" demanded the younger man hoarsely. + +"She ain't here. She's gone. She left four nights ago--after Ida May +had remembered what she'd done in that big store in Boston. Oh, she +admitted it--" + +"You mean to tell me she's gone? That you don't know where she is?" +almost shouted Tunis. + +"Easy, boy! Remember I got some feeling yet in them arms you was +squeezing. It ain't our fault she went. She left us in the +night--stole out with just a bundle of clothes and things. Left, +Prudence says, every enduring thing she'd got since she come +here--that we give her." + +Tunis groaned. + +"Yes, she's gone. And she's left that other dratted girl in her +place. I swan, Tunis, I'd just as leave have the figgerhead of the +old _Susan Gatskill_ sittin' by our kitchen stove as to have that +useless critter about. She ain't no good to Prudence and me--not at +all!" + + + + +CHAPTER XXIX + +ON THE TRAIL + + +There was but a single idea in Sheila Macklin's mind when she left +those three people in the kitchen and mounted to her room. Indeed, +there was scarcely left to the sadly distracted girl another sane +thought. + +She must leave the house before she could be further questioned. She +hoped that she had said enough to exonerate Tunis. If she said more, +it might be to raise some doubt in the minds of Cap'n Ira and +Prudence as to Tunis' ignorance of her true reputation. She must +escape any cross-examination--on that or any other topic. + +She believed that the captain of the _Seamew_ possessed sufficient +caution to keep secret the particulars of their first meeting until +he had heard from the old people the few false details she had left +in their minds. She had done all she could to make Tunis' reputation +secure in the eyes of those who must know any particulars of his +connection with her. She had kept her vow to the dead woman whom the +young shipmaster had, throughout his life, so revered--his mother. + +She did not light her bedroom lamp until she knew by the sounds from +below that the family had retired for the night. Then, stepping +softly, she went over her small possessions and made a bundle of +those which she had brought with her when she came from Boston. The +articles of apparel purchased with money given her by the Balls she +left in the closet or in the bureau drawers. + +This done, she did not lie down on the bed, but sat by the north +window staring out into the starlit dark. There was no lamp to watch +in the window of Latham's Folly to-night. Tunis was far away. Had +she been prepared for this unexpected catastrophe, she would have +been far, far away from Wreckers' Head before Tunis returned. + +As it chanced, she possessed very little money--scarcely more than +enough to take her to Paulmouth. There she would be no better off +than she was at Big Wreck Cove. Sheila was not, in truth, quite +accountable for her actions at this time. To get away from the Ball +house was her only really clear thought. What followed must fall as +fate directed. + +At the first faint gleam of dawn in the sky, and as the distant +stars paled and disappeared, the girl crept down the stairs with +her bundle, her shoes in her hand, and went out by the kitchen door. +She heard only the deep breathing of the old captain from across the +sitting room and now and then the sobbing breath of Prudence, like +the breathing of a hurt child that has fallen asleep in pain and +half wakes to a realization of it. + +As she turned to close the outer door softly behind her, the girl's +heart throbbed in response to the old woman's sorrow. While she sat +on the bench to lace her shoes the cat, old Tabby, came rubbing and +purring about her skirts. Muffled, as though from a great distance, +a rooster vented a questioning crow as though he doubted that it was +yet time to announce the birth of another day. + +She went to the barn to feed Queenie for the last time. That +outraged old creature displayed her surprised countenance at the +opening above her manger and blew sonorously through her nostrils. +Perhaps the gray mare remembered how she had been aroused at a +similar hour once before, and by Cap'n Ira himself. That experience +must have been keen in the Queen of Sheba's memory if she had any +memory at all. + +But the troubled girl gave the mare less attention than usual, +throwing down some fodder and pouring a measure of corn into the +manger. The mare turned to that with appetite. Corn came not amiss +to Queenie, no matter at what hour it was vouchsafed her. Her sound +old teeth did not stop crunching the kernels as Sheila went out of +the barn. + +From the shed she secured an ax and a spade, as well as a basket. +In spite of her condition of mind she knew exactly what she wanted +to do--and she did it. Had she thought out her intention for +months she could have gone about the matter no more directly and +practically. Yet, had one stopped Sheila and asked her what she +was about--exactly what her intentions were--the query would have +found her unprepared with an answer. + +Both her physical and mental condition precluded Sheila from going +far from the Ball homestead. What she had been through during these +past few days had drained out of her physical vigor as well as all +intellectual freshness. + +When Cap'n Ira Ball had led the feebly protesting Queen of Sheba +across these empty fields to her intended sacrifice, the two had +made no more dreary picture against the dim dawn than did Sheila +now. She carried the bundle she had made slung over one shoulder by +a length of rope. The spade, ax, and basket balanced her figure on +the other side; she bent forward as she walked and, from a distance, +Prudence herself would have looked no older or more decrepit than +did the girl now leaving the Ball premises. + +She did not follow the same course that the captain and Queenie had +followed on that memorable occasion, but took a path that led to a +cart track to the beach behind John-Ed Williams' house. Nobody was +astir anywhere on Wreckers' Head but herself. + +In an hour she arrived at the objective point toward which she had +been headed from the first. Why and how she had thought of this +refuge it would be hard to tell. Least of all could Sheila have +explained her reason for coming here. It was in her mind, it was +away from all other human habitations, and she did not think anybody +would have the right to drive her from it. + +The cabin formerly occupied by Hosea Westcott was well above the +tide, was, or could be made, perfectly dry, was roughly, if not +comfortably furnished, and offered the girl a shelter in which she +thought she would be safe. + +To one who had spent such weary months in a narrow room in a Hanover +Street lodging house, going in and out with speech with scarcely any +one save the person to whom she paid her weekly dole of rent, there +could be no loneliness in a place like this, where the surf soughed +continually in one's ear, a hundred feathered forms flashed by in an +hour, sails dotted the dimpling sea, and the strand itself was +spread thick with many varieties of nature's wonders. + +During the summer and early fall, Sheila had become a splendid +oarswoman. In a skiff belonging to little John-Ed which was drawn up +on the sands not far from the cabin she had paddled out through the +narrow neck of the tiny cove's entrance and pulled bravely through +the surf and out upon the sea beyond. She had learned more than a +bit of sea lore, too, from Cap'n Ira and Tunis. And regarding the +edible shellfish to be found along the beaches, she was well +informed. + +If an old man such as Hosea Westcott, feeble and spent, no doubt, +could pick up a living here, why could not she? Sheila did not fear +starvation. Indeed, she did not even look forward to such a +possibility. She did not fear work of any kind. With every salt +breath she drew, strength, like the tide itself, flowed into her +body. Although her mind remained in a partially stunned condition, +her muscles soon recovered their vigor. + +Of course the girl's presence here in the abandoned cabin, her +taking up a hermit life on the shore, could not remain unknown to +the neighbors on Wreckers' Head for long. Yet at this season of the +year the men were all busy elsewhere and the women almost never came +down to the beaches. It is a remarkable fact that most longshore +women have little interest in the beauties or wonders to be found +along the beaches, even in the sea itself. Perhaps this is because +the latter is such a hard mistress to their menfolk. + +Nevertheless, Sheila could not hide herself away from +everybody--not even on that first day. The Balls made no outcry when +they found that she had disappeared. And no near-port fishing craft +came by. But the smoke from the chimney of the cabin, when she had +swept and made comfortable its interior and built a fire of +driftwood in the rusty pot stove, attracted at least one sharp eye. + +Down the bank, along with a small avalanche of sand and gravel, +plunged little John-Ed and his freckled face appeared at the +doorway. + +"By the great jib boom!" he cried. "What you doing here? Playing +castaway?" + +"Yes, John-Ed," said Sheila. "That is it exactly. I am a castaway." + +He stared at her. She could not take this boy into her confidence. +But already little John-Ed was a henchman of hers, in spite of the +fact that Sheila often had made him work. + +"I am going to stay here for a while," she told him. "But I would +rather nobody but you knew about it." + +"By the great jib boom!" exploded the boy for a second time. "Not +even Cap'n Ira and Aunt Prudence?" + +"Not even them," sighed the girl. + +"I bet it's because you don't want to stay there while that other +girl is visitin' them. Ain't that it? She's a snippy thing!" + +"You must not say so to anybody," urged Sheila. "It will not be +wrong for you to say nothing about my being here to your father and +mother. Do you understand?" + +"I can keep a secret, all right," he assured her proudly. + +"I believe you can. And do you think you could get off to go down to +the store for me this evening?" + +"Going down anyway for mom," he assured her. + +Sheila had a dollar and a little change besides. She had already +planned just what the dollar would buy in the way of necessaries. +There were cooking utensils in the cabin sufficient for her modest +needs. She gave little John-Ed the dollar and her list and warned +him to hide her purchases safely until the next morning and bring +them to her on his way to school. + +"What you going to eat to-night?" he asked her bluntly. + +"I dug some clams at low water and caught a big horseshoe crab." + +"Cousin Phineas brought us more squeteague than we can eat. Mom told +me to cut one up for the hens. I'll bring it down to you in a +little. It's a fresh one." + +In spite of her refusal, he did this, and brought along, too, a box +of sweet crackers which he had bought and hidden away in his bedroom +closet in preparation for some time when he might wake up in the +night and feel that he was on the verge of famine. + +"Though I never did wake up in the night that I can remember, 'cept +that time I had the toothache," he observed. + +And in this way Sheila began her hermit life in the fisherman's +cabin. + +But Sheila was not without a practical design as to her future. In +her determination to accept no further aid from the Balls she had +crippled her finances. Back in the inland town where she had spent +her girlhood, and where Dr. Macklin had served the community so +long, there were those who, in disapproving Sheila's venture into +the city, at least had a sense of justice. Some of these critical +friends whom the young woman had shrunk from appealing to +heretofore, still owed for Dr. Macklin's services; and Sheila felt +that in this present tragic emergency she must attempt the +collection of these old debts. + +She wrote letters praying that money might be sent her by express to +Paulmouth, but with the orders addressed under cover to "John-Ed +Williams, Jr." at the Big Wreck Cove post office. She explained her +design to her juvenile confidant and little John-Ed was made +immensely proud of such mark of her trust. She could have found no +more faithful adherent than the boy, and with him the secret of her +dwelling on the lonely shore and in her hermit-like state was safe. + +But her presence there could not be hidden for long; of that she was +well aware. Little John-Ed, however, told nobody of her whereabouts +until the day Tunis Latham came back from Boston and learned that +the girl he loved had stolen away from her home in the Ball house. + +Coming out of the rear door of the barn, fresh from the interview +with the old captain which had so shocked him, Tunis saw a small boy +astride the low stone fence that marked the rear boundary of the +Ball farm. The captain of the _Seamew_ was in no mood to bandy words +with little John-Ed Williams, but the sharp tooth of his troubled +thought fastened upon one indubitable fact: if there is anything odd +going on in a community, the small boy of that community knows all +about it--or, at least, as much about it as it is possible to know. + +Tunis could not have walked up to any adult person on Wreckers' Head +and asked the question which he put to little John-Ed on the spur of +the moment: + +"Where is she?" + +He did not have to utter Sheila's name. Indeed, he was doubtful by +what name it would be wise to call her. But he did not have to be +plainer with little John-Ed. He saw in the sly expression of the +boy's eyes that he knew whom he meant. But he shook his head. + +"You know where she went," was the schooner captain's accusation. +"Where is she?" + +"I--I can't tell you," stammered the boy. "I promised not." + +A promise is a promise, especially to a small boy who scorns to +"snitch." Tunis thought a moment. + +"Show me," he said, and his voice had in it that tone which made the +foremast hands jump to obey when a squall was coming. + +The boy got promptly off the wall. + +"All right," he said gruffly. "But don't you tell her I showed you, +Cap'n Tunis Latham." + +"Trust me," agreed the captain of the _Seamew_, and followed after +little John-Ed with such tremendous strides that the latter had to +run to keep ahead of him. + +Tunis was led to that point on the bluff from which a curl of smoke +from the cabin chimney could be seen. He halted almost in +horror--stricken to the heart when he understood. + +"Alone?" he muttered. + +"Yep," was the reply. "She's playing she's a castaway. Nobody but me +knows it." + +Then, fearing he had said too much, John-Ed ran away. + +Tunis descended the bluff by a perilous path--he would not delay to +go around by the cart track--and came in plain view of the cabin. +The door hinge had been repaired, and the door now swung freely. A +strip of cotton cloth had been tacked over the gaping window. There +was that neatness about the abandoned cabin which must always be +associated in his mind with Sheila Macklin, even had he not seen her +sitting pensively upon a driftwood timber by the door. + +The ax had been doing good service, for there was a great +heap of wood cut into stove lengths. The fragrant odor of +something--chowder, perhaps--simmering on the stove, floated +through the open door. + +It was the coarse sand crunching under his boots which aroused her. +She did not start at his approach, but raised her eyes languidly. He +wondered if she had expected him. She must have seen the _Seamew_ +pass several hours earlier as they headed in toward the channel. + +"My God, Sheila!" he exclaimed with bitterness, but without anger. +"You can't stay here." + +"I must--for a while. No. Don't talk about it, please, Tunis." Her +gesture had a finality to it which silenced the objections rising to +his lips. "Nothing you can say will change my determination. And you +must not come here again." + +"What will people say?" he gasped. + +The violet eyes blazed suddenly while she surveyed him. This was not +the girl he had known before. At least, she was not the same as +when he had seen her last. Even at that previous interview her look +and manner had not so reminded him of the girl he had sat beside on +the bench on Boston Common. + +She was alone again. The flower of her nature that had expanded +while she lived her all too brief and happy life with the Balls was +now withered. She was hopeless again; she had become once more the +Sheila Macklin that he had met under such wretched circumstances at +that past time. But in spite of her helplessness and her +wretchedness, there was something in the girl's expression which +convinced Tunis Latham before he again spoke that nothing he could +say would in any degree change her determination. + +"That confounded girl never should have been allowed to come back to +the house up there," he cried almost wildly. "Why did Elder Minnett +want to interfere? It was not his business! No one need have known +the truth." + +"Don't you see, Tunis, that just because it was the truth it was +sure to become known? At least, the main points in the whole matter +were sure to come out. But if you are careful, if you are wise, +nobody need know more of your share in the transaction than I have +told already." + +"Cap'n Ira asked me if it was true. He told me what you said. +Sheila, you ruined your own reputation with the old folks to save +me. Girl--" + +"Did I have any reputation to lose, Tunis?" she interrupted, yet +speaking softly. "I could not save myself. I have tried to save you. +Don't be ill-advised; don't be foolish. Say nothing, and it will all +blow over--for you." + +"You think I'll accept such a sacrifice on your part?" he demanded +fiercely. + +"I am making no sacrifice. Nothing I can do or say; nothing you can +do or say; nothing anybody can do or say; will change my situation. +We need not both be ruined in the eyes of the community. Soon I will +get away. They will forget me. It will all blow over. You need not +suffer." + +"What do you think I am?" he cried again. "Am I the sort of a +fellow, you think, to shelter myself behind you?" + +"Shelter your Aunt Lucretia. Shelter your business prospects. +Shelter the good name of your mother's son. You can do me absolutely +no good by telling any different story from the one I was forced to +tell. Let it be, Tunis." + +She said it wearily. She dropped her eyes again, looking away from +him. But when he would have stepped nearer and caught her to him, +she leaped up and with look and tone warded him away. + +"Don't touch me! Be at least so kind, Tunis. Make it no harder for +me than you can help." + +"You are breaking my heart, Sheila!" + +"Mine is already broken," she told him. "And I do not blame you, +Tunis. It is the punishment for my own sins. I attempted to escape +from my overwhelming troubles in a wrong way. I see it now. I know +it to be so. I must go somewhere else and build again--if I may. But +never again upon a foundation of trickery and deceit. Oh! Never! +Never!" + +She stepped around the big block on which she had been sitting, +entered the cabin, and closed the door behind her. She left him +standing there hopeless, miserable, almost distraught by all the +entanglements of this tragedy that had come upon them. + + + + +CHAPTER XXX + +THE STORM + + +Captain Tunis Latham, pacing the deck of the _Seamew_, had come to a +conclusion which was by no means complimentary to his own +self-respect. During his manifold duties and the business bothers +connected with the sailing of the undermanned schooner, his mind had +seized upon and grappled with a train of ideas which brought him +logically to the decision that he was playing a weak and piffling +part. + +Strong in most things, Tunis Latham had allowed his better sense to +be throttled and his purpose balked in the thing which meant more to +him than the schooner, his business success, or anything else in +life. The broader the rift grew between Sheila and himself, the +clearer he saw that without her he was a ship without a rudder and +that nothing could come of his life save wreck and disaster. + +She had renounced him for his own good, as she believed, and he had +tacitly consented to her ruling. He might be slow of thought +regarding such things, but once having made up his mind--and it was +made up now--he was of the kind that obstacles do not frighten. + +Not only did he realize that by bowing to the girl's will he had +been weak, but he was determined to take matters in the future into +his own hands. He should not have allowed Sheila, in the first +place, to shoulder the responsibility of handling the emergency of +the appearance of the real Ida May Bostwick at Big Wreck Cove. + +Sheila, in an attempt to save his reputation, to save his +self-respect in the eyes of the home folks and of the world in +general, had uttered a direct falsehood and cut herself off from him +and from those who loved her. This was too much for any decent man +to stand. Was he a coward? Would he shelter himself--as he had told +her--behind her skirts? + +Tunis believed that Cap'n Ira and Prudence, when once the shock of +the girl's revelation was past, loved her so dearly that they would +forgive Sheila if they knew all the truth--if they knew the girl as +he knew her. He was not so sure of Aunt Lucretia. He had feared to +tell her the night before that Sheila had gone to live in the old +fisherman's cabin, in spite of the sympathy Lucretia had previously +shown him. But he believed his silent aunt fully appreciated the +better qualities of the girl she had seen on but one occasion, and +that she would, in time, admit that Sheila was more than worthy of +her nephew's love. + +In any event he had his own life to make or mar. Without Sheila he +knew it would be utterly fruitless and without an object. Rather +than lose Sheila he would sell the schooner, cut himself off from +friends and home, and, with her, face the world anew. He was +determined, if Sheila left Big Wreck Cove, that he would go with +her. Nobody--not even the girl herself--could shake this +determination now born in the mind of the captain of the _Seamew_. + +Sheila had borne his reputation upon her heart from the beginning, +but he should have at first thought of her good name and the opinion +the world must needs hold of Sheila Macklin. She had been unfairly +accused. She had been abused, ill-treated, punished for a sin which +was not hers. It was not enough that he had tried to help her hide +away from those who knew of her persecution. The only right thing to +do--the only sane course, and the one which should have been pursued +from the start--was to attempt to disprove the accusation under +which the girl had suffered and set her right not only before Big +Wreck Cove folk, but before the whole world. + +The poignant feeling of sin committed, with which Sheila herself was +now burdened, did not influence Tunis Latham. It was the logic of +the idea which convinced him that they had been totally wrong in +what they had done. He should have married Sheila on the night they +had met in Boston and set about first of all tracing back her +trouble and disproving the flimsy evidence which must have convicted +her of stealing from Hoskin & Marl's. + +He told himself it was not piety, but hard common sense which +suggested this as the only and practical way to handle the matter. +It was, in truth, the awakened hope in a loving heart. + +Tunis had been able to keep scarcely enough of his crew to handle +the _Seamew_ in fair weather; and the barometer was falling, with +every indication in sea and sky of the approach of bad weather. He +feared the few hands he had would desert when they reached Boston. +Zebedee Pauling was a young host in himself--far and away a better +seaman than Orion Latham, as well as a better fellow. But the +schooner could not be sailed with good will. + +Tunis' mind, however, remained fixed upon Sheila's troubles rather +than upon his own; and as soon as the schooner docked, he went up +into the town and wended his way directly to the great department +store in which he had once interviewed the troublesome Ida May +Bostwick. + + * * * * * + +The cargo was out, and the _Seamew_ had already been warped into +another wharf where freight was awaiting her when the skipper +returned to the water front that afternoon. The three men remaining +of the forecastle crew were still at work, assisted by Zebedee and +Horry Newbegin. They had not had a regular cook for two trips now. + +But a new complication had arisen. Mason Chapin stood at the rail +waiting his return, and a taxicab had been summoned. The mate +carried a bag. + +"A telegram from Doctor Norris. My wife's worse, Mr. Latham. I've +got to go back just as fast as steam will get me there," was his +greeting to the skipper of the _Seamew_. + +This was according to the agreement Mason Chapin had made in the +beginning. His wife was sorely ill, and surely Tunis would not stand +between a man and his sick wife! + +But it left a very serious situation upon the schooner when the mate +drove away in the taxicab. Six men, forward and aft, to handle a +suit of sails which equaled those of any seagoing racing yacht. If +it had not been for the freight--some of which was perishable--the +master of the _Seamew_ would have laid up until he could have got +together a more numerous crew at least. + +But instead of going to the seamen's employment offices, Tunis had +to turn to himself, while the heavier pieces of freight were lowered +down the hatchway of the schooner. It was near evening when the +hatch was battened down and a small tug snaked them out of the dock +and from among the greater shipping, and gave them a whistled +blessing in midstream. + +All hands and the skipper tailed on to the sheets and got her canvas +spread. Then the skipper went below to the galley and prepared +supper. Tunis Latham could be no stickler for quarter-deck etiquette +on this voyage, that was sure. + +But although the hands growled, and even Horry looked sour, Tunis +seemed strangely excited; indeed, he looked less woebegone than he +had for many a day. Something seemed to have given him a new zest in +life. He even spoke to the hands cheerfully, and they were a trio of +as surly dogs as ever quarreled with their food and a ship's +officers. + +"I'll lay up at the cove until I get a decent crew this time, if I +lose all my existing contracts," Tunis said to Zebedee. "I'll find a +bunch of men who are not afraid of their shadows. Huh! Hoodooed, is +she? I'll show 'em that she can sail, even if Davy Jones himself +sits on her bowsprit!" + +There was wind enough, in all good conscience. They discovered that +before they were out of the bay. It had shifted into the northeast, +and the _Seamew_ went roaring away on her course under reefed +canvas, heeling over to it like a racing yacht. + +But the long tacks to seaward which the gale enforced made it +impossible for the schooner to beat back to Hollis where the first +of her freight must be discharged until after breakfast the next +morning. By that time the three foremast hands who had been obliged +to work double watches were fairly stewing in their own rage. + +Tunis had to see his consignees while the freight was being +discharged; when he got back to the wharf there was nobody aboard +the schooner save Horry and Zebedee. The latter had a broken oar in +his hand and he and the ancient seaman seemed to be in a condition +of utter amazement. + +"What's to do now?" demanded the skipper. + +"They've gone, Cap'n Latham," stammered Zebedee. "Say they won't put +foot on the _Seamew's_ deck again. That--that confounded 'Rion--" + +"What's the matter with Orion now?" exclaimed Tunis. "I hoped I was +well rid of him. Has he turned up here at Hollis?" + +"Look at this," said Zebedee, shaking the broken oar. "Here's what +it seems 'Rion found in the hold two trips back. So those fellows +say. He left it with 'em. And they say the schooner is a murder ship +and they won't try to work her no further." + +Tunis seized the piece of oar. Along one side was a streak of faint +blue paint. He knew immediately where he had seen that broken oar +before--leaning against the door frame of Pareta's cottage in +Portygee Town, when he had last talked with the old man's daughter. + +"What in thunder!" + +He had turned it over and saw the straggling letters burned into +the wood: MARLIN B. Newbegin looked at Tunis with an expression +which betrayed a great perturbation of soul. The old man could +scarcely show pallor under the mahogany of his face, but it was +plain that superstition had him by the throat. + +"So this is the thing that rotten 'Rion played them with, is it?" +Tunis demanded. "Trying to make them think my beautiful _Seamew_ was +once the _Marlin B._? Why, the poor fools, this broken oar came out +of Mike Pareta's woodpile, or I'm a dog-fish! See that blue streak? +I saw this broken oar at Pareta's house. Bet you anything Eunez had +something to do with it, too. Though why she should want to harm me, +who never said a cross word to her, I can't see." + +"She and your cousin are mighty thick," Zebedee said reflectively. +"That's a fact." + +"Thicker than they ought to be for the girl's good, I guess," agreed +Tunis. Then he said to Horry: "What's the matter with you, old man? +Do you want to desert me, too, all along of a broken oar with some +silly letters burned into it?" + +The ancient mariner had got a grip upon himself. The simple +explanation that punctured the bubble of superstition so +convincingly might not have altogether satisfied Horry. But he was a +true and just man. + +"I never deserted your father, Cap'n Randall Latham, not even when +his ship sunk under him," the old man declared. "I was saved from +that wreck by chance, not because I tried to be. And I ain't likely +to desert his son." + +"How about you, Zebedee?" demanded the captain of the _Seamew_. + +"I am not afraid of any foolish talk, anyway, Captain Latham. Had I +been I wouldn't have applied for the berth. I had heard enough about +it. Eunez Pareta, I believe, talked too much to the Portygees, and +that is why you couldn't keep them. But I'm not a Portygee." + +"I'll say you're not," agreed Tunis. "But we're left in something of +a fix. This freight for Josh Jones and his father is needed. Some +other stuff consigned to Big Wreck Cove ought to be there by +to-night. And I can't get a man for love or money here to help us +out. I tried while I was uptown." + +Zeb showed no hesitation. He shrugged his blue-jerseyed shoulders. + +"Don't you cal'late we can beat down there under a reefed mainsail +and jib? It'll take time, but she's the sweetest sailing craft I was +ever in in my life," he said. + +"She's certainly all right, 'cept for that pull to sta'bbo'd," +muttered Horry. + +"Humph! Three men to sail a schooner of this tonnage. And this isn't +any capsize wind at that," murmured the captain of the _Seamew_. +"But it's got to be done. Come! Will you risk it with me?" + +They looked aloft and then at each other. There was little save +reflection in their several glances. Men of this caliber do not +hesitate over a risk of life or ship. Cautious as Tunis Latham was, +his agreement with those he had contracted with called for a prompt +fulfillment of the details of the pact. Nor did the prospect of the +rising gale and rising sea cause any of the trio to blanch. It was +not a long run to Big Wreck Cove. Properly manned, the _Seamew_ +should make it prettily in three or four hours. In addition, there +was little but an open roadstead before the port of Hollis. The +breakwater was scarcely strong enough to fend off the waves in a +real gale. And they knew that a gale was coming. + +This was no place for a schooner of the _Seamew's_ size to ride out +the storm. She might easily drag her anchors and go ashore on the +Hollis sands that in the past had buried many a good ship. So the +trio of Cape men nodded grimly to each other and took the better +chance. + + + + +CHAPTER XXXI + +BITTER WATERS + + +Ah, yes! youth, and romance linked with a self-scrutiny born of her +New England ancestry if not of her father's Celtic blood, had +brought Sheila Macklin to her dreadful pass. One might have said, if +one were hardened enough, that had the young woman "possessed an +ounce of sense" she would not have made herself penniless, an +outcast, and so suffered because she could not escape quickly from +an environment well-nigh poignant enough to turn her brain. + +She was days in recovering from the shock of the appearance of the +real Ida May Bostwick at the Ball homestead. And those hours of +torture that had followed had eaten like acid into Sheila's soul. + +She had by no means recovered herself when Tunis had his brief +interview with her. Had she not shut herself away from him--refused +to even discuss the situation with the troubled skipper of the +_Seamew_--she must have broken down, given way to that womanly +weakness born of love for the man of her choice. + +For Sheila knew how Tunis Latham suffered. She felt that her course +was right; nevertheless she fully appreciated how keen the blow of +her decision fell upon the partner in her sin. + +A sin it was--almost, it seemed to her now, an unpardonable crime. +To seize upon another girl's identity; to usurp another's chance; to +foist herself upon the unsuspecting and kindly souls at the Ball +homestead in a way that raised for them a happiness that was merely +a phantom--the thought of it all was now a draught of which the +dregs were very, very bitter. + +Over and over again she recalled all that Ida May Bostwick had said +to and of her. It was all true! Coarse and unfeeling as the shopgirl +was, Sheila lashed her troubled soul with the thought that what Ida +May had said was deserved. Neither circumstances nor the fact that +Tunis had suggested the masquerade excused the transgression. + +The days of her waiting on fate, alone in the cabin under Wreckers' +Head, gave no surcease to her mental castigation. Her sin loomed the +more huge as the hours dragged their slow length by. + +And yet, with it all, Sheila's keenest anguish came through her +renunciation of Tunis' love. She could see no possible way of +holding to that if she would purge herself of the fault she had +committed. + +And above the stain of her false position since she had come to the +Cape was the overcloud of that accusation which had first warped +Sheila Macklin's life and humbled her spirit. She believed that she +could never escape the shame of that prosecution and punishment for +a crime she had not committed. + +She believed that, no matter where she might go nor how blamelessly +she might live, the fact that she had been sentenced to a woman's +reformatory would crop up like the ugly memory of a horrid dream to +embitter her existence. Was her life linked with Tunis Latham's, he +must suffer also from that misfortune. + +And so Sheila Macklin waited from hour to hour, from day to day, +dully and in a brooding spirit, for release from a situation which +must in time embitter her whole nature. + + * * * * * + +From the cabin at the foot of the seaward bluff of Wreckers' Head, +the coming of the black gale out of the northeast was watched +anxiously by Sheila, from the very break of this day. Tunis might be +on the sea. She doubted if the threat of bad weather would hold the +_Seamew_ in port. + +There was no rain--just a wind which tore across the waste of waters +within view of her station, scattering their crests in foam and +spoondrift, and rolling them in huger and still huger breakers on +the strand. It was a magnificent sight, but a terrifying one as +well. The girl watched almost continually for a white patch against +the black of the storm which might mark a sailing craft in peril. + +Steam vessels went past, several of them. They, surely, were in +little danger, were their hulls ordinarily sound and their engines +perfect. All the fishing craft had made for cover the night before. +The New York-Boston steamers would keep to the inside passage in +this gale. + +Sheila had made all taut and trim inside the cabin. She had plenty +of firewood and sufficient provisions to last her for a time. + +About noon she heard the crunch of footsteps on the sand. It was +little John-Ed who first appeared before her eyes. He thrust a +letter into Sheila's hand. + +"Dad brought it up from the port this morning, and I got it away +from him. Say," he continued, evidently much disturbed, "he's coming +here." + +"Who is coming here--your father?" + +"No, no! Not dad. I--I couldn't help it. I didn't tell him. I said +you wanted to play alone here at being shipwrecked, and I was just +like you said--your man Friday." + +"Who do you mean?" asked Sheila, greatly agitated. "Not--" + +"I bet 'twas that Tunis Latham told him you was here," continued +John-Ed. "Anyway, don't blame me. All I done was to help him down +the path." + +He disappeared. Sheila stepped to the door. Cap'n Ira was laboring +over the sands toward the cabin, leaning on his cane, his coat +flapping in the wind and his cap screwed on so tightly that a +hurricane could not possibly have blown it away. + +But in addition and aside from the buffeting he had suffered from +the wind, the old man looked much less trim and taut than Sheila had +ever before seen him. He had not been shaved for at least three +days; a button hung by a thread upon his coat; there was a coffee +stain on the bosom of his shirt. + +He looked so miserable, and so faint, and so buffeted about, that +the girl cried out, running from the door of the cabin to meet him. +The sweat of his hard effort stood on his brow, and he panted for +breath. + +"I swan! Ida May--er--well, whoever you be, gal, let me set down! +I'm near spent, and that's a fact." + +"Oh, Cap'n Ball, you should not have done this!" cried the girl, +letting him lean upon her and aiding him as rapidly as possible to +the cabin door. "You should not have done this. You--you can do +nothing for me. You can do no good by coming here." + +"Humph! P'r'aps not. Mebbe you're right. Let me set down on that +box, gal," he muttered. + +He eased himself down upon the rough seat against the wall. He +removed the cap with an effort and took his huge handkerchief from +its crown. He mopped his brow and face and finally heaved a huge +sigh. + +"I swan! That was a pull," he said. "So you're settled here. Gone to +housekeeping on your own hook, have ye?" he said. + +"Just for a little while, Cap'n Ira. Only--only until I can get +away. I--I have been expecting some money--payment of one of my +father's old bills." + +She slit the envelope of the letter little John-Ed had just brought +her. Inside was a pale-blue slip--a money order. + +"Yes," she said. "I can get away now. I must go somewhere to earn my +living, and as far away from here as I can get." + +"So you think on traveling, do you?" said the old man. "You ain't +content with Big Wreck Cove and the Head?" + +"Oh, Cap'n Ira!" she cried. "You know I can't stay here. Winter is +coming. Besides, the people here--" + +"Ain't none of 'em asked ye to come an' live with them?" + +"Cap'n Ball!" + +"Ain't ye seen Tunis?" + +The girl hid her face from him. She put her hands over her eyes. Her +shoulders shook with her sobbing. Cap'n Ira took a reflective pinch +of snuff. + +"I cal'late," he said, after wiping his eyes, "that it ain't Tunis' +fault that you are going away any more than it is mine and +Prudence's. You just made up your mind to go." + +"Cap'n Ball!" she exclaimed faintly, and again raised her eyes to +his. "Can--can I help it? _Now?_" + +"I don't know," he said, pursing his lips. "I don't know, gal, as +anybody is driving you away from Wreckers' Head and them that loves +ye here." + +She was speechless. She gazed at him with drenched eyes, her face +quivering uncontrollably. A hand pressed tightly to her breast +seemed endeavoring to still the wild fluttering there. + +"I don't know," he repeated, "that we got much to offer a gal like +you, and that's a fact. We learned to know you pretty well while you +stayed with us, Prue and me did. Somehow, we can't just seem to get +the straight of what you told us that night you left. It--it ain't +possible that you made some mistake, is it? Mebbe you was talking +about some other gal?" + +"Oh, Cap'n Ball!" she sighed. "I am able to tell you nothing that +will change your opinion of me." + +"Well, I don't know. I don't know. What you did say," he observed in +that same reflective, gentle tone, "didn't seem to change our +opinion much. Not mine and Prudence's." + +"Cap'n Ball!" + +"No," he went on, wagging his head. "You committing such a fault as +you say you was accused of, and you coming down here as you did, +through a trick--somehow those facts, if they be facts, don't seem +to have much effect on our opinion. Me and the old woman feel that +somehow--we don't know how--what you told us that night and what you +done for us before that night don't fit together nohow." + +She stared at him without understanding. He cleared his throat and +mopped his brow again with the big silk handkerchief. + +"No, gal, we can't understand how anybody as good and loving as you +have been to us can be at heart as bad as--as other folks might try +to make out. Fact is, we know you can't be bad." + +"What--what do you mean, Cap'n Ball?" she asked faintly. + +"I swan! I tell ye what I'm getting at," burst out the old man. "We +want you to come back. Prudence, she wants you to come back. I swan! +I want you to come back. Why, even that dratted Queen of Sheby needs +you, Ida May--or, whatever your name is! We've got to have you!" + +"Prudence can't scurcely get around the house. And that niece of +hers sits there like a stick or a stun, not willin' to scurce lift +her hand to help. Thank the Lord _she's_ goin' home to-day. Her +visit's come to an end. She don't like it down here. She says we're +all a set of--er--hicks, I believe she calls us. + +"Howsomever, we're all high and dry on the reefs, gal, and it seems +likely you're the only one can get us off. You ain't got to go away +from here, if you don't want to. I've made it pretty average plain +to that Bostwick gal that no matter what happens, she's got no +expectations as far as Prudence and me are concerned. It was money +and nothing but money she was after. Her being Prudence's niece in +kind of a far-fetched way don't make it our duty--not even our +Christian duty, as Elder Minnett calls it--to keep a gal in the +house that we don't want, nor yet die at her convenience and leave +her our money. And so I'll tell the elder if he undertakes to put +his spoon in the dish again." + +Sheila was listening to words that she had never expected to hear +from the old captain. Could this be true? Were Cap'n Ira and +Prudence, in spite of what they knew about her--what she had told +them and Ida May had told them--desirous of having her back? Was +there a chance, no matter what the real Ida May Bostwick could say, +for Sheila to return and take up her peaceful life with the Balls? + +Could this be real? Indeed, was it right for her to do this? Tunis-- + +She arose and walked to the open door, looking out almost blindly +at first upon the gale-smitten sea. It was like her heart--so tossed +about and fretted by winds of opinion. What should she do? Which way +should she turn? Not to save Sheila Macklin from trouble or +disgrace. Not even to save Tunis from possible scorn. The question +that assailed her now was only: _Was it right?_ + +Suddenly, out upon the mountainous waves, she spied a sail. It was +reefed, flattened down, almost tri-cornered. The two sticks of the +schooner and the jaunty bowsprit pointing skyward heaved again into +view. She stood so long gazing at the craft that Cap'n Ira spoke +again. + +"What d'ye say, gal?" he asked anxiously. + +"Look--look here, Cap'n Ira!" she exclaimed. "Can it be the +_Seamew_? Is she trying to head in for the channel? Oh! Are they in +danger out there?" + +The old man rose with his usual difficulty and hobbled to the door, +leaning on his cane. He peered out over her shoulder, and his keen +and experienced eyes saw and identified the laboring vessel almost +at once. + +"I swan! That is the _Seamew_, Ida May," he exclaimed. "Tut, tut! +What's Tunis got himself into such a pickle for? 'Tain't reasonable +he should--being as good a seaman as he is. + +"My, my! Why don't he get some cloth on her? He can't have lost all +his upper canvas. Don't he know he needs tops'ls to beat up aslant +of this gale and get into the shelter of the Head? I swan! If +there's men enough there to man her proper, why don't they do the +right thing?" + +"Oh, Cap'n Ball," gasped the girl, "perhaps there are not enough men +with him. Perhaps his crew has deserted again." + +"I swan!" rejoined the old man. "What did he set sail for, then? +Ain't he got a mite of sense? But, I tell ye, Ida May, if he don't +get more canvas on her, and get under better way, he'll never make +that channel in this world." + +"Oh!" + +"The schooner's sure to go on the outer reef. She never can claw off +the land now. Without help--if that's his trouble--Tunis Latham will +never get that schooner into Big Wreck Cove. And God help him and +them that's with him!" added the captain reverently. + + + + +CHAPTER XXXII + +A GIRL TO THE RESCUE + + +On shore the gale seemed a stiff and dangerous blow. At sea, even +with a stanch deck under one's feet, the wind proved to have passed +the hurricane mark long since. The captain of the _Seamew_ felt that +the elements had conspired bitterly to assail his schooner. Before +they were a mile beyond the end of the Hollis breakwater, Tunis knew +that he had the fight of his seagoing experience on his hands. + +When they were fairly out of the semi-shelter of the point behind +which Hollis lay, Tunis and his two companions realized very quickly +just what they had to contend with. They had spread a handbreadth of +mainsail, but the jib was blown out of the boltropes by one big +swoop of wind and carried down to leeward, looking like a giant's +shirt. + +"Still feel that tug to sta'bbo'd," grumbled Horry. "Just like--" + +"Belay that!" commanded Tunis. "I begin to believe that's bad luck, +anyway. If you hadn't got on to that tack when we first put the +schooner into commission, those Portygees wouldn't have even +remembered the _Marlin B._ And _that_ schooner thousands of miles +away from these seas!" + +"I cal'late 'Rion Latham would have found something else to harp on +then," said Zebedee. "He was bound to ruin you if he could." + +Quickly the gale increased instead of abating, and it was utterly +impossible for the trio to get topsails on her. She needed the pull +of upper canvas if she was to tack properly for the mouth of the +channel into Big Wreck Cove. + +They fought for two hours to bring this much-desired object to pass, +hoping for a lull or a shifting of the gale which might aid them. +The yellow sands of Wreckers' Head were plainly in view all that +time. To give up the attempt and run before the gale was a folly of +which Tunis Latham had no intention of being guilty if it could +possibly be avoided. Manned as she was, the schooner might never be +worked back to a landfall if they did so. + +The keen old eyes of Horace Newbegin first spied the thing which +promised hope. From his station at the wheel he shouted something +which the younger men did not catch, but his pointing arm drew their +gaze shoreward. + +Coming out from the Head was an open boat. Four figures pulled at +the oars while another held the steering sweep. The daring crew was +heading the boat straight on for the pitching schooner! + +"The coast guard!" the old man was now heard to shout. "God bless +them fellers!" + +But Tunis knew it was not the lifeboat from the distant station. He +knew the boat, if he could not at first identify those who manned +it. It was an old lifeboat that had been stored in a shed below +John-Ed Williams' place, and these men attempting their rescue were +some of the neighbors from Wreckers' Head. + +They came on steadily, the steersman standing at his post and +handling the long oar as though it was a feather's weight. His huge +figure soon identified him. It was Captain John Dunn, who, like Ira +Ball, had left the sea, and he had left his right forearm, too, +because of some accident somewhere on the other side of the globe. +But with the steel hook screwed to its stump and the good hand +remaining to him, Captain Dunn handled that steering oar with more +skill than most other men with two good hands could have done. + +How the four at the oars pulled the heavy boat! Tunis sought to +identify them as well. He saw John-Ed Williams--in a place at last +where he was forced to keep up his end, though he was notably a lazy +man. Ben Brewster had the oar directly behind John-Ed. + +The third figure Tunis could not identify--not at once. The man at +the bow oar was Marvin Pike, who pulled a splendid stroke. So did +that unknown oarsman. They were all bravely tugging at the heavy +oars. Tunis had faith in them. + +Zebedee suddenly plunged across the pitching deck and reached the +rail where Tunis stood. Discipline--at least seagoing etiquette--had +been somewhat in abeyance aboard the _Seamew_ during the last few +hours. Zeb caught the skipper by the arm. + +"See her?" he bawled into the ear of the surprised Tunis. + +"What's that?" + +"See her hair? It's a girl! As I'm a living sinner, it's a girl! +Pulling number three oar, Captain Latham! Did you ever?" + +Clinging to a stay, the captain of the _Seamew_ flung himself far +over the rail as the schooner chanced to roll. He could look down +into the approaching lifeboat. He saw the loosened, dark locks of +the girl who was pulling at number three oar. On the very heels of +Zeb's words the captain was confident of the girl's identity. + +"Sheila!" + +His voice could not have reached her ear because of the rush and +roar of the wind and sea, but, as though in answer to his shout, the +girl glanced back and up, over her shoulder. For a moment Tunis got +a flash of the face he so dearly loved. + +What a woman she was! She lacked no more in courage than she did in +beauty and sweetness of disposition. What other girl along all this +coast--even one born of the Cape strain--would have dared take an +oar in that lifeboat in face of such dire peril as this? + +"Good Lord, Cap'n Latham!" shrieked Zeb. "That's Miss Bostwick!" + +Tunis straightened up, squared his shoulders, and looked at Zebedee +proudly. He wanted Zeb to know--he wanted the whole world to know, +if he could spread the news abroad--that the girl pulling number +three oar was the girl he loved, and was going to marry! + + * * * * * + +An hour later the _Seamew_, her topsails drawing full and her lower +canvas properly handled, drove on like the bird she was through the +channel into the cove, trailing the old lifeboat behind her. The +skipper had taken the wheel himself, but that "tug to sta'bbo'd" did +not disturb his equanimity as it sometimes did Horry's. + +Sheila, muffled in oilskins and sea boots, but with her wet hair +flowing over her shoulders, stood beside the skipper. No matter how +satisfied and confident Tunis might appear, the girl was still in an +uncertain state of mind. + +"And so," she said to him anxiously, "I do not know what to tell +them. Cap'n Ira seemed so poorly and so unhappy. And he says Aunt +Prue is almost ill. + +"But it was Cap'n Ira who told me what to do when we saw the +_Seamew_ in danger; how to get the men together and how to launch +the boat! Oh, it was wonderful! He was not too overcome to be +practical and realize your need, Tunis." + +"Trust Cap'n Ira," agreed the young man. "And what other girl could +have done what you did, Sheila? Hear what Cap'n John Dunn says? You +ought to be a sailor's daughter. _I_ can tell him you are going to +be a sailor's wife." + +"No, no! Oh, Tunis! It can't--" + +"No 'can't' in the dictionary," interrupted the captain of the +_Seamew_. "You and I are going to have one big talk, Sheila, after I +take you up home." + +"Up home?" she repeated. + +"You are going back to Cap'n Ira's. You know you are. That other +girl has beat it for Boston, you say, and there's not a living +reason why you shouldn't return to the Balls. Besides, they need +you. I could see that with half an eye when I went away the other +morning. The old man hobbling around the barn trying to catch an old +hen was a sight to make the angels weep." + +"Poor, poor Cap'n Ira!" she murmured. + +"And poor Aunt Prudence--and poor _me_!" exclaimed Tunis. "What do +you think is going to happen to me? If you go away, I shall have to +sell all I own in the world and follow you." + +"Tunis!" she cried, almost in fear. "You wouldn't." + +"I certainly would. I am going to have you, one way or another. +Nobody else shall get you, Sheila. And you can't go far enough or +fast enough to lose me." + +"Don't!" she said faintly. "You cannot be in earnest. Do you know +what it means if you and I have any association whatsoever? Oh! I +thought this was all over--that you would not tear open the wound--" + +"I don't mean to hurt you, Sheila," he said softly. But he was +smiling. "I have got something to tell you that will, I believe, put +an entirely different complexion on your affairs." + +"What--what can you mean?" she burst out. "Oh, tell me!" + +"I'll tell you a little of it now. Just enough to keep you from +thinking I am crazy. The rest I will not tell you save in the Balls' +sitting room before Cap'n Ira and Aunt Prue." + +"Tunis!" she murmured with clasped hands. + +"Yesterday I spent two hours in the manager's office of Hoskin & +Marl's. They have been looking for you for more than six months. +Naturally, there was no record of you after you left that--that +school when your time was out. They didn't seem to guess you'd have +got work in that Seller's place." + +"What do you mean? What did they want me for?" gasped the girl. + +"Near as I could find out from the old gentleman who seemed to be in +charge there at the store, they wanted to find you to beg your +pardon. He cried, that manager did. He broke down and cried like a +baby--especially after I had told him a few things that had happened +to you, and some things that might have happened if you hadn't found +such good friends in Cap'n Ira and Prudence. That's right. He was +all broke up." + +The girl stood before him, straight as a reed. She rocked with the +pitching of the schooner, but it seemed as though her feet were +glued to the planks. She could not have fallen! + +"They--they know--" + +"They know they sent to jail the wrong girl. The woman that stole +the goods is dead, and before she died she wrote 'em all about it +from the sanitarium where the firm sent her. They are sending you +papers signed by the judge, the prosecuting attorney, even the +pawnbroker and the store detective, and--and a lot of other folks. +Why, Sheila, you are fully exonerated." + +She began suddenly to weep, the great tears raining down her face, +although she still stood erect and kept her gaze fixed upon him. + +"Six months! As long as I have been down here! Oh, Tunis! While we +were making up our plot on that bench on Boston Common and planning +to lie to these dear, good people down here--and everybody; while we +were beginning this coil of deceit and trouble, I might have gone +back there to the store and found all this out. And--and I would +never have needed to lie and deceive as I have done." + +"Huh! Yes. I cal'late that's so, Sheila," he said. "But how about +me? Where would I have come in, if you had found out that your name +had been cleared and Hoskin & Marl were anxious to do well by you? +Seems to me, Sheila, there must be some compensation in that +thought. There is for me, at any rate." + +She flashed him a look then that cleaved its way to Tunis Latham's +very soul. His tale did not remove from her heart all its burden. +She was still penitent for the falsehood she had told in direct +words to Cap'n Ira and Prudence about her first meeting with Tunis. +But that prevarication, at least, had been for no purpose of self +gain. + +And so Sheila looked at her lover for just that passing moment with +all the passion which filled her heart for him. Had Tunis not been +steering the _Seamew_ through a pretty tortuous channel at just that +moment there is no knowing what he would have done--spurred by +Sheila's look! + + + + +CHAPTER XXXIII + +A HAVEN OF REST + + +Wreckers' Head so shelters the cove from the northeast that the +schooner could be brought safely in to Luiz Wharf, instead of +dropping her anchor in deep water. Half the port, and all of +Portygee Town, crowded nearby wharves and streets to welcome Tunis +Latham's schooner; for news of her peril and the way in which help +had reached the _Seamew_ had come down from the Head as on the wings +of the wind itself. + +There was one face on the wharf Tunis Latham sought out with grim +persistency as the schooner was made fast. He had purposely placed +Sheila in Zebedee Pauling's care. Tunis kept, directly under his +hand, the broken oar which had helped to make so much of his recent +trouble. When the _Seamew_ was safe, her skipper leaped ashore. And +he carried the broken oar with him. + +Orion, grinning and sneering by turns, saw his cousin coming. It +must have been preternatural sagacity which caused him to see and +recognize the broken oar. Having seen it, he jumped for the head of +the wharf. + +Tunis leaped away on his cousin's trail. The crowd parted to let +them through, and then joined in a streaming, excited tail to their +kite of progress. Most of the spectators lived in Portygee Town. +Some of them had been members of the _Seamew's_ deserting crews. +They were afraid of Tunis Latham, but they had little sympathy for +Orion. + +The skipper caught up with him in the middle of the road and almost +opposite the Pareta cottage. Orion had picked up a cobblestone as he +reached the street and, finding himself about to be overtaken, he +turned and threw the missile at Tunis' head. The latter dodged it +and, with a single, savage blow of the oar felled his cousin to the +roadway. + +"You unmitigated scoundrel!" Tunis roared. "I ought to take your +life. Because of you I nearly lost my own to-day--and the lives of +two other men and my schooner into the bargain. You villain!" + +As Orion tried to scramble up, the skipper of the _Seamew_ made +another pass at him with the oar, and the fellow fell again. + +"Don't hit me! Don't hit me again, Tunis! Remember I'm your cousin. +I--I haven't done a thing--true an' honest, I haven't!" + +The listeners gathered closer. Tunis Latham's face displayed such +rage that the Portygees expected him to continue his attack with the +oar. But instead he shook it before their eyes--and Orion's. + +"See it?" he demanded of the bystanders. "That's the scurvy trick +the dog played me. Found this broken oar in somebody's woodpile, +burned the name of the _Marlin B._ into the handle, and foisted it +on a fool crew to prove that my schooner was once called by that +name. I ought to pound him to death!" + +Suddenly a brilliant figure whirled into the midst of the crowd and +reached the angry skipper and his victim. Eunez, her black eyes +ablaze, her face ruddy with anger, planted herself before Tunis +Latham, hands on hips, confronting him boldly. One glance at the +prostrate Orion assured her that, although there was blood upon his +face, he was not much hurt. She tossed her head and snapped her +fingers under the nose of the captain of the _Seamew_. + +"So now, Tunis Latham! It is that you have waked up! Of a gr-r-reat +smartness are you, eh?" she cried. "You scorn us all, and tr-r-reat +us as you would dogs. Heh! All you shipmasters are alike. + +"But _you_--we put the laugh on you, eh? That oar in your hand--ha, +ha! Do not lay the blame altogether upon your cousin. _I_ burned +those letters into that wood with my curling irons. Fooled by a +girl, eh, Tunis Latham? Ah! Learn your lesson, Captain Latham! We +Portygee women are not to be scorned by _any_ schooner captain. No!" + +She snapped her fingers again in his face and turned away, swaying +her hips and tossing her head as she disappeared into her father's +cottage. When Tunis looked around for his cousin, he found that that +facile young man, taking advantage of the girl's intervention, had +slipped away. + + * * * * * + +A winter hurricane had pounced upon the Cape and torn at it with +teeth and claws, as though seeking to dismember it--to wrench the +forty-mile curved claw of the Cape from the remainder of Barnstable +County. + +The driven snow masked everything--earth, houses, trees, and the +shivering bushes; it clung to these objects, iced upon them like +frosting. No craft ventured out of Big Wreck Cove, least of all the +_Seamew_, although she had a cargo in her hold and a complete and +satisfied crew in her forecastle. + +Tunis Latham was speaking of the latter fact to Aunt Lucretia in the +warm and homelike kitchen of Latham's Folly. + +"Zeb is a good fellow. He has got together a bunch of hands that +aren't afraid of ghosts or bogies. You couldn't make those Portygees +or some of the other hands we had see the ridiculousness of their +fear of the _Seamew_--bless her! But with this bunch Zeb has got +together I wouldn't fear to sail around the Horn." + +His aunt looked startled at the suggestion and shook her head. + +"I know you wouldn't want I should go for such a long voyage, Aunt +Lucretia," he replied. "And I don't want to myself. But I couldn't +be content here if I didn't see the prospect bright before me of +getting Ida--I mean, of getting Sheila." + +His aunt looked at him again not unkindly, but said not a word. + +"I've told you all about it, Aunt Lucretia," the skipper of the +_Seamew_ pursued. "Everything. If Sheila did wrong to come down here +as she did, I did a greater wrong in encouraging her to come and in +tempting her with the chance of escaping from the mess she was in. +And she's paid--we've both paid--for our folly. + +"As for folks talking, if that Bostwick girl wants to keep her job +with Hoskin & Marl's she'll keep her mouth shut about Sheila. She +understands that. And Hoskin & Marl--everybody, in fact that was +connected with that awful thing that happened to Sheila--have done +all in their power to make amends." + +For the first time his aunt's lips opened. + +"The poor child!" she said. + +"I want more than your sympathy for Sheila, auntie," he urged +earnestly. "I want your approval of what Sheila and I mean to +do--in time. Of course, I must be better established first and be +making money enough to support a--a family. And Sheila would not +think of leaving the old people up there. They need her so sorely." + +"But you may as well know, first as last, Aunt Lucretia, that I mean +to marry Sheila. I know it was wrong in me to try to palm her off on +you as somebody she wasn't--to try to fool you--" + +"You did not fool me, Tunis; not for a moment," she told him softly. + +He stared at her in amazement. + +"No," went on his usually inarticulate aunt. "The moment I first +looked into her face I knew she was not Sarah Honey's daughter. That +baby's eyes were brown when Sarah brought her here years ago; and no +brown eyes could change to such a beautiful violet-blue as--as +Sheila's. I knew you and she were trying to deceive me, but I could +not help loving the dear girl from my first sight of her." + +That was a very long speech indeed for Aunt Lucretia to make. She +put her arms about Tunis Latham's neck and said all the rest she +might have said in a loving kiss. + +Driving as the storm was, there remained something that took the +skipper of the _Seamew_ out into the welter of it. With the wet snow +plastering his back he climbed out of the saucerlike valley to the +rear premises of the Ball place. He even gave a look in at the barn +to make sure that all the chores were done for the night. The gray +ghost of the Queen of Sheba's face was raised a moment from her +manger while she looked at him inquiringly, blowing softly through +her nostrils the while. + +"You're all right, anyway," said Tunis, chuckling as he closed the +barn door. "You've got a friend for life." + +He went on to the kitchen door. Inside he could hear the bustle of +Sheila's swift feet, the croon of Prudence's gentle voice, and then +a mighty "A-choon!" as Cap'n Ira relieved his pent-up feelings. + +"Don't let them fish cakes burn, gal," the old man drawled. "If +Tunis ain't here mighty quick he can eat his cold. Oh! Here he +is--right to the nick o' time, like the second mate's watch comin' +to breakfast." + +Tunis had shaken his peacoat free of the clinging snow and now +stamped his sea-boots on the rug. He smiled broadly and confidently +at Sheila and she returned it so happily that her whole face seemed +to irradiate sunshine. Prudence nudged Cap'n Ira's elbow. + +"Ain't it a pretty sight, Ira?" she whispered. + +"She looks 'most as sweet as you did, Prue, when I took you to the +altar," sighed the old man windily. "I swan! Women is most alike, +young an' old. All but that dratted Ida May Bostwick. _She_ was a +caution to cats." + +"Now you hush, Ira. She's our own rel'tive and we ought not to speak +ill of her." + +"Ha!" blew Cap'n Ira, reminding Tunis of the old mare when she +snorted. "Ha! Maybe she is. But even so I want none o' her. An' I +told Elder Minnett so. I got kinder of an idee that the elder won't +be so brash, puttin' his spoon into other folks' porridge again." + +"Hush, Ira! Don't be irreverent. Remember he's a minister." + +"So he is. So he is," concluded Cap'n Ira. "They say charity covers +a multitude of sins; and I expect the call to be a preacher covers a +multitude of sinners." He chuckled mellowly again. "But sometimes +I've thought that the 'call' some of our preachers hear 'stead o' +being the voice of God is some other noise they mistook for it. +Well, there, Prudence, I won't say no more. But you must allow that +Elder Minnett's buttin' in, as the boys say, come pretty nigh +bustin' everything to flinders. + +"Come, Tunis. Do sit down or that gal won't be able to dish up +supper, and I'm as hungry as a wolf. Pull up your chair, Prudence. +Ain't this livin', I want to know?" He shuddered luxuriously at the +howl and rattle of the wind without. "Now, folks: 'For that with +which we are about to be blessed make us truly thankful. Amen.' Put +your teeth in one o' them biscuit, Tunis. I want to recommend 'em +to you. Ain't none better on this endurin' Cape--no, sir. We got the +best cook on the Head. If you are ever lucky enough to get one ha'f +as good, Tunis--" + +"Now, you be still, Ira," admonished Prudence, smiling comfortingly +at the blushing girl. + +"You better sing small, Cap'n Ira," said the skipper of the _Seamew_ +hoarsely. "It's mebbe just because we're good-natured and forbearing +that you are keeping your cook for a while." + +"Ha! So that's the way the wind blows, eh?" croaked Cap'n Ira. "You +talk big, young man. But we know Sheila better than you do, p'r'aps. +Don't we, Prue?" + +His little old wife, with her winter-apple face wrinkled in a smile +of utter confidence, leaned nearer Sheila to pat her hand. The girl +seized the wrinkled claw suddenly and pressed it with both of +hers--pressed it gratefully and with a full-charged heart. + +"Don't be disturbed. Don't fear," she whispered so that the old +woman only might not hear. "I will not leave you." + +The two men looked deeply into each other's eyes and with a great +understanding. They are not demonstrative, these Cape men, not as a +rule; but Cap'n Ira and Tunis Latham understood all entailed in that +promise so softly given, and they subscribed to it. Sheila was to +have her way. + +Hours later Tunis lit the lamp in his bedroom and then stood before +his window, gazing out into the driving snow. Almost immediately he +saw the gleam of another lamp, far up the slope, showing from that +north window of Sheila's chamber in the old Ball house. + +This was the signal they had agreed upon--their good-night symbol +whenever he was at home. He stood there a long time, looking out. + +Although the wintry wind raved across Wreckers' Head and the snow +scurried wildly before it, there was springtime in the hearts of +Tunis Latham and Sheila--the springtime of their hopes. + + +THE END + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's Sheila of Big Wreck Cove, by James A. 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