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| author | nfenwick <nfenwick@pglaf.org> | 2025-03-10 18:21:05 -0700 |
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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..d7b82bc --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,4 @@ +*.txt text eol=lf +*.htm text eol=lf +*.html text eol=lf +*.md text eol=lf diff --git a/75584-0.txt b/75584-0.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..ba73c6d --- /dev/null +++ b/75584-0.txt @@ -0,0 +1,9074 @@ + +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 75584 *** + + + + + + Cap'n Jonah's Fortune + + _A STORY OF CAPE COD_ + + BY JAMES A. COOPER + + ILLUSTRATED BY + A. O. SCOTT + + NEW YORK + GEORGE SULLY AND COMPANY + + COPYRIGHT, 1919, BY + GEORGE SULLY AND COMPANY + + _All rights reserved_ + + _Printed in U. S. A._ + + BOOKS BY JAMES A. COOPER + + CAP'N ABE, STOREKEEPER + CAP'N JONAH'S FORTUNE + + + + + CONTENTS + + + + I. PEARL OF THE CLOTHESLINE + + II. A BLIND YOUNG MAN + + III. CAP'N JONAH SETTLES DOWN + + IV. TOM PETTY REVEALS HIMSELF + + V. "BETTER A DINNER OF HERBS" + + VI. ROMANCE AND PEARL HOLDEN + + VII. GETTING ACQUAINTED + + VIII. THE BALD TRUTH + + IX. A SHELL ROAD IDYL + + X. "PEARLY" + + XI. AN EVENING WITH CAP'N ABE + + XII. THE APOSTATE SANTA CLAUS + + XIII. FAIR AND FOUL WEATHER + + XIV. VEERING WINDS + + XV. MISUNDERSTANDINGS + + XVI. THE ALLEGORY + + XVII. THE STRONG BOX + + XVIII. SARAH PETTY TRIMS HER SAILS + + XIX. THE HIGH HAND + + XX. THE ROOT OF ALL EVIL + + XXI. THE WISE MEN OUT OF THE SOUTH + + XXII. THE STING OF HYPOCRISY + + XXIII. THE CHRISTMAS GALE + + XXIV. THE MISTLETOE BOUGH + + XXV. THE PRICE OF HEROISM + + XXVI. CAP'N JONAH'S CHALLENGE + + XXVII. A RIFT IN THE CLOUDS + + XXVIII. ALL ABOUT A BAD SMELL + + XXIX. CHRISTMAS EVE AT CAP'N ABE'S + + XXX. "CHRISTMAS GIFT" + + + + + ILLUSTRATIONS + + +"My goodness! Comp'ny?" gasped Pearl, staring wide-eyed at the broadly +smiling visitor + +"Belay that!" he commanded in a deep sea growl + +One after another Cap'n Jonah called off the amount on the certificates + +He swung to her side, landed with both boots digging into the frozen +sand for a foothold + + + + + CAP'N JONAH'S FORTUNE + + + + + CHAPTER I + + PEARL OF THE CLOTHESLINE + + +Washy Gallup, who was general handy man along the Shell Road, came +wheeling a barrow past Liphalet Truitt's and the Mariner's Chapel from +the direction of Cardhaven proper and the docks. On the barrow was an +iron-strapped sea-chest, of a bright blue color and with tarred rope +handles. + +"Wal, Cap'n, we're nigh to your anchorage," Washy declared, setting +down the barrow to spit on his hands. + +"Yes, yes! I reckernize the channel buoys. That's Orrin Petty's place +on our weather bow, ain't it?" + +The speaker, who closely followed Washy and the barrow, would have +attracted attention anywhere, certainly here on the Shell Road had +it not been that hour of the afternoon when most of the neighborhood +womenfolk were engaged in supper preparations and were not, therefore, +in sight of the highway. + +He was a solidly built man without being at all pursy. He had +wind-bitten cheeks and a flame in his black eyes that belied his age. +Although he walked with a cane and his hair and beard were gray, there +was a brisk air about the man that at the very start seemed to reduce +his actual age by half a score of years. + +A fringe of whisker framed his mahogany face and his lips were cleanly +shaven. Nowhere out of Ireland save in longshore communities or among +old-fashioned seafaring men are these "galways" still popular. He +was dressed in a pilot-cloth suit, much wrinkled from lying, in all +probability, for more than one voyage in that same chest that Washy +Gallup now proceeded to wheel before him. + +"Here we be, Cap'n," observed Washy finally, turning into the lane that +led to the house already identified. + +"I see! I see!" agreed the mariner, staring curiously at the +high-shouldered, unpainted frame dwelling which stood with an unsocial +end to the road. + +But there was a pleasant side yard into which the lane led--grassy, +with trees bordering it and a clothes'-drying green in the middle. +There was a girl taking clothes from the lines in this yard and it was +upon her the visitor's gaze became fixed. + +She was of a slim figure, yet with prettily rounded limbs, as he could +easily see while she stood with the fresh breeze blowing the scant +gingham frock about her. Her arms were bare almost to her shoulders, +displaying dimpled elbows and wrists. The short skirt became even +shorter as she stood on tip-toes to reach a particularly obdurate +clothespin, and the turn of her leg and ankle was as trim as that of a +yacht's spars. + +The neck of the simple frock she wore was cut square. As she turned +toward the two men approaching, there was revealed the rising and +falling of her full bosom--like the swell of the sea itself before a +storm. But her face, save the dimpled, pink chin, was smothered in an +enormous sunbonnet. + +"Where's your Uncle Orrin, Pearly?" asked Washy, dropping the handles +of the wheelbarrow once more. + +The girl let fall the last garment she had taken from the line--a +voluminous blue starched skirt--into the clothesbasket and vigorously +punched it into smaller compass. Then she stood up again to face her +questioner. The captain obtained a flashing glimpse of clouded dark +eyes and little, even white teeth between full red lips. + +"He _isn't_ my uncle!" said the girl with emphasis. "He's my mother's +step-brother's cousin-by-marriage, Orrin Petty is. And if I had any +livin' relative in the world to go to, I'd leave here just as fast as +I could travel, Washy Gallup--so there!" + +"Hoity-toity!" murmured Washy. "What's dragged anchor an' gone to sea +on _this_ tide, I want to know? Where's Orrin?" + +There was a flurry of tears in the girl's voice as she uttered her +emphatic speech. She jerked another starched piece from the line and +crowded it with the clothespins into the basket. + +"He isn't at home; nor Miz Petty; nor Tom. They all went to the county +fair down to Harwich." + +"I snum! And left you to home, did they?" ejaculated Washy, suddenly +seeing a great light. + +"And I made this very dress to go to the fair in," confided Pearl. "Got +the pattern out of the _Ladies' Home Provider_. And I picked out the +very prettiest bolt of gingham Cap'n Abe had in his store. Now I've +washed in it, and I'm going to iron in it. This was the day I meant to +wear it, and I _have_ wore it!" + +She snapped her pretty teeth together on this remark and jerked back +her sunbonnet so that the captain could see her face. Despite the storm +upon it, it was well worth seeing, as he was confident it would be. +With all her fairness of skin and almost flaxen hair, Pearl's eyes were +dark, and smoldering now with indignation. + +The situation was too much for Washy. He had no further comment to +make. But he waved an introductory hand toward the silent man in the +pilot-cloth suit. + +"This here's Cap'n Jonah Hand, Miz Petty's uncle," he said. "He's come +to visit a spell. Come up on the two-master from Chatham, and fouled my +hawse at Durgin's dock. So I helped him over with his chist." + +"My goodness! Comp'ny?" gasped Pearl, staring wide-eyed at the broadly +smiling visitor. "And there isn't a thing baked in the house but +doughnuts!" + +[Illustration: "My goodness! Comp'ny?" gasped Pearl, staring wide-eyed +at the broadly smiling visitor.] + +"Wal," observed Cap'n Jonah Hand, slowly, "I reckon I can fare on +them, seein's I ain't set a tooth into one for many a long year. 'Way +'cross the world in Chinese waters, I took a hankerin' last year for +'fried holes,' as we used to call 'em when I was a boy. I told Ming, my +Chinese cook, how they'd ought to be made, and he tackled 'em. Ming was +putty nigh the bravest feller I ever did see. He'd tackle anything. + +"When he got through with them doughnuts you could have used 'em for +grommets. They warn't nothin' fit for a man's stomach. Don't worry +about feedin' me, gal. I had a snack before I got off the Chatham +schooner." + +"You come right in, sir," said Pearl, recovering from her surprise and +her natural Cape hospitality asserting itself. "You give him a hand +with his chist, Washy." + +She tripped up the steps in advance and opened the green slatted door. +It was cool and dark in the hall, promising an interior speckless and +flyless. There was barely light enough by which the two men might +stumble up the ingrain-carpeted stair. + +Pearl threw open the door of the guest room with a flourish. Its white +and blue braided mats and counterpane to match, made the darkened +chamber seem invitingly cool. Pearl seized the blue-banded water +pitcher and went down to the pump while Cap'n Jonah paid Washy for his +assistance. + +She returned with the brimming pitcher and a cake of home-molded soap. +There were already towels hanging upon the washstand rack. + +"You come right down, sir, when you've freshened up," the girl said. +"I'll put the coffee pot over and you can sample the doughnuts. Miz +Petty and the others won't be home till late, like enough." + +"All right, my gal," replied Cap'n Jonah. "But don't you go for to +put yourself out none. I've seen lots worse quarters than these, I do +assure you." + +She descended the stairs and closed the door after Washy, who was +already trundling the barrow down the lane. She desired to ask a few +questions of the gossipy Mr. Gallup about Cap'n Jonah Hand; but she +would not run after Washy. + +Taking down the remainder of the clotheslines' burden she pressed down +the running-over basket and, seizing it by its two handles, started +for the kitchen door. The basket was so big and the wash so bulky that +Pearl was very nearly hidden from sight as she came up the steps of the +porch. + +Cap'n Jonah had quickly made his toilet and found his way down to the +kitchen. Pearl heard the latch of the screen door lifted and his voice +say: + +"You've got consider'ble of a haul there, ain't you?" + +She set the basket down on one of the broad tables, panting and +laughing. Her indignation seemed to have evaporated. The sunbonnet had +fallen back, hanging by its strings tied under her chin. She had a lot +of fluffy hair, and it was braided in two plaits which hung below her +waist. + +Hers was not a childish looking face, however, for her eyes had a +steady, direct expression and her lips were molded in firm lines. + +"How old be you, gal?" asked the captain. + +"Goin' on eighteen. Miz Petty makes out I'm not seventeen yet. But I +remember how old I was when I came here, and I know she can't keep me +after I'm eighteen, if I don't want to stay." + +"I take it you're not happy 'long o' Sarah Petty?" + +"Do you reckon anybody'd be happy with Miz Petty? Tom's the only person +on top of this foot-stool she's re'lly fond of; and she 'most nags him +to death." + +"Hum!" commented the captain. There did not seem much else to say. Yet, +for the sake of sociability, he ventured: "So you'd like to get away +from Sarah?" + +"I'd have gone to the Cardhaven Inn to work this season, takin' Gusty +Durgin's place--she that's gone to be a moving picture actress--" said +Pearl briskly, "only Miz Petty said I couldn't. She claims me till I'm +eighteen. Unless I get married before that time." + +"Whatever!" gasped Cap'n Jonah. "You don't mean to say you're thinking +of getting merried--a gal like you?" + +"What girl doesn't think of it--even if she hasn't a living chance?" +demanded Pearl, in her crisp, assertive way. "Of course I'm thinking +of it; but that isn't saying I'm likely to be anything but a +sour-cranberry old maid. That's what most of us Cape Cod girls turn out +to be. There aren't men enough--real men, I mean--on the Cape to go +'round." + +She dimpled, and her expression took all the sting out of her words. +She was a pretty girl--the prettiest girl Cap'n Jonah remembered ever +to have seen. Being a childless widower, for many years he had "paid +little attention to the sect," as he frequently stated. But there was a +freshness and sweetness about Pearl, in addition to her physical gifts, +that charmed the old sea captain. + +She stirred the fire, set the kettle forward to boil, and measured the +aromatic coffee--as it seemed, all in one motion. Her activity and +litheness delighted his seaman's eye. + +"A tidy craft!" he muttered admiringly. There was a wistful thought in +the captain's mind, too. He wished he had been vouchsafed a daughter +like this girl. + +"What's your name, Pearly?" he asked. "'Tain't Petty, I warrant." + +"No, sir. My name's Pearl Holden. The Holdens belong Paulmouth way. +But there aren't any of 'em belonging to me--worse luck! Orrin Petty +put in a claim for me after my maw's sister--Aunt Becky--died, and the +selectmen let him have me. Bein' parceled out like you belonged to a +litter of puppies isn't as pleasant as you might think it." + +"No. I guess not. I'd ought to know, too," said the captain. "I was +bound out myself when I was a little skeezicks. But I run away and went +to sea. Not that I bettered myself much by so doing--not for a spell," +and he shook his head thoughtfully. + +"I guess bad luck stuck to me like a barnacle, 'cause of my name. You'd +think they'd make it a crime punishable by law to give the name of +'Jonah' to a helpless child. But 'twas taken out of the Bible, and +therefore bound to be a good one, my folks thought like enough. I heard +of a Cape Cod man once that was named Beelzebub for the same reason." + +"I guess you've found," said the practical Pearl, "that a name isn't +of much importance after all. Folks can be what they've a mind to be, +I guess. Your name, for instance, didn't keep you from risin' to the +quarterdeck." + +"No. I riz in spite of it," the visitor said complacently. + +He sat down at one end of the deal table where Pearl had spread a snowy +napkin. In rapid succession she set before him cold baking-powder +biscuit, as white and fluffy as down; a golden square of butter on a +flowered plate; a wedge of creamy cheese; and a bowl heaped with flaky +brown rings--the delight of the hearty appetite and despair of the +dyspeptic. + +"Them look some diff'rent from Ming's," said the captain dryly. + +He "tucked away" a hearty meal and drank his third cup of coffee before +he rose from the table. Pearl was busy sprinkling the clothes. She +rolled each large piece tightly, finishing with a capable thump of her +dimpled fist. The slanting rays of the sun touched her hair, revealing +golden strands in it. + +Cap'n Jonah seemed rather uncertain in his mind when he pushed his +chair back to the wall after brushing the doughnut crumbs from his blue +vest to the table. He stood at the screen door, looking out into the +yard and to the vista of white shell road that led seaward. + +Finally he drew from his pocket a battered silver box, the lid of which +he snapped open. But the box was just as empty as he knew it to be. + +"I say, Pearly," he said hopefully, "didn't I hear you speak of some +store 'round here?" + +"Cap'n Abe's; yes, sir," replied the girl. "Right down the road there." + +"Does he sell anything besides caliker for dresses and other folderols?" + +"Why, Cap'n Abe sells most ev'rything," laughed the girl. "From a +thimble to a bow anchor, I do believe." + +"Tobacker?" + +"Of course. And snuff, Cap'n Hand. I see that's a snuff box in your +hand." + +"Ye-as. I do drift kinder to snuff when I can get it," confessed the +captain. "Ye see, for many a v'y'ge I carried passengers, an' a feller +can't smoke on duty nor yet chew in the presence of lady passengers. +But they tell me kings and cardinals have used snuff; so I reckon it's +allowable for an old sea cap'n. I'll step down the road and see what +this storekeeper ye speak of carries in my line." + +He set his glazed hat carefully upon his head, got his cane, and +stepped through the kitchen doorway into the evening sunlight. + + + + + CHAPTER II + + A BLIND YOUNG MAN + + +Willy Peeble's autocar brought the Petty family home from the Paulmouth +depot. + +Orrin Petty, who was notoriously as close as the skin to an eel, would +never have willingly agreed to such an expense. But county fair day was +the one day in the year when his wife put her foot down and insisted +upon the family making what the son, Tom, called "a splurge." + +At Harwich Fair they were sure to meet all the Pettys that were worth +meeting, as well as many of Mrs. Petty's girlhood friends. Harwich was +a long way from Cardhaven, and Cape Cod folk are not given to useless +"visiting around." The neighbors well knew Orrin's cheese-paring ways +and Sarah's temper, as well as Tom Petty's utter uselessness. But the +family had a reputation to keep up with their relatives and friends at +a distance. + +So Sarah Petty thought. That was one reason why Pearl had been left +at home. Mrs. Orrin Petty wanted no poor relation tagging them around +at the fair. Besides, Pearly's skimpy wardrobe might be difficult to +explain in the light of the rest of the family flaunting their Sunday +best. + +Mrs. Petty was a little, trig, birdlike woman, with all the scrappy +temper of that curse of birddom, the English sparrow. She hopped out of +the autocar, paid Willy Peebles his fare to a penny--and no more--and +went into the house clacking smart heels, while Orrin and Tom followed +more slowly, laden with samples, prize packets, catalogs, and that +wealth of useless lumber always to be gathered at a county fair. + +The menfolk were rather glum. Orrin because of the heavy expenses of +the day; Tom for a secret trouble that bore upon his soul. But Sarah +Petty was as spry and spiteful as usual. + +"What I want to know first of all, Pearl Holden, is why them blinds is +open?" she demanded bustling into the house. + +Pearl was just rolling the last piece of the huge wash into a hard damp +ball, and she tucked it down into the tightly packed basket with vigor. +She asked, however, quite mildly: + +"What blinds, Miz Petty?" + +"Them best room blinds, with the sun pourin' in all aft'noon onto my +new rugs and that counterpane." + +"I didn't know he did that," said Pearl composedly. + +"Who d'you mean--'he'?" Then she almost screamed as she saw the empty +plates and the coffee pot. "Who you been feedin', Pearl Holden? At my +expense, too, and jest as soon as my back's turned. Some tramp?" + +"It's your uncle," Pearl explained, and it seemed that for once Mrs. +Petty could neither irritate nor browbeat her. + +"My what?" + +"Your Uncle Jonah. Cap'n Jonah Hand," said Pearl placidly. "He's come +to stop a spell. Brought his chest. Him and Washy Gallup took it up to +the best chamber." + +"Them two tramps a-trackin' up the front stairs and that best room?" +shrieked Mrs. Petty, falling into a kitchen chair and staring at Pearl +as though she thought the girl had taken leave of her senses. + +"Where would you have me put your uncle? In the woodshed?" asked Pearl, +with much more courage than usual. "He looks perfectly respectable to +me. And he's your own uncle." + +"Who's this is your own uncle?" demanded Orrin Petty, coming heavily +into the kitchen and piling his armful of trash on the table. + +"Jonah Hand. You've heard of him enough, Orrin Petty," said his wife +rather breathlessly. "And you'll remember he was here once--years ago, +when Tommy was a baby." + +"That's all right, then," said her husband. "He don't visit often." + +"But he writ me last year he thought of givin' up follerin' the sea and +comin' here to Cardhaven to settle down." + +"Goshamighty!" + +"I never thought the old fool would take me up," said Sarah Petty +viciously. "But I wrote him he'd be welcome." + +"You _did_? Was you crazy?" demanded Orrin, his pale eyes suddenly +firing. "You reckon on havin' your pauper relations come here to live +on us?" + +"Don't you say nothin' like that to me, Orrin Petty!" flared his wife. +"There's paupers on your side of the family, too," and she glanced +significantly at Pearl. + +The girl was too used to such unkind remarks to take open offense. + +"Besides," added Sarah Petty with hesitation, "Uncle Jonah Hand might +make some trouble for us, Orrin. I dunno. Where is he, Pearl?" + +"He just stepped down to Cap'n Abe's store to buy him some snuff." + +"Faugh! I might ha' knowed he'd be a nasty, old sailor, full o' filthy +habits." + +"Well," drawled Master Tom, who was a lout of a youth several years +older than Pearl, "I reckon Pop and I can set his chist out in the +lane, if you say so, Marm." + +"I--I dunno's that's best," said the woman, again strangely uncertain +for so assured a character. She turned sharply upon Pearl, whose ears +might be more acute than she cared to have them for the moment. "Take +that clothes-basket into the storeroom. It's little you've been doing +to-day, I can see, you good-for-nothing. Not a scrap of the wash as yet +ironed. And you flaunting that new dress. Hurry back, now, and draw the +tea. I'm famished for a cup." + +She gave her attention swiftly to the two men as soon as Pearl left the +room. + +"This Uncle Jonah, now," she hissed. "You remember well enough, Orrin. +I told you all about it when father died and I fell heir to what he +had. The money I got from him just about paid for the building of this +house." + +"Wal, ye needn't throw it up to me so often. I know it," Orrin said +glumly enough. + +"I'm talking about Jonah Hand now," snapped his wife. "He lent father a +power of money years and years ago. It was two thousand dollars. Uncle +Jonah had just sold his sheer in the _Wildwind_ brig. Father put his +name on a rascal's note an' got into trouble. Father was dreadful easy +that-a-way, an' I guess Uncle Jonah was like him. + +"Anyway, Jonah Hand lent him the two thousand without a written scrap +of paper between 'em. But afterward father was silly enough to send +Uncle Jonah his note for the amount. He never paid no interest to Uncle +Jonah, and Uncle Jonah never presented the note for payment; but +if it's in existence yet he might ask for an accounting of father's +estate." + +"Goshamighty!" ejaculated Orrin. + +"That note wouldn't be good in law after this time," squealed Tom +hopefully. + +"You don't know that," snarled his father. "That's only one of your +smart-Aleck sayings." + +"Anyway," said Sarah Petty, wringing her hands on her narrow knees, +"he could make it awful unpleasant for us if he wanted to--Uncle Jonah +could. Ev'rybody would know about it. What would your A'nt Apollo Heath +say, Orrin? And Enoch Petty, he that's a State legislator? No, no! +'Twill never do to get the ill will of Uncle Jonah." + +"What are you going to do, then, Marm?" asked the curious Tom. + +"This dratted girl!" said Sarah Petty. "Mebbe she did just the right +thing for once. She put him in my best room. He's been treated nice +right at the start, I must say. He can't make no complaint that we +didn't meet him as relations should. If we treat him pleasant, but hint +how it's sort o' puttin' us out, his being here, mebbe he'll make his +visit and go, an' leave us in peace." + +Orrin Petty had been thinking. Rather, he had been scheming. Orrin +seldom put his wits to work unless his intent was for his own +betterment and to the undoing of somebody else. + +"Hush-a-that, Sarah!" he said. "What's this Uncle Jonah of yourn been +all his life?" + +"Seafarin', I tell ye." + +"Before the mast?" + +"Owned his own craft, or had sheers in 'em. Been master of ships since +before Tommy was born," Sarah said. "I know that much." + +"We know another thing," said the scheming Orrin. "If he 'cumulated +two thousand dollars to lend your father once't, he might well have +'cumulated more since that time. Ye don't know what he's mebbe got laid +away. Lots o' them old salts line their nests mighty well. Look at +'Liphalet Truitt--and him only a steward all the years he went to sea. +Ain't you this here Uncle Jonah's only livin' rel'tive?" + +The three Pettys looked at each other silently for a full minute. They +knew each other's minds so well that some things needed not to be said +at all between them. Pearl came back into the kitchen and bustled about +the stove with the preparations for supper. + +"Well, of course," Sarah Petty said in an entirely different tone, +"Uncle Jonah's an old man now, and we air his only relatives. It's +true. And it's quite according that he should come here to stay--for a +while, anyway. + +"You be polite to him, Tommy. Better set the table with the gold-banded +china to-night, Pearl. I'll beat up a mess of sour-milk pancakes. I +warrant Uncle Jonah ain't had nothing like 'em on shipboard. An' step +lively for once't--do!" + +For Pearl was staring at her, round-eyed. Sarah Petty's wind had +shifted so startlingly that the girl felt quite confounded. + + * * * * * + +Cap'n Jonah Hand strode down the Shell Road, his cane tapping smartly +and his blue-coated figure very erect. There was a nattiness in the +captain's appearance not always found among masters in the merchant +marine. His experience had been as varied as any skipper's who ever +sailed from the Cape; but as he told Pearl, for many years he was +master of passenger-carrying craft, and a certain behavior is demanded +of a man in that position. + +On his quarterdeck and sitting at the head of his table in the +saloon-cabin, Cap'n Jonah must display a courtesy, even an urbanity, +not usually demanded of merchant skippers. A certain dignity sat upon +Cap'n Jonah's countenance, and his manner impressed all who even +casually met him. + +He came to the wide-porched store, over the steps of which was nailed +the weather-beaten sign: + + A. SILT + General Merchandise + +There was nobody on the porch, but the two-leaved door to the store +was open. Inside was a rusty-legged stove, in which a handful of fire +burned despite the warmth of the late October sun. It was cool indoors +and a little damp. + +Before the visitor mounted the steps he saw that a full quorum of the +Loungers' Club held sway around Cap'n Abe's stove. The few decrepit +armchairs, as well as several boxes, an overturned nail keg or two, +and even an upended chopping block were occupied by an audience that +listened with more or less impatience to a booming voice that dominated +them in spite of themselves. + +"There the _Betsy Brown_ was, hove to and with a sea-anchor to lee'ard, +kickin' up didoes like one o' these busted broncos ye hear tell of in +the Wild West shows. There warn't a feller aboard but the supercargo +that warn't down with the fever, an' he didn't scurcely know the +maintruck from the keelson. + +"He didn't durst tetch the tiller, nor bear a hand with sheet nor +halyard. All he could do was to drag himself by aid of a lubberline +from fo'c'stle to after cabin, and give the hands and the afterguard +water to drink. Water and ship's biscuit soaked in it was all the hull +ship's comp'ny put past their lips for two endurin' weeks. + +"Yes, sir! The old _Betsy Brown_ strained every timber in her frame an' +when the crew began to crawl about deck again--naught but skeletons +of what they had been--the water was seepin' through half a hundred +seams, with the bilge oozing through the lower deck-planks. Her cargo +of box-shooks was 'bout all that kep' her afloat. + +"You kin figger," went on the voice, "in what shape the crew was for a +spell at the pumps and caulkin' ship, even when the sea and gale went +down. It would ha' been a mess in a dead ca'm---- + +"Af'noon, sir! What can I do for you?" + +The booming voice changed instantly to the brisk challenge of the +merchant. Through the brown gloom of the place the visitor saw the +guernsey-coated figure of the man behind the hacked counter, his +hairy fists resting easily upon it. Above his torso thus revealed was +a sweeping beard, humorous and twinkling blue eyes, and a pair of +silver-bowed spectacles pushed high upon a very bald forehead. The +storekeeper wore an old tarpaulin stuck upon the back of his head, and +altogether made a very salt-flavored picture indeed. + +"What can I do for you, sir?" he repeated, leaving his audience to wait +with more or less apathy for the remainder of his tale. + +The group around the stove divided to allow Cap'n Jonah to stride +through. The stock in trade of this seamanlike looking storekeeper was +of such variety, and in such quantity, that there was not much room in +the passage to the counter. As Pearl Holden had intimated, Cap'n Abe's +stock included an incongruous collection of wares. + +Here hung oilskins and guernseys, hats and caps with strings of +ear-muffs and woolen mittens and "wristers" for winter work on the +banks. Flannel shirts and jumpers, with overalls of dungaree, and even +a lone dress-shirt, fly-specked, but still highly polished, aided +in making a forest of clothing at one side of the room, and quite +shrouding the show window. + +Piled on the other side of the stove was a miscellany of hardware of +a nautical nature, with oars, oarlocks in clusters, lanterns plain +and those in gimbals, a small capstan or two--indeed, a multitudinous +collection of ship-chandlery in which one might find the furnishings +of a dozen fashions of small craft. On the counter and on the shelves +behind it were piled groceries and drygoods, fishing tackle and +garden supplies, woodenware and crockery, in an equally confusing and +astonishing variety. + +The loiterers in the store who made way for the newcomer gazed at him +with more or less curiosity. The storekeeper bustled away for the snuff +for which Cap'n Jonah asked. + +"That come in fresh this week," he said, returning with the snuff. "I +keep that kind pertic'lar for Marm Coe who lives out yonder on the +Neck. It's what keeps her alive, she says; and as she's got a round sum +o' money laid away I expect her nephews an' nieces wish't I couldn't +buy no more of it," and Cap'n Abe chuckled, "for they'll never git a +smell of her fortune while Marm Coe's on airth." + +Cap'n Jonah opened the packet and poured the snuff into his silver box. +Then he took a pinch neatly, sneezed with gusto, and wiped his nose +with a spotless silk handkerchief. + +"Yes; I allow that's the stuff," he said. + +"You're Cap'n Jonah Hand, ain't you?" observed the storekeeper with +quite as much cordiality as curiosity. "Washy Gallup was speakin' of +you jest now. You're stoppin' up at Orrin Petty's?" + +Cap'n Jonah acknowledged these facts. The bewhiskered storekeeper waved +an introductory hand. + +"I'd like to make you acquainted, Cap'n Hand, with Cap'n Joab Beecher, +once master of the clipper-built _Ivanhoe_." The crippled Cap'n Joab +arose with the help of his cane to give the newcomer a hearty handshake. + +"And here's Mr. 'Liphalet Truitt, as sailed steward many a v'y'ge in +the Blue Ball Line o' windjammers. 'Liphalet's settled down here on the +Shell Road, too. You old salts'll find much in common to talk about, I +ain't a doubt. + +"These other fellers, Cap'n Hand," the storekeeper went on to say, +"air Milt Baker an' Amiel Perdue, an'----Scuse me, Mr. Helmford!" He +indicated a tall young man wearing shell-rimmed spectacles who stood +back against a showcase, taking in the scene with quiet enjoyment. +He was not of longshore origin, it was evident; yet he did not hold +himself apart from the group around Cap'n Abe's stove. + +"Mr. Helmford," pursued Cap'n Abe, "is skipper of the fish hatchery the +United States Government's located up Salt Creek. We old hardshells +sort of admire Mr. Helmford 'cause we've found out he knows more about +fish than even we do; and we calc'lated before he come that we knowed a +plenty." + +"Don't spread the butter too thick, Cap'n Abe," said Helmford, +good-naturedly, coming forward with an outstretched hand for Cap'n +Jonah. He was a pleasant looking young fellow, although his features +were rather gaunt and by no means handsome. Behind the round glasses +his eyes twinkled merrily; but his high, broad brow was that of the +dreamer. + +Cap'n Abe did not overwhelm the visitor with attentions. He swung back +into the moving tale of the _Betsy Brown_ almost at once: + +"So, as I was sayin', the hull crew an' the supercargo had their +work cut out for them on board that _Betsy Brown_. When the sea went +down----" + +"I reckon Mandy'll be lookin' for me," observed the hatchet-faced Milt +Baker, working his way toward the door. "Comin', Amiel?" + +"Yep. It's getting' chore time," agreed his particular crony. + +"You're right for onc't, Amiel. It's time I catted my anchor an' made +sail," said Cap'n Beecher. "The missus'll be flyin' signals if I don't." + +"I calc'late I'll ha'f to be goin,' too," said 'Liphalet Truitt. "It's +prayer an' conference meetin' night, and they'll expect me to ring the +chapel bell and light up. Gimme my package, Cap'n Abe." + +The company around the stove broke up so quickly that Cap'n Abe was +left almost with his mouth open between sentences. + +"Hi-mighty!" he ejaculated, "I was jest goin' to tell you fellers the +wind-up of that story." + +"My cracky, Cap'n Abe," observed Milt, as he slid out through the +doorway, "you don't mean to say there is a wind-up to that yarn, do ye?" + +Young Helmford was chuckling softly to himself as he strolled out of +the store beside Cap'n Jonah. + +"Whatever!" gasped the latter. "What's the matter with that feller? He +had his ship hove to with a sea-anchor out. What d'you know about that, +young man?" + +"Not much, Cap'n Hand," answered Helmford, "for I am no sailor, I am +sorry to say. I wouldn't know how to 'heave to' in any case." + +"Why," said the old man, "on a craft like what I s'pose that _Betsy +Brown_ was, to heave to ye'd put the tiller down, brail up the fores'l, +haul aft the weather jib sheet, and put the main boom amidships. Unless +she'd lost her rudder no navigator would use a sea-anchor to bring her +head up into the wind. Simple enough." + +"I presume that's so," admitted Helmford, glancing at the briskly +speaking master mariner curiously. "But it's all Greek to me, Captain." + +"Ye-as. I s'pose it is," Cap'n Jonah said. "So you hatch fish for a +livin', do ye? An' that's all Greek to me. I allus had an idee fish did +their own hatchin' and could 'tend to it right an' proper without no +help from Government sharps." + +Helmford continued to smile. "You know almost everything in this world +will stand improvement--and a man knows more than a fish." + +"Hum! Does he?" rejoined Cap'n Jonah dryly. "He's never l'arned to swim +as good as a fish. I turn up here, young feller," and he halted at the +Petty lane. Pearl came out on the porch and waved her hand to Cap'n +Jonah. The late supper was ready. "Tidy craft that, I do say!" murmured +the captain; gazing admiringly at Pearl's trim figure and flushed face +as she stood there in the afterglow of the sunset. + +"What?" responded the young man, unappreciatively. "Oh, yes. Mr. Orrin +Petty's place is one of the most attractive along the Shell Road." +Cap'n Jonah stared at him. "Well, good-night, Captain Hand. I am glad +to have met you." + +"Good-night!" grunted the captain, shortly. Then he stared after the +tall, rather round-shouldered figure as it swung up the road with +never a backward glance. "Whatever!" he exclaimed vigorously. "That +young feller needs somethin' stronger than them goggles of his'n to +make him see what's wuth seein' along this road. Why, he's blind!" + + + + + CHAPTER III + + CAP'N JONAH SETTLES DOWN + + +"Well, Uncle!" exclaimed Sarah Petty, meeting the old man at the door +with outstretched hand and a sharp smile upon her sharper face. "You +_air_ a stranger! You come clean across the world to see us." + +"Wal, I was in the China trade last," admitted Cap'n Jonah; "so +naturally I had to come a fur ways to get to Cardhaven. I come through +the canal. Whatever! that's a snorting big job. I got to Boston on a +fruit steamer; and then I caught a trawler goin' down to Chatham and me +an' my chist come up from there on the freightin' schooner." + +He had entered the kitchen now and released Sarah's hand to take +Orrin's. The latter said in lieu of too warm a greeting, for Orrin's +was a cautious soul: "Why didn't you come down from Boston by rail? +The steam cars bring ye a sight quicker, even if the fare is somethin' +more." + +"No," said Cap'n Jonah. "I never go nowhere by these railroads if I +can help it. Ye never know when the b'iler's like to bust or the hull +contraption run off the track." + +"Hoh!" snorted Tom in the background. "Marm said you'd sailed master o' +steam vessels. Warn't you afraid of the boiler's bustin' on them?" + +"Now, Tom!" fluttered his mother. + +"I could keep away from the b'ilers on them iron pots I was master of," +said Cap'n Jonah, dryly. "And there's plenty of leeway in the open sea. +Wal, Orrin, I see the Haven's much as it looked aforetime, when I was +here. I liked the look of it then." + +"Do you calc'late on stayin' quite a spell?" queried the anxious Mr. +Petty. + +"I'm a-goin' to settle down. Yes, sir! I got enough sea-goin'. The +rheumatiz has got a grip on me anyway. And I want to stretch my old +bones in a bed that ain't forever pitchin' an' tossin'. I was took with +Cardhaven when I saw it years ago--when this feller was a baby," and he +jerked a forefinger, as hard as a spike, into the soft muscles covering +the surprised Tom's ribs. + +"Hoh!" ejaculated Tom. "What you doin'?" + +"Now, Tom," came the admonitory voice of his mother again. Then she +hastened to say: "Pull right up, Uncle Jonah. Never mind your pipe, +Orrin. Sit down and eat first. Pearly will finish these cakes." + +She sat down herself behind an enormous teapot. Orrin drank quantities +of tea. It was filling, he said, and cheap. + +Pearl had taken the captain's hardshell hat and his cane. He smiled at +her, and she dimpled in return. There was already a bond of sympathy +between the two. + +"That there ox of Silas Peebles' we seen at the fair to-day was a +master big one," observed Orrin, already gulping down with gusto the +hot tea from a deep saucer. + +Tom's face immediately fell again on this reminder of the fair. Pearl +eyed the young fellow suspiciously from her station at the stove. +Something had gone all wrong with Tom on this outing. + +"I did admire the way your Cousin Ida was dressed, Orrin," said Sarah +Petty. "That orange and blue certainly did set her off." + +"Huh!" returned her husband, "she looked like a lapstreak sloop goin' +to a regatta. What you women see in sech folderols is beyond me. I +can't make head nor tail of the fashions." + +"A woman, like a ship, I reckon, ought to put her best foot for'ard. I +like to see 'em flyin' their pretty duds an' duffel." + +"I can see you 'preciate the sect," said Sarah Petty, preening. "You +ain't too old, Uncle Jonah, to marry and have a home of your own again." + +She said it with hidden anxiety. What Orrin had suggested about the old +mariner's possible wealth had begun to work like yeast in Sarah Petty's +mind. + +"No. I guess not," Cap'n Jonah said thoughtfully. "I was married once, +and she was a good woman. If there is a next world, as the preachers +say there is (and they ought to know, considerin' as they're always +studyin' the chart of them waters an' can box the heavenly compass +so slick), why," continued the captain, "I wouldn't want to mix two +women in my mind. They say heaven's a place where the wicked cease +from troubling and the weary air at rest. But it's borne in on my mind +that two good women, let alone wicked ones, could make a feller a lot +of trouble, even in the heavenly pastures. I don't want to run no sech +risk. I will stay single for the rest of my natural life, I guess. + +"Ye-as, Pearly. I don't care if I do take another heap o' them griddle +cakes. They're lickin' good." + +Cap'n Jonah Hand was an old-fashioned seaman. No matter how long he had +sailed master of passenger or merchant ships, the Cape Cod tang clung +to his speech. Especially did he clip his words and use provincial +turns of speech now that he was among those who habitually took such +liberties with academic English. + +"I suppose," began Sarah Petty, trying to drive a conversational wedge +in the right direction, "that well-to-do widowers do have to dodge the +wiles of designing females. We've got some along the Shell Road that +you'll ha'f to keep your sails trimmed for, Uncle Jonah." + +"Oh, pshaw!" ejaculated the captain, rather sheepishly, "I guess +the women'll leave me alone--'specially when they l'arn I ain't no +millionaire." + +The flashed glances between Sarah Petty and her husband were laden with +suspicion. Sarah's sharp voice punctured the following silence as a +needle might prick a toy balloon. + +"I presume you've got aplenty saved up after all these years for your +board and keep, Uncle? You was the forehandedest of all the Hands, I +guess." + +"Oh," said the captain dryly, "I can pay my way for quite a spell yet, +before I ha'f to look up lodgin's at the poor farm. And that brings up +a leetle matter we might's well discuss right now at the start, Niece +Sarah. + +"O' course," the old man went on placidly, "you air my only livin' +relative, Sarah. If I should drag my anchor to-night you'd stand to git +sech prop'ty as I might die possessed of. But a straight out and out +understanding, even betwixt kith and kin, is the only way to fend off +friction. I want, if I won't be crowdin' you an' your folks, Sarah, to +stop along o' you instead of tryin' to bach it as so many of us old +salts have to when we leave the sea for good and all. I ain't never +been used to doin' for myself, and I shouldn't know how to tackle the +job. I sh'd be jest as awkward about housework as a whale." + +"Well, now, Uncle!" ejaculated Sarah in much perturbation. + +"Belay there!" interrupted Cap'n Jonah. "I ain't finished payin' out +my line yet. What I want to know is, will you board an' lodge me, +and do for me as the sayin' is, an' for how much a month? I ain't no +millionaire, as I tell you, but I have always paid my shot an' I allus +calc'late to while there's any shot left in the locker." + +Sarah's smile fairly dripped honey again. Orrin's expression of +countenance changed so suddenly that it must have hurt him. Tom looked +relieved. + +"Well, now, Uncle!" his niece again ejaculated as though the subject of +money was quite a painful one. + +And it was. She was in a nervous flutter for fear she would not tax the +old sea captain all that he would possibly stand. The thought of fixing +his monthly stipend below the figure Uncle Jonah might be willing to +pay was positively torturing to Sarah's mind. + +Yet, for a very good reason, she wished to appear generous to her +relative. Not only might it be true that Cap'n Jonah was wealthy, but +that old note given by her father for two thousand dollars might still +be in existence. She must show herself liberal to her uncle, for she +might yet have to plead for mercy. It was true that she was Cap'n +Jonah's natural heiress, but he possibly had not made his will in her +favor (she determined to find that out immediately) and it would never +do to display a nature too grasping in the interim. + +"I don't expect you to cramp yourself none, Sarah," Cap'n Jonah said. +"That's a mighty nice room Pearly give me." + +"She done jest what I would have done myself if I'd been to home," +murmured Sarah Petty. + +"I like it 'cause it's nothin' at all like the close quarters of a +ship's cabin." + +"It's our very best room, Uncle Jonah," she added. "I'm glad you like +it." + +Secretly she could have shaken Pearl Holden for ever putting the old +man in that chamber. There was one over the kitchen, in the ell, that +would have been good enough for him, and probably pleased him quite as +well. What did an old sailor like him want of such nice quarters? + +"Well, I tell you how 'tis, Uncle Jonah," she said aloud and at length. +"Orrin and me ain't none too rich, as you can see. We have to stretch +ends sometimes to make 'em meet. In the summer when I let out that best +chamber I get six dollars a week for it from city folks that come down +here to the Cape. It's quite a help. That's six dollars a week with +board, of course. I should have to charge extry for wash and mendin' +and the like----" + +"Whatever!" exploded Cap'n Jonah, and he would have changed color had +his countenance not been burned so deeply that a surge of blood into +it made little difference in its hue. + +"But if you don't mind sleepin' in another room, Uncle Jonah, supposin' +I had a chance to let that best one at a good price, I'd be only too +glad to take you in for two dollars less a week--say twenty dollars +a month," Sarah hastened to say. "The wash and mendin' we'd consider +later. I wouldn't want it to seem at all like I was gouging a relative, +Uncle Jonah. But ev'rything does cost so much nowadays that I tell you, +free and frank, we have to figger even what it costs to keep a cat." + +"Have to depend on mousetraps, I do suppose," murmured the old mariner. +"I can see it's close sailin' for you to get along, Sarah. Wal! if +that's the best you can do, I'll agree. Twenty dollars a month it is." + +"And washin' extry," added Sarah, her little green eyes sparking. She +was not after all altogether sure that she had not underrated what +Cap'n Jonah would have paid. Still, she was getting a five-week month's +board out of him at the price she had set; and he certainly must be +good for fifty cents a week wash money. + +She saw that his blue suit, though wrinkled and well worn, was of an +excellent quality of cloth. His hat was a good one, too, and his stick +was a fine Malacca cane with a gold top to it. He wore a heavy cable +watchchain of gold, and when he drew, out the timepiece it proved to +be a valuable, if ancient, one. + +"Now, I reckon I'll turn in, if it's all the same to you folks," Cap'n +Jonah said, seeing the lateness of the hour. "I sha'n't need no rockin' +to put me to sleep. We'll talk more to-morrow," and he started for the +front of the house. + +Sarah had been taking sharp note of his footgear. + +"I'm sartain pleased to see that you wear middlin' light boots, Uncle +Jonah," she said pointedly. "I never let Orrin nor Tom go through the +house 'cept in their stockin' feet or their slippers. Men's boots is +that trackin'." + +"Oh, I'll take heed of your decks when you've jest holystoned 'em, +Sarah," Cap'n Jonah rejoined easily. + +This pleased Pearl. It seemed that the old captain was not to be easily +nagged. He went off cheerfully after bidding them good-night. + +"Well," said Sarah, "we'll get something out of him, anyway. He can't +be an absolute pauper. And I'll soon have him out o' that best room and +into where he belongs." + +"Have a care, Sarah. Have a care," advised Orrin Petty. "He's a +quiet-talkin' man. Mebbe he's got more cash than he's willin' to tell +about. We don't want to rile him." + +"If he was rich as cream I wouldn't have him messin' up my best +bedroom for long. I tell you that, now, Orrin Petty!" Then she turned +on Tom with one of her sudden, birdlike motions. "Where's that Ladies +Aid money I give you, Tom, to buy that lamp with at the Harwich +Emporium, and you never done it? I sartain sure thought you could do +that for me while I was visitin' with your A'nt Poley Heath." + +"I tell you they didn't have no more of the kind you women picked out +for the chapel," growled Tom, stuffing his pipe from his father's +tobacco pouch. "Have 'em in again next month." + +"Well, gi'me the money." + +"Let a feller light his pipe, won't you?" growled Tom, getting up to +take a spill from the vase on the mantelpiece, and proceeding to ignite +it at the lamp. Then as his mother's attention was diverted by some +household matter, he slipped out of the door. + + * * * * * + +The captain did not go directly to bed. He sat by his window, of which +he had opened wide the blinds, much to his niece's rage and disgust. He +looked out into the soft darkness that had now settled down on sea and +land. + +A red light sparked, went out, sparked again. That was the revolving +lamp at the lighthouse on The Neck, the narrow strip of land which +stretched a defense between the Haven and the open sea. Nearer were +the lamps of other dwellings. The surf sighed along the Beaches, beyond +Cap'n Abe's store. + +"It does seem," murmured Cap'n Jonah, rather enigmatically, "that the +sea and the air and the peaceful land air more to be depended on than +folks. Most folks, at least. Howsomever, that there Pearly gal----" + +He heard her voice on the porch below his window. She must have come +outside to rest and cool off after washing the supper dishes. The +incense of burning tobacco rose to his nostrils, and then Tom Petty +said: + +"Well, you needn't blame me, Pearly. _I_ didn't keep you from going +along of us to that blamed cattle show. You didn't miss much. I wish I +hadn't gone myself." + +"Why, didn't you have a good time?" Pearl Holden asked. There was +weariness in her tone and not much curiosity. + +"By hokey!" exclaimed Tom, "there warn't nothin' there but silly gals, +an' silly cows an' such, and--and cheatin' plays." + +"What do you mean? What kind of plays?" + +"All kinds of games--an' there warn't none of 'em square, I don't +guess. Pop won a _se_-gar battin' a spike on the head with a maul, to +show how strong he was. But when he tried to smoke the _se_-gar he +mighty near smothered me and Marm and she made him throw it away," and +Tom suddenly chuckled at the remembrance of his father's indignation. + +"But there! Considerin' some of 'em, I reckon that test-your-muscle +machine was fair, _se_-gar and all. Others! Well! I made a tarnal fool of +myself, Pearly, and I dunno how I'm goin' to square myself about it," +he added desperately. + +"What did you do, Tom?" the girl asked with more interest. + +"Well, there was a feller in an alley there, 'twixt two buildings, and +he'd got a crowd in front of him. The alley was clear behind him and +had a gate at the end; but we didn't notice that at the start. Oh, he +was a slick one! + +"Well, he had a little foldin' table, and on it he had three little +tin cups and a pea. He was an awful quick movin' feller--or 'peared +to be--and he told us his hands could move quicker than the eye could +foller." + +"So can my hands," interposed Pearl. "I can count beans faster than I +can see 'em." + +"Hoh! Listen here!" growled Tom. "It didn't look at first as though +that feller could do what he said. He made some passes with his hands +and said some hocus-pocus over them three cups and the pea, and then he +dared any feller to say under which of the cups the pea was. A feller +in a white hat and them gaiter things they wear over their shoes now, +said right away he knew where it was. + +"'How much'll you bet?' says the feller. 'You're a sport, I can +see--and you think you're smart. Say what you'll bet.' + +"And after a little urging the feller in the white hat bet two dollars +against the other feller's two dollars, an' sure enough, he did point +out the right cup where the pea was." + +"And won two dollars?" gasped Pearl. "Why, Tom! That's gambling--and +it's wicked!" + +"It's wicked all right when you lose," grumbled Tom. "But we didn't +lose much first along." + +"'We?'" cried Pearl. "You didn't bet, too, Tom?" + +"Sh! Don't let the old lady hear you," snapped Tom. "Course I tried it. +I won two dollars, and then I won three. The white-hatted feller was +skinnin' that feller with the cups and the pea every time. You could +see he felt pretty meachin' about it Got all red and flustered-like. +Why, I could spot where he hid that pea just as _e-easy_!" + +"And then?" Cap'n Jonah, grinning widely in the dark, heard the girl +gasp. + +"Why, we all got excited. There was a dozen or more of us bettin'. That +pea-and-cup feller had a slather of money. + +"'You got to give me a chance, boys,' he says. 'Give me a show for my +white alley. This time I'm a-goin' to fool you.' + +"And he kep' on like that, urgin' us to bet our pile against his pile. +Why, I could see where he put that pea just as plain! So I went with +the rest. I bet twenty-five dollars--all I'd won and all I had." + +"Oh, Tommy Petty!" + +"Now, don't you begin," cried Tom hoarsely. "I warn't the only fool. +The feller bet us two to one, and it looked like a sure thing. Some bet +on one cup and some on another; but I knowed just where the pea went, +and I bet on the right one." + +"Then you didn't lose, Tom?" murmured Pearl with a relieved sigh. + +"I didn't lose honest," growled the young fellow. "That feller with the +pea and the tin cups had been foolin' us all along. He got a heap of +money piled up in front of him--a stack big enough to choke a cow! And +then he just whipped all three of the cups off the table and the pea +warn't under airy one of 'em! + +"The white-hatted feller just then saw Dave Milliken, the constable, +comin' and he yelled: 'Cheese it! We'll all get arrested!' and he beat +it down the alley with the pea-and-cup man, who grabbed all the money +and the cups and the foldin' table and stuffed the whole b'ilin' into a +suit case he had ready. + +"Why, Pearly! them fellers was through the alley gate and locked it +after 'em before we any of us 'woke up to it that they was in cahoots +and was a couple of sharks. An' we couldn't do a thing!" + +"Tom!" gasped the girl. "You lost all your money?" + +"Hoh! That wouldn't figger too much," said the young fellow hoarsely. +"But I did more than that. _I lost all the money I had._" + +"My goodness, Tom! The Ladies Aid money for the chapel lamp?" Pearl +emitted in horrified staccato. + + + + + CHAPTER IV + + TOM PETTY REVEALS HIMSELF + + +Cap'n Jonah's quiet amusement, secured through his unintentional +eavesdropping at the bedroom window, was mixed with a certain +satisfaction in learning the sort of fellow his grand-nephew was. Tom +Petty was evidently "no brighter than the law allows," as the captain +expressed it to himself. + +Pearl, he was pleased to see, was just the sort of girl he had believed +her--sympathetic and good, with a strain of old-fashioned piety that +the captain was glad to see had not run out here on the Cape. Nor was +the girl impractical. + +Her amazement and horror over the denouement of Tom's story assured +Cap'n Jonah that young Tom was in serious trouble. He had gambled away +money that did not belong to him and it was pretty certain that he had +no resources from which to make good the sum thus squandered. + +"Tom Petty!" Pearl said again, "what will your mother say to you?" + +"By hokey! if she hears 'bout it, Pearly, she'll near 'bout nail me +to the barn door like a salt haddock. I got to fool her someway; but +how can I? I can keep her from knowing it till about breakfast time +to-morrow morning. Then if I don't pony up that eighteen-seventy-five +that belonged to the Ladies Aid that she's treasurer of--Well, she's +bound to throw a conniption fit and step in it, that's what she'll do!" +concluded the young fellow, both inelegantly and unfilially. + +"My goodness!" the girl murmured. "Don't let her know you took the +money, Tom. It's bad enough for you to have gambled. But don't ever let +her know it was with money that wasn't yours. Especially money she'd +trusted you with." + +"Aw, cat's foot!" exclaimed Tom. "I wouldn't care so much if the whole +twenty-five dollars was somebody else's money and I didn't have to pay +any of it back." + +Captain Jonah Hand certainly was learning what his grand-nephew was. + +"But if Marm knows it she'll stew about it, and fuss an' fume till all +git out!" + +"Tell your father," suggested Pearl. + +"Hoh! Where will he get money to help me--if he would? Marm keeps him +as close--or closer--than she does me." + +"Oh!" said Pearl with a sudden change in her tone. "Do you want to +borrow the money to pay back the Ladies Aid?" + +"That's what I've got to do, Pearly," Tom said hastily. "I don't mind +the money _I_ lost; but I've got to borrow that eighteen-seventy-five. +No two ways about it. Why! I'd rob a bank 'fore I'd let Marm know about +this." + +"Sh!" it was then Pearl's turn to say warningly. "Don't talk so +recklessly, Tom. Who can you borrow of if your father hasn't it?" + +"You know mighty well that Pop never has any money that Marm don't keep +strict account of," growled Tom's voice. + +"I don't see----" + +"By hokey!" ejaculated the young man. "I've a mind to strike the old +codger for a loan." + +"Who do you mean?" demanded Pearl. + +"This Uncle Jonah of Marm's." + +"Tom Petty! You wouldn't?" cried the girl, aghast. + +"I tell you I'm desperate, Pearly. And you don't seem to care a dern!" +and Tom's voice seemed actually to foretell tears. "We've been friends +for years, Pearly, and you know well 'nough what I think of you. I'd +dearly love to have you for my gal----" + +"Now, Tom! don't talk that-a-way," said Pearl, sharply, and evidently +much worried. Then added: "There must be some way out of your pickle." + +"I'd like to know what it is. I've got to get money to satisfy Marm, +or I've got to get out. That's all there is to it. And that's all you +care! Aw, Pearly, I'd just be finished complete if I had to leave you," +and Tom's voice dropped to a maudlin tone that could not be mistaken. + +"Run away!" exclaimed the girl, but apparently responding not at all to +his tender advances. "You wouldn't do _that_?" + +"I'm my own man I guess. I'd like to see anybody try to stop me. Hoh! +Unless 'twas a policeman 'long o' losin' that money," added Tom, his +sudden boastfulness evaporating. + +"You ought to go to work, Tom," Pearl said thoughtfully. "But you don't +need to run away and break your mother's heart. No. Cap'n Durgin will +give you a berth on the _Tryout_, you know. And if you borrow that +money to pay back the Ladies Aid, you'll have to go to work to earn +money to repay what you borrow." + +"I suppose so." + +"But, don't you _intend_ to?" demanded the girl sharply. + +"Well, I don't know as he'd want it back," said Tom slowly. + +"Who are you talkin' about, Tom Petty?" Pearl demanded with sudden +exasperation. + +"Uncle Jonah." + +"You're not going to Cap'n Hand to borrow money, Tom Petty!" ejaculated +the girl. "You got no call to. It isn't decent--and he just come here." + +"Well," whined Tom, "I dunno what to do then." + +"You'll borrow it of _me_," said Pearl decisively. "You know I've got +'most twenty dollars saved up--what with picking cranberries last fall +and selling blueberries to the hotel this summer. You know I've got +that money." + +"That don't help me none," growled Tom. + +"Why not?" + +"As long as you've got it, it don't help me," said the lout, already in +a lighter mood. + +"I'll get it and give it to you before breakfast time," promised Pearl +briskly. "But you've got to go to work and pay it back 'fore Christmas." + +"I ain't goin' with Cap'n Durgin, just the same," grumbled Tom. "He's a +reg'lar driver." + +"You can work in the cranberry bogs, then. You'll earn two dollars and +a half a day there," said the practical Pearl. + +"Well." If it was a promise, it was given under duress. + +Cap'n Jonah heard the screen door click again and the light tap of +Pearl's heels upon the kitchen floor. The girl was coming up to bed. +The old mariner felt some mixed emotions astir within him. He had a +mind for a moment to call the girl into his room and talk to her "like +a Dutch uncle," as he expressed it. + +Then he thought of Tom, and his soul was filled with disgust. Tom was +worse than a fool. He had not only allowed himself to be gulled by a +trick that had been in disfavor "when Adam was a boy" (so grumbled the +captain), but he had run squealing to a girl about it and had worked +on that girl's sympathies until she had agreed to help him out of his +predicament. + +"And it's in my mind," muttered Cap'n Jonah, as he pulled on a +stockinet nightcap a little later, and got into bed, "that the young +sculpin ain't no idee of ever payin' the gal back her money if she +lends it to him. He's a sweet May blossom, he is! We'll see 'bout +that." But these several discoveries about the Petty household did not +keep Cap'n Jonah Hand awake. + + * * * * * + +The bell-like note of a bird rising from the clashing cat-tail rushes +was the first sound to assail the waking senses of the newcomer to +the Orrin Petty homestead on the following morning. Cap'n Jonah was +an early riser both because of his advanced years and from habit. He +got out of bed as quietly as a cat. The family was sleeping later than +usual because of the outing the day before. + +From long sea going habit the captain was already half dressed. He +doused his head and face in a brimming basin, combed his thinning locks +and beard, and got into his outer garments, even to his hat. Then, with +his shoes in his hand, he stole out of the room and down the stairs. + +Cape Cod people have no particular reason for locking their doors. The +tramp was not known in Cardhaven, although Sarah Petty was so given to +using the expression. Cap'n Jonah found the kitchen door unfastened, +and he stepped out, stopping in the porch to pull on his shoes, which +were of the elastic-sided congress variety. + +The sun had not yet thrust even his upper rim above the distant +sea-line. When Cap'n Jonah descended the porch steps he waded waist +deep in a blanket of mist which Night had spread upon the earth, and +which Dawn, brisk housekeeper that she was, had not yet rolled up and +laid away. + +There was much astir, however, and the stratum of mist carried certain +sounds for long distances. The captain heard Enos Cartright ordering +his old mare, Mehitabel, to "stand over!" in her box stall, as he +faithfully curried her down. Then a mellow "So, boss! So, boss!" +revealed the Widow Shattuck at her pasture bars calling up Sukey to be +milked. + +A little later, in the midst of a chanticleer chorus and the hungry +grunting of pigs, the captain, pacing back and forth in the lane, heard +the tinkle of Sukey's milk in the pail as her mistress capably massaged +the cow's udder. + +The now wavering mist acted as a transmitter for sounds from greater +distances. He heard voices and the creak of blocks of cordage from the +Haven itself. A fishing boat was putting out. Then the two-leaved door +of Cap'n Abe's store was set wide and he heard the storekeeper drive +home the wedges which held it open. + +A sudden flash of red heralded the sun's appearance. All this moving +fog began to glow, rose-colored. It was dissipated rapidly. Out of it +he saw several columns of smoke rising, straight into the air, marking +matutinal fires of neighboring dwellings. + +A mighty yawn sounded near at hand. Cap'n Jonah wheeled to see Tom +Petty come stretching and gaping from the kitchen door. + +"Well, young man!" said the old mariner briskly. + +"Oh! Ah!" exploded Tom, finishing his yawn loudly, arms stretched above +his head. "Morning, Uncle Jonah." + +"Good morning to you," replied his elderly relative. "I guess you're +feeling your yest'day's good time some?" + +"'Good time'! Hoh!" snorted Tom. "I never want to see another cattle +show." + +"Leaves a brown taste in your mouth, does it?" chuckled the captain. +"And drained your pocket as dry as the Desert of Sahara, I bet!" + +"Hoh! Who was tellin' you?" demanded Tom, bitten with sudden suspicion. + +"I don't have to be told ev'rything--not at my age," chuckled Cap'n +Jonah. "I was young once myself." + +He drew a bill-holder from an inner pocket. Tom, who had begun to +scowl, washed that expression hurriedly off his face. + +"I guess you know how 'tis, Uncle Jonah," confessed the young fellow, +suppressing a certain eagerness he felt and trying to keep his eyes off +the bill-holder which, if not plethoric, looked to be well filled. "You +know, where ev'rybody else is spendin', you spend more'n you ought to +yourself." + +"Just so! Just so!" agreed the captain. He selected a yellow-backed +bill, crisp and crackling, and thrust it suddenly into Tom's itching +palm. "Here's a twenty for you. I never do know what sort o' presents +to buy folks. Get somethin' for yourself or put it away in the bank +as you like. And don't say nothin' to your Pop or Marm about it," +concluded the shrewd old fellow, with a keen side glance at Tom. + +The latter was all but overcome. Relief and gratification momentarily +enlarged his heart to almost the size of a pea. + +"By hokey! Uncle Jonah, you're all right!" he murmured, pocketing the +twenty dollar bank note and his freckled face glowing all over. "I'll +never forgit you for this." + +He lumbered away toward the barn while the captain continued to "pace +the quarterdeck" along the shaded lane. A little later he saw Tom +talking with Pearl at the barnyard bars. + +"I guess I put a spoke in your wheel, young man," thought the captain, +but with a dark look at the loutish Tom. + +Pearl came back to the lane to bid Cap'n Jonah good-morning, her sweet +face aglow. Starry-eyed and dimpling, she showed plainly, the old man +thought, her relief on finding that Tom had in some way got out of his +financial difficulty. + +When the young fellow paid his mother at the breakfast table, and +before them all, the eighteen-seventy-five he owed her, he produced the +exact change in small bills and silver. It did not cross Cap'n Jonah's +mind to wonder where Tom had got the twenty dollar note changed, so +early in the morning. + + + + + CHAPTER V + + "BETTER A DINNER OF HERBS" + + +The day in the Petty household began with bickerings. Sarah Petty +possessed all the nagging power of dropping water. Orrin fulfilled his +own surname in small meannesses. Tom was disobedient and disrespectful +to both parents. All three picked on Pearl. + +Although they endeavored to show Cap'n Jonah the smooth side of their +natures--and even Tom remained polite to him--the visitor could not +fail to overhear many things that were not intended for his ears. Nor +was he to be deceived regarding the character of his relatives. + +One thing amazed him. The single item in his audit of Tom's character +that placed that young man one degree above an idiot, was the +revelation the evening before of what seemed to be Tom's admiration for +Pearl. The lout had intimated that he desired Pearl for his own. + +"And if he loves a gal like her, mebbe there's some good in the scamp, +after all," ruminated Cap'n Jonah. + +But this day had not passed before the captain saw so many exhibitions +of meanness on Tom's part in relation to the pretty household drudge +that he began to wonder if his hearing had not played him false on the +previous evening when he had sat at his chamber window and overheard +the conversation between the two young folks. + +When Sarah Petty broke out in scolding because of some real or fancied +mistake of Pearl's, Cap'n Jonah expected Tom in some way to express +sympathy with the girl, if he did not defend her. But the lout only +grinned, lit his pipe, and left the house. + +Of course, her menfolk were well used to the vitriolic dripping from +Sarah Petty's tongue, and bearing this in silence was perhaps the only +logical way to get along with her. If Tom had a proper feeling for +Pearl, however, the captain did not see how the fellow could listen to +his mother's vituperations addressed to her innocent victim. The girl +deserved no such tongue-lashings as she received, the captain was quite +sure. + +He saw Pearl stepping lightly about her tasks--at sink, at stove, at +ironing-board, or what-not--always brisk and ready, and either silent +or with a pleasant word. She made no reply when Mrs. Petty's ill-humor +dripped over like an overfull cup. But Cap'n Jonah missed the smile +from her sweet face. + +The old mariner, as he expressed it, "kept out from under foot" as much +as possible. He found that every time he went up to his room, Sarah +Petty was right behind him with brush and pan, ostentatiously dusting +imaginary dirt from the stair carpet. If he opened his window blind to +see in his room, it was shut immediately, and with emphasis, when he +departed. Before this first day was over his niece began sadly to get +upon the captain's nerves. + +"The Lord sartainly does temper the wind to the shorn lamb--and to the +man that ain't married," concluded Cap'n Jonah. "If I was Orrin Petty, +I calc'late, I'd purty nigh live in the barn and never come into the +house at all. Or I'd ship for a long v'y'ge." + +His sympathy for Orrin could not be deep, however; for Orrin Petty +possessed ways fully as unpleasant as those of his wife. His +penuriousness and his suspicion were raised to the _nth_ power, and his +curiosity made him a pest. + +"I calc'late you seen many a chance't to turn a dollar over in them +furrin' parts you was to, Cap'n Jonah," Orrin said. "Jest how did you +do it?" + +"Wal, for the most part, I passed one dollar from one pants pocket to +the other. If I came out even I was lucky, most times. Speculatin' +ain't what it's cracked up to be. Most money that I ever got my hands +on to I airned by the sweat of my brow--yes, sir!" + +"Tradin' in them furrin' countries I allus heard would fetch two or +three hundred per cent.," Orrin went on obstinately. + +"Ye-as. You'll hear a good many fool idees if you stretch your ears +to ketch ev'ry sound. If it was so, there'd be more millionaires in +Chinese waters than they tell me there is in Pittsburgh." + +He refused to be drawn like a badger from his hole, and Orrin showed +disappointment. He had the itch for making money, and any man who made +it (as he believed Uncle Jonah had) by using his wits, was an object of +keen envy to Orrin Petty. + +Besides, in this case, Orrin had a personal reason for desiring to know +the particulars of Cap'n Jonah's fortune. + +"Le's see, Cap'n Jonah, you made your final investments nearer home +than China, didn't you?" he asked as they smoked after dinner on the +side porch. "You never come clear across't the world and left your +investments in furrin parts, did you?" + +"'Hem!" ejaculated Cap'n Jonah. "No. As I might say, I didn't." + +"Wal, now, what did you conclude was a good, safe investment? Sarah an' +me might have a little spare money some day, and I reckon the lead of a +successful man like you would be a good one to foller." + +"No. I wouldn't want to advise no other man in a matter of +speculation," said Cap'n Jonah bruskly. + +But Orrin was not to be put off. The more the old mariner tried to +evade, the more Orrin was convinced that Cap'n Jonah had "made his +pile" and did not want anybody to know the means he had fortunately set +upon to become wealthy. + +In his own heart the penurious Orrin Petty knew that if he made a +successful turn in business he would be loath to tell anybody else how +he did it. + +"Now, Cap'n Jonah," he urged with his wry grin and slyly twinkling eye, +"jest put a name to it. Jest name one thing that you put money into." + +Cap'n Jonah looked at him steadily for a moment. His mahogany face was +very grim indeed. + +"Ile," he croaked at last. + +"'Ile'?" repeated Orrin, eagerly. "Not whalin'?" + +"Ile stocks," explained Cap'n Jonah gruffly. + +"Wha--what's them?" stammered Mr. Petty. + +"Sheers in ile wells, or in the land where ile wells is supposed to be." + +"Goshamighty! Do they git ile out'n the ground?" ejaculated Orrin. "I +thought they got it from whales, an' codfish livers, and castor beans." + +"I don't understand much about it," said Cap'n Jonah glumly. + +"But is them ile shares good things to put money in?" + +Cap'n Jonah stared at him again under penthouse brows. At last he said: + +"Wal--no. I couldn't recommend 'em. I wouldn't advise any man about any +speculation, as I said afore." + +His pipe had gone out. Cap'n Jonah was not much of a smoker. He got up +and walked away from the disappointed Orrin. Cap'n Jonah's face was +very grim as he paced down the lane. Finally: + +"Whatever! I was sore tempted--I sartainly was. If that scalawag has +got any money laid up--he and Sarah--I b'lieve I could saw off them ile +sheers on to him easy. + +"And s'arve him right," pursued Cap'n Jonah. "The feller that sold 'em +to me was mighty glad to git rid of 'em, I don't dispute. I bit, and +bit good. And I'd rayther like to see Orrin Petty swaller hook, line, +and sinker same's I did, I vow!" + +However that might be, curiosity and cupidity urged Orrin Petty to +ask a question of the Paulmouth Bank cashier that very afternoon when +he went to make a deposit in his own and Sarah's name. In a small way +Orrin was considered a good customer by the bank. He made frequent +deposits, and he never took a penny out. + +"What are oil stocks worth, Mr. Petty?" repeated the cashier in reply +to a question on that point. "Why, some I might mention are to-day +quoted--provided you could buy them--at six hundred and seventy. That +is five hundred and seventy dollars above par." + +"Goshamighty!" murmured the wonderstruck Orrin. "An' suppose that old +codger was foxy enough to buy 'em at a hundred? I bet he did!" + +He did not hear the cashier's additional information: "And some of them +are not worth the paper they are printed on." + +This day was not ended for Cap'n Jonah before he came to one conclusion +that would color his opinion of his relatives and his future +intercourse with them, whether he was rich or poor. + +The laws of the Medes and the Persians were no more unbreakable than +certain housekeeping rules in Sarah Petty's house. Ironing day followed +wash day as surely as the day dawned. Since immediately after the early +breakfast Pearl had been standing at the ironing board in the hot +kitchen, save when the board must be put aside for the serving of the +dinner. + +Midafternoon came, and the girl was still at the board, wielding the +heavy irons. Her pretty face was flushed, but there was a white line +about her mouth that Cap'n Jonah could see from his chair in the +shaded porch. Her hair clung in damp clusters of curls about her brow. +There was a strained expression in her dark eyes, and they were deep, +smoldering pools of flame. The girl was overtired and her nerves were +almost at the breaking point. + +No offer did Sarah Petty make to help her little drudge. She puttered +about certain light household duties and superintended the boiling +of the pork and cabbage for dinner. But she did not lift her hand to +lighten Pearl's task. + +Her tongue was seldom still in fault-finding. There are housekeepers +_and_ housekeepers. Sarah Petty was one of the other kind! Nobody could +be clean enough, or exact enough, to suit her. Every piece she saw +Pearl iron could be done better; nor was her uncomplaining serving maid +that paragon which Sarah considered she should be. + +As the mounds of smoothly ironed bed and table linen, with windrows +of towels and piles of garments, rose, Sarah's voice rose likewise in +snarling criticism. + +There was no chair in the kitchen that was not occupied by the smoothed +pieces. Tom Petty lumbered in to fill and light his pipe and grinned +knowingly at Pearl. + +"Ain't you got through yet, Pearly? By hokey! but you're takin' your +time about a little old mess o' clothes." + +Pearl would not reply to this attempted pleasantry. + +"What's the matter--mad?" asked the jovial Tenn, pointing a tentative +finger to lift Pearl's drooping chin. "You ain't mad with me, are you, +Pearly?" + +"You get away from me, Tom Petty!" gasped the girl, starting back, the +heavy iron poised in her hand. + +"By hokey! I believe you'd swipe me one with that iron!" crowed the +lout, in much apparent fear. + +In retreating he fell against a chair. The neatly piled pillow slips +upon it toppled to the floor. His mother entered the kitchen just in +season to spy this disaster. + +"There! You plagued, good-for-nothin', useless gal!" she shrieked. +"Them pillow slips all over the floor 'count o' your foolin' with Tom. +He can't come into the house but you haf to leave your work to have +some game with him. I could box your ears!" + +Tom ran laughing out of the kitchen. He made no effort to defend Pearl +from his mother's undeserved wrath. + +"Now, Miss!" Sarah Petty continued, scrambling the overturned linen up +anyway, some slightly soiled from contact with Tom's muddy boots, but +all ruffled and wrinkled. "Now, Miss! You can just have the pleasure of +washin' an' ironin' them over again. You wash 'em to-night after supper +an' hang 'em out; and if they ain't ironed and in the linen closet by +to-morrow noon, you'll hear from me, you lazybones!" + +She went away, grumbling, with a pile of ironed clothes. Cap'n Jonah +heard Pearl sigh, then sob, then sigh again. The girl's spirit was +broken. The old mariner drew forth his never-failing comforter--the +silver snuff-box. He rapped it with his knuckle, snapped open the +cover, and took a huge pinch. + +"Achoo!" he rasped, then muttered: "That Bible feller got it right: +Better a dinner of herbs and a little peace. Whatever! a person might's +well live with a live tagger as with Sarah Petty." + + + + + CHAPTER VI + + ROMANCE AND PEARL HOLDEN + + +Cap'n Jonah Hand was gregarious by nature. He had spent many solitary +hours at sea, but not from choice. The master of a good-sized craft can +favor his mate and sub-officers with little of his company and his crew +none at all. + +Off duty he had spent many many hours playing that favorite solitaire +of the lonely mariner "Push"--a game which "comes out" about once in +five hundred times. Now that he was ashore with human beings within +hail, the retired seaman wasted no time in such a poor substitute for +sociability. + +Finding the Petty family so uncongenial and Pearl usually too busy to +pass more than the time of day with him, Cap'n Jonah lay in wait at +the mouth of the lane like a huge brown and blue ant-lion waiting for +passing Shell Road folk to fall into his conversational trap. + +Washy Gallup, wheeling his barrow laden with the innumerable turns of +a well corked seine, was easily persuaded to drop the barrow handles, +seat himself on one of them and push back from his weather-beaten face +the battered tarpaulin he affected on week days, preparatory to "a dish +of gossip." + +"Wal, Cap'n," began Washy, "what do you think of Cardhaven an' +Cardhaven folks as fur as you've gone?" + +The captain's eyes twinkled. "I'm a good deal like the feller that +allus walked backwards. Then he didn't have to give an opinion in +advance. I dunno as I could tell you yet, Mr. Gallup, how the place nor +the people strike me, by and large." + +"I figger you're a cautious man, Cap'n Hand," said Washy with a shrewd +nod. "Orrin was sayin' down to Cap'n Abe's last night he reckoned you +had made all the money a man ought to make, out there in the China +Seas." + +"Orrin Petty holds a good opinion of his own jedgment, I allow," +replied the captain grimly. + +It was almost uncanny how the talk of most people who paused to speak +to him slipped around to money matters. Cap'n Beecher, leaning on his +cane at the roadside, dropped his plummet into Cap'n Jonah's financial +waters. + +"You calc'late to settle down here, Cap'n Hand, don't ye?" he asked, +mopping his brow with a brilliant bandana. + +"I calc'late." + +"Glad to hear it," said the one-time master of the clipper-built +_Ivanhoe_. "We need jest sech solid men as you, Cap'n Hand, at this +end of the town to balance t'other end with the board of selectmen. +Why! we can't ever git street lights this side o' the Mariner's Chapel. +Was you thinkin' of buyin' property here, Cap'n? For a home, _or_ an +investment? For if you be," Cap'n Joab hastened to add, "I got some +likely lots adjoining my own place that I'd like to have you cast an +eye on." + +"Thank ye," said the new arrival in the Shell Road neighborhood, dryly. +"If I decide to buy I'll let you know." + +'Liathel Grummit, humped over on his seat, dragged past behind his +patient steers a dripping load of seaweed mounded high upon the +two-wheeled cart. 'Liathel owned a small and scrubby farm on which +he raised vegetables, much poverty grass, and an astonishing crop of +tow-headed children. + +"Ye-a, Buck! Ye-a, Bright!" he intoned, cracking the long whip-lash +before the spotted faces of the steers. They came to a lumbering halt. +"You air Cap'n Hand, I don't dispute?" + +"It's as good a name as any. But I've left the sea for all time, and I +ain't no more a skipper," replied the captain, indicating that he was +no stickler for quarterdeck formalities now that he was a landsman. + +"So I was informed," said 'Liathel politely. "But I didn't jest know +whether you was thinkin' of settin' up for yourself around here? If you +be, and if you do, I'd like to sell you a pair of late shoats I got. +You'll want a pig or two to help eat your table scraps. An' my wife, +Miz Grummit, has some yearling fowls she'd be glad to dispose of if you +was calc'latin' to keep hens." + +"Whatever!" gasped Cap'n Jonah. "Do you folks think I'm an open market +for all the surplus of this here town? I ain't no idee of keeping pigs, +nor yet poultry. I'm obleeged to you, but you ain't got a thing I'm in +need of, I do assure you." + +"All right, Cap'n. No offense meant. No offense taken. Ye-ip, Buck! +Ye-ip, Bright!" + +The long whip snapped again. The placid steers, chewing their cuds and +swaying their bodies rhythmically, plodded on up the white road. Cap'n +Jonah watched the sunshine sparkle in the pool that had dripped from +the load of seaweed. He shook his head. + +"Whatever!" he said, repeating his favorite ejaculation. "This here +determination to turn a penny is the curse o' the Cape, just as it +always was. I bet even the preachers think in terms of dollars and +cents. + +"And they are going to pester me purty nigh to death about my fortune. +I can see that, as the feller said when he saw stars. Now them ile +sheers! I swan to man! I b'lieve I could make a bit on them, let alone +turn 'em over. Get thee behind me, Satan! Whew!" and the captain +removed his hat and passed the silk handkerchief over his brown +face. "Whatever! I don't wonder there's so many sharks an' dogfish at +loose ends--an' pea-an'-shell game men, too," and he chuckled. "The +sucker-fish must bite more voracious than any other kind. + +"'Hem! Here's a feller might tell me if that's so." + +He saw the tall figure of Helmford approaching. The usual smile upon +the young government employee's face had a rueful cast just now. He +answered Cap'n Jonah's hail, however, with equal cordiality and, like +every other passer-by, stopped to pass the time of day. + +"This is one large day--and plenty of it, Captain," he said. "How do +you feel?" + +"I fare pretty well," responded Cap'n Jonah; "only there's somethin' in +the j'ints of my knees that makes 'em creak like a wood snatch block +when I try to swing 'em. How air you, Mr. Helmford?" + +"Why, Captain Hand, I'm like to be cast out into the cold world. The +Cardhaven Inn closes for the season, and I don't know where I'm to look +for a boarding place." + +"Sho!" exclaimed the old mariner. "Aren't boardin' places plenty 'round +here?" + +"In the summer--yes. Almost everybody takes boarders. But the women are +not so ready to take in a stranger during the winter. It makes too many +menfolk around the house. Then there is the heating to be considered, +as well as extra food, when fresh vegetables and even a plentiful +supply of fresh fish are not available." + +"I see, I see," agreed the captain. "Codfish and potaters don't suit +the city appetite, eh?" + +"I should not be afraid of plain food," declared Helmford. "I was born +on a farm. And I'd like to get board down this way. It's nearer my +plant." + +"The place where you teach fish to hatch their aigs?" + +The young fellow laughed a little. "If you hear of a boarding place for +me, Captain Hand----" + +The captain's eyes were twinkling. He was scrutinizing young Helmford +much more sharply than appeared to be the case. + +"Ahem!" he said, clearing his throat reflectively. "Why don't you try +Sarah?" + +"'Sarah'?" + +"Yep. My niece." + +"Mrs. Petty?" + +"That's who I mean. She ain't averse, I should say, to turning a penny. +Try her." + +"Why, I will!" he exclaimed. "And thank you, Captain. I can go right in +and see her now, can't I?" + +"I spect you can," said Cap'n Jonah. "There ain't no law again' it that +I know on." + +Helmford laughed and started immediately up the lane. Where it +debouched into the yard he came upon Pearl hanging out certain couch +covers and hangings to air, this being sweeping day. Her head was +tightly banded with a towel for a dustcap. The face under such a turban +must be pretty indeed to attract favorable attention. + +"I beg pardon, Miss Holden," Helmford said, doffing his cap. "Can I see +Mrs. Petty for a moment?" + +"I guess you can," said the girl, dimpling and showing marked approval +of the young man. She had seen him at a distance often before; but +Joseph Helmford had never seen her, for Pearl's face was usually hidden +in public by a sun-bonnet. + +"Thank you," murmured he, and for once he did not appear to be blind. +He bowed a second time. Pearl looked at him with shining eyes. Was he +about to say something more? It would not be polite to run away before +he had said all he wished to say. + +A harsh voice suddenly broke the thread between them: "You, Pearl! +If that's a book agent tell him we don't want no books. If it's a +missionary collector tell him we've subscribed already. If it's one o' +them nursery stock salesmen, jest unloose the dog onto _him_." + +Helmford's eyes widened during this tirade. Then he began to smile. +Pearl giggled faintly, and, turning, fled. "I'll splain to her," she +whispered over her shoulder. + +Mrs. Petty came rampantly to the door. Her head was tied up in a towel, +too--the universal sign of sweeping day on the Cape. + +"Can't you git rid----" + +"Sh!" gasped Pearl. + +"'Tain't a minister?" hissed Mrs. Petty. + +"No. It's Mr. Helmford, the fish man." + +"_Fish_ man?" demanded the woman, still raucously. "What do we want o' +fish, I'd like to know? Can't your Uncle Orrin an' Tom git us all the +fish we need?" + +"Oh, Miz Petty!" cried Pearl. "He is the government fish man, Mr. +Helmford." + +"Oh!" + +Sarah Petty began to comprehend that possibly the well dressed man in +the yard was not one to be chased back to the roadway as though he were +pariah. She assumed a doubtful smirk and stepped out on the porch to +blink near-sightedly at the caller. + +"Captain Hand suggested, Mrs. Petty," Helmford began, drawing near, +"that you might consider taking me to board. You know the Cardhaven Inn +closes now, and I would prefer living down this way. It is nearer to +the hatchery." + +"Oh! Yes! I see! You're the young man they say hatches fish up Salt +Creek way," said Mrs. Petty doubtfully. "I--hum! I dunno. These +fishermen allus do bring such a smell of fish home on their clo'es. I +make Orrin an' Tom change their duds in the shed when they have been +handlin' their seine or the lobster pots. I dunno." + +"I assure you, Mrs. Petty," Helmford said, hiding his amusement, "that +my work at the fish hatchery leaves no odor upon my clothing. I am +counted, I believe, rather neat and--er--'old-maidish,' they called me +at college." + +"Wal! I dunno! I couldn't cater to fussy folks," objected Mrs. Petty, +who felt it became her position in the community to yield only after +proper urging. "We're plain folks an' eat plain food----" + +"I ask for nothing better," Helmford said. + +His eyes were fixed on Pearl, who had returned to her task of pinning +the cretonne covers to the clothesline. As she had passed him again +the young man felt an indefinable attraction which caused his gaze +to follow her. He noted her litheness, the turn of her limbs, the +flowerlike sweetness of her expression of countenance--all for the +first time. Joe Helmford was not given much to the observation of +women. But this girl made an impression--indefinite, perhaps, at +first--that he was destined to carry with him. + +"I ask for nothing better," he repeated, dragging his attention back to +the sharp-featured Mrs. Petty. + +"Wal, I dunno!" the latter said again. "Course I _could_ take ye in, +Mr. Helmford. I have room. And with Uncle Jonah here I haf to figger on +one extry plate at table--and two wouldn't be so much more bother. But +I dunno as my 'commodations would please ye." + +"Let me be the judge of that, Mrs. Petty," the young man urged. + +"I can show ye the best chamber," Sarah said. "Come right upstairs +with me." Here was a chance to get Uncle Jonah out of the big and +comfortable room. And an additional six dollars a week to the family +exchequer was not to be overlooked. Visions of financial benefit danced +in the woman's mind. She even considered adding an extra half dollar to +the price when Helmford praised the room, but then thought better of it +as the winter was coming on, only saying: + +"If you want a fire in here, Mr. Helmford, there's a pipehole in the +chimney. But you'll haf to furnish your own stove and coal. We keep a +settin'-room fire in the coldest weather; but you'll find it chilly up +here." + +"I see," agreed the young man. "I think I shall be satisfied, Mrs. +Petty. I agree to the terms. When can I have my books and trunk sent +over?" + +"Any time you like. I'll just put fresh sheets on the bed. You can +sleep here to-night," said the woman, grimly satisfied that Cap'n Jonah +was to be so soon ousted to the room over the kitchen. + +With no idea that he was making the genial captain any trouble, +Helmford paid Sarah Petty for the week in advance (a custom that +pleased her vastly) and, assured that he had secured better lodgings +than he had expected to find, the young man departed. + +From the sitting-room window, behind the lace curtains, Pearl watched +him go. She hoped he would return. He was entirely different from the +young men whom she saw daily at the store or at the Mariner's Chapel +when she went to service. Helmford was out of quite another world from +that with which Pearl Holden was familiar. Her gaze followed him down +the lane and out to the Shell Road, the glare of which swallowed him +up. + + + + + CHAPTER VII + + GETTING ACQUAINTED + + +Joseph Helmford overtook Cap'n Jonah making his way by easy stages down +the Shell Road toward that landmark, A. Silt's general store. It was +for the most part a drab landscape in this direction, for the crops +were out of the few cultivated fields and the sand lots lacked even the +color vouchsafed them in summer. + +The white shaft of the lighthouse on the Neck stood out against a +tumbled mass of slate colored clouds on the horizon. That cloudbank +foretold wind if not rain storms. The ocean was restive over Gull +Rocks, that danger spot of all danger spots along the hook of the Cape. +Seldom a winter passed that one unfortunate craft did not beat its life +out upon the treacherous reef. The bones of many such, like the ribs of +prehistoric monsters, were outthrust from the sands along the Neck. + +To the left lay the crescent length of The Beaches. The Shell Road +curved beyond Cap'n Abe's store and climbed to the bluffs that overhung +The Beaches, bordered with the more or less ornate summer dwellings of +city visitors. + +"It's a purty sight," observed Cap'n Jonah, "even on a lowering day +like this. So Sarah's took you on, has she?" he added more briskly. +"She'll be signing on a full crew before long, I don't dispute." + +"I shall be glad to be one of your family, Captain," Helmford made +reply. + +"I dunno how you'll like it, but we'll hope for the best," Cap'n +Jonah observed, dryly. "But, le's see! Who's this in one o' them +rattle-te-bang gas-buggies? She looks like a steam tug makin' heavy +weather of it." + +"Dr. Ambrose," said Helmford, quickly. "And his sister, Miss Sue. I +have an idea the doctor has been over to the new Tapp house on the +point. There's been an interesting event there recently, and instead of +sending for a specialist from Boston or the like, the young couple were +satisfied to have Doctor Ambrose officiate at the mundane appearance of +what Cap'n Abe calls 'the last Tapp'--meaning the latest Tapp." + +"Whatever!" ejaculated Cap'n Jonah. "I hear you sayin' something, but +I'll be keelhauled if I know what 'tis! 'Hem! So this is the doctor, is +it?" + +The old runabout, rattling in its throat like a dying man, came to a +halt beside the two pedestrians. Doctor Ambrose, in a much stained +linen duster, peered out at them over a bushy beard. + +"'Lo, Mr. Helmford," he said. "How are the eels and pollywogs? Isn't +that a stranger you have in tow? I'm always drumming up trade," and he +shook in his seat with laughter till the springs of the car wheezed +again. + +Cap'n Jonah, looking him over, smiled grimly. "If you've done better +than any other medical shark I ever heard of, I'll come to see you +about my rheumatics," he said. "But if you air still stickin' to +salicylate of sody, I reckon I'll dose myself from my own medicine +chist." + +"You old sea-dogs ought all to write M.D. and D.S. after your names," +responded Doctor Ambrose. "I take it you are Cap'n Hand? Make the +acquaintance of my sister, Cap'n." + +The retired mariner's glance had quickly shifted to the woman beside +the rough-and-ready country practitioner. She was petite and graceful, +and was dressed much more becomingly and more richly than most Cape +women are. Her silvering hair was arranged very prettily, each strand +laid exactly, and her quiet, cheerful face blushed under the brim of +her hat like an old-fashioned rose. + +"Cap'n Hand, Sue," rumbled on the doctor. The captain bowed in his most +courtly way and accepted her neatly gloved hand in his huge brown one, +where it settled for a moment like a snowflake on a clod. + +"I am glad to welcome you among us, Cap'n Hand," Miss Sue said +demurely. "We are not alone glad to have a new neighbor, but we are +glad to welcome another attendant at the chapel. I have already +learned--in fact, Mr. 'Liphalet Truitt told me," and she flushed the +deeper--"that you are a church-going man, Cap'n Hand." + +"Yes, ma'am," said Cap'n Jonah. "I calc'late to turn out for service on +Sunday whenever I can. I shall be glad to attend chapel, an' thank you +kindly, ma'am." + +"Hi gorry!" said the doctor suddenly. "Here comes 'Liphalet now--and +with a face on him like a gargoyle. I don't know what's got into the +fellow lately. Likely he needs a good course of jalap." + +Mr. Truitt approached with his basket, headed storeward for provisions. +'Liphalet was a brisk, compact figure of a man--neat, light stepping, +and with an appearance of deftness. His whole personality and manner +bespoke the capable ship's steward. + +"Mornin', Miss Sue! Mornin', gentlemen!" was his greeting, and he would +have passed right along had Doctor Ambrose not halted him with: + +"You going to do what I advised you, 'Liphalet? If any fellow's liver +ever needed a course of sprouts, yours does. For weeks now you've been +as sluggish as a frozen stream runnin' uphill. You'd better change your +tactics or you won't blow that old fife of yours half the night, as +I've been hearin' you, of late." + +"'Liphalet doesn't play a fife, Sam," said Miss Sue softly. "It's a +flute." + +"Same thing," snorted the doctor, eyeing the scowling Mr. Truitt with +composure. "If he doesn't tend to himself as I tell him he'll have the +undertaker stopping at his door instead of my flivver." + +"I ain't sure, Doc," said the ex-steward harshly, "but I'd near 'bout +have the undertaker come. I'd expect him, anyway, after a few of your +visits." + +"Hi gorry!" chortled Doctor Ambrose, who could take a joke as well as +make one, "you've got me there, 'Liphalet. And that's about the first +sarcastic observation you ever made. I believe your liver's at the +bottom of _that_." + +"Now, Sam!" urged gentle Miss Sue, with a hand on her brother's arm. +Then to Mr. Truitt: "I hope we'll see you at the Christmas committee +meeting next time, 'Liphalet." + +His reply was scarcely audible to the group as he started on again. To +cover the grouchy ex-steward's retreat, Doctor Ambrose struggled out +from behind the steering wheel to crank up. At once his sister hopped +out on the other side. + +"She's bound to do that every time I crank the old wheezer," chuckled +the physician. "She expects it to back up, or start ahead, or cut some +other dido if she's in the thing alone." + +The engine started with a snort. In a moment the whole car was +throbbing. Before climbing in again Miss Sue said to Cap'n Jonah: + +"I suppose I shall find Pearl at home, Captain? We were about to stop +at Mrs. Petty's so that I might speak to her. Pearl is one of the very +nicest girls in my class." + +"She 'pears to be a mighty nice gal," Cap'n Jonah agreed with +enthusiasm. + +Now that Miss Sue was out of the car the captain eyed her with even +greater approval. Her silk gown of broad black and white stripes, the +pretty hat, even her slate-colored silk stockings and suede shoes, +struck Cap'n Jonah as being the prettiest and most suitable costume for +a woman to wear. + +"The Doc's sister is a spankin' looking craft," said Cap'n Jonah +admiringly, as the car snorted away. + +"She's a lovely lady," agreed Joseph Helmford. "And a good deal of a +catch, they say, Captain. They tell me she's got forty thousand dollars +in her own right." + +"For--ty--thou--sand? Whatever!" + +"Of course, that's a mere bagatelle to a man of your fortune," added +Helmford with twinkling eyes. "But it's been enough during the past ten +years to make almost every widower and old bachelor on this part of the +Cape sit up and take notice, as Cap'n Abe would say." + +"Hem! And they ain't none of 'em caught her yet?" + +"Nor her forty thousand dollars," added Helmford dryly. "You see, she's +more than a lovely lady. She's a wise one." + +"Whatever!" ejaculated Cap'n Jonah, agreeing. + + * * * * * + +The gold-banded china appeared on the Petty table at supper that +evening in honor of Mr. Helmford's coming. Pearl put on a fresh gingham +and even Mrs. Petty brought forth a ruffled apron and assumed her best +company manners. + +Tom had of course met Joe Helmford at the store and elsewhere; and +embracing the frequent country doctrine that all city folk are bound +to have "some of their buttons loose," he looked upon the man from the +fish hatchery as two-parts fool and the other part "dumb lucky to be +able to wear such good clothes!" + +Helmford was a likable and sociable fellow. He had the knack of getting +on with most people, and he had been in the community long enough to +learn how best to appeal to the Cape natives. He knew they frequently +had a philosophical turn of mind, looked out on life at a rather +peculiar angle, but were not lacking in shrewdness and common sense. + +Cap'n Jonah he liked from the first. Orrin and Sarah's peculiarities he +was prepared to overlook. Tom he had not an iota of interest in. Pearl +he watched with more concern than he had ever felt for a girl before. + +Yet this concern was no deeper than the superficial pleasure he felt in +seeing her move gracefully about, in watching the changing expressions +play upon her pretty features, and in speculating as to just what there +was beneath that crown of beautiful hair, which she seemed to have a +natural taste in dressing. + +It must be confessed that this attraction for Mr. Joe Helmford, such as +it was, was entirely physical. He had not lived at Cardhaven for eight +months or more without having been introduced to a good many girls. +He was an outsider, and therefore a person keenly interesting to most +young women of the community. For girls who do not meet many men are +prone to think that men from afar are better than the local swains. + +Helmford's lack of interest in women was not his only reason for +passing these girls over lightly. There were some in Cardhaven, +perhaps, as pretty as Pearl Holden; but they possessed nothing but +prettiness to recommend them. And Helmford happened to be a young man +who required something more than personal beauty to hold his interest. + +Pearl's gifts of form and feature were her only attraction, he +presumed, as had been the case with those other girls he had met. When +she opened her pretty lips it was often to use expressions and terms +of speech which amused him but which seemed to imply that Pearl was of +another world than his. + +So little Pearl's attraction for the new boarder remained of small +consequence, after all. He was polite to her, as he was to Mrs. Petty. +But he noted Tom's hobbledehoy attentions to the girl, and merely +shrugged his shoulders. + +Yet Helmford could not keep his gaze from following her. She had +a purely physical attraction for him; Helmford was too much of a +gentleman to build any closer fellowship with the girl upon such an +unstable foundation. + +Cap'n Jonah, shrewd as he was in his judgment of human beings, could +not fully appreciate Helmford's feelings. He liked the young fellow +from the first time he had met him at Cap'n Abe's store. He thought +Pearl deserved a much better "fellow," as the term was, than Tom Petty. +He saw no incongruity in the idea of this man from the outside world +and little Pearl being mutually attracted to each other. + +In truth, there was a matchmaking streak in Cap'n Jonah's character. + +After supper Helmford started out on some adventure of his own and +Cap'n Jonah excused himself from the family with the intention of going +to his room. As he started for the front hall Sarah Petty cleared her +throat. + +"Ahem! You'll git to your room a sight easier if you take the back +stairs, Uncle Jonah. I had to let Mr. Helmford have that best room, +as I told you I should. I've put your chist and things in the room +overhead." + +"Whatever!" ejaculated Cap'n Jonah under his breath. Then: "Wal, if +that's the best you can do, Niece Sarah, I s'pose I'll haf to abide by +it. But I was mighty comfort'ble in that other berth." + +"We're poor folks, Uncle Jonah," said Sarah Petty with decision. "As +you don't feel able to afford to pay full price, course I had to better +myself if I could. You won't be in your room much anyway, so I guess +you won't mind." + +Cap'n Jonah took a reflective pinch of snuff, shut the silver snuff +box with a snap, and went up to bed without further word. Orrin Petty +leaned forward with an expression of doubt upon his avaricious face. + +"I dunno but you air makin' a mistake, Sarah," he whispered. "If he +_should_ be rich----" + +"Then let him pay me decent board," snapped Sarah. "I give him hints +enough. This Mr. Helmford, comin' as he has, is providential--nothin' +less. Uncle Jonah might's well know, first as last, that he can't +get the best of ev'rything for no pauper's pence. No, sir!" and she +straightened her shoulders and tossed her head with determination. + +"But s'pose he has got that old note, Sarah?" suggested Orrin. + +"It'll be time enough to worry, I've decided, when he produces it. If +he's rollin' in wealth, why don't he show some of it? He may have a +fortune, or he may not. He ain't free to speak of it, it seems. You +can talk as you please, Orrin Petty; anybody who has money is bound to +brag about it. And the more they have the more they brag--one way or +another. Cap'n Jonah Hand ain't let out a yip about his fortune, so fur +as I know." + + + + + CHAPTER VIII + + THE BALD TRUTH + + +It was a narrow, dark stair up which Cap'n Jonah poked his way. He +bumped his head at the landing and said "Whatever!" with more than his +usual emphasis. + +"It's like goin' below in a Chinese junk," he muttered. + +He got into the room, lit a match and found and ignited the wick of the +lamp upon the bureau. He had seen more cramped quarters; but it was a +fact that the loft room over the Pettys' kitchen was not his ideal of +what his quarters were to be when he retired from the sea. + +The room had been occupied by a foremast hand of a sloop that Orrin had +once chartered. Orrin had agreed with the man to berth him afloat and +ashore, and when the _Sarah May_ was not at the fishing, the foremast +hand dug the garden and helped at the chores. + +The man, it seemed, must have had an inordinate dislike for fresh air, +for he had nailed the one window in the room shut, and neither Sarah +nor Orrin had ever taken the trouble since to take the nails out. + +The nights were becoming frosty; but Cap'n Jonah found the low-ceiled +room very stuffy and unpleasant. It was a bare and unadorned place, +with the cracked looking-glass in such a position that a man could not +possibly see to shave himself, either by daylight or lamplight. + +There was no closet for his chest as there had been in the larger +chamber, and it was forced to stand just where the unwary might break +their shins against it. + +His niece had soon got over treating him nicely. Cap'n Jonah realized +that he had all too quickly been made "one of the family." And he was +being treated as Sarah Petty treated the poor relation branch. + +"I'd ruther go to the Sailors' Snug Harbor and be done with it," the +captain ruminated. "At least, if I was treated there like a step-child +'twouldn't be my own flesh and blood was doin' it. This Sarah Petty, +now, she's a cleaner and no mistake. I dunno where she ever got her +meanness. Never from her father. The Hands wasn't none of 'em so +penny-squeezing. Poor John! If he'd lived to see me treated like this +by his gal he'd have been broken-hearted, I do guess." + +He could not sleep in the close and airless chamber and about midnight +he got up and smashed a couple of panes of glass in the upper sash of +the window with his cane. + +It was not often that Cap'n Jonah gave way to his temper. He who would +make others obey, must first control his own weaknesses. The master +mariner had long since learned that lesson. The next day he took out +the nails holding the window sashes and put in two new lights of glass; +setting about, too, to make his new quarters as comfortable as possible. + +Used as he was to the compactness of a ship's cabin, he still found the +loft room cramped quarters. Nor was there a comfortable chair in it. +When he was not in bed he must sit with the family or remain out of +doors. + +"I vow!" he thought, "if I was married to Sarah Petty, like Orrin, I +would stay out in the barn." + +He bethought him of the retired seamen he already knew in the +neighborhood, and made up his mind that most of them had it better than +he had. 'Liphalet Truitt, for instance, was a king on his throne beside +Cap'n Jonah Hand. + +He and the ex-steward had become rather good friends in the weeks of +Cap'n Jonah's sojourn at Cardhaven. Indeed, almost everybody found it +easy to be friends with Mr. Truitt. + +The spry ex-steward, well-known to everybody about Cardhaven and along +the Shell Road, had been welcomed heartily when he had come ten years +or more before to settle here. Having bought the little house next to +the Mariner's Chapel, he was from the first a particular object of +interest to the scattered congregation of fishermen and their families +who shouldered the burden of its upkeep. + +He had been every man's friend for the years of his sojourn upon the +Shell Road, and Cap'n Jonah heard him spoken of highly at the store, +where all local opinion was strained and filtered. But the captain +had to confess that 'Liphalet Truitt was a more than ordinarily glum +looking man. + +He had heard Doctor Ambrose make his diagnosis of the reason for +Mr. Truitt's appearance and attitude toward life in general with no +particular belief in the medical man's opinion. Cap'n Abe Silt stated +as a fact that "Life Truitt had turned like old cider--and quite as +sudden--here of late." But the newcomer to the neighborhood found the +ex-steward a most satisfactory companion. + +"Ye-es," said Cap'n Jonah reflectively, "you air a sight better off +than I be, Truitt." + +"And me without chick nor child belonging to me but a cat?" sniffed the +ex-steward. + +"You can have my sheer of Sarah Petty and her lout of a boy, and +welcome," said Cap'n Jonah bitterly. "Orrin ain't nothin' to me by +blood, and a nephew-in-law ain't a very close relation anyway, thanks +be! He's such a snoopin', suspicious critter. I swan to man! I believe +he wakes up mornings counting his fingers like a baby, for fear +somebody's stole one of 'em during the night. + +"And the hull batch of 'em--'cept Pearly--can't let my things alone. +They've s'arched my chist to the bottom board. If I have anything I +don't want them to nose into I've got to carry it on me, that's a fact. +Why, Sarah Petty is as inquisitive as that Pandory woman you read about +in the books. Mr. Truitt, you are better off than you know, living here +by yourself." + +The ex-steward scowled. "Don't you fool yourself," he grumbled. "The +Pettys may be some wearin' on a man; but it ain't what it's cracked up +to be, livin' alone with nobody but Bo'sun to speak to ha'f the time." + +"I dunno----" + +"You're a man o' means, Cap'n Jonah," urged 'Liphalet, in his brisk +way. "You ain't married to Sarah Petty, if Orrin is. You ain't got to +stay there. There are other places you could get board where the folks +would treat you right." + +Cap'n Jonah looked at his friend steadily and took a pinch of +snuff. It was a way he had when he found it difficult to come to an +immediate conclusion. He flourished his big handkerchief and sneezed +reflectively. He desired to make a complete confession to 'Liphalet +Truitt, and yet he hesitated. + +He was in no haste to reveal his private affairs to any person. Yet he +felt that he must advise with somebody. He said slowly: + +"I might go elsewhere to board. It's true. But I'd made up my mind to +settle down, when I did leave the sea, with the only rel'tives I have. + +"I had no idea Sarah Petty was the sort she is--no, sir! The only time +I ever seed her in her own home was when the boy was small an' she was +a young woman an' hadn't got soured. As a girl at home she was a smart +little thing and a good housekeeper. I always envied John, even after +his wife died, his house was kep' so neat. + +"'That's the woman I want to live with when I settle down,' said I, +thinkin' o' Sarah Petty. And then----Why, I tell ye, Mr. Truitt," +added Cap'n Jonah, earnestly, "there's a good reason why Sarah should +be willin' to take me in and do for me. When she put it on me at the +start, as she did for board and lodgin', you could have knocked me down +with a feather duster!" + +Mr. Truitt raised his eyebrows questioningly. But he did not ask Cap'n +Jonah verbally to explain. However, the latter pursued his rather +roundabout course: + +"When Sarah was a young gal her father got into difficulties, an' it +was my privilege to help him out. It was something that one brother +sh'd always be glad to do for another, Mr. Truitt," the captain +earnestly said, "and with no thought of repayment. Yet 'twas something +that I know John bore in mind and didn't let his daughter forget as +long as he lived. He never writ me, but he mentioned his obligation. + +"On the stren'th of that," pursued Cap'n Jonah rather solemnly, "I had +reason to expect better treatment than I get at Sarah Petty's hand. My +bite and sup won't bankrupt them--that I know. She's got me tied up +in a sack for twenty-two-fifty a month with washin'; and I tell you +honest, Mr. Truitt, my little tad o' money ain't goin' to last long at +that rate." + +"Why, Cap'n Jonah!" ejaculated the ex-steward, shaken out of his usual +poise. "You don't mean to say you air short of money?" + +"Wal, I soon shall be," admitted the captain. + +"You got investments you can't touch?" suggested 'Liphalet gently. "If +you got to wait for dividends, or such like, and a hundred dollars +would be of any use to you----" + +Cap'n Jonah put up his hand admonishingly. His mahogany face showed no +heightened color, but his eyes shone with gratitude. + +"You air a good feller, Truitt," he said. "But I don't want to borrow. +I might not be able to pay back. I ain't got no investments that are +bringing me in dividends." + +"Your fortune ain't in stocks and bonds, then?" commented 'Liphalet +placidly. + +"Fortune!" snorted Cap'n Jonah. Then he added: "My fortune, 'Liphalet +Truitt, is in thin air--that's what it is invested in." + +"By Hannah!" ejaculated the startled 'Liphalet. + +"Ye-as," said Cap'n Jonah, rather relieved now that his confession was +out. "The bald truth is, I ain't got no fortune. I did git some little +money together at off times durin' my life; but allus something come up +to scatter it. + +"Once I went into tradin' to the South Sea Islands with a feller, and +we made quite a pile--twenty to twenty-five thousand silver dollars. We +agreed that if either of us died, t'other should have the whole lot. + +"Wal, our schooner went ashore on an atoll and our crew was drowned, +and we was both captured by a bunch of savages with their teeth filed +to sharp p'ints. You know what that meant! + +"My partner seen me carried off, along with a big pot such as +old-fashioned whalers used to try out blubber in, by one gang of +savages, and he reckoned I was due to make the foundation for a +cannibal goulash. But a missionary happened to land on the island where +my gang of savages lived, and he saved my life." + +"Saved your life, Cap'n Jonah?" repeated the interested Eliphalet. + +"Yep," said Cap'n Jonah grimly. "He was fatter than me. So I was saved, +and before I got fatted up to suit 'em, I got a chance to escape and +I didn't refuse it. I landed in Hongkong the next year, just the day +after my partner, sure I was dead, had blowed our fortune in at a +gambling joint trying to break the bank. + +"Wal," sighed Cap'n Jonah, "that's where one fortune went. I'd get a +little together and then lose it. Only last year I owned a tidy brig +called the _Two Eyes_--named in compliment to the Chinese idea of +havin' an eye painted on either side of the sprit. John Chinaman says: +'If junk no have eye, how can see?' She'd belonged to a Chinese company +before I got her, and was named _The Beautiful Lily With Black Spots_. + +"Wal, the _Two Eyes'_ insurance ran out 'tween ports, she struck an +uncharted reef, and in two hours I didn't own a thing but the duds I +stood in and my instruments--ship and cargo both gone to the bottom." + +"And you haven't a thing to show for all your years of hard work, Cap'n +Jonah?" asked Eliphalet Truitt, almost horror stricken. + +"I have a fine line of experience," said Cap'n Jonah with disgust. "I +have the remains of my last year's airnings as skipper of the _Rajah's +Mate_, in cash. And I have some sheers a feller sawed off onto me that +I reckon ain't wuth much more'n that wall paper on your kitchen wall, +Mr. Truitt. I invested two thousand dollars sev'ral years ago in them +ile sheers, and then found the comp'ny had gone bust. All they ever got +out'n the ile wells they bored, so they told me, was a bad smell!" + +"I want to know!" commented the ex-steward, vastly perturbed by Cap'n +Jonah's story. + +"You can guess," went on the latter, "how much I got left out o' my +money after payin' my fare home to the Cape. But I knowed another +v'y'ge might put me on my beam ends. The rheumatics certainly have got +their teeth set into me," and he rubbed his knees reflectively, swaying +back and forth in Mr. Truitt's kitchen rocker. + +"I calc'lated I'd be welcome--for a while at least--to Sarah and her +folks. She writ me more'n a year ago she'd make a warm nest for me if I +come here. An' whatever! she's makin' it warm enough, for a fac'." + +"And you really have no fortune at all?" repeated 'Liphalet in wonder. + +"Not a snitch," returned Cap'n Jonah. "That's the bald truth. +Ev'rything I own of value I have right in my pocket here," he slapped +the breast of his coat, "an' it ain't makin' me stoop-shouldered none +carryin' of it around." + + + + + CHAPTER IX + + A SHELL ROAD IDYL + + +"I wouldn't so much care about myself," Cap'n Jonah went on +reflectively after a minute. "There's always the Sailors' Snug Harbor, +and I've made inquiries about that. I've got money enough right now, if +I don't let Sarah Petty take no more away from me, to buy my way into +the Harbor, where I'll prob'ly get decent treatment for the rest of my +life. + +"Course, livin' in an institution," sighed the captain, "an' being +called an inmate in the yearly reports, ain't prob'ly all it's cracked +up to be. But I jest 'bout as soon live with a steam calliope as with +Sarah Petty; and Orrin pesters me like an auger going through a pine +knot. + +"It ain't so much myself," repeated Cap'n Jonah, "as 'tis the way they +treat that poor gal, Pearly. I can scurcely keep my feelin's to myself +sometimes when they are a-houndin' of that poor gal." + +"Yep. I've heard tell of it," Mr. Truitt said, nodding. "Miss Sue said +to me once't she didn't see how the gal stood it." + +"Sarah Petty claims her services, I believe, and the gal says herself +she ain't eighteen. Sarah don't care a mite how bad she treats me; how +much less does she care how she makes Pearly feel? Whatever!" + +"It's a master hard situation," admitted Mr. Truitt frankly. + +"'Hem! I know what would fix 'em," growled Cap'n Jonah. "If I did have +the slew of money they at first thought I might have, I could bully 'em +into treatin' the gal half decent, I vow! Now they've gone all through +my duds and duffel an' ain't found so much as a pen scratch about a +fortune, Sarah and Orrin air 'bout convinced I ain't got much laid by." + +"By Hannah!" ejaculated 'Liphalet, his eyes widening. "If you could +fool 'em--if you could make 'em think you did have a fortune, Cap'n +Jonah----" + +"Whatever!" responded the master mariner. "How could I do that? Nothin' +but hard cash would convince Sarah and Orrin Petty, I allow. And hard +cash I ain't got." + +"There ought to be some way to fool 'em," insisted 'Liphalet. "We'd +ought to be able to think up something." + +"Think up what?" growled Cap'n Jonah, shaking his head. "I ain't got +the conscience to try to sell them old ile sheers I hold. Though I +calc'late Orrin would ha' bit on them when I first come." + +"By Hannah!" said 'Liphalet again, which was his emasculated +pronunciation of "Gehenna!" "It would sarve 'em right if they got +fooled, good and plenty. You needn't be too tender with such folks. And +there's a hull lot like 'em around here," he added, in an undertone. It +was plain the ex-steward's opinion of his neighbors--some of them, at +least--had become as the storekeeper suggested, somewhat soured. + +"I tell ye what," he went on. "You'd ought to talk with Cap'n Abe about +this." + +"Talk with who?" ejaculated the other in surprise. + +"With Abram Silt." + +"Whatever! That old gasbag?" snorted Cap'n Jonah. "Ev'ry time I go into +that store for my snuff he starts tellin' me some silly yarn! I been to +sea too long myself to enjoy hearin' about other sea-farers an' their +hard luck. Why! they tell me he didn't even come fair an' honest by his +title of Cap'n. All he was ever skipper of was a wreckin' comp'ny." + +"Wal, now, cap'n is one of the easiest titles to come by on the Cape," +said Mr. Truitt excusingly. "And as for Cap'n Abe--wal, sir, I do allow +he is one of the smartest men we have around here, if he didn't never +go but one v'y'ge in a deep bottom craft." + +"Didn't know as he ever done even that," scoffed Cap'n Jonah. "To hear +him tell those yarns of his you'd think he'd sailed longer without +seeing land than old Noah did." + +"He loves seafarin' and always has," commented 'Liphalet. "And I +reckon he's the only Silt that warn't as salt as a haddocker. Now, his +brother, Cap'n Am'zon Silt, _he_ was a corker. Spent the last summer of +his life here on the Shell Road, did Cap'n Am'zon. We had a bad wreck +off the Gull Rocks an' Cap'n Am'zon went out with the life-saving crew +an' never come ashore again. Was washed off'n the wreck of the _Curlew_ +schooner. + +"Cap'n Abe's been kind of diff'rent since his brother was drowned. +Don't begin to tell so many stories as he did, and he's a sight more +stern. B'sides, Cap'n Am'zon could fair burn him up when it come to +relatin' of adventures. Consider'ble of a man, Cap'n Am'zon was. + +"Jest the same," pursued 'Liphalet, "Cap'n Abe Silt has got a head on +him. I'd like you to tell your story to him, Cap'n Jonah. I b'lieve he +might be able to give you an idee wuth follerin'. + +"Hullo! Who's boarded us now?" + +A quick _tap, tap_ of heels on the steps and porch. Then a gentle rap +on the door. 'Liphalet's brick-burned face became more inflamed, if +that were possible, as he arose to answer the unexpected summons. + +"Oh! Good morning, 'Liphalet," came the sweet contralto of Miss Sue +Ambrose. "I wanted to remind you that the Christmas committee meets +this afternoon in the vestry. You'll see to the fire for us, won't you?" + +"I calc'late to," the ex-steward replied in evident confusion of mind, +for he was striving to cram his big-bowled pipe into a vest pocket far +too small to receive it. + +"And 'Liphalet!" pursued the doctor's sister, "you'll be at the +meeting, too, won't you? We shall need some of you menfolk when it +comes to the real work, and we shall be glad to have your advice now." + +"Hum! I'll see," muttered 'Liphalet not at all inclined, it would seem, +to make the promise. + +"We shall be looking for you," said the gentle little woman, as she +turned from the door. "Please remember." + +Eliphalet Truitt stepped back into his kitchen and found it empty save +for Bo'sun, the big white cat, who purred contentedly on the stove +hearth. Cap'n Jonah, thinking his friend was about to receive other +company, had slipped out of the rear door and departed, 'cross-lots, +toward the Petty place. + +'Liphalet glanced out of the partly closed door again, holding it +ajar with his hand, and watched the trim figure of the doctor's sister +hurrying along the Shell Road. How often he had thus peered after Sue +Ambrose since his establishment ten years before in this little box of +a house next to the Mariner's Chapel! + +The ex-steward was old-fashioned in dress and speech; but he was as +spry "alow and aloft" as when he had retired from the sea and had come +to Cardhaven to live. Nor did he expect, when he so retired, that he +would remain a bachelor for the rest of his life. He had a competence +ample for two plain people, much more than one would possibly need. +For several years before leaving the sea he had looked forward to the +time when he could settle down, ask a "certain party" (as he always +expressed it even in his own mind) to share his little fortune, and to +sag into comfortable old age on one side of a cheerful hearth while she +sat on the other. + +He visualized this idea often while at sea to keep his heart up in +storm and stress during long and tedious voyages to the world's end; +for Eliphalet Truitt had been a deep bottom sailor--none more so among +the ancient skippers of the Cape than this taut little ship's steward. + +He had made friends of every soul along the Shell Road, for they found +Eliphalet Truitt a true man, and liberal in every sense--with money, +with his time, and, as well, in his religious views. The chapel was +a union church; all manner of doctrinal beliefs were represented in +its congregation, even to the Roman Catholic in the person of 'Suz +Montevedo, the Portuguese, who was indefatigable in his attendance at +Sunday-school and took his weekly golden-text reward cards home and +hoarded them. + +'Liphalet, living so close to the chapel, acted as an unpaid sexton. He +was at hand to light the lamps, to build and care for fires, and the +key of the vestry door was always to be found hanging on a nail on the +ex-steward's porch. + +The theological student, whoever he chanced to be, sent down once a +month from the seminary to try his apprentice hand upon the chapel +congregation, was always advised to see 'Liphalet Truitt when he first +arrived; and in the summer boarder season, when the women were all +busy, he was more than likely to be fed and housed over Sunday by Mr. +Truitt, who came near to being deacon of the congregation. + +'Liphalet was the mainstay of the Ladies' Aid Society. He was the one +called into the breach whenever failure, financial or otherwise, seemed +to threaten any branch of the church work. He was the head and spirit +of the annual Sunday-school picnic, and he was always present in the +winter, and active, at the semimonthly bean or oyster-suppers rounding +out the regular sessions of the Ladies' Aid Society meetings. + +Thus, 'Liphalet was the ladies' stand-by. And it was at Christmas +that the taut little ex-steward shone more brightly than at any +other season. Being a lover of children, he helped make the greatest +holiday of all the year a delight for those who attended the chapel +Sunday-school. + +He supplied most of the toys and candy hung for each child on the +tree, buying the gifts himself and distributing them from his sack, +with other presents for the older people, in the guise of good Saint +Nicholas on Christmas night. He aided in dressing the chapel in +Christmas garb, and sometimes secured the tree itself from some dealer +in Paulmouth. + +It might be that a selfish thought had entered into his mind at first +regarding these holiday activities. But what good thing, after all, has +not the germ of selfishness at the root of it? + +"A certain party" had been on the Christmas celebration committee +from time immemorial. Eliphalet Truitt had first given his money and +personal endeavor to make the occasion a success because it offered the +opportunity for an association that was very sweet indeed to him. + +Between voyages, during his brief visits to Cardhaven, he had been +wont to take his flute in the evening and call at the cottage where "a +certain party" kept house for Doctor Ambrose. Demure, pink-cheeked +Sue Ambrose, with the pretty waves of silvering hair drawn over her +shell-like ears, the soft white bands at throat and wrists, her trim +figure, her low throaty, contralto voice like a bird call when she +laughed, seemed to 'Liphalet to possess the most delightful personality +in all the world. + +There was an ancient melodeon in the doctor's parlor; and from it Miss +Sue coaxed sweet sounds that combined harmoniously with the steward's +rather uncertain flutings. And she loved the old sea ditties as did +'Liphalet himself. He had been born with that dumb joy of sweet sounds +that is actually an infliction to those unfortunates who never learn to +express it through some musical instrument. Perhaps 'Liphalet had not +chosen the most fortunate means of expressing his musical soul, for the +flute in the hands of an amateur can be provocative of a good deal of +pain as well as pleasure. + +But standing in Doctor Ambrose's little parlor, with his head and +shoulders thrown well back, and accompanied by the notes of the +melodeon, the taut little steward had been in his glory. Those visits +between voyages were glimpses of heaven to Eliphalet Truitt. + +For forty years he had known no home but a ship's forecastle or cabin. +Was it strange that within his breast grew that vision of a hearthside +that now, unfulfilled, racked his very soul when it rose specter-like +in his mind? + +He came in again and closed the door of his kitchen. He dropped into +the low rocking-chair Cap'n Jonah had occupied, and tapped the cold +pipe upon the hearth to knock the dottle out of it. + +"Hum!" he growled in his throat (but did he believe it?), "I spect all +_she_ thinks of, too, is what she can git out of me for Christmas. +Christmas--_bah_!" + + + + + CHAPTER X + + "PEARLY" + + +It was true that Cap'n Jonah was more disturbed by the Pettys' +treatment of Pearl Holden than he was by his own uncertain financial +situation. He had been taking chances all his life, and the fact that +his ready cash would soon run low held nothing new or strange in his +experience. + +Like most seafaring men, the captain held all women in great respect. +And a young girl in Pearl's situation was bound to appeal very strongly +to his chivalrous spirit. + +"Whatever!" he muttered often and again. "If I could jest fool Sarah +and Orrin, like 'Liphalet says. If them two money-lovers only believed +that I had a fortune, as they at first suspected, I could make 'em +treat Pearly decent, an' that's a fac'." + +As the days passed he could not help seeing that there was something +troubling Pearl deeply. He supposed that it must be the harshness meted +out to her by Sarah Petty. + +Before Mr. Helmford, Sarah and Orrin were both on their best behavior. +They really desired, it seemed, to retain the new boarder's respect, +and at table spoke in fair kindness to the girl, as well as treated +Cap'n Jonah with more consideration. + +Tom, of course, was hopeless. His bad manners Mr. Helmford ignored. And +really, the lout gave Cap'n Jonah nothing of which to complain. Tom, in +fact, held a contrary opinion from his parents' regarding Cap'n Jonah's +financial circumstances; and he had reason to. + +The young fellow could not well forget that his Uncle Jonah had given +him a twenty-dollar bill without his even asking for it; and Tom could +not imagine anybody giving away money in such sums unless they really +had more than they knew what to do with. + +Tom had no mind to tell his father or mother his reasons for holding to +the belief that Uncle Jonah Hand was a wealthy man. It would open too +fruitful a field for inquiry. + +Despite the fact that Sarah Petty had examined every scrap of Cap'n +Jonah's possessions save what he carried about with him all the time, +and had found no bankbook or any account of his investments, Tom backed +his father strongly in the declaration that the old man might be hiding +securities or other valuables. + +"Jest because he's savin' and won't buy new clo'es and things he +needs," said Orrin on one occasion, "ain't no sure proof that he's +short of money. Mebbe that's how he got it--bein' careful." + +Orrin could appreciate to the full such a miserly character as he +gave Cap'n Jonah. He was worried, it must be confessed, by his wife's +treatment of her uncle. He remembered that Cap'n Jonah admitted he had +some money invested in oil shares; and what the bank cashier had said +about such investments could not fail to impress his suspicious and +avaricious mind. + +"You may wake up, Sarah, and find you've made a bad mistake," he urged. + +"I guess I can trim my sails to a change of wind if need be," she +returned sharply. "But I've about made up my mind that old tramp is +soon to be without a cent to bless himself with. And when that time +comes, out he goes, bag and baggage! The poor farm's good enough for +the like of him." + +"But if he's got that old note of your father's----" + +"Let's wait till that kettle boils," said Sarah Petty grimly. "I +scare't myself enough about that at the start. I ain't found a single +scrap of paper--not even any of my father's letters in which he +mentioned the note. Jonah Hand says he lost his ship and all year +afore last. I reckon all his private papers went down with it. I don't +calc'late to be 'fraid again of no bugaboo." + +Sarah's was a much bolder spirit than her husband's. She was the lion, +he the jackal. He wrung his hands reflectively and made no reply. +But privately he intimated to Cap'n Jonah that he did not approve of +Sarah's putting the old seaman "into that poky garret room." It was +well, Orrin thought, to have an anchor to windward. + +Cap'n Jonah took both Orrin's and Tom's advances for what they were +worth, and no more. And he continued to worry about his finances as +little as possible. But Pearly---- + +There was something wrong between the girl and Tom. The captain began +to realize that, and it, too, disturbed him. He saw them privately +talking in corners--the girl angry and earnest, Tom slouching and with +sneering face. + +The lazy fellow did not go to work. He idled around the house, helped +his father under protest, and occasionally went fishing or clamming and +thus added to the family larder. His mother must have supplied him with +money, the captain decided, for he was able to buy tobacco and such +other small luxuries as he wanted. Sarah bought all his clothing, as +she did Orrin's; and hard bargains she drove indeed for them with the +peddlers and with Cap'n Abe. + +Once Tom went to Paulmouth and came home with the unmistakable smell of +liquor on his breath. + +"You're a good-for-nothing, lazy fellow!" Cap'n Jonah once heard Pearl +tell the youth, and with vigor. "And you won't ever do what you +promised me you would--and 'twill soon be Christmas." + +The captain wondered what it was Tom Petty had promised her. At least, +the girl evidently had no love for the lout, and Cap'n Jonah was glad +of that. + +He watched her intercourse with Helmford, however, with high delight. +When the "fish hatchery man" was near Pearl could not help preening her +feathers for him. Her pretty face glowed with interest when he spoke. +When he addressed her directly she was by no means tongue-tied; yet +there was a sweet shyness in Pearl's manner at such times that was very +attractive. + +The young man could not fail to be charmed with the girl's unaffected +sweetness when he was in her presence. But he held himself back, and +treated Pearl only with that courtesy and kindness that he gave to +every woman. + +He presumed the girl was already chosen as the future mate for the son +of the house. Helmford did not purpose to make Pearl's situation more +difficult than it was by offering her any particular attention. Yet Tom +Petty glowered at the two, and occasionally dropped a caustic remark +for which his mother took him privately to task. + +Helmford had brought a great store of books with him and bookshelves on +which to arrange them. It was Pearl's duty to dust these from time to +time, for, after having once gone through the new boarder's possessions +quite as thoroughly as she had Cap'n Jonah's, Sarah Petty gave the care +of the new boarder's room over to her willing little drudge. + +Pearl had obtained a fair education in the simpler branches before +she had been allotted by the selectmen to Orrin Petty, her mother's +step-brother's cousin-by-marriage--a relationship which even the +closest student of genealogy would have found difficulty in figuring +out. + +She loved to read and all the time she could steal from her +multitudinous tasks was spent in that way. Not that her selection of +fiction had been very wise, perhaps, before Helmford came to board at +the Petty homestead. The romances in the _Ladies' Home Provider_ were +not strong intellectual food; but they were amusing, even enthralling, +to the mind of Pearl Holden. + +These stories kept alive in the hearts of the women and girls who +read them the fires of real romance. Their belief in the existence of +chivalrous youth and beauteous maidens was nursed by these tales, and +they added nothing if not a saccharine quality to life as it is lived +on the Cape. + +But Pearl's dippings into Helmford's books began to open her mind to +the appreciation of other worlds. The highest attribute of man had +heretofore been in Pearl's thought his ability to make love in a +gushing, moving-picture-hero way. Perhaps her belief in the existence +of such lovers had helped her hold aloof Tom Petty and his maudlin +attempts at love making. + +In Helmford's books she found the clash of real life--in itself a +more enthralling romance than any Pearl had ever before dreamed. The +heroines were, too, of a different character from the girls she had +actually known. Why, sometimes they were more heroic than the men +themselves! + +She quickly awoke to the fact that romance was not something of which +she could only dream. As she had told Cap'n Jonah, she thought of +marriage, even if she might never reach that much-to-be-desired state. + +Pearl saw that Sarah Petty, for instance, was stronger than her +husband, that she took the lead. She knew she, herself, was more +assertive than Tom. These new book-heroines seemed to possess all the +push and determination that Pearl felt simmering in her own blood. + +"If it was not unwomanly for those girls in the books to assert +themselves, to go out into the world and be self-supporting, and in the +end to choose the man they wanted for a mate instead of sitting down to +wait for the right man to look them up--if it was all right for girls +in books to do this, why," Pearl asked herself, "wasn't it the correct +thing for real girls to do?" + +Pearl determined when her "time was out" at Orrin Petty's to do just +as some of these new heroines did. There was even Gusty Durgin, for a +local example. Modesty or a shrinking from the unknown had not kept +Gusty from setting forth with the single talent of being able to cry +real tears to be a moving picture actress. The rather clumsy, overfed +Gusty had never before seemed a heroine to Pearl Holden; but now she +saw the ex-waitress of the Cardhaven Inn in a new light. + +As for Pearl's opinion of Helmford himself, she at first placed him on +a pedestal so high that he was scarcely in range of her humble worship. +But a girl cannot take intimate care of a man's belongings--dust and +sweep for him, clean up his litter, put away his garments, wash and +iron his clothes, darn his socks, and otherwise care for him and for +his possessions, without gaining a familiarity which, if it does not +breed the proverbial contempt, certainly does tarnish any heroic +quality he may have at first assumed. + +Not that Joe Helmford was a man who held himself aloof. Quite the +contrary. He was as simple and unaffected as Pearl herself. Only he had +seen more of the world than she, and he had no idea of becoming too +familiar with Pearl, or with any other member of the Petty household. + +In other words, he knew his place and kept to it. He was friendly +enough at mealtime; but he seldom appeared in the kitchen at any other +hour save to ask for shaving water or to pass through to his room. + +He had immediately purchased an open grate stove in Paulmouth and had +had Perry Baker, the expressman, bring it over, along with a ton of +coal from the Cardhaven dock where the freight schooner tied up. So he +had his own fire, before which he spent most of his free time in study. + +There was not much to do at the fish hatchery at this season, and +Helmford had assistants there to watch things day and night. So he was +able to study and read. Finding Pearl interested in books he advised +her a little in the selection of reading matter from his library, which +she bore off to her room, unknown to Sarah Petty. + +Tom Petty, however, soon became aware of the innocent intimacy between +Pearl and the new boarder. He snarled and sneered and spoke so +pointedly about it that his mother said, in wonder: + +"What do you care whether that feller, Helmford, pays attention to +Pearl Holden or not? I sh'd hope you'd respect yourself too much to +take any notice of hired help. What would your uncles, 'Poley and +Perseus Heath, say--let alone their wives--if you undertook to hitch up +with a pauper?" + +For once his mother's advice was not calculated to impress Tom Petty. +He assumed, at least, the attitude of the dog in the manger. If he did +not want Pearl himself, he did not purpose that Joe Helmford should +have her. + +"You don't want to mix up none with that city feller, Pearly," he told +her. "He's no good. You know what them city fellers are that come down +here to the Cape in summer. He's like all the rest of 'em." + +"He isn't," declared Pearl, briefly and with firmness. + +"You don't know nothin' at all about him--who he is or where he comes +from." + +"Did I say I wanted to know?" responded Pearl proudly. + +"Wal," said Tom, "you know you can't keep your eyes off'n him at +table, and when he talks your ears hang open like the mouth of a dyin' +codfish." + +"I don't, either, Tom Petty!" she cried furiously. + +They were out in the yard after their supper, and Pearl had been taking +down a batch of washed clothes frozen to the clothesline. It was a +cloudy night with no moon and was almost pitch dark. The clothes basket +was at the girl's feet and separated her from Tom. + +"I don't, either, Tom Petty," she repeated. "Mr. Helmford is nothing to +me. But he's a gentleman." + +"Aw, cat's foot!" scoffed Tom. "What's a gentleman? A dude with his +pants ironed to a crease." + +"A gentleman is something you ain't, and never will be!" cried the +girl. "You're not gentleman enough to keep your word to a girl. You've +broke your word to me. You won't go to work and earn money to pay your +debts. You're as mean, Tom Petty, as you can be--an' I've a good mind +to tell your mother after all," she ended in anger. + +"You said you wouldn't tell," sneered Tom. "If you tell, who's the +biggest liar--you or me?" + +"I guess," said Pearl practically, "that a bad promise is better broken +than kep'." + +"You tell Marm," threatened the youth, "and I'll fix you, Pearl Holden!" + +He actually raised his hand to her. She stepped back, seeing his +gesture in the darkness, and at that very moment a tall figure thrust +itself between them. + +"Shall I carry the basket indoors for you, Miss Pearl?" asked +Helmford's calm voice. "I am just going in." + +He had come up the grassy lane unheard by Pearl or Tom. He noticed Tom +not at all as he picked up the basket. + +Pearl choked, stifled a sob, and scurried ahead of him without a word. +Tom's protest died in his throat as Helmford strode after the girl, +carrying the clothes basket. + + + + + CHAPTER XI + + AN EVENING WITH CAP'N ABE + + +As Tom Petty showed more plainly his jealousy, his mother's unkindness +toward Pearl increased. That her son should display any interest in +the girl ground Sarah Petty's pride between the upper and the nether +millstone. + +There was scarcely ever yet a woman's son who was not too good in the +mother's opinion for almost any woman he chose for a wife. The mother +may hide this feeling quite successfully; but secretly she feels that +the woman who has taken him away from her will not be worthy of her +trust. + +In this case Sarah Petty was prepared to make life particularly +miserable for any daughter-in-law that the son might introduce into the +family. The thought that he might fall under the sway of the girl who +had drudged for her for seven years, was particularly exasperating. + +Sarah had always accused Pearl of neglecting her work when Tom was +around. It was a sop to her pride to hold this belief. She considered +Pearl far beneath Tom's notice, and often scolded Orrin for "having +brought that pauper gal home" and thus thrown temptation in Tom's way. + +Save for Cap'n Jonah, the Hands of Sarah's branch had died out, but +there were relatives of the Petty family who she considered were +well worth catering to. The twins, Apollo and Perseus Heath, and +their families were very well to do. There was Solon Petty and Enoch +Petty--the one in local, the other in State politics. + +She had the family to think of, had Sarah Petty; and Tom "mixing +up with a pauper girl" was not at all to her liking. As a triangle +situation seemed to develop between Helmford, Pearl, and Tom, Sarah +Petty became so acrimonious and bitter to the girl that Cap'n Jonah +could scarcely hold his peace. + +"Whatever!" he confided to 'Liphalet Truitt. "I'd give one of my +laigs--neither of 'em's much good when the rheumatism is in 'em--or an +arm if I could pay Sarah Petty back for some of her meanness to Pearly. +It's gettin' 'nough to sp'il the temper of a saint--and I ain't none!" + +'Liphalet's heart was heavy and his face as long as the moral law, but +he still could feel sympathy for his friend, and for Pearly as well. + +"I tell ye what, Cap'n Jonah," he said, "le's you an' me step down to +Cap'n Abe's this very evenin' and put it up to him. I tell ye, he's a +knowledgeable man." + +"Wa-al," responded the captain, about at his wit's end and willing to +take almost any chance for advice that might aid in the situation. + +Limping up and down the frozen road after supper that evening, leaning +rather heavily on his stick, and waiting for the ex-steward to put in +an appearance, Cap'n Jonah was hailed by what he had been pleased to +term "that spanking craft," Miss Sue Ambrose. She was returning from +some errand of mercy with an empty basket. For if a neighbor was ill or +poor, the doctor's sister was first with aid and comfort. + +"Good evening, Cap'n Jonah," was her cheerful greeting. "Isn't it +rather raw for you to be out with your rheumatism?" + +"Whatever!" exploded Cap'n Jonah. "I got to be out some, and I can't +leave the dratted rheumatics to home. Wish I could." + +"Poor old Suz Montevedo is down, all alone in his cabin. He has the +inflammatory kind and unless his granddaughter runs in to see him, he +is all alone 'way over there beyond Tapp Point." + +"Wal," said the captain, his eyes glowing with admiration, "I bet you +don't neglect him, Miss Sue." + +"Oh, I do what I can," said the little woman, visibly blushing in the +starlight. + +"And a feller laid on his beam ends ought not to want no better care +than you'd give him, ma'am," said the old mariner gallantly. "If I'm +laid by, myself, I hope I'll git ha'f as good." + +"You'll have Pearly to nurse you, Captain," laughed Miss Sue. "And she +is a dear girl." + +"Like enough! Like enough!" murmured Cap'n Jonah, as the little woman +went her way. "But the feller that got you--an' your forty thousand +dollars--would be mighty well off, an' no mistake. Hullo! Here's +'Liphalet at last." + +The ex-steward had been halted by the doctor's sister for a moment. +When he reached Cap'n Jonah his countenance was stormy and his lips +grimly set. + +"That there Miss Sue, Truitt, is a mighty sweet sailin' craft," +observed the captain. "For a man of your age, say, she'd make a proper +mate." + +'Liphalet growled something inaudible. + +"And they tell me she's wuth forty thousand dollars in her own right," +pursued the captain. + +"By Hannah!" exploded the ex-steward. + +"What's that?" responded Cap'n Jonah, startled. + +"Hum! I forgot somethin'," was 'Liphalet's rather weak explanation. +He seemed to have no interest at all in Sue Ambrose and her reported +fortune. + +"Wal," was the captain's final comment, "she does good with some of +her money, I haven't a doubt. But--for--ty--thou--sand--dol--lars! +Whatever! A sheer of that would purty near put a man on his feet, +Truitt." + +'Liphalet did not utter another word until they entered Cap'n Abe's +store. + +Supper time at this season of the year came early, that there might +be a long evening before nine-thirty o'clock, which was most people's +bedtime, and always Cap'n Abe's closing hour. + +The lamplight bathed the crowded store and the ring of loungers about +the glowing stove with a soft radiance. This light glistened, too, on +tarpaulins and oil-skins, on varnished sea-boots and rubber "hips," all +of which garments and other gear hanging in rows looked like whispering +men jostling one another as they listened to the jest and comment that +went around the circle of which Cap'n Abe's stove was the center. + +Milt Baker lounged in his favorite place at the tobacco showcase, with +simple Amiel Perdue beside him. + +"I guess, Cap'n Abe, you'll haf to reach me another piece o' Brown +Mule," Milt said. "I seem to be all out." + +"In more ways than one, Milt, you air out," rejoined the bewhiskered +storekeeper briskly. "You know what the motto of this store is. If you +want to _buy_ tobacco, Milt----" + +"Sho, now! can't you be a good feller, Cap'n Abe? 'Mandy'll be in for +her week's buyin' by an' by and she'll pay you," said the disappointed +Milt. + +"I dunno will she or not. You've got a bad mem'ry, Milt. And tobacco +ain't good for small boys, anyway----Good evening, 'Liphalet! How be +ye, Cap'n Hand?" + +"Wal," said the philosophical Milt Baker, "mebbe I'll have to wait for +another chaw of tobacco till the Christmas tree's hung. 'Liphalet won't +never forgit me, I know." + +Milt occupied the throne of local humorist. He thus quickly turned +attention from his own chagrin to the beclouded countenance of the +ex-steward. + +"Ye-as," said Cap'n Abe. "'Liphalet ought to be right busy purty soon." + +"Le's see," continued Milt, grinning knowingly, "have ye taken that +annual trip of yours to town yet to buy the stuffin' for Santa +Claus's bag on Christmas night, 'Liphalet? The kids ain't goin' to be +disappointed, be they? Ye got more children to buy presents for than +the old woman that lived in a shoe." + +"Ha!" ejaculated the rather crabbed Cap'n Joab Beecher, "a man might's +well be a Mormon as to be fixed like 'Liphalet." + +"Tell ye what 'tis," rose Washy Gallup's shrill voice, "I sartain sure +wouldn't let no passel of women and young'uns pull my laig for all my +spare change like 'Liphalet's done." + +"And that wouldn't take no 'long pull an' a strong pull an' a pull all +together,' now, would it, Washy?" observed Milt, grinning broadly. + +Mr. Truitt said not a word. Cap'n Abe, shrewd observer that he was, +shifted the topic of conversation adroitly. He saw no reason for +allowing a good customer to be bullyragged until he was run out of the +store and might be led thereby to take his trade to the Cardhaven shops. + +"It does seem," the storekeeper said reflectively, "as though the +children ought to be giv all the good times we can make for 'em at +Christmas. I will allow 'Liphalet's done more than his sheer in that +way since he's lived here on the Shell Road. He's been Santa Claus +ev'ry year, as well as 'dressin' the part,' as them movie actors used +to say. Some of the rest of us might better put our hands in our +pockets an' help. + +"It's a pleasure to think," went on Cap'n Abe, "of how children all +over the world 'bout this time o' year are getting ready to hang up +their stockin's for Santa Claus to stuff with goodies an' toys. I've +heard Cap'n Am'zon say----" + +He halted in his speech and his jovial face fell. Cap'n Jonah Hand, who +was preparing to endure the expected yarn with such fortitude as he +could summon, was startled by the change of expression that came over +the storekeeper's visage. + +"Wal," sighed Cap'n Abe, at last, "we won't talk 'bout that. But it +allus did puzzle me what them poor naked children of 'India's coral +strand,' that they tell about, hang up to get presents in on Christmas +Eve." + +"Whatever!" ejaculated Cap'n Hand under his breath. Cap'n Abe's flights +of imagination were mysterious to him. + +The conversational tide in the store ebbed and flowed. Mr. Truitt +seized an opportunity to tell the storekeeper quietly that he and Cap'n +Jonah had occasion to confer with him privately. The Shell Road oracle +nodded that he understood, and proceeded to get rid of customers and +loiterers alike at an early hour. + +He locked the store door behind Washy Gallup's hooped back, and snuffed +out the window lights. He returned to the counter and held up the flap +of it, motioning Mr. Truitt and Cap'n Jonah to pass through. + +"Go right back to the livin' room, 'Liphalet, you an' Cap'n Hand. You +know the way. I'll be right with ye soon's I bank the fire here for the +night. I calc'late we'll have consider'ble of a frost before morning." + +The big argand burner over the table filled the comfortable room with +mellow light. The tortoise-shell cat sleeping on a turkey-red cushion +in one of the wide rockers, opened his eyes lazily and yawned at the +visitors. + +"Find yourselves cheers, boys, and sit down," called Cap'n Abe's voice +from the store. "Slap Diddimus off'n that cushion, 'Liphalet. He's got +so he thinks he purty nigh owns this craft." + +But the ex-steward had a liking for cats. As he had told Cap'n Jonah, a +cat was often his only company. He scooped Diddimus into his arms and, +sitting down in the rocker, held the big, purring, furry animal in his +lap while he swung back and forth. + +Cap'n Abe bustled through the living room to the kitchen in the rear, +and they heard him shaking the grate of the range to liven the fire. +A moment later the harsh jangle of the coffee grinder announced his +hospitable intent. + +"A mug o' hot coffee won't go bad to-night, boys, afore you go out into +the cold again," said the storekeeper, returning after putting the +coffee-pot on the stove. He settled into his own creaking chair and +reached for the ever-ready knitting on the stand by the window, over +which hung an empty bird cage. The sock he was fashioning could be for +none but his own generous-sized foot. "Wal," he said, smiling broadly +on the other two men, "I can see there's somethin' on both your minds. +Le's have it." + +'Liphalet's glum visage lightened with sympathy as he turned to Cap'n +Jonah. "Do you want me, Cap'n Hand, to put this here difficulty o' +yourn before Cap'n Abe?" he asked gently. + +"Steam ahead, Truitt," said the captain gruffly. "You've the gift of +gab, and you're a friend." + +"The Cap'n," said 'Liphalet, to the storekeeper, "needs advice. I told +him you was the man to come to for it, Cap'n Abe." + +The storekeeper, knitting briskly, made a clucking sound with his +tongue to notify his visitors that he modestly disclaimed any desire to +pose as an oracle. Yet his attitude was one of willingness to help if +he could. + +"You've lived in this neighborhood longer than I have, Cap'n Abe," +pursued Mr. Truitt, "although I was born in Cardhaven. You have been +here on the Shell Road for more than twenty years. And endurin' that +time I wouldn't wonder if you had got purty close to an opinion on +Orrin Petty and his wife." + +"Hi mighty!" ejaculated Cap'n Abe, "I sh'd say I had," and glanced with +compassion at Cap'n Jonah. + +"Cap'n Hand," went on Mr. Truitt, "had good and sufficient reason, so +he says, to expect a welcome and kindness, from Sarah Petty when he +came to live with her. Her father, and naturally Sarah herself, was +under obligation to Cap'n Hand----" + +"Belay all that!" interrupted Cap'n Hand. "'Twas a family matter. +Nothin' but what I should have done for John Hand, my own brother, as +I had neither chick nor child myself." + +"In the same spirit," Mr. Truitt insisted, "Sarah Petty should have +been willing to help you. Ain't that a fac'?" + +"'Twould seem so," admitted Cap'n Jonah. + +The storekeeper listened and clicked his needles. "What air you drivin' +at, 'Liphalet? Is it that Orrin and Sarah's made it onpleasant for +Cap'n Hand up there at their house?" + +"Whatever!" ejaculated Cap'n Jonah. "And the way they treat that gal, +Pearly, is a sin and shame. I can't stand it!" + +"Why don't you get a place of your own, Cap'n Hand, and take Pearly +with you?" asked the storekeeper bluntly. "I guess we could fix it with +the town selectmen. Ev'rybody knows what a tongue Sarah Petty's got and +how parsimonious Orrin is. And Pearly is a good little thing and always +was." + +"Why, Mr. Silt," said Cap'n Jonah desperately, and cutting out +'Liphalet as intermediary, "I'll tell you the truth. When I first come +here Sarah and Orrin treated me fair enough. They thought, you see, I +had a fortune." + +"Hi-mighty!" exclaimed the storekeeper, a great light dawning on his +face. "Ye don't mean to say----Why! Orrin told us ye had money to burn." + +"'Twouldn't make much of a smoke if I burned it all," said Cap'n Jonah +dryly. "No, sir! What little tad I had when I landed here will soon be +gone if I let Sarah Petty take it away from me at the rate she has been +doin'. They're purty nigh convinced now, Sarah and Orrin, that I ain't +a millionaire. Sarah ain't been able to find even a bankbook in my +chist. And the way that woman treats Pearly----" + +He went on to tell of how the young girl was made to suffer, as well as +of the indignities heaped upon himself of late, and of the unpleasant +quarters he was made to occupy in a house where there were plenty of +well furnished bedrooms. + +Cap'n Abe listened with full appreciation and sympathy. 'Liphalet broke +in to say: "I tell him if he could make them Pettys jest _think_ he was +rich--as they first thought--he could carry things with a high hand. +Make 'em treat Pearly better, too." + +"Hi-mighty!" agreed Cap'n Abe. "It's a good p'int an' well taken. Might +be done. Is that what ye want my advice on?" + +"Wal," said Cap'n Jonah, "Truitt said you was a great feller for +schemin' out things." But he did not say it very hopefully. + +Cap'n Abe smiled broadly. "How fur would you be willin' to go, Cap'n +Hand?" he asked. "I mean how close't could you trim your sails to the +bare bones of truth. Ordinarily I don't believe in lyin'. But if folks +want to fool themselves----" + +"That's it!" ejaculated 'Liphalet, eagerly. + +"I'd be willin' to go purty far," growled Cap'n Jonah. "Whatever!" + +Cap'n Abe had put aside his knitting. He slapped his knee smartly. +"'Nough said!" he ejaculated. "You lemme think it over--_di_-gest it, +as ye might say. I sartain am sorry for your situation, Cap'n Hand, and +I want you to believe that, if wust comes to wust, us fellers along +the Shell Road that's been able to put by a little won't see you lack +none for comforts. Eh, 'Liphalet? Not as long as there's a shot in the +locker." + +"That's mighty kind of you," said Cap'n Jonah. "But Sarah Petty an' her +folks, I feel sure, wouldn't ha' been near so well off as they be if +it wasn't for what I done once for her father. And for that reason she +should be decent to me." + +"Humph! I allow you air right," said the reflective storekeeper. "Ye +mean to say ye ain't got _nothin'_ but the money ye speak of?" + +"Nothin' but some ile sheers--two thousand dollars they cost me--that +a feller bunkoed me with some years ago," replied Cap'n Jonah. "An' I +believe I could have sold them to Orrin Petty when I first come." + +"Ye better had," said the ex-steward, darkly. "'Twould ha' sarved him +right." + +"No," said Cap'n Jonah. "I'll raise the wind in some other way." + +"First of all we'll see if we can't make the Pettys believe you have +got a fortune," Cap'n Abe said, more briskly. "Leave it to me, Cap'n +Hand. I guess we can find some way of overreaching them that tries to +overreach. You come in again soon. I'll have somethin' cooked up for +ye, I don't doubt." + + + + + CHAPTER XII + + THE APOSTATE SANTA CLAUS + + +Heart-warmed by Cap'n Abe's promise of assistance and by his coffee, +the two cronies started homeward. A keen off-shore gale bit frostily. +The stars were sprinkled thickly upon a purple sky. + +Cap'n Jonah was much more cheerful; but 'Liphalet soon drifted into the +doldrums again. Spurred by his interest in his friend's trouble, his +thoughts had veered from his own case; now memory began to rasp his +mind again in a very tender spot. + +"Tell ye what!" observed Cap'n Jonah briskly. "If I was a marryin' man +I sartain sure would set my stays and carry all sail till I run down +along a woman like Miss Sue Ambrose. That would fix me fine! She's got +a plenty and she seems like a smooth-tempered party. Nothin' like Sarah +Hand, that was." + +"By Hannah!" snorted 'Liphalet, "would you marry for money, Cap'n Hand?" + +"No. I don't presume I would," replied Cap'n Jonah reflectively. "But +if I was wantin' to marry I sartain sure wouldn't kick none if the +woman I picked out chanced to have a tidy bit laid away. Whatever!" + +"Good night!" said 'Liphalet bitterly, and left him abruptly at the +mouth of the Petty lane. + +Eliphalet Truitt was deeply disturbed in his mind. He regarded what +he had been forced to listen to from the loungers in the store this +evening as the capsheaf of all the rasping incidents that had of late +disturbed his mental poise. + +He was hurt. More than that, he began to feel that Washy Gallup was +right. In the homely phraseology of the community, he had allowed his +leg to be pulled for all these ten years. He was a "good thing." He +had made the mistake of trying to buy (so he now thought) the love and +friendship he craved as a lonely and disappointed man. These people he +lived among looked upon him merely as a convenience and a silly fellow, +to be bled from the pocket for the general advantage. + +It was true that heretofore he had enjoyed doing his bit and giving his +thought and time to the children's holiday. But now, as this Christmas +loomed near, the thought of hanging a tree with presents and packing +a bag with goodies for the little ones filled Eliphalet Truitt with +loathing. + +As he scuffled along the Shell Road in the dark, he heard a mother +threatening her wayward offspring at the back door. + +"You'd better be mighty good, Ezra Saltus, or Mr. 'Liphalet won't hang +no Chris'mas gift on the tree for you." + +"By Hannah!" ejaculated the disgruntled ex-steward in his throat. "They +even make a bugaboo out o' me for naughty children! I'm good and sick +o' this! Folks just like me for what they can get out o' me. I--I'll +quit!" + +It was then and there that the Santa Claus of the Shell Road +apostatized. + +The next day the members of the Ladies' Aid Society were apprised--and +surprised--of the fact that the ex-steward refused to contribute in any +way toward the approaching Christmas celebration. He had stated to the +committee that approached him, with a finality that could not possibly +be misunderstood, his determination not to act in the capacity of Santa +Claus at the Mariner's Chapel, or help in any way whatsoever. + +"That ought to stop 'em," snarled 'Liphalet to himself. "If they know +I mean business--that I ain't to be the Mr. E. Z. Mark of this here +community no longer--they'll mebbe pretty quick stop their smirkin', +and hintin' and jollyin'." + +But it seemed they did not cease to do these very things. At least, +'Liphalet did not see that his unwonted attitude toward the approaching +holiday celebration made the least difference with his neighbors. They +continued to smile knowingly at him when the topic of Christmas was +mentioned. Even Cap'n Jonah when next he met the ex-steward seemed to +be particularly jovial about the coming Christmastide. The captain +seemed quite to forget his own troubles to say: + +"I guess we can look forward to a white Christmas, Truitt. And that'll +please the children, an' Miss Sue, an' ev'rybody. Don't you admire a +white Christmas?" + +"I don't admire no Christmas," snarled 'Liphalet. Then to himself and +under his breath, he repeated: "Christmas--_bah_!" + +He turned on his heel before Cap'n Jonah could say anything else, and +left the latter standing in the road open-mouthed. + +"By Hannah! Don't the tarnal fools believe I mean it?" was 'Liphalet's +disgusted comment. + +But he was secretly ashamed when he met Sue Ambrose near the +post-office one day about this time. He had tried to tell himself +that she was like the rest--that her interest in church work led her +to encourage him to spend time and money for these people who did not +really care anything about him save for what they could get out of him. + +She hailed him just as he was about to speak to Perry Baker, the +Paulmouth expressman, who had a crated talking machine in his wagon to +deliver, and 'Liphalet could not escape. + +"I'd admire to know who it is in Cardhaven is goin' to own a music box +like that," he said, trying to cover his confusion. "By Hannah! I've +been dreadful tempted to buy one o' them things. Wish't I hadn't been +weaned on old saws like 'Wicked waste makes woful want' and 'A fool an' +his money air soon parted.'" + +"Why, 'Liphalet Truitt!" Miss Sue said, with her low sweet laugh. "As +though you could not afford every comfort--even every luxury--you +craved." + +"There _she_ goes," thought the disgruntled ex-steward. "Hintin' I'm +made of money like these other folks." And he continued to stare after +Perry Baker's wagon as though deeply interested in the crated talking +machine. + +"I do want your advice, about the tree, 'Liphalet," said Miss Sue +desperately. It seemed as though she wished to recall his attention +from that talking machine and where it was going. "You know, Amos +Durgin usually has good trees; but he's shipped all his best ones to +Boston----" + +"Ho!" ejaculated the ex-steward. "I ain't takin' no int'rest in the +Christmas tree this year, Susan. I'm a-takin' a back seat, like I tell +'em all. Let somebody else have a spell at sech didoes. It's my watch +below." + +"Oh! Yes! Certainly, 'Liphalet, if you feel that way about it," the +gentle spinster said. + +The memory of this meeting rasped 'Liphalet's mind more and more as +the hours passed. She had spoken as though she were hurt by his gruff +refusal, and he cringed in secret at thought of ruffling her gentle +soul in any way. + +But even Miss Sue, he determined, should cozen him into no further +effort in behalf of the Christmas celebration. He knew very well what +they all expected--what they were looking for. Why, the children on the +road who now tipped their hats or courtesied to him so politely, were +the same little imps who had robbed his berry patch in June and whom he +had chased out of his "summer sweet'nin' tree" in August. + +"Drat 'em!" grumbled 'Liphalet. "They're playin' a game, all on 'em. +Just salvin' me over--tryin' to git all they can out o' me! And Sue +Ambrose is purty near as bad as the rest," he added, with actual venom. + +The taut little ex-steward had become a wofully changed man. It was +nothing sudden that had seized upon his mind and made it sick. More +than Doctor Ambrose had noticed his metamorphosis. The Black Dog rode +'Liphalet hard--had done so for many weeks. + +At first when he had begun himself to notice the change that was coming +over his mind, 'Liphalet had called it "the megrums." He did not feel +as brisk bodily as usual. Jalap and salts--the sailor's never-failing +remedy for all ills to which human flesh is heir--were unshaken +doctrinal tenets in 'Liphalet Truitt's belief, and he declared that he +did not propose to have "no doctor messin' with his innards." + +So he scouted the attempt of Doctor Ambrose to advise as to his +treatment. In his heart, too, he knew that the trouble was more mental +than physical. The seed of his discontent had been sown long before. He +had not realized it; but the years of denial since his retirement from +the sea were harder to bear than he had thought. During the active span +of his life ordinary troubles had little fretted Eliphalet Truitt, for +he was always looking forward to the consummation of his hope regarding +Sue Ambrose. + +To be near her, to work with her in church affairs, occasionally to +pick out on his flute "Black-Eyed Susan" or "Fisher's Hornpipe" to the +accompaniment of her melodeon, was all very well. But these were poor +substitutes for the dream of hearth and home which had so long stirred +his imagination. + +That last homeward voyage had been a memorable one for 'Liphalet. With +the younger officers, he secretly agreed that "the girls are pulling +the _Sadie Vars_ home with their apron strings." The old windjammer +seemed fairly to fly. Even during the usually tedious railroad trip +along the backbone of the Cape the minutes seemed to flow swiftly. + +'Liphalet had scarcely felt, on that past occasion, the creaking +platform planks of the Paulmouth station under his feet when he landed; +and when he climbed to the seat beside Noah Coffin, the stage driver, +that portion of the Cape Cod landscape within range of his vision was +painted in rainbow hues. + +But in ten minutes (how sharply he remembered it now!) a mental typhoon +had overcast the captain's horizon and drowned all the roseate colors +with a pall of dreary drab. + +"Gre't changes around Cardhaven since you was last there, 'Liphalet," +the gossipy stage driver had almost immediately said. "They've painted +the town pump." + +"Same old crop of happenings, I reckon, Noah," the cheerful mariner +rejoined. "Some's died, some's been born, an'--any marriages?" + +"Not ter speak of," Noah said, turning the cud in his cheek like a +ruminative cow. "Got a heiress among us now." + +The explosion of this bombshell of news made but little impression upon +'Liphalet until Noah added: + +"Doc Ambrose's sister--ye know, that little old maid, Susan--has fell +heir, they do say, to forty thousand dollars." + +"By Hannah!" 'Liphalet ejaculated. "What's that you say, Noah?" + +"Yes-sir-ree-sir!" declared the stage driver, slowly and with unction. +"Some female rel'tive, they say, livin' at a distance and who was +eternally opposed to this here new move for women votin'--what d'ye +call 'em, 'Liphalet? Sufferin'----" + +"Suffragists?" barked the ex-steward. + +"Yep. That's it. Wal, this old woman give all her fortune, they say, to +Susan Ambrose pervidin' she never votes. For-ty-thous-and-dol-lars!" +sighed Noah. "I've voted forty odd year, 'Liphalet, an' never picked +the winnin' side in nary 'lection yet. I wish't somebody had offered me +a fortune not to vote." + +"Forty thousand dollars," murmured Eliphalet Truitt. + +It was then the vision attending his homecoming had begun to fade. +'Liphalet thought of it now, after ten years of dragging time had +passed, and the contemplation of his disappointment was bitter indeed. +He had already at the time of his leaving the sea, bought the little +house beside the Mariner's Chapel. He had intended redecorating and +furnishing it anew throughout. Then he would speak his mind to Sue +Ambrose; for although 'Liphalet Truitt was a modest man, he was a +direct one, and he had reason to believe that Miss Sue would not say +him nay. + +But an heiress with forty thousand dollars! + +The blow, as 'Liphalet admitted now, almost "hove him on his beam ends." + +"How could a fellow with his little tad of money," he asked himself, +"have the cheek to pop the question to Miss Sue? Why! every enduring +person, up and down the Cape, would say he was after her fortune. Worst +of all, the Doc's sister might herself think so!" + +This withering shock to his hopes, however, did not altogether scuttle +the ex-steward. Miss Sue was quite as demurely friendly at his approach +as ever. Accession of great wealth had made little change it seemed in +her mode of life. She remained her busy brother's housekeeper. Merely +she wore silk instead of gingham and real lace instead of the product +of her own skillful needles. + +On every hand the ex-steward was told of Miss Sue's fortune, for it was +delicious gossip. Miss Sue did not mention it herself. Forty thousand +dollars, compared with what he had invested and had on deposit in the +Paulmouth National Bank, was as a mountain to a molehill--or so it +seemed to Eliphalet Truitt. + +So he had never spoken to Sue Ambrose in all these ten years as he +had desired to speak. She had gone her modest, kindly, charitable +way, making little display of her wealth--one of those sincere, +self-contained souls, the depths of whose hidden natures are not easily +fathomed. + +'Liphalet had gradually fallen into the doldrums--a place of calms +and baffling airs. He had never refurnished the old house, or changed +its inner or outer appearance in any particular. For an old bachelor, +living alone, it was good enough! + +His secret desire to be near Sue Ambrose led him to enter church work +with more enthusiasm than he otherwise might have done. Nor had this +fact grated on him until of late. + +Aside from such interests, the ex-steward was a member of that "forum" +that gathered summer and winter around the stove in the Shell Road +store. He had been wont to join this group at Cap'n Abe's every week +day evening save prayer-meeting night. But as his pique against +Christmas and its activities grew, even the salt savor of the company +at the store became tasteless. Of late conversation when he was present +was apt to turn, he found, upon the coming holiday season. The winks +and smiles, the innuendoes, 'Liphalet considered, were all aimed at +him. There seemed to be an itch in the public mind to learn just what +he, Life Truitt, was going to buy to hang on the Chapel Christmas tree! + +He had never chanced to notice it before this season, perhaps because +he had never been in so critical a mood; but all his neighbors seemed +to be slyly watching him, and with smiles, as though endeavoring +by insinuation and hypocrisy to recall themselves to his attention. +Nothing but his deep interest in Cap'n Jonah Hand's trouble would have +taken him to the store on this recent evening, the events of which were +last related. + +And he was almost sorry he had done so. Cap'n Jonah had managed to roil +his feelings as deeply as anybody in speaking as he had of Miss Sue. +She was a great catch; 'Liphalet had lived ten years shaking in his +shoes, if the truth were known, for fear that some braver soul than he +would ask her for her hand. + +She was at the bottom of all 'Liphalet's trouble--she and her fortune. +Every time he saw her, every time her name was mentioned, the barb was +sharpened in his soul. Jonah Hand might be brave enough to attempt to +marry Miss Sue and her money! But Life Truitt could not walk up to the +doctor's sister and ask her if she would have him. Here was the swift +stab of jealousy! + +But he did pluck up courage the evening after meeting Sue at the +post-office to stuff his flute into his pocket and tramp over to the +Ambrose cottage. He had not sought music and Sue's companionship to +soothe his soul for a long time. There she was--he saw her through the +parted curtains of the parlor window--sitting at the melodeon, coaxing +the harmonies from the yellowed keys. + +He stood near, with the first flakes of a snow squall falling upon him, +watching the graceful figure that was as harmonious in its surroundings +as were the notes pumped from the instrument. But after all, 'Liphalet +could not enter. A call in his present mood he felt would be a +profanation. Besides, there came into his sick mind again the thought +of how Sue, too, had sought to draw at his purse strings on this very +day for the Christmas entertainment. The devil of distrust said in his +ear: + +"She's like the rest of 'em! She's like the rest of 'em!" + +So he turned back. Sad indeed was the case of the once cheerful man +turned misanthrope. As he stubbed homeward through the crackling +snowflakes somebody he met on the road hailed him gayly: + +"Been to town to do your Christmas shopping, Life?" + +"No!" snarled the apostate Santa Claus. "And I ain't likely to make no +sech v'y'ge this weather." + + + + + CHAPTER XIII + + FAIR AND FOUL WEATHER + + +Among other new worlds, that of poetry was being revealed to Pearl +Holden. Although by no means sentimental, Joe Helmford had his +bookshelves well supplied with the standard poets, as well as with the +works of many of the minor versifiers. + +"I do dearly love rhymes," Pearl said, and so Helmford pointed out +these volumes to her. She began to learn that romance lay in other +directions besides on the road of fiction. + +"My!" she confessed to Helmford one evening, when she stopped in at his +room on the way to her own for a book to read by the light of the small +hand lamp Sarah Petty allowed her. "My! some of these pieces of poetry +I read sound like chiming bells, and some flow sweet as honey. Some of +the lines that I don't half understand, Mr. Helmford, thrill me through +and through." + +He watched her with something other than amusement behind his big, +round glasses. Here was the budding of a soul into new life. Helmford +began dimly to realize that Pearl was no ordinary girl after all. +Had she been born in a different environment she would have eagerly +absorbed such learning and culture as might have been within her reach. + +"Some of 'em," Pearl went on to confess, "I guess I don't understand at +all. I used to think all poetry must rhyme. You know, two lines ending +with the same sound was all that made poetry, I thought," and she +laughed. + +"There must be a thought even in two rhyming lines to make poetry," +Helmford suggested, gently smiling. + +"Ain't it so?" she rejoined. "And some of these poets don't use rhyme +at all. Here's this one. He puzzled me at first." + +She seized a volume and opened it with a familiarity which plainly +showed she had been browsing in it before. + +"First I didn't know what to make of him. I read about 'When Lilacs +Last in the Dooryard Bloom'd' and somehow I couldn't make it sound like +poetry. Yet parts of it just made me shiver--just the reading of 'em." +Helmford nodded appreciatively. "That was even before I knew the piece +was about Abraham Lincoln and the passing of his funeral train through +the country. That must have been wonderful!" + +"It was wonderful," agreed the young man. "And it is wonderful how +Whitman could touch the heartstrings without the tricks of rhyme or of +alliteration." + +"But it is--just--poetry?" slowly queried the girl. + +"Are the Psalms poetry?" he began, quite as eagerly interested as she +was now. "See! The man's style is based on them." He read, and with +expression: + + "'Now while I sat in the day and look'd forth, + + In the close of the day with its light and the fields of spring, + and the farmers preparing their crops, + + In the large unconscious scenery of my land with its lakes and + forests, + + In the heavenly aerial beauty (after the perturb'd winds and the + storms), + + Under the arching heavens of the afternoon swift passing, and the + voices of children and women, + + The many-moving seatides, and I saw the ships how they sail'd, + + And the summer approaching with richness, and the fields all busy + with labor, + + And the infinite separate houses, how they all went on, each with + its meals and minutia of daily usages, + + And the streets how their throbbings throbb'd, and the cities + pent--lo, then and there, + + Falling upon them all and among them all, enveloping me with the + rest, + + Appear'd the cloud, appear'd the long black trail, + + And I knew death, its thought, and the sacred knowledge of death.'" + +"But, oh!" cried Pearl, "he can write rhyming verses, too. This 'O +Captain! My Captain!' He must have loved Mr. Lincoln. It makes me cry +to read _that_ one. This about the lilacs--of course, it isn't about +lilacs, only lilac time--thrills me, makes me _feel_." + +"Ah, Pearly," murmured Helmford, "that is the acid test of all poetry." + +Then he brought himself up "all a-standing," How was he talking to +this girl? How was he thinking of her? This girl who seemed to him to +possess only a certain beauty to recommend her? Was she, after all, +like these other Cardhaven girls he had met? + +Her sweet face was alive with interest. Her eyes glowed. Her figure +palpitated before him, the full bosom rising and falling as the waves +of feeling pressed on her while he read the lines. + +"Isn't it wonderful? Isn't it beautiful?" sighed Pearl, when he had +finished. + +Her hand outstretched for the book met his lightly as he released +the volume. The touch thrilled them both. Helmford sat forward in his +chair. A flush mounted from the turned-back neck of her simple gown and +flooded all her throat and face. + +And at that instant, with their hands almost clasped, Tom Petty +abruptly opened the door. + +"What did I tell you, Marm?" snarled the lout, as the startled pair +sprang apart. "Here she is." + +Sarah Petty, her sharp face seemingly sharper than ever, thrust herself +into the room before her son. + +"Pearl Holden, you march yourself down to the kitchen! I want to see +you, my gal. No! Leave that book here. I won't have you foolin' away +your time on books when you leave ha'f your work undone. Go 'long, now, +I tell you." + +The girl went by her with flaming face and tear-bedewed eyes. To be +thus spoken to before Mr. Helmford seemed hard indeed to bear. + +Helmford arose promptly. There was something on the tip of his tongue +that perhaps he would better have said. His mild look was gone and his +shell-rimmed spectacles did not hide the sternness of his expression as +he asked Tom: + +"Did you wish to see me for anything?" + +"Naw. I don't want to see you," sneered the scowling youth. + +"When next you come to my room, _knock_," said Helmford. He turned his +shoulder to them both and sat down again in his easy chair before the +fire, picking up the book Pearl's slim fingers had so recently held. + +"Hoh!" snorted the admonished Tom. But his mother pushed him out of the +room and retired herself without making the boarder any reply. + +In the cold hall she hissed into the enraged Tom's ear: + +"_Now_ see what you've done! You want me to lose his board money, do +ye, you good-for-nothin'? 'Twixt you an' that gal----" + +"Yah!" snarled Tom, for once openly antagonizing her, "there ain't +nothin' out of the way between me an' Pearly. It's what is between her +an' that city feller." + +"What do you care, Tom Petty?" + +"I do care. Pearly ain't for him----" + +"Nor she ain't for you," snapped his mother. + +"I'll have her if I want," blustered her son, his pale eyes gleaming. + +"I'll put her out of the house as sure as mornin' comes!" panted Sarah +Petty. + +"An' I'll go with her," declared Tom. + +"You do, and you'll go for good," she threatened. + +"Aw, what d'you s'pose I'd care?" he sneered, knowing full well his +strength with her. "You ain't got nothin' here I can't get along +without. You say yourself Uncle Jonah can take most of it away from +you if he has that note of grandpop's, and is so minded." + +"Sh!" she commanded fiercely. + +"I won't 'sh!' for you," he growled. "Who do you think you're talkin' +to--a kid?" + +He grumbled on, following her down the stairs and back to the kitchen +to which Pearl had preceded them. Orrin Petty, iron-rimmed glasses +perched on nose, was reading the _Paulmouth Argus_ beside the kitchen +lamp. Pearl stood defiantly, with clenched fists, in the middle of the +room. + +"You--you little rat!" gasped Sarah Petty, hoarsely, bursting into the +kitchen and approaching the girl with an energy that seemed to precede +a blow. + +"Don't you strike me, Miz Petty!" cried Pearl, stepping back a pace. +"Don't you ever strike me again! I'm too old for that and I won't stand +it." + +"Hoity-toity!" exclaimed Orrin, dropping his paper. "What a long tail +our old cat's got! Can't you women folks give us no peace at all?" + +Tom slouched into the kitchen without a word. Sarah Petty seemed poised +like a rattlesnake, ready to strike. But there was something in the +girl's attitude that held the woman back. + +"You didn't have no call to speak to me the way you did before Mr. +Helmford," said Pearl, her voice shrill. "I work for you, but I'm not +your slave." + +"You're a pauper!" hissed Sarah Petty. "You're beholden for your food +and drink to me an' your uncle----" + +"He isn't my uncle!" declared Pearl fiercely. "And you are not related +to me, either. Nor Tom." + +"Why, you impudent little baggage!" Sarah Petty gasped. + +"And if you don't want me here, I can find some other place to work," +went on Pearl desperately. "I'm not beholden to you from choice, and +you know it." + +"What's the matter? What's the matter?" inquired Orrin Petty again. + +"This ungrateful baggage!" cried his wife. "I told you often enough, +Orrin Petty, you'd never ought to brought her home. She's a temptation +an' a stumbling-block to our Tom----" + +"_Tom!_" Pearl's scorn pricked the shell of Tom's conceit. The look she +gave the lout seared his very soul. + +"Oh, yes!" he said harshly. "Think you're fit for something better than +me, don't you? Ain't got no more use for me." + +"Tom Petty!" shrilled his mother. + +"No. I've no use for you," Pearl said, driven to desperation by her +wrongs. "You can give me the money you borrowed of me to pay your +gambling debts, and your mother can set me free. I'll go fast enough +then, and thank you both." + +"What's that? What do you mean?" shrieked Sarah Petty. + +She sprang from the chair she had seated herself in but the moment +before and darted at the girl, her fingers crooked and extended like +talons. Sarah Petty's instincts were primeval. + +But before she reached her victim the door at the foot of the rear +staircase was burst open and Cap'n Jonah in his shirt and trousers, and +with his stockinet nightcap on his head, thrust himself before the girl. + +"Belay that!" he commanded in a deep-sea growl. "What's goin' on here? +Ain't you satisfied, Sarah Petty, to work this gal double tides, +without bringin' her to the mast ev'ry now an' then for a taste of the +cat? I tell ye, I won't stand no more of it." + +[Illustration: "Belay that!" he commanded in a deep sea growl.] + +"You--you----" Sarah Petty could not find an expression to fit the +occasion. Or else caution held her tongue with a sudden grip. "Did you +hear what the little minx just said?" + +"Yes," replied Cap'n Jonah. "I heard her. I heard her say that she lent +money to Tom Petty to pay back to the Ladies Aid money that he'd took +an' gambled away at the cattle show. And it s'prised me jest as much as +it does you, Sarah." + +He spoke more mildly, but his eyes flamed as he held the shrinking Tom +with their gaze. + +"She'd oughter be thrashed, old as she is!" cried Sarah Petty. + +"I dunno but she had," agreed Cap'n Jonah, "for ever lending him a +penny, anyway. I thought I'd headed off the young sculpin from borryin' +of Pearly at all." + +"What's that you say?" demanded his niece. "The little liar----" + +"You air speakin' of Tom, ain't you, Sarah?" interrupted the master +mariner boldly. "It ain't Pearly that's lied. I heard it all from my +chamber winder. It was the first night I come here. Tom got into a +pea-and-shell game at that fair and lost ev'ry dollar he had--Ladies +Aid money and all. + +"He whined around Pearly like a whipped puppy until the gal promised to +lend him enough to pay you back, out of the little tad of money she'd +saved up. I couldn't hear to that, you know," continued Cap'n Jonah, +with less acrimony. "So I caught Tom airly the next mornin' and made +him a present so't he wouldn't be tempted, as _I_ thought, to take +money from the gal. But I didn't know the feller as well as I do now," +and the mariner's scorn was biting. "Did he take your money that time, +after all, Pearly?" + +The girl, now unable to speak for the swelling of her throat, nodded. + +"He's a purty poor fish, this boy, Tom, of yours, Sarah," said Cap'n +Jonah. "He'll not only hide himself behind a gal, but he'll rob her." + +"Aw," put in Tom in self-defense, "I'm goin' to pay her back all right. +I was only teasin' her." + +"Le's see you do it," said the captain tartly, striking for Pearly +while the iron was hot. + +Sarah Petty, silent for the moment with fury, suddenly dug under her +skirt for the deep pocket she always wore. She drew forth her purse. + +"_I'll_ pay the minx back," she said. "Of course Tom was only foolin'. +But if you ever do sech a thing again, Tom Petty, I'll disown you! You +see, now, I hope, what it means to mix up with pauper baggage like this +gal." + +"Belay that, I tell you!" commanded Cap'n Jonah, betrayed into an +excitement he had occasion to regret later. + +"I'd like to know, Jonah Hand, what int'rest _you_ have got in this +gal?" snapped his niece, driven beyond the point of endurance. + +"I'll tell ye right now," said the master mariner, sternly, "she ain't +goin' to be treated like she was dirt under your feet no more. I've a +mind to see the selectmen myself about it, and take her away." + +"What do you mean?" gasped Orrin, putting in his oar at last. "After we +carin' for her for seven year, an' jest as she's got of some use 'round +the house, do you think we're goin' to let her go?" + +"And who'd take the impudent thing in, I'd like to know?" demanded his +wife. "After they heard that _we've_ got through with her?" + +"She's beholden to us for every bite an' sup an' for the clo'es on her +back," added the excited Orrin. + +"She'd ought to be beholden to nobody," declared Cap'n Jonah, as Pearl +sobbed upon his shoulder and his shirt-sleeved arm stole around her. +"You folks don't appreciate her; but _I_ do. Whatever! If you don't +take another tack with the gal, you an' Orrin, Sarah, I vow to man +I'll will ev'ry cent I got and all my prop'ty--sech as it is--to Pearl +Holden. She sha'n't be beholden to nobody after I die, anyway." + +This bombshell, exploding in the Petty kitchen, left the trio dumb. +Cap'n Jonah pushed the girl, her hand filled with the money Sarah Petty +had paid to her, gently out of the room. + +"You go up to bed, my gal, an' forgit it," he said. "I won't see you +harrowed no more." + +Then he passed the Petty group with scornful glance, opened the back +stairway door again, and stormed heavily up to his room under the eaves. + +"Whatever! Now I guess I have done it," was his murmured comment when +he was again in bed. + + + + + CHAPTER XIV + + VEERING WINDS + + +There never had been before as serious a conference between the three +Pettys in that kitchen as this one. Tom might well thank his lucky +stars that Uncle Jonah Hand had thrown his bombshell. The surprise of +it sponged from his mother's mind all immediate thought of his crime, +which had been revealed during the last few minutes. + +"There!" was Orrin's whine, first to break the silence after Cap'n +Jonah had departed. "What did I tell ye?" + +Sarah glared at her husband furiously. Tom licked his lips and doubled +his fists. He could have pommeled his father and pommeled him well! + +"Aw--you----" he began, but helplessly. + +"Orrin Petty," said Sarah at last, "if you knew so much--and if you +know so much now--why didn't you bring out your stores of wisdom before +things come to this pass? Do you realize what it means? There's no fool +like an old fool. If Uncle Jonah has taken a fancy to Pearly an' wills +her his fortune, where'll we be, I want to know?" + +"Jest about here, or hereabout," responded Orrin, for once undaunted by +his wife's sharp tongue. "But it looks like we won't have so much money +as mebbe we would have had, if ye'd taken my advice and gone easy with +your Uncle Jonah." + +"We don't know that he's got much of a fortune even now," said the +woman sourly. Her quick mind was beginning to function again with +its usual shrewdness. She had only been stunned by Cap'n Jonah's +declaration. She was rapidly recovering. "We don't know----" + +"I knowed it all along," put in Tom, siding with his father for the +nonce. "When Uncle Jonah give me that money----" + +"How much did he give you?" interrupted his mother sharply. + +"A twenty-dollar bill. Handed it out just as though it growed on bushes +and he had a private patch of his own," chuckled Tom. + +"See that boy laugh!" exclaimed Orrin. "He ain't got no idee of how +serious this may be for us all. If Cap'n Jonah wills away his prop'ty, +whatever it may be, and makes a demand on your father's estate, Sarah, +for principal and int'rest on that two thousand dollar note----" + +"You go fish!" exclaimed Sarah Petty, in exasperation. "If I ever did +despise anybody it's them that always bring out their hindsight for +their foresight. Looks like the aig's been broken; le's see if we can +save the shell, anyway." + +"Of course, mebbe he ain't got much," said the cautious Orrin. + +"There you go again!" ejaculated his wife with disgust. "Leavin' a hole +to creep out of backwards! I thank heaven I ain't the same kind of a +fool you be, Orrin Petty, if I am one! + +"It looks to me like we'd fooled ourselves," went on Sarah practically. +"But that don't mean we air sure to lose anything that's worth keeping. +Uncle Jonah must be a mighty secret man--nothing at all like what +father was. Father'd turn himself inside out jest as easy as you'd skin +an eel. But Jonah Hand is secret--if he's got a fortune. He don't let +no papers relating to it lie around where a body might see 'em. And he +must have something to will, or he wouldn't have spoke up so free when +he was mad, as he did jest now." + +"Hoh!" growled Tom. "If he _does_ give it all to Pearly----" + +"You shet your mouth!" commanded his mother tartly. "You've made enough +mess for once, Tom Petty. Your foolin' with that gal is the root of +all the trouble. Comin' down here jes' now and telling me she was in +Helmford's room----" + +"An' she was!" + +Sarah Petty overrode his voice, pursuing her topic with shrewdness: + +"Your Uncle Jonah is a masterful man after all. He ain't give way to +his temper afore; but that ain't sayin' he ain't got none. He speaks +like a man that means what he says an' says what he means. He may march +off to Paulmouth to-morrow and make a will in Pearly's favor." + +"That would be a nice to-do," groaned Orrin. + +"I dunno," said Sarah, eyeing Tom wrathfully. "It's all along of this +boy's actions. And it seems, Orrin Petty, that you brought Pearl home +here jest to make trouble for us all. Course, the gal's long ago set +her cap for Tom." + +The youth began to preen. It bolstered his conceit to hear his mother +say this. + +"You know how girls are, Marm," he murmured. + +"An' I know how you be, Tom Petty," she rejoined grimly. "I found out +to-night if never before. You're tangled up with this gal your father +brought home against _my_ wishes," (Orrin stirred uneasily; this was a +bare-faced falsehood) "and I don't see but we'll haf to make the best +of it. Though I don't see what we're to say to your Uncles 'Poley and +Perseus, _and_ their wives. The gal's sech a numbskull----" + +"She's a good looker," Orrin ventured. "Dress her up----" + +"Who says she's a good looker?" flared Sarah, who would never be too +old to cavil at another woman's beauty. "She's a pink-faced little +rat! But she's good enough, I guess, for this Tom Petty. He don't +deserve nothin' better. And if this old tramp does give the dratted +girl his money it needn't go out of the fam'ly." + +"Goshamighty! what's that you air sayin', Sarah?" demanded Orrin, while +Tom stared at his mother in open-mouthed amazement. + +"If he's got any money," Sarah steadily pursued, "and he gives it to +Pearl, we'll know for sure soon enough. You're detarmined to marry her, +Tom----" + +"I dunno as I am," interrupted Tom, bound not to be driven. + +"You'll jest haf to marry her, I s'pose, it's gone so far," said his +mother, licking her thin lips and her green eyes snapping. "And when +you do, Uncle Jonah's money will be as good as yours. And this place +when we die, an' such prop'ty as your pop an' I may have. So if Uncle +Jonah ever brings up that old note of your grandpa's it won't amount to +nothin'." + +"Goshamighty!" exclaimed the eager Orrin, again. "Jest like takin' +money from one pants pocket and puttin' it in t'other." + +"Course we'll find out for sure, first," added Sarah, "if Uncle Jonah +really has got anything worth willin' to anybody." + +"How you goin' to?" demanded Tom. "You ain't found out a thing so far, +Marm. Only what he just said." + +"I am a-goin' to ask him straight, _has_ he," declared Sarah Petty. +"It's for Pearl's own good I'll ask him. To protect her. He's promised +her something and we're her guardeens. We must know if he means what he +says and how much she is to be benefited by his will. And see to it he +makes a will, into the bargain." + +"You'd better go easy--you'd better go easy," Orrin warned, although +quite used to his wife's assertive ways and her ability to see ahead +and, as she expressed it, "trim her sails accordin'." "If he died +intes--intes----Wal, without makin' a will--his money'd come straight +to you, Sarah Petty." + +"We don't know how long he's got to live," said his wife practically. +"The Hands is tougher than pine knots. There ain't a thing the matter +with him but rheumatics. He may live along for twenty year. + +"After all's said and done, he might not do a single solitary thing +for me," confessed Sarah Petty. "I can git board money out of him, but +that's about all. If he's taken a fancy to Pearly, however, he may be +encouraged to do a lot for her--and for Tom. That's what we must look +out for. Tom, you keep on bein' nice to your Uncle Jonah. P'r'aps he'll +hand out more money to ye--though 'twon't do ye no good if ye don't +put it in the bank, I must say." + +"And then it'll do the bankers good," said Tom with scorn. "What's +money for?" + +"You'll find out one o' these days, you young spendthrift," said his +father tartly. + +"I s'pose the gal would fall into your arms, Tom, if you asked her to +marry you?" said Sarah Petty thoughtfully. + +Tom grinned broadly. "She uster like me. You see how she lent me that +money. But since this Helmford feller's come here she's got crazy 'bout +him. You can see that." + +"Nonsense!" exclaimed his mother. "You speak up nice to Pearly and +she'll see you mean business. Of course she's always wanted ye," +insisted the woman, determined to see the matter in no other light "But +I don't want you to do anything, or say anything, to make Mr. Helmford +mad. I'll speak to him about her bein' in his room. _That_ ain't +decent. But I ain't goin' to lose a good boarder like him along of your +foolishness, Tom Petty." + +Tom grunted a disavowal of any belief in his mother's way of putting +it. He knew in his heart that Pearl had given him little reason of late +to think she cared an iota for him. But he was too much his mother's +son after all to admit this. He determined secretly to get Helmford +out of the house. "Out of sight, out of mind" was Tom's doctrine. He +believed, in his conceit, that he could make Pearl forget the man from +the fish hatchery if the latter were gone. + +"All you've got to do is to salve these girls over, and talk to 'em +pretty," mused Tom. "That'll fetch 'em ev'ry time." + +So the three Pettys sought their beds on this frosty night, all with +thoughts to keep them awake. In other rooms in the house three other +members of the household were likewise wakeful. + +Pearl cried herself to sleep finally. She was ashamed after what had +happened to face Mr. Helmford again. She thought not at all of Cap'n +Jonah's threat which had created the fear of disaster in the Petty +camp. She was only grateful to the old mariner for taking her part. + +Joe Helmford had spent a very unsatisfactory evening after the abrupt +visit of Tom Petty and his mother. He was half determined to leave the +house at the end of the week. These Pettys were almost unendurable. + +And then he began to wonder what effect his going so abruptly would +have on Pearl Holden? He knew that she was treated unkindly by the +Pettys. He had often seen tears in her eyes and Sarah's sharp, shrill +voice could not fail to reach his ear on more than one occasion when +she was berating her little drudge. + +Helmford had suddenly got a new revelation of Pearl's character. He had +begun to appreciate not alone her sweetness but the real depth of her +nature. The girl easily assimilated new things. Her mind was thirsty +for knowledge. She was beginning already to blossom into a fuller +mental development. + +This young man who heretofore had given such small thought to any woman +found himself lying awake at night thinking of this girl. + +Physically she was charming, as well as sweet of nature. He visualized +her as his sisters and cousins were wont to dress. Why, in appearance +she would vie with the best of them. Her speech--well, of course, it +was tinged somewhat by the environment in which she was born. But that +was not a fault that could not be rectified, Helmford decided. + +When a young man allows his mind to run along in such vein, with any +particular girl as the visioned object of his thoughts, he is bordering +upon a state of feeling that leads directly to matrimony. But Joe +Helmford drew back from this and resolutely refused to face it. + +He punched his pillow again and determinedly went to sleep. + +At the other end of the house, in the crooked little room over the +kitchen, Cap'n Jonah was likewise wakeful. In the first place he was +cold. Sarah had not given him bed-clothes enough. He had closed his +window, which was against the tenets of a lifelong belief in fresh air, +and still he shook in his bed. + +Running down stairs in his stocking feet to defend Pearly had chilled +Cap'n Jonah to the bone. His teeth chattered. He could feel the tip of +his nose turning to a numb lump of flesh. Icicles formed against the +edge of the thin blanket where his breath was expelled. He could hear +the ice cracking in his water pitcher. + +But even in such a plight Cap'n Jonah might have slept, at least +fitfully, had it not been for his thoughts. His excitement and anger +should have heated the old mariner so that physical cold could not +touch him. + +He had given way to his temper and vented his rage in a way quite +foreign to his habit. Cap'n Jonah usually had complete mastery of +himself. + +But the treatment accorded Pearl had finally brought the deeper +feelings of the master mariner to the surface. He was unable longer to +endure in silence the pain of seeing the girl so abused. + +Tom's desperate meanness, too, served to whip the old man's rage to +a froth. And that froth was what had spilled upon the startled Petty +family when Cap'n Jonah made his astonishing threat. + +"Whatever! Now I _have_ done it!" he kept repeating to himself as he +lay in his uncomfortable bed. "I've got to do somethin'--I really have. +Got to make good that bluff. I could see Sarah and Orrin was all +struck of a heap. If they think I've got money an' that Pearly may get +it if they don't treat her better, they'll near 'bout turn themselves +inside out to salve her over--an' me, too. + +"But, whatever!" he concluded. "Somehow, I must make good that bluff. +If I ain't a rich man, I've got to make them think I am." + + + + + CHAPTER XV + + MISUNDERSTANDINGS + + +When Cap'n Jonah Hand awoke from a final fitful sleep the following +morning, he thought at first any scheme he might have for the befooling +of the Pettys must be postponed. When he awoke to find the edge of a +red sun peeping above the sea-line, he could scarcely turn over in bed. + +"Whatever! It's got me!" groaned the master mariner, and something like +fear clawed at his staunch old heart. + +He had passed through storm and stress at sea for nearly half a +century and had never shown the white feather. As he once related to +'Liphalet Truitt, he had faced death at the hands of savages, and death +in a most horrid form, without a quiver. He had been rich without +losing his poise; he had been utterly penniless, yet had retained +his cheerfulness. The ups and downs of life had left Jonah Hand, +despite his given name, a man who believed in his own good fortune and +submitted to such buffets as he suffered with composure. + +Here was something new. "To be cast upon his beam ends," as he termed +it, by such an enemy as this, discouraged him. He had felt premonitions +of the ailment for several years. He had seen many seamen go down +before this enemy, who would have stood staunchly to face the elements, +or against the troubles that are the common lot of man. + +"Oh! Ah! Ouch! Whatever!" groaned the captain, turning over by fits and +starts. + +Every movement hurt him. His joints seemed to have stiffened during the +night, and whenever he sought to bend them, sharp pains shot through +them. Even his fingers had no flexibility. + +"It's got me--the dratted rheumatics!" he muttered. "I might ha' knowed +it, after trottin' over that cold floor an' up an' down the stairs +without my shoes. Ouch! Whatever!" + +He felt that he could not rise--he who was always the first of the +household astir. He heard Orrin and Tom come yawning down into the +kitchen. They started the fire in the range and shook down the +sitting-room stove and opened the drafts. Then they went out to do the +barn chores. + +"Goshamighty!" rose Orrin's querulous voice on the frosty air, "barn +pump's froze tighter'n a drumhead. Bring a kittle of boilin' water, +Tom." + +Sarah Petty's heels were now heard tapping over the kitchen floor. For +once Pearl came last. Cap'n Jonah, overhead, did not hear a word spoken +between the two women. + +The silence he thought seemed ominous. What was about to occur? Would +there be a flare-up between Sarah and her little drudge and would Cap'n +Jonah immediately have to make good his threat of taking Pearl away? + +"And me on a lee shore the way I be!" groaned Cap'n Jonah. "No two ways +about it: I have got myself into a mess." + +How would he be able to act independently, or to aid Pearl in any way, +if he was flat on his back? Why, he could not even get down to Cap'n +Abe's to see if the storekeeper had thought up any scheme to help him, +as he had promised. + +The preparations for breakfast went on. He could hear the rattling +of dishes and pans; the sound of the pump at the spout of which the +tea-kettle had to be filled for a second time; the sputtering of +sausages in the pan. Then the odors rose to him in that mysterious way +they have of penetrating old houses; the aroma of coffee; the spicy +smell of home-made sausage meat; the odor of cornmeal johnny-cakes, +white as snow in the middle, baked brown on both sides, ready to split +and be deluged with "white gravy." + +Cap'n Jonah heard Sarah go to the front stairs and call Helmford. Then +she went to the door of the covered porch and shouted for Orrin and +Tom. There followed a murmur of voices below; then came Pearl's light +step upon the back stairs. + +"Cap'n Jonah!" she called outside his door. + +"Whatever!" groaned the old seaman. "Hullo! Ouch! Ain't so spry this +mornin' as us'al, Pearly." + +Pearl heard his bed creak and knew he was not up. She opened the door +and peered in. + +"Oh, Cap'n Jonah! is anything the matter?" + +"Guess so. Rheumatics, Pearly. They've got me laid by the heels." + +"Dear me! So bad you can't get up?" queried the girl. + +"I'll get up by and by. Don't bother 'bout me. Ouch! Whatever!" + +"My! you must be pretty bad, Cap'n Jonah. Do you want I should do +anything for you?" + +"Not a thing, my gal," declared the independent old skipper. "I ain't +quite scuttled yet--no sir! I'll warp myself out o' here by noon. Don't +you fuss none." + +Pearly returned below stairs and before sitting down to eat her own +breakfast she arranged a tray for Cap'n Jonah and carried it up to him. +She propped him up in bed with a chair and pillows at his back, and +helped him get the tray in position. She brought him a warmer quilt +from her own room. + +"It's cold enough in here to freeze the coffee 'fore you can drink it," +Pearl declared. "Let me wrap this around you, Cap'n Jonah." + +"Thank you, my gal," said the old man. "I won't forgit your kindness." + +"Nor I won't forget yours," she whispered before she left him, and +patted his mahogany cheek lightly. + +It was like a stroke to Cap'n Jonah's heart--this last. He thought +Pearl was referring to his promise of making her his heir. He was near +to being as suspicious about the avariciousness of those around him as +was Eliphalet Truitt. + +And good reason he had for that. To live with people like the Pettys +was enough to canker the most generous and unsuspicious nature. + +"Whatever! I got to see Cap'n Abe. He's my only hope now," murmured +the master mariner. "Won't never do for Pearly, poor gal, to be +disappointed." + +But the girl had no thoughts of a mercenary nature. That Cap'n Jonah +should have faced the Pettys and browbeaten them in her behalf was +sufficient to fill Pearl's heart with gratitude. She never thought a +second time of the old man's threat. In her confusion of mind at the +time, she had scarcely apprehended what his speech meant. + +What Pearl shrank from most of all this morning was meeting Joe +Helmford. When she returned from giving Cap'n Jonah his tray, the +boarder was at the table. He greeted her, as he had all, with his +customary "good morning." But no smile accompanied it, and he confined +his speech during the meal to requests relating to the food. + +In fact a pall seemed to hang over the Petty household; and yet the +family were less acrimonious and fault-finding than usual. To Pearl +they were scrupulously polite, and Sarah Petty more than once expressed +her anxiety regarding the absent Cap'n Jonah. + +"You'd better step up after breakfast, Orrin, and see if you can do +anything for him," Mrs. Petty said. "Uncle Jonah is beginning to feel +his years, I shouldn't wonder." + +But Orrin slipped out of the house immediately after breakfast without +venturing above to Cap'n Jonah's chamber. He felt some awkwardness +about appearing before the old man after what had occurred the previous +evening. + +Of course, the lout could not be expected to confront his great-uncle +at such a time; and even Sarah herself felt some unwonted embarrassment +in greeting Cap'n Jonah. So it was Pearl who went up to get the tray +and to inquire solicitously for a bulletin of health. + +She found Cap'n Jonah out of bed and struggling with the crooked mirror +and a dull razor. Every morning the old man scrupulously shaved his +cheeks and lips. The fringe of gray beard and his hair were carefully +brushed as well. The captain always looked as neat as a new pin. + +He looked out at her from behind a mask of cold lather and tried to +grin cheerfully. "Purty hard scrabblin', Pearly," he remarked. "My +fingers are stiffer than a frozen bowline." + +"You should have a fire, Cap'n Jonah," she said tenderly. "It's real +mean! This is the coldest end of the house anyway. And you have had no +warm water." + +"Ne'er mind. Don't fuss. I'll be out o' here all right. There'll be a +change o' wind before long, my gal." + +Pearl did not fully understand him, but she thought the statement +likely to be so. At the bottom of the stairs, listening, she found +Sarah Petty. + +"What's that he says?" demanded the woman in a sharp whisper. "He's +goin' to get out o' here?" + +"So he says," Pearl replied, scarcely understanding Mrs. Petty's +anxiety. + +Sarah Petty stepped back, staring at the girl with eyes that glittered +like a snake's. She closed the door at the bottom of the stairs with a +careful hand. + +"Don't you let him do that, Pearl Holden!" she hissed. "You have a +care. You'll find it a whole lot better to have me for a friend than an +enemy. Now, mind that! You keep Uncle Jonah here." + +"Me?" gasped the girl in surprise. "What have I to do with it?" + +Mrs. Petty's speech amazed her. Indeed, the treatment accorded her on +this morning by all the family greatly puzzled Pearl Holden. + +In the first place, the clack of Sarah Petty's tongue seemed to be +muffled. The woman scarcely spoke to her, and never to find fault. This +was her single outbreak of ill-temper. Orrin, when he came for the +can of grease for the harness, which was kept soft behind the kitchen +stove, asked her for it with a "please" tacked to the request. + +She was sweeping the big lower front hall when Tom came blundering +through. She would not have spoken to him, but he would not be denied. + +"Say! you ain't goin' to stay mad with me, are you, Pearly?" he asked +with a grin. + +She looked at him with an angry spark in either eye; but Tom would not +be warned. + +"Aw, come, now, Pearly!" he said. "You know you like me. I was just +foolin'----" + +As he approached she backed away into a corner and held the broom +straight out before her. + +"You keep your foolin' to yourself, Tom Petty!" she cried. "Get away +from me!" + +"Aw, now, Pearly!" he exclaimed, half laughing and half his ugly self. +To be denied made him angry. He seized the handle of the broom. + +"Keep away from me!" panted the girl. + +Tom was by far the stronger. He quickly wrenched the broom from her +hands. Pearl screamed. Tom had his arm around her waist and she was +fighting him off with both hands. + +"Come on, Pearly! Give us a kiss," he said, still only half in earnest. +"Le's you an' me be good friends again." + +A door slammed above as though in answer to the girl's half stifled +shriek. The quick step of Joe Helmford saved her. Tom uttered an +imprecation and flung away the broom. But the boarder, descending the +stairs, saw them both--the girl with flaming face and drooping eyes, +and the young fellow standing before her in a most suggestive attitude. +Helmford went right on without speaking. He thought his appearance had +been most inopportune, and that he had interfered in a tender scene +between Pearl and Tom. + + + + + CHAPTER XVI + + THE ALLEGORY + + +Cap'n Jonah hobbled downstairs in season for the noonday dinner. "Jest +about as spry as a crippled fiddler crab," he expressed it. But after +the meal he insisted upon going out of doors. + +Helmford assisted him, although Sarah tried to get Tom to offer his arm +first. The lout, however, was backward and Helmford went down the lane +with the old mariner. + +"Something of a squall last night," muttered Cap'n Jonah in Helmford's +ear. "Did you hear it?" + +"Why, no. I didn't know it stormed last night. But I know it was very +cold," replied the young man. + +"Whatever! I should say it was cold," the captain agreed. "But I meant +the squall in the house." + +"Oh!" Helmford's expression changed. + +"Sarah and them pickin' on Pearly the way they've been doin' has got to +be stopped." + +"Oh!" + +"I had to put my foot down," went on Cap'n Jonah, boldly. "She sha'n't +be brow-beaten no more. What I've got shall be that gal's when I'm dead +an' gone, and then she sha'n't be beholden to no Petty." + +"Oh!" + +"Whatever!" exclaimed Cap'n Jonah, exasperated. "Ain't you got nothin' +but 'O's' left inside you?" + +"Er--not much, I guess, Cap'n Jonah. You take my breath away. Do you +mean you are going to make Miss Pearl your heir?" + +"That's what I mean to do," the old man said firmly, "if them Pettys +don't treat her better. Of course, the gal ain't nothin' by blood to +me. Though the Hands, and the Holdens, and the Cards, and most of the +other old families hereabout are a good deal mixed up. + +"Just the same," continued Cap'n Jonah, almost convincing himself of +the reality of his plans as he went along, "I might do better willin' +my property to Pearly than leaving it to Sarah Petty and her lout of a +son. What do you think, Mr. Helmford?" + +"I--I do not feel myself qualified to advise, Cap'n Hand. It is a +delicate matter," said Helmford slowly, and left him at the highway. + +"Ye-as. It's purty delicate, I do allow," muttered Cap'n Jonah. +"Whatever!" + +He turned shoreward himself. The surf boomed with a threatening sound +along The Beaches. Had he given thought to the matter he would have +expressed it as his opinion that this was a weather-breeder. Clear +as the sky was, there was a threatening haze along the horizon. He +believed the barometer must be falling. The gulls stormed overhead and +the white-maned sea-horses charged upon and over the Gull Rocks reef. + +Cap'n Jonah found the gold-headed cane a great help on this sunny +afternoon. His joints were limbering slowly, but the attack of the +morning had warned him of what was likely to come on him at almost any +time. Articular rheumatism comes and goes, striking unexpectedly the +victim. Cap'n Jonah felt that he must do what he could for Pearl--and +for himself--immediately. He might be laid up, a cripple, for a long +time. + +As he approached Cap'n Abe's store he saw a long, low-hung +russet-painted roadster standing before the door. The engine was +throbbing gently and the car seemed like a spirited horse, eager to be +off along the road. Cap'n Jonah had seen the motor car before speeding +up and down the Shell Road. + +In it at present was a young man with a healthy wash of tan upon his +face and the look of an athlete in every curve of his long body. Beside +him sat a smiling young woman. It seemed to Cap'n Jonah she was the +happiest looking woman he had ever seen. She held a bundle in her lap, +and above it her face glowed with health and the joy of living. + +Cap'n Abe was at the side of the car handing in certain packages that +the driver of the automobile was stowing away. + +"Ahoy, Cap'n Hand!" the storekeeper hailed when he saw the captain. +"Come meet my niece Louise and Mr. Lawford Tapp, her husband. Not to +forgit," Cap'n Abe added, chuckling, "the last Tapp of all," and he +poked a horny finger at the bundle in the girl's lap. + +Cap'n Jonah managed to call up a twisted smile in spite of the twinges +of pain he suffered, and met a pair of warm and friendly handclasps +from the young couple--for Lawford and Louise Tapp were very loyal Cape +Codders at heart. + +"That little feller," said the proud and delighted Cap'n Abe, as Louise +turned back the veil to reveal the baby's face for a moment, "near's I +kin make out, is my ha'f-grand-nephew. He's only a half portion now; +but he's goin' to be a big feller like his pop, and he's a-goin' to be +happy an' friendly an' hail-feller-well-met with all the world, like +his marm." + +"Now, Uncle Abram!" cried Louise Tapp, "you give me a rather +questionable reputation." + +"No, I don't, Louise! No, I don't!" Cap'n Abe urged. "You're one o' +these friendly souls, I do allow, that sweeten this old world of ourn +an' make it fit to live in. Hi-mighty! I do despise, an' always did, +folks that go 'round hangin' their heads an' moanin' an' takin' on like +all kildee, because the world don't go right for them. + +"Why, the way to make the world go right," declared the emphatic +storekeeper, "is to get out an' push it right. Put your shoulder to +things! If you want a sartin thing, go out an' git it," and he winked +slyly at Cap'n Jonah. + +"Whatever!" ejaculated Cap'n Jonah, approving Cap'n Abe's statement for +once at least. "Ain't it so?" + +"You're a philosopher, Cap'n Abe," declared Lawford Tapp, preparing to +drive away. "Glad to have met you, Cap'n Hand. I'd heard we had a new +neighbor. Come over to the Point and see us." + +Louise seconded the invitation as the car rolled away. Lawford shifted +to high speed and they shot off at a racing clip. + +"Hi-mighty!" said Cap'n Abe. "If them speed demons, L. Tapp and his +wife, don't wreck that racing car _and_ my ha'f-grand-nephew, it'll be +a mercy! Come in, Cap'n Jonah. It's colder'n a dog's nose out here in +the road." + +He led the way into the warm store, where there was a glowing fire in +the big stove. The frost had been driven to the outer barrier, and the +smell of heated boots and fishy garments was heavy upon the air. Washy +Gallup, Cap'n Joab, Milt Baker, and Amiel Perdue, as well as others of +the usual loungers, encircled the stove. They made room for Cap'n Jonah +while the storekeeper himself halted to warm his hands at the fire. + +"We're in for a spell of Jack Frost, Cap'n Jonah," remarked Washy. + +"I shouldn't wonder! I shouldn't wonder!" agreed the mariner addressed. +But he gave little attention to the several greetings of the loungers. +His mind was fixed upon the errand on which he had come. He desired +greatly to get Cap'n Abe off into a corner and sound him upon the +subject of "foolin' them Pettys." Cap'n Abe was his only hope. He took +snuff thoughtfully and rapped his knuckles on the cover of the silver +snuffbox. + +"It was jest such another spell of dry cold as this," began the +storekeeper ruminatively, "when Uncle Joe Hanna over to Freedom was +turned out o' house an' home years ago by the sheriff. 'Member that, +Cap'n Joab?" + +"Forever an' ever," replied the person addressed. "And ev'rybody else +remembers it, too." + +"Wal--mebbe," agreed Cap'n Abe quite composed. The shuffling of feet, +clearing of throats, and other indications of distaste for the expected +yarn did not halt him at all. "It was a hi-mighty cold day," as he had +himself remarked, and he had his audience in chancery. + +"Uncle Joe Hanna owned a leetle place where he'd lived all his life, +and he mortgaged it to Jonathan Coffin. Coffin was as hard as nails, +and his wife, Miz Coffin, was as hard as spikes. Hi-mighty! they was a +pair. + +"Wal, when Uncle Joe Hanna got too old to work much he couldn't keep +up the int'rest on the mortgage. Ye know," said Cap'n Abe, genially, +"a feller told me once what the word 'mortgage' meant. He said 'mort' +was French for 'death' and 'gage' meant a challenge. So, when a feller +mortgages his home he challenges death to a set-to--an' death usually +wins. I guess that's purty nigh so. + +"Anyhow, Uncle Joe might jest as well have been up against the 'grim +reaper,' as Elder Golightly calls it when he gets right poetic in the +pulpit--Uncle Joe might just as well have grappled with death as to +have Jonathan Coffin for a creditor. He was turned out, hoss _an'_ +foot, an' didn't have a place to lay his head. + +"Course," pursued Cap'n Abe, "the neighbors took him in, turn an' turn +about, and he was made comfortable. But Uncle Joe was proud, and he +wanted his rights. He had paid taxes--sech as they was--all his life, +and he p'inted out to the selectmen that he was wishful of havin' a +home and an abiding place for the rest of his days--sech as it might +be--and didn't propose to be driven from piller to post. + +"Ye see," said Cap'n Abe, "at that time Freedom didn't have no +poorfarm. That is, there was a farm but no house onto it an' no +provision made for inmates, as the feller said. So they begun boardin' +Uncle Joe around at the town expense. Plenty of folks would take him. +All but the Widder Blodgett. She was all alone in her house, and +although Uncle Joe was nigh eighty, she didn't think she could take him +in. The neighbors might talk," added Cap'n Abe, his eyes twinkling. + +"Wal, Uncle Joe was partic'lar about his food. He'd always been used +to hot biscuit three times a day--made 'em himself after his wife +died--and he craved milk in his chowder, both fish _an'_ clam; an' +good, solid pound cake with plenty aigs in it. + +"Nobody seemed to suit his appetite but Jonathan Coffin's wife herself. +She was a master hand to cook; but as she said, what the selectmen +allowed for Uncle Joe's up-keep didn't scurse pay for the grub he et. +He wouldn't do a hand's turn of work, bein' a town boarder, and she +complained to Jonathan that he'd been smarter if he'd let Uncle Joe +live and die in his own house, and waited to git his claws on the old +man's prop'ty through sheriff's sale till after Uncle Joe was under the +sod. + +"But by an' by ev'rybody noticed how much nicer the Coffinses began to +treat Uncle Joe. They took him to church in their buggy, and bought +him tobacker, and a new suit of clo'es. And you could see him sittin' +out under the trees in the Coffinses' front yard takin' it easy, an' +all. Folks began to say they'd never suspicioned what re'l kind-hearted +people Jonathan Coffin and his wife was. They treated Uncle Joe lovely!" + +Cap'n Abe chuckled reflectively. + +"Don't you calc'late to go clammin' to-morrow, Milt?" asked Cap'n Joab +Beecher weakly. But Mr. Baker had just taken a huge and comforting chew +of Brown Mule and was speechless for the moment. So that attempt to +head off the storekeeper's story was still-born. + +"But the old man died finally. Hot biscuit, and milk chowder, and +six-aig cake couldn't keep him alive," said Cap'n Abe. "He was long +past the allotted time of man, an' the selectmen sartainly were glad to +see that account wiped off their books. They give him a nice fun'ral. +Jonathan Coffin, they say, helped pay for the extrys. Hadn't had a +pauper funeral in Freedom for two generations, so they just spread +themselves. + +"Wal, you'd ha' thought Jonathan an' Miz Coffin had lost a close +rel'tive. She went into mournin'--of course it was a veil she'd worn +years before when her own pop died--and Jonathan went around with a +broad band of crêpe on his arm. Then, the week after Uncle Joe was laid +away, they hustled down to Arad Peck, who was a lawyer, and took with +'em an old black satchel Uncle Joe had set gre't store by. It seemed +Uncle Joe had made a will in their favor, they'd treated him so nice, +and in the satchel was all the old man's private papers. + +"Wal, sir!" continued Cap'n Abe, smiling broadly, "on the face of 'em +them papers made out Uncle Joe Hanna to have been a regular miser. He'd +hid away securities and deeds wuth a scand'lous amount. Hi-mighty! It +struck Arad Peck all aback. + +"Then he begun to go through 'em, and sift 'em out, and make +comparisons, and he found out them valu'bles of Uncle Joe's was wuth +jest a cent an' a ha'f a pound. Waste paper brung a purty good price at +that time." + +"Whatever!" ejaculated the single listener unfamiliar with the +denouement of the story. "Wuthless?" + +"'Ceptin' to the junkman," chuckled Cap'n Abe. "Seems Uncle Joe had +found them ancient and useless dockyments in an old safe he'd bought +and cleaned out one time. They was a collection of certificates and +deeds and sich that never had been wuth more than ten per cent. of +their face value, in all probability, and had been deteriorating since +the year one. + +"But they sarved," concluded the narrator, "to gull the Coffinses +nicely. Paid Jonathan up for overreachin' Uncle Joe. He played a trick +on 'em that I dunno as the parsons would approve; but as I see it, they +was sarved right." + +Cap'n Abe went around behind the counter again and an audible sigh of +relief was expelled by most of his audience. By all but Cap'n Jonah. +He remained in a reflective mood. Suddenly, as the hum of general +conversation rose again about the stove, Cap'n Jonah slapped his leg +heartily. + +"Whatever!" he ejaculated. + +"See the p'int, Cap'n Hand?" asked the storekeeper slyly. + +"Whatever!" repeated Cap'n Jonah. "I sh'd say I do!" + + + + + CHAPTER XVII + + THE STRONG BOX + + +Perry Baker, the cadaverous expressman, whose ancient gray horse +immediately went to sleep standing in the shafts when his master drew +up before any destination, had occasion a day or two later to pass +Eliphalet Truitt's door. The ex-steward was pottering about his tiny +front yard in the frosty air. + +"How be ye, 'Liphalet?" demanded Perry, with frank curiosity. "How ye +feelin'? Huldy heard you wasn't right chipper and she wanted I sh'd +ask." + +"By Hannah!" snapped the taut little man, his face flaming redder than +usual. "Who says I'm sick, I'd like to know?" + +"Why, Doc Ambrose, I b'lieve, said you was out of kilter," said the +astonished Perry, for 'Liphalet was usually the gentlest of men. "Ain't +you?" + +"No, I ain't!" replied 'Liphalet ungraciously. "Ain't nothin' the +matter with me except the curiosity of my friends; an' that's struck +in! What ye got for me?" + +Perry began to grin more broadly. Cap'n Abe said, "Perry Baker couldn't +drink tea out of a saucer without scalding his ears!" 'Liphalet watched +the expressman now with apprehension, seemingly expecting to see the +ears engulfed within the cavity of Perry's enormous mouth. + +"I vow to man! did you expec' anything, 'Liphalet?" he finally gurgled. +"Warn't lookin' for no Christmas gif', was ye?" + +"Christmas--_bah_!" ejaculated the highly indignant 'Liphalet. "Who'd +send _me_ anything I didn't pay two prices for, I want to know? Ain't +nothin' for me, then?" + +"You can see all I've got. That barrel for Cap'n Abe. And this here +iron box for the Petty place." + +"By Hannah!" exclaimed the ex-steward with sudden interest, standing on +tip-toe to peer into the wagon body. "That box? Who's it for?" + +"Cap'n Jonah Hand. And b'lieve me," added the expressman, almost in +a whisper, "I'm keepin' my eye on that, 'Liphalet. It was give me at +the Paulmouth National Bank. There was some talk of sendin' the bank +messenger along with me. You know: Phillibeg Aspen. He always carries a +loaded pistol. There must be something mighty valu'ble in that box--an' +'tis heavy as lead." + +"By Hannah!" repeated 'Liphalet, in wonder. + +"If ye want to know what _I_ think," continued Perry in the same +cautious tone, "I b'lieve there's money in that strong box. They +say Cap'n Jonah Hand is rich as cream! Like enough he is a-goin' to +count his money over to see just how much he's got. What's the matter, +'Liphalet?" + +"By Hannah!" choked the ex-steward, hiding his face. "I got a cough. I +guess I must ha' caught cold after all." + +"That so? I'll tell Huldy," said Perry briskly. "She makes a lickin' +good cough syrup and she'll send ye some. I'd ruther have a cold than +not, if I can git plenty of Huldy's cough syrup." + +The expressman woke up the old gray horse and drove on, leaving +'Liphalet feeling more amused than he had been before in many a long +day. Even the brooding banshee of the Christmas spirit lifted from his +mind for the moment. + +"By Hannah!" he murmured, "I reckon Cap'n Abe has cooked up somethin' +for Jonah Hand, just as he said he would." + +The expressman driving up the Petty lane brought all the family save +Cap'n Jonah himself to doors and windows. Even Joe Helmford peered out +with interest to see the heavy steel box, fastened by two big brass +padlocks, lifted down from the wagon. + +"For Uncle Jonah? I want to know!" murmured Sarah Petty. + +"Hoh! What's in it? Rocks?" mumbled Tom, who helped Perry Baker handle +the box. + +"Goshamighty! From the bank?" repeated Orrin. + +"Is he here?" asked Perry importantly. "I've got to deliver it to Cap'n +Hand pusson'ly. An' this packet," he added, drawing from his breast +pocket an envelope well spotted with black sealing-wax. + +"He's up in his room," said Orrin eagerly. + +"Better take it right up to Uncle Jonah, Perry," Sarah observed, her +hands and eyebrows both twitching. Her gaze never left the strong box +as the men carried it through the kitchen. + +They stumbled up the crooked back stairs and found Cap'n Jonah ready +for them with his door wide open. + +"Howdy, Mr. Baker," he said, cordially, leaning on his gold-headed +cane in the middle of his poor room. "Set that chist right here by the +winder. I shan't want to lift it 'round much, feelin' as rickety as I +do now. And I'll want light to see into it. That's it. Now the keys. +Yep. I'll sign your receipt." + +He signed his name to the paper and paid Perry his fee. Tom lingered at +the door of the room, his eyes like knobs. The expressman fell over the +lout as he retreated and pushed him down the stairs ahead of him. + +"The old man don't seem very spry," Perry said, in a hoarse whisper, to +the Petty trio. "I don't dispute he feels his years. P'r'aps he won't +have many more chances to look over his--his things. He tells me to +come back again for that box day after to-morrow." + +"Yes," Sarah Petty said with set lips. "Good day, Perry." + +"There ain't many folks in Cardhaven, I don't guess," pursued the +unabashed expressman, "that's any better off for this world's goods +than Cap'n Hand?" + +"Quite prob'ble," snapped Sarah. + +"You said yourself, Orrin," went on Perry Baker, "he was a very rich +man, 'cordin' to all you could find out." + +Sarah glared at her husband in hot wrath. Orrin shuffled his feet and +said nothing. He was not going to admit or deny the truth of Perry's +artless statement. + +"Wal, he's an old man. Right crippled with rheumatics," went on the +expressman. "He'll prob'bly be consider'ble of a care afore he passes +away. But you folk'll have a chance to make his last days happy." + +"I'd like to make _your_ last days happy!" hissed Sarah Petty, as the +talkative expressman finally slid out through the kitchen doorway, with +Orrin and Tom barring any chance of his return. + +Both men wheeled to face the open kitchen door again as Perry aroused +his old horse and drove away. + +"Goshamighty!" exploded Orrin. "What did I----" + +"You jest hesh!" hissed Sarah. "You knowed more'n Solomon and all his +seven hundred wives put together. An' you can bet that's why Solomon +knew so much. His wives told him! + +"Now, you two git along about your work. Don't you interfere. Act like +you had some pride and manners. You look like hungry houn's snuffin' +around a garbage bucket. Get out with ye!" + +"But--but," gasped Orrin, "do you re'lly s'pose there's money in that +box?" + +"'Twas heavy enough to be filled chock-a-block with gold and silver," +declared Tom, quite as eager as his father. + +"Don't be sech fools," admonished Sarah Petty. "You can bet Uncle Jonah +ain't so crazy as to have his property in cash. He's got what he's got +invested, of course. In good dividend-paying stocks an' bonds an' sich. +That box is heavy because it is made of iron." + +"But there might be treasure in it, too--pearls, or di'monds, or other +precious stones," said Orrin, letting his imagination ride free. "He's +been all through the East where they git sech things. He's knowed +Chinese mandarins, an' Indian rajahs, an' Persian shahs, an'----" + +"I don't care," snapped Sarah, "if he knowed the Archon of Swat! _I_ +know that Uncle Jonah is too much a Hand to let money or precious +stones lie around idle. 'All cats must ketch mice' is our fam'ly's +motter. He'll be drawin' dividends an' int'rest on ev'ry dollar he +can. You leave it to me, Orrin Petty. I'll find out what Uncle Jonah's +fortune is invested in--an' how much it 'mounts to." + +But after all it was Tom, the lout, to whom the mystery was the more +intimately revealed. Orrin fairly sweated all through dinner time, +unable to speak a word for fear he would blurt out some question about +the strong box, but Sarah's eye quelled him. + +Cap'n Jonah never mentioned the mystery. But he seemed more cheerful +than of late. To Pearl he was always kind--even fatherly. He and Mr. +Helmford chatted most companionably. The three Pettys felt themselves +rather out of it. Even Sarah's thoughts were so much engrossed by the +matter of the strong box from the bank, that she could not give her +mind to any ordinary conversational topic. + +The captain was already "paying 'em back," as he had expressed it to +his crony, 'Liphalet Truitt, and to Cap'n Abe. The more Orrin fidgeted, +and Sarah held herself in by main force, the more cheerful Cap'n Jonah +grew. + +There was a settled seriousness in Joe Helmford's manner that the +captain did not notice. Only Pearl saw this, and feared the boarder had +by no means recovered from his indignation of a few nights before. + +He had been uniformly kind to her since the evening Sarah Petty had +driven Pearl so ignominiously from his room. But they had never renewed +the intimacy which preceded that unfortunate occasion. Pearl had +continued to borrow books, however, in spite of Mrs. Petty's command to +the contrary. + +As for Sarah and Orrin, their treatment of the girl seemed to infer +a change of heart. For the first time since Pearl could remember, +peace--or, at least, an armistice--reigned in the Petty household. + +Yet the girl was by no means happy. She felt a positive loss of +something. Helmford's attitude seemed to hold her at a distance. She +could not imagine what she had done to displease him, if displeasure +was the cause of his changed mood. + +The girl, simple-minded though she was, was not shallow. She began to +examine her own heart. Why should she care so much about Helmford's +attitude? Aside from her love for books and interest in his library and +conversation, just what hold had Joe Helmford upon Pearl Holden's mind +and heart? + +Of course she had felt a certain delight in having a well-dressed, +well-mannered young man, so different from the loutish Tom, about the +house. She responded to a man's attentions just as any other girl +might. + +But she had held no foolish thoughts in her heart--or so she +imagined--until now. She respected Mr. Helmford. Did she, indeed, have +another and heretofore unsuspected feeling for him? + +Love, to Pearl's mind, was something to hide away and cherish until the +moment came when two hearts, bursting the fetters of form and custom, +should each to the other reveal those depths of feeling from which the +world at large is to be excluded. + +Was she in love with Joe Helmford? Was that why the change in his +manner so hurt and surprised her? Had she suddenly become so sensitive +that his lightest word or act meant the disturbance of her peace of +mind? + +Pearl Holden could not put this suspicion away. It ate into her +mind like acid. Despite the bitter thoughts and tears Sarah Petty's +treatment for years had caused her, never had Pearl felt the heartache +that now assailed her. She was oppressed with a weight of woe. The +waters of bitterness overflowed her eyes when she was alone and she was +exceedingly sorrowful. + +As it chanced, this was the day for the regular meeting of the Ladies' +Aid Society, the last before the holidays. Sarah must attend, but she +left certain directions for Pearl which so amazed the young girl that +she had something besides her own sorrows to think of. + +At this time of the year the "front room" was closed tight for the +winter. It was an airless catacomb in which every article was draped +in muslin, including the pictures on the wall and an oval glass on the +mantelpiece under which was what had once been a cluster of wax fruit +and flowers, but which, during the heat of some twenty summers, had +melted and partially run together, until its classification as a work +of art was rather difficult. + +There was, too, a large base-burner, all trimmed with shiny nickel, and +in which a fire had been built since it was set up in the Petty parlor +not more than three times. Sarah Petty believed in buying and making a +display of the best furnishings obtainable; but such display had only +been made on two occasions when the Heath twins and their families had +come to Cardhaven, and once when by some freak of fortune the local +Conference had sent a real bishop to stay overnight in Sarah Petty's +house. + +However, before starting on this day for the important meeting of the +Ladies' Aid, her mistress had instructed Pearl to open the parlor, +or "front room," as it was better known, to dust, and to shake every +"tidy" and "throw" decorating the furniture, to remove the muslin +coverings, and to lay a fire in the base-burner. + +"Comp'ny!" thought Pearl, after asking Sarah twice to repeat her +orders. "Land's sake! I wonder who it can be?" + +If Tom knew he would give her no hint. Tom was so angry with Pearl now +that he would not even smile at her when he brought in the kindling and +the brass hod of coal to stand beside the shiny stove. + +Retreating to the barn again by the exit of the kitchen door, Tom heard +from above a peremptory tapping on the window of Cap'n Jonah's room. He +looked up. The old man, in his nightcap, beckoned to him energetically. + +"What does the old fool want now, I wonder," muttered Tom. + +Then bethinking him that his great-uncle might be moved to make him +another gift of money, the lout slouched into the house, and mounted to +that loft room over the kitchen. + + + + + CHAPTER XVIII + + SARAH PETTY TRIMS HER SAILS + + +"Come in here, young feller," said Cap'n Jonah, speaking more jovially +than usual, when Tom stuck his head in at the crooked doorway of the +loft room. "It's colder than a dog's nose and my fingers air so numb +I can scurce put down these figgers. Besides, I ain't so spry at +'rithmetic as I used to be." + +"Why don't you come downstairs where it's warmer, Uncle Jonah?" asked +Tom, for once acting as though he was a mite thoughtful for somebody's +comfort besides his own. "There ain't anybody in the kitchen." + +"No," said Cap'n Jonah. "Guess I won't. I calc'late I can look over +these documents best right where I be." + +He sat by the window, the strong box at his feet. The box was closed, +but Tom's inquisitive glance noted that the padlocks were both removed. +Cap'n Jonah's hands were filled with legal-looking documents, and +others lay on the deep window seat beside him. + +"I want you should help me list these things, Tommy boy," said the old +man. "There's the stub of a pencil and a piece of paper on the table. +And one thing I want to impress on your mind, young man." + +"What?" asked Tom. + +"You're not to say a thing to nobody 'bout this." + +"Hoh?" ejaculated Tom again, staring. + +"Don't tell nobody nothing about my business. What folks don't know +won't never hurt 'em. If I've managed to get a little tad of money +together an' invested it in payin' bonds an' stocks, best not to talk +about it. Remember, 'Jonah' is a peculiar name," went on the captain +impressively. "Some says it's bad luck an' some says it's good luck. +Whichever it may be, I've learned by experience that if folks don't +know I've got money, I don't haf to spend it. And that'll leave the +more for them that comes after me an' may enjoy my savin's." + +Tom could not speak. His eyes betrayed his overpowering excitement, for +they stared like those of a fresh-caught fish. + +"Now you take down the figgers I give you, and then we'll tot up what +it amounts to. But don't you say nothin' to nobody, Tom," warned the +old man again, and began to rustle the papers in his hands. + +"All ready, sir," said Tom, finding his voice, and speaking more +respectfully than he ever had before in his life. The power of wealth +shook the lout to the foundations of his being. + +"Now this here bond of the Metuchen and Cairo Railroad. It's for five +hundred, an' it's supposed to pay seven an' a ha'f per cent.," murmured +Cap'n Jonah. "Put down five hundred, Tom." + +"Five hundred," repeated Tom, licking his lips like a hungry wolf. + +"Twenty-two hundred an fifty--that's Highland and Beezboro Canal stock. +It's a mighty pretty document, too," said the captain, holding the +gaudily printed paper off to eye it the better. "Promises eight per +cent." + +"Yes, sir!" gasped Tom. + +"Two hundred Peterboro Tool Company sheers, wuth on the face of 'em +one thousand; but that was a long time ago," murmured Cap'n Jonah +unctuously and pursing his lips. "Date of issue, 1882. Fifty year +bonds. But we'll jest set down the face value of all these securities. +Mebbe some of 'em's deteriorated, I dunno; but the bank folks tell me +sech another lot of investments they never did see. One thousand, Tom." + +"Yes, sir," responded the scribe. + +One after the other Cap'n Jonah called off the amounts printed on the +certificates. As the sum grew Tom Petty came close to apoplexy. His +mind had never functioned before, beyond the few thousand dollars his +parents, or some of the neighbors, possessed. + +[Illustration: One after another Cap'n Jonah called off the amount on +the certificates.] + +When a man was known to possess a sum exceeding the value of his house +and lot--like Cap'n Abe, the storekeeper, for instance--it was said he +had "a plenty money." Miss Sue's reported fortune of forty thousand +dollars was more than Tom Petty could visualize. He had always taken +that story with a grain of salt. + +The fortunes of the "summer folks" along The Beaches were beyond +computation. It was said that I. Tapp, the Salt Water Taffy King, was +so rich that he could not really tell what his income was, and he never +kicked a mite when the assessors raised his taxes! + +But here, before him, squinting near-sightedly at the gaudily printed +certificates, was Uncle Jonah, rolling the numbers off his tongue in +a way to astonish his young relative. Tom thrilled to the very marrow +of his bones as the amount on the paper grew. Cap'n Jonah did not lay +down the last certificate until the grand total was more than a hundred +thousand dollars! + +"There, Tommy boy," said the old man in high good humor. "There, +Tommy boy, that'll be 'bout all," taking the paper from Tom's shaking +fingers. "You're a good mathematician I don't dispute. I wanted to be +sure I had the sum right. I calc'late on makin' my will some day purty +soon now. + +"And that's another thing," said the captain reflectively. "Course, +Tommy, a man's own flesh and blood comes first. And I ain't one to +divide up a small prop'ty among a shoal of folks. No sir! But what +I said t'other night to your father and mother I meant--ev'ry word. +Pearly's a good gal and she desarves good treatment. I ain't goin' to +stand by an' see her used mean no more. Remember that now! + +"But," concluded the captain firmly, "as long as she has a square deal +here, I'm only inclined to make her what the lawyers call a 'small +_be_-quest.' Something substantial; but nothin' at all like what would +fall to you, Tommy, providin' I died an' left sech a sum as this," and +he tapped the paper on which Tom had added up the figures. + +"Course, some of these secureties air likely to seine a purty small +ketch." He picked up a certain paper. Tom crowded closer to read +it hungrily. "Here's this Little Sandy Oil and Coal Company. I got +two thousand sheers of that. They cost me a dollar a sheer an' the +prospectus said they'd go to a hundred par in time. I must confess that +time ain't come yet, so I've hung onto 'em." + +"A hundred per cent. rise," Tom whispered, and felt actually faint. + +"But you'll mebbe see the time when the Little Sandy Company will +fulfill its prognostications--yes sir! Now, go 'long with you, Tom. +I'm much obleeged. I got to look over some other stuff in this little +chist. Perry Baker'll be back for it day after to-morrow. I don't feel +jest right havin' it out o' the bank for long." + +Tom wanted to see the inside of the strong box; but there was no +opportunity. He stumbled down the dark stairway and out to the barn +where his father, who was a good "cold iron blacksmith," was pottering +about their farm wagon. Like most Cape Cod people who had land to till, +the Pettys drew seaweed and shackfish for their fertilizer pile during +the winter months. + +"Where in tarnation hev you been?" demanded Orrin. "I want you should +help me with this felloe." + +Tom looked at his farther in a stunned sort of way. + +"Ketch holt here!" Orrin commanded. "What you moonin' about? What hev +you been doin'?" + +"I've been helpin' Uncle Jonah figger up his fortune," said Tom in a +faint and faraway voice. + +"His fortune!" + +"Yep. His fortune," repeated the younger Petty. He told his father the +exact sum to which the securities added. Orrin's mouth fell loosely +open and he actually paled under his sheath of salt wind tan. + +"Goshamighty!" he gasped at last. "Air you tellin' the truth, Tom +Petty?" + +"I wouldn't make nothin' by lyin', would I?" demanded Tom. "I knew he +had plenty o' money." + +"Wait till your mother hears 'bout it," sighed Orrin in a sort of +ecstasy. + +"You an' marm want to be mighty careful how you treat Pearly," growled +Tom, shaking a threatening head. "He as much as said that he'd will it +all to her out o' spite if marm an' you jawed her the way you do." + +"Huh!" snorted Orrin. "How 'bout you marryin' the gal?" + +"She won't marry me now, Pearly won't, so long's that Helmford feller +is in the way," grumbled Tom. + +"Git out!" + +"You see," said his son. "I ain't dyin' to marry no girl----" + +"Get her to promise to marry ye," said the scheming Orrin quickly. +"That'll be enough. If Pearly once promises a thing she'll do it if the +heavens fall. You know that, Tom." + +"But I ain't likely to get her to promise no such thing, as long as +that city chap is foolin' her," declared Tom. "But marm won't hear to +puttin' him out." + +"Wal," said Orrin, shrewdly, "there's more ways of killin' a cat than +chokin' it to death with butter." + +"Then," said his son darkly, "you see that you stand up for me if +something busts. I'd jest like to get a good smash or two at that +four-eyed fool!" and he doubled his fist threateningly. + +"I'd be sure I could do that afore I started anything," said his +father. "Helmford looks kinder like a hick'ry knot to me." + +"Aw, I c'd lick him with one hand," growled Tom, the confident. + +When Sarah came home from the Ladies' Aid Society her son and husband +were ready for her. They met her in the lane and in the deepening +twilight and with the chill December wind whining around them, they +told the woman the amazing tale of Cap'n Jonah's fortune. + +"A hundred thousand dollars?" commented Sarah Petty coolly. "Why, +that's more'n we had any reason to expect." + +"Say!" exclaimed Tom. "Jest _one_ of his investments might amount to +more than that. He said so himself. The Little Sandy Oil and Coal +Comp'ny. Cost him two thousand dollars for two thousand sheers, and +mebbe they air wuth now a _hundred dollars apiece_!" + +"Goshamighty!" ejaculated Orrin. "Them's the ile sheers he told me +about, once't." + +Sarah sighed ecstatically. Her face lighted with the glory of +expectation. + +"We'll be _rich_," she murmured. + +"Hoh!" cried Tom. + +"You're countin' your chickens in the aig, Sarah Petty," warned Orrin. + +"You leave it to me," his wife said with immense confidence. "I told +you I could trim my sails to a change of wind. All you need do, Orrin, +you and Tom, is to foller my lead. He's a Hand, after all, Uncle Jonah +is. He don't calc'late to divide up his property if he can help it. +It'll all come to us in the end." + +"But Pearly, Marm?" Tom said faintly. + +"Do jest as I say. Treat her nice. Make up to her. Let your Uncle Jonah +see you air nice to her. That'll fix him. If he thinks she'll in the +end get some of his money I guarantee he won't will her none to speak +of. He's a Hand, I tell you, and they was always cautious." + +"Uh-huh!" grunted Orrin, but not altogether convinced. + +Once confident that Uncle Jonah was possessed of a bona fide fortune, +Sarah Petty's determination would admit no possibility of defeat. + +Before supper time Sarah had Orrin and Tom carry some of the heavier +pieces of furniture out of the parlor. A generous walnut bureau with +a good mirror was brought down from one of the upper chambers. Orrin +and Sarah's own brass bed--a magnificent piece of furniture according +to local report and which Sarah had kept unscarred for three years +by enveloping the posts in canton flannel--was taken down and set +up again in the front room. It was fitted with the best mattress in +the house and with monogrammed linen. For Sarah Petty took vast pride +in her household possessions. When Orrin had first been allowed to +sleep in that brass bed he confessed that he "didn't feel as though he +belonged in the blasted contraption!" + +As the family gathered around the supper table Sarah was all smiles. +From somewhere a very comfortable armchair had appeared, standing at +Cap'n Jonah's usual place. The old seaman hesitated when he saw the +chair. What change did this portend? + +"Sit right down, Uncle," said Sarah Petty in honeyed accents. "Seein' +as you're so kinder crippled up, I didn't know but you'd find that +cheer more comfort'ble." + +"Whatever!" murmured Cap'n Jonah. + +"I was speakin' to Miz Cap'n Joab Beecher at the Ladies' Aid," went on +Mrs. Petty, as the family began to eat, "and she says Cap'n Joab gits +gre't relief at times when the rheumatism ketches him jest as it does +you, from usin' angleworm ile. It limbers the j'ints remarkable." + +"Angleworm ile?" gasped Orrin. "How in nature do they git ile from +fishworms? Cap'n Jonah says they bore wells for ile, an' that s'prised +me. But ile from angleworms is the capsheaf." + +"You fill a can with angleworms--wash 'em of course--an' set it out in +the sun to stew. Gradually the worms shrink to 'most nothin', and you +strain off the ile. Tommy can dig some worms----" + +"This weather?" snorted her son. "If all the angleworms in our back +garden ain't dug themselves down 'bout's far as China for the winter, +then they're froze' stiff by now, if you ask _me_." + +"Wal, I suppose it would be best to make the ile in summer," confessed +Sarah. + +"There's skunk ile," proposed Orrin, seeing his wife's lead and trying +to follow it. "They say that's mighty good for rheumatiz, to rub it in." + +"Have me smellin' like a polecat!" ejaculated Cap'n Jonah, getting his +breath at last. + +"Ain't that just like you, Orrin?" snapped Sarah. Orrin subsided. But +Mrs. Petty was determined to put forth something that would please +Cap'n Jonah and draw attention to her interest and sympathy in the +master mariner. + +"I've been intendin' to get to it ever since the cold weather set in," +she observed; "but I've been so busy that I couldn't till to-day. That +upstairs room over this kitchen ain't re'lly fit for Uncle Jonah to +sleep in, Orrin." + +"Huh?" grunted her husband, wondering where she was heading in now. + +"I told you I didn't think 'twould suit," went on Sarah calmly. "There +ain't no heat gets up into it from here--only smells. The fire goes +out in this range and the chimney gets cold 'fore mornin'. 'Tain't fit +for Uncle Jonah to sleep up there." + +The old captain laid down his knife and fork and stared at her. Orrin +looked only at his plate. Tom choked over his food. Helmford tried +to cover the general confusion by starting the ball of conversation +rolling with Pearl about a piece of music which was just then coming +into great popularity and of which he had a record that he played on +his phonograph. + +"So," Sarah continued, placid as a summer sea, "I've cleared out the +front room for the winter an' set up a bed there for Uncle Jonah. After +supper you an' Tom, Orrin, go up and get his chist and carry it down +there. There's a fire in the base-burner, and if ye fix the dampers +right ye can run a fire in it day and night, Uncle." + +"Whatever!" ejaculated the master mariner. + +"I'm sure you'll be much more comfort'ble in the front room, Uncle," +added his niece sweetly. "We must not let the rheumatism get settled on +you. You must take good care of yourself the few years you've got to +remain with us." + +Cap'n Jonah, Pearl, and even Helmford, were by this time speechless. + + + + + CHAPTER XIX + + THE HIGH HAND + + +Sarah Petty possessed the usual district-school training of the Cape +Cod native. It is not wholly ignorance of English that develops the +Cape Cod tang in the speech of the people who dwell on that famous hook +of land. + +In part it arises from the association with others who maltreat the +language; and partly it is from a degree of pride in the fact that +the Cape has a distinctive speech of its own. Naturally, sea lore and +seafaring expressions are incorporated in the dialect. + +Sarah sat down that evening after the half-stunned Cap'n Jonah had +retired to the "saloon cabin," as he called his new quarters, and +proceeded to write to the Heaths and the Solon and Enoch Pettys the +news that Cap'n Jonah Hand, retired from the Chinese trade, had come +to make his home with his gratified relatives on the Shell Road. The +writer, with due humbleness of phraseology but abundant pride to be +read between the lines, wished the Heath families and the Pettys +to come for a Sunday visit, for the express purpose of becoming +acquainted with the returned wanderer and shining light of the Hand +family. + +"Goshamighty, it'll cost a slather of money to feed all them folks an' +to run fires all over the house if we have a cold spell," complained +Orrin. "That extry fire in the front room----" + +"You hesh!" commanded Sarah. "Didn't you never hear of throwin' a sprat +to ketch a herrin', an' throwin' a herrin' to ketch a whale?" + +"Yes," grumbled Orrin. "But I don't never calc'late to use a whale to +bait for a herrin'. What in tarnation good is it goin' to do us to have +all them folks here to show off your Uncle Jonah to? We'd better keep +him to ourselves." + +"You dunderhead!" exclaimed his wife bitterly. "What a punishment for +my sins you be, Orrin Petty! Unless a body gives you chart, compass, +_an'_ all the soundings, you can't weather a p'int. Don't you see 'tis +for our benefit to be good friends with them of your fam'ly that has +got money and position? We hope to have money and position. And I want +they should see Cap'n Jonah Hand, through whom we air goin' to rise in +the world." + +"Goshamighty! Woman, you air takin' too much for granted," urged Orrin. + +"You leave it to me," said Sarah confidently, licking the flap of the +last envelope and pressing down upon it with determination expressed in +her very attitude. "Uncle Jonah's fortune is just as good as ourn." + +Pearl went into the front room when her evening's work was done to +see if Cap'n Jonah wished anything for the night. The old mariner was +sitting in a comfortable chair before the stove dressed in his blue +pilot-cloth suit which he wore only on "state and date occasions," +as he said himself, and with his feet thrust into a pair of gold +embroidered Chinese heelless slippers. + +"Ahoy, my hearty!" hailed Cap'n Jonah, smiling at the girl. "It does me +good to see your pretty face. Come in an' set along o' me a spell." + +"I've a book up in my room I want to read, Cap'n Jonah," said Pearl +frankly. "If I don't read before Miz Petty comes up to bed she'll maybe +take my lamp away. She says that if I read at night I'm not fit for +anything the next day." + +"Whatever!" snapped the old mariner. "You bring your book in here, if +you want, Pearly. Don't matter what Sarah Petty says. If you want to +read, you read." + +"Oh!" gasped Pearl. "I wouldn't dare." + +"Ha! There's a change of wind hereabout, my gal," said Cap'n Jonah, his +eyes twinkling. "While it blows fav'rable you'd better take advantage +of it as I have. You're welcome to come in here any time, Pearly. 'Hem! +How air you and that young Helmford gettin' on?" + +"Oh! Cap'n Jonah!" cried the girl, startled by the abrupt question. + +"Good friends, ain't you two?" queried the old man, watching her face +sharply. "He's a nice feller if he has got a fool job, trainin' fishes." + +"He's--he's very nice," stammered Pearl. + +"To be sure he is," agreed Cap'n Jonah heartily. "From what I hear he +comes of nice folks, though they ain't rich. Abram Silt knows about +him. He'll make a nice man for some smart gal to marry." + +"Oh, Cap'n Jonah!" cried Pearl again, and ran out of the room with +burning cheeks. She did not go near Helmford that evening. + +Cap'n Jonah accepted with placid mien the good things the gods gave +him in the matter of improved quarters and better treatment from the +Pettys. He did not know how long he could keep up the masquerade as a +wealthy and successful man; but while Sarah and the others continued +to deceive themselves the old seaman proposed to do or say nothing to +break the charm. + +He slept that night as peacefully as he had in the best bedroom +upstairs. With the room kept at a comfortable temperature by the fire +in the base-burner, the captain's rheumatic twinges did not return. +Still, when Sarah herself tapped at his door in the morning and asked +him if he would have his breakfast on a tray, he accepted the offer. + +"Might's well take all the benefits of being in sick bay," he said to +Pearl, who brought the tray. "Now some shavin' water, my gal, and I'll +be purty well fixed." + +His toilet was completed, and Pearl was redding up the front room +while Cap'n Jonah was sitting around in his best suit in honor of the +new quarters, when he saw from the window a small figure approaching +briskly up the lane. + +"Here's Miss Sue," he observed. "She certainly is a spankin' craft. Ha! +She's comin' to our side door." + +He went out into the hall as the doctor's sister tapped. Her smiling +face greeted him like a dewy rose. + +"I am glad to see you stirring, Cap'n Hand," she said. "Can I see +Pearl?" + +"You can, ma'am," agreed Cap'n Jonah, making his bow with a flourish. +"Come right into my cabin, ma'am." + +"I want Pearl to help us decorate the chapel with the Christmas greens +when they come next week," Miss Sue said, stepping into the hall. + +From kitchenward appeared the apprehensive Sarah, a portentous frown +upon her brow. + +"Mornin', Miss Sue," she said harshly. "I don't see how I can spare +Pearly. I expec' comp'ny, and we shall be up to our ears after they go, +cleanin' after 'em." + +"You come right in this way, Miss Sue," interrupted Cap'n Jonah. +"Pearl's in my cabin an' she can speak for herself. I reckon, Sarah, +you can spare her for one-two hours; and the child'll like it, I +haven't a doubt." + +Sarah, struck with amazement, for once failed to dominate the +situation. She saw Miss Sue enter the front room and herself shut +out by the captain before she could recover her aplomb. Cap'n Jonah +certainly was carrying things with a high hand! + +The person who had prophetically suggested that he would be able to do +just this, if the Pettys once believed him wealthy, chanced to approach +the house a few minutes later. It was just twenty-four hours since +Perry Baker had stopped at 'Liphalet Truitt's house with the steel +strong box from the Paulmouth National Bank in his wagon. 'Liphalet was +unable to smother his curiosity longer, and was wishful of talking the +matter over with Cap'n Jonah. Although he had not been present when the +plot was actually laid by Cap'n Jonah and the storekeeper, 'Liphalet +was fully aware of the particulars. + +Cap'n Abe, whose influence with the bank officials was considerable, +had arranged for the sending over of the steel chest in the +expressman's care. The "securities" Cap'n Jonah had shown the easily +gulled Tom Petty were for the most part supplied by the same bank +officer who sent the box, and who had amused himself by making a large +collection of such worthless and gaudy papers. Such evidences of the +gullibility and cupidity of human nature often come into the hands of +bankers in perfectly legitimate ways. + +'Liphalet desired mightily to know how the conspiracy was coming on. +The ex-steward might be "on the outs" with most of his neighbors; but +his interest in Cap'n Jonah's affairs had not waned. He came smartly up +the lane and started across the yard to ask for his crony at the back +door, when he chanced to see that the shades of the parlor windows were +raised half way. + +That in itself was a surprising fact, for it was only mid-week, and +he had not heard that Sarah Petty had company. He looked again more +sharply. Behind the lace curtains he saw Cap'n Jonah in his Sunday best +weaving to and fro comfortably in Sarah Petty's best rocking chair. + +"By Hannah!" muttered the ex-steward. "Will wonders never cease--with +doughnuts fried in candle grease? Cap'n Jonah in the _parlor_?" + +Then he stopped, struck nerveless in his tracks, by the recognition of +the figure sitting at the other window. Miss Sue! + +The doctor's sister sat smiling, chatting most companionably with the +captain. To the angry gaze of Eliphalet Truitt it seemed as though she +was making a deliberate call upon the old sea-dog who had already, and +more than once, expressed his admiration for Susan Ambrose. + +Cap'n Jonah had said a share of Miss Sue's reputed fortune would +give him a certain standing in the community that he craved. The +captain was, after all, to use a Shell Road term, "muchly of a man." +'Liphalet's jealous fears made instant capital of the situation. + +He had served for Miss Sue more than the allotted seven years Jacob +served for Rachel. And was a comparative stranger, a man who had lived +in the community but a few weeks, to step in and bear away the prize of +the doctor's sister from under Life Truitt's very nose? + +Yet with all his rage and sorrow, he could not bring himself to play +the rôle of fortune hunter--even in appearance--by asking Miss Sue to +marry him. + +He turned abruptly away, hot rage seething in his heart, and went back +along the way to his lonely cottage. If ever the Christmas spirit--and, +indeed, every other spirit of generosity and joy--was quenched in a +man's soul it was quenched now in that of the apostate Santa Claus of +the Shell Road. + + + + + CHAPTER XX + + THE ROOT OF ALL EVIL + + +It must be true that the love of money is the root of all evil; the +mere possession of it, whether one loves it or not, seems to distract +humanity. Sue Ambrose's acclaimed fortune of forty thousand dollars +made 'Liphalet miserable; nor did it seem to do Miss Sue herself very +much good. + +Miss Sue's tastes were naturally simple. She had begun to dress much +better than formerly, as soon as she had received the legacy from her +anti-suffragist relative. But good clothes on a careful body like Sue +Ambrose last a long time. She had seldom renewed her apparel during +these past ten years. + +There was one gown, a silver-gray poplin, laid away in lavender in her +chest that Miss Sue never saw without a tear and a sigh. She had never +worn it. It had been purchased immediately on the lawyers having paid +over to her the legacy which had made such a difference in her quiet +life. She had bought it for a certain occasion, and to her modest +surprise that occasion had never arisen. + +Miss Sue retained her peace of mind and her sweetness of temper by +always being busy. If not about her brother's house and office, then +in various good works in the community. As chairman of the Christmas +entertainment committee of the Mariner's Chapel she had her hands more +than full these days. Doubtless, if 'Liphalet Truitt had followed her +lead at this season as he had on similar occasions for the past ten +years, he would not have had time to become the misanthrope he now was. + +With Cap'n Jonah's aid, having forced Sarah Petty to say that Pearl +could help in trimming the chapel for Christmas, Miss Sue hurried away +to round up other helpers. She did not see 'Liphalet stubbing up the +Shell Road toward home and had no idea, of course, that he had seen her +apparently making a personal call on Cap'n Jonah. But she did meet Joe +Helmford coming toward the Petty place, and halted him. + +"You have time to help our committee, I am sure, Mr. Helmford," she +said to the man from the fish hatchery. She explained what was needed +and told him the day on which the decorating was to be done. + +"I'll be there, Miss Ambrose," the young man said heartily. "You say +Pearl--Miss Holden--will help?" + +She smiled up at him with such a sweet, shy knowledge of his +unintentional revelation, that Joe Helmford's cheeks flooded with +sudden red. "You can come over with her," Miss Sue said demurely. "Then +you will be sure to be on time." + +He murmured an assurance that he would be present, and left her in +some confusion. If people were going to discover so easily what he had +heretofore denied to himself, he must have a care! + +"Am I in love with her--with Pearly?" he asked himself forty times +a day. "What is the root of the influence she has with me? Am I so +strongly attracted to her just because she is beyond my reach? If she +is to be Cap'n Jonah Hand's heir, according to all I hear, she will +some day possess a hundred thousand dollars or more." + +The Helmfords were a large family, and after his education was given +him there was no money in the family exchequer for Joe Helmford. He +must earn all he ever expected to have; and for his work as Government +expert in ichthyology he was not generously paid. + +Had the girl been just what she seemed to be when Helmford first +obtained a better understanding of her character and its possibilities +for development, he might have safely considered attempting the winning +of Pearl Holden. She was a poor girl then and would not expect too much +of a young man just beginning to climb the scientific ladder. + +But along had come Cap'n Jonah with his phenomenal fortune (phenomenal +for this simple community) and if it was understood that Pearl was to +benefit largely by the old sea captain's will any man who approached +her in a sentimental way would be decried as a fortune hunter. The same +situation that confronted 'Liphalet Truitt with Miss Sue faced Joe +Helmford, as he supposed, regarding Pearl Holden. + +Tom Petty had been unable, in spite of his mother's commands, to keep +the story of the strong box from the bank and Cap'n Jonah's securities +to himself. He had related with much detail the story of his helping +"Uncle Jonah tot up his fortune"--as Cap'n Jonah was quite sure he +would despite his warning to the contrary--at the store, and Helmford +had been present to hear it all. + +It would be too bald a thing, the latter told himself, now, to pay +court to a girl who was the accredited heiress of such a fortune. +But Joe Helmford fought these thoughts down--would not admit his +growing interest in the girl, save at a time like this when Miss Sue's +intuition had penetrated his guard. + +The repeated story of Cap'n Jonah's fortune buzzed through the +neighborhood. It was whispered that there was much treasure in precious +stones and hard cash in the box besides the securities. Everybody +watched the next day for the return of Perry Baker, the expressman, for +the strong box. It was known far and wide that Cap'n Jonah's valuables +were to go back to the safety deposit vaults under the Paulmouth +National Bank. + +When the important Perry drove up the Petty lane he had an ancient +sawed-off shotgun on the seat beside him! He was taking no chances, as +he frankly admitted to the assembled Petty family. + +"A feller axed a lift of me, comin' over from the station this +mornin'," he said in a hushed tone. "I didn't know him. Stranger to +me. Several suspicious looking characters 'round these parts lately. +Make b'lieve they work in the cranberry bogs; but ye can't most always +sometimes tell. + +"I borried this gun of Sile Peckham. It's loaded to the muzzle with +slugs. I reckon on doin' some damage to airy highwayman that tries to +hold me up, I vow to man!" + +"If it ever goes off at your shoulder, it'll prob'bly kick you across +the road," remarked Cap'n Jonah, paying the expressman's fee. "Looks to +me as though that gun had busted once, already. That's where Peckham +had it strapped--see? You better give it to the highwayman, if you meet +any. 'Twill prob'bly do more harm at the tail end than it does at the +muzzle." + +No one could tell Perry Baker anything he did not want to know. He +drove away with the strong box hidden under a blanket in the bottom of +his wagon, and the old shotgun lying across his lap. + +"Talk about the Wild West," chuckled Helmford to Pearl, "the Wild +East--meaning Cape Cod--is wilder! Cardhaven puts it all over Crimson +Gulch." + +At the Petty house there really was another topic of conversation +discussed besides Cap'n Jonah's fortune. The Heaths and the Pettys to +whom Sarah had written were coming to stay over Sunday with the branch +residing on the Shell Road. They would arrive in two days--Solon Petty +and his wife; Enoch Petty and his wife, and the twins, Apollo and +Perseus Heath, and their wives. Four couples--and Sarah was just as +busy as a hen on a hot griddle (so Orrin said) preparing for the influx +of guests. + +Cap'n Jonah's being billeted in the front room made the entertainment +of the guests possible. Tom and Orrin were relegated to the room the +old sea captain had occupied for a few weeks over the kitchen, while +Sarah was to sleep on the sitting-room sofa. + +For the nonce she would have been glad had Helmford been out of the +house. She desired to "eat her cake and have it, too." She wanted the +man's board money just as much as ever; but she wished she might put +Solon Petty, the member of the Massachusetts Legislature, and his wife +in the best bedroom. + +Pearl was not required to give up her room. In the first place it was +a cramped little chamber behind the attic stairs. And, in addition, +Sarah Petty had no intention of giving Cap'n Jonah any further excuse +for making the girl his heiress. + +Besides, if worse came to worst, and it was necessary for Tom to marry +Pearl to keep Cap'n Jonah's fortune in the family, Sarah wished the +guests to observe how nicely she treated her daughter-in-law to be. + +There was looming an incident, however, that Sarah Petty did not +foresee. It was something that was to relieve her of Joe Helmford's +presence, whether she wanted him to go or not. + +Helmford, no matter what he admitted in secret to himself regarding +Pearl, was scrupulously careful to display no extraordinary interest in +her before the family. He had ever in his mind the several occasions on +which he had observed what he supposed to be the expression of Tom's +half-formed attachment for the girl. He could not understand how Pearl +could endure the lout; but he knew that here on the Cape the "chief end +of woman" is marriage of some kind, no matter what may be the "chief +end of man" in the Catechism. + +He saw the hypocrisy of the Petty family in the sudden change in their +treatment of Pearl. It was to be expected, if she was to be Cap'n +Jonah's heir. They loved money more than they loved anything else +in the world. It was not strange at all that Tom should try to win +Pearl--and the money. + +The boarder, however, found it impossible to ignore Pearl or to +completely withstand her charm. When they were together he found +himself drawn to speak to her and to discuss matters of mutual +interest, as he had heretofore. He could not be rude to her. + +Unless he actually ran away from her they were bound to be thrown often +into each other's company. Pearl had no reason, Helmford supposed, +to suspect his secret perturbation. She eagerly conversed with him +whenever she could. + +Was he in Cap'n Jonah's room playing a game of checkers with the old +man and she came in on an errand, Pearl was sure to linger. Cap'n Jonah +seemed to encourage her to talk, much as his mind might be given to the +intricacies of the game on the board. + +At meal time Helmford sat opposite to the girl at table. If he raised +his eyes from his plate there were her dark eyes pouring all the sweet +sincerity of their gaze into his. They could not stare dumbly at each +other without attracting the family's attention. + +Did he chance to be in his room when Pearl came to clean it, he could +not assume so deep an absorption in his work or study that he did not +see her. They had exchanged mutual confidences at such times, and Pearl +expected him to respond to her innocent advances. + +He could not say to her: "You are going to be rich some day. I am a +poor man and may be comparatively poor all my life. I cannot propose +marriage to you--even if I wanted to--for fear of what people will say!" + +Indeed, not only was the love of money the root of all evil, but it +seemed that the very existence of Cap'n Jonah's fortune was to breed +trouble for all whom it touched. Was the name, Jonah, after all one to +conjure ill luck with? + +An incident, however, brought to a conclusion Joe Helmford's +uncertainties and Pearl's unfulfilled expectations. + +It was prayer and conference-meeting night. Pearl had been to +chapel--the sole member of the family who attended the mid-week +meeting. She was returning alone along the Shell Road, when Helmford +overtook her. A strong, salt-savored gale blew from the sea, and this, +getting under her cape, ballooned the garment under such pressure that +she was all but carried off her feet. + +"To the rescue!" cried Helmford cheerfully, and seized her. She clung +to him until the gust was past, and he beat down the voluminous cape, +passing one arm around her slight figure to do so. + +They stood there for a moment, laughing, Pearl clinging to him and +Helmford half embracing her, when a burly figure burst through the +hedge right beside the Petty lane. + +"Hey, you! I've caught you, ain't I? I've a mind to break every bone in +your body, Joe Helmford!" + +Helmford wheeled to face Tom Petty. His eyes behind his big glasses +sparkled angrily. He had steadied Pearl upon her feet, and now he +started for the newcomer. + +"You get up to the house, Pearl Holden!" cried the angry Tom. "I'll +show this feller what's what. Hangin' 'round you all the time like a +pilot fish around a shark. You can see what he wants, all right. He +thinks Uncle Jonah is going to will you all his money, and he'd marry +you for it. You can bet your sweet life, Pearly, that he'd never look +twice at a longshore girl if he didn't think you was goin' to be rich." + +"Oh, Tom Petty!" gasped the girl, in horror. + +"That's what I say--an' I stick to it," pursued the wildly excited Tom. +"And I saw you lettin' him hug you right out here in the road. I'll +tell marm. She'll fix _you_ for such actions; and she'll tend to this +here Helmford." + +The latter flashed a sudden glance at the cowering girl. + +"Yes, Miss Pearl," he said, "do go into the house. I am sorry this +occurred. But I guarantee another such incident will never happen." + +Tom made a dash at him. He had held a club behind his back, which +neither Helmford nor the girl had perceived. Helmford ducked and the +blow overreached. In coming to close quarters Helmford delivered a +swift and able punch which landed solidly on Tom Petty's neck. + +The youth went down upon the frozen ground like a felled ox. He was +dazed by the collision of the back of his head with the hard earth. +Helmford stepped over him and led Pearl away with a firm hand under her +elbow. She was sobbing. + +The young man felt that there was nothing he could say. After the +vulgar accusation Tom Petty had made, he did not know how to address +the girl. + +So they reached the house without a word being spoken between them. Tom +had picked himself up and was following at a distance. Pearl ran up to +her room without appearing at all before the family. + +Helmford waited in the kitchen with Sarah and Orrin until Tom came in. +He had something to say, and he said it at last, and there was snap to +it. + +"This son of yours," he concluded, particularly addressing Sarah +Petty, "is impossible. You abetted him on a previous occasion when +you rudely entered my room and spoke as you did to a guest of mine. +Now this fellow accuses me of a most vulgar interest in Miss Pearl. +These outbreaks, I can plainly see, will occur with more frequency if +I remain. You are paid to the end of the week, Mrs. Petty. I will go +to-morrow morning." + +He waited for no argument, but went up to his room. He spent half the +night packing. Before breakfast he was gone, and that afternoon Perry +Baker on his usual trip stopped for Mr. Helmford's trunks and boxes. + +"He's got board with the Widder Weth'rel and her darters t'other side +of Cardhaven," said the gossipy Perry. "Guess you be glad to see the +last of him, Sarah, as you say. Them city folks is awful fussy. You've +got to cater to 'em a lot, an' a body must be a purty good cook an' +housekeeper to suit." + +Sarah Petty was almost apoplectic, but she said not a word in reply. + + + + + CHAPTER XXI + + THE WISE MEN OUT OF THE SOUTH + + +The two members of the Petty household who, after all, were to be the +more affected by the abrupt departure of Joe Helmford, knew nothing +about it until the expressman came for the young man's baggage and his +books. His absence at breakfast and dinner chanced to draw no comment +or question from Cap'n Jonah; and Pearl, after the incident on the road +coming from chapel, dreaded meeting the man from the fish hatchery. + +Tom's brutality and his insulting words had utterly overpowered her. +Again, because of her excitement, she had scarcely noted the reference +to Cap'n Jonah's threatened disposal of his fortune. Of all the +inhabitants of this longshore community Pearl Holden probably was the +least interested in money, either in large or small sums. + +But she owned now to a deep and abiding interest in Joe Helmford. +For the moment she was in his arms as he steadied her against the +wind squall, she found herself giving in utterly to the thrill of his +embrace. Had Tom not burst so unexpectedly upon them what might not +have happened? + +The contact of Pearl and Helmford at that exciting instant was as +innocent as that of two children. Yet she had lain awake for hours +after it, living over again the sweet significance of their coming +together through grace of the wind. + +She shrank from meeting Helmford because of what Tom Petty had blurted +out. She would feel shamefaced she knew; and yet she could scarcely +wait to see him. + +When he did not appear at breakfast and dinner she wondered. Sarah +Petty looked grim indeed. She had forced Tom to tell the truth about +his trouble with Helmford--or as near the truth as the lout ever +spoke--and she realized that there was nothing to be made by quarreling +with Pearl. + +Helmford had stated an incontrovertible fact: Her son was "impossible," +and Sarah knew it. + +They were giving the lower part of the house a thorough cleaning on +this day in preparation for the coming of the expected guests. The +chambers were left until after dinner. So Pearl did not discover the +condition of Helmford's room. Sarah refrained from ordering no plate +set for the young man at dinner. For once the woman shrank from telling +her mind outright. + +When Perry Baker came for Helmford's goods the truth came out. +Amazement sat upon Cap'n Jonah's mahogany countenance. Pearl was +bewildered. + +Had Helmford gone without a word--without saying good-bye? Grim-lipped, +Sarah Petty would not explain, and both Orrin and Tom had been ordered +to keep their mouths closed. There had been a contest in the kitchen +the night before, and for once Sarah Petty was worsted by her husband +and son. Orrin, as he had previously promised Tom, had backed the lout +in his determination to get rid of the boarder. + +Pearl could not ask anybody to solve the mystery of Helmford's brusk +departure, and all Sarah would vouchsafe her uncle was: + +"It didn't suit for him to be here no longer." + +"Something fishy 'bout that--something very fishy," whispered Cap'n +Jonah to Pearl. "Wonder what 'tis?" + +"Oh, Cap'n Jonah!" + +"What do you know 'bout it, my gal? Joe Helmford was a good friend of +yours." + +"He--he's gone without a word!" sobbed Pearl. + +"You dunno no reason?" + +"He didn't say anything to me about leaving," she replied, shrinking +from telling anybody of the incident on the road the previous evening. + +"Nor to me. And he's usually a mighty open-spoken, friendly chap. I +don't understand it," declared Cap'n Jonah. "I'm going to look him up +and find out what it means." + +But this was poor comfort for Pearl. To her mind a great gulf had +opened between Joe Helmford and herself. He had gone away without one +word--or look--or handclasp! Had Tom's rude speech the night before +warned him from the dangerous salient into which he and Pearl had +ventured? Unsophisticated as was Pearl Holden she had felt, her woman's +intuition told her, that the young man, too, had experienced the same +pulsation she herself had known as they stood together on the wintry +road. + +Had he run away from her? The thought one moment stung her pride; the +next she was deep in despair because Helmford's abrupt departure did +not seem to conform to his unfailing courtesy. + +She knew, of course, that Tom's ugliness was the spring from which all +this trouble flowed. The actual cause of Helmford's departure must be +his brief struggle with the lout. + +Pearl had felt some primal passion stir within her when Helmford had +so easily overcome the lout. It seemed almost a miracle that one man +with only his bare hands could beat another who held the advantage of +a stout club. And a studious, seemingly gentle man, like Joe Helmford! +Pearl knew nothing about the athletic training our American youth gain +at college; nor did she dream that the lanky, apparently "loose hung" +man from the fish hatchery was the acclaimed champion boxer of his +class. + +But she knew she had been glad, _glad_ when Helmford struck the blow +that knocked Tom Petty to the ground. + +She saw the swollen and inflamed spot upon the side of the lout's neck +which advertised the blow, and she was glad again. + +Nevertheless she could not bring herself to explain to Cap'n Jonah what +had happened, or discuss in any way the disappearance of Joe Helmford. +She was relieved that there was so much to do in preparing for the +coming of the guests from the "south." One cannot entirely give way to +sorrow where one's time is so fully occupied with work. Pearl Holden +sought her bed that night so tired that she would have slept soundly in +any case. + +The four families represented by the four wise men from out of the +south and their wives, lived near Harwich. They came by train to +Paulmouth, from whence Willy Peebles and another driver of an auto car +brought them over to the Petty place on the Shell Road. + +It was a crisp, delightfully cold day, and the extra fires indoors made +most of the house comfortable. Still, the visiting women sat around the +sitting-room stove with knit shawls over their shoulders and gossiped +with Sarah Petty while the men made the usual pilgrimage to the barn to +look over Orrin's stock and to swap stories and tobacco. + +In spite of the fact that Solon Petty was one of the legislators of +the Commonwealth, and Enoch, his cousin, carried a large section of the +politics of Harwich in his vest pocket, as the saying went, they were +longshore born and longshore bred, and would never be anything under +their skins save a combination of farmer and fisherman. + +'Poley and Perseus Heath were storekeepers. All their long lives (they +were now upward of sixty) they had looked, talked, and dressed just +alike. So much alike were they that if you addressed, as you supposed, +Uncle 'Poley, more than likely you would be answered by Uncle Perse. It +was gossip that the twins' wives had certain marks of identification by +which they could tell with precision "which was which"; but nobody else +had such omniscience regarding the Heath twins. + +"Ye haven't even got as much chance," said Cap'n Abe, discussing the +wonder at the Shell Road store, "as they had with them twins, Bill and +Tom, they tell about down to Chatham. Bill fin'ly lost all his teeth; +so if anybody wanted to distinguish 'twixt them two brothers he'd stick +his finger into Bill's mouth, an' if he bit ye, 'twas Tom!" + +To see the Heath twins sitting in the sun on Orrin Petty's barnyard +fence, chewing tobacco in unison, reminded one of a couple of ancient +billygoats--for their sparse chin whiskers moved up and down, and back +and forth, just like a goat chewing a particularly succulent mouthful +of food. + +Naturally Solon and Enoch Petty were looked upon as wise men because +of the political prominence they had gained; but the Heath twins had +gained an equal reputation for wisdom by keeping still tongues in their +heads. Nothing "got by" Apollo and Perseus Heath; but they seldom gave +a verbal opinion on any point. + +"A pair of quahogs with the lockjaw ain't got nothin' on 'Poley and +Perse for dead silence," Orrin Petty observed to Sarah. + +"You'd better take example by them," she snapped. "They've made money +keepin' their mouths shet." + +Cap'n Jonah was down at the store when the "Wise Men from the South" +arrived. So there was plenty of opportunity to discuss him and his +fortune, both in the sitting-room and on the sheltered panel of the +barnyard fence, before the old seaman returned. + +"Ye see, he's re'l old," Sarah Petty explained, "and he don't re'lly +know how broken he is. The rheumatism has settled on him, an'--well, +you know how these deep bottom sailors be when they finally come back +to the Cape and settle down. They ain't long in anybody's way." + +"But ye say he's well fixed, Sarah?" said Uncle 'Poley Heath's wife--a +massive woman with well-developed chin whiskers. + +"Why, he don't talk none of his money, Uncle Jonah don't," confessed +Sarah Petty, as though she thought this was a fault and should be +excused. "Putting the best foot forward" was almost a religion with +her. "He's a Hand," she explained, "and they was always tight-mouthed. +But when he had his strong box over from the Paulmouth Bank the other +day he showed Tom some securities. You know how boys be," hesitated +Tom's mother. "Tom was curious and he took note. Uncle Jonah had him +tot up the amounts of some of his sheers an' such, and Tom says it +comes to more than a hundred thousand dollars." + +"A hundred thousand!" gasped Mrs. Enoch Petty. + +"For the good land's sake!" wheezed Mrs. Perseus Heath, who was little, +and fat, and asthmatic. + +"I sh'd say he was well fixed!" said Solon Petty's wife, who was almost +as sharp of tongue and feature as Sarah herself. "A hundred thousand +dollars! My!" + +Mrs. Enoch Petty was the only one that expressed suspicion: "I s'pose +you are _sure_ he's got all this money, Sarah? He might be foolin' you. +And if he does it just to work on your sympathies, and you took care of +him----" + +"Oh! Indeed!" sniffed Sarah Petty. "Uncle Jonah Hand is one that pays +his way wherever he goes. Of course, I give him our front room and we +have to get along as best we can without a parlor. But he insists on +paying his shot." + +"Oh!" said Mrs. Enoch. + +"That's what I call proper," said Mrs. 'Poley in her heavy voice. + +"How nice!" panted Mrs. Perse. + +"_That's_ an uncle wuth havin'," admitted Mrs. Solon. + +On the barnyard barrier it was the same: + +"This here uncle of your wife's a pretty far-seeing man, Orrin?" asked +Enoch Petty. "The boy that drove us over here said 'twas all around the +neighborhood that Cap'n Jonah Hand had come back from China with his +pockets full of cash." + +"_My_ driver," said Solon, who was a ponderous man, "said the cap'n +brought home more than his pockets full. Said he had a safe here at +the house stuffed full of gold and silver, and that Perry Baker, the +expressman, who brought it over from the bank, was so scare't of being +robbed on the way that he was threatened with nervous prostration--er, +haw! haw! haw!" + +"Hoh!" snorted Tom, in echo, and with disgust. + +"No," said Orrin coolly. "That strong box has gone back to the bank. I +guess Cap'n Jonah is a pretty careful man." + +"But he _has_ got money?" queried Enoch. + +"Some," said the cautious Orrin. + +"Think we could get him interested in that Short Line 'twixt Harwich +and Beanport, Enoch?" suggested Solon slyly. + +The twins' jaws wagged more swiftly. As one man they opened their lips +and together cried: + +"Ye might let us in on that!" + +"No, boys," said Enoch, shaking his head. "This is not a family matter. +We don't let the family in on nothin' but sure things. This here +Harwich and Beanport Line is a sort of gamble." + +"Huh!" ejaculated Orrin. "Ain't Uncle Jonah one of the fam'ly, I'd like +to know?" + +"Not exactly," drawled Enoch. + +"Er-haw! haw! haw!" laughed Solon loudly. "Cap'n Hand's a sort +of step-child in this case. We need money for that Short Line +development----" + +"You seine for some other man's money," Orrin said shortly. "Uncle +Jonah's too old to go in with you boys in any onsartain scheme. He +may not be a Petty; but we don't propose he shall lose any of his +hard-airned money that may in time _come_ to a Petty." + +"Well said!" chorused the twins, with vigorous approval. + +"Never take no risks," added Uncle 'Poley. + +"Penny saved is a penny airned," said Uncle Perse. + +They were full of old saws and sayings, were the Heath twins. Solon +Petty burst out with his rumbling laugh. + +"Those are the tight-lipped and tight-fisted boys. They ought to be +bankers instead of storekeepers. It's taking chances that makes Big +Business." + +"Ye-as. Mebbe," said Orrin. "But Cap'n Jonah Hand has taken all the +chances he's ever goin' to take if _I_ have any influence with him. We +know what he's _got_; we don't know how much less he might have if he +fooled with these gambling games. Why, there ain't any of 'em square!" + +"Ain't it so?" agreed Tom, with a vivid remembrance of his experience +at the cattle show. + + + + + CHAPTER XXII + + THE STING OF HYPOCRISY + + +Meanwhile Cap'n Jonah was at the Shell Road store wishing heartily that +he did not have to go home. + +Playing a part was already beginning to pall upon the worthy captain. +It was no small satisfaction he had in "foolin' them Pettys"; but the +effect of his hypocrisy, he found, was to be more far-reaching than he +supposed. + +He had not foreseen Sarah Petty's desire to show him off before the +family. He had not forecast in any degree how the story of his wealth +would spread, and grow, and become a Frankenstein to pursue him. + +It was bad enough at the store to have the loungers remark slyly upon +his fortune and hint their curiosity as to how he had obtained it. +None doubted the veracity of Tom Petty's tale. Even Milt Baker, the +Shell Road humorist, was too much awed by the existence of so great +a property in the neighborhood to invent any quips upon the subject. +There is a feeling of reverence born in most Cape Codders for money. +For one reason, it is so hard to get! + +Cap'n Jonah had Abraham Silt at his back while he was in the store, and +if the storekeeper saw him getting cornered he promptly came to the +rescue. But to face all these people from Harwich, and alone, was going +to be something of a job, and Cap'n Jonah dreaded it. + +He felt as though Joe Helmford's defection, too, was a personal +loss. That bright young man had often acted in a way to switch the +conversation from personal matters when Cap'n Jonah was harassed by the +Petty family. + +Had Helmford not left the Petty house Cap'n Jonah would have considered +taking the young man into his confidence. Cap'n Abe had asked him how +close to the bare bones of truth he could trim his ship; but Cap'n +Jonah had found it an ungracious task to befool his friends as well as +those for whom he felt no sympathy whatever. + +Of course, Pearl had to be kept in ignorance of the truth. The +transparency of the girl's character precluded his taking her into his +confidence. And the old captain saw, as time passed, that the fewer +people who knew his secret the better his chance of carrying on the +play. + +What the end would be, Cap'n Jonah dared not meditate upon. He had +forced the Pettys to mend their treatment of Pearl. But he really had +not foreseen all the change the story of his hypothetical fortune +would make in his own affairs. + +Sarah Petty's new tack amazed Cap'n Jonah. He had expected more +consideration at her hands as the result of the conspiracy; but all +this that was going on in the Petty household he certainly had not +imagined. + +"Whatever!" he said privately to the storekeeper. "I'm gettin' things +so soft that I dunno what to do about it. They'll be smotherin' me to +death with their soft-soapin' ways." + +"Take it easy while you can," Cap'n Abe advised. "This is a gre't world +if you don't git cold feet, as the feller said. You jest let 'em git +it fixed in their minds that you are well wuth catering to. They'll +never find out the truth if you don't tell 'em. Mr. Creavy, over to the +bank, will never say a word. I know _him_. An' of course you can trust +'Liphalet an' me to keep our 'tater-traps shet." + +"Whatever! Yes. That's all right," muttered Cap'n Jonah. "But what's +goin' to happen, I want to know when my money does run out?" + +This was a contingency that was ever in Cap'n Jonah's mind. Sarah Petty +had not hinted as yet at any increase in his board despite his change +of quarters; but the drain of twenty-two and a half dollars monthly was +not to be overlooked, considering Cap'n Jonah's actual resources. + +He could not on this day postpone his return home past the dinner +hour. He must meet the visitors, whether or no; so he finally started +up the road. Here came 'Liphalet Truitt, basket on arm, and his face as +sour as a lime. + +"Ahoy, Truitt!" hailed the captain. "What did you see of that crowd at +the Pettys? That gang of Orrin's rel'tives from Harwich boarded 'em by +this time, I guess?" + +"I seen a couple autos go by," said 'Liphalet ungraciously. "They +turned up at the Pettys." + +"Do you know, Truitt," said Cap'n Jonah, ignoring the other's ill-humor +and drawing near to speak confidentially. "Do you know, this here +imaginary fortune is gettin 'on my nerves? That's what! A feller ought +to be a mighty good actor to play up to it." + +"Uh-huh!" grunted 'Liphalet. + +"Makes a feller wish he re'lly did have a fortune, at that," added +Cap'n Jonah, wistfully. "When a feller's supposed to have money things +is purty soft for him. I sartain sure wish I could git a re'l fortune +as easy as we made this one up." + +"Why don't ye marry a fortune?" snarled 'Liphalet with sudden venom. + +"Heh?" ejaculated the startled captain. + +"There's them with plenty money that might have ye--if ye asked," +pursued 'Liphalet. "Ye wouldn't put it past ye, ye say, to marry for +what cash the woman had." + +"Whatever!" murmured Cap'n Jonah, and he involuntarily stood aside as +the strangely wrathful Mr. Truitt marched on. Cap'n Jonah stared after +his friend in amazement. "Whatever in the world has laid hold upon Life +Truitt?" he gasped. + +"Jest as happy an' pleasant as a man-eating shark," went on the amazed +captain. "And who does he want I should marry--Miss Sue? Why! I was +calc'latin'----" + +He did not finish the audible expression of his thoughts, but went on +up the road shaking his head in a very thoughtful mood. For once Cap'n +Jonah's mind was not fixed upon his own fortunes. + +The extension table was stretched clear across the Petty kitchen. +Orrin's back was so close to the door leading to the porch that the +door could scarcely be opened, while Sarah was so far away from him at +the other end of the table that her frowns and half-audible admonitions +for once made no impression upon her husband. + +Between the two, along both sides of the table, were ranged the +visitors and Tom and Cap'n Jonah. Sarah was rather glad for the moment +that Helmford had gone. The table was more than crowded, and the +guests' elbows clashed as they plied knives and forks. Pearl waited on +them, cheerfully refusing to sit down till all were plentifully served. + +Sarah Petty was a careful housewife, and Orrin was as close as his +own shirt. But when they set out to entertain the Family they did it +right--no two ways about it! The long table was fairly burdened with +things to eat. + +Solon was a master hand at such times as this. He he-hawed his great, +political laugh all through the meal, and declared more than once that +he was "a good table finisher--that was his trade," accepting a third +helping of baked fresh ham and "all the fixin's" to prove his statement. + +Enoch tried to follow the set of his cousin's example, and was +particularly cordial to Cap'n Jonah. "They tell me you calc'late to +settle down here for good, Cap'n Hand?" he said insinuatingly. + +"As long as Sarah will have me," replied Cap'n Jonah, briefly. + +"Haw! haw!" exploded Solon. "I bet after this taste of Sarah's cookin' +you couldn't chase him away with a club. Hey, Cap'n Hand?" + +Sarah preened, accepting the flattery. Cap'n Jonah was uncomfortable. +He was polite to the women, and he tried to speak when spoken to by the +men; but he gained at that meal a reputation for silence only equaled +by 'Poley and Perse Heath themselves. + +Solon drew him like a badger from his hole, and Cap'n Jonah came to the +surface just as much against his will as does that obstinate beast. + +"Le's see," said Solon, "you found chances of turning a penny out there +in the East such as we humdrum stay-at-homes never see, I suppose, +Captain? I knew a man once in your line that made a mint of money +shanghaiing coolies for the guano islands off Chile. You never dipped +into that trade, did you?" + +"No. Never did," said Cap'n Jonah emphatically. + +"They do say, too, that opium smuggling pays big in Chinese waters." + +"I've heard tell," bit off the old mariner. + +"And there's what they call the Chinese passenger trade--runnin' them +laundrymen into 'Frisco or Vancouver, when the immigrant inspectors +ain't lookin'. Know anything about that, Captain?" + +"Only what you tell me," barked Cap'n Jonah, his eyebrows bristling. + +"I expect you got your money in quieter ways, Cap'n Hand," put in Enoch +Petty, observing that his cousin's semi-humorous sallies were not taken +in good part. + +"I got my money," began Cap'n Jonah in some heat. "I got my money----" +He hesitated, then simmered down to: "Wal, I got it as I got it. +Whatever!" + +He did not possess Cap'n Abe Silt's imagination. He could not entertain +these curious people with an apocryphal history of the gathering of his +supposed treasure. And perhaps his very inability to explain made his +fortune seem the more real to them all. + +Sarah, too, came to his rescue. She could not see Uncle Jonah +disturbed. How careful she now was for the comfort of "the dear old +soul!" It was really remarkable, as Aunt 'Poley said to the other +visiting aunts, to see how devoted Sarah was to her last remaining +blood-relative. + +"Let us hope he'll pay her out right, for it," whispered Mrs. Enoch +Petty, the single doubting member of the tribe. + +Sarah's regard for Cap'n Jonah's comfort was fairly overpowering. She +saw to it that tasty bits were heaped upon his plate and that his +coffee cup was kept filled. At dessert time it was: + +"Pearly! don't forget to pass the cake again to Uncle Jonah. And that +mock cherry pie I made deep special for him, 'cause he likes it so. +Taste that beach plum sass, Uncle Jonah. I know you'll like it. Why! +you ain't et more'n enough to keep a sand-piper alive." + +"Whatever!" remonstrated the master mariner. "You're killin' me with +kindness, Sarah." + +And he could have said nothing which would have more thoroughly +gratified Sarah Petty. "The Family" had heard his commendation with +their own ears. + +Back in his own room he whispered to Pearl, who attended him at Sarah's +behest with hot water, lemon, sugar, and a noggin of rum--a real +holiday treat: "Whatever! I might's well be out o' Barnum's show, I've +been exhibited so much. Nex' thing, Sarah Petty'll want me to roll +over and bark at the word of command. I dunno but I could stand her +meannesses better than I can her good will." + +He managed to escape from time to time to the sanctum of the front +room. They did not follow him. But they invited him to join the general +company on all manner of pretexts. + +The womenfolk, as he declared, tried to make a fool of him, while the +men endeavored to pump him dry regarding his adventures in the far +East, hoping thereby to get a line on his method of amassing a fortune +of a hundred thousand dollars. + +He could see, too, that he was going to be a mark for all local +charities and objects of need. Mrs. Enoch Petty, who was a member of +all the women's clubs and associations there were on the Cape, tried +on several occasions to get a contribution from Cap'n Jonah for one or +another of the causes she patronized. + +But Sarah Petty, like Orrin with the men visitors, guarded Uncle +Jonah's pocket with vigilance. There was no reason that she could see +why the old mariner's fortune should be scattered abroad on charities, +suffrage clubs, orphanages, or other so-called worthy causes. + +"Charity begins at home," was Sarah Petty's fixed belief, and as far +as she was concerned she proposed to see that it stayed there. + +The relief to Cap'n Jonah, at least, was great when the visit of the +Harwich folk came to an end on Monday. He accepted four separate and +privately given invitations to visit the several families at his +leisure, with the mental reservation that he would do so only when he +was in that state which he denominated "soft-headed." + +"I've weathered Sarah and Orrin, both when they was down on me and now +that they seem to have had a change of heart. They air bad enough, I do +allow," he said to Cap'n Abe. "But I want to tell you right now, the +rest of the Petty family as fur as I've sampled it, runs wuss towards +the bottom of the cask. + +"Solon Petty never got to the State Legislature because of his brains, +that's sure. Enoch Petty would rob a blind man, I do believe. And as +for them two old billygoats, Apollo and Perseus Heath, they'd drive a +man to strong drink an' no mistake." + +He was too polite to state his opinion of the women of the Harwich +party. He hinted strongly, however, that he more firmly believed than +heretofore that wives were given to men as punishment for their sins. +"All but my own woman," he added with reverence. "She was a good +one--an' she didn't live long after we was married. I dunno but short +sweet'nin' is the best. We wasn't long enough together to git on one +another's nerves." + +"Why," said Cap'n Abe, comfortably, "I dunno but you air too harsh on +'em, Cap'n Hand. You might easy find a woman at your age that would +make you a comfort'ble home. And if she had a bit of prop'ty, like the +Doc's sister----" + +"Why ain't you tried it?" demanded the suspicious Cap'n Jonah. + +"Oh! Wal! _Me?_" said Cap'n Abe, lowering his voice and casting a +quick glance over his shoulder to make sure that Betty Gallup, his +housekeeper, was not in the offing. "Ye see, I'm fretted enough by the +female sect as 'tis. I wouldn't want one under foot day _an'_ night." + +"I guess," returned Cap'n Jonah, "your opinion an' mine, on the women, +is purty much of a muchness. Whatever!" + + + + + CHAPTER XXIII + + THE CHRISTMAS GALE + + +This was Christmas week. There was the threat of a serious gale in the +air and sky and on the sea. There had already been a scale of snow upon +the ground, but rain had ensued and that promise of a white Christmas +had proved abortive. + +The Christmas entertainment committee, of which Miss Sue Ambrose was +the very active chairman, had made most of its preparations for the +celebration in spite of the unexplained defection of Eliphalet Truitt. +Indeed, the ex-steward had been "acting offish" for so long that he +ceased to be a general topic of conversation save on one particular +point which, when mentioned, always brought smiles to the faces of his +neighbors--for they loved Life Truitt, no matter what his mood. + +'Liphalet had almost shut himself up in his little box of a house +during the last few days. He shunned his fellow men--even Cap'n Jonah +with whom he had been friendly until recently--like any hermit. And +here it was the morning of the day before Christmas. + +He scuffled out into his close kitchen, redolent of countless messes +of fried fish and potatoes, and set the lamp with its smoky chimney on +the deal board table before shaking the stove grate and opening all the +drafts for "full steam ahead." + +It was a cold morning. The long promised gale out of the northeast was +driving the snow and sleet against the window with a "whish! whish!" +like the sound of fretful waves along the sands. Even through his thick +blue yarn socks which he had knitted himself the ex-steward felt the +cold seep in under the door, the latch of which rattled to the ghostly +hand of the gale. + +He turned up the wick of the lamp and sat down with a sigh to slice +potatoes for frying. It was plain by the woebegone expression on +'Liphalet's face that his heart was not in this usually grateful +matutinal occupation. + +Suddenly returning the knife and half a soggy boiled potato to the +table, he shrugged his feet into a pair of canvas shoes and, rising, +went to the rear door. He held it half open against the insistence of +the wind, staring off across the flatlands toward the sea from under +the sharp of one hand. + +The snow squalls, driven in from the far-flung sea-line, burst like +bomb-shells along the shore, then swept inland in clouds of fine +snow-spray which stung like nettles even 'Liphalet's weather-burned +cheek. + +Between these drifting sheets of sleet he dimly saw outlined the houses +of the neighbors on either side of the Shell Road and dotting the open +fields. Each was pricked out at this hour by the smoke of early kindled +kitchen fires, sucked out of the chimneys in fantastic forms by the +boisterous wind. + +"It's goin' to be a humdinger," muttered 'Liphalet. "Last over +to-morrow, like enough, an' sp'ile everything. Ha! Sue an' them other +foolish folks that's been wishing for a white Christmas will get their +wish, I don't dispute. Ha!" + +With this second snort of disgust he shut the gale out again. The draft +caused by the closing door sucked the flame of the lamp up through +the chimney and it went out with a "plop." The steel gray light of +the winter's dawn filtered in at the window, and, with the firelight, +furnished the kitchen a partial illumination. + +'Liphalet settled himself again in the low rocking chair and picked up +the knife and the potato. "Ha! Sue an' the rest on 'em will get all the +white Christmas they want," he repeated. "Christmas--_bah_!" + +The emphasis with which he thus expressed his spleen startled Bo'sun +from his nest in the wood-box behind the stove, and he came forth +yawning and stretching to rub a morning's greeting against his master's +shin. But even the friendliness of the cat did not temper the man's +unaccustomed mood. + +The water began to hiss and bubble in the kettle. 'Liphalet reached +for the coffee-pot in which the ground coffee had been soaking in a +cup of cold water over night, and filled it from the boiling kettle. +The aroma permeated all the kitchen atmosphere immediately--an odor to +tempt the appetite of any hungry man. + +But there was something not normal about 'Liphalet Truitt on this +morning. That keen edge to his appetite--a never-failing zest at +mealtime which had been his for nearly half a century--failed him now. +He dumped the handful of sliced potatoes into the pan where the pork +was sizzling, set it forward, and returned to his chair. + +The kitchen was as compact and handy as his stateroom had always +been at sea, and from the rack overhead he reached down his battered +flute. Bo'sun fled--back arched and tail swollen to twice its natural +size--when 'Liphalet extracted from the instrument those introductory +mournful sounds which were always the prelude to his rendition of any +of his loved sea-ditties--even to "Fisher's Hornpipe." Music was the +single topic on which Bo'sun and 'Liphalet Truitt did not agree. + +The flute on this morning, however,--never failing comforter as it had +been during his many voyages--did not soothe the ex-steward's troubled +breast. Its wail, mingling with the whine of the wind, might have been +the cry of the banshee of the gale rattling at the door latch for +sacrament. + +"Drat the thing!" snarled 'Liphalet, flinging down the flute with +exasperation. "Nothin' does go right, and ain't likely to go right +again ever, I reckon." Then he added the phrase that seemed to be both +the text and context of his jeremiad: "Christmas--_bah_!" + +Suddenly he began wrinkling his nose like a hound on a cold scent. + +"Somethin' burnin'?" he questioned audibly. "By Hannah, it's them +'taters!" + +He rescued but a scorched remnant of the potatoes and dumped it with a +grunt of disgust into Bo'sun's pan on the hearth; making a cold snack +with coffee do for his own breakfast. It was easy, indeed, to see that +'Liphalet Truitt was by no means his normal self. + +He had washed his plate, cup and saucer and rinsed out the coffee pot +before he ventured into the partially sheltered porch again to view the +snowy world. In stinging phalanx the sleet continued to march across +the open fields. The hard ground was laced over with a thin scale of +ice. The road was deserted; but he presumed the committee would by and +by gather at the chapel to hang the Christmas greens and trim the tree +with refurbished tinsel ornaments and newly strung ropes of pink and +white popcorn. + +He pulled the battered southwester over his ears and reached for the +key to the chapel door. The women would come to a cold and cheerless +audience room if did he not step across and light the fire. + +Then, with the key in his hand, he stopped, suddenly venting another +snort of disgust and derision. "Christmas--_bah_!" Then he hung up the +key. + +"If they want a fire for their foolishness, let 'em light it. If they +want a feller to fetch and carry, let 'em find somebody else. If they +want somebody to buy presents for and play jackanapes to a passel o' +young 'uns let 'em find a new Santa Claus. I've quit! I'll show 'em!" + +A stuttering blast like nothing so much as a foghorn with the croup +next brought the ex-steward to his door and that before mid-forenoon. +He knew the voice of Doctor Ambrose's automobile; and there the +good physician was at the gate. The cranky mechanism of his car had +developed symptoms which baffled any snap diagnosis. + +"Can't stop to fool with her at present," the doctor said jerkily, as +'Liphalet reached the scene. "I'm due at Carey Payne's right now. His +oldest has got pneumonia sure's you're a foot high, 'Liphalet. I've +been over to Suz Montevedo's, beyond The Beaches. He's got a relapse of +his inflammatory rheumatism. Can't lift hand nor foot, and nobody to do +for him." + +"Some o' these fool women that'll be playin' there in the church by +an' by 'ud much better be doin' a neighborly turn for the Portugee," +grumbled 'Liphalet. + +"Sue's gone over," Doctor Ambrose said, jerking his black bag out from +under the seat of the stalled car. "She's left Pearl Holden to boss the +trimmin' of the chapel. Well----" + +"She ain't gone to old Montevedo's shack alone?" demanded 'Liphalet. +"In this mess o' weather? What in tarnation was you thinking of, Doc?" + +The physician flashed him a grim look. "I'm thinking you are about as +much out o' kilter as this car of mine. Didn't you just say the women +ought to tend to 'Suz? Well, that's what one of them's doing. Your +liver's out of order, I tell you, 'Liphalet----" + +"You dumbhead!" roared 'Liphalet. "The gale 'ud blow a strong man off +the surfman's path along the sand cliffs, let alone a frail woman. All +you got in your mind is liver pills! Ha! I should think you'd have some +sense." + +"It seems I haven't," responded the doctor coolly. "I reckon Sue can +take care of herself. She's been out o' leadin' strings some years +now," and he started off through the driving sleet without waiting for +'Liphalet's rejoinder. + +"Ha!" snorted the latter, trying to peer shoreward. "I dunno what's +comin' over folks. All on 'em goin' plum crazy, I vum! Liver--ha! + +"What's a woman want to start off along The Beaches on a day like this +for? And ye'd think even Doc Ambrose 'ud have more sense than to let +her." + +Then, fussing and fuming, he buttoned tight the curtains and storm +shield of the deserted car, and finally dragged a tarpaulin from his +shed, and with difficulty pinned it securely over the entire car, +blanketing the radiator so that it might not freeze. When the gale +abated John-Ed Card or some other neighbor who owned a team of horses +would come and drag the doctor's car home--a grateful service which +none ever refused to perform for the busy physician. + +'Liphalet retired to the kitchen and stoked the fire. + +"Thank the good Lord," he said, "I can stay b'low 'stead of goin' aloft +in this weather. Bein' neighborly and charitable is all right, I don't +dispute. But charity begins to home. And by Hannah! that's where Sue +Ambrose ought to be this minute." + +He jumped up so suddenly at this thought that Bo'sun fled again, +fearing some domestic catastrophe. His master paid him no heed. He +could not sit content with the thought of Miss Sue facing this gale +along the sand cliff beyond Tapp Point. + +There the surfmen's beaten path on the edge of the high bank was often +eaten into--bitten out in savage mouthfuls by the wolfish breakers. +They would be running high, 'Liphalet knew, with this gale. Whenever +he opened the door the drumming of the surf along The Beaches was +audible--like an organ accompaniment to the storm. + +He could see in his mind's eye the small figure in its gray cloak +"beating up" against this sizzling tempest. It was getting worse +hourly. At sea, with plenty of leeway, 'Liphalet would have considered +this storm "just a snifter." With the sound planks of a seaworthy craft +under one's feet a man need seldom fear the elements. But so many +accidents are likely to happen ashore! + +It was a long walk to the old shack of Suz Montevedo in any +weather--half a mile beyond Tapp's Folly, as the ornate villa of the +Salt Water Taffy King was disrespectfully called. The surfmen from the +life saving station had no love for that path in an ugly blow like +this, or on a dark night in any case. The snow, too, was blinding. + +"By Hannah!" ejaculated the ex-steward finally, "I wouldn't call +Doc Ambrose to cure my dog of fleas. He don't show right good +sense--lettin' his sister traipse 'way over there alone. Ugh!" He was +at the door again now. "'Tain't fittin' for a cat to be out." + +Then he proceeded to button himself into a thick pilot coat, tucked his +trousers into sea boots, buckled the strap of his southwester under his +jaw, and plunged into the seething gale. + +There was not a soul on the road to The Beaches. The storm was so +blinding that he did not seek to cut across lots and so save steps; but +kept on along the Shell Road, passing Cap'n Abe's store, which from +without and on this particular occasion looked to be anything but the +lively spot it usually was. + +The summer residents had closed their homes and long since gone to +other places. All, that is, save the younger Tapps, who occupied +their new house on the Point summer and winter. 'Liphalet pressed on +along the firm road of well tamped shell, past these dwellings of the +wealthy, without hailing or being hailed by anybody. + +Beyond the high wall and ornate gates of the Tapp estate, on the bare +cliff, the full force of the wind-driven sleet struck him "square +betwixt the eyes," as 'Liphalet expressed it. + +He fairly had to crouch against this, turning a shoulder to the force +of the wind. Here the outthrust of the land gave the storm a sweep +across the brow of the cliff while the breakers, charging in from the +open sea, flung themselves ravenously against the crumbling wall of +sand and clay--an unstable barrier at best. + +With such a sea as this on, the surfmen from the life-saving station +could not patrol the beach itself, and their worn path along the verge +of the fifty foot bank was the only footway to the Portuguese's shack. + +'Liphalet hesitated. It did not seem as though any woman could +successfully face such a gale. The prospect was one to make the +strongest man turn back. He shielded his eyes with both hands cupped, +and tried to pierce the snow and sleet with a vision long inured to +penetrating thick weather. + +There came a momentary lull in the gale. The sweeping snow parted like +a curtain. It fled away over the cliff, and for a space he could see +for some distance along the path. + +Was that a snow wraith hovering there on the brow of the high bank? Or +was it a human figure which, the next moment, was swallowed in the snow +curtain? + +'Liphalet, vastly disturbed by this uncertain specter in the storm, +plunged into it himself again and pressed ahead. + + + + + CHAPTER XXIV + + THE MISTLETOE BOUGH + + +Until the day before Christmas, ushered in by the long-threatened gale, +nobody had seen Joe Helmford along the Shell Road since he had left +the Petty place. Cap'n Jonah had been unable to hunt up the young man +and learn, if he could, just why he had so abruptly departed from the +neighborhood. + +In spite of the bustle attending the presence of the guests over Sunday +and the thorough cleaning up after them which followed, Pearl Holden +could not for a moment forget the young man. And her worry of mind was +advertised upon her pretty face. There were shadows under her eyes and +an unnatural pallor spread over her cheeks. + +Cap'n Jonah had strong suspicions as to the reason for Pearl's changed +appearance, although she would admit nothing. He had watched the +intimacy growing day by day between the girl and Helmford, and, arrant +matchmaker that he was, he hoped to see its fruition in an acknowledged +engagement of the two young people. + +Should Pearl marry a man like Helmford, one great burden would be +lifted from Cap'n Jonah's mind. He often felt that he had done a wrong, +a grievous wrong, to the girl in intimating that he had a fortune +and would will all or part of it to her. He presumed that Pearl bore +this half-promise he had made in mind, just as the Pettys bore it in +mind; and having nothing to give Pearl after all, the master mariner's +troubles were thereby added to. If the girl was only sure to marry a +smart young fellow like Joe Helmford---- + +Therefore he kept a sharp outlook for the man from the fish hatchery, +and even inquired for him at Cap'n Abe's store. But Helmford had not +been seen in the vicinity since the day of his departure from the Petty +house. + +On this storm-pelted morning, however, when most wise folk kept +indoors--and glad to have such shelter--Joe Helmford could not +be content in his warm and cozy quarters at Mrs. Wetherel's. His +present boarding place was much more to his taste--barring Pearl's +absence--than the Pettys', save that it was farther from his work. + +The Wetherels were urban folk, with the conveniences and the personal +requirements that go with such environment. The daughters were +strictly, however, what Pearl had once called "sour-cranberry old +maids"--otherwise spinsters as fixed in their orbits as the planets. +Even the presence of a young and marriageable man in the house caused +no flutter of their hearts. Their maiden affections had never been in +the least awakened. + +Mrs. Wetherel made Joe very comfortable without any fuss about it, and +the "Wetherel girls," so-called, were not unpleasant associates at meal +time. Nevertheless, Helmford went around with a countenance almost the +equal of 'Liphalet Truitt's. + +He could not remain indoors on this wretchedly stormy day. In the first +place, he was expecting something at the post-office which Noah Coffin +should have brought the night before on his stage, locally known, out +of compliment to Noah's name, as "the Ark." + +Helmford had sent for the article in question as soon as Miss Sue had +asked him to help decorate the Mariner's Chapel for the Christmas +entertainment. Now he plodded through the beating storm in a very +different mood from that which he had expected to enjoy when his +purchase arrived. + +"Yes!" and the post-master passed it out to Helmford with: + +"Christmas gif, Mr. Helmford? They are just pouring in on us. But I +doubt if Noah'll make more'n one trip to-day, 'nless this storm breaks. +She's purty rough outside, ain't she?" + +Helmford admitted that "she" was. Nevertheless he did not turn back +toward his boarding place; but instead, with the light but bulky box +under his arm, he faced the gale and forced his way through it, past +the Cardhaven Inn and around the corner into the highway that led to +the Shell Road neighborhood. + +There was nobody on the road, nor did he see anybody at the +frost-covered windows as he plodded on. There was no sign of life about +the Ambrose cottage; but when he got to Eliphalet Truitt's he saw the +doctor's automobile stalled outside the fence. + +"Can it be that 'Liphalet is ill?" thought Helmford. + +He turned in at the gate and stamped his feet free of snow on the +ex-steward's steps. The kitchen door was unfastened as usual. He peered +in and saw the glowing stove and Bo'sun comfortably purring before it. +He shouted for 'Liphalet, receiving no answer. + +Then, knowing as did everybody else in the community, where the chapel +key was kept, he ran his hand along the clapboards and found the nail. +The key was there. Then, thought Helmford, he was the first of the +decorating committee to arrive. + +He took down the key and kept on to the vestry door. The dead chill of +the place struck him as he entered. + +"Wonder what's happened to Mr. Truitt," Helmford thought; for he, like +everybody else, expected the taut little ex-steward to do all the +chores of the chapel as a matter of course. + +The fire was laid in the Baltimore heater, and soon the young man had +it roaring and the heat radiating from the surface of the stove below +as well as rising through the register above, in the audience room. + +The piles of greens were ready for the workers; but nobody arrived. +Helmford opened the box he had brought from the post-office. In it was +as fine a bough of mistletoe as he had ever seen. It had been sent to +him from Boston by parcel post. + +When he had sent for this bit of Christmas decoration he had secretly +borne Pearl in mind. There was something more in the significance of +the mistletoe than a mere pleasantry. He thrilled even now at the +thought of pressing the girl's dewy lips with his own, under the +benison of the Christmas bough. How lovely Pearl was in her sweet +simplicity. + +Joe Helmford, when he bought the mistletoe, had been playing with fire. +He knew it now. He had come to a full realization of it when Tom Petty +had attacked him on the Shell Road and he had struck that single blow +in Pearl Holden's and his own defense. + +Bitter indeed had been his thoughts as he packed his things that night +after speaking his mind to the Pettys. He had allowed himself to go so +far with Pearl Holden that he felt he should never be at peace again. +She was the object of a growing and consuming passion, and he could not +put thought of her away. + +Yet, there stood the specter of Cap'n Jonah's fortune between them! +He could not deliberately besiege the heart of this girl who had been +chosen to be the recipient of the old seaman's wealth. But how he now +desired to see Pearl again and to be with her! + +He hid the mistletoe bough away in the sexton's closet under the +stairs. Then he went to the door to gaze out upon the storm. Nobody was +coming toward the chapel that he could see. It was past the hour Miss +Sue had set for the decorators to gather, and she was not here herself. +Nor was Pearl coming, it seemed. + +The storm was increasing; but so disturbing were the young man's +thoughts that he scarcely noticed that fact as he stepped out into it +again and closed the vestry door behind him. + +His mind and heart on fire with the passionate thoughts that had +assailed him for days past, Joe Helmford began, like 'Liphalet Truitt, +to challenge the storm; through the buffeting of the elements he sought +mental peace again. + + * * * * * + +Miss Sue, called to Suz Montevedo's on her charitable mission, had +depended upon Pearl to take the lead in the decoration of the chapel +for the next day's celebration. Unexpected events, however, barred +Pearl from going to the rendezvous at the hour appointed. Indeed, a +greater storm was destined to rage inside the Petty house on this day +than swept the Cape Cod coast. + +There seemed to be a lull in the gale about mid-forenoon, and Cap'n +Jonah, who did not read much and had small means of self entertainment, +bundled up in oils and southwester and ventured forth, bound shoreward. +When he faced the full force of the gale on the open highway he was +really tempted to return. + +"Whatever!" he muttered. "This ain't fittin' for a dog to be out in. If +it keeps up this way, it's goin' to spile all the fun to-morrow." + +Although he observed nobody on the road, he found when he stumbled up +the steps of the store and lifted the doorlatch that Cap'n Abe was +not left even on this blusterous day without his company of habitual +loungers. + +"Hi-mighty!" cried the storekeeper, as Cap'n Jonah staggered in and put +his back against the door which had been all but torn from his grasp by +the wind. "Hi-mighty, Cap'n Hand! can't you find no better weather to +bring 'long with you when you come visiting? + +"Hear that sleet slammin' on the clapboards, will you?" he proceeded, +as Cap'n Joab and Washy Gallup made room for the newcomer at the +stove. "Must sound like the gale Peleg Fosdick, of the _Sarah +Truesdale_, weathered the time he run under the lee of the sand cliffs +at Barrows Neck. + +"Peleg, they say, although he was the skipper of a haddocker for years +an' years, was always afraid of a capful of wind. A summer squall +looked as big to him as a hurricane; and if he had ever got into a +reg'lar no'theast snorter like this one, I reckon he'd died o' heart +failure. + +"If it come on to blow and he could, he'd up hooks an' run for shelter, +no matter where, till he could see the end o' bad weather. And they do +tell about his holdin' an umbrella over himself in a thunder shower +when he was at the _Sarah Truesdale's_ wheel," and the storekeeper +broke into a mellow chuckle and tucked his silver-bowed spectacles +higher on his bald brow. + +"Ord'narily he went below when it rained or blew. He was jest as techy +about gettin' wet as a cat. Come one time they tell of, and a brisk +gale come up while the _Sarah Truesdale_ was on the Dogfish Bank. Sun +goin' down as pretty as you could wish; but jest the same, Cap'n Peleg +Fosdick seen bad weather comin' in his mind's eye. + +"So they run for it, he an' his mate an' the boy. Barrows Neck, where +is piled all the loose sand that was left over after they made the +Desert of Sairah, offered the nearest shelter. Peleg run in there and +droppd his mudhook just as a hand's breath of cloud spilt a shower on +him. It was near night and he dove below and didn't calc'late to go +aloft again while it rained. + +"His mate asked him was he goin' to stop there, with the hold half full +o' fish, and Peleg made reply he was calc'latin' to. So the mate an' +the boy took the dory and rowed ashore to Barrowsport and Peleg stayed +under hatches listenin' to the rain slammin' on the deck and thinkin' +how smart he was to seek shelter as he'd done. + +"Wal," pursued Cap'n Abe, "the rain didn't 'pear to stop, and Peleg +went to bed. He didn't know if the mate an' the boy come back or not. +But when he woke up in the morning the first thing he heard was the +rain still a-swishin' on the schooner's deck. He had his deadlights +curtained and 'twas dark below. The wind was still blowin' from the +same quarter. + +"'Almighty stormy mornin','" says Peleg, and turns over in bed. Nobody +disturbed him, for his mate had got into a fight ashore and was in the +calaboose, and the boy'd got a chance to ship on a trawler at better +wages and had took French leave. + +"So the _Sarah Truesdale_ lay there purty near all day, an' might ha' +laid there till the fish in her hold stank, if a feller hadn't come +along wantin' to borrer some bait. + +"He opened the cabin door and Peleg sat up in bed to see the afternoon +sunshine streamin' over all. The _Sarah Truesdale_ had been there +twenty-four hours. + +"'What's the matter here?' asked the feller after bait. 'You sick, or +somethin'?' + +"Peleg's ears wagged like a houn' dog's. He could still hear the rain +(or so he supposed) patterin' on the deck. + +"'If you don't git up your hook and warp out of here,' says the other +feller, 'your smack'll be sunk along o' the deckload o' sand that's +been blowin' on to ye from them sandcliffs all night It's ankle deep +out here right now.'" + +For once Cap'n Abe got a laugh from most of the idlers. But Cap'n +Jonah was in a serious mood. He followed the storekeeper to the end of +the counter where he was tying up packages of sugar ready for prompt +delivery. It was dark at this end of the store, for the windows were +completely clouded by the frozen sleet. + +"Wal, Cap'n Hand, how goes the battle?" asked the storekeeper, with +amusement written large on his genial face. "How does it seem to be a +millionaire, or thereabout?" + +Cap'n Jonah took a huge pinch of snuff from his silver box, rapped +the cover with his knuckle, and sneezed softly. "Whatever!" he almost +groaned. "It ain't no laughin' matter, Mr. Silt, this here tryin' to +make folks think you air something you ain't." + +"Sure-_ly_," interposed Cap'n Abe, "tain't no trick to fool Sarah and +Orrin Petty. They air only too willin' to fool themselves. If you _had_ +a hundred thousan' dollars----" + +"I'd give half of it to git out o' the mess I'm in," snapped Cap'n +Jonah. "You don't know what it means, Mr. Silt, to be foolin' your +friends, as well as those you don't keer a jasper for." + +"Oh! _don't_ I?" ejaculated Cap'n Abe significantly, his memory stung +by thought of Cap'n Amazon. + +"This foolin' Pearly an' young Helmford, an' even Cap'n Beecher and +Miss Sue and the Doc an' all, does go against the grain. If them bonds +and sheer certificates I showed that half-baked boy of Sarah Petty's +was real, instead of phony, and I was rich 'stead of scurcely havin' a +cent to bless myself with, I'd be the happiest man alive, I do guess. +But as 'tis----" + +He spoke earnestly, and he meant it, did Cap'n Jonah. He was never cut +out for a deceitful man, and the strain of the hateful situation was +telling on him. + +Cap'n Abe was called to the rear premises by Betty Gallup, the "Able +Seaman," before he could make reply to the troubled captain. The latter +drifted back into the radiance of the stove's warmth. + +Then out of the dark pocket between soap boxes and sugar barrels at +the end of the counter rose up a figure, the presence of which neither +of the old men had suspected. There was a door into the side hall of +Cap'n Abe's house right here. The eavesdropper opened this softly and +passed through unobserved. + +Once in the entry, he opened the outside door and slipped out into +the storm. So excited and enraged was he that he scarcely noticed +the buffeting of the snow and sleet. He plunged through it, his face +twitching violently, his hands clenched, rage and chagrin seething in +his breast. + +For once Tom Petty, thick-headed though he was, was thoroughly aroused. + + + + + CHAPTER XXV + + THE PRICE OF HEROISM + + +'Liphalet Truitt lifted the latch of Suz Montevedo's door, and a groan +was the response to his first hail. + +"By Hannah! you're darker'n the inside of a nigger's pocket here," he +said. "How ye doin', Suz?" + +"Bad, Mist' Life! Oh, so ver' bad!" moaned the Portuguese, who was a +good deal of a child in time of sickness. + +"And all alone?" 'Liphalet's tone was rather shocked. + +"Ah, I haf not been alone, Mist' Life. The saints be praised! I haf had +an angel veesitor." + +'Liphalet was relieved to some degree. He knew he was on the right +trail. "Where's this here angel gone?" he asked dryly. + +"I know not. Where do angels go when they have made a veesit of mercy, +Mist' Life? Do they not return to heaven?" queried the poetical Suz. + +The ex-steward was willing to agree that Doctor Ambrose's old-fashioned +parlor had often seemed near heaven to him. But he eventually got down +to practicalities with Montevedo. Miss Sue had been there for more than +an hour. She had tidied up the shack, cooked some food for the man, and +left more, with a cooling drink and the doctor's medicine within his +reach. She had promised to come again on the morrow, while she hoped to +send Washy Gallup to spend the night with him. + +"But eef my leetle Loretta was here, she would do for me," moaned Suz. + +"That fly-away young'un!" ejaculated 'Liphalet. "She can't do nothin' +but dance. Crazy as a sand-piper. She's better off with her father's +people and you're better off here without her, Suz." + +Montevedo's hands and knees were swollen to twice their natural size, +and, like all other persons so afflicted, he could not keep the +affected parts quiet. It always seems to the sufferer from inflammatory +rheumatism that some other position than that in which the aching +member is, would be more comfortable. The swollen and padded hands and +arms of the fisherman aroused 'Liphalet's sympathy; but he had still +another question to ask. + +"How long since Miss Sue left here, Suz? Seems like I ought to've met +her comin' along from Tapp Point, if not t'other side of it." + +"She be gone twenty minutes--not more," groaned the sufferer. + +"Twenty minutes? Nonsense!" ejaculated 'Liphalet. "I was all that +comin' along the cliff. I didn't see nary sign of her." + +"Did I not say she was an angel?" cried Montevedo. "Ah, _Dios_! She has +been carried home t'rough the storm in a chariot of the saints." + +"By Hannah!" ejaculated his visitor, rebuttoning his coat, "she's more +likely to have been carried over that bank by the wind, and without no +chariot. Twenty minutes ago? Are you sure, Suz?" + +"Oh, yes, Mist' Life. Sure as sure," sighed the fisherman. "It seemed +she had scarcely closed the door when you opened it." + +The other said no further word, and he stood not on the order of his +going. He plunged out of the shack into the gale with a stricture about +his heart that was positively painful. Twenty minutes before he had +been at the beginning of the patrol path, there by the corner of the +Tapp estate. Through a rift in the curtain of sleet he had seen faintly +that wraith, or figure, staggering for an instant on the verge of the +cliff. + +Had that ghostly specter of the storm been Sue Ambrose? + +Where could she have gone from Suz Montevedo's shack save toward home? +Yet he had not met her as he plowed along the patrol path. In the other +direction there was no dwelling until one reached the life saving +station. And he was sure Miss Sue would not go there. Why should she? +Was it a haven she craved, the fisherman's shack under this sheltering +bank was sufficient. + +Had she started for home, what other way could the doctor's sister have +gone save by the path by which 'Liphalet came to Suz Montevedo's hovel? +The ex-steward, backed up against the driving sleet, trying to pierce +the smother ahead of him with fear-sharpened vision, chewed for that +moment a bitter cud of uncertainty. + +To the right, across the vacant lots and by an uncertain path, lay +Betty Gallup's little cottage. But the "Able Seaman" was at this time +of day redding up the rooms behind and above the store on the Shell +Road, and her door would be locked. No storm would keep Mrs. Gallup at +home, and the doctor's sister must know there would be no refuge for +her there. + +The path by which she must have come to the shack, was the path by +which she must have essayed her return--this along the treacherous +verge of the sand cliff. Yet taking the Portuguese fisherman's +statement of time with more than the proverbial grain of salt, Miss +Sue could not have so quickly reached the one open house along The +Beaches--that of the younger Tapps--wherein to find shelter. + +The ground, of course, offered no spoor of any character. The force of +the wind was driving the snow and sleet so rapidly that nothing stuck +to the frozen earth. No footprint of any kind, therefore, was visible. + +The fierceness of the wind, so apparent now to 'Liphalet as he leaned +back against it, roweled the fear already roused in his heart. With +this blast behind her how could Sue Ambrose's frail body have offered +resistance? + +In coming over from Tapp Point he had noted no fresh break in the bank +where any part of the patrol path had been recently carried away. +However, as he had declared to Doctor Ambrose, the wind was strong +enough to have picked up his sister and swept her bodily over the +cliff's verge. This thought, born of the travail of the ex-steward's +mind, took hold upon him now with a grip that was not to be shaken +off--with a certainty that no optimism could deny. And just now +Eliphalet Truitt was in no optimistic mood. + +He felt that his suspicion of Sue Ambrose's fate was a certainty. +Possibly the moment following that lull in the gale when he was able +to see some distance along the patrol path, was the instant she had +come to grief. He remembered vividly the spot at which he had seen that +wraith of the storm. + +Her cry as she was carried over the brink would be smothered in the +hullabaloo of the gale. He had passed the place of her catastrophe and +had heard nothing to warn him that she had there come to disaster. The +breakers were covering the narrow beach with wreckage and all manner of +culch. At some points they dashed against the bluff itself and reached +ravening hands half way up its face. + +'Liphalet knew well the lay of the land here, and every contour and +wavering line of the cliff. In his mind's eye he saw a picture of that +bit of the bluff where he believed the tragedy had taken place. + +He whirled suddenly, with a prayer upon his lips, and dashed into the +shed adjoining Suz Montevedo's cottage. There upon a wooden peg hung +the coil of line he had seen the fisherman purchase at Cap'n Abe's +store a week ago, to reeve new halyards on the catboat, _Loretta_. + +In the corner stood a heavy crowbar. He flung the coil of rope over his +head and one shoulder, hoisted the iron bar to his other shoulder, and +thus burdened, staggered out into the storm again. The wind was really +an aid to him, for it was at first almost directly at his back. It +thrust him on, burden and all, at a furious pace. + +But its cant was toward the edge of the cliff, and he fought away from +that. How could Sue have kept her feet against such a tempest? It was a +mystery. 'Liphalet Truitt groaned again. Her frail body might even now +be tossing in the breakers against the shelving face of the high bank, +from the brow of which he tried at every few rods to peer down into the +tumbling, boiling sea. + +He arrived at the spot where he believed the doctor's sister had come +to grief. The snow and wind were both increasing in intensity. He could +see nothing at a distance of two yards. Nevertheless, he was assured +of his position. Here was where he had seen that mysterious spectral +figure in the storm. + +He stepped back at least two fathoms from the patrol path and drove the +point of the bar into the frozen earth. Again and again he thrust it +downward, with his weight behind each blow, until finally he could work +it around and around, sinking it into the sandy soil for as much as two +feet. + +The bar could not easily be drawn out, and he looped the end of the +line over it. This once secure, he allowed the slack of the line to run +free over the verge of the bluff. + +He would have shouted in vain. The thunder of the breakers and the +howling of the wind made a pandemonium above which no human voice could +rise. Had Sue Ambrose been within twenty feet of him, the man could not +have made her hear. + +Obsessed with the idea that she had been carried over the cliff, he +seized the line and lowered himself, hand under hand, down the break of +it. His head once below the brink, he was immediately out of the gale's +tumult. It roared above him as the sea roared below; but he was in a +calm, and having cleared his eyes with the back of one hand, could +look about. + +His feet had an unstable placement on the face of the pitched bank; +but the line gave him confidence. Here, ten feet below the brow of the +cliff, the flying spume from the bursting waves stung his cheek. Here +and there as his vision cleared he beheld patches of snow clinging to +the steep bank. Yonder was something on a narrow shelf that was not +snow. A dark figure--a human figure! Its garments fluttered in the +suction of the rifted air. + +"Sue! My God! Sue!" + +His cry was simultaneous with the mighty swing he gave his body, his +boots thrust against the crumbling bank. She lay a third of the way +down the bluff. The foam from the crests of the breakers saturated +her as they tore up the steep ascent. He swung to her side, landing +with both boots digging into the frozen sand for a foothold. She was +kneeling, her gloved hands clasped in prayer. His coming seemed to her +a direct answer to her petition. + +[Illustration: He swung to her side, landed with both boots digging +into the frozen sand for a foothold.] + +"'Liphalet! The good Lord has sent you to me!" she gasped, and he read +the words on her lips rather than heard them. + +"By Hannah! mebbe He did," responded 'Liphalet. "But I hadn't thought +on it that way till you said it, Susan. How did you get down here?" + +"I--I fell." + +"I thought likely," was his grim response. "And now we're goin' to +have somethin' of a time to scramble up again." + +"Is there nobody to help us, 'Liphalet?" + +"Ain't a soul stirring this weather. All sensible folks is to home," +was his mild criticism of her conduct in venturing forth. "Even the +station crew won't go on patrol before four o'clock. Ev'rybody but us +is as snug as hermit crabs. + +"But don't ye lose heart, Sue," he added cheerfully. "I'll git ye out +o' this all right." + +"I don't doubt it, 'Liphalet," she returned, clinging to his arm with +both hands and gazing expectantly into his face. + +The ex-steward was seriously tempted. The peril of their position +sloughed away from his mind for the moment. He gazed down into her +uplifted face and believed he saw there a response to his unspoken +desire. + +And then there swept over him, like the curtain of snow and sleet that +had buffeted him on the brow of the cliff, the chilling thought of that +forty thousand dollars! That fortune which she had hoarded--of which +she had evidently spent so little during these ten bitter years--parted +them. He could not bring himself into the appearance of being a fortune +hunter. + +He wished with all his heart and soul Sue Ambrose's money had fallen +with her down the face of the cliff. He would cut it loose and save her +for himself--letting the raging sea take toll of her hateful wealth! + +Already he was knotting the line under her arms in true reefer fashion. +He showed her by gesture as well as word of mouth, how to cling to him +as he climbed--actually setting her pickaback across his loins--so that +he might have both hands free. + +Miss Sue, though of almost childish figure, was no weakling. As for +'Liphalet, he silently thanked the Almighty his years of active life at +sea had toughened his muscles and sinews and steadied his mind against +times of stress. With his boots thrust against the broken, frosted +bank, he pulled himself and his burden upward by the sheer strength of +his arms, working his way hand above hand along the rope. + +Nor was the attempt without a certain heart-sickening peril. The shale +rattled from under his boots wherever he set them. The whole face of +the sand cliff was, at this point it seemed, as loose as ashes. Suppose +that bar, thrust into the earth above, should loosen! It might pull out +at any moment and cast them both into the ravening flood. + +Even as Eliphalet Truitt thought of this horrid possibility, a great +sea rose below them, burst, and the wash of it almost sucked them down. +Tons upon tons of earth were bitten out of the bank, and he was in +actual panic for the moment. Had he not come at the moment he had to +Sue's rescue, it would have been too late. The ledge on which she had +lain was engulfed. + +He climbed on. He could not see Miss Sue's features, but he knew her +lips whispered a prayer at his ear. + +"And who can gauge the height to which a good woman's prayer ascends?" +thought 'Liphalet, and was inspirited by the thought--and pressed on +mightily. + +His anxious gaze was fixed on the brow of the bank, into which the line +had so deeply cut. This upper section of the face of the cliff must +have been woefully weakened by the undermining of the sea that had +just broken around them. He expected momentarily to see the cliff for +yards on either hand topple outward and fall, overwhelming them in an +avalanche. + +It might be that the driving of the crowbar into the hard soil beyond +the patrol path was all that was needed to crack off a huge slice of +the cliff's edge. Its barren top had offered nothing upon which the +loop of the line could have been fixed. But he felt that he had done +his best, whatever came. + +Shrieking above them, the wind flung the sleet and snow yards beyond +the cliff's edge; therefore they were sheltered until he had climbed to +the very brow of the bank. He was almost breathless; he waited a few +seconds before essaying the final effort with which to drag himself +and his burden out upon the level ground. + +It was then that he felt the earth's first tremor. The face of the +cliff was actually heaving outward! + +The line slipped. He dropped with his burden for a foot or more. + +"She's goin'!" was 'Liphalet's gasped ejaculation, and he scrambled +desperately upward, determined to make the brink and safety with the +woman he loved. + + + + + CHAPTER XXVI + + CAP'N JONAH'S CHALLENGE + + +There was a satisfaction for Joe Helmford in his present mood, in +putting his head down, clenching his fists, and struggling with the +blowing sleet and snow as though the storm were an actual enemy. The +rather impassive, gentle-mannered young man craved action to appease +the turmoil aroused in his heart. + +Unlike 'Liphalet Truitt, who had allowed ten unfruitful years to drag +by while his heart and soul starved for the woman whose fortune kept +him at a distance, Helmford's young blood surged against the barrier he +was setting between himself and Pearl Holden. + +He wanted Pearl. He believed the girl had shown him as plainly as a +modest girl could, that she was interested in him. Hang Cap'n Jonah's +fortune! Was it to spoil his life and that of Pearl as well? + +Helmford desired to take Pearl away from her present environment and to +make her the object of his own care. He wanted her to come to him with +empty hands but a full heart. He was quite romantic enough to feel that +a single thought of the fortune which Cap'n Jonah had promised her, +would utterly spoil their happiness. + +As he pressed on down the Shell Road in the face of the gale, he +glanced in passing up the Petty lane. He saw no sign of life about the +house; but had he been a few minutes earlier he would have seen Tom +Petty, fresh from Cap'n Abe's store, black-browed and passion-inflamed, +stamp up the porch steps and burst into the kitchen where his mother +was cooking dinner and his father sat reading the Paulmouth _Argus_. + +But Helmford did meet Cap'n Jonah as he issued from the store and was +about to head homeward. + +"Well, well!" was the master mariner's greeting, "you're a fine feller. +Where have you been keepin' yourself? And why in tarnation did you cut +your cable and put to sea as you did? Do you s'pose you ain't got any +friends--or don't you want any?" + +"Why, Cap'n Jonah," said Helmford, leading the old man into the shelter +of one of Cap'n Abe's sheds, "I had no intention of ignoring you. I +fancied you would hear all about it from the Pettys and--and Miss +Pearl." + +"Pearly? What does she know about it? She says you never told her you +were goin' to leave. And Sarah Petty's ne'er mentioned your name from +that day to this." + +"Didn't Miss Pearl tell you of what happened yonder on the road, when +she was coming home from church?" + +"The night before you slipped your moorings? Nary a word," declared +Cap'n Jonah, emphatically. + +Helmford was rather taken aback. If Pearl had not told the old seaman +of the incident perhaps she did not want it mentioned to him. Just how +much the girl might be attached to Tom Petty, rough and uncouth as he +was, Helmford did not know. + +"Come now!" exclaimed Cap'n Jonah. "Let's hear the whole on't. I +thought that gal was keepin' something back, but I didn't know what +'twas. You an' she didn't have no quarrel?" + +"Pearl and I? Certainly not!" replied Helmford indignantly. Then he +smiled grimly. "But I did have a brief set-to with Tom Petty." + +"Whatever!" ejaculated Cap'n Jonah. "And you let that lout put you out?" + +"I put myself out. I did not care to remain and quarrel with him +continually--as I should." + +"'Hem! Ye-as. I expect there might ha' been bad blood 'twixt you. Over +Pearly, of course." + +"Now, Cap'n Hand," interrupted Helmford emphatically. "I will not +discuss Miss Pearl's private affairs at all. It is not my business to +do so. You have told me that you intend making her the beneficiary +of your will. Whatever my personal regard may be for Miss Pearl that +fact, in itself, would preclude my being a rival of Tom Petty's for her +favor----" + +"Hoity-toity!" ejaculated Cap'n Jonah. "The kettle _has_ b'iled over +for a fac'! Air you another loony feller like Life Truitt? Afraid of a +woman if she has a little tad of money?" + +"At least, I respect myself--and Miss Pearl--too much to have it said +that I address her because she expects to possess your fortune, Cap'n +Jonah, when you are gone. Tom Petty has already accused me of that." + +"And what did you say to him?" demanded the old man. + +"I didn't say much. I knocked him down," confessed Helmford. + +"Whew!" whistled the captain, his eyes snapping with excitement "I'd +like to have seen you do that. And I bet Pearly would too!" + +"She did." + +"She was there an' saw the fracas?" + +"It wasn't a fracas," explained Helmford, rather shamefaced. "He tried +to hit me with a club, and I got at him first. That's all." + +"And Pearly saw it? With her own eyes? How'd she act?" demanded the +eager captain. + +"She--she cried. Of course she was frightened," the young man said, +somewhat puzzled by the other's questions. + +"'Hem! She didn't throw herself on Tom an' cry 'cause you'd fetched him +a wallop?" + +"Certainly not!" exclaimed Helmford somewhat angrily. + +"Looks, then," observed Cap'n Jonah shrewdly, "as though she wasn't +much int'rested in Tom. Dunno how she could be. I reckon you air no +rival of his'n----" + +"If you please, Cap'n Hand," interrupted Helmford gruffly, "we will not +discuss the matter at all. Miss Pearl is not for me. She should marry a +man of equal fortune." + +He turned abruptly, and instead of entering the store as had been his +intention, he stormed along the road and up the easy ascent toward +Tapp Point and the exposed sand cliff beyond which, at that moment, +'Liphalet Truitt was searching for Sue Ambrose. + +Cap'n Jonah allowed the young man to go without further speech; but +he watched him out of sight in the driving snow, shaking his head +thoughtfully. + +"Whatever!" he muttered. "Dern the fortune, anyway! Looks as though +'twas a boomerang. If them phony sheers sarves to keep them two young +folks apart, then I have made a mess, and no mistake!" + +He was only half an hour or so behind Tom in reaching the house. +But that half hour had served to change the atmosphere of the Petty +household from that of cheerful complacency to one of fierce and eager +antagonism to Cap'n Jonah. + +Tom had brought into the kitchen something worse than the snow that +stuck to his boots, although his mother had first of all begun to scold +about that. + +"What's got into you, Tom Petty? Don't you know enough to stomp your +boots in the porch? One would think you was born and brought up in a +barn," fretted Sarah. "If you air goin' to be a rich man some day, you +better l'arn how to behave nice." + +"Rich!" exploded her son, finally getting his breath. "Who's goin' to +make me rich, I want to know?" + +"Your Uncle Jonah," said Sarah placidly. "If you manage to behave +yourself." + +"Uncle Jonah! That consarned old cheat?" bawled Tom, so angry that he +all but choked. + +"What is the matter with you, Tom?" demanded his father, laying down +his paper. "What's bitin' of you now, I want to know?" + +"That dod-rotted old cheat!" began Tom again, when his mother +interrupted him with: + +"Now, Tom Petty! I won't hear you use sech language about your uncle. +What mess have you managed to stir up?" + +"I tell you what I have been doin'," vouchsafed the lout, his voice +trembling, his face inflamed. "I've been listenin' to Cap'n Cheatin' +Jonah and Abram Silt chucklin' over the way they've fooled us all--an' +ev'rybody else 'round here. You might have known when this old +sea-devil was so almighty thick with Abe Silt that they'd cook up +something----" + +"What do you mean, Tom Petty?" + +Sarah's voice rose almost to a shriek. She started for Tom, her green +eyes snapping, her fingers crooked like talons. Her rage was that of +the feline. Tom actually retreated from her threatening front. + +"I mean that old scoundrel ain't got scurce a cent to bless himself +with. I heard him say it!" Tom panted. + +"Goshamighty!" gasped Orrin. + +"What d'ye mean? Them securities you told us about?" demanded Sarah. + +"Was phony--make-believe. He just said so. He an' Cap'n Abe hatched it +all up to fool you--so you'd treat him nice, an' treat Pearly nice." + +"I can't believe it!" wailed Orrin weakly. + +"If you air tryin' to fool us, Tom Petty, with one o' your silly +jokes," declared his mother, "I'll near 'bout kill you!" + +"I tell you we've been done--an' done good. That box was sent over from +the bank for a joke. Cap'n Abe engineered it all, you bet! And you give +this old sea-robin your parlor, and fed him up, and made much of him, +and showed him off to Uncle 'Poley and Uncle Perse, an' the rest----" + +"You shet your mouth!" commanded Sarah. Her face was as inflamed as his +own. Her sharp features threatened dire work. Her lips, drawn back from +her ragged teeth, were sprayed with foam like those of a maddened wolf. + +Pearl, who had been doing the upstairs work, entered the kitchen on +this tableau. With one accord the three Pettys turned upon her. Tom, in +a single stride, reached the girl's side and seized her by the wrist +with a grip that brought a cry of pain from her lips. + +"Here's one that knew it all the time, I bet my hat!" growled the son. + +"The ungrateful little baggage!" snarled Sarah, coming at Pearl from +the other side. + +Orrin had risen, and now leaned over the table, his hairy fists +clenched and resting on it, his eyes glaring under penthouse brows. + +Their attack was so sudden--so unexpected after the recent treatment +they had accorded her--that Pearl was made speechless. + +She had been about to slip into her coat, throw a hood over her hair, +and venture up to the chapel to see if the committee on decorations +had gathered there. She had not forgotten that Helmford had promised to +help, and the girl hoped to meet him. + +"Let me go, Tom Petty!" she demanded, dropping her outdoor garments and +trying to break away from his rough grasp. + +Sarah seized the girl's other arm and twisted it spitefully. + +"Tell me!" hissed the woman. "Have you knowed this all along, you +little viper, you? Tell me!" + +She shook Pearl one way. Tom shook her another. Orrin demanded from +across the table: + +"Answer us! Is this here true? Has that old whelp been foolin' us? +Ain't Cap'n Jonah got no fortune?" + +"Cap'n Jonah?" + +Pearl gasped the name as the door was flung open allowing the old +seaman and, seemingly, a good part of the storm, to enter. It was such +a furious blast that accompanied Cap'n Jonah into the kitchen that he +had to put his back against the door and so force it shut against wind +and snow. + +He cleared his eyes with the back of his hand. He beheld the three +Pettys surrounding the girl with an astonishment that turned instantly +to indignation. + +"Belay there!" he commanded. "What do you folks mean to do to that +gal? Ain't I told you what I'd do if you didn't stop pickin' on her? +Belay all! What d'you mean?" + +Sarah flung around on him, her eyes fairly sparking. "Ah! Here ye be!" +she cried. "You're the rich Jonah Hand, I hear tell? You got a box full +of securities and money, I wouldn't wonder? _And who loaned 'em to +you?_" + +Cap'n Jonah was, for the moment, staggered. But he was already leaning +against the door for support and his grim old mahogany face showed no +flicker of emotion as he listened to his niece's tirade. + +"We know all about it now, you pauper!" the woman cried. "Comin' here +an' deceivin' your own blood rel'tives. Livin' on our bounty an' makin' +a show out'n us that has give ye bit an' sup." + +"Easy! Easy!" murmured Cap'n Jonah, grim-lipped. "Ye ain't lost nothin' +by _me_, Sarah Petty." + +"Shet up!" she shrieked at him. "I've been slavin' for you--ev'rybody +knows it. Aunt 'Poley, an' Aunt Perse seen it. Miz Enoch Petty said I +was a fool to do so much for any old tramp of a sailor----" + +"Sarah Petty!" Cap'n Jonah's voice thundered through the room and +silenced the woman. He was no longer aghast at the discovery the Pettys +had made. His commanding voice and manner held his three relatives in +abeyance as though he were speaking from his quarterdeck. + +"Sarah Petty, I am your father's brother. There was a time, as you well +know, when poor John--and you and your mother--might have been cast on +a lee shore if it hadn't been for me standin' by an' seein' that you +weathered the storm. + +"If I had come to you when I landed here from China and demanded that +you take me in and do for me, 'twould ha' been no more than right, as +you know, Sarah Petty. As 'tis, I don't owe you nothin'. + +"If you let yourself be fooled into believin' I was a wealthy man, you +done it easy. _I never said I was!_ + +"I've paid you every cent I agreed to for board and lodgin'--_an'_ +wash. My money is jest as good somewhere else, I reckon, as 'tis here, +as long as it lasts. I'd ruther go to strangers and hire my keep from +'em, than stay under _your_ roof, Sarah Petty, on any terms. I'll go +now. I'll find a shelter somewhere and send for my duffel." + +He thumped his cane resoundingly on the floor and wheeled toward the +door again. Pearl started toward him, both hands held out appealingly: + +"Oh, Cap'n Jonah!" + +"Pick up your coat, gal," Cap'n Jonah said firmly. "You come along +o' me, if you will. I'll not leave you here to be hounded by these +Pettys. Whether I've got money or not, I guarantee we can make a home +together, an' 'twill be a peaceful one--that's whatever! + +"I ain't on my last legs yet. I'm as good a man as Washy Gallup is, +barrin' when the rheumatiz gets me. I can airn a dollar yet--an' so can +you. Will you come along o' me, Pearly--an' take potluck?" + +She was already struggling into her coat. She was laughing and crying +together. + +"Oh, Cap'n Jonah! Oh, Cap'n Jonah. You make me happier than I've been +for a long while back. I wouldn't be afraid to start out with you right +now for a voyage around the world!" + +"That's the talk!" cried the stout-hearted old mariner. "We'll show +'em, Pearly--you an' me." + +He tore the door open. He pulled his southwester more firmly over his +ears. He took Pearl's arm within the crook of his own. The two marched +out of the Petty kitchen and were almost instantly swallowed in the +smother of the storm. + + + + + CHAPTER XXVII + + A RIFT IN THE CLOUDS + + +This was no day to wander about out of doors, either for pleasure or +exercise. Nor was Joe Helmford bent on either. Nevertheless he kept +on along the deserted road on which the summer colony houses fronted, +until he had passed the wall and gates of the Tapp estate. + +There, as he confronted the waste of the wind-swept bluff, he halted as +'Liphalet Truitt had halted, to peer ahead. Now and then a rift in the +storm revealed to him the ugly, narrow pathway beaten hard by the feet +of the life saving patrol. + +As 'Liphalet had caught a glimpse of a snow wraith in the storm, so Joe +Helmford chanced to see a figure stand out clearly upon the brink of +the cliff, and for a single moment. + +"What's that fellow doing there?" exclaimed the young man. And then: +"Great heavens! he's gone over." + +For in that flash, before the snow curtain shut down again, he had seen +'Liphalet Truitt slide over the brink of the cliff and, clinging to Suz +Montevedo's new line, drop out of sight. + +There was no hesitation in Joe Helmford's actions at this juncture. +Putting away those troubles which had obsessed his mind, in an instant +he was alive to the peril of the man--if it were a man--he had seen +go over the edge of the cliff. He started for the spot, charging +recklessly through the storm. + +He was familiar with this surfman's path. In this direction lay Salt +Creek and the fish hatchery. + +In a few breathless minutes he came stumbling to the spot. He could not +miss it, for he tripped and fell, sprawling across the taut halyard +which was looped over the crowbar. The crowbar was canted forward +toward the cliff's brink and the frozen ground all about it was broken +and loose. + +Helmford heard no cry from below; but he saw the rope slipping and +realized that there was a burden on it that was doomed, unless he +interfered, to be dashed into the breakers clawing so madly at the face +of the bluff. + +With a shout he leaped upon the slipping hemp with both feet, just as +the crowbar tore loose. That was the moment when 'Liphalet Truitt felt +himself and Miss Sue drop a sudden, nerve-racking foot down the wall of +the precipice. + +"She's goin'!" the ex-steward repeated as the broken earth rattled +about them. That an avalanche had started--that the entire face of the +cliff was about to fall into the sea--he had little doubt. He tore his +hands painfully in lifting himself and Miss Sue up again to the edge of +the caving bank. + +They would never have made it had not two muscular hands seized +'Liphalet's coat collar and dragged him up to the path. He lost the +rope, scrambling blindly on hands and knees, the woman still clinging +to him. The crowbar broke loose entirely and, with the rope, hurtled +over the brink of the cliff. + +With a burst of sound that rose above the clamor of both gale and sea, +the landslip broke away from the brow of the precipice. The men and the +woman almost hung over the ragged break for an instant. Then Helmford +pulled the others farther in and raised Miss Sue gently to her feet. + +"Miss Sue? Great heavens!" cried the young fellow. "What does this +mean?" + +"By Hannah!" ejaculated the ex-steward, scrambling up, "there goes old +Suz Montevedo's new line and crowbar." + +"Oh, 'Liphalet!" cried Miss Sue. "Are we safe?" + +"You ain't--not yet," he declared. "Nor you won't be till we get you +home an' 'tween blankets. Who's this? By Hannah, 'tis Mr. Helmford! You +sartainly was a friend in need, Mr. Helmford. If it hadn't been for +your help we'd have gone down along o' the line _an'_ the crowbar." + +"How can we thank him?" murmured Miss Sue, still clinging to +'Liphalet's coat sleeve. + +"You can postpone that," laughed Helmford, experiencing a great +revulsion of feeling. "We must take her right along to Cap'n Abe's +store, 'Liphalet. That is about the nearest shelter, isn't it?" + +"It's the best place, anyhow," said the ex-steward. "We can get a buggy +to get her home in, from there." + +"Oh, I can walk, 'Liphalet," said the little woman softly. + +But she was thankful for the support of a strong arm on either side as +they started along the path with the gale behind them. + +"This experience, Susan, is enough to give you your never git over," +said the anxious 'Liphalet. + +"Why, I'm neither sugar nor salt, 'Liphalet. I have the use of my limbs +yet. And there's a lot to do to-day. There's the chapel to trim yet, +and the Christmas tree." + +"Christmas----" He could not say it. The disgusted snort which had +become almost an involuntary ejaculation when he was reminded of the +Yuletide season, was cut off on his lips as Miss Sue continued: + +"Were you not going to the chapel to help, Mr. Helmford? I asked Pearly +to go and take charge." + +"She was not there an hour ago," the young man replied, his countenance +falling into somber lines again. "In fact, nobody was there. I got the +key from 'Liphalet's porch and unlocked the vestry door and lit the +fire. But nobody came." + +"Dear me! I must see about that," Miss Sue said more briskly. "I wonder +where Pearly can be?" + +They were glad to get into the partial shelter of I. Tapp's wall and +there take breath. Helmford suggested that Miss Sue stop at Mrs. +Lawford Tapp's to rest, but she would not hear to this. + +"I was Cape born and raised, and there's no difference between me and +my forebears save that I have lived a little softer," she declared. "If +it was Betty Gallup you boys had saved from death, would you expect her +to faint on your hands?" + +"'The Able Seaman'?" chuckled Helmford. "No, Miss Ambrose. I should not +expect Mrs. Gallup to display many of the ordinary feminine weaknesses." + +Nevertheless he and 'Liphalet all but carried Miss Sue between them +as far as Cap'n Abe's store. Here, as the trio approached through the +steadily falling snow, came Milt Baker and Amiel Perdue, bound homeward +for dinner. + +"What in tarnation!" ejaculated Milt, almost swallowing his usual cud +of Brown Mule in his amazement. "Life Truitt? And the Doc's sister? +Sufferin' swordfish! There ain't been no elopement, has there?" + +Fortunately the noise of the wind and sifting snow drowned most of this +unguarded speech, from Miss Sue's ears at least. But 'Liphalet heard +enough, and if a glance would have drowned the Shell Road humorist that +look with which the ex-steward favored Milt would certainly have sent +him to a watery grave. + +The exhausted trio stumbled into Cap'n Abe's store. The usual company +about the stove had scattered. They heard the storekeeper's voice from +the living room in the rear. 'Liphalet led the way to the flap in the +counter, which he lifted to let Miss Sue and Helmford pass through. + +As they crossed the entry between the store and the living room they +heard another voice in reply to Cap'n Abe's. The storm-beaten callers +came to the open door to see Cap'n Jonah and Pearl Holden with the old +store-keeper. Pearl had dropped into the rocking-chair usually favored +by Diddimus, the cat, and had a handkerchief to her eyes. But Cap'n +Jonah was on his feet, his southwester pushed back on his head, his +mahogany face alive with emotion, his snuff-box in his hand. + +"No, Mr. Silt, I warn't never cut out for actin' a part, I don't guess, +and it sarves me right. I'd never ought to have tried to fool them +Pettys into believin' I had a fortune when I ain't got none." + +"Sh!" warned Cap'n Abe, seeing the newly arrived visitors. + +Cap'n Jonah wheeled and saw them too. But his countenance did not +change from its stern and determined expression. + +"They might's well know it here an' now," he declared. "'Liphalet +does know, anyway. And I reckon young Helmford there thinks he has +reason to be glad I ain't got a fortune. Yes, friends, I been gullin' +all on you. I ain't got a penny but what I'm carryin' right now in my +pocket--there! I don't reckon there's a much poorer man on this here +Cape than Cap'n Jonah Hand." + +"Oh, Cap'n Hand!" cried Miss Sue in sympathy. She crossed to his side +and rested a gentle hand upon his coat sleeve. + +'Liphalet, from the doorway, saw and appreciated the picture they +made--the sturdy, stern-faced old seaman looking down upon the petite +Miss Sue with beaming eyes, while she gazed up into his face in full +sympathy for his misfortune. 'Liphalet Truitt had been stirred to the +very depths of his being during the past two hours; but the heart-pang +that smote him now was more severe than anything he had heretofore +suffered. + +Nobody noticed him as he retired from the living room and closed the +door. He passed out of Cap'n Abe's side door and went home. Once there +he stoked his dying fire, changed into dry garments, and made himself +a huge bowl of "composition tea"--a never-failing Cardhaven remedy in +case of chill. + +But the chill at 'Liphalet Truitt's heart was not so easily cured. + + * * * * * + +Cap'n Abe's and Miss Sue's attention for the moment was fully given to +Cap'n Jonah. But Helmford approached Pearl Holden's side. He stooped +and drew her hands from before her face and lifted her up by the wrists +to stand before him. + +"Is--is this true, Pearly?" he asked. "Is it really _so_? Hasn't Cap'n +Jonah a fortune?" + +"He--he says he hasn't!" she sobbed. + +"And are you disappointed? I am sorry, Pearl." + +"What you sorry for?" she demanded, raising dewy eyes to his. "Cap'n +Jonah is going to be all right. I can work for him if he gets laid up +by the rheumatism--and I'd be glad to. He's been awfully kind to me." + +"But you will be no heiress," Helmford said, smiling. + +"'Heiress'?" repeated Pearl. "What do you mean, Mr. Helmford? My! do +you s'pose I thought two minutes about Cap'n Jonah's fortune?" + +"But I have been thinking about it," the young man said. "And--forgive +me for saying it--I am glad you are not going to be rich, Pearly." + +She was still looking at him. They had forgotten the others in the +room. Now that the great moment had arrived Pearl Holden showed no +false modesty. + +"Why don't you want me to be rich?" she asked him. "Though goodness +knows, I never expect to be!" + +"Because _I_ am poor. And _I_ never expect to be rich," he said, his +voice shaking with suppressed feeling. "As you are not an heiress, +Pearly, I can tell you something that I have wanted to tell you for a +long while and have not dared. It is----" + +"Say!" exclaimed the harsh voice of Betty Gallup from the kitchen door. +"Shall I dish up the chowder for all hands, Cap'n Abe? It's sp'ilin' to +be et." + +"Sure-_ly_!" replied the hospitable storekeeper. "This ain't no time to +be starvin' ourselves. Bring it in, Betty. An' afterwards you git two +cabins ready upstairs for guests. Cap'n Jonah and Pearly can stay here +just as well's not till they git located to suit 'em. + +"Hi-mighty!" he added, rubbing his hands together, his benignant old +face glowing with kindliness. "I guess you'll find, Cap'n Jonah, that +you've got plenty friends along the Shell Road, if the Pettys _have_ +turned sour. But Orrin an' Sarah allus was near 'bout like vinegar, +when all's said an' done." + + + + + CHAPTER XXVIII + + ALL ABOUT A BAD SMELL + + +The three Pettys were not happy. Somehow Cap'n Jonah's defiance and +Pearl's joyful determination to put herself under the old mariner's +protection, quite took the taste out of any pleasure Sarah Petty might +have felt in seeing the two "paupers" start out into the storm. + +Orrin sank gloomily into his chair and openly groaned. The sand was +cut out from under him, and no mistake! The melting of Cap'n Jonah's +fortune was a catastrophe of overwhelming proportions. Orrin felt that +he would never get over it. + +It was the son who first found voice and energy to put his thoughts +into words. + +"There!" he croaked. "_Now_ you've done it, an' I hope you're +satisfied." + +"What's the matter with you, Tom Petty?" demanded his mother, +apprehending the young fellow's complaint before it was uttered. + +"You've driv' Pearly away. She ain't got no business going off with +that old sea-devil!" cried Tom. + +"Wal, what d'ye want her here for?" queried Sarah. "She ain't wuth her +salt no more. 'Twixt Uncle Jonah and that Helmford feller, they've nigh +'bout ruined her for work." + +"_Work?_" repeated Tom, with scorn. "That's all you ever think of--you +slave driver! I didn't want Pearl driv' out." + +"Why not? What's she to _you_--when she ain't goin' to have no money?" + +"She's my girl!" cried Tom hotly. "Or she would ha' been if it wasn't +for that consarned Helmford. And it's your fault he ever come here and +made trouble 'tween us." + +"Why, you talk foolish!" declared Sarah. + +"Is that so?" snarled the lout. "Well, I can tell you right now: If +Pearly's goin' to be turned out o' house an' home, so'm I. I'll go with +her." + +This ridiculous statement, however, did not make Sarah Petty smile. +After all, the woman's very soul was bound up in Tom. He could get his +way with her by such threats at any time. And she was broken in spirit +now. + +"You--you can't get her to come back," she stammered. + +"I can try," declared Tom. "And I'm goin' to. But you've got to promise +to be good to her. If I marry Pearl I ain't goin' to let her be your +slave no more." + +"You ain't married her yet," said Sarah pursing her lips tightly. + +"An' there's another thing," went on Tom, using the gaff without +mercy. "How about if Uncle Jonah turns on you with that old note of +gran'-pop's? He ain't forgot it. You can see that by what he just said +to you. He was throwin' it up to you. An' now it's proved he ain't got +a fortune, he'll try seeing what he can get out o' you." + +"You hesh up," commanded Sarah Petty, suddenly recovering her poise. +Orrin might be utterly helpless; but she had begun to think again. +Tom's point was well taken. She could only judge other people by her +own mind. That was the great lack in her character, after all. She +measured every other person by her own warped standard. + +It was possibly within Uncle Jonah's power to make the Pettys a great +deal of trouble. Even if the old note for two thousand dollars was +outlawed, if the old captain pressed the matter the fact would be made +public that Sarah Petty had not settled her father's just debts when +she had administered his estate. + +The Petty family--Uncles 'Poley, Perse, Solon and Enoch, and their +wives and connections--would hear all about it. Sarah was a social +climber. She had desired to use the prestige of Cap'n Jonah's supposed +fortune as a ladder on which to mount to the higher branches of the +family tree. + +There was nothing criminal in Sarah being deceived by the old sea +captain regarding his financial affairs. That was not her fault. But +if the story got abroad that she, after all, owed Cap'n Jonah all the +attention she had given him--and much more--the Harwich Pettys would +have something to say about it! + +Sarah Petty could better bear being laughed at for being fooled by +Cap'n Jonah, than be exposed as having cheated the old man out of +two thousand dollars. Her calmer thought compassed this fact almost +immediately. Shrewdly she readjusted her plans for the future. + +"Tom Petty," she said briskly, "you go after that gal. You bring +Pearl back here. She ain't got no right to leave us this-a-way in any +case, for we're her guardeens, made so by the 'thority of the town +_se_lectmen till she's eighteen." + +"You want I should spoil ev'rything," her son complained. "If I try to +order her back----" + +"I didn't say so, did I?" snapped his mother. "We've got a hold on her +just the same. But that's our last resort. You find Pearl an' tell her +to come back. You be nice to her. If you want to marry the girl your +father and I ain't got no objections. She's a fav'rite of Uncle Jonah +Hand. A blind man can see that. And he won't do nothin' that'll hurt +her or her'n. D'ye see? If Pearl an' you marry, he won't press no old +note against this estate that's a-comin' to you some day. That is sure." + +"I dunno can I git her back," grumbled Tom, buttoning his coat again. +"But I'll find out where she's goin' and what she's goin' to do." + +"You can look in at Abe Silt's store," said his mother, sharply. "If +that old tramp's such good friends with Silt, that's where he an' +Pearl's gone." + +Tom thought this very likely, and he made the store his destination. +It seemed as though the storm was abating; but Tom Petty was so deeply +engaged in thought that he paid slight attention to the weather. + +The lout had come to a juncture where he could no longer shift the +burden of decision to other shoulders, or postpone settlement of this +question until a future time. The shock of Pearl deliberately leaving +the house with Cap'n Jonah had roused him to at least one fact. + +He cared a great deal for the girl. His was an utterly selfish love; +but such as it was, it was the very best imitation of affection that +Tom Petty would probably ever experience. + +To his mind Joe Helmford was but a passing fancy of Pearl's. Of course, +in the end, he, Tom, would get her. It was foreordained. They had lived +in such close companionship for so many years that he could imagine no +change. That was why her actual departure had so shocked him. + +Now he was going after her. He never considered that she might not +return home with him. Why, any other outcome of his attempt he did not +contemplate for a moment! He had bullied Pearl for so long that he +expected to keep on doing so indefinitely. Pearl was "easy." That was +the way Tom Petty expressed it to himself. + +He did not enter Cap'n Abe's store, but went around the house to the +kitchen door, expecting to find Betty Gallup there and learn from her +how the land lay. It was not Mrs. Gallup, however, who came to the door +in answer to his knuckles on the panel. + +"Tom Petty!" + +"Hi, Pearly!" the youth greeted her, calling up a grin. "Marm wants you +should come home." + +"I'm never going back to your house again, Tom Petty, only to get my +things." + +"Now, don't say that, Pearly," the young fellow went on, very mildly +for him. "You don't want to be mean. Marm never said for you to go----" + +"I came away with Cap'n Jonah on my own hook," she agreed. "And I'm not +going back." + +"Aw, yes you will," Tom repeated. "You know how much I like you, +Pearly. I couldn't get along without you--no two ways about it! You +got to stop this foolishness and come home. That old feller ain't got +nothin'. He can't look out for himself, let alone do anything for you. +And Helmford wouldn't look at you, you know well enough, if he didn't +think you was goin' to be rich. Come on home, now." + +"I won't!" + +He thought she was about to close the door. Tom Petty had never learned +patience, and his appearance of gentleness was only a veneer. His right +hand shot out and he caught the girl's slim wrist. He jerked her out +upon the step. + +"You come home along o' me and stop your foolishness," he growled. "Do +you hear me, Pearly?" + +She struggled to escape. With her free hand she struck him across his +inflamed and ugly face. She cried out as he forced her down the steps +into the beating storm. + +"Stop! Stop, Tom Petty! I won't go home with you!" she cried. + +Around the corner of the kitchen ell charged Joe Helmford--the very +person Pearl most desired to see. + +"Let her alone!" commanded the man fiercely. + +Tom turned on him, snarling. He was so enraged that he forgot for the +moment to be afraid. Helmford stripped off his beclouded spectacles and +handed them to Pearl. He unbelted and dropped his Mackinaw at his feet. + +"Look out for yourself, Tom Petty!" he said threateningly. "I am going +to give you what you have been suffering for ever since you got too big +for your mother to spank." + +They were not unevenly matched as to height and weight. Tom's muscles +were fully as well developed, and he was as supple as his antagonist. +In a rough and tumble fight he might even have been Helmford's superior. + +But the latter would not allow the lout to get a wrestler's hold upon +him. As Tom charged, Helmford stepped nimbly aside and drove his fist +into Tom's face. Had the latter been wise he would have let that blow +begin and finish the battle. But such courage as the lout owned was +roused by the smart of the blow. + +His face was a mask of blood as he rushed for Helmford a second time. +His antagonist met this onslaught fairly. His hard and capable fists +drove in with all the weight of his shoulders behind them, while Tom +pawed the air blindly with clutching hands. + +Tom could not reach his opponent at all; but it was several moments +and he was a desperately bruised young man, before this truth came +fully home to him. His own arms flung like flails, but to no purpose. +Helmford reached his bruised face and battered it with such lusty blows +that Tom thought his antagonist must have more than the usual number of +fists. + +Petty staggered; he slipped; he fell to his knees; he got up again. +While all the time the blows rained upon him and he was blinded. He +began to bleat like a calf in the grip of the butcher. He could not +escape. + +Finally arrived the last and merciful blow--Helmford's right to the +point of the jaw. Tom was felled and lay there in the snow, for the +moment quite unable to realize where he was or what had happened to him. + +When he actually came to his senses Joe Helmford had taken Pearl away. +They had been ready, as it was, to accompany Miss Sue to the chapel to +trim the Christmas tree. But the storekeeper, Cap'n Jonah, and Betty +Gallup, were grouped about the fallen lout, and were staring at him. + +"I tell ye what 'tis," the able seaman said, in her jerky and emphatic +way, "once in a while one o' these city fellers does somethin' that ye +hafter admire 'em for. Who'd ha' thought Mr. Helmford, whose business +'tis, _he_ says, to teach fishes to hatch their aigs, had so much in +him? Why, this Tom Petty's been sufferin' for this beatin' for years, +an' there ain't been a loafer around this store with public sperit +enough to do it." + +Nevertheless it was Betty Gallup who helped the dazed youth to his +feet and assisted him into the house and made him lie down upon Cap'n +Abe's lounge in the living room. She brought warm water and laved his +bruised face. And she brought vinegar and brown paper and put a patch +on his inflamed eye. + +"Now you lay up here as long as you feel like, Tom Petty," Mrs. Gallup +said, as she cleared the table of the dinner dishes. "Mischief's done +now, and you can't better it. Folks is bound to know you got licked, +for your hull face advertises the fac'." + +The storm kept many customers from interrupting Cap'n Abe, although the +wind was moderating. He sat with Cap'n Jonah in the living room and +discussed the latter's financial affairs more earnestly than heretofore. + +"You say this here money you got in your wallet is all you got in the +world, Cap'n Hand?" + +"Whatever! Nor no more to be had," said Cap'n Jonah. "I got some ile +sheers--but, pshaw! They ain't nothin'." + +"What air them sheers?" demanded Cap'n Abe, suddenly. "Better take +stock of ev'rythin', as the feller said when he listed the litter of +kittens in the sheriff's sale. I was readin' in the _Globe_ paper only +this mornin'----" + +He got up and brought the Boston paper from the rack on the wall. +Unfolding it he found the financial page and pointed a horny forefinger +to the heading of an article there printed. + +"What's this here?" Cap'n Abe asked. "Where's my readin' specs? Never +can find 'em when they air wanted." + +"On your forehead like they always be," said Cap'n Jonah, taking the +paper after having adjusted his own eyeglasses. "'Hem! Whatever! What +d'you make of this, Mr. Silt? Why, them's the very sheers! The Little +Sandy Oil and Coal Company." + +"Lemme see!" said Cap'n Abe eagerly, having twitched his silver-bowed +spectacles astride his nose. "D'you mean to say, Cap'n Hand, that you +got some o' them Little Sandy sheers?" + +"Abe Silt!" ejaculated Cap'n Jonah, almost breathless. "I got two +thousand of 'em! Right here in my pocket! D'you s'pose they can be the +same?" + +"'Little Sandy Oil and Coal Company,'" read Cap'n Abe, slowly. "'Lay +dormant many years.' 'Outskirts of the thriving city of Decatur.' My +soul, Cap'n Hand!" + +"Why," said the other, "they told me two year ago that all they ever +got out o' them wells they drove, was a bad smell." + +"Hi-mighty!" shouted Cap'n Abe, slapping his knee in high delight. +"That's exactly what they did git! Nateral gas! D'you know what that +is, Cap'n Hand? Why, it means they air piping that 'nasty smell' you +speak of into the city of Decatur, an' sellin' it to light _an'_ heat +houses. What d'ye know 'bout that?" + +"Whatever!" gasped Cap'n Jonah. + +"How many of them sheers you got?" demanded the excited storekeeper. + +Cap'n Jonah dragged from the breast pocket of his pilot coat a long +envelope, much stained and worn. From this he produced the ornate +certificate of the Little Sandy Oil and Coal Company, which stated upon +its face that he was the owner of two thousand shares in the capital +stock of the concern. A third pair of eyes, one very much "bunged up" +at present, stared at the certificate. Tom Petty had seen that document +before! + +"Two thousand!" murmured Cap't Abe. "Hi-mighty! Look here! This paper +says the sheers have gone to fifteen dollars already. By the great jib +boom, Cap'n Hand! That there document in your hand is worth thirty +thousand dollars!" + +Cap'n Jonah stared at the storekeeper in utter bewilderment at first. +He repeated slowly: "Thirty thousand dollars? Whatever!" + +"There's your fortune, Cap'n Hand!" cried the storekeeper in vast +delight. "An' a fortune that's wuth while. You needn't worry about the +Pettys no more. Nor about Pearly----" + +"Belay all!" gasped Cap'n Jonah, hoarsely, and laying a restraining +hand on the storekeeper's knee. "Don't say a word to nobody." + +"Huh?" + +"Not a word," repeated Cap'n Jonah, sternly. "I don't want folks to +know about _this_ fortune. Above all, don't let that fish trainer, +Helmford, hear a word about it. For if he does, like as not he'll slip +his moorings again and run out to sea. He's got a fool conviction, +like 'Liphalet Truitt, that if a woman's got a little tad of money, he +mustn't marry her." + +He turned quickly to cast a suspicious glance at Tom Petty. The +battered youth had fallen back on the pillow and his eyes were closed. +To tell the truth, Tom was pretty near all in! + + + + + CHAPTER XXIX + + CHRISTMAS EVE AT CAP'N ABE'S + + +The gale abated toward evening. The sky was clearing when 'Liphalet +Truitt came out of his door and started down the Shell Road toward the +store. + +It was more habit than anything else that took him to Cap'n Abe's. +The cloud that had for these past few weeks overshadowed the lonely +bachelor who dwelt beside the Mariner's Chapel, rested more heavily +than ever upon his mind and heart this Christmas Eve. + +His perilous adventure with Miss Sue that afternoon had racked his soul +more than it had his body. As they had clung together there in the +storm on the face of the precipice, he felt that so they should cling +together against all the buffetings of life. + +But fate cruelly separated them. Sue's fortune kept them apart. He +shrank from having the neighbors point him out as a money-seeker--a man +who had married a woman for her fortune. And in addition, there was +Cap'n Jonah Hand--a much more masterful man than the ex-steward--who +had seemed to take Miss Sue by storm. The picture he had last seen in +Cap'n Abe's living room, when the doctor's sister had run to sympathize +with the unmasked captain, was etched upon 'Liphalet's memory so deeply +that he believed he could never forget it. + +Yet he felt no hatred in his heart for Miss Sue. He absolved her now of +any blame for his unhappiness. Life Truitt was coming to his senses! + +Sue Ambrose was worthy of the love of the best man who ever lived! +Forty thousand dollars was as nothing beside her intrinsic value +as a woman and a companion for a lonely man. 'Liphalet wished with +all his heart--as he had wished a thousand times before--that Sue's +anti-suffragist relative had left her money elsewhere. Then no +man--Cap'n Jonah, or anybody else--would have beaten him to the goal +that had been so long set before him. + +He had enough money for them both--enough and to spare. It troubled him +now, as it had before, that Sue should have accepted the forty thousand +dollars as a bribe not to exercise her right of franchise. + +To tell the truth 'Liphalet did not think well of woman suffrage. He +was satisfied that Miss Sue did not appear to hold "votes for women" in +high regard. But it would have delighted him had Miss Sue walked into +the polling place on election day and voted, thus throwing her legacy +away. + +So he tramped down the Shell Road in a gloomy frame of mind indeed on +this Christmas Eve; and upon entering into the warmth and light and +bustle of Cap'n Abe's store was as much in the doldrums as ever. + +The greetings showered upon him from those present, men and women +alike, were heartier than usual. Why! it seemed just as though they +were waiting for 'Liphalet's appearance. "Just for what they hope to +get out of you," the devil of distrust again whispered in his ear. + +But for some reason this wicked voice was not so strong as before. +'Liphalet had begun to doubt. Since his adventure with Miss Sue on the +cliff he had lost much of that pessimism that had for so long held sway +in his mind. + +The cheerful smiles, the hearty greetings one to another as the +neighbors entered, began to impress more deeply the apostate Santa +Claus. Retiring to an upturned nail keg behind the stove, 'Liphalet +tried again to wrap himself in gloom. He felt meaner than he had ever +felt before in all his life. + +Here was more than half the congregation of the Mariner's Chapel +gathered in the Shell Road store. Every one had a pleasant word +or smile for him. They sought the ex-steward out to show their +friendliness. They had been looking to him for generous assistance +in the yearly entertainment now but twenty-four hours off, and he had +determined to disappoint and to flout them. + +The apostate Santa Claus began to feel remorse and misgiving, such +as had never been his portion before. He felt he had never done as +mean a thing in all his career as he was doing now. Aside from the +disappointment of the grown members of the congregation, how would +the children feel? 'Liphalet Truitt, in padded and cottonwool trimmed +garments, was always a delight to the children at the Christmas tree +celebration. His unfailing pack and his appropriate words for each +child were looked forward to for months. + +And he purposed to disappoint them all--his adult friends and +neighbors, as well as the children; Cap'n Abe himself; Cap'n Joab; +Washy Gallup; Milt and Amiel, the local buffoons; even Cap'n Jonah Hand +and Mr. Helmford. They were all here and smiling at a man who began to +feel himself to be the very meanest person upon the entire reach of +Cape Cod. + +Suddenly from Cap'n Abe's living room behind the store sounded the +opening bars of the "Fisher's Hornpipe" played on a fiddle and played +better than 'Liphalet had ever heard it rendered before. He sat up +straighter, his ears pricked, and his eyes began to glisten. + +A silence had fallen upon the thronged store. 'Liphalet did not notice +now the smiling and significant glances cast in his direction. He was +attending with all his music-loving soul to the medley of old-time +sea-ditties that the master violinist was playing. + +"By Hannah! who's that fiddling?" gasped 'Liphalet, as the music ceased. + +A moment's pause. Then rose the air of "Black-Eyed Susan" played by +what the deeply moved ex-steward would have called a "brass band." + +The orchestral accompaniment died to a murmur and a voice took up the +old song--a woman's voice so sweet, so compelling, that it tugged at +'Liphalet Truitt's heartstrings. When the song ceased the apostate +Santa Claus found himself on his feet with his hat in his hand and +unwonted moisture in his eyes. + +The grizzled old storekeeper appeared at the door. "Come in here, +'Liphalet," he said, lifting the flap of the counter and beckoning to +the entranced man. "Got somethin' to show ye." + +'Liphalet followed him unsteadily. The thrilling notes of the singer's +voice still rang in his ears. He did not see that the whole storeful +of his neighbors and friends were crowding, giggling and whispering, +behind him into Cap'n Abe's sitting room. + +The homely furnishings of the place, where the table was always set +for the expected guest, was sufficiently illuminated by a big hanging +lamp. What held 'Liphalet's attention was a handsome cabinet-sized +talking machine, with its cover raised, which stood directly under the +empty birdcage hanging in the farther window. + +"By Hannah!" murmured the bemused 'Liphalet, "I wondered who Perry +Baker was a-takin' that machine to." + +"You don't know now," said Cap'n Abe dryly. + +He waited for his audience to crowd into the room behind the puzzled +'Liphalet. The storekeeper never allowed an opportunity to slip for an +impressive oratorical flight. + +"Hum!" said Cap'n Abe. "We're gathered here to-night, as ye might say, +for one o' the pleasantest occasions that it's ever been my privilege +to take part in. It ain't often in this rough an' ready life of +our'n, friends, that we are able to show fittingly our appreciation +of a neighbor's character. And it ain't often, either, that we find a +neighbor whose character is worthy of such appreciation as that which +we honor ourselves by honoring to-night." + +The storekeeper was getting in pretty deep, as he would have himself +admitted; but he struggled on bravely, and everybody save the +bewildered 'Liphalet understood. + +"We've got a man in our midst," went on Cap'n Abe, "who's proved +himself for some years a brother and a friend to every man, woman and +child up and down this Shell Road. There ain't a person in this here +room to whom he ain't done some lastin' favor, and in some cases, many +on 'em. + +"As this season of the year comes around--the most fittin' for us to +show love and gratitude because of Him who gave so much for us," added +Cap'n Abe reverently,--"it was suggested--I reckon it was a spontaneous +feelin' in all our hearts--that we give this man who had given of his +time and money and love to us, somethin' that should speak to him of +our appreciation--somethin' that should tell him, whenever he would, in +sorrow or in joy, how much we love him for what he is and for what he +has been to us." + +The old storekeeper's voice was husky. He cleared it with a vociferous +"Hum!" but could not go on. Therefore he stepped closer to the +talking machine. There was already a disc in place, and touching the +release-spring, this began to revolve. + +To the mellow accompaniment of an organ a male chorus began to croon, +"Should Auld Acquaintance Be Forgot?" The women were wiping their eyes +openly; the men looked straight ahead with set visages, as they did in +church when the minister told a moving incident. + +"'Liphalet Truitt," rose the trumpet call of the storekeeper's voice +above the melody of the old song, "your neighbors and well-wishers +ask me to present this here machine to you as a mark of their esteem +and love, as the feller said. And believe _me_," concluded Cap'n Abe, +whacking the amazed recipient heartily on his shoulder, "I ain't been +so willin' to do a job since Hector was a pup--an' Hector's a big dog +now!" + +There rose a general--and welcome--laugh at Cap'n Abe's little joke. +But there was no responsive smile upon 'Liphalet's visage. He stood +there as amazed and stunned an individual as there was on all of +storm-swept Cape Cod that night. + +"Hi-mighty!" exclaimed Cap'n Abe at last, "don't you like it?" + +"_Like it!_" + +The quotation was a vocal explosion. With it there overflowed from +'Liphalet's eyes the unbidden tears. The ice was broken in his soul, +and the apostate Santa Claus stood confessed before his neighbors. + +"I ain't able to tell ye," he said humbly, "how what you all have done +cuts me right down to the Plimsoll mark. I don't know but a little dip +to starbo'd or to larbo'd will founder me for fair. I got it into my +head that I--I was purty much alone in the world. I got a bitter taste +against humanity in my mouth----" + +"That's your liver, 'Liphalet, like I told you," put in Doctor Ambrose, +who had come in. + +"I made up my mind Christmas, and Christmas doin's, was all +foolishness," pursued 'Liphalet. "I just got a grouch on the whole +business. I said I wouldn't play Santa Claus for the young'uns no more, +or have anything to do with such didoes. + +"But I got to confess, brothers and sisters, that I just _had_ to go to +town same's usual and buy a bag full of toys an' sech and a new Santa +Claus suit. They're hid away in my garret! + +"An'--an' here you folks have gone to work and bought me this beautiful +music box----By Hannah! I don't desarve it!" cried the ex-steward +vigorously. "An' I don't desarve to be Santa Claus this year nor to +give out the presents as I used to. I--I ain't been in the Christmas +sperit----" + +"Christmas spirit your granny!" burst out Doctor Ambrose again, amidst +a general use of pocket handkerchiefs by the feminine part of the +audience. "You let me put you through a course of sprouts, and I'll +make you the most spirited Santa Claus that ever came down a cardboard +chimney!" + + + + + CHAPTER XXX + + "CHRISTMAS GIFT" + + +Eliphalet Truitt stumbled out of the Shell Road store a little later +with fingers tingling from the pressure of many friendly hands and with +tear-blinded eyes. Perhaps this latter fact was what caused him to all +but run into a much smaller craft on the wind-swept road. The clouds +were broken overhead and the moon, peering through, shed sufficient +light for the startled ex-steward to identify his vis-à-vis. + +"Sue? By Hannah! I reckoned you'd be 'twixt your blankets," he declared. + +"Oh, 'Liphalet!" she cried. "Pearly and I have been giving the last +touches to the Christmas tree. And Pearly----Why! where is she?" + +Miss Sue had not seen her companion dart ahead to join Helmford, who +had likewise come down the store steps. + +"Pearly's going to live with me, 'Liphalet--for a while at least. Cap'n +Jonah will stay with Cap'n Abe here at the store. But Pearly will need +somebody to help with her sewing--you know----" + +She halted with a blush that 'Liphalet did not see. Then, eagerly: "I +suppose Cap'n Abe presented the music box to you, 'Liphalet? I did not +mean to miss that. But I had to rouse out Washy Gallup and start him +over to old Suz Montevedo's for the night. The Ladies' Aid will find +watchers for poor Suz, turn about, until he is better." + +"By Hannah!" breathed the ex-steward looking hungrily into her face. +"You knowed about that music box the folks was getting me all the time, +didn't you, Susan?" + +"Oh, yes. And I thought you would surely suspect something that day in +front of the post-office when you saw it in Perry Baker's wagon." + +Her laugh, so low and mellow, thrilled him. Somehow he caught both of +her fluttering hands and she let them lie in his grasp. + +"Susan!" he said. + +"Yes, 'Liphalet," and her sweet eyes were suddenly raised boldly to his +own. + +"If you didn't have all that money----" + +"What money do you mean, 'Liphalet?" she asked, puzzled. + +"That fortune your A'nt Amy left you." + +"I--I haven't much of it left, you know, 'Liphalet. Only 'bout ninety +dollars." + +"_What?_" almost shouted the man. "Ninety dollars?" + +"Yes. You know, Aunt Amy left me a little over four hundred dollars. +I--I bought a dress, that I--I laid away, with part of it." The blush +was again hidden in the uncertain light of an uncertain moon. That +silver gray poplin, laid away in lavender, was the tenderest secret in +all Sue Ambrose's life. + +"Folks reported around," she hastened to add, "that the legacy was a +lot more. You know how stories grow in Cardhaven." + +"Grow! From four hundred to forty thousand? I should say! Why, Susan, +thinking you had all that money----" + +"Only four hundred dollars, 'Liphalet." + +"_Forty thousand!_ By Hannah! Has gossip cheated me out of this here +blessin' for goin' on ten year?" + +He held her in his arms right in the public road. He knew by the very +yielding of her body to his own what her answer was. With the clearing +of the tempest on this Christmas Eve had come the clearing up of all +mistakes and misapprehensions in their lives. + +A raucous "Ahem!" apprised them of the presence of somebody besides +Pearl and Helmford behind them. "Well, I vum!" ejaculated the voice of +Doctor Ambrose. "'Twan't your liver after all, 'Liphalet Truitt, that +was out of kilter. I see now 'twas your heart!" + +The dying gale chased tatters of cloud across the face of the moon. +Only now and then was the road lighted sufficiently for Helmford and +Pearl to see clearly the trio walking on ahead of them toward the +Ambrose cottage. Helmford and Pearl walked close together and slowly. +They were in that ecstatic state where the touch of a hand--even the +caress of their garments against each other--thrilled them. Pearl had +never dreamed, even under the inspiration of the tales in the _Ladies' +Home Provider_, that love was as sweet as this! + +"This has been one blessed--exciting--_astounding_ day, Pearly," +Helmford said. "How much has happened in a few hours! This morning I +thought----" + +"Yes?" she asked, as he hesitated, and giving a happy little skip as +she clung to his arm. "What did you think?" + +"I thought you were as far away from me as that moon up there." + +"My, how foolish of you!" breathed Pearl, yet delighted. "And just +because poor Uncle Jonah would give me some of his fortune." + +"All of it, he said," Helmford told her grimly. "A hundred thousand +dollars. That is a great sum, Pearl." + +"Is it?" she asked innocently. "It's not so much _when it's only in +your mind_." + +"And I'm glad you haven't got it--even in your mind, Pearly." + +"Why, say!" cried the girl, "I never thought about having money. Only a +little. If Cap'n Jonah really had a fortune to give me I wouldn't know +what to do with it. Look at Miss Sue. What does she do with all the +money folks say she's got? She can only eat so much, and drink so much, +and sleep in one bed at a time. Of course, she can wear better clothes +than I can. But, Joe," she added roguishly and peered up into his face +with sparkling eyes, "if you teach _lots_ of fishes to hatch eggs, the +Government will raise your pay, and then _you_ can buy all the dresses +I need or want, I am sure!" + +The moon drew a heavier, fleecier cloud across her face just then and +hid a second couple who were locked in each other's arms on the old +Shell Road. + + * * * * * + +In the brilliant sunshine of that Christmas morning Cap'n Jonah marched +up the Petty lane again. And he thought as he advanced toward the house +of his initial approach to the Petty domicile on the October afternoon +which now seemed so long past--when he had found Pearl Holden taking +down the clothes with the Petty family absent at the Harwich cattle +show. + +"Whatever!" muttered the master mariner. "Things have changed since +then, for a fac'! Why! they've changed ha'f a dozen times around--near +'bout. I ain't ne'er taken a v'y'ge yet--not even that one when I was +purty nigh made into a goulash by cannibals--that's been any more +excitin' than this here. + +"But," concluded the captain with vast satisfaction, "I have made +harbor at last and dropped anchor in a safe roadstead, I do allow." + +Although he expected no pleasant interview with his relatives, he +tramped cheerfully to the door. Nothing could greatly disturb a man who +was worth thirty thousand dollars, and could get the cash any day he +wanted to go to the bank and deliver up the certificate of stock of the +Little Sandy Oil and Coal Company which he had carried around so long, +as a keepsake more than anything else. + +For on the previous afternoon Cap'n Abe had insisted on calling up his +friend at the Paulmouth National Bank by telephone, and this individual +had confirmed the story of the sudden and phenomenal rise in value of +the Little Sandy Oil and Coal Company shares. So after all, Cap'n Jonah +was comfortably wealthy and need never worry about the "bite and sup" +that Sarah Petty had so begrudged him. + +Sarah was in no aggressive mood when Cap'n Jonah came to the door on +this Christmas morning. The sorely battered Tom had returned on the +previous afternoon to relate the wonderful story of Cap'n Jonah's real +fortune. It was more astonishing--indeed, it was a greater shock--to +the Pettys than all that had gone before. + +Without a doubt now--it was a tangible fact--Cap'n Jonah possessed the +equivalent of thirty thousand dollars. It was no mythical fortune such +as Miss Sue's had been. Gossip could not increase or diminish it in +the Pettys' ears. It was an incontrovertible fact--and they had cut +themselves off from any share of it, whether Cap'n Jonah lived or died! + +"I ain't going to bother you for long, Niece Sarah," said the old man +sternly as he entered. "I propose to pack my chist, and Enos Cartright +will come along by an' by with his old Mehitabel, and cart it down to +Mr. Silt's. Pearly is coming to pack her things, too, and Enos will +take them along to Doc Ambrose's, where Pearly will stay till she an' +Mr. Helmford git married." + +"Oh, Uncle Jonah!" murmured Sarah. "I'm sorry you got mad and air +detarmined to leave us----" + +"That'll do for you, my gal!" exclaimed the old captain, speaking with +his sternest quarterdeck manner. "You had your chance and you flung it +away. Don't you, nor your'n, never expect favor of me again, for you +won't get it." + +The blow silenced Orrin and the lout. But Sarah could not give up all. +There was too much at stake. If all chance of getting a share of Cap'n +Jonah's fortune was gone, there was still an attempt to be made to save +something from the wreck of their hopes. + +"Dear Uncle Jonah," Sarah cried, wiping crocodile tears from her +narrow eyes, "do not leave us in an angry sperit. I can never forgit +your kindness to father and mother when I was a gal. We should have +been homeless had it not been for you. And even now you can make us +all--Orrin, an' Tom, an' me--all but penniless if you air so minded." + +"What do you mean, gal?" demanded Cap'n Jonah, eyeing her in amazement. + +"Why--er--you know that note poor father gave you years ago--that +note for two thousand dollars. Of course, it's a long time ago it +happened----" + +"Gal," Cap'n Jonah said quietly, drawing out his snuff box and making +use of it in his usual way, "do you think I'd hold my kith an' +kin--specially my own brother--to sech a hard-and-fast arrangement? +Your father needed that money bad; and at that time I didn't need it. +I sent it to him freely--glad I was to do it. When he sent me his note +for two thousand dollars I tore it up and throwed it into the galley +fire. I tell you what, I hope there isn't nothin' _petty_ about Jonah +Hand!" + +The Mariner's Chapel was alight that evening and filled with the Shell +Road folk and their friends from near and far. Only one family in +the neighborhood was not represented. The Petty house was dark, and +'Liphalet, as the jolly representative of Santa Claus, had no gift in +his sack marked for any of the sadly disappointed trio who had treated +Cap'n Jonah so despitefully. + +But for everybody else the Shell Road Santa Claus found something in +that wonderful sack of his, or on the tree which occupied the site of +the pulpit. Even "the last Tapp" was not forgotten, and that round-eyed +and chubby baby gripped in his tiny fist a wonderful rattle which his +smiling mother had much to do to keep out of his mouth. + +Never had 'Liphalet been jollier, been so ready with quip and jest as +he passed through the company, as on this particular occasion. For +wherever he went with his pack of gifts he could turn his gaze upon +the quiet, yet gay and smiling, countenance of Miss Sue. She paid him +back in his own coin when he looked at her--in the coinage of happy +smiles--so that 'Liphalet thrilled to the very marrow of his being. + +Nor were 'Liphalet and Miss Sue the only happy couple in the Mariner's +Chapel on this blessed Christmas night. The vestry as well as the +audience room had been trimmed with greens and holly; and in the +vestry the young folks gathered in groups when the refreshments had +been served. + +Cap'n Jonah and Cap'n Abe, each with a plate of ice-cream and a +generous slice of cake on his broad knee, sat together on the stairs +like two school boys and watched the young folk below with appreciative +glances. One particular couple they eyed with deep interest. Helmford +was leading the curious Pearl to a spot directly under the main +chandelier of the vestry, from which dangled some mystery wrapped in +muslin. + +"You trimmed this part of the vestry, Joe," they heard Pearl say. "What +_is_ it?" + +Helmford reached up and whipped the covering from his bough of +mistletoe. He held her close under it and boldly took toll from her +ready lips. The others shouted their approval and ran toward them. The +old custom of the mistletoe was due to be honored by more than one +couple that evening. Nor did 'Liphalet fail to lead Miss Sue to the +spot and there kiss the doctor's blushing sister before them all. + +"Tell ye what 'tis," shrilled Washy Gallup. "Looks as though the +Mariner's Chapel could purt' nigh afford to support a reg'lar minister. +There's at least two marriages in the offing." + +Cap'n Abe nudged Cap'n Jonah heartily in the ribs. + +"I guess ye needn't be so scare't," he whispered hoarsely, "of telling +Pearly an' that Helmford 'bout your fortune, Cap'n Hand. Looks to me +as though you couldn't pry that fish trainer away from her now with a +crowbar!" + +"That's whatever!" returned Cap'n Jonah. "Jest the same I'll feel more +satisfied like when I see 'em spliced an' we've all set up housekeepin' +together. For I tell you, Mr. Silt, them two young folks have told me +that they won't be happy unless I share their quarters with 'em. + +"I'm goin' to cast anchor--that's whatever!" said Cap'n Jonah, rapping +his knuckle thoughtfully on the cover of his old silver snuffbox. +"I've come to a pleasant harbor, Mr. Silt. I calc'late I'm goin' to be +happy--and would be happy, fortune or no fortune--for the rest of my +natural life, with little Pearly and her man." + + + THE END + + * * * * * + +[Transcriber's Note: Inconsistent hyphenation left as printed.] + + + +*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 75584 *** diff --git a/75584-h/75584-h.htm b/75584-h/75584-h.htm new file mode 100644 index 0000000..83c7b3d --- /dev/null +++ b/75584-h/75584-h.htm @@ -0,0 +1,9250 @@ +<!DOCTYPE html> +<html lang="en"> +<head> + <meta charset="UTF-8"> + <title> + Cap'n Jonah's Fortune | Project Gutenberg + </title> + <link rel="icon" href="images/cover.jpg" type="image/x-cover"> + <style> + +body { + margin-left: 10%; + margin-right: 10%; +} + + h1,h2,h3 { + text-align: center; /* all headings centered */ + clear: both; +} + +p { + margin-top: .51em; + text-align: justify; + margin-bottom: .49em; +} + +hr { + width: 33%; + margin-top: 2em; + margin-bottom: 2em; + margin-left: 33.5%; + margin-right: 33.5%; + clear: both; +} + +hr.tb {width: 45%; margin-left: 27.5%; margin-right: 27.5%;} +hr.chap {width: 65%; margin-left: 17.5%; margin-right: 17.5%;} +@media print { hr.chap {display: none; visibility: hidden;} } +hr.full {width: 95%; margin-left: 2.5%; margin-right: 2.5%;} +div.chapter {page-break-before: always;} +h2.nobreak {page-break-before: avoid;} + +x-ebookmaker-drop {display: none;} + +.center {text-align: center;} + +.right {text-align: right;} + +.smcap { font-variant:small-caps; } + +/* Images */ +.figcenter { + margin: auto; + text-align: center; + page-break-inside: avoid; + max-width: 100%; +} + +.caption p +{ + text-align: center; + text-indent: 0; + margin: 0.25em 0; + font-weight: bold; +} + +.blockquot { + margin-left: 10%; + margin-right: 10%; +} + +table { + margin-left: auto; + margin-right: auto; +} + +table.autotable { border-collapse: collapse; } +table.autotable td, +table.autotable th { padding: 4px; } + +.tdl {text-align: left;} +.tdr {text-align: right;} +.tdc {text-align: center;} + +div.titlepage { + text-align: center; + page-break-before: always; + page-break-after: always; +} + +div.titlepage p { + text-align: center; + text-indent: 0em; + font-weight: bold; + line-height: 1.5; + margin-top: 3em; +} + +.ph1 { text-align: center; text-indent: 0em; } +.ph1 { font-size: x-large; margin: .83em auto; } + +.ph2 { text-align: center; text-indent: 0em; } +.ph2 { font-size: medium; margin: .83em auto; } + + </style> +</head> +<body> +<div style='text-align:center'>*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 75584 ***</div> + +<div class="titlepage"> + +<h1>Cap'n Jonah's Fortune</h1> + +<p><i>A STORY OF CAPE COD</i></p> + +<p class="ph1">BY JAMES A. COOPER</p> + +<p>ILLUSTRATED BY<br> +A. O. SCOTT</p> + +<p>NEW YORK<br> +GEORGE SULLY AND COMPANY</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Copyright, 1919, by</span><br> +GEORGE SULLY AND COMPANY</p> + +<p><i>All rights reserved</i></p> + +<p><i>Printed in U. S. A.</i></p> + +<p>BOOKS BY JAMES A. COOPER</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Cap'n Abe, Storekeeper</span><br> +<span class="smcap">Cap'n Jonah's Fortune</span></p> + + +</div> + +<hr class="chap"> + +<h2>CONTENTS</h2> + + +<table> +<tr><td class="tdr">I.</td> <td class="tdl"><a href="#CHAPTER_I"><span class="smcap">Pearl of the Clothesline</span></a></td></tr> +<tr><td class="tdr">II.</td> <td class="tdl"><a href="#CHAPTER_II"><span class="smcap">A Blind Young Man</span></a></td></tr> +<tr><td class="tdr">III.</td> <td class="tdl"><a href="#CHAPTER_III"><span class="smcap">Cap'n Jonah Settles Down</span></a></td></tr> +<tr><td class="tdr">IV.</td> <td class="tdl"><a href="#CHAPTER_IV"><span class="smcap">Tom Petty Reveals Himself</span></a></td></tr> +<tr><td class="tdr">V.</td> <td class="tdl"><a href="#CHAPTER_V">"<span class="smcap">Better a Dinner of Herbs</span>"</a></td></tr> +<tr><td class="tdr">VI.</td> <td class="tdl"><a href="#CHAPTER_VI"><span class="smcap">Romance and Pearl Holden</span></a></td></tr> +<tr><td class="tdr">VII.</td> <td class="tdl"><a href="#CHAPTER_VII"><span class="smcap">Getting Acquainted</span></a></td></tr> +<tr><td class="tdr">VIII.</td> <td class="tdl"><a href="#CHAPTER_VIII"><span class="smcap">The Bald Truth</span></a></td></tr> +<tr><td class="tdr">IX.</td> <td class="tdl"><a href="#CHAPTER_IX"><span class="smcap">A Shell Road Idyl</span></a></td></tr> +<tr><td class="tdr">X.</td> <td class="tdl"><a href="#CHAPTER_X">"<span class="smcap">Pearly</span>"</a></td></tr> +<tr><td class="tdr">XI.</td> <td class="tdl"><a href="#CHAPTER_XI"><span class="smcap">An Evening with Cap'n Abe</span></a></td></tr> +<tr><td class="tdr">XII.</td> <td class="tdl"><a href="#CHAPTER_XII"><span class="smcap">The Apostate Santa Claus</span></a></td></tr> +<tr><td class="tdr">XIII.</td> <td class="tdl"><a href="#CHAPTER_XIII"><span class="smcap">Fair and Foul Weather</span></a></td></tr> +<tr><td class="tdr">XIV.</td> <td class="tdl"><a href="#CHAPTER_XIV"><span class="smcap">Veering Winds</span></a></td></tr> +<tr><td class="tdr">XV.</td> <td class="tdl"><a href="#CHAPTER_XV"><span class="smcap">Misunderstandings</span></a></td></tr> +<tr><td class="tdr">XVI.</td> <td class="tdl"><a href="#CHAPTER_XVI"><span class="smcap">The Allegory</span></a></td></tr> +<tr><td class="tdr">XVII.</td> <td class="tdl"><a href="#CHAPTER_XVII"><span class="smcap">The Strong Box</span></a></td></tr> +<tr><td class="tdr">XVIII.</td> <td class="tdl"><a href="#CHAPTER_XVIII"><span class="smcap">Sarah Petty Trims Her Sails</span></a></td></tr> +<tr><td class="tdr">XIX.</td> <td class="tdl"><a href="#CHAPTER_XIX"><span class="smcap">The High Hand</span></a></td></tr> +<tr><td class="tdr">XX.</td> <td class="tdl"><a href="#CHAPTER_XX"><span class="smcap">The Root of All Evil</span></a></td></tr> +<tr><td class="tdr">XXI.</td> <td class="tdl"><a href="#CHAPTER_XXI"><span class="smcap">The Wise Men Out of the South</span></a></td></tr> +<tr><td class="tdr">XXII.</td> <td class="tdl"><a href="#CHAPTER_XXII"><span class="smcap">The Sting of Hypocrisy</span></a></td></tr> +<tr><td class="tdr">XXIII.</td> <td class="tdl"><a href="#CHAPTER_XXIII"><span class="smcap">The Christmas Gale</span></a></td></tr> +<tr><td class="tdr">XXIV.</td> <td class="tdl"><a href="#CHAPTER_XXIV"><span class="smcap">The Mistletoe Bough</span></a></td></tr> +<tr><td class="tdr">XXV.</td> <td class="tdl"><a href="#CHAPTER_XXV"><span class="smcap">The Price of Heroism</span></a></td></tr> +<tr><td class="tdr">XXVI.</td> <td class="tdl"><a href="#CHAPTER_XXVI"><span class="smcap">Cap'n Jonah's Challenge</span></a></td></tr> +<tr><td class="tdr">XXVII.</td> <td class="tdl"><a href="#CHAPTER_XXVII"><span class="smcap">A Rift in the Clouds</span></a></td></tr> +<tr><td class="tdr">XXVIII.</td> <td class="tdl"><a href="#CHAPTER_XXVIII"><span class="smcap">All About a Bad Smell</span></a></td></tr> +<tr><td class="tdr">XXIX.</td> <td class="tdl"><a href="#CHAPTER_XXIX"><span class="smcap">Christmas Eve at Cap'n Abe's</span></a></td></tr> +<tr><td class="tdr">XXX.</td> <td class="tdl"><a href="#CHAPTER_XXX">"<span class="smcap">Christmas Gift</span>"</a></td></tr> +</table> + + +<hr class="chap"> + +<h2>ILLUSTRATIONS</h2> + + +<table> +<tr><td class="tdl"><a href="#illus1">"My goodness! Comp'ny?" gasped Pearl, staring wide-eyed at the broadly +smiling visitor</a></td></tr> + +<tr><td class="tdl"><a href="#illus2">"Belay that!" he commanded in a deep sea growl</a></td></tr> + +<tr><td class="tdl"><a href="#illus3">One after another Cap'n Jonah called off the amount on the certificates</a></td></tr> + +<tr><td class="tdl"><a href="#illus4">He swung to her side, landed with both boots digging into the frozen +sand for a foothold</a></td></tr> +</table> + +<hr class="chap"> + + +<h2>CAP'N JONAH'S FORTUNE</h2> + + + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> + +<div class="chapter"> +<h2 class="nobreak" id="CHAPTER_I">CHAPTER I</h2> +</div> + +<h3>PEARL OF THE CLOTHESLINE</h3> + + +<p>Washy Gallup, who was general handy man along the Shell Road, came +wheeling a barrow past Liphalet Truitt's and the Mariner's Chapel from +the direction of Cardhaven proper and the docks. On the barrow was an +iron-strapped sea-chest, of a bright blue color and with tarred rope +handles.</p> + +<p>"Wal, Cap'n, we're nigh to your anchorage," Washy declared, setting +down the barrow to spit on his hands.</p> + +<p>"Yes, yes! I reckernize the channel buoys. That's Orrin Petty's place +on our weather bow, ain't it?"</p> + +<p>The speaker, who closely followed Washy and the barrow, would have +attracted attention anywhere, certainly here on the Shell Road had +it not been that hour of the afternoon when most of the neighborhood +womenfolk were engaged in supper preparations and were not, therefore, +in sight of the highway.</p> + +<p>He was a solidly built man without being at all pursy. He had +wind-bitten cheeks and a flame in his black eyes that belied his age. +Although he walked with a cane and his hair and beard were gray, there +was a brisk air about the man that at the very start seemed to reduce +his actual age by half a score of years.</p> + +<p>A fringe of whisker framed his mahogany face and his lips were cleanly +shaven. Nowhere out of Ireland save in longshore communities or among +old-fashioned seafaring men are these "galways" still popular. He +was dressed in a pilot-cloth suit, much wrinkled from lying, in all +probability, for more than one voyage in that same chest that Washy +Gallup now proceeded to wheel before him.</p> + +<p>"Here we be, Cap'n," observed Washy finally, turning into the lane that +led to the house already identified.</p> + +<p>"I see! I see!" agreed the mariner, staring curiously at the +high-shouldered, unpainted frame dwelling which stood with an unsocial +end to the road.</p> + +<p>But there was a pleasant side yard into which the lane led—grassy, +with trees bordering it and a clothes'-drying green in the middle. +There was a girl taking clothes from the lines in this yard and it was +upon her the visitor's gaze became fixed.</p> + +<p>She was of a slim figure, yet with prettily rounded limbs, as he could +easily see while she stood with the fresh breeze blowing the scant +gingham frock about her. Her arms were bare almost to her shoulders, +displaying dimpled elbows and wrists. The short skirt became even +shorter as she stood on tip-toes to reach a particularly obdurate +clothespin, and the turn of her leg and ankle was as trim as that of a +yacht's spars.</p> + +<p>The neck of the simple frock she wore was cut square. As she turned +toward the two men approaching, there was revealed the rising and +falling of her full bosom—like the swell of the sea itself before a +storm. But her face, save the dimpled, pink chin, was smothered in an +enormous sunbonnet.</p> + +<p>"Where's your Uncle Orrin, Pearly?" asked Washy, dropping the handles +of the wheelbarrow once more.</p> + +<p>The girl let fall the last garment she had taken from the line—a +voluminous blue starched skirt—into the clothesbasket and vigorously +punched it into smaller compass. Then she stood up again to face her +questioner. The captain obtained a flashing glimpse of clouded dark +eyes and little, even white teeth between full red lips.</p> + +<p>"He <i>isn't</i> my uncle!" said the girl with emphasis. "He's my mother's +step-brother's cousin-by-marriage, Orrin Petty is. And if I had any +livin' relative in the world to go to, I'd leave here just as fast as +I could travel, Washy Gallup—so there!"</p> + +<p>"Hoity-toity!" murmured Washy. "What's dragged anchor an' gone to sea +on <i>this</i> tide, I want to know? Where's Orrin?"</p> + +<p>There was a flurry of tears in the girl's voice as she uttered her +emphatic speech. She jerked another starched piece from the line and +crowded it with the clothespins into the basket.</p> + +<p>"He isn't at home; nor Miz Petty; nor Tom. They all went to the county +fair down to Harwich."</p> + +<p>"I snum! And left you to home, did they?" ejaculated Washy, suddenly +seeing a great light.</p> + +<p>"And I made this very dress to go to the fair in," confided Pearl. "Got +the pattern out of the <i>Ladies' Home Provider</i>. And I picked out the +very prettiest bolt of gingham Cap'n Abe had in his store. Now I've +washed in it, and I'm going to iron in it. This was the day I meant to +wear it, and I <i>have</i> wore it!"</p> + +<p>She snapped her pretty teeth together on this remark and jerked back +her sunbonnet so that the captain could see her face. Despite the storm +upon it, it was well worth seeing, as he was confident it would be. +With all her fairness of skin and almost flaxen hair, Pearl's eyes were +dark, and smoldering now with indignation.</p> + +<p>The situation was too much for Washy. He had no further comment to +make. But he waved an introductory hand toward the silent man in the +pilot-cloth suit.</p> + +<p>"This here's Cap'n Jonah Hand, Miz Petty's uncle," he said. "He's come +to visit a spell. Come up on the two-master from Chatham, and fouled my +hawse at Durgin's dock. So I helped him over with his chist."</p> + +<p>"My goodness! Comp'ny?" gasped Pearl, staring wide-eyed at the broadly +smiling visitor. "And there isn't a thing baked in the house but +doughnuts!"</p> + +<hr class="chap"> + +<div class="figcenter"> + <img src="images/illus1.jpg" alt="" id="illus1"> + <div class="caption"> + <p>"My goodness! Comp'ny?" gasped Pearl, staring wide-eyed at the broadly smiling visitor.</p> + </div> +</div> + +<hr class="chap"> + +<p>"Wal," observed Cap'n Jonah Hand, slowly, "I reckon I can fare on +them, seein's I ain't set a tooth into one for many a long year. 'Way +'cross the world in Chinese waters, I took a hankerin' last year for +'fried holes,' as we used to call 'em when I was a boy. I told Ming, my +Chinese cook, how they'd ought to be made, and he tackled 'em. Ming was +putty nigh the bravest feller I ever did see. He'd tackle anything.</p> + +<p>"When he got through with them doughnuts you could have used 'em for +grommets. They warn't nothin' fit for a man's stomach. Don't worry +about feedin' me, gal. I had a snack before I got off the Chatham +schooner."</p> + +<p>"You come right in, sir," said Pearl, recovering from her surprise and +her natural Cape hospitality asserting itself. "You give him a hand +with his chist, Washy."</p> + +<p>She tripped up the steps in advance and opened the green slatted door. +It was cool and dark in the hall, promising an interior speckless and +flyless. There was barely light enough by which the two men might +stumble up the ingrain-carpeted stair.</p> + +<p>Pearl threw open the door of the guest room with a flourish. Its white +and blue braided mats and counterpane to match, made the darkened +chamber seem invitingly cool. Pearl seized the blue-banded water +pitcher and went down to the pump while Cap'n Jonah paid Washy for his +assistance.</p> + +<p>She returned with the brimming pitcher and a cake of home-molded soap. +There were already towels hanging upon the washstand rack.</p> + +<p>"You come right down, sir, when you've freshened up," the girl said. +"I'll put the coffee pot over and you can sample the doughnuts. Miz +Petty and the others won't be home till late, like enough."</p> + +<p>"All right, my gal," replied Cap'n Jonah. "But don't you go for to +put yourself out none. I've seen lots worse quarters than these, I do +assure you."</p> + +<p>She descended the stairs and closed the door after Washy, who was +already trundling the barrow down the lane. She desired to ask a few +questions of the gossipy Mr. Gallup about Cap'n Jonah Hand; but she +would not run after Washy.</p> + +<p>Taking down the remainder of the clotheslines' burden she pressed down +the running-over basket and, seizing it by its two handles, started +for the kitchen door. The basket was so big and the wash so bulky that +Pearl was very nearly hidden from sight as she came up the steps of the +porch.</p> + +<p>Cap'n Jonah had quickly made his toilet and found his way down to the +kitchen. Pearl heard the latch of the screen door lifted and his voice +say:</p> + +<p>"You've got consider'ble of a haul there, ain't you?"</p> + +<p>She set the basket down on one of the broad tables, panting and +laughing. Her indignation seemed to have evaporated. The sunbonnet had +fallen back, hanging by its strings tied under her chin. She had a lot +of fluffy hair, and it was braided in two plaits which hung below her +waist.</p> + +<p>Hers was not a childish looking face, however, for her eyes had a +steady, direct expression and her lips were molded in firm lines.</p> + +<p>"How old be you, gal?" asked the captain.</p> + +<p>"Goin' on eighteen. Miz Petty makes out I'm not seventeen yet. But I +remember how old I was when I came here, and I know she can't keep me +after I'm eighteen, if I don't want to stay."</p> + +<p>"I take it you're not happy 'long o' Sarah Petty?"</p> + +<p>"Do you reckon anybody'd be happy with Miz Petty? Tom's the only person +on top of this foot-stool she's re'lly fond of; and she 'most nags him +to death."</p> + +<p>"Hum!" commented the captain. There did not seem much else to say. Yet, +for the sake of sociability, he ventured: "So you'd like to get away +from Sarah?"</p> + +<p>"I'd have gone to the Cardhaven Inn to work this season, takin' Gusty +Durgin's place—she that's gone to be a moving picture actress—" said +Pearl briskly, "only Miz Petty said I couldn't. She claims me till I'm +eighteen. Unless I get married before that time."</p> + +<p>"Whatever!" gasped Cap'n Jonah. "You don't mean to say you're thinking +of getting merried—a gal like you?"</p> + +<p>"What girl doesn't think of it—even if she hasn't a living chance?" +demanded Pearl, in her crisp, assertive way. "Of course I'm thinking +of it; but that isn't saying I'm likely to be anything but a +sour-cranberry old maid. That's what most of us Cape Cod girls turn out +to be. There aren't men enough—real men, I mean—on the Cape to go +'round."</p> + +<p>She dimpled, and her expression took all the sting out of her words. +She was a pretty girl—the prettiest girl Cap'n Jonah remembered ever +to have seen. Being a childless widower, for many years he had "paid +little attention to the sect," as he frequently stated. But there was a +freshness and sweetness about Pearl, in addition to her physical gifts, +that charmed the old sea captain.</p> + +<p>She stirred the fire, set the kettle forward to boil, and measured the +aromatic coffee—as it seemed, all in one motion. Her activity and +litheness delighted his seaman's eye.</p> + +<p>"A tidy craft!" he muttered admiringly. There was a wistful thought in +the captain's mind, too. He wished he had been vouchsafed a daughter +like this girl.</p> + +<p>"What's your name, Pearly?" he asked. "'Tain't Petty, I warrant."</p> + +<p>"No, sir. My name's Pearl Holden. The Holdens belong Paulmouth way. +But there aren't any of 'em belonging to me—worse luck! Orrin Petty +put in a claim for me after my maw's sister—Aunt Becky—died, and the +selectmen let him have me. Bein' parceled out like you belonged to a +litter of puppies isn't as pleasant as you might think it."</p> + +<p>"No. I guess not. I'd ought to know, too," said the captain. "I was +bound out myself when I was a little skeezicks. But I run away and went +to sea. Not that I bettered myself much by so doing—not for a spell," +and he shook his head thoughtfully.</p> + +<p>"I guess bad luck stuck to me like a barnacle, 'cause of my name. You'd +think they'd make it a crime punishable by law to give the name of +'Jonah' to a helpless child. But 'twas taken out of the Bible, and +therefore bound to be a good one, my folks thought like enough. I heard +of a Cape Cod man once that was named Beelzebub for the same reason."</p> + +<p>"I guess you've found," said the practical Pearl, "that a name isn't +of much importance after all. Folks can be what they've a mind to be, +I guess. Your name, for instance, didn't keep you from risin' to the +quarterdeck."</p> + +<p>"No. I riz in spite of it," the visitor said complacently.</p> + +<p>He sat down at one end of the deal table where Pearl had spread a snowy +napkin. In rapid succession she set before him cold baking-powder +biscuit, as white and fluffy as down; a golden square of butter on a +flowered plate; a wedge of creamy cheese; and a bowl heaped with flaky +brown rings—the delight of the hearty appetite and despair of the +dyspeptic.</p> + +<p>"Them look some diff'rent from Ming's," said the captain dryly.</p> + +<p>He "tucked away" a hearty meal and drank his third cup of coffee before +he rose from the table. Pearl was busy sprinkling the clothes. She +rolled each large piece tightly, finishing with a capable thump of her +dimpled fist. The slanting rays of the sun touched her hair, revealing +golden strands in it.</p> + +<p>Cap'n Jonah seemed rather uncertain in his mind when he pushed his +chair back to the wall after brushing the doughnut crumbs from his blue +vest to the table. He stood at the screen door, looking out into the +yard and to the vista of white shell road that led seaward.</p> + +<p>Finally he drew from his pocket a battered silver box, the lid of which +he snapped open. But the box was just as empty as he knew it to be.</p> + +<p>"I say, Pearly," he said hopefully, "didn't I hear you speak of some +store 'round here?"</p> + +<p>"Cap'n Abe's; yes, sir," replied the girl. "Right down the road there."</p> + +<p>"Does he sell anything besides caliker for dresses and other folderols?"</p> + +<p>"Why, Cap'n Abe sells most ev'rything," laughed the girl. "From a +thimble to a bow anchor, I do believe."</p> + +<p>"Tobacker?"</p> + +<p>"Of course. And snuff, Cap'n Hand. I see that's a snuff box in your +hand."</p> + +<p>"Ye-as. I do drift kinder to snuff when I can get it," confessed the +captain. "Ye see, for many a v'y'ge I carried passengers, an' a feller +can't smoke on duty nor yet chew in the presence of lady passengers. +But they tell me kings and cardinals have used snuff; so I reckon it's +allowable for an old sea cap'n. I'll step down the road and see what +this storekeeper ye speak of carries in my line."</p> + +<p>He set his glazed hat carefully upon his head, got his cane, and +stepped through the kitchen doorway into the evening sunlight.</p> + + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> + +<div class="chapter"> +<h2 class="nobreak" id="CHAPTER_II">CHAPTER II</h2> +</div> + +<h3>A BLIND YOUNG MAN</h3> + + +<p>Willy Peeble's autocar brought the Petty family home from the Paulmouth +depot.</p> + +<p>Orrin Petty, who was notoriously as close as the skin to an eel, would +never have willingly agreed to such an expense. But county fair day was +the one day in the year when his wife put her foot down and insisted +upon the family making what the son, Tom, called "a splurge."</p> + +<p>At Harwich Fair they were sure to meet all the Pettys that were worth +meeting, as well as many of Mrs. Petty's girlhood friends. Harwich was +a long way from Cardhaven, and Cape Cod folk are not given to useless +"visiting around." The neighbors well knew Orrin's cheese-paring ways +and Sarah's temper, as well as Tom Petty's utter uselessness. But the +family had a reputation to keep up with their relatives and friends at +a distance.</p> + +<p>So Sarah Petty thought. That was one reason why Pearl had been left +at home. Mrs. Orrin Petty wanted no poor relation tagging them around +at the fair. Besides, Pearly's skimpy wardrobe might be difficult to +explain in the light of the rest of the family flaunting their Sunday +best.</p> + +<p>Mrs. Petty was a little, trig, birdlike woman, with all the scrappy +temper of that curse of birddom, the English sparrow. She hopped out of +the autocar, paid Willy Peebles his fare to a penny—and no more—and +went into the house clacking smart heels, while Orrin and Tom followed +more slowly, laden with samples, prize packets, catalogs, and that +wealth of useless lumber always to be gathered at a county fair.</p> + +<p>The menfolk were rather glum. Orrin because of the heavy expenses of +the day; Tom for a secret trouble that bore upon his soul. But Sarah +Petty was as spry and spiteful as usual.</p> + +<p>"What I want to know first of all, Pearl Holden, is why them blinds is +open?" she demanded bustling into the house.</p> + +<p>Pearl was just rolling the last piece of the huge wash into a hard damp +ball, and she tucked it down into the tightly packed basket with vigor. +She asked, however, quite mildly:</p> + +<p>"What blinds, Miz Petty?"</p> + +<p>"Them best room blinds, with the sun pourin' in all aft'noon onto my +new rugs and that counterpane."</p> + +<p>"I didn't know he did that," said Pearl composedly.</p> + +<p>"Who d'you mean—'he'?" Then she almost screamed as she saw the empty +plates and the coffee pot. "Who you been feedin', Pearl Holden? At my +expense, too, and jest as soon as my back's turned. Some tramp?"</p> + +<p>"It's your uncle," Pearl explained, and it seemed that for once Mrs. +Petty could neither irritate nor browbeat her.</p> + +<p>"My what?"</p> + +<p>"Your Uncle Jonah. Cap'n Jonah Hand," said Pearl placidly. "He's come +to stop a spell. Brought his chest. Him and Washy Gallup took it up to +the best chamber."</p> + +<p>"Them two tramps a-trackin' up the front stairs and that best room?" +shrieked Mrs. Petty, falling into a kitchen chair and staring at Pearl +as though she thought the girl had taken leave of her senses.</p> + +<p>"Where would you have me put your uncle? In the woodshed?" asked Pearl, +with much more courage than usual. "He looks perfectly respectable to +me. And he's your own uncle."</p> + +<p>"Who's this is your own uncle?" demanded Orrin Petty, coming heavily +into the kitchen and piling his armful of trash on the table.</p> + +<p>"Jonah Hand. You've heard of him enough, Orrin Petty," said his wife +rather breathlessly. "And you'll remember he was here once—years ago, +when Tommy was a baby."</p> + +<p>"That's all right, then," said her husband. "He don't visit often."</p> + +<p>"But he writ me last year he thought of givin' up follerin' the sea and +comin' here to Cardhaven to settle down."</p> + +<p>"Goshamighty!"</p> + +<p>"I never thought the old fool would take me up," said Sarah Petty +viciously. "But I wrote him he'd be welcome."</p> + +<p>"You <i>did</i>? Was you crazy?" demanded Orrin, his pale eyes suddenly +firing. "You reckon on havin' your pauper relations come here to live +on us?"</p> + +<p>"Don't you say nothin' like that to me, Orrin Petty!" flared his wife. +"There's paupers on your side of the family, too," and she glanced +significantly at Pearl.</p> + +<p>The girl was too used to such unkind remarks to take open offense.</p> + +<p>"Besides," added Sarah Petty with hesitation, "Uncle Jonah Hand might +make some trouble for us, Orrin. I dunno. Where is he, Pearl?"</p> + +<p>"He just stepped down to Cap'n Abe's store to buy him some snuff."</p> + +<p>"Faugh! I might ha' knowed he'd be a nasty, old sailor, full o' filthy +habits."</p> + +<p>"Well," drawled Master Tom, who was a lout of a youth several years +older than Pearl, "I reckon Pop and I can set his chist out in the +lane, if you say so, Marm."</p> + +<p>"I—I dunno's that's best," said the woman, again strangely uncertain +for so assured a character. She turned sharply upon Pearl, whose ears +might be more acute than she cared to have them for the moment. "Take +that clothes-basket into the storeroom. It's little you've been doing +to-day, I can see, you good-for-nothing. Not a scrap of the wash as yet +ironed. And you flaunting that new dress. Hurry back, now, and draw the +tea. I'm famished for a cup."</p> + +<p>She gave her attention swiftly to the two men as soon as Pearl left the +room.</p> + +<p>"This Uncle Jonah, now," she hissed. "You remember well enough, Orrin. +I told you all about it when father died and I fell heir to what he +had. The money I got from him just about paid for the building of this +house."</p> + +<p>"Wal, ye needn't throw it up to me so often. I know it," Orrin said +glumly enough.</p> + +<p>"I'm talking about Jonah Hand now," snapped his wife. "He lent father a +power of money years and years ago. It was two thousand dollars. Uncle +Jonah had just sold his sheer in the <i>Wildwind</i> brig. Father put his +name on a rascal's note an' got into trouble. Father was dreadful easy +that-a-way, an' I guess Uncle Jonah was like him.</p> + +<p>"Anyway, Jonah Hand lent him the two thousand without a written scrap +of paper between 'em. But afterward father was silly enough to send +Uncle Jonah his note for the amount. He never paid no interest to Uncle +Jonah, and Uncle Jonah never presented the note for payment; but +if it's in existence yet he might ask for an accounting of father's +estate."</p> + +<p>"Goshamighty!" ejaculated Orrin.</p> + +<p>"That note wouldn't be good in law after this time," squealed Tom +hopefully.</p> + +<p>"You don't know that," snarled his father. "That's only one of your +smart-Aleck sayings."</p> + +<p>"Anyway," said Sarah Petty, wringing her hands on her narrow knees, +"he could make it awful unpleasant for us if he wanted to—Uncle Jonah +could. Ev'rybody would know about it. What would your A'nt Apollo Heath +say, Orrin? And Enoch Petty, he that's a State legislator? No, no! +'Twill never do to get the ill will of Uncle Jonah."</p> + +<p>"What are you going to do, then, Marm?" asked the curious Tom.</p> + +<p>"This dratted girl!" said Sarah Petty. "Mebbe she did just the right +thing for once. She put him in my best room. He's been treated nice +right at the start, I must say. He can't make no complaint that we +didn't meet him as relations should. If we treat him pleasant, but hint +how it's sort o' puttin' us out, his being here, mebbe he'll make his +visit and go, an' leave us in peace."</p> + +<p>Orrin Petty had been thinking. Rather, he had been scheming. Orrin +seldom put his wits to work unless his intent was for his own +betterment and to the undoing of somebody else.</p> + +<p>"Hush-a-that, Sarah!" he said. "What's this Uncle Jonah of yourn been +all his life?"</p> + +<p>"Seafarin', I tell ye."</p> + +<p>"Before the mast?"</p> + +<p>"Owned his own craft, or had sheers in 'em. Been master of ships since +before Tommy was born," Sarah said. "I know that much."</p> + +<p>"We know another thing," said the scheming Orrin. "If he 'cumulated +two thousand dollars to lend your father once't, he might well have +'cumulated more since that time. Ye don't know what he's mebbe got laid +away. Lots o' them old salts line their nests mighty well. Look at +'Liphalet Truitt—and him only a steward all the years he went to sea. +Ain't you this here Uncle Jonah's only livin' rel'tive?"</p> + +<p>The three Pettys looked at each other silently for a full minute. They +knew each other's minds so well that some things needed not to be said +at all between them. Pearl came back into the kitchen and bustled about +the stove with the preparations for supper.</p> + +<p>"Well, of course," Sarah Petty said in an entirely different tone, +"Uncle Jonah's an old man now, and we air his only relatives. It's +true. And it's quite according that he should come here to stay—for a +while, anyway.</p> + +<p>"You be polite to him, Tommy. Better set the table with the gold-banded +china to-night, Pearl. I'll beat up a mess of sour-milk pancakes. I +warrant Uncle Jonah ain't had nothing like 'em on shipboard. An' step +lively for once't—do!"</p> + +<p>For Pearl was staring at her, round-eyed. Sarah Petty's wind had +shifted so startlingly that the girl felt quite confounded.</p> + +<hr class="tb"> + +<p>Cap'n Jonah Hand strode down the Shell Road, his cane tapping smartly +and his blue-coated figure very erect. There was a nattiness in the +captain's appearance not always found among masters in the merchant +marine. His experience had been as varied as any skipper's who ever +sailed from the Cape; but as he told Pearl, for many years he was +master of passenger-carrying craft, and a certain behavior is demanded +of a man in that position.</p> + +<p>On his quarterdeck and sitting at the head of his table in the +saloon-cabin, Cap'n Jonah must display a courtesy, even an urbanity, +not usually demanded of merchant skippers. A certain dignity sat upon +Cap'n Jonah's countenance, and his manner impressed all who even +casually met him.</p> + +<p>He came to the wide-porched store, over the steps of which was nailed +the weather-beaten sign:</p> + +<p class="ph2">A. SILT<br> +General Merchandise</p> + +<p>There was nobody on the porch, but the two-leaved door to the store +was open. Inside was a rusty-legged stove, in which a handful of fire +burned despite the warmth of the late October sun. It was cool indoors +and a little damp.</p> + +<p>Before the visitor mounted the steps he saw that a full quorum of the +Loungers' Club held sway around Cap'n Abe's stove. The few decrepit +armchairs, as well as several boxes, an overturned nail keg or two, +and even an upended chopping block were occupied by an audience that +listened with more or less impatience to a booming voice that dominated +them in spite of themselves.</p> + +<p>"There the <i>Betsy Brown</i> was, hove to and with a sea-anchor to lee'ard, +kickin' up didoes like one o' these busted broncos ye hear tell of in +the Wild West shows. There warn't a feller aboard but the supercargo +that warn't down with the fever, an' he didn't scurcely know the +maintruck from the keelson.</p> + +<p>"He didn't durst tetch the tiller, nor bear a hand with sheet nor +halyard. All he could do was to drag himself by aid of a lubberline +from fo'c'stle to after cabin, and give the hands and the afterguard +water to drink. Water and ship's biscuit soaked in it was all the hull +ship's comp'ny put past their lips for two endurin' weeks.</p> + +<p>"Yes, sir! The old <i>Betsy Brown</i> strained every timber in her frame an' +when the crew began to crawl about deck again—naught but skeletons +of what they had been—the water was seepin' through half a hundred +seams, with the bilge oozing through the lower deck-planks. Her cargo +of box-shooks was 'bout all that kep' her afloat.</p> + +<p>"You kin figger," went on the voice, "in what shape the crew was for a +spell at the pumps and caulkin' ship, even when the sea and gale went +down. It would ha' been a mess in a dead ca'm——</p> + +<p>"Af'noon, sir! What can I do for you?"</p> + +<p>The booming voice changed instantly to the brisk challenge of the +merchant. Through the brown gloom of the place the visitor saw the +guernsey-coated figure of the man behind the hacked counter, his +hairy fists resting easily upon it. Above his torso thus revealed was +a sweeping beard, humorous and twinkling blue eyes, and a pair of +silver-bowed spectacles pushed high upon a very bald forehead. The +storekeeper wore an old tarpaulin stuck upon the back of his head, and +altogether made a very salt-flavored picture indeed.</p> + +<p>"What can I do for you, sir?" he repeated, leaving his audience to wait +with more or less apathy for the remainder of his tale.</p> + +<p>The group around the stove divided to allow Cap'n Jonah to stride +through. The stock in trade of this seamanlike looking storekeeper was +of such variety, and in such quantity, that there was not much room in +the passage to the counter. As Pearl Holden had intimated, Cap'n Abe's +stock included an incongruous collection of wares.</p> + +<p>Here hung oilskins and guernseys, hats and caps with strings of +ear-muffs and woolen mittens and "wristers" for winter work on the +banks. Flannel shirts and jumpers, with overalls of dungaree, and even +a lone dress-shirt, fly-specked, but still highly polished, aided +in making a forest of clothing at one side of the room, and quite +shrouding the show window.</p> + +<p>Piled on the other side of the stove was a miscellany of hardware of +a nautical nature, with oars, oarlocks in clusters, lanterns plain +and those in gimbals, a small capstan or two—indeed, a multitudinous +collection of ship-chandlery in which one might find the furnishings +of a dozen fashions of small craft. On the counter and on the shelves +behind it were piled groceries and drygoods, fishing tackle and +garden supplies, woodenware and crockery, in an equally confusing and +astonishing variety.</p> + +<p>The loiterers in the store who made way for the newcomer gazed at him +with more or less curiosity. The storekeeper bustled away for the snuff +for which Cap'n Jonah asked.</p> + +<p>"That come in fresh this week," he said, returning with the snuff. "I +keep that kind pertic'lar for Marm Coe who lives out yonder on the +Neck. It's what keeps her alive, she says; and as she's got a round sum +o' money laid away I expect her nephews an' nieces wish't I couldn't +buy no more of it," and Cap'n Abe chuckled, "for they'll never git a +smell of her fortune while Marm Coe's on airth."</p> + +<p>Cap'n Jonah opened the packet and poured the snuff into his silver box. +Then he took a pinch neatly, sneezed with gusto, and wiped his nose +with a spotless silk handkerchief.</p> + +<p>"Yes; I allow that's the stuff," he said.</p> + +<p>"You're Cap'n Jonah Hand, ain't you?" observed the storekeeper with +quite as much cordiality as curiosity. "Washy Gallup was speakin' of +you jest now. You're stoppin' up at Orrin Petty's?"</p> + +<p>Cap'n Jonah acknowledged these facts. The bewhiskered storekeeper waved +an introductory hand.</p> + +<p>"I'd like to make you acquainted, Cap'n Hand, with Cap'n Joab Beecher, +once master of the clipper-built <i>Ivanhoe</i>." The crippled Cap'n Joab +arose with the help of his cane to give the newcomer a hearty handshake.</p> + +<p>"And here's Mr. 'Liphalet Truitt, as sailed steward many a v'y'ge in +the Blue Ball Line o' windjammers. 'Liphalet's settled down here on the +Shell Road, too. You old salts'll find much in common to talk about, I +ain't a doubt.</p> + +<p>"These other fellers, Cap'n Hand," the storekeeper went on to say, +"air Milt Baker an' Amiel Perdue, an'——Scuse me, Mr. Helmford!" He +indicated a tall young man wearing shell-rimmed spectacles who stood +back against a showcase, taking in the scene with quiet enjoyment. +He was not of longshore origin, it was evident; yet he did not hold +himself apart from the group around Cap'n Abe's stove.</p> + +<p>"Mr. Helmford," pursued Cap'n Abe, "is skipper of the fish hatchery the +United States Government's located up Salt Creek. We old hardshells +sort of admire Mr. Helmford 'cause we've found out he knows more about +fish than even we do; and we calc'lated before he come that we knowed a +plenty."</p> + +<p>"Don't spread the butter too thick, Cap'n Abe," said Helmford, +good-naturedly, coming forward with an outstretched hand for Cap'n +Jonah. He was a pleasant looking young fellow, although his features +were rather gaunt and by no means handsome. Behind the round glasses +his eyes twinkled merrily; but his high, broad brow was that of the +dreamer.</p> + +<p>Cap'n Abe did not overwhelm the visitor with attentions. He swung back +into the moving tale of the <i>Betsy Brown</i> almost at once:</p> + +<p>"So, as I was sayin', the hull crew an' the supercargo had their +work cut out for them on board that <i>Betsy Brown</i>. When the sea went +down——"</p> + +<p>"I reckon Mandy'll be lookin' for me," observed the hatchet-faced Milt +Baker, working his way toward the door. "Comin', Amiel?"</p> + +<p>"Yep. It's getting' chore time," agreed his particular crony.</p> + +<p>"You're right for onc't, Amiel. It's time I catted my anchor an' made +sail," said Cap'n Beecher. "The missus'll be flyin' signals if I don't."</p> + +<p>"I calc'late I'll ha'f to be goin,' too," said 'Liphalet Truitt. "It's +prayer an' conference meetin' night, and they'll expect me to ring the +chapel bell and light up. Gimme my package, Cap'n Abe."</p> + +<p>The company around the stove broke up so quickly that Cap'n Abe was +left almost with his mouth open between sentences.</p> + +<p>"Hi-mighty!" he ejaculated, "I was jest goin' to tell you fellers the +wind-up of that story."</p> + +<p>"My cracky, Cap'n Abe," observed Milt, as he slid out through the +doorway, "you don't mean to say there is a wind-up to that yarn, do ye?"</p> + +<p>Young Helmford was chuckling softly to himself as he strolled out of +the store beside Cap'n Jonah.</p> + +<p>"Whatever!" gasped the latter. "What's the matter with that feller? He +had his ship hove to with a sea-anchor out. What d'you know about that, +young man?"</p> + +<p>"Not much, Cap'n Hand," answered Helmford, "for I am no sailor, I am +sorry to say. I wouldn't know how to 'heave to' in any case."</p> + +<p>"Why," said the old man, "on a craft like what I s'pose that <i>Betsy +Brown</i> was, to heave to ye'd put the tiller down, brail up the fores'l, +haul aft the weather jib sheet, and put the main boom amidships. Unless +she'd lost her rudder no navigator would use a sea-anchor to bring her +head up into the wind. Simple enough."</p> + +<p>"I presume that's so," admitted Helmford, glancing at the briskly +speaking master mariner curiously. "But it's all Greek to me, Captain."</p> + +<p>"Ye-as. I s'pose it is," Cap'n Jonah said. "So you hatch fish for a +livin', do ye? An' that's all Greek to me. I allus had an idee fish did +their own hatchin' and could 'tend to it right an' proper without no +help from Government sharps."</p> + +<p>Helmford continued to smile. "You know almost everything in this world +will stand improvement—and a man knows more than a fish."</p> + +<p>"Hum! Does he?" rejoined Cap'n Jonah dryly. "He's never l'arned to swim +as good as a fish. I turn up here, young feller," and he halted at the +Petty lane. Pearl came out on the porch and waved her hand to Cap'n +Jonah. The late supper was ready. "Tidy craft that, I do say!" murmured +the captain; gazing admiringly at Pearl's trim figure and flushed face +as she stood there in the afterglow of the sunset.</p> + +<p>"What?" responded the young man, unappreciatively. "Oh, yes. Mr. Orrin +Petty's place is one of the most attractive along the Shell Road." +Cap'n Jonah stared at him. "Well, good-night, Captain Hand. I am glad +to have met you."</p> + +<p>"Good-night!" grunted the captain, shortly. Then he stared after the +tall, rather round-shouldered figure as it swung up the road with +never a backward glance. "Whatever!" he exclaimed vigorously. "That +young feller needs somethin' stronger than them goggles of his'n to +make him see what's wuth seein' along this road. Why, he's blind!"</p> + + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> + +<div class="chapter"> +<h2 class="nobreak" id="CHAPTER_III">CHAPTER III</h2> +</div> + +<h3>CAP'N JONAH SETTLES DOWN</h3> + + +<p>"Well, Uncle!" exclaimed Sarah Petty, meeting the old man at the door +with outstretched hand and a sharp smile upon her sharper face. "You +<i>air</i> a stranger! You come clean across the world to see us."</p> + +<p>"Wal, I was in the China trade last," admitted Cap'n Jonah; "so +naturally I had to come a fur ways to get to Cardhaven. I come through +the canal. Whatever! that's a snorting big job. I got to Boston on a +fruit steamer; and then I caught a trawler goin' down to Chatham and me +an' my chist come up from there on the freightin' schooner."</p> + +<p>He had entered the kitchen now and released Sarah's hand to take +Orrin's. The latter said in lieu of too warm a greeting, for Orrin's +was a cautious soul: "Why didn't you come down from Boston by rail? +The steam cars bring ye a sight quicker, even if the fare is somethin' +more."</p> + +<p>"No," said Cap'n Jonah. "I never go nowhere by these railroads if I +can help it. Ye never know when the b'iler's like to bust or the hull +contraption run off the track."</p> + +<p>"Hoh!" snorted Tom in the background. "Marm said you'd sailed master o' +steam vessels. Warn't you afraid of the boiler's bustin' on them?"</p> + +<p>"Now, Tom!" fluttered his mother.</p> + +<p>"I could keep away from the b'ilers on them iron pots I was master of," +said Cap'n Jonah, dryly. "And there's plenty of leeway in the open sea. +Wal, Orrin, I see the Haven's much as it looked aforetime, when I was +here. I liked the look of it then."</p> + +<p>"Do you calc'late on stayin' quite a spell?" queried the anxious Mr. +Petty.</p> + +<p>"I'm a-goin' to settle down. Yes, sir! I got enough sea-goin'. The +rheumatiz has got a grip on me anyway. And I want to stretch my old +bones in a bed that ain't forever pitchin' an' tossin'. I was took with +Cardhaven when I saw it years ago—when this feller was a baby," and he +jerked a forefinger, as hard as a spike, into the soft muscles covering +the surprised Tom's ribs.</p> + +<p>"Hoh!" ejaculated Tom. "What you doin'?"</p> + +<p>"Now, Tom," came the admonitory voice of his mother again. Then she +hastened to say: "Pull right up, Uncle Jonah. Never mind your pipe, +Orrin. Sit down and eat first. Pearly will finish these cakes."</p> + +<p>She sat down herself behind an enormous teapot. Orrin drank quantities +of tea. It was filling, he said, and cheap.</p> + +<p>Pearl had taken the captain's hardshell hat and his cane. He smiled at +her, and she dimpled in return. There was already a bond of sympathy +between the two.</p> + +<p>"That there ox of Silas Peebles' we seen at the fair to-day was a +master big one," observed Orrin, already gulping down with gusto the +hot tea from a deep saucer.</p> + +<p>Tom's face immediately fell again on this reminder of the fair. Pearl +eyed the young fellow suspiciously from her station at the stove. +Something had gone all wrong with Tom on this outing.</p> + +<p>"I did admire the way your Cousin Ida was dressed, Orrin," said Sarah +Petty. "That orange and blue certainly did set her off."</p> + +<p>"Huh!" returned her husband, "she looked like a lapstreak sloop goin' +to a regatta. What you women see in sech folderols is beyond me. I +can't make head nor tail of the fashions."</p> + +<p>"A woman, like a ship, I reckon, ought to put her best foot for'ard. I +like to see 'em flyin' their pretty duds an' duffel."</p> + +<p>"I can see you 'preciate the sect," said Sarah Petty, preening. "You +ain't too old, Uncle Jonah, to marry and have a home of your own again."</p> + +<p>She said it with hidden anxiety. What Orrin had suggested about the old +mariner's possible wealth had begun to work like yeast in Sarah Petty's +mind.</p> + +<p>"No. I guess not," Cap'n Jonah said thoughtfully. "I was married once, +and she was a good woman. If there is a next world, as the preachers +say there is (and they ought to know, considerin' as they're always +studyin' the chart of them waters an' can box the heavenly compass +so slick), why," continued the captain, "I wouldn't want to mix two +women in my mind. They say heaven's a place where the wicked cease +from troubling and the weary air at rest. But it's borne in on my mind +that two good women, let alone wicked ones, could make a feller a lot +of trouble, even in the heavenly pastures. I don't want to run no sech +risk. I will stay single for the rest of my natural life, I guess.</p> + +<p>"Ye-as, Pearly. I don't care if I do take another heap o' them griddle +cakes. They're lickin' good."</p> + +<p>Cap'n Jonah Hand was an old-fashioned seaman. No matter how long he had +sailed master of passenger or merchant ships, the Cape Cod tang clung +to his speech. Especially did he clip his words and use provincial +turns of speech now that he was among those who habitually took such +liberties with academic English.</p> + +<p>"I suppose," began Sarah Petty, trying to drive a conversational wedge +in the right direction, "that well-to-do widowers do have to dodge the +wiles of designing females. We've got some along the Shell Road that +you'll ha'f to keep your sails trimmed for, Uncle Jonah."</p> + +<p>"Oh, pshaw!" ejaculated the captain, rather sheepishly, "I guess +the women'll leave me alone—'specially when they l'arn I ain't no +millionaire."</p> + +<p>The flashed glances between Sarah Petty and her husband were laden with +suspicion. Sarah's sharp voice punctured the following silence as a +needle might prick a toy balloon.</p> + +<p>"I presume you've got aplenty saved up after all these years for your +board and keep, Uncle? You was the forehandedest of all the Hands, I +guess."</p> + +<p>"Oh," said the captain dryly, "I can pay my way for quite a spell yet, +before I ha'f to look up lodgin's at the poor farm. And that brings up +a leetle matter we might's well discuss right now at the start, Niece +Sarah.</p> + +<p>"O' course," the old man went on placidly, "you air my only livin' +relative, Sarah. If I should drag my anchor to-night you'd stand to git +sech prop'ty as I might die possessed of. But a straight out and out +understanding, even betwixt kith and kin, is the only way to fend off +friction. I want, if I won't be crowdin' you an' your folks, Sarah, to +stop along o' you instead of tryin' to bach it as so many of us old +salts have to when we leave the sea for good and all. I ain't never +been used to doin' for myself, and I shouldn't know how to tackle the +job. I sh'd be jest as awkward about housework as a whale."</p> + +<p>"Well, now, Uncle!" ejaculated Sarah in much perturbation.</p> + +<p>"Belay there!" interrupted Cap'n Jonah. "I ain't finished payin' out +my line yet. What I want to know is, will you board an' lodge me, +and do for me as the sayin' is, an' for how much a month? I ain't no +millionaire, as I tell you, but I have always paid my shot an' I allus +calc'late to while there's any shot left in the locker."</p> + +<p>Sarah's smile fairly dripped honey again. Orrin's expression of +countenance changed so suddenly that it must have hurt him. Tom looked +relieved.</p> + +<p>"Well, now, Uncle!" his niece again ejaculated as though the subject of +money was quite a painful one.</p> + +<p>And it was. She was in a nervous flutter for fear she would not tax the +old sea captain all that he would possibly stand. The thought of fixing +his monthly stipend below the figure Uncle Jonah might be willing to +pay was positively torturing to Sarah's mind.</p> + +<p>Yet, for a very good reason, she wished to appear generous to her +relative. Not only might it be true that Cap'n Jonah was wealthy, but +that old note given by her father for two thousand dollars might still +be in existence. She must show herself liberal to her uncle, for she +might yet have to plead for mercy. It was true that she was Cap'n +Jonah's natural heiress, but he possibly had not made his will in her +favor (she determined to find that out immediately) and it would never +do to display a nature too grasping in the interim.</p> + +<p>"I don't expect you to cramp yourself none, Sarah," Cap'n Jonah said. +"That's a mighty nice room Pearly give me."</p> + +<p>"She done jest what I would have done myself if I'd been to home," +murmured Sarah Petty.</p> + +<p>"I like it 'cause it's nothin' at all like the close quarters of a +ship's cabin."</p> + +<p>"It's our very best room, Uncle Jonah," she added. "I'm glad you like +it."</p> + +<p>Secretly she could have shaken Pearl Holden for ever putting the old +man in that chamber. There was one over the kitchen, in the ell, that +would have been good enough for him, and probably pleased him quite as +well. What did an old sailor like him want of such nice quarters?</p> + +<p>"Well, I tell you how 'tis, Uncle Jonah," she said aloud and at length. +"Orrin and me ain't none too rich, as you can see. We have to stretch +ends sometimes to make 'em meet. In the summer when I let out that best +chamber I get six dollars a week for it from city folks that come down +here to the Cape. It's quite a help. That's six dollars a week with +board, of course. I should have to charge extry for wash and mendin' +and the like——"</p> + +<p>"Whatever!" exploded Cap'n Jonah, and he would have changed color had +his countenance not been burned so deeply that a surge of blood into +it made little difference in its hue.</p> + +<p>"But if you don't mind sleepin' in another room, Uncle Jonah, supposin' +I had a chance to let that best one at a good price, I'd be only too +glad to take you in for two dollars less a week—say twenty dollars +a month," Sarah hastened to say. "The wash and mendin' we'd consider +later. I wouldn't want it to seem at all like I was gouging a relative, +Uncle Jonah. But ev'rything does cost so much nowadays that I tell you, +free and frank, we have to figger even what it costs to keep a cat."</p> + +<p>"Have to depend on mousetraps, I do suppose," murmured the old mariner. +"I can see it's close sailin' for you to get along, Sarah. Wal! if +that's the best you can do, I'll agree. Twenty dollars a month it is."</p> + +<p>"And washin' extry," added Sarah, her little green eyes sparking. She +was not after all altogether sure that she had not underrated what +Cap'n Jonah would have paid. Still, she was getting a five-week month's +board out of him at the price she had set; and he certainly must be +good for fifty cents a week wash money.</p> + +<p>She saw that his blue suit, though wrinkled and well worn, was of an +excellent quality of cloth. His hat was a good one, too, and his stick +was a fine Malacca cane with a gold top to it. He wore a heavy cable +watchchain of gold, and when he drew, out the timepiece it proved to +be a valuable, if ancient, one.</p> + +<p>"Now, I reckon I'll turn in, if it's all the same to you folks," Cap'n +Jonah said, seeing the lateness of the hour. "I sha'n't need no rockin' +to put me to sleep. We'll talk more to-morrow," and he started for the +front of the house.</p> + +<p>Sarah had been taking sharp note of his footgear.</p> + +<p>"I'm sartain pleased to see that you wear middlin' light boots, Uncle +Jonah," she said pointedly. "I never let Orrin nor Tom go through the +house 'cept in their stockin' feet or their slippers. Men's boots is +that trackin'."</p> + +<p>"Oh, I'll take heed of your decks when you've jest holystoned 'em, +Sarah," Cap'n Jonah rejoined easily.</p> + +<p>This pleased Pearl. It seemed that the old captain was not to be easily +nagged. He went off cheerfully after bidding them good-night.</p> + +<p>"Well," said Sarah, "we'll get something out of him, anyway. He can't +be an absolute pauper. And I'll soon have him out o' that best room and +into where he belongs."</p> + +<p>"Have a care, Sarah. Have a care," advised Orrin Petty. "He's a +quiet-talkin' man. Mebbe he's got more cash than he's willin' to tell +about. We don't want to rile him."</p> + +<p>"If he was rich as cream I wouldn't have him messin' up my best +bedroom for long. I tell you that, now, Orrin Petty!" Then she turned +on Tom with one of her sudden, birdlike motions. "Where's that Ladies +Aid money I give you, Tom, to buy that lamp with at the Harwich +Emporium, and you never done it? I sartain sure thought you could do +that for me while I was visitin' with your A'nt Poley Heath."</p> + +<p>"I tell you they didn't have no more of the kind you women picked out +for the chapel," growled Tom, stuffing his pipe from his father's +tobacco pouch. "Have 'em in again next month."</p> + +<p>"Well, gi'me the money."</p> + +<p>"Let a feller light his pipe, won't you?" growled Tom, getting up to +take a spill from the vase on the mantelpiece, and proceeding to ignite +it at the lamp. Then as his mother's attention was diverted by some +household matter, he slipped out of the door.</p> + +<hr class="tb"> + +<p>The captain did not go directly to bed. He sat by his window, of which +he had opened wide the blinds, much to his niece's rage and disgust. He +looked out into the soft darkness that had now settled down on sea and +land.</p> + +<p>A red light sparked, went out, sparked again. That was the revolving +lamp at the lighthouse on The Neck, the narrow strip of land which +stretched a defense between the Haven and the open sea. Nearer were +the lamps of other dwellings. The surf sighed along the Beaches, beyond +Cap'n Abe's store.</p> + +<p>"It does seem," murmured Cap'n Jonah, rather enigmatically, "that the +sea and the air and the peaceful land air more to be depended on than +folks. Most folks, at least. Howsomever, that there Pearly gal——"</p> + +<p>He heard her voice on the porch below his window. She must have come +outside to rest and cool off after washing the supper dishes. The +incense of burning tobacco rose to his nostrils, and then Tom Petty +said:</p> + +<p>"Well, you needn't blame me, Pearly. <i>I</i> didn't keep you from going +along of us to that blamed cattle show. You didn't miss much. I wish I +hadn't gone myself."</p> + +<p>"Why, didn't you have a good time?" Pearl Holden asked. There was +weariness in her tone and not much curiosity.</p> + +<p>"By hokey!" exclaimed Tom, "there warn't nothin' there but silly gals, +an' silly cows an' such, and—and cheatin' plays."</p> + +<p>"What do you mean? What kind of plays?"</p> + +<p>"All kinds of games—an' there warn't none of 'em square, I don't +guess. Pop won a <i>se</i>-gar battin' a spike on the head with a maul, to +show how strong he was. But when he tried to smoke the <i>se</i>-gar he +mighty near smothered me and Marm and she made him throw it away," and +Tom suddenly chuckled at the remembrance of his father's indignation.</p> + +<p>"But there! Considerin' some of 'em, I reckon that test-your-muscle +machine was fair, <i>se</i>-gar and all. Others! Well! I made a tarnal fool of +myself, Pearly, and I dunno how I'm goin' to square myself about it," +he added desperately.</p> + +<p>"What did you do, Tom?" the girl asked with more interest.</p> + +<p>"Well, there was a feller in an alley there, 'twixt two buildings, and +he'd got a crowd in front of him. The alley was clear behind him and +had a gate at the end; but we didn't notice that at the start. Oh, he +was a slick one!</p> + +<p>"Well, he had a little foldin' table, and on it he had three little +tin cups and a pea. He was an awful quick movin' feller—or 'peared +to be—and he told us his hands could move quicker than the eye could +foller."</p> + +<p>"So can my hands," interposed Pearl. "I can count beans faster than I +can see 'em."</p> + +<p>"Hoh! Listen here!" growled Tom. "It didn't look at first as though +that feller could do what he said. He made some passes with his hands +and said some hocus-pocus over them three cups and the pea, and then he +dared any feller to say under which of the cups the pea was. A feller +in a white hat and them gaiter things they wear over their shoes now, +said right away he knew where it was.</p> + +<p>"'How much'll you bet?' says the feller. 'You're a sport, I can +see—and you think you're smart. Say what you'll bet.'</p> + +<p>"And after a little urging the feller in the white hat bet two dollars +against the other feller's two dollars, an' sure enough, he did point +out the right cup where the pea was."</p> + +<p>"And won two dollars?" gasped Pearl. "Why, Tom! That's gambling—and +it's wicked!"</p> + +<p>"It's wicked all right when you lose," grumbled Tom. "But we didn't +lose much first along."</p> + +<p>"'We?'" cried Pearl. "You didn't bet, too, Tom?"</p> + +<p>"Sh! Don't let the old lady hear you," snapped Tom. "Course I tried it. +I won two dollars, and then I won three. The white-hatted feller was +skinnin' that feller with the cups and the pea every time. You could +see he felt pretty meachin' about it Got all red and flustered-like. +Why, I could spot where he hid that pea just as <i>e-easy</i>!"</p> + +<p>"And then?" Cap'n Jonah, grinning widely in the dark, heard the girl +gasp.</p> + +<p>"Why, we all got excited. There was a dozen or more of us bettin'. That +pea-and-cup feller had a slather of money.</p> + +<p>"'You got to give me a chance, boys,' he says. 'Give me a show for my +white alley. This time I'm a-goin' to fool you.'</p> + +<p>"And he kep' on like that, urgin' us to bet our pile against his pile. +Why, I could see where he put that pea just as plain! So I went with +the rest. I bet twenty-five dollars—all I'd won and all I had."</p> + +<p>"Oh, Tommy Petty!"</p> + +<p>"Now, don't you begin," cried Tom hoarsely. "I warn't the only fool. +The feller bet us two to one, and it looked like a sure thing. Some bet +on one cup and some on another; but I knowed just where the pea went, +and I bet on the right one."</p> + +<p>"Then you didn't lose, Tom?" murmured Pearl with a relieved sigh.</p> + +<p>"I didn't lose honest," growled the young fellow. "That feller with the +pea and the tin cups had been foolin' us all along. He got a heap of +money piled up in front of him—a stack big enough to choke a cow! And +then he just whipped all three of the cups off the table and the pea +warn't under airy one of 'em!</p> + +<p>"The white-hatted feller just then saw Dave Milliken, the constable, +comin' and he yelled: 'Cheese it! We'll all get arrested!' and he beat +it down the alley with the pea-and-cup man, who grabbed all the money +and the cups and the foldin' table and stuffed the whole b'ilin' into a +suit case he had ready.</p> + +<p>"Why, Pearly! them fellers was through the alley gate and locked it +after 'em before we any of us 'woke up to it that they was in cahoots +and was a couple of sharks. An' we couldn't do a thing!"</p> + +<p>"Tom!" gasped the girl. "You lost all your money?"</p> + +<p>"Hoh! That wouldn't figger too much," said the young fellow hoarsely. +"But I did more than that. <i>I lost all the money I had.</i>"</p> + +<p>"My goodness, Tom! The Ladies Aid money for the chapel lamp?" Pearl +emitted in horrified staccato.</p> + + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> + +<div class="chapter"> +<h2 class="nobreak" id="CHAPTER_IV">CHAPTER IV</h2> +</div> + +<h3>TOM PETTY REVEALS HIMSELF</h3> + + +<p>Cap'n Jonah's quiet amusement, secured through his unintentional +eavesdropping at the bedroom window, was mixed with a certain +satisfaction in learning the sort of fellow his grand-nephew was. Tom +Petty was evidently "no brighter than the law allows," as the captain +expressed it to himself.</p> + +<p>Pearl, he was pleased to see, was just the sort of girl he had believed +her—sympathetic and good, with a strain of old-fashioned piety that +the captain was glad to see had not run out here on the Cape. Nor was +the girl impractical.</p> + +<p>Her amazement and horror over the denouement of Tom's story assured +Cap'n Jonah that young Tom was in serious trouble. He had gambled away +money that did not belong to him and it was pretty certain that he had +no resources from which to make good the sum thus squandered.</p> + +<p>"Tom Petty!" Pearl said again, "what will your mother say to you?"</p> + +<p>"By hokey! if she hears 'bout it, Pearly, she'll near 'bout nail me +to the barn door like a salt haddock. I got to fool her someway; but +how can I? I can keep her from knowing it till about breakfast time +to-morrow morning. Then if I don't pony up that eighteen-seventy-five +that belonged to the Ladies Aid that she's treasurer of—Well, she's +bound to throw a conniption fit and step in it, that's what she'll do!" +concluded the young fellow, both inelegantly and unfilially.</p> + +<p>"My goodness!" the girl murmured. "Don't let her know you took the +money, Tom. It's bad enough for you to have gambled. But don't ever let +her know it was with money that wasn't yours. Especially money she'd +trusted you with."</p> + +<p>"Aw, cat's foot!" exclaimed Tom. "I wouldn't care so much if the whole +twenty-five dollars was somebody else's money and I didn't have to pay +any of it back."</p> + +<p>Captain Jonah Hand certainly was learning what his grand-nephew was.</p> + +<p>"But if Marm knows it she'll stew about it, and fuss an' fume till all +git out!"</p> + +<p>"Tell your father," suggested Pearl.</p> + +<p>"Hoh! Where will he get money to help me—if he would? Marm keeps him +as close—or closer—than she does me."</p> + +<p>"Oh!" said Pearl with a sudden change in her tone. "Do you want to +borrow the money to pay back the Ladies Aid?"</p> + +<p>"That's what I've got to do, Pearly," Tom said hastily. "I don't mind +the money <i>I</i> lost; but I've got to borrow that eighteen-seventy-five. +No two ways about it. Why! I'd rob a bank 'fore I'd let Marm know about +this."</p> + +<p>"Sh!" it was then Pearl's turn to say warningly. "Don't talk so +recklessly, Tom. Who can you borrow of if your father hasn't it?"</p> + +<p>"You know mighty well that Pop never has any money that Marm don't keep +strict account of," growled Tom's voice.</p> + +<p>"I don't see——"</p> + +<p>"By hokey!" ejaculated the young man. "I've a mind to strike the old +codger for a loan."</p> + +<p>"Who do you mean?" demanded Pearl.</p> + +<p>"This Uncle Jonah of Marm's."</p> + +<p>"Tom Petty! You wouldn't?" cried the girl, aghast.</p> + +<p>"I tell you I'm desperate, Pearly. And you don't seem to care a dern!" +and Tom's voice seemed actually to foretell tears. "We've been friends +for years, Pearly, and you know well 'nough what I think of you. I'd +dearly love to have you for my gal——"</p> + +<p>"Now, Tom! don't talk that-a-way," said Pearl, sharply, and evidently +much worried. Then added: "There must be some way out of your pickle."</p> + +<p>"I'd like to know what it is. I've got to get money to satisfy Marm, +or I've got to get out. That's all there is to it. And that's all you +care! Aw, Pearly, I'd just be finished complete if I had to leave you," +and Tom's voice dropped to a maudlin tone that could not be mistaken.</p> + +<p>"Run away!" exclaimed the girl, but apparently responding not at all to +his tender advances. "You wouldn't do <i>that</i>?"</p> + +<p>"I'm my own man I guess. I'd like to see anybody try to stop me. Hoh! +Unless 'twas a policeman 'long o' losin' that money," added Tom, his +sudden boastfulness evaporating.</p> + +<p>"You ought to go to work, Tom," Pearl said thoughtfully. "But you don't +need to run away and break your mother's heart. No. Cap'n Durgin will +give you a berth on the <i>Tryout</i>, you know. And if you borrow that +money to pay back the Ladies Aid, you'll have to go to work to earn +money to repay what you borrow."</p> + +<p>"I suppose so."</p> + +<p>"But, don't you <i>intend</i> to?" demanded the girl sharply.</p> + +<p>"Well, I don't know as he'd want it back," said Tom slowly.</p> + +<p>"Who are you talkin' about, Tom Petty?" Pearl demanded with sudden +exasperation.</p> + +<p>"Uncle Jonah."</p> + +<p>"You're not going to Cap'n Hand to borrow money, Tom Petty!" ejaculated +the girl. "You got no call to. It isn't decent—and he just come here."</p> + +<p>"Well," whined Tom, "I dunno what to do then."</p> + +<p>"You'll borrow it of <i>me</i>," said Pearl decisively. "You know I've got +'most twenty dollars saved up—what with picking cranberries last fall +and selling blueberries to the hotel this summer. You know I've got +that money."</p> + +<p>"That don't help me none," growled Tom.</p> + +<p>"Why not?"</p> + +<p>"As long as you've got it, it don't help me," said the lout, already in +a lighter mood.</p> + +<p>"I'll get it and give it to you before breakfast time," promised Pearl +briskly. "But you've got to go to work and pay it back 'fore Christmas."</p> + +<p>"I ain't goin' with Cap'n Durgin, just the same," grumbled Tom. "He's a +reg'lar driver."</p> + +<p>"You can work in the cranberry bogs, then. You'll earn two dollars and +a half a day there," said the practical Pearl.</p> + +<p>"Well." If it was a promise, it was given under duress.</p> + +<p>Cap'n Jonah heard the screen door click again and the light tap of +Pearl's heels upon the kitchen floor. The girl was coming up to bed. +The old mariner felt some mixed emotions astir within him. He had a +mind for a moment to call the girl into his room and talk to her "like +a Dutch uncle," as he expressed it.</p> + +<p>Then he thought of Tom, and his soul was filled with disgust. Tom was +worse than a fool. He had not only allowed himself to be gulled by a +trick that had been in disfavor "when Adam was a boy" (so grumbled the +captain), but he had run squealing to a girl about it and had worked +on that girl's sympathies until she had agreed to help him out of his +predicament.</p> + +<p>"And it's in my mind," muttered Cap'n Jonah, as he pulled on a +stockinet nightcap a little later, and got into bed, "that the young +sculpin ain't no idee of ever payin' the gal back her money if she +lends it to him. He's a sweet May blossom, he is! We'll see 'bout +that." But these several discoveries about the Petty household did not +keep Cap'n Jonah Hand awake.</p> + +<hr class="tb"> + +<p>The bell-like note of a bird rising from the clashing cat-tail rushes +was the first sound to assail the waking senses of the newcomer to +the Orrin Petty homestead on the following morning. Cap'n Jonah was +an early riser both because of his advanced years and from habit. He +got out of bed as quietly as a cat. The family was sleeping later than +usual because of the outing the day before.</p> + +<p>From long sea going habit the captain was already half dressed. He +doused his head and face in a brimming basin, combed his thinning locks +and beard, and got into his outer garments, even to his hat. Then, with +his shoes in his hand, he stole out of the room and down the stairs.</p> + +<p>Cape Cod people have no particular reason for locking their doors. The +tramp was not known in Cardhaven, although Sarah Petty was so given to +using the expression. Cap'n Jonah found the kitchen door unfastened, +and he stepped out, stopping in the porch to pull on his shoes, which +were of the elastic-sided congress variety.</p> + +<p>The sun had not yet thrust even his upper rim above the distant +sea-line. When Cap'n Jonah descended the porch steps he waded waist +deep in a blanket of mist which Night had spread upon the earth, and +which Dawn, brisk housekeeper that she was, had not yet rolled up and +laid away.</p> + +<p>There was much astir, however, and the stratum of mist carried certain +sounds for long distances. The captain heard Enos Cartright ordering +his old mare, Mehitabel, to "stand over!" in her box stall, as he +faithfully curried her down. Then a mellow "So, boss! So, boss!" +revealed the Widow Shattuck at her pasture bars calling up Sukey to be +milked.</p> + +<p>A little later, in the midst of a chanticleer chorus and the hungry +grunting of pigs, the captain, pacing back and forth in the lane, heard +the tinkle of Sukey's milk in the pail as her mistress capably massaged +the cow's udder.</p> + +<p>The now wavering mist acted as a transmitter for sounds from greater +distances. He heard voices and the creak of blocks of cordage from the +Haven itself. A fishing boat was putting out. Then the two-leaved door +of Cap'n Abe's store was set wide and he heard the storekeeper drive +home the wedges which held it open.</p> + +<p>A sudden flash of red heralded the sun's appearance. All this moving +fog began to glow, rose-colored. It was dissipated rapidly. Out of it +he saw several columns of smoke rising, straight into the air, marking +matutinal fires of neighboring dwellings.</p> + +<p>A mighty yawn sounded near at hand. Cap'n Jonah wheeled to see Tom +Petty come stretching and gaping from the kitchen door.</p> + +<p>"Well, young man!" said the old mariner briskly.</p> + +<p>"Oh! Ah!" exploded Tom, finishing his yawn loudly, arms stretched above +his head. "Morning, Uncle Jonah."</p> + +<p>"Good morning to you," replied his elderly relative. "I guess you're +feeling your yest'day's good time some?"</p> + +<p>"'Good time'! Hoh!" snorted Tom. "I never want to see another cattle +show."</p> + +<p>"Leaves a brown taste in your mouth, does it?" chuckled the captain. +"And drained your pocket as dry as the Desert of Sahara, I bet!"</p> + +<p>"Hoh! Who was tellin' you?" demanded Tom, bitten with sudden suspicion.</p> + +<p>"I don't have to be told ev'rything—not at my age," chuckled Cap'n +Jonah. "I was young once myself."</p> + +<p>He drew a bill-holder from an inner pocket. Tom, who had begun to +scowl, washed that expression hurriedly off his face.</p> + +<p>"I guess you know how 'tis, Uncle Jonah," confessed the young fellow, +suppressing a certain eagerness he felt and trying to keep his eyes off +the bill-holder which, if not plethoric, looked to be well filled. "You +know, where ev'rybody else is spendin', you spend more'n you ought to +yourself."</p> + +<p>"Just so! Just so!" agreed the captain. He selected a yellow-backed +bill, crisp and crackling, and thrust it suddenly into Tom's itching +palm. "Here's a twenty for you. I never do know what sort o' presents +to buy folks. Get somethin' for yourself or put it away in the bank +as you like. And don't say nothin' to your Pop or Marm about it," +concluded the shrewd old fellow, with a keen side glance at Tom.</p> + +<p>The latter was all but overcome. Relief and gratification momentarily +enlarged his heart to almost the size of a pea.</p> + +<p>"By hokey! Uncle Jonah, you're all right!" he murmured, pocketing the +twenty dollar bank note and his freckled face glowing all over. "I'll +never forgit you for this."</p> + +<p>He lumbered away toward the barn while the captain continued to "pace +the quarterdeck" along the shaded lane. A little later he saw Tom +talking with Pearl at the barnyard bars.</p> + +<p>"I guess I put a spoke in your wheel, young man," thought the captain, +but with a dark look at the loutish Tom.</p> + +<p>Pearl came back to the lane to bid Cap'n Jonah good-morning, her sweet +face aglow. Starry-eyed and dimpling, she showed plainly, the old man +thought, her relief on finding that Tom had in some way got out of his +financial difficulty.</p> + +<p>When the young fellow paid his mother at the breakfast table, and +before them all, the eighteen-seventy-five he owed her, he produced the +exact change in small bills and silver. It did not cross Cap'n Jonah's +mind to wonder where Tom had got the twenty dollar note changed, so +early in the morning.</p> + + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> + +<div class="chapter"> +<h2 class="nobreak" id="CHAPTER_V">CHAPTER V</h2> +</div> + +<h3>"BETTER A DINNER OF HERBS"</h3> + + +<p>The day in the Petty household began with bickerings. Sarah Petty +possessed all the nagging power of dropping water. Orrin fulfilled his +own surname in small meannesses. Tom was disobedient and disrespectful +to both parents. All three picked on Pearl.</p> + +<p>Although they endeavored to show Cap'n Jonah the smooth side of their +natures—and even Tom remained polite to him—the visitor could not +fail to overhear many things that were not intended for his ears. Nor +was he to be deceived regarding the character of his relatives.</p> + +<p>One thing amazed him. The single item in his audit of Tom's character +that placed that young man one degree above an idiot, was the +revelation the evening before of what seemed to be Tom's admiration for +Pearl. The lout had intimated that he desired Pearl for his own.</p> + +<p>"And if he loves a gal like her, mebbe there's some good in the scamp, +after all," ruminated Cap'n Jonah.</p> + +<p>But this day had not passed before the captain saw so many exhibitions +of meanness on Tom's part in relation to the pretty household drudge +that he began to wonder if his hearing had not played him false on the +previous evening when he had sat at his chamber window and overheard +the conversation between the two young folks.</p> + +<p>When Sarah Petty broke out in scolding because of some real or fancied +mistake of Pearl's, Cap'n Jonah expected Tom in some way to express +sympathy with the girl, if he did not defend her. But the lout only +grinned, lit his pipe, and left the house.</p> + +<p>Of course, her menfolk were well used to the vitriolic dripping from +Sarah Petty's tongue, and bearing this in silence was perhaps the only +logical way to get along with her. If Tom had a proper feeling for +Pearl, however, the captain did not see how the fellow could listen to +his mother's vituperations addressed to her innocent victim. The girl +deserved no such tongue-lashings as she received, the captain was quite +sure.</p> + +<p>He saw Pearl stepping lightly about her tasks—at sink, at stove, at +ironing-board, or what-not—always brisk and ready, and either silent +or with a pleasant word. She made no reply when Mrs. Petty's ill-humor +dripped over like an overfull cup. But Cap'n Jonah missed the smile +from her sweet face.</p> + +<p>The old mariner, as he expressed it, "kept out from under foot" as much +as possible. He found that every time he went up to his room, Sarah +Petty was right behind him with brush and pan, ostentatiously dusting +imaginary dirt from the stair carpet. If he opened his window blind to +see in his room, it was shut immediately, and with emphasis, when he +departed. Before this first day was over his niece began sadly to get +upon the captain's nerves.</p> + +<p>"The Lord sartainly does temper the wind to the shorn lamb—and to the +man that ain't married," concluded Cap'n Jonah. "If I was Orrin Petty, +I calc'late, I'd purty nigh live in the barn and never come into the +house at all. Or I'd ship for a long v'y'ge."</p> + +<p>His sympathy for Orrin could not be deep, however; for Orrin Petty +possessed ways fully as unpleasant as those of his wife. His +penuriousness and his suspicion were raised to the <i>nth</i> power, and his +curiosity made him a pest.</p> + +<p>"I calc'late you seen many a chance't to turn a dollar over in them +furrin' parts you was to, Cap'n Jonah," Orrin said. "Jest how did you +do it?"</p> + +<p>"Wal, for the most part, I passed one dollar from one pants pocket to +the other. If I came out even I was lucky, most times. Speculatin' +ain't what it's cracked up to be. Most money that I ever got my hands +on to I airned by the sweat of my brow—yes, sir!"</p> + +<p>"Tradin' in them furrin' countries I allus heard would fetch two or +three hundred per cent.," Orrin went on obstinately.</p> + +<p>"Ye-as. You'll hear a good many fool idees if you stretch your ears +to ketch ev'ry sound. If it was so, there'd be more millionaires in +Chinese waters than they tell me there is in Pittsburgh."</p> + +<p>He refused to be drawn like a badger from his hole, and Orrin showed +disappointment. He had the itch for making money, and any man who made +it (as he believed Uncle Jonah had) by using his wits, was an object of +keen envy to Orrin Petty.</p> + +<p>Besides, in this case, Orrin had a personal reason for desiring to know +the particulars of Cap'n Jonah's fortune.</p> + +<p>"Le's see, Cap'n Jonah, you made your final investments nearer home +than China, didn't you?" he asked as they smoked after dinner on the +side porch. "You never come clear across't the world and left your +investments in furrin parts, did you?"</p> + +<p>"'Hem!" ejaculated Cap'n Jonah. "No. As I might say, I didn't."</p> + +<p>"Wal, now, what did you conclude was a good, safe investment? Sarah an' +me might have a little spare money some day, and I reckon the lead of a +successful man like you would be a good one to foller."</p> + +<p>"No. I wouldn't want to advise no other man in a matter of +speculation," said Cap'n Jonah bruskly.</p> + +<p>But Orrin was not to be put off. The more the old mariner tried to +evade, the more Orrin was convinced that Cap'n Jonah had "made his +pile" and did not want anybody to know the means he had fortunately set +upon to become wealthy.</p> + +<p>In his own heart the penurious Orrin Petty knew that if he made a +successful turn in business he would be loath to tell anybody else how +he did it.</p> + +<p>"Now, Cap'n Jonah," he urged with his wry grin and slyly twinkling eye, +"jest put a name to it. Jest name one thing that you put money into."</p> + +<p>Cap'n Jonah looked at him steadily for a moment. His mahogany face was +very grim indeed.</p> + +<p>"Ile," he croaked at last.</p> + +<p>"'Ile'?" repeated Orrin, eagerly. "Not whalin'?"</p> + +<p>"Ile stocks," explained Cap'n Jonah gruffly.</p> + +<p>"Wha—what's them?" stammered Mr. Petty.</p> + +<p>"Sheers in ile wells, or in the land where ile wells is supposed to be."</p> + +<p>"Goshamighty! Do they git ile out'n the ground?" ejaculated Orrin. "I +thought they got it from whales, an' codfish livers, and castor beans."</p> + +<p>"I don't understand much about it," said Cap'n Jonah glumly.</p> + +<p>"But is them ile shares good things to put money in?"</p> + +<p>Cap'n Jonah stared at him again under penthouse brows. At last he said:</p> + +<p>"Wal—no. I couldn't recommend 'em. I wouldn't advise any man about any +speculation, as I said afore."</p> + +<p>His pipe had gone out. Cap'n Jonah was not much of a smoker. He got up +and walked away from the disappointed Orrin. Cap'n Jonah's face was +very grim as he paced down the lane. Finally:</p> + +<p>"Whatever! I was sore tempted—I sartainly was. If that scalawag has +got any money laid up—he and Sarah—I b'lieve I could saw off them ile +sheers on to him easy.</p> + +<p>"And s'arve him right," pursued Cap'n Jonah. "The feller that sold 'em +to me was mighty glad to git rid of 'em, I don't dispute. I bit, and +bit good. And I'd rayther like to see Orrin Petty swaller hook, line, +and sinker same's I did, I vow!"</p> + +<p>However that might be, curiosity and cupidity urged Orrin Petty to +ask a question of the Paulmouth Bank cashier that very afternoon when +he went to make a deposit in his own and Sarah's name. In a small way +Orrin was considered a good customer by the bank. He made frequent +deposits, and he never took a penny out.</p> + +<p>"What are oil stocks worth, Mr. Petty?" repeated the cashier in reply +to a question on that point. "Why, some I might mention are to-day +quoted—provided you could buy them—at six hundred and seventy. That +is five hundred and seventy dollars above par."</p> + +<p>"Goshamighty!" murmured the wonderstruck Orrin. "An' suppose that old +codger was foxy enough to buy 'em at a hundred? I bet he did!"</p> + +<p>He did not hear the cashier's additional information: "And some of them +are not worth the paper they are printed on."</p> + +<p>This day was not ended for Cap'n Jonah before he came to one conclusion +that would color his opinion of his relatives and his future +intercourse with them, whether he was rich or poor.</p> + +<p>The laws of the Medes and the Persians were no more unbreakable than +certain housekeeping rules in Sarah Petty's house. Ironing day followed +wash day as surely as the day dawned. Since immediately after the early +breakfast Pearl had been standing at the ironing board in the hot +kitchen, save when the board must be put aside for the serving of the +dinner.</p> + +<p>Midafternoon came, and the girl was still at the board, wielding the +heavy irons. Her pretty face was flushed, but there was a white line +about her mouth that Cap'n Jonah could see from his chair in the +shaded porch. Her hair clung in damp clusters of curls about her brow. +There was a strained expression in her dark eyes, and they were deep, +smoldering pools of flame. The girl was overtired and her nerves were +almost at the breaking point.</p> + +<p>No offer did Sarah Petty make to help her little drudge. She puttered +about certain light household duties and superintended the boiling +of the pork and cabbage for dinner. But she did not lift her hand to +lighten Pearl's task.</p> + +<p>Her tongue was seldom still in fault-finding. There are housekeepers +<i>and</i> housekeepers. Sarah Petty was one of the other kind! Nobody could +be clean enough, or exact enough, to suit her. Every piece she saw +Pearl iron could be done better; nor was her uncomplaining serving maid +that paragon which Sarah considered she should be.</p> + +<p>As the mounds of smoothly ironed bed and table linen, with windrows +of towels and piles of garments, rose, Sarah's voice rose likewise in +snarling criticism.</p> + +<p>There was no chair in the kitchen that was not occupied by the smoothed +pieces. Tom Petty lumbered in to fill and light his pipe and grinned +knowingly at Pearl.</p> + +<p>"Ain't you got through yet, Pearly? By hokey! but you're takin' your +time about a little old mess o' clothes."</p> + +<p>Pearl would not reply to this attempted pleasantry.</p> + +<p>"What's the matter—mad?" asked the jovial Tenn, pointing a tentative +finger to lift Pearl's drooping chin. "You ain't mad with me, are you, +Pearly?"</p> + +<p>"You get away from me, Tom Petty!" gasped the girl, starting back, the +heavy iron poised in her hand.</p> + +<p>"By hokey! I believe you'd swipe me one with that iron!" crowed the +lout, in much apparent fear.</p> + +<p>In retreating he fell against a chair. The neatly piled pillow slips +upon it toppled to the floor. His mother entered the kitchen just in +season to spy this disaster.</p> + +<p>"There! You plagued, good-for-nothin', useless gal!" she shrieked. +"Them pillow slips all over the floor 'count o' your foolin' with Tom. +He can't come into the house but you haf to leave your work to have +some game with him. I could box your ears!"</p> + +<p>Tom ran laughing out of the kitchen. He made no effort to defend Pearl +from his mother's undeserved wrath.</p> + +<p>"Now, Miss!" Sarah Petty continued, scrambling the overturned linen up +anyway, some slightly soiled from contact with Tom's muddy boots, but +all ruffled and wrinkled. "Now, Miss! You can just have the pleasure of +washin' an' ironin' them over again. You wash 'em to-night after supper +an' hang 'em out; and if they ain't ironed and in the linen closet by +to-morrow noon, you'll hear from me, you lazybones!"</p> + +<p>She went away, grumbling, with a pile of ironed clothes. Cap'n Jonah +heard Pearl sigh, then sob, then sigh again. The girl's spirit was +broken. The old mariner drew forth his never-failing comforter—the +silver snuff-box. He rapped it with his knuckle, snapped open the +cover, and took a huge pinch.</p> + +<p>"Achoo!" he rasped, then muttered: "That Bible feller got it right: +Better a dinner of herbs and a little peace. Whatever! a person might's +well live with a live tagger as with Sarah Petty."</p> + + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> + +<div class="chapter"> +<h2 class="nobreak" id="CHAPTER_VI">CHAPTER VI</h2> +</div> + +<h3>ROMANCE AND PEARL HOLDEN</h3> + + +<p>Cap'n Jonah Hand was gregarious by nature. He had spent many solitary +hours at sea, but not from choice. The master of a good-sized craft can +favor his mate and sub-officers with little of his company and his crew +none at all.</p> + +<p>Off duty he had spent many many hours playing that favorite solitaire +of the lonely mariner "Push"—a game which "comes out" about once in +five hundred times. Now that he was ashore with human beings within +hail, the retired seaman wasted no time in such a poor substitute for +sociability.</p> + +<p>Finding the Petty family so uncongenial and Pearl usually too busy to +pass more than the time of day with him, Cap'n Jonah lay in wait at +the mouth of the lane like a huge brown and blue ant-lion waiting for +passing Shell Road folk to fall into his conversational trap.</p> + +<p>Washy Gallup, wheeling his barrow laden with the innumerable turns of +a well corked seine, was easily persuaded to drop the barrow handles, +seat himself on one of them and push back from his weather-beaten face +the battered tarpaulin he affected on week days, preparatory to "a dish +of gossip."</p> + +<p>"Wal, Cap'n," began Washy, "what do you think of Cardhaven an' +Cardhaven folks as fur as you've gone?"</p> + +<p>The captain's eyes twinkled. "I'm a good deal like the feller that +allus walked backwards. Then he didn't have to give an opinion in +advance. I dunno as I could tell you yet, Mr. Gallup, how the place nor +the people strike me, by and large."</p> + +<p>"I figger you're a cautious man, Cap'n Hand," said Washy with a shrewd +nod. "Orrin was sayin' down to Cap'n Abe's last night he reckoned you +had made all the money a man ought to make, out there in the China +Seas."</p> + +<p>"Orrin Petty holds a good opinion of his own jedgment, I allow," +replied the captain grimly.</p> + +<p>It was almost uncanny how the talk of most people who paused to speak +to him slipped around to money matters. Cap'n Beecher, leaning on his +cane at the roadside, dropped his plummet into Cap'n Jonah's financial +waters.</p> + +<p>"You calc'late to settle down here, Cap'n Hand, don't ye?" he asked, +mopping his brow with a brilliant bandana.</p> + +<p>"I calc'late."</p> + +<p>"Glad to hear it," said the one-time master of the clipper-built +<i>Ivanhoe</i>. "We need jest sech solid men as you, Cap'n Hand, at this +end of the town to balance t'other end with the board of selectmen. +Why! we can't ever git street lights this side o' the Mariner's Chapel. +Was you thinkin' of buyin' property here, Cap'n? For a home, <i>or</i> an +investment? For if you be," Cap'n Joab hastened to add, "I got some +likely lots adjoining my own place that I'd like to have you cast an +eye on."</p> + +<p>"Thank ye," said the new arrival in the Shell Road neighborhood, dryly. +"If I decide to buy I'll let you know."</p> + +<p>'Liathel Grummit, humped over on his seat, dragged past behind his +patient steers a dripping load of seaweed mounded high upon the +two-wheeled cart. 'Liathel owned a small and scrubby farm on which +he raised vegetables, much poverty grass, and an astonishing crop of +tow-headed children.</p> + +<p>"Ye-a, Buck! Ye-a, Bright!" he intoned, cracking the long whip-lash +before the spotted faces of the steers. They came to a lumbering halt. +"You air Cap'n Hand, I don't dispute?"</p> + +<p>"It's as good a name as any. But I've left the sea for all time, and I +ain't no more a skipper," replied the captain, indicating that he was +no stickler for quarterdeck formalities now that he was a landsman.</p> + +<p>"So I was informed," said 'Liathel politely. "But I didn't jest know +whether you was thinkin' of settin' up for yourself around here? If you +be, and if you do, I'd like to sell you a pair of late shoats I got. +You'll want a pig or two to help eat your table scraps. An' my wife, +Miz Grummit, has some yearling fowls she'd be glad to dispose of if you +was calc'latin' to keep hens."</p> + +<p>"Whatever!" gasped Cap'n Jonah. "Do you folks think I'm an open market +for all the surplus of this here town? I ain't no idee of keeping pigs, +nor yet poultry. I'm obleeged to you, but you ain't got a thing I'm in +need of, I do assure you."</p> + +<p>"All right, Cap'n. No offense meant. No offense taken. Ye-ip, Buck! +Ye-ip, Bright!"</p> + +<p>The long whip snapped again. The placid steers, chewing their cuds and +swaying their bodies rhythmically, plodded on up the white road. Cap'n +Jonah watched the sunshine sparkle in the pool that had dripped from +the load of seaweed. He shook his head.</p> + +<p>"Whatever!" he said, repeating his favorite ejaculation. "This here +determination to turn a penny is the curse o' the Cape, just as it +always was. I bet even the preachers think in terms of dollars and +cents.</p> + +<p>"And they are going to pester me purty nigh to death about my fortune. +I can see that, as the feller said when he saw stars. Now them ile +sheers! I swan to man! I b'lieve I could make a bit on them, let alone +turn 'em over. Get thee behind me, Satan! Whew!" and the captain +removed his hat and passed the silk handkerchief over his brown +face. "Whatever! I don't wonder there's so many sharks an' dogfish at +loose ends—an' pea-an'-shell game men, too," and he chuckled. "The +sucker-fish must bite more voracious than any other kind.</p> + +<p>"'Hem! Here's a feller might tell me if that's so."</p> + +<p>He saw the tall figure of Helmford approaching. The usual smile upon +the young government employee's face had a rueful cast just now. He +answered Cap'n Jonah's hail, however, with equal cordiality and, like +every other passer-by, stopped to pass the time of day.</p> + +<p>"This is one large day—and plenty of it, Captain," he said. "How do +you feel?"</p> + +<p>"I fare pretty well," responded Cap'n Jonah; "only there's somethin' in +the j'ints of my knees that makes 'em creak like a wood snatch block +when I try to swing 'em. How air you, Mr. Helmford?"</p> + +<p>"Why, Captain Hand, I'm like to be cast out into the cold world. The +Cardhaven Inn closes for the season, and I don't know where I'm to look +for a boarding place."</p> + +<p>"Sho!" exclaimed the old mariner. "Aren't boardin' places plenty 'round +here?"</p> + +<p>"In the summer—yes. Almost everybody takes boarders. But the women are +not so ready to take in a stranger during the winter. It makes too many +menfolk around the house. Then there is the heating to be considered, +as well as extra food, when fresh vegetables and even a plentiful +supply of fresh fish are not available."</p> + +<p>"I see, I see," agreed the captain. "Codfish and potaters don't suit +the city appetite, eh?"</p> + +<p>"I should not be afraid of plain food," declared Helmford. "I was born +on a farm. And I'd like to get board down this way. It's nearer my +plant."</p> + +<p>"The place where you teach fish to hatch their aigs?"</p> + +<p>The young fellow laughed a little. "If you hear of a boarding place for +me, Captain Hand——"</p> + +<p>The captain's eyes were twinkling. He was scrutinizing young Helmford +much more sharply than appeared to be the case.</p> + +<p>"Ahem!" he said, clearing his throat reflectively. "Why don't you try +Sarah?"</p> + +<p>"'Sarah'?"</p> + +<p>"Yep. My niece."</p> + +<p>"Mrs. Petty?"</p> + +<p>"That's who I mean. She ain't averse, I should say, to turning a penny. +Try her."</p> + +<p>"Why, I will!" he exclaimed. "And thank you, Captain. I can go right in +and see her now, can't I?"</p> + +<p>"I spect you can," said Cap'n Jonah. "There ain't no law again' it that +I know on."</p> + +<p>Helmford laughed and started immediately up the lane. Where it +debouched into the yard he came upon Pearl hanging out certain couch +covers and hangings to air, this being sweeping day. Her head was +tightly banded with a towel for a dustcap. The face under such a turban +must be pretty indeed to attract favorable attention.</p> + +<p>"I beg pardon, Miss Holden," Helmford said, doffing his cap. "Can I see +Mrs. Petty for a moment?"</p> + +<p>"I guess you can," said the girl, dimpling and showing marked approval +of the young man. She had seen him at a distance often before; but +Joseph Helmford had never seen her, for Pearl's face was usually hidden +in public by a sun-bonnet.</p> + +<p>"Thank you," murmured he, and for once he did not appear to be blind. +He bowed a second time. Pearl looked at him with shining eyes. Was he +about to say something more? It would not be polite to run away before +he had said all he wished to say.</p> + +<p>A harsh voice suddenly broke the thread between them: "You, Pearl! +If that's a book agent tell him we don't want no books. If it's a +missionary collector tell him we've subscribed already. If it's one o' +them nursery stock salesmen, jest unloose the dog onto <i>him</i>."</p> + +<p>Helmford's eyes widened during this tirade. Then he began to smile. +Pearl giggled faintly, and, turning, fled. "I'll splain to her," she +whispered over her shoulder.</p> + +<p>Mrs. Petty came rampantly to the door. Her head was tied up in a towel, +too—the universal sign of sweeping day on the Cape.</p> + +<p>"Can't you git rid——"</p> + +<p>"Sh!" gasped Pearl.</p> + +<p>"'Tain't a minister?" hissed Mrs. Petty.</p> + +<p>"No. It's Mr. Helmford, the fish man."</p> + +<p>"<i>Fish</i> man?" demanded the woman, still raucously. "What do we want o' +fish, I'd like to know? Can't your Uncle Orrin an' Tom git us all the +fish we need?"</p> + +<p>"Oh, Miz Petty!" cried Pearl. "He is the government fish man, Mr. +Helmford."</p> + +<p>"Oh!"</p> + +<p>Sarah Petty began to comprehend that possibly the well dressed man in +the yard was not one to be chased back to the roadway as though he were +pariah. She assumed a doubtful smirk and stepped out on the porch to +blink near-sightedly at the caller.</p> + +<p>"Captain Hand suggested, Mrs. Petty," Helmford began, drawing near, +"that you might consider taking me to board. You know the Cardhaven Inn +closes now, and I would prefer living down this way. It is nearer to +the hatchery."</p> + +<p>"Oh! Yes! I see! You're the young man they say hatches fish up Salt +Creek way," said Mrs. Petty doubtfully. "I—hum! I dunno. These +fishermen allus do bring such a smell of fish home on their clo'es. I +make Orrin an' Tom change their duds in the shed when they have been +handlin' their seine or the lobster pots. I dunno."</p> + +<p>"I assure you, Mrs. Petty," Helmford said, hiding his amusement, "that +my work at the fish hatchery leaves no odor upon my clothing. I am +counted, I believe, rather neat and—er—'old-maidish,' they called me +at college."</p> + +<p>"Wal! I dunno! I couldn't cater to fussy folks," objected Mrs. Petty, +who felt it became her position in the community to yield only after +proper urging. "We're plain folks an' eat plain food——"</p> + +<p>"I ask for nothing better," Helmford said.</p> + +<p>His eyes were fixed on Pearl, who had returned to her task of pinning +the cretonne covers to the clothesline. As she had passed him again +the young man felt an indefinable attraction which caused his gaze +to follow her. He noted her litheness, the turn of her limbs, the +flowerlike sweetness of her expression of countenance—all for the +first time. Joe Helmford was not given much to the observation of +women. But this girl made an impression—indefinite, perhaps, at +first—that he was destined to carry with him.</p> + +<p>"I ask for nothing better," he repeated, dragging his attention back to +the sharp-featured Mrs. Petty.</p> + +<p>"Wal, I dunno!" the latter said again. "Course I <i>could</i> take ye in, +Mr. Helmford. I have room. And with Uncle Jonah here I haf to figger on +one extry plate at table—and two wouldn't be so much more bother. But +I dunno as my 'commodations would please ye."</p> + +<p>"Let me be the judge of that, Mrs. Petty," the young man urged.</p> + +<p>"I can show ye the best chamber," Sarah said. "Come right upstairs +with me." Here was a chance to get Uncle Jonah out of the big and +comfortable room. And an additional six dollars a week to the family +exchequer was not to be overlooked. Visions of financial benefit danced +in the woman's mind. She even considered adding an extra half dollar to +the price when Helmford praised the room, but then thought better of it +as the winter was coming on, only saying:</p> + +<p>"If you want a fire in here, Mr. Helmford, there's a pipehole in the +chimney. But you'll haf to furnish your own stove and coal. We keep a +settin'-room fire in the coldest weather; but you'll find it chilly up +here."</p> + +<p>"I see," agreed the young man. "I think I shall be satisfied, Mrs. +Petty. I agree to the terms. When can I have my books and trunk sent +over?"</p> + +<p>"Any time you like. I'll just put fresh sheets on the bed. You can +sleep here to-night," said the woman, grimly satisfied that Cap'n Jonah +was to be so soon ousted to the room over the kitchen.</p> + +<p>With no idea that he was making the genial captain any trouble, +Helmford paid Sarah Petty for the week in advance (a custom that +pleased her vastly) and, assured that he had secured better lodgings +than he had expected to find, the young man departed.</p> + +<p>From the sitting-room window, behind the lace curtains, Pearl watched +him go. She hoped he would return. He was entirely different from the +young men whom she saw daily at the store or at the Mariner's Chapel +when she went to service. Helmford was out of quite another world from +that with which Pearl Holden was familiar. Her gaze followed him down +the lane and out to the Shell Road, the glare of which swallowed him +up.</p> + + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> + +<div class="chapter"> +<h2 class="nobreak" id="CHAPTER_VII">CHAPTER VII</h2> +</div> + +<h3>GETTING ACQUAINTED</h3> + + +<p>Joseph Helmford overtook Cap'n Jonah making his way by easy stages down +the Shell Road toward that landmark, A. Silt's general store. It was +for the most part a drab landscape in this direction, for the crops +were out of the few cultivated fields and the sand lots lacked even the +color vouchsafed them in summer.</p> + +<p>The white shaft of the lighthouse on the Neck stood out against a +tumbled mass of slate colored clouds on the horizon. That cloudbank +foretold wind if not rain storms. The ocean was restive over Gull +Rocks, that danger spot of all danger spots along the hook of the Cape. +Seldom a winter passed that one unfortunate craft did not beat its life +out upon the treacherous reef. The bones of many such, like the ribs of +prehistoric monsters, were outthrust from the sands along the Neck.</p> + +<p>To the left lay the crescent length of The Beaches. The Shell Road +curved beyond Cap'n Abe's store and climbed to the bluffs that overhung +The Beaches, bordered with the more or less ornate summer dwellings of +city visitors.</p> + +<p>"It's a purty sight," observed Cap'n Jonah, "even on a lowering day +like this. So Sarah's took you on, has she?" he added more briskly. +"She'll be signing on a full crew before long, I don't dispute."</p> + +<p>"I shall be glad to be one of your family, Captain," Helmford made +reply.</p> + +<p>"I dunno how you'll like it, but we'll hope for the best," Cap'n +Jonah observed, dryly. "But, le's see! Who's this in one o' them +rattle-te-bang gas-buggies? She looks like a steam tug makin' heavy +weather of it."</p> + +<p>"Dr. Ambrose," said Helmford, quickly. "And his sister, Miss Sue. I +have an idea the doctor has been over to the new Tapp house on the +point. There's been an interesting event there recently, and instead of +sending for a specialist from Boston or the like, the young couple were +satisfied to have Doctor Ambrose officiate at the mundane appearance of +what Cap'n Abe calls 'the last Tapp'—meaning the latest Tapp."</p> + +<p>"Whatever!" ejaculated Cap'n Jonah. "I hear you sayin' something, but +I'll be keelhauled if I know what 'tis! 'Hem! So this is the doctor, is +it?"</p> + +<p>The old runabout, rattling in its throat like a dying man, came to a +halt beside the two pedestrians. Doctor Ambrose, in a much stained +linen duster, peered out at them over a bushy beard.</p> + +<p>"'Lo, Mr. Helmford," he said. "How are the eels and pollywogs? Isn't +that a stranger you have in tow? I'm always drumming up trade," and he +shook in his seat with laughter till the springs of the car wheezed +again.</p> + +<p>Cap'n Jonah, looking him over, smiled grimly. "If you've done better +than any other medical shark I ever heard of, I'll come to see you +about my rheumatics," he said. "But if you air still stickin' to +salicylate of sody, I reckon I'll dose myself from my own medicine +chist."</p> + +<p>"You old sea-dogs ought all to write M.D. and D.S. after your names," +responded Doctor Ambrose. "I take it you are Cap'n Hand? Make the +acquaintance of my sister, Cap'n."</p> + +<p>The retired mariner's glance had quickly shifted to the woman beside +the rough-and-ready country practitioner. She was petite and graceful, +and was dressed much more becomingly and more richly than most Cape +women are. Her silvering hair was arranged very prettily, each strand +laid exactly, and her quiet, cheerful face blushed under the brim of +her hat like an old-fashioned rose.</p> + +<p>"Cap'n Hand, Sue," rumbled on the doctor. The captain bowed in his most +courtly way and accepted her neatly gloved hand in his huge brown one, +where it settled for a moment like a snowflake on a clod.</p> + +<p>"I am glad to welcome you among us, Cap'n Hand," Miss Sue said +demurely. "We are not alone glad to have a new neighbor, but we are +glad to welcome another attendant at the chapel. I have already +learned—in fact, Mr. 'Liphalet Truitt told me," and she flushed the +deeper—"that you are a church-going man, Cap'n Hand."</p> + +<p>"Yes, ma'am," said Cap'n Jonah. "I calc'late to turn out for service on +Sunday whenever I can. I shall be glad to attend chapel, an' thank you +kindly, ma'am."</p> + +<p>"Hi gorry!" said the doctor suddenly. "Here comes 'Liphalet now—and +with a face on him like a gargoyle. I don't know what's got into the +fellow lately. Likely he needs a good course of jalap."</p> + +<p>Mr. Truitt approached with his basket, headed storeward for provisions. +'Liphalet was a brisk, compact figure of a man—neat, light stepping, +and with an appearance of deftness. His whole personality and manner +bespoke the capable ship's steward.</p> + +<p>"Mornin', Miss Sue! Mornin', gentlemen!" was his greeting, and he would +have passed right along had Doctor Ambrose not halted him with:</p> + +<p>"You going to do what I advised you, 'Liphalet? If any fellow's liver +ever needed a course of sprouts, yours does. For weeks now you've been +as sluggish as a frozen stream runnin' uphill. You'd better change your +tactics or you won't blow that old fife of yours half the night, as +I've been hearin' you, of late."</p> + +<p>"'Liphalet doesn't play a fife, Sam," said Miss Sue softly. "It's a +flute."</p> + +<p>"Same thing," snorted the doctor, eyeing the scowling Mr. Truitt with +composure. "If he doesn't tend to himself as I tell him he'll have the +undertaker stopping at his door instead of my flivver."</p> + +<p>"I ain't sure, Doc," said the ex-steward harshly, "but I'd near 'bout +have the undertaker come. I'd expect him, anyway, after a few of your +visits."</p> + +<p>"Hi gorry!" chortled Doctor Ambrose, who could take a joke as well as +make one, "you've got me there, 'Liphalet. And that's about the first +sarcastic observation you ever made. I believe your liver's at the +bottom of <i>that</i>."</p> + +<p>"Now, Sam!" urged gentle Miss Sue, with a hand on her brother's arm. +Then to Mr. Truitt: "I hope we'll see you at the Christmas committee +meeting next time, 'Liphalet."</p> + +<p>His reply was scarcely audible to the group as he started on again. To +cover the grouchy ex-steward's retreat, Doctor Ambrose struggled out +from behind the steering wheel to crank up. At once his sister hopped +out on the other side.</p> + +<p>"She's bound to do that every time I crank the old wheezer," chuckled +the physician. "She expects it to back up, or start ahead, or cut some +other dido if she's in the thing alone."</p> + +<p>The engine started with a snort. In a moment the whole car was +throbbing. Before climbing in again Miss Sue said to Cap'n Jonah:</p> + +<p>"I suppose I shall find Pearl at home, Captain? We were about to stop +at Mrs. Petty's so that I might speak to her. Pearl is one of the very +nicest girls in my class."</p> + +<p>"She 'pears to be a mighty nice gal," Cap'n Jonah agreed with +enthusiasm.</p> + +<p>Now that Miss Sue was out of the car the captain eyed her with even +greater approval. Her silk gown of broad black and white stripes, the +pretty hat, even her slate-colored silk stockings and suede shoes, +struck Cap'n Jonah as being the prettiest and most suitable costume for +a woman to wear.</p> + +<p>"The Doc's sister is a spankin' looking craft," said Cap'n Jonah +admiringly, as the car snorted away.</p> + +<p>"She's a lovely lady," agreed Joseph Helmford. "And a good deal of a +catch, they say, Captain. They tell me she's got forty thousand dollars +in her own right."</p> + +<p>"For—ty—thou—sand? Whatever!"</p> + +<p>"Of course, that's a mere bagatelle to a man of your fortune," added +Helmford with twinkling eyes. "But it's been enough during the past ten +years to make almost every widower and old bachelor on this part of the +Cape sit up and take notice, as Cap'n Abe would say."</p> + +<p>"Hem! And they ain't none of 'em caught her yet?"</p> + +<p>"Nor her forty thousand dollars," added Helmford dryly. "You see, she's +more than a lovely lady. She's a wise one."</p> + +<p>"Whatever!" ejaculated Cap'n Jonah, agreeing.</p> + +<hr class="tb"> + +<p>The gold-banded china appeared on the Petty table at supper that +evening in honor of Mr. Helmford's coming. Pearl put on a fresh gingham +and even Mrs. Petty brought forth a ruffled apron and assumed her best +company manners.</p> + +<p>Tom had of course met Joe Helmford at the store and elsewhere; and +embracing the frequent country doctrine that all city folk are bound +to have "some of their buttons loose," he looked upon the man from the +fish hatchery as two-parts fool and the other part "dumb lucky to be +able to wear such good clothes!"</p> + +<p>Helmford was a likable and sociable fellow. He had the knack of getting +on with most people, and he had been in the community long enough to +learn how best to appeal to the Cape natives. He knew they frequently +had a philosophical turn of mind, looked out on life at a rather +peculiar angle, but were not lacking in shrewdness and common sense.</p> + +<p>Cap'n Jonah he liked from the first. Orrin and Sarah's peculiarities he +was prepared to overlook. Tom he had not an iota of interest in. Pearl +he watched with more concern than he had ever felt for a girl before.</p> + +<p>Yet this concern was no deeper than the superficial pleasure he felt in +seeing her move gracefully about, in watching the changing expressions +play upon her pretty features, and in speculating as to just what there +was beneath that crown of beautiful hair, which she seemed to have a +natural taste in dressing.</p> + +<p>It must be confessed that this attraction for Mr. Joe Helmford, such as +it was, was entirely physical. He had not lived at Cardhaven for eight +months or more without having been introduced to a good many girls. +He was an outsider, and therefore a person keenly interesting to most +young women of the community. For girls who do not meet many men are +prone to think that men from afar are better than the local swains.</p> + +<p>Helmford's lack of interest in women was not his only reason for +passing these girls over lightly. There were some in Cardhaven, +perhaps, as pretty as Pearl Holden; but they possessed nothing but +prettiness to recommend them. And Helmford happened to be a young man +who required something more than personal beauty to hold his interest.</p> + +<p>Pearl's gifts of form and feature were her only attraction, he +presumed, as had been the case with those other girls he had met. When +she opened her pretty lips it was often to use expressions and terms +of speech which amused him but which seemed to imply that Pearl was of +another world than his.</p> + +<p>So little Pearl's attraction for the new boarder remained of small +consequence, after all. He was polite to her, as he was to Mrs. Petty. +But he noted Tom's hobbledehoy attentions to the girl, and merely +shrugged his shoulders.</p> + +<p>Yet Helmford could not keep his gaze from following her. She had +a purely physical attraction for him; Helmford was too much of a +gentleman to build any closer fellowship with the girl upon such an +unstable foundation.</p> + +<p>Cap'n Jonah, shrewd as he was in his judgment of human beings, could +not fully appreciate Helmford's feelings. He liked the young fellow +from the first time he had met him at Cap'n Abe's store. He thought +Pearl deserved a much better "fellow," as the term was, than Tom Petty. +He saw no incongruity in the idea of this man from the outside world +and little Pearl being mutually attracted to each other.</p> + +<p>In truth, there was a matchmaking streak in Cap'n Jonah's character.</p> + +<p>After supper Helmford started out on some adventure of his own and +Cap'n Jonah excused himself from the family with the intention of going +to his room. As he started for the front hall Sarah Petty cleared her +throat.</p> + +<p>"Ahem! You'll git to your room a sight easier if you take the back +stairs, Uncle Jonah. I had to let Mr. Helmford have that best room, +as I told you I should. I've put your chist and things in the room +overhead."</p> + +<p>"Whatever!" ejaculated Cap'n Jonah under his breath. Then: "Wal, if +that's the best you can do, Niece Sarah, I s'pose I'll haf to abide by +it. But I was mighty comfort'ble in that other berth."</p> + +<p>"We're poor folks, Uncle Jonah," said Sarah Petty with decision. "As +you don't feel able to afford to pay full price, course I had to better +myself if I could. You won't be in your room much anyway, so I guess +you won't mind."</p> + +<p>Cap'n Jonah took a reflective pinch of snuff, shut the silver snuff +box with a snap, and went up to bed without further word. Orrin Petty +leaned forward with an expression of doubt upon his avaricious face.</p> + +<p>"I dunno but you air makin' a mistake, Sarah," he whispered. "If he +<i>should</i> be rich——"</p> + +<p>"Then let him pay me decent board," snapped Sarah. "I give him hints +enough. This Mr. Helmford, comin' as he has, is providential—nothin' +less. Uncle Jonah might's well know, first as last, that he can't +get the best of ev'rything for no pauper's pence. No, sir!" and she +straightened her shoulders and tossed her head with determination.</p> + +<p>"But s'pose he has got that old note, Sarah?" suggested Orrin.</p> + +<p>"It'll be time enough to worry, I've decided, when he produces it. If +he's rollin' in wealth, why don't he show some of it? He may have a +fortune, or he may not. He ain't free to speak of it, it seems. You +can talk as you please, Orrin Petty; anybody who has money is bound to +brag about it. And the more they have the more they brag—one way or +another. Cap'n Jonah Hand ain't let out a yip about his fortune, so fur +as I know."</p> + + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> + +<div class="chapter"> +<h2 class="nobreak" id="CHAPTER_VIII">CHAPTER VIII</h2> +</div> + +<h3>THE BALD TRUTH</h3> + + +<p>It was a narrow, dark stair up which Cap'n Jonah poked his way. He +bumped his head at the landing and said "Whatever!" with more than his +usual emphasis.</p> + +<p>"It's like goin' below in a Chinese junk," he muttered.</p> + +<p>He got into the room, lit a match and found and ignited the wick of the +lamp upon the bureau. He had seen more cramped quarters; but it was a +fact that the loft room over the Pettys' kitchen was not his ideal of +what his quarters were to be when he retired from the sea.</p> + +<p>The room had been occupied by a foremast hand of a sloop that Orrin had +once chartered. Orrin had agreed with the man to berth him afloat and +ashore, and when the <i>Sarah May</i> was not at the fishing, the foremast +hand dug the garden and helped at the chores.</p> + +<p>The man, it seemed, must have had an inordinate dislike for fresh air, +for he had nailed the one window in the room shut, and neither Sarah +nor Orrin had ever taken the trouble since to take the nails out.</p> + +<p>The nights were becoming frosty; but Cap'n Jonah found the low-ceiled +room very stuffy and unpleasant. It was a bare and unadorned place, +with the cracked looking-glass in such a position that a man could not +possibly see to shave himself, either by daylight or lamplight.</p> + +<p>There was no closet for his chest as there had been in the larger +chamber, and it was forced to stand just where the unwary might break +their shins against it.</p> + +<p>His niece had soon got over treating him nicely. Cap'n Jonah realized +that he had all too quickly been made "one of the family." And he was +being treated as Sarah Petty treated the poor relation branch.</p> + +<p>"I'd ruther go to the Sailors' Snug Harbor and be done with it," the +captain ruminated. "At least, if I was treated there like a step-child +'twouldn't be my own flesh and blood was doin' it. This Sarah Petty, +now, she's a cleaner and no mistake. I dunno where she ever got her +meanness. Never from her father. The Hands wasn't none of 'em so +penny-squeezing. Poor John! If he'd lived to see me treated like this +by his gal he'd have been broken-hearted, I do guess."</p> + +<p>He could not sleep in the close and airless chamber and about midnight +he got up and smashed a couple of panes of glass in the upper sash of +the window with his cane.</p> + +<p>It was not often that Cap'n Jonah gave way to his temper. He who would +make others obey, must first control his own weaknesses. The master +mariner had long since learned that lesson. The next day he took out +the nails holding the window sashes and put in two new lights of glass; +setting about, too, to make his new quarters as comfortable as possible.</p> + +<p>Used as he was to the compactness of a ship's cabin, he still found the +loft room cramped quarters. Nor was there a comfortable chair in it. +When he was not in bed he must sit with the family or remain out of +doors.</p> + +<p>"I vow!" he thought, "if I was married to Sarah Petty, like Orrin, I +would stay out in the barn."</p> + +<p>He bethought him of the retired seamen he already knew in the +neighborhood, and made up his mind that most of them had it better than +he had. 'Liphalet Truitt, for instance, was a king on his throne beside +Cap'n Jonah Hand.</p> + +<p>He and the ex-steward had become rather good friends in the weeks of +Cap'n Jonah's sojourn at Cardhaven. Indeed, almost everybody found it +easy to be friends with Mr. Truitt.</p> + +<p>The spry ex-steward, well-known to everybody about Cardhaven and along +the Shell Road, had been welcomed heartily when he had come ten years +or more before to settle here. Having bought the little house next to +the Mariner's Chapel, he was from the first a particular object of +interest to the scattered congregation of fishermen and their families +who shouldered the burden of its upkeep.</p> + +<p>He had been every man's friend for the years of his sojourn upon the +Shell Road, and Cap'n Jonah heard him spoken of highly at the store, +where all local opinion was strained and filtered. But the captain +had to confess that 'Liphalet Truitt was a more than ordinarily glum +looking man.</p> + +<p>He had heard Doctor Ambrose make his diagnosis of the reason for +Mr. Truitt's appearance and attitude toward life in general with no +particular belief in the medical man's opinion. Cap'n Abe Silt stated +as a fact that "Life Truitt had turned like old cider—and quite as +sudden—here of late." But the newcomer to the neighborhood found the +ex-steward a most satisfactory companion.</p> + +<p>"Ye-es," said Cap'n Jonah reflectively, "you air a sight better off +than I be, Truitt."</p> + +<p>"And me without chick nor child belonging to me but a cat?" sniffed the +ex-steward.</p> + +<p>"You can have my sheer of Sarah Petty and her lout of a boy, and +welcome," said Cap'n Jonah bitterly. "Orrin ain't nothin' to me by +blood, and a nephew-in-law ain't a very close relation anyway, thanks +be! He's such a snoopin', suspicious critter. I swan to man! I believe +he wakes up mornings counting his fingers like a baby, for fear +somebody's stole one of 'em during the night.</p> + +<p>"And the hull batch of 'em—'cept Pearly—can't let my things alone. +They've s'arched my chist to the bottom board. If I have anything I +don't want them to nose into I've got to carry it on me, that's a fact. +Why, Sarah Petty is as inquisitive as that Pandory woman you read about +in the books. Mr. Truitt, you are better off than you know, living here +by yourself."</p> + +<p>The ex-steward scowled. "Don't you fool yourself," he grumbled. "The +Pettys may be some wearin' on a man; but it ain't what it's cracked up +to be, livin' alone with nobody but Bo'sun to speak to ha'f the time."</p> + +<p>"I dunno——"</p> + +<p>"You're a man o' means, Cap'n Jonah," urged 'Liphalet, in his brisk +way. "You ain't married to Sarah Petty, if Orrin is. You ain't got to +stay there. There are other places you could get board where the folks +would treat you right."</p> + +<p>Cap'n Jonah looked at his friend steadily and took a pinch of +snuff. It was a way he had when he found it difficult to come to an +immediate conclusion. He flourished his big handkerchief and sneezed +reflectively. He desired to make a complete confession to 'Liphalet +Truitt, and yet he hesitated.</p> + +<p>He was in no haste to reveal his private affairs to any person. Yet he +felt that he must advise with somebody. He said slowly:</p> + +<p>"I might go elsewhere to board. It's true. But I'd made up my mind to +settle down, when I did leave the sea, with the only rel'tives I have.</p> + +<p>"I had no idea Sarah Petty was the sort she is—no, sir! The only time +I ever seed her in her own home was when the boy was small an' she was +a young woman an' hadn't got soured. As a girl at home she was a smart +little thing and a good housekeeper. I always envied John, even after +his wife died, his house was kep' so neat.</p> + +<p>"'That's the woman I want to live with when I settle down,' said I, +thinkin' o' Sarah Petty. And then——Why, I tell ye, Mr. Truitt," +added Cap'n Jonah, earnestly, "there's a good reason why Sarah should +be willin' to take me in and do for me. When she put it on me at the +start, as she did for board and lodgin', you could have knocked me down +with a feather duster!"</p> + +<p>Mr. Truitt raised his eyebrows questioningly. But he did not ask Cap'n +Jonah verbally to explain. However, the latter pursued his rather +roundabout course:</p> + +<p>"When Sarah was a young gal her father got into difficulties, an' it +was my privilege to help him out. It was something that one brother +sh'd always be glad to do for another, Mr. Truitt," the captain +earnestly said, "and with no thought of repayment. Yet 'twas something +that I know John bore in mind and didn't let his daughter forget as +long as he lived. He never writ me, but he mentioned his obligation.</p> + +<p>"On the stren'th of that," pursued Cap'n Jonah rather solemnly, "I had +reason to expect better treatment than I get at Sarah Petty's hand. My +bite and sup won't bankrupt them—that I know. She's got me tied up +in a sack for twenty-two-fifty a month with washin'; and I tell you +honest, Mr. Truitt, my little tad o' money ain't goin' to last long at +that rate."</p> + +<p>"Why, Cap'n Jonah!" ejaculated the ex-steward, shaken out of his usual +poise. "You don't mean to say you air short of money?"</p> + +<p>"Wal, I soon shall be," admitted the captain.</p> + +<p>"You got investments you can't touch?" suggested 'Liphalet gently. "If +you got to wait for dividends, or such like, and a hundred dollars +would be of any use to you——"</p> + +<p>Cap'n Jonah put up his hand admonishingly. His mahogany face showed no +heightened color, but his eyes shone with gratitude.</p> + +<p>"You air a good feller, Truitt," he said. "But I don't want to borrow. +I might not be able to pay back. I ain't got no investments that are +bringing me in dividends."</p> + +<p>"Your fortune ain't in stocks and bonds, then?" commented 'Liphalet +placidly.</p> + +<p>"Fortune!" snorted Cap'n Jonah. Then he added: "My fortune, 'Liphalet +Truitt, is in thin air—that's what it is invested in."</p> + +<p>"By Hannah!" ejaculated the startled 'Liphalet.</p> + +<p>"Ye-as," said Cap'n Jonah, rather relieved now that his confession was +out. "The bald truth is, I ain't got no fortune. I did git some little +money together at off times durin' my life; but allus something come up +to scatter it.</p> + +<p>"Once I went into tradin' to the South Sea Islands with a feller, and +we made quite a pile—twenty to twenty-five thousand silver dollars. We +agreed that if either of us died, t'other should have the whole lot.</p> + +<p>"Wal, our schooner went ashore on an atoll and our crew was drowned, +and we was both captured by a bunch of savages with their teeth filed +to sharp p'ints. You know what that meant!</p> + +<p>"My partner seen me carried off, along with a big pot such as +old-fashioned whalers used to try out blubber in, by one gang of +savages, and he reckoned I was due to make the foundation for a +cannibal goulash. But a missionary happened to land on the island where +my gang of savages lived, and he saved my life."</p> + +<p>"Saved your life, Cap'n Jonah?" repeated the interested Eliphalet.</p> + +<p>"Yep," said Cap'n Jonah grimly. "He was fatter than me. So I was saved, +and before I got fatted up to suit 'em, I got a chance to escape and +I didn't refuse it. I landed in Hongkong the next year, just the day +after my partner, sure I was dead, had blowed our fortune in at a +gambling joint trying to break the bank.</p> + +<p>"Wal," sighed Cap'n Jonah, "that's where one fortune went. I'd get a +little together and then lose it. Only last year I owned a tidy brig +called the <i>Two Eyes</i>—named in compliment to the Chinese idea of +havin' an eye painted on either side of the sprit. John Chinaman says: +'If junk no have eye, how can see?' She'd belonged to a Chinese company +before I got her, and was named <i>The Beautiful Lily With Black Spots</i>.</p> + +<p>"Wal, the <i>Two Eyes'</i> insurance ran out 'tween ports, she struck an +uncharted reef, and in two hours I didn't own a thing but the duds I +stood in and my instruments—ship and cargo both gone to the bottom."</p> + +<p>"And you haven't a thing to show for all your years of hard work, Cap'n +Jonah?" asked Eliphalet Truitt, almost horror stricken.</p> + +<p>"I have a fine line of experience," said Cap'n Jonah with disgust. "I +have the remains of my last year's airnings as skipper of the <i>Rajah's +Mate</i>, in cash. And I have some sheers a feller sawed off onto me that +I reckon ain't wuth much more'n that wall paper on your kitchen wall, +Mr. Truitt. I invested two thousand dollars sev'ral years ago in them +ile sheers, and then found the comp'ny had gone bust. All they ever got +out'n the ile wells they bored, so they told me, was a bad smell!"</p> + +<p>"I want to know!" commented the ex-steward, vastly perturbed by Cap'n +Jonah's story.</p> + +<p>"You can guess," went on the latter, "how much I got left out o' my +money after payin' my fare home to the Cape. But I knowed another +v'y'ge might put me on my beam ends. The rheumatics certainly have got +their teeth set into me," and he rubbed his knees reflectively, swaying +back and forth in Mr. Truitt's kitchen rocker.</p> + +<p>"I calc'lated I'd be welcome—for a while at least—to Sarah and her +folks. She writ me more'n a year ago she'd make a warm nest for me if I +come here. An' whatever! she's makin' it warm enough, for a fac'."</p> + +<p>"And you really have no fortune at all?" repeated 'Liphalet in wonder.</p> + +<p>"Not a snitch," returned Cap'n Jonah. "That's the bald truth. +Ev'rything I own of value I have right in my pocket here," he slapped +the breast of his coat, "an' it ain't makin' me stoop-shouldered none +carryin' of it around."</p> + + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> + +<div class="chapter"> +<h2 class="nobreak" id="CHAPTER_IX">CHAPTER IX</h2> +</div> + +<h3>A SHELL ROAD IDYL</h3> + + +<p>"I wouldn't so much care about myself," Cap'n Jonah went on +reflectively after a minute. "There's always the Sailors' Snug Harbor, +and I've made inquiries about that. I've got money enough right now, if +I don't let Sarah Petty take no more away from me, to buy my way into +the Harbor, where I'll prob'ly get decent treatment for the rest of my +life.</p> + +<p>"Course, livin' in an institution," sighed the captain, "an' being +called an inmate in the yearly reports, ain't prob'ly all it's cracked +up to be. But I jest 'bout as soon live with a steam calliope as with +Sarah Petty; and Orrin pesters me like an auger going through a pine +knot.</p> + +<p>"It ain't so much myself," repeated Cap'n Jonah, "as 'tis the way they +treat that poor gal, Pearly. I can scurcely keep my feelin's to myself +sometimes when they are a-houndin' of that poor gal."</p> + +<p>"Yep. I've heard tell of it," Mr. Truitt said, nodding. "Miss Sue said +to me once't she didn't see how the gal stood it."</p> + +<p>"Sarah Petty claims her services, I believe, and the gal says herself +she ain't eighteen. Sarah don't care a mite how bad she treats me; how +much less does she care how she makes Pearly feel? Whatever!"</p> + +<p>"It's a master hard situation," admitted Mr. Truitt frankly.</p> + +<p>"'Hem! I know what would fix 'em," growled Cap'n Jonah. "If I did have +the slew of money they at first thought I might have, I could bully 'em +into treatin' the gal half decent, I vow! Now they've gone all through +my duds and duffel an' ain't found so much as a pen scratch about a +fortune, Sarah and Orrin air 'bout convinced I ain't got much laid by."</p> + +<p>"By Hannah!" ejaculated 'Liphalet, his eyes widening. "If you could +fool 'em—if you could make 'em think you did have a fortune, Cap'n +Jonah——"</p> + +<p>"Whatever!" responded the master mariner. "How could I do that? Nothin' +but hard cash would convince Sarah and Orrin Petty, I allow. And hard +cash I ain't got."</p> + +<p>"There ought to be some way to fool 'em," insisted 'Liphalet. "We'd +ought to be able to think up something."</p> + +<p>"Think up what?" growled Cap'n Jonah, shaking his head. "I ain't got +the conscience to try to sell them old ile sheers I hold. Though I +calc'late Orrin would ha' bit on them when I first come."</p> + +<p>"By Hannah!" said 'Liphalet again, which was his emasculated +pronunciation of "Gehenna!" "It would sarve 'em right if they got +fooled, good and plenty. You needn't be too tender with such folks. And +there's a hull lot like 'em around here," he added, in an undertone. It +was plain the ex-steward's opinion of his neighbors—some of them, at +least—had become as the storekeeper suggested, somewhat soured.</p> + +<p>"I tell ye what," he went on. "You'd ought to talk with Cap'n Abe about +this."</p> + +<p>"Talk with who?" ejaculated the other in surprise.</p> + +<p>"With Abram Silt."</p> + +<p>"Whatever! That old gasbag?" snorted Cap'n Jonah. "Ev'ry time I go into +that store for my snuff he starts tellin' me some silly yarn! I been to +sea too long myself to enjoy hearin' about other sea-farers an' their +hard luck. Why! they tell me he didn't even come fair an' honest by his +title of Cap'n. All he was ever skipper of was a wreckin' comp'ny."</p> + +<p>"Wal, now, cap'n is one of the easiest titles to come by on the Cape," +said Mr. Truitt excusingly. "And as for Cap'n Abe—wal, sir, I do allow +he is one of the smartest men we have around here, if he didn't never +go but one v'y'ge in a deep bottom craft."</p> + +<p>"Didn't know as he ever done even that," scoffed Cap'n Jonah. "To hear +him tell those yarns of his you'd think he'd sailed longer without +seeing land than old Noah did."</p> + +<p>"He loves seafarin' and always has," commented 'Liphalet. "And I +reckon he's the only Silt that warn't as salt as a haddocker. Now, his +brother, Cap'n Am'zon Silt, <i>he</i> was a corker. Spent the last summer of +his life here on the Shell Road, did Cap'n Am'zon. We had a bad wreck +off the Gull Rocks an' Cap'n Am'zon went out with the life-saving crew +an' never come ashore again. Was washed off'n the wreck of the <i>Curlew</i> +schooner.</p> + +<p>"Cap'n Abe's been kind of diff'rent since his brother was drowned. +Don't begin to tell so many stories as he did, and he's a sight more +stern. B'sides, Cap'n Am'zon could fair burn him up when it come to +relatin' of adventures. Consider'ble of a man, Cap'n Am'zon was.</p> + +<p>"Jest the same," pursued 'Liphalet, "Cap'n Abe Silt has got a head on +him. I'd like you to tell your story to him, Cap'n Jonah. I b'lieve he +might be able to give you an idee wuth follerin'.</p> + +<p>"Hullo! Who's boarded us now?"</p> + +<p>A quick <i>tap, tap</i> of heels on the steps and porch. Then a gentle rap +on the door. 'Liphalet's brick-burned face became more inflamed, if +that were possible, as he arose to answer the unexpected summons.</p> + +<p>"Oh! Good morning, 'Liphalet," came the sweet contralto of Miss Sue +Ambrose. "I wanted to remind you that the Christmas committee meets +this afternoon in the vestry. You'll see to the fire for us, won't you?"</p> + +<p>"I calc'late to," the ex-steward replied in evident confusion of mind, +for he was striving to cram his big-bowled pipe into a vest pocket far +too small to receive it.</p> + +<p>"And 'Liphalet!" pursued the doctor's sister, "you'll be at the +meeting, too, won't you? We shall need some of you menfolk when it +comes to the real work, and we shall be glad to have your advice now."</p> + +<p>"Hum! I'll see," muttered 'Liphalet not at all inclined, it would seem, +to make the promise.</p> + +<p>"We shall be looking for you," said the gentle little woman, as she +turned from the door. "Please remember."</p> + +<p>Eliphalet Truitt stepped back into his kitchen and found it empty save +for Bo'sun, the big white cat, who purred contentedly on the stove +hearth. Cap'n Jonah, thinking his friend was about to receive other +company, had slipped out of the rear door and departed, 'cross-lots, +toward the Petty place.</p> + +<p>'Liphalet glanced out of the partly closed door again, holding it +ajar with his hand, and watched the trim figure of the doctor's sister +hurrying along the Shell Road. How often he had thus peered after Sue +Ambrose since his establishment ten years before in this little box of +a house next to the Mariner's Chapel!</p> + +<p>The ex-steward was old-fashioned in dress and speech; but he was as +spry "alow and aloft" as when he had retired from the sea and had come +to Cardhaven to live. Nor did he expect, when he so retired, that he +would remain a bachelor for the rest of his life. He had a competence +ample for two plain people, much more than one would possibly need. +For several years before leaving the sea he had looked forward to the +time when he could settle down, ask a "certain party" (as he always +expressed it even in his own mind) to share his little fortune, and to +sag into comfortable old age on one side of a cheerful hearth while she +sat on the other.</p> + +<p>He visualized this idea often while at sea to keep his heart up in +storm and stress during long and tedious voyages to the world's end; +for Eliphalet Truitt had been a deep bottom sailor—none more so among +the ancient skippers of the Cape than this taut little ship's steward.</p> + +<p>He had made friends of every soul along the Shell Road, for they found +Eliphalet Truitt a true man, and liberal in every sense—with money, +with his time, and, as well, in his religious views. The chapel was +a union church; all manner of doctrinal beliefs were represented in +its congregation, even to the Roman Catholic in the person of 'Suz +Montevedo, the Portuguese, who was indefatigable in his attendance at +Sunday-school and took his weekly golden-text reward cards home and +hoarded them.</p> + +<p>'Liphalet, living so close to the chapel, acted as an unpaid sexton. He +was at hand to light the lamps, to build and care for fires, and the +key of the vestry door was always to be found hanging on a nail on the +ex-steward's porch.</p> + +<p>The theological student, whoever he chanced to be, sent down once a +month from the seminary to try his apprentice hand upon the chapel +congregation, was always advised to see 'Liphalet Truitt when he first +arrived; and in the summer boarder season, when the women were all +busy, he was more than likely to be fed and housed over Sunday by Mr. +Truitt, who came near to being deacon of the congregation.</p> + +<p>'Liphalet was the mainstay of the Ladies' Aid Society. He was the one +called into the breach whenever failure, financial or otherwise, seemed +to threaten any branch of the church work. He was the head and spirit +of the annual Sunday-school picnic, and he was always present in the +winter, and active, at the semimonthly bean or oyster-suppers rounding +out the regular sessions of the Ladies' Aid Society meetings.</p> + +<p>Thus, 'Liphalet was the ladies' stand-by. And it was at Christmas +that the taut little ex-steward shone more brightly than at any +other season. Being a lover of children, he helped make the greatest +holiday of all the year a delight for those who attended the chapel +Sunday-school.</p> + +<p>He supplied most of the toys and candy hung for each child on the +tree, buying the gifts himself and distributing them from his sack, +with other presents for the older people, in the guise of good Saint +Nicholas on Christmas night. He aided in dressing the chapel in +Christmas garb, and sometimes secured the tree itself from some dealer +in Paulmouth.</p> + +<p>It might be that a selfish thought had entered into his mind at first +regarding these holiday activities. But what good thing, after all, has +not the germ of selfishness at the root of it?</p> + +<p>"A certain party" had been on the Christmas celebration committee +from time immemorial. Eliphalet Truitt had first given his money and +personal endeavor to make the occasion a success because it offered the +opportunity for an association that was very sweet indeed to him.</p> + +<p>Between voyages, during his brief visits to Cardhaven, he had been +wont to take his flute in the evening and call at the cottage where "a +certain party" kept house for Doctor Ambrose. Demure, pink-cheeked +Sue Ambrose, with the pretty waves of silvering hair drawn over her +shell-like ears, the soft white bands at throat and wrists, her trim +figure, her low throaty, contralto voice like a bird call when she +laughed, seemed to 'Liphalet to possess the most delightful personality +in all the world.</p> + +<p>There was an ancient melodeon in the doctor's parlor; and from it Miss +Sue coaxed sweet sounds that combined harmoniously with the steward's +rather uncertain flutings. And she loved the old sea ditties as did +'Liphalet himself. He had been born with that dumb joy of sweet sounds +that is actually an infliction to those unfortunates who never learn to +express it through some musical instrument. Perhaps 'Liphalet had not +chosen the most fortunate means of expressing his musical soul, for the +flute in the hands of an amateur can be provocative of a good deal of +pain as well as pleasure.</p> + +<p>But standing in Doctor Ambrose's little parlor, with his head and +shoulders thrown well back, and accompanied by the notes of the +melodeon, the taut little steward had been in his glory. Those visits +between voyages were glimpses of heaven to Eliphalet Truitt.</p> + +<p>For forty years he had known no home but a ship's forecastle or cabin. +Was it strange that within his breast grew that vision of a hearthside +that now, unfulfilled, racked his very soul when it rose specter-like +in his mind?</p> + +<p>He came in again and closed the door of his kitchen. He dropped into +the low rocking-chair Cap'n Jonah had occupied, and tapped the cold +pipe upon the hearth to knock the dottle out of it.</p> + +<p>"Hum!" he growled in his throat (but did he believe it?), "I spect all +<i>she</i> thinks of, too, is what she can git out of me for Christmas. +Christmas—<i>bah</i>!"</p> + + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> + +<div class="chapter"> +<h2 class="nobreak" id="CHAPTER_X">CHAPTER X</h2> +</div> + +<h3>"PEARLY"</h3> + + +<p>It was true that Cap'n Jonah was more disturbed by the Pettys' +treatment of Pearl Holden than he was by his own uncertain financial +situation. He had been taking chances all his life, and the fact that +his ready cash would soon run low held nothing new or strange in his +experience.</p> + +<p>Like most seafaring men, the captain held all women in great respect. +And a young girl in Pearl's situation was bound to appeal very strongly +to his chivalrous spirit.</p> + +<p>"Whatever!" he muttered often and again. "If I could jest fool Sarah +and Orrin, like 'Liphalet says. If them two money-lovers only believed +that I had a fortune, as they at first suspected, I could make 'em +treat Pearly decent, an' that's a fac'."</p> + +<p>As the days passed he could not help seeing that there was something +troubling Pearl deeply. He supposed that it must be the harshness meted +out to her by Sarah Petty.</p> + +<p>Before Mr. Helmford, Sarah and Orrin were both on their best behavior. +They really desired, it seemed, to retain the new boarder's respect, +and at table spoke in fair kindness to the girl, as well as treated +Cap'n Jonah with more consideration.</p> + +<p>Tom, of course, was hopeless. His bad manners Mr. Helmford ignored. And +really, the lout gave Cap'n Jonah nothing of which to complain. Tom, in +fact, held a contrary opinion from his parents' regarding Cap'n Jonah's +financial circumstances; and he had reason to.</p> + +<p>The young fellow could not well forget that his Uncle Jonah had given +him a twenty-dollar bill without his even asking for it; and Tom could +not imagine anybody giving away money in such sums unless they really +had more than they knew what to do with.</p> + +<p>Tom had no mind to tell his father or mother his reasons for holding to +the belief that Uncle Jonah Hand was a wealthy man. It would open too +fruitful a field for inquiry.</p> + +<p>Despite the fact that Sarah Petty had examined every scrap of Cap'n +Jonah's possessions save what he carried about with him all the time, +and had found no bankbook or any account of his investments, Tom backed +his father strongly in the declaration that the old man might be hiding +securities or other valuables.</p> + +<p>"Jest because he's savin' and won't buy new clo'es and things he +needs," said Orrin on one occasion, "ain't no sure proof that he's +short of money. Mebbe that's how he got it—bein' careful."</p> + +<p>Orrin could appreciate to the full such a miserly character as he +gave Cap'n Jonah. He was worried, it must be confessed, by his wife's +treatment of her uncle. He remembered that Cap'n Jonah admitted he had +some money invested in oil shares; and what the bank cashier had said +about such investments could not fail to impress his suspicious and +avaricious mind.</p> + +<p>"You may wake up, Sarah, and find you've made a bad mistake," he urged.</p> + +<p>"I guess I can trim my sails to a change of wind if need be," she +returned sharply. "But I've about made up my mind that old tramp is +soon to be without a cent to bless himself with. And when that time +comes, out he goes, bag and baggage! The poor farm's good enough for +the like of him."</p> + +<p>"But if he's got that old note of your father's——"</p> + +<p>"Let's wait till that kettle boils," said Sarah Petty grimly. "I +scare't myself enough about that at the start. I ain't found a single +scrap of paper—not even any of my father's letters in which he +mentioned the note. Jonah Hand says he lost his ship and all year +afore last. I reckon all his private papers went down with it. I don't +calc'late to be 'fraid again of no bugaboo."</p> + +<p>Sarah's was a much bolder spirit than her husband's. She was the lion, +he the jackal. He wrung his hands reflectively and made no reply. +But privately he intimated to Cap'n Jonah that he did not approve of +Sarah's putting the old seaman "into that poky garret room." It was +well, Orrin thought, to have an anchor to windward.</p> + +<p>Cap'n Jonah took both Orrin's and Tom's advances for what they were +worth, and no more. And he continued to worry about his finances as +little as possible. But Pearly——</p> + +<p>There was something wrong between the girl and Tom. The captain began +to realize that, and it, too, disturbed him. He saw them privately +talking in corners—the girl angry and earnest, Tom slouching and with +sneering face.</p> + +<p>The lazy fellow did not go to work. He idled around the house, helped +his father under protest, and occasionally went fishing or clamming and +thus added to the family larder. His mother must have supplied him with +money, the captain decided, for he was able to buy tobacco and such +other small luxuries as he wanted. Sarah bought all his clothing, as +she did Orrin's; and hard bargains she drove indeed for them with the +peddlers and with Cap'n Abe.</p> + +<p>Once Tom went to Paulmouth and came home with the unmistakable smell of +liquor on his breath.</p> + +<p>"You're a good-for-nothing, lazy fellow!" Cap'n Jonah once heard Pearl +tell the youth, and with vigor. "And you won't ever do what you +promised me you would—and 'twill soon be Christmas."</p> + +<p>The captain wondered what it was Tom Petty had promised her. At least, +the girl evidently had no love for the lout, and Cap'n Jonah was glad +of that.</p> + +<p>He watched her intercourse with Helmford, however, with high delight. +When the "fish hatchery man" was near Pearl could not help preening her +feathers for him. Her pretty face glowed with interest when he spoke. +When he addressed her directly she was by no means tongue-tied; yet +there was a sweet shyness in Pearl's manner at such times that was very +attractive.</p> + +<p>The young man could not fail to be charmed with the girl's unaffected +sweetness when he was in her presence. But he held himself back, and +treated Pearl only with that courtesy and kindness that he gave to +every woman.</p> + +<p>He presumed the girl was already chosen as the future mate for the son +of the house. Helmford did not purpose to make Pearl's situation more +difficult than it was by offering her any particular attention. Yet Tom +Petty glowered at the two, and occasionally dropped a caustic remark +for which his mother took him privately to task.</p> + +<p>Helmford had brought a great store of books with him and bookshelves on +which to arrange them. It was Pearl's duty to dust these from time to +time, for, after having once gone through the new boarder's possessions +quite as thoroughly as she had Cap'n Jonah's, Sarah Petty gave the care +of the new boarder's room over to her willing little drudge.</p> + +<p>Pearl had obtained a fair education in the simpler branches before +she had been allotted by the selectmen to Orrin Petty, her mother's +step-brother's cousin-by-marriage—a relationship which even the +closest student of genealogy would have found difficulty in figuring +out.</p> + +<p>She loved to read and all the time she could steal from her +multitudinous tasks was spent in that way. Not that her selection of +fiction had been very wise, perhaps, before Helmford came to board at +the Petty homestead. The romances in the <i>Ladies' Home Provider</i> were +not strong intellectual food; but they were amusing, even enthralling, +to the mind of Pearl Holden.</p> + +<p>These stories kept alive in the hearts of the women and girls who +read them the fires of real romance. Their belief in the existence of +chivalrous youth and beauteous maidens was nursed by these tales, and +they added nothing if not a saccharine quality to life as it is lived +on the Cape.</p> + +<p>But Pearl's dippings into Helmford's books began to open her mind to +the appreciation of other worlds. The highest attribute of man had +heretofore been in Pearl's thought his ability to make love in a +gushing, moving-picture-hero way. Perhaps her belief in the existence +of such lovers had helped her hold aloof Tom Petty and his maudlin +attempts at love making.</p> + +<p>In Helmford's books she found the clash of real life—in itself a +more enthralling romance than any Pearl had ever before dreamed. The +heroines were, too, of a different character from the girls she had +actually known. Why, sometimes they were more heroic than the men +themselves!</p> + +<p>She quickly awoke to the fact that romance was not something of which +she could only dream. As she had told Cap'n Jonah, she thought of +marriage, even if she might never reach that much-to-be-desired state.</p> + +<p>Pearl saw that Sarah Petty, for instance, was stronger than her +husband, that she took the lead. She knew she, herself, was more +assertive than Tom. These new book-heroines seemed to possess all the +push and determination that Pearl felt simmering in her own blood.</p> + +<p>"If it was not unwomanly for those girls in the books to assert +themselves, to go out into the world and be self-supporting, and in the +end to choose the man they wanted for a mate instead of sitting down to +wait for the right man to look them up—if it was all right for girls +in books to do this, why," Pearl asked herself, "wasn't it the correct +thing for real girls to do?"</p> + +<p>Pearl determined when her "time was out" at Orrin Petty's to do just +as some of these new heroines did. There was even Gusty Durgin, for a +local example. Modesty or a shrinking from the unknown had not kept +Gusty from setting forth with the single talent of being able to cry +real tears to be a moving picture actress. The rather clumsy, overfed +Gusty had never before seemed a heroine to Pearl Holden; but now she +saw the ex-waitress of the Cardhaven Inn in a new light.</p> + +<p>As for Pearl's opinion of Helmford himself, she at first placed him on +a pedestal so high that he was scarcely in range of her humble worship. +But a girl cannot take intimate care of a man's belongings—dust and +sweep for him, clean up his litter, put away his garments, wash and +iron his clothes, darn his socks, and otherwise care for him and for +his possessions, without gaining a familiarity which, if it does not +breed the proverbial contempt, certainly does tarnish any heroic +quality he may have at first assumed.</p> + +<p>Not that Joe Helmford was a man who held himself aloof. Quite the +contrary. He was as simple and unaffected as Pearl herself. Only he had +seen more of the world than she, and he had no idea of becoming too +familiar with Pearl, or with any other member of the Petty household.</p> + +<p>In other words, he knew his place and kept to it. He was friendly +enough at mealtime; but he seldom appeared in the kitchen at any other +hour save to ask for shaving water or to pass through to his room.</p> + +<p>He had immediately purchased an open grate stove in Paulmouth and had +had Perry Baker, the expressman, bring it over, along with a ton of +coal from the Cardhaven dock where the freight schooner tied up. So he +had his own fire, before which he spent most of his free time in study.</p> + +<p>There was not much to do at the fish hatchery at this season, and +Helmford had assistants there to watch things day and night. So he was +able to study and read. Finding Pearl interested in books he advised +her a little in the selection of reading matter from his library, which +she bore off to her room, unknown to Sarah Petty.</p> + +<p>Tom Petty, however, soon became aware of the innocent intimacy between +Pearl and the new boarder. He snarled and sneered and spoke so +pointedly about it that his mother said, in wonder:</p> + +<p>"What do you care whether that feller, Helmford, pays attention to +Pearl Holden or not? I sh'd hope you'd respect yourself too much to +take any notice of hired help. What would your uncles, 'Poley and +Perseus Heath, say—let alone their wives—if you undertook to hitch up +with a pauper?"</p> + +<p>For once his mother's advice was not calculated to impress Tom Petty. +He assumed, at least, the attitude of the dog in the manger. If he did +not want Pearl himself, he did not purpose that Joe Helmford should +have her.</p> + +<p>"You don't want to mix up none with that city feller, Pearly," he told +her. "He's no good. You know what them city fellers are that come down +here to the Cape in summer. He's like all the rest of 'em."</p> + +<p>"He isn't," declared Pearl, briefly and with firmness.</p> + +<p>"You don't know nothin' at all about him—who he is or where he comes +from."</p> + +<p>"Did I say I wanted to know?" responded Pearl proudly.</p> + +<p>"Wal," said Tom, "you know you can't keep your eyes off'n him at +table, and when he talks your ears hang open like the mouth of a dyin' +codfish."</p> + +<p>"I don't, either, Tom Petty!" she cried furiously.</p> + +<p>They were out in the yard after their supper, and Pearl had been taking +down a batch of washed clothes frozen to the clothesline. It was a +cloudy night with no moon and was almost pitch dark. The clothes basket +was at the girl's feet and separated her from Tom.</p> + +<p>"I don't, either, Tom Petty," she repeated. "Mr. Helmford is nothing to +me. But he's a gentleman."</p> + +<p>"Aw, cat's foot!" scoffed Tom. "What's a gentleman? A dude with his +pants ironed to a crease."</p> + +<p>"A gentleman is something you ain't, and never will be!" cried the +girl. "You're not gentleman enough to keep your word to a girl. You've +broke your word to me. You won't go to work and earn money to pay your +debts. You're as mean, Tom Petty, as you can be—an' I've a good mind +to tell your mother after all," she ended in anger.</p> + +<p>"You said you wouldn't tell," sneered Tom. "If you tell, who's the +biggest liar—you or me?"</p> + +<p>"I guess," said Pearl practically, "that a bad promise is better broken +than kep'."</p> + +<p>"You tell Marm," threatened the youth, "and I'll fix you, Pearl Holden!"</p> + +<p>He actually raised his hand to her. She stepped back, seeing his +gesture in the darkness, and at that very moment a tall figure thrust +itself between them.</p> + +<p>"Shall I carry the basket indoors for you, Miss Pearl?" asked +Helmford's calm voice. "I am just going in."</p> + +<p>He had come up the grassy lane unheard by Pearl or Tom. He noticed Tom +not at all as he picked up the basket.</p> + +<p>Pearl choked, stifled a sob, and scurried ahead of him without a word. +Tom's protest died in his throat as Helmford strode after the girl, +carrying the clothes basket.</p> + + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> + +<div class="chapter"> +<h2 class="nobreak" id="CHAPTER_XI">CHAPTER XI</h2> +</div> + +<h3>AN EVENING WITH CAP'N ABE</h3> + + +<p>As Tom Petty showed more plainly his jealousy, his mother's unkindness +toward Pearl increased. That her son should display any interest in +the girl ground Sarah Petty's pride between the upper and the nether +millstone.</p> + +<p>There was scarcely ever yet a woman's son who was not too good in the +mother's opinion for almost any woman he chose for a wife. The mother +may hide this feeling quite successfully; but secretly she feels that +the woman who has taken him away from her will not be worthy of her +trust.</p> + +<p>In this case Sarah Petty was prepared to make life particularly +miserable for any daughter-in-law that the son might introduce into the +family. The thought that he might fall under the sway of the girl who +had drudged for her for seven years, was particularly exasperating.</p> + +<p>Sarah had always accused Pearl of neglecting her work when Tom was +around. It was a sop to her pride to hold this belief. She considered +Pearl far beneath Tom's notice, and often scolded Orrin for "having +brought that pauper gal home" and thus thrown temptation in Tom's way.</p> + +<p>Save for Cap'n Jonah, the Hands of Sarah's branch had died out, but +there were relatives of the Petty family who she considered were +well worth catering to. The twins, Apollo and Perseus Heath, and +their families were very well to do. There was Solon Petty and Enoch +Petty—the one in local, the other in State politics.</p> + +<p>She had the family to think of, had Sarah Petty; and Tom "mixing +up with a pauper girl" was not at all to her liking. As a triangle +situation seemed to develop between Helmford, Pearl, and Tom, Sarah +Petty became so acrimonious and bitter to the girl that Cap'n Jonah +could scarcely hold his peace.</p> + +<p>"Whatever!" he confided to 'Liphalet Truitt. "I'd give one of my +laigs—neither of 'em's much good when the rheumatism is in 'em—or an +arm if I could pay Sarah Petty back for some of her meanness to Pearly. +It's gettin' 'nough to sp'il the temper of a saint—and I ain't none!"</p> + +<p>'Liphalet's heart was heavy and his face as long as the moral law, but +he still could feel sympathy for his friend, and for Pearly as well.</p> + +<p>"I tell ye what, Cap'n Jonah," he said, "le's you an' me step down to +Cap'n Abe's this very evenin' and put it up to him. I tell ye, he's a +knowledgeable man."</p> + +<p>"Wa-al," responded the captain, about at his wit's end and willing to +take almost any chance for advice that might aid in the situation.</p> + +<p>Limping up and down the frozen road after supper that evening, leaning +rather heavily on his stick, and waiting for the ex-steward to put in +an appearance, Cap'n Jonah was hailed by what he had been pleased to +term "that spanking craft," Miss Sue Ambrose. She was returning from +some errand of mercy with an empty basket. For if a neighbor was ill or +poor, the doctor's sister was first with aid and comfort.</p> + +<p>"Good evening, Cap'n Jonah," was her cheerful greeting. "Isn't it +rather raw for you to be out with your rheumatism?"</p> + +<p>"Whatever!" exploded Cap'n Jonah. "I got to be out some, and I can't +leave the dratted rheumatics to home. Wish I could."</p> + +<p>"Poor old Suz Montevedo is down, all alone in his cabin. He has the +inflammatory kind and unless his granddaughter runs in to see him, he +is all alone 'way over there beyond Tapp Point."</p> + +<p>"Wal," said the captain, his eyes glowing with admiration, "I bet you +don't neglect him, Miss Sue."</p> + +<p>"Oh, I do what I can," said the little woman, visibly blushing in the +starlight.</p> + +<p>"And a feller laid on his beam ends ought not to want no better care +than you'd give him, ma'am," said the old mariner gallantly. "If I'm +laid by, myself, I hope I'll git ha'f as good."</p> + +<p>"You'll have Pearly to nurse you, Captain," laughed Miss Sue. "And she +is a dear girl."</p> + +<p>"Like enough! Like enough!" murmured Cap'n Jonah, as the little woman +went her way. "But the feller that got you—an' your forty thousand +dollars—would be mighty well off, an' no mistake. Hullo! Here's +'Liphalet at last."</p> + +<p>The ex-steward had been halted by the doctor's sister for a moment. +When he reached Cap'n Jonah his countenance was stormy and his lips +grimly set.</p> + +<p>"That there Miss Sue, Truitt, is a mighty sweet sailin' craft," +observed the captain. "For a man of your age, say, she'd make a proper +mate."</p> + +<p>'Liphalet growled something inaudible.</p> + +<p>"And they tell me she's wuth forty thousand dollars in her own right," +pursued the captain.</p> + +<p>"By Hannah!" exploded the ex-steward.</p> + +<p>"What's that?" responded Cap'n Jonah, startled.</p> + +<p>"Hum! I forgot somethin'," was 'Liphalet's rather weak explanation. +He seemed to have no interest at all in Sue Ambrose and her reported +fortune.</p> + +<p>"Wal," was the captain's final comment, "she does good with some of +her money, I haven't a doubt. But—for—ty—thou—sand—dol—lars! +Whatever! A sheer of that would purty near put a man on his feet, +Truitt."</p> + +<p>'Liphalet did not utter another word until they entered Cap'n Abe's +store.</p> + +<p>Supper time at this season of the year came early, that there might +be a long evening before nine-thirty o'clock, which was most people's +bedtime, and always Cap'n Abe's closing hour.</p> + +<p>The lamplight bathed the crowded store and the ring of loungers about +the glowing stove with a soft radiance. This light glistened, too, on +tarpaulins and oil-skins, on varnished sea-boots and rubber "hips," all +of which garments and other gear hanging in rows looked like whispering +men jostling one another as they listened to the jest and comment that +went around the circle of which Cap'n Abe's stove was the center.</p> + +<p>Milt Baker lounged in his favorite place at the tobacco showcase, with +simple Amiel Perdue beside him.</p> + +<p>"I guess, Cap'n Abe, you'll haf to reach me another piece o' Brown +Mule," Milt said. "I seem to be all out."</p> + +<p>"In more ways than one, Milt, you air out," rejoined the bewhiskered +storekeeper briskly. "You know what the motto of this store is. If you +want to <i>buy</i> tobacco, Milt——"</p> + +<p>"Sho, now! can't you be a good feller, Cap'n Abe? 'Mandy'll be in for +her week's buyin' by an' by and she'll pay you," said the disappointed +Milt.</p> + +<p>"I dunno will she or not. You've got a bad mem'ry, Milt. And tobacco +ain't good for small boys, anyway——Good evening, 'Liphalet! How be +ye, Cap'n Hand?"</p> + +<p>"Wal," said the philosophical Milt Baker, "mebbe I'll have to wait for +another chaw of tobacco till the Christmas tree's hung. 'Liphalet won't +never forgit me, I know."</p> + +<p>Milt occupied the throne of local humorist. He thus quickly turned +attention from his own chagrin to the beclouded countenance of the +ex-steward.</p> + +<p>"Ye-as," said Cap'n Abe. "'Liphalet ought to be right busy purty soon."</p> + +<p>"Le's see," continued Milt, grinning knowingly, "have ye taken that +annual trip of yours to town yet to buy the stuffin' for Santa +Claus's bag on Christmas night, 'Liphalet? The kids ain't goin' to be +disappointed, be they? Ye got more children to buy presents for than +the old woman that lived in a shoe."</p> + +<p>"Ha!" ejaculated the rather crabbed Cap'n Joab Beecher, "a man might's +well be a Mormon as to be fixed like 'Liphalet."</p> + +<p>"Tell ye what 'tis," rose Washy Gallup's shrill voice, "I sartain sure +wouldn't let no passel of women and young'uns pull my laig for all my +spare change like 'Liphalet's done."</p> + +<p>"And that wouldn't take no 'long pull an' a strong pull an' a pull all +together,' now, would it, Washy?" observed Milt, grinning broadly.</p> + +<p>Mr. Truitt said not a word. Cap'n Abe, shrewd observer that he was, +shifted the topic of conversation adroitly. He saw no reason for +allowing a good customer to be bullyragged until he was run out of the +store and might be led thereby to take his trade to the Cardhaven shops.</p> + +<p>"It does seem," the storekeeper said reflectively, "as though the +children ought to be giv all the good times we can make for 'em at +Christmas. I will allow 'Liphalet's done more than his sheer in that +way since he's lived here on the Shell Road. He's been Santa Claus +ev'ry year, as well as 'dressin' the part,' as them movie actors used +to say. Some of the rest of us might better put our hands in our +pockets an' help.</p> + +<p>"It's a pleasure to think," went on Cap'n Abe, "of how children all +over the world 'bout this time o' year are getting ready to hang up +their stockin's for Santa Claus to stuff with goodies an' toys. I've +heard Cap'n Am'zon say——"</p> + +<p>He halted in his speech and his jovial face fell. Cap'n Jonah Hand, who +was preparing to endure the expected yarn with such fortitude as he +could summon, was startled by the change of expression that came over +the storekeeper's visage.</p> + +<p>"Wal," sighed Cap'n Abe, at last, "we won't talk 'bout that. But it +allus did puzzle me what them poor naked children of 'India's coral +strand,' that they tell about, hang up to get presents in on Christmas +Eve."</p> + +<p>"Whatever!" ejaculated Cap'n Hand under his breath. Cap'n Abe's flights +of imagination were mysterious to him.</p> + +<p>The conversational tide in the store ebbed and flowed. Mr. Truitt +seized an opportunity to tell the storekeeper quietly that he and Cap'n +Jonah had occasion to confer with him privately. The Shell Road oracle +nodded that he understood, and proceeded to get rid of customers and +loiterers alike at an early hour.</p> + +<p>He locked the store door behind Washy Gallup's hooped back, and snuffed +out the window lights. He returned to the counter and held up the flap +of it, motioning Mr. Truitt and Cap'n Jonah to pass through.</p> + +<p>"Go right back to the livin' room, 'Liphalet, you an' Cap'n Hand. You +know the way. I'll be right with ye soon's I bank the fire here for the +night. I calc'late we'll have consider'ble of a frost before morning."</p> + +<p>The big argand burner over the table filled the comfortable room with +mellow light. The tortoise-shell cat sleeping on a turkey-red cushion +in one of the wide rockers, opened his eyes lazily and yawned at the +visitors.</p> + +<p>"Find yourselves cheers, boys, and sit down," called Cap'n Abe's voice +from the store. "Slap Diddimus off'n that cushion, 'Liphalet. He's got +so he thinks he purty nigh owns this craft."</p> + +<p>But the ex-steward had a liking for cats. As he had told Cap'n Jonah, a +cat was often his only company. He scooped Diddimus into his arms and, +sitting down in the rocker, held the big, purring, furry animal in his +lap while he swung back and forth.</p> + +<p>Cap'n Abe bustled through the living room to the kitchen in the rear, +and they heard him shaking the grate of the range to liven the fire. +A moment later the harsh jangle of the coffee grinder announced his +hospitable intent.</p> + +<p>"A mug o' hot coffee won't go bad to-night, boys, afore you go out into +the cold again," said the storekeeper, returning after putting the +coffee-pot on the stove. He settled into his own creaking chair and +reached for the ever-ready knitting on the stand by the window, over +which hung an empty bird cage. The sock he was fashioning could be for +none but his own generous-sized foot. "Wal," he said, smiling broadly +on the other two men, "I can see there's somethin' on both your minds. +Le's have it."</p> + +<p>'Liphalet's glum visage lightened with sympathy as he turned to Cap'n +Jonah. "Do you want me, Cap'n Hand, to put this here difficulty o' +yourn before Cap'n Abe?" he asked gently.</p> + +<p>"Steam ahead, Truitt," said the captain gruffly. "You've the gift of +gab, and you're a friend."</p> + +<p>"The Cap'n," said 'Liphalet, to the storekeeper, "needs advice. I told +him you was the man to come to for it, Cap'n Abe."</p> + +<p>The storekeeper, knitting briskly, made a clucking sound with his +tongue to notify his visitors that he modestly disclaimed any desire to +pose as an oracle. Yet his attitude was one of willingness to help if +he could.</p> + +<p>"You've lived in this neighborhood longer than I have, Cap'n Abe," +pursued Mr. Truitt, "although I was born in Cardhaven. You have been +here on the Shell Road for more than twenty years. And endurin' that +time I wouldn't wonder if you had got purty close to an opinion on +Orrin Petty and his wife."</p> + +<p>"Hi mighty!" ejaculated Cap'n Abe, "I sh'd say I had," and glanced with +compassion at Cap'n Jonah.</p> + +<p>"Cap'n Hand," went on Mr. Truitt, "had good and sufficient reason, so +he says, to expect a welcome and kindness, from Sarah Petty when he +came to live with her. Her father, and naturally Sarah herself, was +under obligation to Cap'n Hand——"</p> + +<p>"Belay all that!" interrupted Cap'n Hand. "'Twas a family matter. +Nothin' but what I should have done for John Hand, my own brother, as +I had neither chick nor child myself."</p> + +<p>"In the same spirit," Mr. Truitt insisted, "Sarah Petty should have +been willing to help you. Ain't that a fac'?"</p> + +<p>"'Twould seem so," admitted Cap'n Jonah.</p> + +<p>The storekeeper listened and clicked his needles. "What air you drivin' +at, 'Liphalet? Is it that Orrin and Sarah's made it onpleasant for +Cap'n Hand up there at their house?"</p> + +<p>"Whatever!" ejaculated Cap'n Jonah. "And the way they treat that gal, +Pearly, is a sin and shame. I can't stand it!"</p> + +<p>"Why don't you get a place of your own, Cap'n Hand, and take Pearly +with you?" asked the storekeeper bluntly. "I guess we could fix it with +the town selectmen. Ev'rybody knows what a tongue Sarah Petty's got and +how parsimonious Orrin is. And Pearly is a good little thing and always +was."</p> + +<p>"Why, Mr. Silt," said Cap'n Jonah desperately, and cutting out +'Liphalet as intermediary, "I'll tell you the truth. When I first come +here Sarah and Orrin treated me fair enough. They thought, you see, I +had a fortune."</p> + +<p>"Hi-mighty!" exclaimed the storekeeper, a great light dawning on his +face. "Ye don't mean to say——Why! Orrin told us ye had money to burn."</p> + +<p>"'Twouldn't make much of a smoke if I burned it all," said Cap'n Jonah +dryly. "No, sir! What little tad I had when I landed here will soon be +gone if I let Sarah Petty take it away from me at the rate she has been +doin'. They're purty nigh convinced now, Sarah and Orrin, that I ain't +a millionaire. Sarah ain't been able to find even a bankbook in my +chist. And the way that woman treats Pearly——"</p> + +<p>He went on to tell of how the young girl was made to suffer, as well as +of the indignities heaped upon himself of late, and of the unpleasant +quarters he was made to occupy in a house where there were plenty of +well furnished bedrooms.</p> + +<p>Cap'n Abe listened with full appreciation and sympathy. 'Liphalet broke +in to say: "I tell him if he could make them Pettys jest <i>think</i> he was +rich—as they first thought—he could carry things with a high hand. +Make 'em treat Pearly better, too."</p> + +<p>"Hi-mighty!" agreed Cap'n Abe. "It's a good p'int an' well taken. Might +be done. Is that what ye want my advice on?"</p> + +<p>"Wal," said Cap'n Jonah, "Truitt said you was a great feller for +schemin' out things." But he did not say it very hopefully.</p> + +<p>Cap'n Abe smiled broadly. "How fur would you be willin' to go, Cap'n +Hand?" he asked. "I mean how close't could you trim your sails to the +bare bones of truth. Ordinarily I don't believe in lyin'. But if folks +want to fool themselves——"</p> + +<p>"That's it!" ejaculated 'Liphalet, eagerly.</p> + +<p>"I'd be willin' to go purty far," growled Cap'n Jonah. "Whatever!"</p> + +<p>Cap'n Abe had put aside his knitting. He slapped his knee smartly. +"'Nough said!" he ejaculated. "You lemme think it over—<i>di</i>-gest it, +as ye might say. I sartain am sorry for your situation, Cap'n Hand, and +I want you to believe that, if wust comes to wust, us fellers along +the Shell Road that's been able to put by a little won't see you lack +none for comforts. Eh, 'Liphalet? Not as long as there's a shot in the +locker."</p> + +<p>"That's mighty kind of you," said Cap'n Jonah. "But Sarah Petty an' her +folks, I feel sure, wouldn't ha' been near so well off as they be if +it wasn't for what I done once for her father. And for that reason she +should be decent to me."</p> + +<p>"Humph! I allow you air right," said the reflective storekeeper. "Ye +mean to say ye ain't got <i>nothin'</i> but the money ye speak of?"</p> + +<p>"Nothin' but some ile sheers—two thousand dollars they cost me—that +a feller bunkoed me with some years ago," replied Cap'n Jonah. "An' I +believe I could have sold them to Orrin Petty when I first come."</p> + +<p>"Ye better had," said the ex-steward, darkly. "'Twould ha' sarved him +right."</p> + +<p>"No," said Cap'n Jonah. "I'll raise the wind in some other way."</p> + +<p>"First of all we'll see if we can't make the Pettys believe you have +got a fortune," Cap'n Abe said, more briskly. "Leave it to me, Cap'n +Hand. I guess we can find some way of overreaching them that tries to +overreach. You come in again soon. I'll have somethin' cooked up for +ye, I don't doubt."</p> + + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> + +<div class="chapter"> +<h2 class="nobreak" id="CHAPTER_XII">CHAPTER XII</h2> +</div> + +<h3>THE APOSTATE SANTA CLAUS</h3> + + +<p>Heart-warmed by Cap'n Abe's promise of assistance and by his coffee, +the two cronies started homeward. A keen off-shore gale bit frostily. +The stars were sprinkled thickly upon a purple sky.</p> + +<p>Cap'n Jonah was much more cheerful; but 'Liphalet soon drifted into the +doldrums again. Spurred by his interest in his friend's trouble, his +thoughts had veered from his own case; now memory began to rasp his +mind again in a very tender spot.</p> + +<p>"Tell ye what!" observed Cap'n Jonah briskly. "If I was a marryin' man +I sartain sure would set my stays and carry all sail till I run down +along a woman like Miss Sue Ambrose. That would fix me fine! She's got +a plenty and she seems like a smooth-tempered party. Nothin' like Sarah +Hand, that was."</p> + +<p>"By Hannah!" snorted 'Liphalet, "would you marry for money, Cap'n Hand?"</p> + +<p>"No. I don't presume I would," replied Cap'n Jonah reflectively. "But +if I was wantin' to marry I sartain sure wouldn't kick none if the +woman I picked out chanced to have a tidy bit laid away. Whatever!"</p> + +<p>"Good night!" said 'Liphalet bitterly, and left him abruptly at the +mouth of the Petty lane.</p> + +<p>Eliphalet Truitt was deeply disturbed in his mind. He regarded what +he had been forced to listen to from the loungers in the store this +evening as the capsheaf of all the rasping incidents that had of late +disturbed his mental poise.</p> + +<p>He was hurt. More than that, he began to feel that Washy Gallup was +right. In the homely phraseology of the community, he had allowed his +leg to be pulled for all these ten years. He was a "good thing." He +had made the mistake of trying to buy (so he now thought) the love and +friendship he craved as a lonely and disappointed man. These people he +lived among looked upon him merely as a convenience and a silly fellow, +to be bled from the pocket for the general advantage.</p> + +<p>It was true that heretofore he had enjoyed doing his bit and giving his +thought and time to the children's holiday. But now, as this Christmas +loomed near, the thought of hanging a tree with presents and packing +a bag with goodies for the little ones filled Eliphalet Truitt with +loathing.</p> + +<p>As he scuffled along the Shell Road in the dark, he heard a mother +threatening her wayward offspring at the back door.</p> + +<p>"You'd better be mighty good, Ezra Saltus, or Mr. 'Liphalet won't hang +no Chris'mas gift on the tree for you."</p> + +<p>"By Hannah!" ejaculated the disgruntled ex-steward in his throat. "They +even make a bugaboo out o' me for naughty children! I'm good and sick +o' this! Folks just like me for what they can get out o' me. I—I'll +quit!"</p> + +<p>It was then and there that the Santa Claus of the Shell Road +apostatized.</p> + +<p>The next day the members of the Ladies' Aid Society were apprised—and +surprised—of the fact that the ex-steward refused to contribute in any +way toward the approaching Christmas celebration. He had stated to the +committee that approached him, with a finality that could not possibly +be misunderstood, his determination not to act in the capacity of Santa +Claus at the Mariner's Chapel, or help in any way whatsoever.</p> + +<p>"That ought to stop 'em," snarled 'Liphalet to himself. "If they know +I mean business—that I ain't to be the Mr. E. Z. Mark of this here +community no longer—they'll mebbe pretty quick stop their smirkin', +and hintin' and jollyin'."</p> + +<p>But it seemed they did not cease to do these very things. At least, +'Liphalet did not see that his unwonted attitude toward the approaching +holiday celebration made the least difference with his neighbors. They +continued to smile knowingly at him when the topic of Christmas was +mentioned. Even Cap'n Jonah when next he met the ex-steward seemed to +be particularly jovial about the coming Christmastide. The captain +seemed quite to forget his own troubles to say:</p> + +<p>"I guess we can look forward to a white Christmas, Truitt. And that'll +please the children, an' Miss Sue, an' ev'rybody. Don't you admire a +white Christmas?"</p> + +<p>"I don't admire no Christmas," snarled 'Liphalet. Then to himself and +under his breath, he repeated: "Christmas—<i>bah</i>!"</p> + +<p>He turned on his heel before Cap'n Jonah could say anything else, and +left the latter standing in the road open-mouthed.</p> + +<p>"By Hannah! Don't the tarnal fools believe I mean it?" was 'Liphalet's +disgusted comment.</p> + +<p>But he was secretly ashamed when he met Sue Ambrose near the +post-office one day about this time. He had tried to tell himself +that she was like the rest—that her interest in church work led her +to encourage him to spend time and money for these people who did not +really care anything about him save for what they could get out of him.</p> + +<p>She hailed him just as he was about to speak to Perry Baker, the +Paulmouth expressman, who had a crated talking machine in his wagon to +deliver, and 'Liphalet could not escape.</p> + +<p>"I'd admire to know who it is in Cardhaven is goin' to own a music box +like that," he said, trying to cover his confusion. "By Hannah! I've +been dreadful tempted to buy one o' them things. Wish't I hadn't been +weaned on old saws like 'Wicked waste makes woful want' and 'A fool an' +his money air soon parted.'"</p> + +<p>"Why, 'Liphalet Truitt!" Miss Sue said, with her low sweet laugh. "As +though you could not afford every comfort—even every luxury—you +craved."</p> + +<p>"There <i>she</i> goes," thought the disgruntled ex-steward. "Hintin' I'm +made of money like these other folks." And he continued to stare after +Perry Baker's wagon as though deeply interested in the crated talking +machine.</p> + +<p>"I do want your advice, about the tree, 'Liphalet," said Miss Sue +desperately. It seemed as though she wished to recall his attention +from that talking machine and where it was going. "You know, Amos +Durgin usually has good trees; but he's shipped all his best ones to +Boston——"</p> + +<p>"Ho!" ejaculated the ex-steward. "I ain't takin' no int'rest in the +Christmas tree this year, Susan. I'm a-takin' a back seat, like I tell +'em all. Let somebody else have a spell at sech didoes. It's my watch +below."</p> + +<p>"Oh! Yes! Certainly, 'Liphalet, if you feel that way about it," the +gentle spinster said.</p> + +<p>The memory of this meeting rasped 'Liphalet's mind more and more as +the hours passed. She had spoken as though she were hurt by his gruff +refusal, and he cringed in secret at thought of ruffling her gentle +soul in any way.</p> + +<p>But even Miss Sue, he determined, should cozen him into no further +effort in behalf of the Christmas celebration. He knew very well what +they all expected—what they were looking for. Why, the children on the +road who now tipped their hats or courtesied to him so politely, were +the same little imps who had robbed his berry patch in June and whom he +had chased out of his "summer sweet'nin' tree" in August.</p> + +<p>"Drat 'em!" grumbled 'Liphalet. "They're playin' a game, all on 'em. +Just salvin' me over—tryin' to git all they can out o' me! And Sue +Ambrose is purty near as bad as the rest," he added, with actual venom.</p> + +<p>The taut little ex-steward had become a wofully changed man. It was +nothing sudden that had seized upon his mind and made it sick. More +than Doctor Ambrose had noticed his metamorphosis. The Black Dog rode +'Liphalet hard—had done so for many weeks.</p> + +<p>At first when he had begun himself to notice the change that was coming +over his mind, 'Liphalet had called it "the megrums." He did not feel +as brisk bodily as usual. Jalap and salts—the sailor's never-failing +remedy for all ills to which human flesh is heir—were unshaken +doctrinal tenets in 'Liphalet Truitt's belief, and he declared that he +did not propose to have "no doctor messin' with his innards."</p> + +<p>So he scouted the attempt of Doctor Ambrose to advise as to his +treatment. In his heart, too, he knew that the trouble was more mental +than physical. The seed of his discontent had been sown long before. He +had not realized it; but the years of denial since his retirement from +the sea were harder to bear than he had thought. During the active span +of his life ordinary troubles had little fretted Eliphalet Truitt, for +he was always looking forward to the consummation of his hope regarding +Sue Ambrose.</p> + +<p>To be near her, to work with her in church affairs, occasionally to +pick out on his flute "Black-Eyed Susan" or "Fisher's Hornpipe" to the +accompaniment of her melodeon, was all very well. But these were poor +substitutes for the dream of hearth and home which had so long stirred +his imagination.</p> + +<p>That last homeward voyage had been a memorable one for 'Liphalet. With +the younger officers, he secretly agreed that "the girls are pulling +the <i>Sadie Vars</i> home with their apron strings." The old windjammer +seemed fairly to fly. Even during the usually tedious railroad trip +along the backbone of the Cape the minutes seemed to flow swiftly.</p> + +<p>'Liphalet had scarcely felt, on that past occasion, the creaking +platform planks of the Paulmouth station under his feet when he landed; +and when he climbed to the seat beside Noah Coffin, the stage driver, +that portion of the Cape Cod landscape within range of his vision was +painted in rainbow hues.</p> + +<p>But in ten minutes (how sharply he remembered it now!) a mental typhoon +had overcast the captain's horizon and drowned all the roseate colors +with a pall of dreary drab.</p> + +<p>"Gre't changes around Cardhaven since you was last there, 'Liphalet," +the gossipy stage driver had almost immediately said. "They've painted +the town pump."</p> + +<p>"Same old crop of happenings, I reckon, Noah," the cheerful mariner +rejoined. "Some's died, some's been born, an'—any marriages?"</p> + +<p>"Not ter speak of," Noah said, turning the cud in his cheek like a +ruminative cow. "Got a heiress among us now."</p> + +<p>The explosion of this bombshell of news made but little impression upon +'Liphalet until Noah added:</p> + +<p>"Doc Ambrose's sister—ye know, that little old maid, Susan—has fell +heir, they do say, to forty thousand dollars."</p> + +<p>"By Hannah!" 'Liphalet ejaculated. "What's that you say, Noah?"</p> + +<p>"Yes-sir-ree-sir!" declared the stage driver, slowly and with unction. +"Some female rel'tive, they say, livin' at a distance and who was +eternally opposed to this here new move for women votin'—what d'ye +call 'em, 'Liphalet? Sufferin'——"</p> + +<p>"Suffragists?" barked the ex-steward.</p> + +<p>"Yep. That's it. Wal, this old woman give all her fortune, they say, to +Susan Ambrose pervidin' she never votes. For-ty-thous-and-dol-lars!" +sighed Noah. "I've voted forty odd year, 'Liphalet, an' never picked +the winnin' side in nary 'lection yet. I wish't somebody had offered me +a fortune not to vote."</p> + +<p>"Forty thousand dollars," murmured Eliphalet Truitt.</p> + +<p>It was then the vision attending his homecoming had begun to fade. +'Liphalet thought of it now, after ten years of dragging time had +passed, and the contemplation of his disappointment was bitter indeed. +He had already at the time of his leaving the sea, bought the little +house beside the Mariner's Chapel. He had intended redecorating and +furnishing it anew throughout. Then he would speak his mind to Sue +Ambrose; for although 'Liphalet Truitt was a modest man, he was a +direct one, and he had reason to believe that Miss Sue would not say +him nay.</p> + +<p>But an heiress with forty thousand dollars!</p> + +<p>The blow, as 'Liphalet admitted now, almost "hove him on his beam ends."</p> + +<p>"How could a fellow with his little tad of money," he asked himself, +"have the cheek to pop the question to Miss Sue? Why! every enduring +person, up and down the Cape, would say he was after her fortune. Worst +of all, the Doc's sister might herself think so!"</p> + +<p>This withering shock to his hopes, however, did not altogether scuttle +the ex-steward. Miss Sue was quite as demurely friendly at his approach +as ever. Accession of great wealth had made little change it seemed in +her mode of life. She remained her busy brother's housekeeper. Merely +she wore silk instead of gingham and real lace instead of the product +of her own skillful needles.</p> + +<p>On every hand the ex-steward was told of Miss Sue's fortune, for it was +delicious gossip. Miss Sue did not mention it herself. Forty thousand +dollars, compared with what he had invested and had on deposit in the +Paulmouth National Bank, was as a mountain to a molehill—or so it +seemed to Eliphalet Truitt.</p> + +<p>So he had never spoken to Sue Ambrose in all these ten years as he +had desired to speak. She had gone her modest, kindly, charitable +way, making little display of her wealth—one of those sincere, +self-contained souls, the depths of whose hidden natures are not easily +fathomed.</p> + +<p>'Liphalet had gradually fallen into the doldrums—a place of calms +and baffling airs. He had never refurnished the old house, or changed +its inner or outer appearance in any particular. For an old bachelor, +living alone, it was good enough!</p> + +<p>His secret desire to be near Sue Ambrose led him to enter church work +with more enthusiasm than he otherwise might have done. Nor had this +fact grated on him until of late.</p> + +<p>Aside from such interests, the ex-steward was a member of that "forum" +that gathered summer and winter around the stove in the Shell Road +store. He had been wont to join this group at Cap'n Abe's every week +day evening save prayer-meeting night. But as his pique against +Christmas and its activities grew, even the salt savor of the company +at the store became tasteless. Of late conversation when he was present +was apt to turn, he found, upon the coming holiday season. The winks +and smiles, the innuendoes, 'Liphalet considered, were all aimed at +him. There seemed to be an itch in the public mind to learn just what +he, Life Truitt, was going to buy to hang on the Chapel Christmas tree!</p> + +<p>He had never chanced to notice it before this season, perhaps because +he had never been in so critical a mood; but all his neighbors seemed +to be slyly watching him, and with smiles, as though endeavoring +by insinuation and hypocrisy to recall themselves to his attention. +Nothing but his deep interest in Cap'n Jonah Hand's trouble would have +taken him to the store on this recent evening, the events of which were +last related.</p> + +<p>And he was almost sorry he had done so. Cap'n Jonah had managed to roil +his feelings as deeply as anybody in speaking as he had of Miss Sue. +She was a great catch; 'Liphalet had lived ten years shaking in his +shoes, if the truth were known, for fear that some braver soul than he +would ask her for her hand.</p> + +<p>She was at the bottom of all 'Liphalet's trouble—she and her fortune. +Every time he saw her, every time her name was mentioned, the barb was +sharpened in his soul. Jonah Hand might be brave enough to attempt to +marry Miss Sue and her money! But Life Truitt could not walk up to the +doctor's sister and ask her if she would have him. Here was the swift +stab of jealousy!</p> + +<p>But he did pluck up courage the evening after meeting Sue at the +post-office to stuff his flute into his pocket and tramp over to the +Ambrose cottage. He had not sought music and Sue's companionship to +soothe his soul for a long time. There she was—he saw her through the +parted curtains of the parlor window—sitting at the melodeon, coaxing +the harmonies from the yellowed keys.</p> + +<p>He stood near, with the first flakes of a snow squall falling upon him, +watching the graceful figure that was as harmonious in its surroundings +as were the notes pumped from the instrument. But after all, 'Liphalet +could not enter. A call in his present mood he felt would be a +profanation. Besides, there came into his sick mind again the thought +of how Sue, too, had sought to draw at his purse strings on this very +day for the Christmas entertainment. The devil of distrust said in his +ear:</p> + +<p>"She's like the rest of 'em! She's like the rest of 'em!"</p> + +<p>So he turned back. Sad indeed was the case of the once cheerful man +turned misanthrope. As he stubbed homeward through the crackling +snowflakes somebody he met on the road hailed him gayly:</p> + +<p>"Been to town to do your Christmas shopping, Life?"</p> + +<p>"No!" snarled the apostate Santa Claus. "And I ain't likely to make no +sech v'y'ge this weather."</p> + + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> + +<div class="chapter"> +<h2 class="nobreak" id="CHAPTER_XIII">CHAPTER XIII</h2> +</div> + +<h3>FAIR AND FOUL WEATHER</h3> + + +<p>Among other new worlds, that of poetry was being revealed to Pearl +Holden. Although by no means sentimental, Joe Helmford had his +bookshelves well supplied with the standard poets, as well as with the +works of many of the minor versifiers.</p> + +<p>"I do dearly love rhymes," Pearl said, and so Helmford pointed out +these volumes to her. She began to learn that romance lay in other +directions besides on the road of fiction.</p> + +<p>"My!" she confessed to Helmford one evening, when she stopped in at his +room on the way to her own for a book to read by the light of the small +hand lamp Sarah Petty allowed her. "My! some of these pieces of poetry +I read sound like chiming bells, and some flow sweet as honey. Some of +the lines that I don't half understand, Mr. Helmford, thrill me through +and through."</p> + +<p>He watched her with something other than amusement behind his big, +round glasses. Here was the budding of a soul into new life. Helmford +began dimly to realize that Pearl was no ordinary girl after all. +Had she been born in a different environment she would have eagerly +absorbed such learning and culture as might have been within her reach.</p> + +<p>"Some of 'em," Pearl went on to confess, "I guess I don't understand at +all. I used to think all poetry must rhyme. You know, two lines ending +with the same sound was all that made poetry, I thought," and she +laughed.</p> + +<p>"There must be a thought even in two rhyming lines to make poetry," +Helmford suggested, gently smiling.</p> + +<p>"Ain't it so?" she rejoined. "And some of these poets don't use rhyme +at all. Here's this one. He puzzled me at first."</p> + +<p>She seized a volume and opened it with a familiarity which plainly +showed she had been browsing in it before.</p> + +<p>"First I didn't know what to make of him. I read about 'When Lilacs +Last in the Dooryard Bloom'd' and somehow I couldn't make it sound like +poetry. Yet parts of it just made me shiver—just the reading of 'em." +Helmford nodded appreciatively. "That was even before I knew the piece +was about Abraham Lincoln and the passing of his funeral train through +the country. That must have been wonderful!"</p> + +<p>"It was wonderful," agreed the young man. "And it is wonderful how +Whitman could touch the heartstrings without the tricks of rhyme or of +alliteration."</p> + +<p>"But it is—just—poetry?" slowly queried the girl.</p> + +<p>"Are the Psalms poetry?" he began, quite as eagerly interested as she +was now. "See! The man's style is based on them." He read, and with +expression:</p> + +<div class="blockquot"> + +<p>"'Now while I sat in the day and look'd forth,</p> + +<p>In the close of the day with its light and the fields of spring, and +the farmers preparing their crops,</p> + +<p>In the large unconscious scenery of my land with its lakes and forests,</p> + +<p>In the heavenly aerial beauty (after the perturb'd winds and the +storms),</p> + +<p>Under the arching heavens of the afternoon swift passing, and the +voices of children and women,</p> + +<p>The many-moving seatides, and I saw the ships how they sail'd,</p> + +<p>And the summer approaching with richness, and the fields all busy with +labor,</p> + +<p>And the infinite separate houses, how they all went on, each with its +meals and minutia of daily usages,</p> + +<p>And the streets how their throbbings throbb'd, and the cities +pent—lo, then and there,</p> + +<p>Falling upon them all and among them all, enveloping me with the rest,</p> + +<p>Appear'd the cloud, appear'd the long black trail,</p> + +<p>And I knew death, its thought, and the sacred knowledge of death.'"</p> +</div> + +<p>"But, oh!" cried Pearl, "he can write rhyming verses, too. This 'O +Captain! My Captain!' He must have loved Mr. Lincoln. It makes me cry +to read <i>that</i> one. This about the lilacs—of course, it isn't about +lilacs, only lilac time—thrills me, makes me <i>feel</i>."</p> + +<p>"Ah, Pearly," murmured Helmford, "that is the acid test of all poetry."</p> + +<p>Then he brought himself up "all a-standing," How was he talking to +this girl? How was he thinking of her? This girl who seemed to him to +possess only a certain beauty to recommend her? Was she, after all, +like these other Cardhaven girls he had met?</p> + +<p>Her sweet face was alive with interest. Her eyes glowed. Her figure +palpitated before him, the full bosom rising and falling as the waves +of feeling pressed on her while he read the lines.</p> + +<p>"Isn't it wonderful? Isn't it beautiful?" sighed Pearl, when he had +finished.</p> + +<p>Her hand outstretched for the book met his lightly as he released +the volume. The touch thrilled them both. Helmford sat forward in his +chair. A flush mounted from the turned-back neck of her simple gown and +flooded all her throat and face.</p> + +<p>And at that instant, with their hands almost clasped, Tom Petty +abruptly opened the door.</p> + +<p>"What did I tell you, Marm?" snarled the lout, as the startled pair +sprang apart. "Here she is."</p> + +<p>Sarah Petty, her sharp face seemingly sharper than ever, thrust herself +into the room before her son.</p> + +<p>"Pearl Holden, you march yourself down to the kitchen! I want to see +you, my gal. No! Leave that book here. I won't have you foolin' away +your time on books when you leave ha'f your work undone. Go 'long, now, +I tell you."</p> + +<p>The girl went by her with flaming face and tear-bedewed eyes. To be +thus spoken to before Mr. Helmford seemed hard indeed to bear.</p> + +<p>Helmford arose promptly. There was something on the tip of his tongue +that perhaps he would better have said. His mild look was gone and his +shell-rimmed spectacles did not hide the sternness of his expression as +he asked Tom:</p> + +<p>"Did you wish to see me for anything?"</p> + +<p>"Naw. I don't want to see you," sneered the scowling youth.</p> + +<p>"When next you come to my room, <i>knock</i>," said Helmford. He turned his +shoulder to them both and sat down again in his easy chair before the +fire, picking up the book Pearl's slim fingers had so recently held.</p> + +<p>"Hoh!" snorted the admonished Tom. But his mother pushed him out of the +room and retired herself without making the boarder any reply.</p> + +<p>In the cold hall she hissed into the enraged Tom's ear:</p> + +<p>"<i>Now</i> see what you've done! You want me to lose his board money, do +ye, you good-for-nothin'? 'Twixt you an' that gal——"</p> + +<p>"Yah!" snarled Tom, for once openly antagonizing her, "there ain't +nothin' out of the way between me an' Pearly. It's what is between her +an' that city feller."</p> + +<p>"What do you care, Tom Petty?"</p> + +<p>"I do care. Pearly ain't for him——"</p> + +<p>"Nor she ain't for you," snapped his mother.</p> + +<p>"I'll have her if I want," blustered her son, his pale eyes gleaming.</p> + +<p>"I'll put her out of the house as sure as mornin' comes!" panted Sarah +Petty.</p> + +<p>"An' I'll go with her," declared Tom.</p> + +<p>"You do, and you'll go for good," she threatened.</p> + +<p>"Aw, what d'you s'pose I'd care?" he sneered, knowing full well his +strength with her. "You ain't got nothin' here I can't get along +without. You say yourself Uncle Jonah can take most of it away from +you if he has that note of grandpop's, and is so minded."</p> + +<p>"Sh!" she commanded fiercely.</p> + +<p>"I won't 'sh!' for you," he growled. "Who do you think you're talkin' +to—a kid?"</p> + +<p>He grumbled on, following her down the stairs and back to the kitchen +to which Pearl had preceded them. Orrin Petty, iron-rimmed glasses +perched on nose, was reading the <i>Paulmouth Argus</i> beside the kitchen +lamp. Pearl stood defiantly, with clenched fists, in the middle of the +room.</p> + +<p>"You—you little rat!" gasped Sarah Petty, hoarsely, bursting into the +kitchen and approaching the girl with an energy that seemed to precede +a blow.</p> + +<p>"Don't you strike me, Miz Petty!" cried Pearl, stepping back a pace. +"Don't you ever strike me again! I'm too old for that and I won't stand +it."</p> + +<p>"Hoity-toity!" exclaimed Orrin, dropping his paper. "What a long tail +our old cat's got! Can't you women folks give us no peace at all?"</p> + +<p>Tom slouched into the kitchen without a word. Sarah Petty seemed poised +like a rattlesnake, ready to strike. But there was something in the +girl's attitude that held the woman back.</p> + +<p>"You didn't have no call to speak to me the way you did before Mr. +Helmford," said Pearl, her voice shrill. "I work for you, but I'm not +your slave."</p> + +<p>"You're a pauper!" hissed Sarah Petty. "You're beholden for your food +and drink to me an' your uncle——"</p> + +<p>"He isn't my uncle!" declared Pearl fiercely. "And you are not related +to me, either. Nor Tom."</p> + +<p>"Why, you impudent little baggage!" Sarah Petty gasped.</p> + +<p>"And if you don't want me here, I can find some other place to work," +went on Pearl desperately. "I'm not beholden to you from choice, and +you know it."</p> + +<p>"What's the matter? What's the matter?" inquired Orrin Petty again.</p> + +<p>"This ungrateful baggage!" cried his wife. "I told you often enough, +Orrin Petty, you'd never ought to brought her home. She's a temptation +an' a stumbling-block to our Tom——"</p> + +<p>"<i>Tom!</i>" Pearl's scorn pricked the shell of Tom's conceit. The look she +gave the lout seared his very soul.</p> + +<p>"Oh, yes!" he said harshly. "Think you're fit for something better than +me, don't you? Ain't got no more use for me."</p> + +<p>"Tom Petty!" shrilled his mother.</p> + +<p>"No. I've no use for you," Pearl said, driven to desperation by her +wrongs. "You can give me the money you borrowed of me to pay your +gambling debts, and your mother can set me free. I'll go fast enough +then, and thank you both."</p> + +<p>"What's that? What do you mean?" shrieked Sarah Petty.</p> + +<p>She sprang from the chair she had seated herself in but the moment +before and darted at the girl, her fingers crooked and extended like +talons. Sarah Petty's instincts were primeval.</p> + +<p>But before she reached her victim the door at the foot of the rear +staircase was burst open and Cap'n Jonah in his shirt and trousers, and +with his stockinet nightcap on his head, thrust himself before the girl.</p> + +<p>"Belay that!" he commanded in a deep-sea growl. "What's goin' on here? +Ain't you satisfied, Sarah Petty, to work this gal double tides, +without bringin' her to the mast ev'ry now an' then for a taste of the +cat? I tell ye, I won't stand no more of it."</p> + +<hr class="chap"> + +<div class="figcenter"> + <img src="images/illus2.jpg" alt="" id="illus2"> + <div class="caption"> + <p>"Belay that!" he commanded in a deep sea growl.</p> + </div> +</div> + +<hr class="chap"> + +<p>"You—you——" Sarah Petty could not find an expression to fit the +occasion. Or else caution held her tongue with a sudden grip. "Did you +hear what the little minx just said?"</p> + +<p>"Yes," replied Cap'n Jonah. "I heard her. I heard her say that she lent +money to Tom Petty to pay back to the Ladies Aid money that he'd took +an' gambled away at the cattle show. And it s'prised me jest as much as +it does you, Sarah."</p> + +<p>He spoke more mildly, but his eyes flamed as he held the shrinking Tom +with their gaze.</p> + +<p>"She'd oughter be thrashed, old as she is!" cried Sarah Petty.</p> + +<p>"I dunno but she had," agreed Cap'n Jonah, "for ever lending him a +penny, anyway. I thought I'd headed off the young sculpin from borryin' +of Pearly at all."</p> + +<p>"What's that you say?" demanded his niece. "The little liar——"</p> + +<p>"You air speakin' of Tom, ain't you, Sarah?" interrupted the master +mariner boldly. "It ain't Pearly that's lied. I heard it all from my +chamber winder. It was the first night I come here. Tom got into a +pea-and-shell game at that fair and lost ev'ry dollar he had—Ladies +Aid money and all.</p> + +<p>"He whined around Pearly like a whipped puppy until the gal promised to +lend him enough to pay you back, out of the little tad of money she'd +saved up. I couldn't hear to that, you know," continued Cap'n Jonah, +with less acrimony. "So I caught Tom airly the next mornin' and made +him a present so't he wouldn't be tempted, as <i>I</i> thought, to take +money from the gal. But I didn't know the feller as well as I do now," +and the mariner's scorn was biting. "Did he take your money that time, +after all, Pearly?"</p> + +<p>The girl, now unable to speak for the swelling of her throat, nodded.</p> + +<p>"He's a purty poor fish, this boy, Tom, of yours, Sarah," said Cap'n +Jonah. "He'll not only hide himself behind a gal, but he'll rob her."</p> + +<p>"Aw," put in Tom in self-defense, "I'm goin' to pay her back all right. +I was only teasin' her."</p> + +<p>"Le's see you do it," said the captain tartly, striking for Pearly +while the iron was hot.</p> + +<p>Sarah Petty, silent for the moment with fury, suddenly dug under her +skirt for the deep pocket she always wore. She drew forth her purse.</p> + +<p>"<i>I'll</i> pay the minx back," she said. "Of course Tom was only foolin'. +But if you ever do sech a thing again, Tom Petty, I'll disown you! You +see, now, I hope, what it means to mix up with pauper baggage like this +gal."</p> + +<p>"Belay that, I tell you!" commanded Cap'n Jonah, betrayed into an +excitement he had occasion to regret later.</p> + +<p>"I'd like to know, Jonah Hand, what int'rest <i>you</i> have got in this +gal?" snapped his niece, driven beyond the point of endurance.</p> + +<p>"I'll tell ye right now," said the master mariner, sternly, "she ain't +goin' to be treated like she was dirt under your feet no more. I've a +mind to see the selectmen myself about it, and take her away."</p> + +<p>"What do you mean?" gasped Orrin, putting in his oar at last. "After we +carin' for her for seven year, an' jest as she's got of some use 'round +the house, do you think we're goin' to let her go?"</p> + +<p>"And who'd take the impudent thing in, I'd like to know?" demanded his +wife. "After they heard that <i>we've</i> got through with her?"</p> + +<p>"She's beholden to us for every bite an' sup an' for the clo'es on her +back," added the excited Orrin.</p> + +<p>"She'd ought to be beholden to nobody," declared Cap'n Jonah, as Pearl +sobbed upon his shoulder and his shirt-sleeved arm stole around her. +"You folks don't appreciate her; but <i>I</i> do. Whatever! If you don't +take another tack with the gal, you an' Orrin, Sarah, I vow to man +I'll will ev'ry cent I got and all my prop'ty—sech as it is—to Pearl +Holden. She sha'n't be beholden to nobody after I die, anyway."</p> + +<p>This bombshell, exploding in the Petty kitchen, left the trio dumb. +Cap'n Jonah pushed the girl, her hand filled with the money Sarah Petty +had paid to her, gently out of the room.</p> + +<p>"You go up to bed, my gal, an' forgit it," he said. "I won't see you +harrowed no more."</p> + +<p>Then he passed the Petty group with scornful glance, opened the back +stairway door again, and stormed heavily up to his room under the eaves.</p> + +<p>"Whatever! Now I guess I have done it," was his murmured comment when +he was again in bed.</p> + + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> + +<div class="chapter"> +<h2 class="nobreak" id="CHAPTER_XIV">CHAPTER XIV</h2> +</div> + +<h3>VEERING WINDS</h3> + + +<p>There never had been before as serious a conference between the three +Pettys in that kitchen as this one. Tom might well thank his lucky +stars that Uncle Jonah Hand had thrown his bombshell. The surprise of +it sponged from his mother's mind all immediate thought of his crime, +which had been revealed during the last few minutes.</p> + +<p>"There!" was Orrin's whine, first to break the silence after Cap'n +Jonah had departed. "What did I tell ye?"</p> + +<p>Sarah glared at her husband furiously. Tom licked his lips and doubled +his fists. He could have pommeled his father and pommeled him well!</p> + +<p>"Aw—you——" he began, but helplessly.</p> + +<p>"Orrin Petty," said Sarah at last, "if you knew so much—and if you +know so much now—why didn't you bring out your stores of wisdom before +things come to this pass? Do you realize what it means? There's no fool +like an old fool. If Uncle Jonah has taken a fancy to Pearly an' wills +her his fortune, where'll we be, I want to know?"</p> + +<p>"Jest about here, or hereabout," responded Orrin, for once undaunted by +his wife's sharp tongue. "But it looks like we won't have so much money +as mebbe we would have had, if ye'd taken my advice and gone easy with +your Uncle Jonah."</p> + +<p>"We don't know that he's got much of a fortune even now," said the +woman sourly. Her quick mind was beginning to function again with +its usual shrewdness. She had only been stunned by Cap'n Jonah's +declaration. She was rapidly recovering. "We don't know——"</p> + +<p>"I knowed it all along," put in Tom, siding with his father for the +nonce. "When Uncle Jonah give me that money——"</p> + +<p>"How much did he give you?" interrupted his mother sharply.</p> + +<p>"A twenty-dollar bill. Handed it out just as though it growed on bushes +and he had a private patch of his own," chuckled Tom.</p> + +<p>"See that boy laugh!" exclaimed Orrin. "He ain't got no idee of how +serious this may be for us all. If Cap'n Jonah wills away his prop'ty, +whatever it may be, and makes a demand on your father's estate, Sarah, +for principal and int'rest on that two thousand dollar note——"</p> + +<p>"You go fish!" exclaimed Sarah Petty, in exasperation. "If I ever did +despise anybody it's them that always bring out their hindsight for +their foresight. Looks like the aig's been broken; le's see if we can +save the shell, anyway."</p> + +<p>"Of course, mebbe he ain't got much," said the cautious Orrin.</p> + +<p>"There you go again!" ejaculated his wife with disgust. "Leavin' a hole +to creep out of backwards! I thank heaven I ain't the same kind of a +fool you be, Orrin Petty, if I am one!</p> + +<p>"It looks to me like we'd fooled ourselves," went on Sarah practically. +"But that don't mean we air sure to lose anything that's worth keeping. +Uncle Jonah must be a mighty secret man—nothing at all like what +father was. Father'd turn himself inside out jest as easy as you'd skin +an eel. But Jonah Hand is secret—if he's got a fortune. He don't let +no papers relating to it lie around where a body might see 'em. And he +must have something to will, or he wouldn't have spoke up so free when +he was mad, as he did jest now."</p> + +<p>"Hoh!" growled Tom. "If he <i>does</i> give it all to Pearly——"</p> + +<p>"You shet your mouth!" commanded his mother tartly. "You've made enough +mess for once, Tom Petty. Your foolin' with that gal is the root of +all the trouble. Comin' down here jes' now and telling me she was in +Helmford's room——"</p> + +<p>"An' she was!"</p> + +<p>Sarah Petty overrode his voice, pursuing her topic with shrewdness:</p> + +<p>"Your Uncle Jonah is a masterful man after all. He ain't give way to +his temper afore; but that ain't sayin' he ain't got none. He speaks +like a man that means what he says an' says what he means. He may march +off to Paulmouth to-morrow and make a will in Pearly's favor."</p> + +<p>"That would be a nice to-do," groaned Orrin.</p> + +<p>"I dunno," said Sarah, eyeing Tom wrathfully. "It's all along of this +boy's actions. And it seems, Orrin Petty, that you brought Pearl home +here jest to make trouble for us all. Course, the gal's long ago set +her cap for Tom."</p> + +<p>The youth began to preen. It bolstered his conceit to hear his mother +say this.</p> + +<p>"You know how girls are, Marm," he murmured.</p> + +<p>"An' I know how you be, Tom Petty," she rejoined grimly. "I found out +to-night if never before. You're tangled up with this gal your father +brought home against <i>my</i> wishes," (Orrin stirred uneasily; this was a +bare-faced falsehood) "and I don't see but we'll haf to make the best +of it. Though I don't see what we're to say to your Uncles 'Poley and +Perseus, <i>and</i> their wives. The gal's sech a numbskull——"</p> + +<p>"She's a good looker," Orrin ventured. "Dress her up——"</p> + +<p>"Who says she's a good looker?" flared Sarah, who would never be too +old to cavil at another woman's beauty. "She's a pink-faced little +rat! But she's good enough, I guess, for this Tom Petty. He don't +deserve nothin' better. And if this old tramp does give the dratted +girl his money it needn't go out of the fam'ly."</p> + +<p>"Goshamighty! what's that you air sayin', Sarah?" demanded Orrin, while +Tom stared at his mother in open-mouthed amazement.</p> + +<p>"If he's got any money," Sarah steadily pursued, "and he gives it to +Pearl, we'll know for sure soon enough. You're detarmined to marry her, +Tom——"</p> + +<p>"I dunno as I am," interrupted Tom, bound not to be driven.</p> + +<p>"You'll jest haf to marry her, I s'pose, it's gone so far," said his +mother, licking her thin lips and her green eyes snapping. "And when +you do, Uncle Jonah's money will be as good as yours. And this place +when we die, an' such prop'ty as your pop an' I may have. So if Uncle +Jonah ever brings up that old note of your grandpa's it won't amount to +nothin'."</p> + +<p>"Goshamighty!" exclaimed the eager Orrin, again. "Jest like takin' +money from one pants pocket and puttin' it in t'other."</p> + +<p>"Course we'll find out for sure, first," added Sarah, "if Uncle Jonah +really has got anything worth willin' to anybody."</p> + +<p>"How you goin' to?" demanded Tom. "You ain't found out a thing so far, +Marm. Only what he just said."</p> + +<p>"I am a-goin' to ask him straight, <i>has</i> he," declared Sarah Petty. +"It's for Pearl's own good I'll ask him. To protect her. He's promised +her something and we're her guardeens. We must know if he means what he +says and how much she is to be benefited by his will. And see to it he +makes a will, into the bargain."</p> + +<p>"You'd better go easy—you'd better go easy," Orrin warned, although +quite used to his wife's assertive ways and her ability to see ahead +and, as she expressed it, "trim her sails accordin'." "If he died +intes—intes——Wal, without makin' a will—his money'd come straight +to you, Sarah Petty."</p> + +<p>"We don't know how long he's got to live," said his wife practically. +"The Hands is tougher than pine knots. There ain't a thing the matter +with him but rheumatics. He may live along for twenty year.</p> + +<p>"After all's said and done, he might not do a single solitary thing +for me," confessed Sarah Petty. "I can git board money out of him, but +that's about all. If he's taken a fancy to Pearly, however, he may be +encouraged to do a lot for her—and for Tom. That's what we must look +out for. Tom, you keep on bein' nice to your Uncle Jonah. P'r'aps he'll +hand out more money to ye—though 'twon't do ye no good if ye don't +put it in the bank, I must say."</p> + +<p>"And then it'll do the bankers good," said Tom with scorn. "What's +money for?"</p> + +<p>"You'll find out one o' these days, you young spendthrift," said his +father tartly.</p> + +<p>"I s'pose the gal would fall into your arms, Tom, if you asked her to +marry you?" said Sarah Petty thoughtfully.</p> + +<p>Tom grinned broadly. "She uster like me. You see how she lent me that +money. But since this Helmford feller's come here she's got crazy 'bout +him. You can see that."</p> + +<p>"Nonsense!" exclaimed his mother. "You speak up nice to Pearly and +she'll see you mean business. Of course she's always wanted ye," +insisted the woman, determined to see the matter in no other light "But +I don't want you to do anything, or say anything, to make Mr. Helmford +mad. I'll speak to him about her bein' in his room. <i>That</i> ain't +decent. But I ain't goin' to lose a good boarder like him along of your +foolishness, Tom Petty."</p> + +<p>Tom grunted a disavowal of any belief in his mother's way of putting +it. He knew in his heart that Pearl had given him little reason of late +to think she cared an iota for him. But he was too much his mother's +son after all to admit this. He determined secretly to get Helmford +out of the house. "Out of sight, out of mind" was Tom's doctrine. He +believed, in his conceit, that he could make Pearl forget the man from +the fish hatchery if the latter were gone.</p> + +<p>"All you've got to do is to salve these girls over, and talk to 'em +pretty," mused Tom. "That'll fetch 'em ev'ry time."</p> + +<p>So the three Pettys sought their beds on this frosty night, all with +thoughts to keep them awake. In other rooms in the house three other +members of the household were likewise wakeful.</p> + +<p>Pearl cried herself to sleep finally. She was ashamed after what had +happened to face Mr. Helmford again. She thought not at all of Cap'n +Jonah's threat which had created the fear of disaster in the Petty +camp. She was only grateful to the old mariner for taking her part.</p> + +<p>Joe Helmford had spent a very unsatisfactory evening after the abrupt +visit of Tom Petty and his mother. He was half determined to leave the +house at the end of the week. These Pettys were almost unendurable.</p> + +<p>And then he began to wonder what effect his going so abruptly would +have on Pearl Holden? He knew that she was treated unkindly by the +Pettys. He had often seen tears in her eyes and Sarah's sharp, shrill +voice could not fail to reach his ear on more than one occasion when +she was berating her little drudge.</p> + +<p>Helmford had suddenly got a new revelation of Pearl's character. He had +begun to appreciate not alone her sweetness but the real depth of her +nature. The girl easily assimilated new things. Her mind was thirsty +for knowledge. She was beginning already to blossom into a fuller +mental development.</p> + +<p>This young man who heretofore had given such small thought to any woman +found himself lying awake at night thinking of this girl.</p> + +<p>Physically she was charming, as well as sweet of nature. He visualized +her as his sisters and cousins were wont to dress. Why, in appearance +she would vie with the best of them. Her speech—well, of course, it +was tinged somewhat by the environment in which she was born. But that +was not a fault that could not be rectified, Helmford decided.</p> + +<p>When a young man allows his mind to run along in such vein, with any +particular girl as the visioned object of his thoughts, he is bordering +upon a state of feeling that leads directly to matrimony. But Joe +Helmford drew back from this and resolutely refused to face it.</p> + +<p>He punched his pillow again and determinedly went to sleep.</p> + +<p>At the other end of the house, in the crooked little room over the +kitchen, Cap'n Jonah was likewise wakeful. In the first place he was +cold. Sarah had not given him bed-clothes enough. He had closed his +window, which was against the tenets of a lifelong belief in fresh air, +and still he shook in his bed.</p> + +<p>Running down stairs in his stocking feet to defend Pearly had chilled +Cap'n Jonah to the bone. His teeth chattered. He could feel the tip of +his nose turning to a numb lump of flesh. Icicles formed against the +edge of the thin blanket where his breath was expelled. He could hear +the ice cracking in his water pitcher.</p> + +<p>But even in such a plight Cap'n Jonah might have slept, at least +fitfully, had it not been for his thoughts. His excitement and anger +should have heated the old mariner so that physical cold could not +touch him.</p> + +<p>He had given way to his temper and vented his rage in a way quite +foreign to his habit. Cap'n Jonah usually had complete mastery of +himself.</p> + +<p>But the treatment accorded Pearl had finally brought the deeper +feelings of the master mariner to the surface. He was unable longer to +endure in silence the pain of seeing the girl so abused.</p> + +<p>Tom's desperate meanness, too, served to whip the old man's rage to +a froth. And that froth was what had spilled upon the startled Petty +family when Cap'n Jonah made his astonishing threat.</p> + +<p>"Whatever! Now I <i>have</i> done it!" he kept repeating to himself as he +lay in his uncomfortable bed. "I've got to do somethin'—I really have. +Got to make good that bluff. I could see Sarah and Orrin was all +struck of a heap. If they think I've got money an' that Pearly may get +it if they don't treat her better, they'll near 'bout turn themselves +inside out to salve her over—an' me, too.</p> + +<p>"But, whatever!" he concluded. "Somehow, I must make good that bluff. +If I ain't a rich man, I've got to make them think I am."</p> + + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> + +<div class="chapter"> +<h2 class="nobreak" id="CHAPTER_XV">CHAPTER XV</h2> +</div> + +<h3>MISUNDERSTANDINGS</h3> + + +<p>When Cap'n Jonah Hand awoke from a final fitful sleep the following +morning, he thought at first any scheme he might have for the befooling +of the Pettys must be postponed. When he awoke to find the edge of a +red sun peeping above the sea-line, he could scarcely turn over in bed.</p> + +<p>"Whatever! It's got me!" groaned the master mariner, and something like +fear clawed at his staunch old heart.</p> + +<p>He had passed through storm and stress at sea for nearly half a +century and had never shown the white feather. As he once related to +'Liphalet Truitt, he had faced death at the hands of savages, and death +in a most horrid form, without a quiver. He had been rich without +losing his poise; he had been utterly penniless, yet had retained +his cheerfulness. The ups and downs of life had left Jonah Hand, +despite his given name, a man who believed in his own good fortune and +submitted to such buffets as he suffered with composure.</p> + +<p>Here was something new. "To be cast upon his beam ends," as he termed +it, by such an enemy as this, discouraged him. He had felt premonitions +of the ailment for several years. He had seen many seamen go down +before this enemy, who would have stood staunchly to face the elements, +or against the troubles that are the common lot of man.</p> + +<p>"Oh! Ah! Ouch! Whatever!" groaned the captain, turning over by fits and +starts.</p> + +<p>Every movement hurt him. His joints seemed to have stiffened during the +night, and whenever he sought to bend them, sharp pains shot through +them. Even his fingers had no flexibility.</p> + +<p>"It's got me—the dratted rheumatics!" he muttered. "I might ha' knowed +it, after trottin' over that cold floor an' up an' down the stairs +without my shoes. Ouch! Whatever!"</p> + +<p>He felt that he could not rise—he who was always the first of the +household astir. He heard Orrin and Tom come yawning down into the +kitchen. They started the fire in the range and shook down the +sitting-room stove and opened the drafts. Then they went out to do the +barn chores.</p> + +<p>"Goshamighty!" rose Orrin's querulous voice on the frosty air, "barn +pump's froze tighter'n a drumhead. Bring a kittle of boilin' water, +Tom."</p> + +<p>Sarah Petty's heels were now heard tapping over the kitchen floor. For +once Pearl came last. Cap'n Jonah, overhead, did not hear a word spoken +between the two women.</p> + +<p>The silence he thought seemed ominous. What was about to occur? Would +there be a flare-up between Sarah and her little drudge and would Cap'n +Jonah immediately have to make good his threat of taking Pearl away?</p> + +<p>"And me on a lee shore the way I be!" groaned Cap'n Jonah. "No two ways +about it: I have got myself into a mess."</p> + +<p>How would he be able to act independently, or to aid Pearl in any way, +if he was flat on his back? Why, he could not even get down to Cap'n +Abe's to see if the storekeeper had thought up any scheme to help him, +as he had promised.</p> + +<p>The preparations for breakfast went on. He could hear the rattling +of dishes and pans; the sound of the pump at the spout of which the +tea-kettle had to be filled for a second time; the sputtering of +sausages in the pan. Then the odors rose to him in that mysterious way +they have of penetrating old houses; the aroma of coffee; the spicy +smell of home-made sausage meat; the odor of cornmeal johnny-cakes, +white as snow in the middle, baked brown on both sides, ready to split +and be deluged with "white gravy."</p> + +<p>Cap'n Jonah heard Sarah go to the front stairs and call Helmford. Then +she went to the door of the covered porch and shouted for Orrin and +Tom. There followed a murmur of voices below; then came Pearl's light +step upon the back stairs.</p> + +<p>"Cap'n Jonah!" she called outside his door.</p> + +<p>"Whatever!" groaned the old seaman. "Hullo! Ouch! Ain't so spry this +mornin' as us'al, Pearly."</p> + +<p>Pearl heard his bed creak and knew he was not up. She opened the door +and peered in.</p> + +<p>"Oh, Cap'n Jonah! is anything the matter?"</p> + +<p>"Guess so. Rheumatics, Pearly. They've got me laid by the heels."</p> + +<p>"Dear me! So bad you can't get up?" queried the girl.</p> + +<p>"I'll get up by and by. Don't bother 'bout me. Ouch! Whatever!"</p> + +<p>"My! you must be pretty bad, Cap'n Jonah. Do you want I should do +anything for you?"</p> + +<p>"Not a thing, my gal," declared the independent old skipper. "I ain't +quite scuttled yet—no sir! I'll warp myself out o' here by noon. Don't +you fuss none."</p> + +<p>Pearly returned below stairs and before sitting down to eat her own +breakfast she arranged a tray for Cap'n Jonah and carried it up to him. +She propped him up in bed with a chair and pillows at his back, and +helped him get the tray in position. She brought him a warmer quilt +from her own room.</p> + +<p>"It's cold enough in here to freeze the coffee 'fore you can drink it," +Pearl declared. "Let me wrap this around you, Cap'n Jonah."</p> + +<p>"Thank you, my gal," said the old man. "I won't forgit your kindness."</p> + +<p>"Nor I won't forget yours," she whispered before she left him, and +patted his mahogany cheek lightly.</p> + +<p>It was like a stroke to Cap'n Jonah's heart—this last. He thought +Pearl was referring to his promise of making her his heir. He was near +to being as suspicious about the avariciousness of those around him as +was Eliphalet Truitt.</p> + +<p>And good reason he had for that. To live with people like the Pettys +was enough to canker the most generous and unsuspicious nature.</p> + +<p>"Whatever! I got to see Cap'n Abe. He's my only hope now," murmured +the master mariner. "Won't never do for Pearly, poor gal, to be +disappointed."</p> + +<p>But the girl had no thoughts of a mercenary nature. That Cap'n Jonah +should have faced the Pettys and browbeaten them in her behalf was +sufficient to fill Pearl's heart with gratitude. She never thought a +second time of the old man's threat. In her confusion of mind at the +time, she had scarcely apprehended what his speech meant.</p> + +<p>What Pearl shrank from most of all this morning was meeting Joe +Helmford. When she returned from giving Cap'n Jonah his tray, the +boarder was at the table. He greeted her, as he had all, with his +customary "good morning." But no smile accompanied it, and he confined +his speech during the meal to requests relating to the food.</p> + +<p>In fact a pall seemed to hang over the Petty household; and yet the +family were less acrimonious and fault-finding than usual. To Pearl +they were scrupulously polite, and Sarah Petty more than once expressed +her anxiety regarding the absent Cap'n Jonah.</p> + +<p>"You'd better step up after breakfast, Orrin, and see if you can do +anything for him," Mrs. Petty said. "Uncle Jonah is beginning to feel +his years, I shouldn't wonder."</p> + +<p>But Orrin slipped out of the house immediately after breakfast without +venturing above to Cap'n Jonah's chamber. He felt some awkwardness +about appearing before the old man after what had occurred the previous +evening.</p> + +<p>Of course, the lout could not be expected to confront his great-uncle +at such a time; and even Sarah herself felt some unwonted embarrassment +in greeting Cap'n Jonah. So it was Pearl who went up to get the tray +and to inquire solicitously for a bulletin of health.</p> + +<p>She found Cap'n Jonah out of bed and struggling with the crooked mirror +and a dull razor. Every morning the old man scrupulously shaved his +cheeks and lips. The fringe of gray beard and his hair were carefully +brushed as well. The captain always looked as neat as a new pin.</p> + +<p>He looked out at her from behind a mask of cold lather and tried to +grin cheerfully. "Purty hard scrabblin', Pearly," he remarked. "My +fingers are stiffer than a frozen bowline."</p> + +<p>"You should have a fire, Cap'n Jonah," she said tenderly. "It's real +mean! This is the coldest end of the house anyway. And you have had no +warm water."</p> + +<p>"Ne'er mind. Don't fuss. I'll be out o' here all right. There'll be a +change o' wind before long, my gal."</p> + +<p>Pearl did not fully understand him, but she thought the statement +likely to be so. At the bottom of the stairs, listening, she found +Sarah Petty.</p> + +<p>"What's that he says?" demanded the woman in a sharp whisper. "He's +goin' to get out o' here?"</p> + +<p>"So he says," Pearl replied, scarcely understanding Mrs. Petty's +anxiety.</p> + +<p>Sarah Petty stepped back, staring at the girl with eyes that glittered +like a snake's. She closed the door at the bottom of the stairs with a +careful hand.</p> + +<p>"Don't you let him do that, Pearl Holden!" she hissed. "You have a +care. You'll find it a whole lot better to have me for a friend than an +enemy. Now, mind that! You keep Uncle Jonah here."</p> + +<p>"Me?" gasped the girl in surprise. "What have I to do with it?"</p> + +<p>Mrs. Petty's speech amazed her. Indeed, the treatment accorded her on +this morning by all the family greatly puzzled Pearl Holden.</p> + +<p>In the first place, the clack of Sarah Petty's tongue seemed to be +muffled. The woman scarcely spoke to her, and never to find fault. This +was her single outbreak of ill-temper. Orrin, when he came for the +can of grease for the harness, which was kept soft behind the kitchen +stove, asked her for it with a "please" tacked to the request.</p> + +<p>She was sweeping the big lower front hall when Tom came blundering +through. She would not have spoken to him, but he would not be denied.</p> + +<p>"Say! you ain't goin' to stay mad with me, are you, Pearly?" he asked +with a grin.</p> + +<p>She looked at him with an angry spark in either eye; but Tom would not +be warned.</p> + +<p>"Aw, come, now, Pearly!" he said. "You know you like me. I was just +foolin'——"</p> + +<p>As he approached she backed away into a corner and held the broom +straight out before her.</p> + +<p>"You keep your foolin' to yourself, Tom Petty!" she cried. "Get away +from me!"</p> + +<p>"Aw, now, Pearly!" he exclaimed, half laughing and half his ugly self. +To be denied made him angry. He seized the handle of the broom.</p> + +<p>"Keep away from me!" panted the girl.</p> + +<p>Tom was by far the stronger. He quickly wrenched the broom from her +hands. Pearl screamed. Tom had his arm around her waist and she was +fighting him off with both hands.</p> + +<p>"Come on, Pearly! Give us a kiss," he said, still only half in earnest. +"Le's you an' me be good friends again."</p> + +<p>A door slammed above as though in answer to the girl's half stifled +shriek. The quick step of Joe Helmford saved her. Tom uttered an +imprecation and flung away the broom. But the boarder, descending the +stairs, saw them both—the girl with flaming face and drooping eyes, +and the young fellow standing before her in a most suggestive attitude. +Helmford went right on without speaking. He thought his appearance had +been most inopportune, and that he had interfered in a tender scene +between Pearl and Tom.</p> + + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> + +<div class="chapter"> +<h2 class="nobreak" id="CHAPTER_XVI">CHAPTER XVI</h2> +</div> + +<h3>THE ALLEGORY</h3> + + +<p>Cap'n Jonah hobbled downstairs in season for the noonday dinner. "Jest +about as spry as a crippled fiddler crab," he expressed it. But after +the meal he insisted upon going out of doors.</p> + +<p>Helmford assisted him, although Sarah tried to get Tom to offer his arm +first. The lout, however, was backward and Helmford went down the lane +with the old mariner.</p> + +<p>"Something of a squall last night," muttered Cap'n Jonah in Helmford's +ear. "Did you hear it?"</p> + +<p>"Why, no. I didn't know it stormed last night. But I know it was very +cold," replied the young man.</p> + +<p>"Whatever! I should say it was cold," the captain agreed. "But I meant +the squall in the house."</p> + +<p>"Oh!" Helmford's expression changed.</p> + +<p>"Sarah and them pickin' on Pearly the way they've been doin' has got to +be stopped."</p> + +<p>"Oh!"</p> + +<p>"I had to put my foot down," went on Cap'n Jonah, boldly. "She sha'n't +be brow-beaten no more. What I've got shall be that gal's when I'm dead +an' gone, and then she sha'n't be beholden to no Petty."</p> + +<p>"Oh!"</p> + +<p>"Whatever!" exclaimed Cap'n Jonah, exasperated. "Ain't you got nothin' +but 'O's' left inside you?"</p> + +<p>"Er—not much, I guess, Cap'n Jonah. You take my breath away. Do you +mean you are going to make Miss Pearl your heir?"</p> + +<p>"That's what I mean to do," the old man said firmly, "if them Pettys +don't treat her better. Of course, the gal ain't nothin' by blood to +me. Though the Hands, and the Holdens, and the Cards, and most of the +other old families hereabout are a good deal mixed up.</p> + +<p>"Just the same," continued Cap'n Jonah, almost convincing himself of +the reality of his plans as he went along, "I might do better willin' +my property to Pearly than leaving it to Sarah Petty and her lout of a +son. What do you think, Mr. Helmford?"</p> + +<p>"I—I do not feel myself qualified to advise, Cap'n Hand. It is a +delicate matter," said Helmford slowly, and left him at the highway.</p> + +<p>"Ye-as. It's purty delicate, I do allow," muttered Cap'n Jonah. +"Whatever!"</p> + +<p>He turned shoreward himself. The surf boomed with a threatening sound +along The Beaches. Had he given thought to the matter he would have +expressed it as his opinion that this was a weather-breeder. Clear +as the sky was, there was a threatening haze along the horizon. He +believed the barometer must be falling. The gulls stormed overhead and +the white-maned sea-horses charged upon and over the Gull Rocks reef.</p> + +<p>Cap'n Jonah found the gold-headed cane a great help on this sunny +afternoon. His joints were limbering slowly, but the attack of the +morning had warned him of what was likely to come on him at almost any +time. Articular rheumatism comes and goes, striking unexpectedly the +victim. Cap'n Jonah felt that he must do what he could for Pearl—and +for himself—immediately. He might be laid up, a cripple, for a long +time.</p> + +<p>As he approached Cap'n Abe's store he saw a long, low-hung +russet-painted roadster standing before the door. The engine was +throbbing gently and the car seemed like a spirited horse, eager to be +off along the road. Cap'n Jonah had seen the motor car before speeding +up and down the Shell Road.</p> + +<p>In it at present was a young man with a healthy wash of tan upon his +face and the look of an athlete in every curve of his long body. Beside +him sat a smiling young woman. It seemed to Cap'n Jonah she was the +happiest looking woman he had ever seen. She held a bundle in her lap, +and above it her face glowed with health and the joy of living.</p> + +<p>Cap'n Abe was at the side of the car handing in certain packages that +the driver of the automobile was stowing away.</p> + +<p>"Ahoy, Cap'n Hand!" the storekeeper hailed when he saw the captain. +"Come meet my niece Louise and Mr. Lawford Tapp, her husband. Not to +forgit," Cap'n Abe added, chuckling, "the last Tapp of all," and he +poked a horny finger at the bundle in the girl's lap.</p> + +<p>Cap'n Jonah managed to call up a twisted smile in spite of the twinges +of pain he suffered, and met a pair of warm and friendly handclasps +from the young couple—for Lawford and Louise Tapp were very loyal Cape +Codders at heart.</p> + +<p>"That little feller," said the proud and delighted Cap'n Abe, as Louise +turned back the veil to reveal the baby's face for a moment, "near's I +kin make out, is my ha'f-grand-nephew. He's only a half portion now; +but he's goin' to be a big feller like his pop, and he's a-goin' to be +happy an' friendly an' hail-feller-well-met with all the world, like +his marm."</p> + +<p>"Now, Uncle Abram!" cried Louise Tapp, "you give me a rather +questionable reputation."</p> + +<p>"No, I don't, Louise! No, I don't!" Cap'n Abe urged. "You're one o' +these friendly souls, I do allow, that sweeten this old world of ourn +an' make it fit to live in. Hi-mighty! I do despise, an' always did, +folks that go 'round hangin' their heads an' moanin' an' takin' on like +all kildee, because the world don't go right for them.</p> + +<p>"Why, the way to make the world go right," declared the emphatic +storekeeper, "is to get out an' push it right. Put your shoulder to +things! If you want a sartin thing, go out an' git it," and he winked +slyly at Cap'n Jonah.</p> + +<p>"Whatever!" ejaculated Cap'n Jonah, approving Cap'n Abe's statement for +once at least. "Ain't it so?"</p> + +<p>"You're a philosopher, Cap'n Abe," declared Lawford Tapp, preparing to +drive away. "Glad to have met you, Cap'n Hand. I'd heard we had a new +neighbor. Come over to the Point and see us."</p> + +<p>Louise seconded the invitation as the car rolled away. Lawford shifted +to high speed and they shot off at a racing clip.</p> + +<p>"Hi-mighty!" said Cap'n Abe. "If them speed demons, L. Tapp and his +wife, don't wreck that racing car <i>and</i> my ha'f-grand-nephew, it'll be +a mercy! Come in, Cap'n Jonah. It's colder'n a dog's nose out here in +the road."</p> + +<p>He led the way into the warm store, where there was a glowing fire in +the big stove. The frost had been driven to the outer barrier, and the +smell of heated boots and fishy garments was heavy upon the air. Washy +Gallup, Cap'n Joab, Milt Baker, and Amiel Perdue, as well as others of +the usual loungers, encircled the stove. They made room for Cap'n Jonah +while the storekeeper himself halted to warm his hands at the fire.</p> + +<p>"We're in for a spell of Jack Frost, Cap'n Jonah," remarked Washy.</p> + +<p>"I shouldn't wonder! I shouldn't wonder!" agreed the mariner addressed. +But he gave little attention to the several greetings of the loungers. +His mind was fixed upon the errand on which he had come. He desired +greatly to get Cap'n Abe off into a corner and sound him upon the +subject of "foolin' them Pettys." Cap'n Abe was his only hope. He took +snuff thoughtfully and rapped his knuckles on the cover of the silver +snuffbox.</p> + +<p>"It was jest such another spell of dry cold as this," began the +storekeeper ruminatively, "when Uncle Joe Hanna over to Freedom was +turned out o' house an' home years ago by the sheriff. 'Member that, +Cap'n Joab?"</p> + +<p>"Forever an' ever," replied the person addressed. "And ev'rybody else +remembers it, too."</p> + +<p>"Wal—mebbe," agreed Cap'n Abe quite composed. The shuffling of feet, +clearing of throats, and other indications of distaste for the expected +yarn did not halt him at all. "It was a hi-mighty cold day," as he had +himself remarked, and he had his audience in chancery.</p> + +<p>"Uncle Joe Hanna owned a leetle place where he'd lived all his life, +and he mortgaged it to Jonathan Coffin. Coffin was as hard as nails, +and his wife, Miz Coffin, was as hard as spikes. Hi-mighty! they was a +pair.</p> + +<p>"Wal, when Uncle Joe Hanna got too old to work much he couldn't keep +up the int'rest on the mortgage. Ye know," said Cap'n Abe, genially, +"a feller told me once what the word 'mortgage' meant. He said 'mort' +was French for 'death' and 'gage' meant a challenge. So, when a feller +mortgages his home he challenges death to a set-to—an' death usually +wins. I guess that's purty nigh so.</p> + +<p>"Anyhow, Uncle Joe might jest as well have been up against the 'grim +reaper,' as Elder Golightly calls it when he gets right poetic in the +pulpit—Uncle Joe might just as well have grappled with death as to +have Jonathan Coffin for a creditor. He was turned out, hoss <i>an'</i> +foot, an' didn't have a place to lay his head.</p> + +<p>"Course," pursued Cap'n Abe, "the neighbors took him in, turn an' turn +about, and he was made comfortable. But Uncle Joe was proud, and he +wanted his rights. He had paid taxes—sech as they was—all his life, +and he p'inted out to the selectmen that he was wishful of havin' a +home and an abiding place for the rest of his days—sech as it might +be—and didn't propose to be driven from piller to post.</p> + +<p>"Ye see," said Cap'n Abe, "at that time Freedom didn't have no +poorfarm. That is, there was a farm but no house onto it an' no +provision made for inmates, as the feller said. So they begun boardin' +Uncle Joe around at the town expense. Plenty of folks would take him. +All but the Widder Blodgett. She was all alone in her house, and +although Uncle Joe was nigh eighty, she didn't think she could take him +in. The neighbors might talk," added Cap'n Abe, his eyes twinkling.</p> + +<p>"Wal, Uncle Joe was partic'lar about his food. He'd always been used +to hot biscuit three times a day—made 'em himself after his wife +died—and he craved milk in his chowder, both fish <i>an'</i> clam; an' +good, solid pound cake with plenty aigs in it.</p> + +<p>"Nobody seemed to suit his appetite but Jonathan Coffin's wife herself. +She was a master hand to cook; but as she said, what the selectmen +allowed for Uncle Joe's up-keep didn't scurse pay for the grub he et. +He wouldn't do a hand's turn of work, bein' a town boarder, and she +complained to Jonathan that he'd been smarter if he'd let Uncle Joe +live and die in his own house, and waited to git his claws on the old +man's prop'ty through sheriff's sale till after Uncle Joe was under the +sod.</p> + +<p>"But by an' by ev'rybody noticed how much nicer the Coffinses began to +treat Uncle Joe. They took him to church in their buggy, and bought +him tobacker, and a new suit of clo'es. And you could see him sittin' +out under the trees in the Coffinses' front yard takin' it easy, an' +all. Folks began to say they'd never suspicioned what re'l kind-hearted +people Jonathan Coffin and his wife was. They treated Uncle Joe lovely!"</p> + +<p>Cap'n Abe chuckled reflectively.</p> + +<p>"Don't you calc'late to go clammin' to-morrow, Milt?" asked Cap'n Joab +Beecher weakly. But Mr. Baker had just taken a huge and comforting chew +of Brown Mule and was speechless for the moment. So that attempt to +head off the storekeeper's story was still-born.</p> + +<p>"But the old man died finally. Hot biscuit, and milk chowder, and +six-aig cake couldn't keep him alive," said Cap'n Abe. "He was long +past the allotted time of man, an' the selectmen sartainly were glad to +see that account wiped off their books. They give him a nice fun'ral. +Jonathan Coffin, they say, helped pay for the extrys. Hadn't had a +pauper funeral in Freedom for two generations, so they just spread +themselves.</p> + +<p>"Wal, you'd ha' thought Jonathan an' Miz Coffin had lost a close +rel'tive. She went into mournin'—of course it was a veil she'd worn +years before when her own pop died—and Jonathan went around with a +broad band of crêpe on his arm. Then, the week after Uncle Joe was laid +away, they hustled down to Arad Peck, who was a lawyer, and took with +'em an old black satchel Uncle Joe had set gre't store by. It seemed +Uncle Joe had made a will in their favor, they'd treated him so nice, +and in the satchel was all the old man's private papers.</p> + +<p>"Wal, sir!" continued Cap'n Abe, smiling broadly, "on the face of 'em +them papers made out Uncle Joe Hanna to have been a regular miser. He'd +hid away securities and deeds wuth a scand'lous amount. Hi-mighty! It +struck Arad Peck all aback.</p> + +<p>"Then he begun to go through 'em, and sift 'em out, and make +comparisons, and he found out them valu'bles of Uncle Joe's was wuth +jest a cent an' a ha'f a pound. Waste paper brung a purty good price at +that time."</p> + +<p>"Whatever!" ejaculated the single listener unfamiliar with the +denouement of the story. "Wuthless?"</p> + +<p>"'Ceptin' to the junkman," chuckled Cap'n Abe. "Seems Uncle Joe had +found them ancient and useless dockyments in an old safe he'd bought +and cleaned out one time. They was a collection of certificates and +deeds and sich that never had been wuth more than ten per cent. of +their face value, in all probability, and had been deteriorating since +the year one.</p> + +<p>"But they sarved," concluded the narrator, "to gull the Coffinses +nicely. Paid Jonathan up for overreachin' Uncle Joe. He played a trick +on 'em that I dunno as the parsons would approve; but as I see it, they +was sarved right."</p> + +<p>Cap'n Abe went around behind the counter again and an audible sigh of +relief was expelled by most of his audience. By all but Cap'n Jonah. +He remained in a reflective mood. Suddenly, as the hum of general +conversation rose again about the stove, Cap'n Jonah slapped his leg +heartily.</p> + +<p>"Whatever!" he ejaculated.</p> + +<p>"See the p'int, Cap'n Hand?" asked the storekeeper slyly.</p> + +<p>"Whatever!" repeated Cap'n Jonah. "I sh'd say I do!"</p> + + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> + +<div class="chapter"> +<h2 class="nobreak" id="CHAPTER_XVII">CHAPTER XVII</h2> +</div> + +<h3>THE STRONG BOX</h3> + + +<p>Perry Baker, the cadaverous expressman, whose ancient gray horse +immediately went to sleep standing in the shafts when his master drew +up before any destination, had occasion a day or two later to pass +Eliphalet Truitt's door. The ex-steward was pottering about his tiny +front yard in the frosty air.</p> + +<p>"How be ye, 'Liphalet?" demanded Perry, with frank curiosity. "How ye +feelin'? Huldy heard you wasn't right chipper and she wanted I sh'd +ask."</p> + +<p>"By Hannah!" snapped the taut little man, his face flaming redder than +usual. "Who says I'm sick, I'd like to know?"</p> + +<p>"Why, Doc Ambrose, I b'lieve, said you was out of kilter," said the +astonished Perry, for 'Liphalet was usually the gentlest of men. "Ain't +you?"</p> + +<p>"No, I ain't!" replied 'Liphalet ungraciously. "Ain't nothin' the +matter with me except the curiosity of my friends; an' that's struck +in! What ye got for me?"</p> + +<p>Perry began to grin more broadly. Cap'n Abe said, "Perry Baker couldn't +drink tea out of a saucer without scalding his ears!" 'Liphalet watched +the expressman now with apprehension, seemingly expecting to see the +ears engulfed within the cavity of Perry's enormous mouth.</p> + +<p>"I vow to man! did you expec' anything, 'Liphalet?" he finally gurgled. +"Warn't lookin' for no Christmas gif', was ye?"</p> + +<p>"Christmas—<i>bah</i>!" ejaculated the highly indignant 'Liphalet. "Who'd +send <i>me</i> anything I didn't pay two prices for, I want to know? Ain't +nothin' for me, then?"</p> + +<p>"You can see all I've got. That barrel for Cap'n Abe. And this here +iron box for the Petty place."</p> + +<p>"By Hannah!" exclaimed the ex-steward with sudden interest, standing on +tip-toe to peer into the wagon body. "That box? Who's it for?"</p> + +<p>"Cap'n Jonah Hand. And b'lieve me," added the expressman, almost in +a whisper, "I'm keepin' my eye on that, 'Liphalet. It was give me at +the Paulmouth National Bank. There was some talk of sendin' the bank +messenger along with me. You know: Phillibeg Aspen. He always carries a +loaded pistol. There must be something mighty valu'ble in that box—an' +'tis heavy as lead."</p> + +<p>"By Hannah!" repeated 'Liphalet, in wonder.</p> + +<p>"If ye want to know what <i>I</i> think," continued Perry in the same +cautious tone, "I b'lieve there's money in that strong box. They +say Cap'n Jonah Hand is rich as cream! Like enough he is a-goin' to +count his money over to see just how much he's got. What's the matter, +'Liphalet?"</p> + +<p>"By Hannah!" choked the ex-steward, hiding his face. "I got a cough. I +guess I must ha' caught cold after all."</p> + +<p>"That so? I'll tell Huldy," said Perry briskly. "She makes a lickin' +good cough syrup and she'll send ye some. I'd ruther have a cold than +not, if I can git plenty of Huldy's cough syrup."</p> + +<p>The expressman woke up the old gray horse and drove on, leaving +'Liphalet feeling more amused than he had been before in many a long +day. Even the brooding banshee of the Christmas spirit lifted from his +mind for the moment.</p> + +<p>"By Hannah!" he murmured, "I reckon Cap'n Abe has cooked up somethin' +for Jonah Hand, just as he said he would."</p> + +<p>The expressman driving up the Petty lane brought all the family save +Cap'n Jonah himself to doors and windows. Even Joe Helmford peered out +with interest to see the heavy steel box, fastened by two big brass +padlocks, lifted down from the wagon.</p> + +<p>"For Uncle Jonah? I want to know!" murmured Sarah Petty.</p> + +<p>"Hoh! What's in it? Rocks?" mumbled Tom, who helped Perry Baker handle +the box.</p> + +<p>"Goshamighty! From the bank?" repeated Orrin.</p> + +<p>"Is he here?" asked Perry importantly. "I've got to deliver it to Cap'n +Hand pusson'ly. An' this packet," he added, drawing from his breast +pocket an envelope well spotted with black sealing-wax.</p> + +<p>"He's up in his room," said Orrin eagerly.</p> + +<p>"Better take it right up to Uncle Jonah, Perry," Sarah observed, her +hands and eyebrows both twitching. Her gaze never left the strong box +as the men carried it through the kitchen.</p> + +<p>They stumbled up the crooked back stairs and found Cap'n Jonah ready +for them with his door wide open.</p> + +<p>"Howdy, Mr. Baker," he said, cordially, leaning on his gold-headed +cane in the middle of his poor room. "Set that chist right here by the +winder. I shan't want to lift it 'round much, feelin' as rickety as I +do now. And I'll want light to see into it. That's it. Now the keys. +Yep. I'll sign your receipt."</p> + +<p>He signed his name to the paper and paid Perry his fee. Tom lingered at +the door of the room, his eyes like knobs. The expressman fell over the +lout as he retreated and pushed him down the stairs ahead of him.</p> + +<p>"The old man don't seem very spry," Perry said, in a hoarse whisper, to +the Petty trio. "I don't dispute he feels his years. P'r'aps he won't +have many more chances to look over his—his things. He tells me to +come back again for that box day after to-morrow."</p> + +<p>"Yes," Sarah Petty said with set lips. "Good day, Perry."</p> + +<p>"There ain't many folks in Cardhaven, I don't guess," pursued the +unabashed expressman, "that's any better off for this world's goods +than Cap'n Hand?"</p> + +<p>"Quite prob'ble," snapped Sarah.</p> + +<p>"You said yourself, Orrin," went on Perry Baker, "he was a very rich +man, 'cordin' to all you could find out."</p> + +<p>Sarah glared at her husband in hot wrath. Orrin shuffled his feet and +said nothing. He was not going to admit or deny the truth of Perry's +artless statement.</p> + +<p>"Wal, he's an old man. Right crippled with rheumatics," went on the +expressman. "He'll prob'bly be consider'ble of a care afore he passes +away. But you folk'll have a chance to make his last days happy."</p> + +<p>"I'd like to make <i>your</i> last days happy!" hissed Sarah Petty, as the +talkative expressman finally slid out through the kitchen doorway, with +Orrin and Tom barring any chance of his return.</p> + +<p>Both men wheeled to face the open kitchen door again as Perry aroused +his old horse and drove away.</p> + +<p>"Goshamighty!" exploded Orrin. "What did I——"</p> + +<p>"You jest hesh!" hissed Sarah. "You knowed more'n Solomon and all his +seven hundred wives put together. An' you can bet that's why Solomon +knew so much. His wives told him!</p> + +<p>"Now, you two git along about your work. Don't you interfere. Act like +you had some pride and manners. You look like hungry houn's snuffin' +around a garbage bucket. Get out with ye!"</p> + +<p>"But—but," gasped Orrin, "do you re'lly s'pose there's money in that +box?"</p> + +<p>"'Twas heavy enough to be filled chock-a-block with gold and silver," +declared Tom, quite as eager as his father.</p> + +<p>"Don't be sech fools," admonished Sarah Petty. "You can bet Uncle Jonah +ain't so crazy as to have his property in cash. He's got what he's got +invested, of course. In good dividend-paying stocks an' bonds an' sich. +That box is heavy because it is made of iron."</p> + +<p>"But there might be treasure in it, too—pearls, or di'monds, or other +precious stones," said Orrin, letting his imagination ride free. "He's +been all through the East where they git sech things. He's knowed +Chinese mandarins, an' Indian rajahs, an' Persian shahs, an'——"</p> + +<p>"I don't care," snapped Sarah, "if he knowed the Archon of Swat! <i>I</i> +know that Uncle Jonah is too much a Hand to let money or precious +stones lie around idle. 'All cats must ketch mice' is our fam'ly's +motter. He'll be drawin' dividends an' int'rest on ev'ry dollar he +can. You leave it to me, Orrin Petty. I'll find out what Uncle Jonah's +fortune is invested in—an' how much it 'mounts to."</p> + +<p>But after all it was Tom, the lout, to whom the mystery was the more +intimately revealed. Orrin fairly sweated all through dinner time, +unable to speak a word for fear he would blurt out some question about +the strong box, but Sarah's eye quelled him.</p> + +<p>Cap'n Jonah never mentioned the mystery. But he seemed more cheerful +than of late. To Pearl he was always kind—even fatherly. He and Mr. +Helmford chatted most companionably. The three Pettys felt themselves +rather out of it. Even Sarah's thoughts were so much engrossed by the +matter of the strong box from the bank, that she could not give her +mind to any ordinary conversational topic.</p> + +<p>The captain was already "paying 'em back," as he had expressed it to +his crony, 'Liphalet Truitt, and to Cap'n Abe. The more Orrin fidgeted, +and Sarah held herself in by main force, the more cheerful Cap'n Jonah +grew.</p> + +<p>There was a settled seriousness in Joe Helmford's manner that the +captain did not notice. Only Pearl saw this, and feared the boarder had +by no means recovered from his indignation of a few nights before.</p> + +<p>He had been uniformly kind to her since the evening Sarah Petty had +driven Pearl so ignominiously from his room. But they had never renewed +the intimacy which preceded that unfortunate occasion. Pearl had +continued to borrow books, however, in spite of Mrs. Petty's command to +the contrary.</p> + +<p>As for Sarah and Orrin, their treatment of the girl seemed to infer +a change of heart. For the first time since Pearl could remember, +peace—or, at least, an armistice—reigned in the Petty household.</p> + +<p>Yet the girl was by no means happy. She felt a positive loss of +something. Helmford's attitude seemed to hold her at a distance. She +could not imagine what she had done to displease him, if displeasure +was the cause of his changed mood.</p> + +<p>The girl, simple-minded though she was, was not shallow. She began to +examine her own heart. Why should she care so much about Helmford's +attitude? Aside from her love for books and interest in his library and +conversation, just what hold had Joe Helmford upon Pearl Holden's mind +and heart?</p> + +<p>Of course she had felt a certain delight in having a well-dressed, +well-mannered young man, so different from the loutish Tom, about the +house. She responded to a man's attentions just as any other girl +might.</p> + +<p>But she had held no foolish thoughts in her heart—or so she +imagined—until now. She respected Mr. Helmford. Did she, indeed, have +another and heretofore unsuspected feeling for him?</p> + +<p>Love, to Pearl's mind, was something to hide away and cherish until the +moment came when two hearts, bursting the fetters of form and custom, +should each to the other reveal those depths of feeling from which the +world at large is to be excluded.</p> + +<p>Was she in love with Joe Helmford? Was that why the change in his +manner so hurt and surprised her? Had she suddenly become so sensitive +that his lightest word or act meant the disturbance of her peace of +mind?</p> + +<p>Pearl Holden could not put this suspicion away. It ate into her +mind like acid. Despite the bitter thoughts and tears Sarah Petty's +treatment for years had caused her, never had Pearl felt the heartache +that now assailed her. She was oppressed with a weight of woe. The +waters of bitterness overflowed her eyes when she was alone and she was +exceedingly sorrowful.</p> + +<p>As it chanced, this was the day for the regular meeting of the Ladies' +Aid Society, the last before the holidays. Sarah must attend, but she +left certain directions for Pearl which so amazed the young girl that +she had something besides her own sorrows to think of.</p> + +<p>At this time of the year the "front room" was closed tight for the +winter. It was an airless catacomb in which every article was draped +in muslin, including the pictures on the wall and an oval glass on the +mantelpiece under which was what had once been a cluster of wax fruit +and flowers, but which, during the heat of some twenty summers, had +melted and partially run together, until its classification as a work +of art was rather difficult.</p> + +<p>There was, too, a large base-burner, all trimmed with shiny nickel, and +in which a fire had been built since it was set up in the Petty parlor +not more than three times. Sarah Petty believed in buying and making a +display of the best furnishings obtainable; but such display had only +been made on two occasions when the Heath twins and their families had +come to Cardhaven, and once when by some freak of fortune the local +Conference had sent a real bishop to stay overnight in Sarah Petty's +house.</p> + +<p>However, before starting on this day for the important meeting of the +Ladies' Aid, her mistress had instructed Pearl to open the parlor, +or "front room," as it was better known, to dust, and to shake every +"tidy" and "throw" decorating the furniture, to remove the muslin +coverings, and to lay a fire in the base-burner.</p> + +<p>"Comp'ny!" thought Pearl, after asking Sarah twice to repeat her +orders. "Land's sake! I wonder who it can be?"</p> + +<p>If Tom knew he would give her no hint. Tom was so angry with Pearl now +that he would not even smile at her when he brought in the kindling and +the brass hod of coal to stand beside the shiny stove.</p> + +<p>Retreating to the barn again by the exit of the kitchen door, Tom heard +from above a peremptory tapping on the window of Cap'n Jonah's room. He +looked up. The old man, in his nightcap, beckoned to him energetically.</p> + +<p>"What does the old fool want now, I wonder," muttered Tom.</p> + +<p>Then bethinking him that his great-uncle might be moved to make him +another gift of money, the lout slouched into the house, and mounted to +that loft room over the kitchen.</p> + + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> + +<div class="chapter"> +<h2 class="nobreak" id="CHAPTER_XVIII">CHAPTER XVIII</h2> +</div> + +<h3>SARAH PETTY TRIMS HER SAILS</h3> + + +<p>"Come in here, young feller," said Cap'n Jonah, speaking more jovially +than usual, when Tom stuck his head in at the crooked doorway of the +loft room. "It's colder than a dog's nose and my fingers air so numb +I can scurce put down these figgers. Besides, I ain't so spry at +'rithmetic as I used to be."</p> + +<p>"Why don't you come downstairs where it's warmer, Uncle Jonah?" asked +Tom, for once acting as though he was a mite thoughtful for somebody's +comfort besides his own. "There ain't anybody in the kitchen."</p> + +<p>"No," said Cap'n Jonah. "Guess I won't. I calc'late I can look over +these documents best right where I be."</p> + +<p>He sat by the window, the strong box at his feet. The box was closed, +but Tom's inquisitive glance noted that the padlocks were both removed. +Cap'n Jonah's hands were filled with legal-looking documents, and +others lay on the deep window seat beside him.</p> + +<p>"I want you should help me list these things, Tommy boy," said the old +man. "There's the stub of a pencil and a piece of paper on the table. +And one thing I want to impress on your mind, young man."</p> + +<p>"What?" asked Tom.</p> + +<p>"You're not to say a thing to nobody 'bout this."</p> + +<p>"Hoh?" ejaculated Tom again, staring.</p> + +<p>"Don't tell nobody nothing about my business. What folks don't know +won't never hurt 'em. If I've managed to get a little tad of money +together an' invested it in payin' bonds an' stocks, best not to talk +about it. Remember, 'Jonah' is a peculiar name," went on the captain +impressively. "Some says it's bad luck an' some says it's good luck. +Whichever it may be, I've learned by experience that if folks don't +know I've got money, I don't haf to spend it. And that'll leave the +more for them that comes after me an' may enjoy my savin's."</p> + +<p>Tom could not speak. His eyes betrayed his overpowering excitement, for +they stared like those of a fresh-caught fish.</p> + +<p>"Now you take down the figgers I give you, and then we'll tot up what +it amounts to. But don't you say nothin' to nobody, Tom," warned the +old man again, and began to rustle the papers in his hands.</p> + +<p>"All ready, sir," said Tom, finding his voice, and speaking more +respectfully than he ever had before in his life. The power of wealth +shook the lout to the foundations of his being.</p> + +<p>"Now this here bond of the Metuchen and Cairo Railroad. It's for five +hundred, an' it's supposed to pay seven an' a ha'f per cent.," murmured +Cap'n Jonah. "Put down five hundred, Tom."</p> + +<p>"Five hundred," repeated Tom, licking his lips like a hungry wolf.</p> + +<p>"Twenty-two hundred an fifty—that's Highland and Beezboro Canal stock. +It's a mighty pretty document, too," said the captain, holding the +gaudily printed paper off to eye it the better. "Promises eight per +cent."</p> + +<p>"Yes, sir!" gasped Tom.</p> + +<p>"Two hundred Peterboro Tool Company sheers, wuth on the face of 'em +one thousand; but that was a long time ago," murmured Cap'n Jonah +unctuously and pursing his lips. "Date of issue, 1882. Fifty year +bonds. But we'll jest set down the face value of all these securities. +Mebbe some of 'em's deteriorated, I dunno; but the bank folks tell me +sech another lot of investments they never did see. One thousand, Tom."</p> + +<p>"Yes, sir," responded the scribe.</p> + +<p>One after the other Cap'n Jonah called off the amounts printed on the +certificates. As the sum grew Tom Petty came close to apoplexy. His +mind had never functioned before, beyond the few thousand dollars his +parents, or some of the neighbors, possessed.</p> + +<hr class="chap"> + +<div class="figcenter"> + <img src="images/illus3.jpg" alt="" id="illus3"> + <div class="caption"> + <p>One after another Cap'n Jonah called off the amount on the certificates.</p> + </div> +</div> + +<hr class="chap"> + +<p>When a man was known to possess a sum exceeding the value of his house +and lot—like Cap'n Abe, the storekeeper, for instance—it was said he +had "a plenty money." Miss Sue's reported fortune of forty thousand +dollars was more than Tom Petty could visualize. He had always taken +that story with a grain of salt.</p> + +<p>The fortunes of the "summer folks" along The Beaches were beyond +computation. It was said that I. Tapp, the Salt Water Taffy King, was +so rich that he could not really tell what his income was, and he never +kicked a mite when the assessors raised his taxes!</p> + +<p>But here, before him, squinting near-sightedly at the gaudily printed +certificates, was Uncle Jonah, rolling the numbers off his tongue in +a way to astonish his young relative. Tom thrilled to the very marrow +of his bones as the amount on the paper grew. Cap'n Jonah did not lay +down the last certificate until the grand total was more than a hundred +thousand dollars!</p> + +<p>"There, Tommy boy," said the old man in high good humor. "There, +Tommy boy, that'll be 'bout all," taking the paper from Tom's shaking +fingers. "You're a good mathematician I don't dispute. I wanted to be +sure I had the sum right. I calc'late on makin' my will some day purty +soon now.</p> + +<p>"And that's another thing," said the captain reflectively. "Course, +Tommy, a man's own flesh and blood comes first. And I ain't one to +divide up a small prop'ty among a shoal of folks. No sir! But what +I said t'other night to your father and mother I meant—ev'ry word. +Pearly's a good gal and she desarves good treatment. I ain't goin' to +stand by an' see her used mean no more. Remember that now!</p> + +<p>"But," concluded the captain firmly, "as long as she has a square deal +here, I'm only inclined to make her what the lawyers call a 'small +<i>be</i>-quest.' Something substantial; but nothin' at all like what would +fall to you, Tommy, providin' I died an' left sech a sum as this," and +he tapped the paper on which Tom had added up the figures.</p> + +<p>"Course, some of these secureties air likely to seine a purty small +ketch." He picked up a certain paper. Tom crowded closer to read +it hungrily. "Here's this Little Sandy Oil and Coal Company. I got +two thousand sheers of that. They cost me a dollar a sheer an' the +prospectus said they'd go to a hundred par in time. I must confess that +time ain't come yet, so I've hung onto 'em."</p> + +<p>"A hundred per cent. rise," Tom whispered, and felt actually faint.</p> + +<p>"But you'll mebbe see the time when the Little Sandy Company will +fulfill its prognostications—yes sir! Now, go 'long with you, Tom. +I'm much obleeged. I got to look over some other stuff in this little +chist. Perry Baker'll be back for it day after to-morrow. I don't feel +jest right havin' it out o' the bank for long."</p> + +<p>Tom wanted to see the inside of the strong box; but there was no +opportunity. He stumbled down the dark stairway and out to the barn +where his father, who was a good "cold iron blacksmith," was pottering +about their farm wagon. Like most Cape Cod people who had land to till, +the Pettys drew seaweed and shackfish for their fertilizer pile during +the winter months.</p> + +<p>"Where in tarnation hev you been?" demanded Orrin. "I want you should +help me with this felloe."</p> + +<p>Tom looked at his farther in a stunned sort of way.</p> + +<p>"Ketch holt here!" Orrin commanded. "What you moonin' about? What hev +you been doin'?"</p> + +<p>"I've been helpin' Uncle Jonah figger up his fortune," said Tom in a +faint and faraway voice.</p> + +<p>"His fortune!"</p> + +<p>"Yep. His fortune," repeated the younger Petty. He told his father the +exact sum to which the securities added. Orrin's mouth fell loosely +open and he actually paled under his sheath of salt wind tan.</p> + +<p>"Goshamighty!" he gasped at last. "Air you tellin' the truth, Tom +Petty?"</p> + +<p>"I wouldn't make nothin' by lyin', would I?" demanded Tom. "I knew he +had plenty o' money."</p> + +<p>"Wait till your mother hears 'bout it," sighed Orrin in a sort of +ecstasy.</p> + +<p>"You an' marm want to be mighty careful how you treat Pearly," growled +Tom, shaking a threatening head. "He as much as said that he'd will it +all to her out o' spite if marm an' you jawed her the way you do."</p> + +<p>"Huh!" snorted Orrin. "How 'bout you marryin' the gal?"</p> + +<p>"She won't marry me now, Pearly won't, so long's that Helmford feller +is in the way," grumbled Tom.</p> + +<p>"Git out!"</p> + +<p>"You see," said his son. "I ain't dyin' to marry no girl——"</p> + +<p>"Get her to promise to marry ye," said the scheming Orrin quickly. +"That'll be enough. If Pearly once promises a thing she'll do it if the +heavens fall. You know that, Tom."</p> + +<p>"But I ain't likely to get her to promise no such thing, as long as +that city chap is foolin' her," declared Tom. "But marm won't hear to +puttin' him out."</p> + +<p>"Wal," said Orrin, shrewdly, "there's more ways of killin' a cat than +chokin' it to death with butter."</p> + +<p>"Then," said his son darkly, "you see that you stand up for me if +something busts. I'd jest like to get a good smash or two at that +four-eyed fool!" and he doubled his fist threateningly.</p> + +<p>"I'd be sure I could do that afore I started anything," said his +father. "Helmford looks kinder like a hick'ry knot to me."</p> + +<p>"Aw, I c'd lick him with one hand," growled Tom, the confident.</p> + +<p>When Sarah came home from the Ladies' Aid Society her son and husband +were ready for her. They met her in the lane and in the deepening +twilight and with the chill December wind whining around them, they +told the woman the amazing tale of Cap'n Jonah's fortune.</p> + +<p>"A hundred thousand dollars?" commented Sarah Petty coolly. "Why, +that's more'n we had any reason to expect."</p> + +<p>"Say!" exclaimed Tom. "Jest <i>one</i> of his investments might amount to +more than that. He said so himself. The Little Sandy Oil and Coal +Comp'ny. Cost him two thousand dollars for two thousand sheers, and +mebbe they air wuth now a <i>hundred dollars apiece</i>!"</p> + +<p>"Goshamighty!" ejaculated Orrin. "Them's the ile sheers he told me +about, once't."</p> + +<p>Sarah sighed ecstatically. Her face lighted with the glory of +expectation.</p> + +<p>"We'll be <i>rich</i>," she murmured.</p> + +<p>"Hoh!" cried Tom.</p> + +<p>"You're countin' your chickens in the aig, Sarah Petty," warned Orrin.</p> + +<p>"You leave it to me," his wife said with immense confidence. "I told +you I could trim my sails to a change of wind. All you need do, Orrin, +you and Tom, is to foller my lead. He's a Hand, after all, Uncle Jonah +is. He don't calc'late to divide up his property if he can help it. +It'll all come to us in the end."</p> + +<p>"But Pearly, Marm?" Tom said faintly.</p> + +<p>"Do jest as I say. Treat her nice. Make up to her. Let your Uncle Jonah +see you air nice to her. That'll fix him. If he thinks she'll in the +end get some of his money I guarantee he won't will her none to speak +of. He's a Hand, I tell you, and they was always cautious."</p> + +<p>"Uh-huh!" grunted Orrin, but not altogether convinced.</p> + +<p>Once confident that Uncle Jonah was possessed of a bona fide fortune, +Sarah Petty's determination would admit no possibility of defeat.</p> + +<p>Before supper time Sarah had Orrin and Tom carry some of the heavier +pieces of furniture out of the parlor. A generous walnut bureau with +a good mirror was brought down from one of the upper chambers. Orrin +and Sarah's own brass bed—a magnificent piece of furniture according +to local report and which Sarah had kept unscarred for three years +by enveloping the posts in canton flannel—was taken down and set +up again in the front room. It was fitted with the best mattress in +the house and with monogrammed linen. For Sarah Petty took vast pride +in her household possessions. When Orrin had first been allowed to +sleep in that brass bed he confessed that he "didn't feel as though he +belonged in the blasted contraption!"</p> + +<p>As the family gathered around the supper table Sarah was all smiles. +From somewhere a very comfortable armchair had appeared, standing at +Cap'n Jonah's usual place. The old seaman hesitated when he saw the +chair. What change did this portend?</p> + +<p>"Sit right down, Uncle," said Sarah Petty in honeyed accents. "Seein' +as you're so kinder crippled up, I didn't know but you'd find that +cheer more comfort'ble."</p> + +<p>"Whatever!" murmured Cap'n Jonah.</p> + +<p>"I was speakin' to Miz Cap'n Joab Beecher at the Ladies' Aid," went on +Mrs. Petty, as the family began to eat, "and she says Cap'n Joab gits +gre't relief at times when the rheumatism ketches him jest as it does +you, from usin' angleworm ile. It limbers the j'ints remarkable."</p> + +<p>"Angleworm ile?" gasped Orrin. "How in nature do they git ile from +fishworms? Cap'n Jonah says they bore wells for ile, an' that s'prised +me. But ile from angleworms is the capsheaf."</p> + +<p>"You fill a can with angleworms—wash 'em of course—an' set it out in +the sun to stew. Gradually the worms shrink to 'most nothin', and you +strain off the ile. Tommy can dig some worms——"</p> + +<p>"This weather?" snorted her son. "If all the angleworms in our back +garden ain't dug themselves down 'bout's far as China for the winter, +then they're froze' stiff by now, if you ask <i>me</i>."</p> + +<p>"Wal, I suppose it would be best to make the ile in summer," confessed +Sarah.</p> + +<p>"There's skunk ile," proposed Orrin, seeing his wife's lead and trying +to follow it. "They say that's mighty good for rheumatiz, to rub it in."</p> + +<p>"Have me smellin' like a polecat!" ejaculated Cap'n Jonah, getting his +breath at last.</p> + +<p>"Ain't that just like you, Orrin?" snapped Sarah. Orrin subsided. But +Mrs. Petty was determined to put forth something that would please +Cap'n Jonah and draw attention to her interest and sympathy in the +master mariner.</p> + +<p>"I've been intendin' to get to it ever since the cold weather set in," +she observed; "but I've been so busy that I couldn't till to-day. That +upstairs room over this kitchen ain't re'lly fit for Uncle Jonah to +sleep in, Orrin."</p> + +<p>"Huh?" grunted her husband, wondering where she was heading in now.</p> + +<p>"I told you I didn't think 'twould suit," went on Sarah calmly. "There +ain't no heat gets up into it from here—only smells. The fire goes +out in this range and the chimney gets cold 'fore mornin'. 'Tain't fit +for Uncle Jonah to sleep up there."</p> + +<p>The old captain laid down his knife and fork and stared at her. Orrin +looked only at his plate. Tom choked over his food. Helmford tried +to cover the general confusion by starting the ball of conversation +rolling with Pearl about a piece of music which was just then coming +into great popularity and of which he had a record that he played on +his phonograph.</p> + +<p>"So," Sarah continued, placid as a summer sea, "I've cleared out the +front room for the winter an' set up a bed there for Uncle Jonah. After +supper you an' Tom, Orrin, go up and get his chist and carry it down +there. There's a fire in the base-burner, and if ye fix the dampers +right ye can run a fire in it day and night, Uncle."</p> + +<p>"Whatever!" ejaculated the master mariner.</p> + +<p>"I'm sure you'll be much more comfort'ble in the front room, Uncle," +added his niece sweetly. "We must not let the rheumatism get settled on +you. You must take good care of yourself the few years you've got to +remain with us."</p> + +<p>Cap'n Jonah, Pearl, and even Helmford, were by this time speechless.</p> + + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> + +<div class="chapter"> +<h2 class="nobreak" id="CHAPTER_XIX">CHAPTER XIX</h2> +</div> + +<h3>THE HIGH HAND</h3> + + +<p>Sarah Petty possessed the usual district-school training of the Cape +Cod native. It is not wholly ignorance of English that develops the +Cape Cod tang in the speech of the people who dwell on that famous hook +of land.</p> + +<p>In part it arises from the association with others who maltreat the +language; and partly it is from a degree of pride in the fact that +the Cape has a distinctive speech of its own. Naturally, sea lore and +seafaring expressions are incorporated in the dialect.</p> + +<p>Sarah sat down that evening after the half-stunned Cap'n Jonah had +retired to the "saloon cabin," as he called his new quarters, and +proceeded to write to the Heaths and the Solon and Enoch Pettys the +news that Cap'n Jonah Hand, retired from the Chinese trade, had come +to make his home with his gratified relatives on the Shell Road. The +writer, with due humbleness of phraseology but abundant pride to be +read between the lines, wished the Heath families and the Pettys +to come for a Sunday visit, for the express purpose of becoming +acquainted with the returned wanderer and shining light of the Hand +family.</p> + +<p>"Goshamighty, it'll cost a slather of money to feed all them folks an' +to run fires all over the house if we have a cold spell," complained +Orrin. "That extry fire in the front room——"</p> + +<p>"You hesh!" commanded Sarah. "Didn't you never hear of throwin' a sprat +to ketch a herrin', an' throwin' a herrin' to ketch a whale?"</p> + +<p>"Yes," grumbled Orrin. "But I don't never calc'late to use a whale to +bait for a herrin'. What in tarnation good is it goin' to do us to have +all them folks here to show off your Uncle Jonah to? We'd better keep +him to ourselves."</p> + +<p>"You dunderhead!" exclaimed his wife bitterly. "What a punishment for +my sins you be, Orrin Petty! Unless a body gives you chart, compass, +<i>an'</i> all the soundings, you can't weather a p'int. Don't you see 'tis +for our benefit to be good friends with them of your fam'ly that has +got money and position? We hope to have money and position. And I want +they should see Cap'n Jonah Hand, through whom we air goin' to rise in +the world."</p> + +<p>"Goshamighty! Woman, you air takin' too much for granted," urged Orrin.</p> + +<p>"You leave it to me," said Sarah confidently, licking the flap of the +last envelope and pressing down upon it with determination expressed in +her very attitude. "Uncle Jonah's fortune is just as good as ourn."</p> + +<p>Pearl went into the front room when her evening's work was done to +see if Cap'n Jonah wished anything for the night. The old mariner was +sitting in a comfortable chair before the stove dressed in his blue +pilot-cloth suit which he wore only on "state and date occasions," +as he said himself, and with his feet thrust into a pair of gold +embroidered Chinese heelless slippers.</p> + +<p>"Ahoy, my hearty!" hailed Cap'n Jonah, smiling at the girl. "It does me +good to see your pretty face. Come in an' set along o' me a spell."</p> + +<p>"I've a book up in my room I want to read, Cap'n Jonah," said Pearl +frankly. "If I don't read before Miz Petty comes up to bed she'll maybe +take my lamp away. She says that if I read at night I'm not fit for +anything the next day."</p> + +<p>"Whatever!" snapped the old mariner. "You bring your book in here, if +you want, Pearly. Don't matter what Sarah Petty says. If you want to +read, you read."</p> + +<p>"Oh!" gasped Pearl. "I wouldn't dare."</p> + +<p>"Ha! There's a change of wind hereabout, my gal," said Cap'n Jonah, his +eyes twinkling. "While it blows fav'rable you'd better take advantage +of it as I have. You're welcome to come in here any time, Pearly. 'Hem! +How air you and that young Helmford gettin' on?"</p> + +<p>"Oh! Cap'n Jonah!" cried the girl, startled by the abrupt question.</p> + +<p>"Good friends, ain't you two?" queried the old man, watching her face +sharply. "He's a nice feller if he has got a fool job, trainin' fishes."</p> + +<p>"He's—he's very nice," stammered Pearl.</p> + +<p>"To be sure he is," agreed Cap'n Jonah heartily. "From what I hear he +comes of nice folks, though they ain't rich. Abram Silt knows about +him. He'll make a nice man for some smart gal to marry."</p> + +<p>"Oh, Cap'n Jonah!" cried Pearl again, and ran out of the room with +burning cheeks. She did not go near Helmford that evening.</p> + +<p>Cap'n Jonah accepted with placid mien the good things the gods gave +him in the matter of improved quarters and better treatment from the +Pettys. He did not know how long he could keep up the masquerade as a +wealthy and successful man; but while Sarah and the others continued +to deceive themselves the old seaman proposed to do or say nothing to +break the charm.</p> + +<p>He slept that night as peacefully as he had in the best bedroom +upstairs. With the room kept at a comfortable temperature by the fire +in the base-burner, the captain's rheumatic twinges did not return. +Still, when Sarah herself tapped at his door in the morning and asked +him if he would have his breakfast on a tray, he accepted the offer.</p> + +<p>"Might's well take all the benefits of being in sick bay," he said to +Pearl, who brought the tray. "Now some shavin' water, my gal, and I'll +be purty well fixed."</p> + +<p>His toilet was completed, and Pearl was redding up the front room +while Cap'n Jonah was sitting around in his best suit in honor of the +new quarters, when he saw from the window a small figure approaching +briskly up the lane.</p> + +<p>"Here's Miss Sue," he observed. "She certainly is a spankin' craft. Ha! +She's comin' to our side door."</p> + +<p>He went out into the hall as the doctor's sister tapped. Her smiling +face greeted him like a dewy rose.</p> + +<p>"I am glad to see you stirring, Cap'n Hand," she said. "Can I see +Pearl?"</p> + +<p>"You can, ma'am," agreed Cap'n Jonah, making his bow with a flourish. +"Come right into my cabin, ma'am."</p> + +<p>"I want Pearl to help us decorate the chapel with the Christmas greens +when they come next week," Miss Sue said, stepping into the hall.</p> + +<p>From kitchenward appeared the apprehensive Sarah, a portentous frown +upon her brow.</p> + +<p>"Mornin', Miss Sue," she said harshly. "I don't see how I can spare +Pearly. I expec' comp'ny, and we shall be up to our ears after they go, +cleanin' after 'em."</p> + +<p>"You come right in this way, Miss Sue," interrupted Cap'n Jonah. +"Pearl's in my cabin an' she can speak for herself. I reckon, Sarah, +you can spare her for one-two hours; and the child'll like it, I +haven't a doubt."</p> + +<p>Sarah, struck with amazement, for once failed to dominate the +situation. She saw Miss Sue enter the front room and herself shut +out by the captain before she could recover her aplomb. Cap'n Jonah +certainly was carrying things with a high hand!</p> + +<p>The person who had prophetically suggested that he would be able to do +just this, if the Pettys once believed him wealthy, chanced to approach +the house a few minutes later. It was just twenty-four hours since +Perry Baker had stopped at 'Liphalet Truitt's house with the steel +strong box from the Paulmouth National Bank in his wagon. 'Liphalet was +unable to smother his curiosity longer, and was wishful of talking the +matter over with Cap'n Jonah. Although he had not been present when the +plot was actually laid by Cap'n Jonah and the storekeeper, 'Liphalet +was fully aware of the particulars.</p> + +<p>Cap'n Abe, whose influence with the bank officials was considerable, +had arranged for the sending over of the steel chest in the +expressman's care. The "securities" Cap'n Jonah had shown the easily +gulled Tom Petty were for the most part supplied by the same bank +officer who sent the box, and who had amused himself by making a large +collection of such worthless and gaudy papers. Such evidences of the +gullibility and cupidity of human nature often come into the hands of +bankers in perfectly legitimate ways.</p> + +<p>'Liphalet desired mightily to know how the conspiracy was coming on. +The ex-steward might be "on the outs" with most of his neighbors; but +his interest in Cap'n Jonah's affairs had not waned. He came smartly up +the lane and started across the yard to ask for his crony at the back +door, when he chanced to see that the shades of the parlor windows were +raised half way.</p> + +<p>That in itself was a surprising fact, for it was only mid-week, and +he had not heard that Sarah Petty had company. He looked again more +sharply. Behind the lace curtains he saw Cap'n Jonah in his Sunday best +weaving to and fro comfortably in Sarah Petty's best rocking chair.</p> + +<p>"By Hannah!" muttered the ex-steward. "Will wonders never cease—with +doughnuts fried in candle grease? Cap'n Jonah in the <i>parlor</i>?"</p> + +<p>Then he stopped, struck nerveless in his tracks, by the recognition of +the figure sitting at the other window. Miss Sue!</p> + +<p>The doctor's sister sat smiling, chatting most companionably with the +captain. To the angry gaze of Eliphalet Truitt it seemed as though she +was making a deliberate call upon the old sea-dog who had already, and +more than once, expressed his admiration for Susan Ambrose.</p> + +<p>Cap'n Jonah had said a share of Miss Sue's reputed fortune would +give him a certain standing in the community that he craved. The +captain was, after all, to use a Shell Road term, "muchly of a man." +'Liphalet's jealous fears made instant capital of the situation.</p> + +<p>He had served for Miss Sue more than the allotted seven years Jacob +served for Rachel. And was a comparative stranger, a man who had lived +in the community but a few weeks, to step in and bear away the prize of +the doctor's sister from under Life Truitt's very nose?</p> + +<p>Yet with all his rage and sorrow, he could not bring himself to play +the rôle of fortune hunter—even in appearance—by asking Miss Sue to +marry him.</p> + +<p>He turned abruptly away, hot rage seething in his heart, and went back +along the way to his lonely cottage. If ever the Christmas spirit—and, +indeed, every other spirit of generosity and joy—was quenched in a +man's soul it was quenched now in that of the apostate Santa Claus of +the Shell Road.</p> + + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> + +<div class="chapter"> +<h2 class="nobreak" id="CHAPTER_XX">CHAPTER XX</h2> +</div> + +<h3>THE ROOT OF ALL EVIL</h3> + + +<p>It must be true that the love of money is the root of all evil; the +mere possession of it, whether one loves it or not, seems to distract +humanity. Sue Ambrose's acclaimed fortune of forty thousand dollars +made 'Liphalet miserable; nor did it seem to do Miss Sue herself very +much good.</p> + +<p>Miss Sue's tastes were naturally simple. She had begun to dress much +better than formerly, as soon as she had received the legacy from her +anti-suffragist relative. But good clothes on a careful body like Sue +Ambrose last a long time. She had seldom renewed her apparel during +these past ten years.</p> + +<p>There was one gown, a silver-gray poplin, laid away in lavender in her +chest that Miss Sue never saw without a tear and a sigh. She had never +worn it. It had been purchased immediately on the lawyers having paid +over to her the legacy which had made such a difference in her quiet +life. She had bought it for a certain occasion, and to her modest +surprise that occasion had never arisen.</p> + +<p>Miss Sue retained her peace of mind and her sweetness of temper by +always being busy. If not about her brother's house and office, then +in various good works in the community. As chairman of the Christmas +entertainment committee of the Mariner's Chapel she had her hands more +than full these days. Doubtless, if 'Liphalet Truitt had followed her +lead at this season as he had on similar occasions for the past ten +years, he would not have had time to become the misanthrope he now was.</p> + +<p>With Cap'n Jonah's aid, having forced Sarah Petty to say that Pearl +could help in trimming the chapel for Christmas, Miss Sue hurried away +to round up other helpers. She did not see 'Liphalet stubbing up the +Shell Road toward home and had no idea, of course, that he had seen her +apparently making a personal call on Cap'n Jonah. But she did meet Joe +Helmford coming toward the Petty place, and halted him.</p> + +<p>"You have time to help our committee, I am sure, Mr. Helmford," she +said to the man from the fish hatchery. She explained what was needed +and told him the day on which the decorating was to be done.</p> + +<p>"I'll be there, Miss Ambrose," the young man said heartily. "You say +Pearl—Miss Holden—will help?"</p> + +<p>She smiled up at him with such a sweet, shy knowledge of his +unintentional revelation, that Joe Helmford's cheeks flooded with +sudden red. "You can come over with her," Miss Sue said demurely. "Then +you will be sure to be on time."</p> + +<p>He murmured an assurance that he would be present, and left her in +some confusion. If people were going to discover so easily what he had +heretofore denied to himself, he must have a care!</p> + +<p>"Am I in love with her—with Pearly?" he asked himself forty times +a day. "What is the root of the influence she has with me? Am I so +strongly attracted to her just because she is beyond my reach? If she +is to be Cap'n Jonah Hand's heir, according to all I hear, she will +some day possess a hundred thousand dollars or more."</p> + +<p>The Helmfords were a large family, and after his education was given +him there was no money in the family exchequer for Joe Helmford. He +must earn all he ever expected to have; and for his work as Government +expert in ichthyology he was not generously paid.</p> + +<p>Had the girl been just what she seemed to be when Helmford first +obtained a better understanding of her character and its possibilities +for development, he might have safely considered attempting the winning +of Pearl Holden. She was a poor girl then and would not expect too much +of a young man just beginning to climb the scientific ladder.</p> + +<p>But along had come Cap'n Jonah with his phenomenal fortune (phenomenal +for this simple community) and if it was understood that Pearl was to +benefit largely by the old sea captain's will any man who approached +her in a sentimental way would be decried as a fortune hunter. The same +situation that confronted 'Liphalet Truitt with Miss Sue faced Joe +Helmford, as he supposed, regarding Pearl Holden.</p> + +<p>Tom Petty had been unable, in spite of his mother's commands, to keep +the story of the strong box from the bank and Cap'n Jonah's securities +to himself. He had related with much detail the story of his helping +"Uncle Jonah tot up his fortune"—as Cap'n Jonah was quite sure he +would despite his warning to the contrary—at the store, and Helmford +had been present to hear it all.</p> + +<p>It would be too bald a thing, the latter told himself, now, to pay +court to a girl who was the accredited heiress of such a fortune. +But Joe Helmford fought these thoughts down—would not admit his +growing interest in the girl, save at a time like this when Miss Sue's +intuition had penetrated his guard.</p> + +<p>The repeated story of Cap'n Jonah's fortune buzzed through the +neighborhood. It was whispered that there was much treasure in precious +stones and hard cash in the box besides the securities. Everybody +watched the next day for the return of Perry Baker, the expressman, for +the strong box. It was known far and wide that Cap'n Jonah's valuables +were to go back to the safety deposit vaults under the Paulmouth +National Bank.</p> + +<p>When the important Perry drove up the Petty lane he had an ancient +sawed-off shotgun on the seat beside him! He was taking no chances, as +he frankly admitted to the assembled Petty family.</p> + +<p>"A feller axed a lift of me, comin' over from the station this +mornin'," he said in a hushed tone. "I didn't know him. Stranger to +me. Several suspicious looking characters 'round these parts lately. +Make b'lieve they work in the cranberry bogs; but ye can't most always +sometimes tell.</p> + +<p>"I borried this gun of Sile Peckham. It's loaded to the muzzle with +slugs. I reckon on doin' some damage to airy highwayman that tries to +hold me up, I vow to man!"</p> + +<p>"If it ever goes off at your shoulder, it'll prob'bly kick you across +the road," remarked Cap'n Jonah, paying the expressman's fee. "Looks to +me as though that gun had busted once, already. That's where Peckham +had it strapped—see? You better give it to the highwayman, if you meet +any. 'Twill prob'bly do more harm at the tail end than it does at the +muzzle."</p> + +<p>No one could tell Perry Baker anything he did not want to know. He +drove away with the strong box hidden under a blanket in the bottom of +his wagon, and the old shotgun lying across his lap.</p> + +<p>"Talk about the Wild West," chuckled Helmford to Pearl, "the Wild +East—meaning Cape Cod—is wilder! Cardhaven puts it all over Crimson +Gulch."</p> + +<p>At the Petty house there really was another topic of conversation +discussed besides Cap'n Jonah's fortune. The Heaths and the Pettys to +whom Sarah had written were coming to stay over Sunday with the branch +residing on the Shell Road. They would arrive in two days—Solon Petty +and his wife; Enoch Petty and his wife, and the twins, Apollo and +Perseus Heath, and their wives. Four couples—and Sarah was just as +busy as a hen on a hot griddle (so Orrin said) preparing for the influx +of guests.</p> + +<p>Cap'n Jonah's being billeted in the front room made the entertainment +of the guests possible. Tom and Orrin were relegated to the room the +old sea captain had occupied for a few weeks over the kitchen, while +Sarah was to sleep on the sitting-room sofa.</p> + +<p>For the nonce she would have been glad had Helmford been out of the +house. She desired to "eat her cake and have it, too." She wanted the +man's board money just as much as ever; but she wished she might put +Solon Petty, the member of the Massachusetts Legislature, and his wife +in the best bedroom.</p> + +<p>Pearl was not required to give up her room. In the first place it was +a cramped little chamber behind the attic stairs. And, in addition, +Sarah Petty had no intention of giving Cap'n Jonah any further excuse +for making the girl his heiress.</p> + +<p>Besides, if worse came to worst, and it was necessary for Tom to marry +Pearl to keep Cap'n Jonah's fortune in the family, Sarah wished the +guests to observe how nicely she treated her daughter-in-law to be.</p> + +<p>There was looming an incident, however, that Sarah Petty did not +foresee. It was something that was to relieve her of Joe Helmford's +presence, whether she wanted him to go or not.</p> + +<p>Helmford, no matter what he admitted in secret to himself regarding +Pearl, was scrupulously careful to display no extraordinary interest in +her before the family. He had ever in his mind the several occasions on +which he had observed what he supposed to be the expression of Tom's +half-formed attachment for the girl. He could not understand how Pearl +could endure the lout; but he knew that here on the Cape the "chief end +of woman" is marriage of some kind, no matter what may be the "chief +end of man" in the Catechism.</p> + +<p>He saw the hypocrisy of the Petty family in the sudden change in their +treatment of Pearl. It was to be expected, if she was to be Cap'n +Jonah's heir. They loved money more than they loved anything else +in the world. It was not strange at all that Tom should try to win +Pearl—and the money.</p> + +<p>The boarder, however, found it impossible to ignore Pearl or to +completely withstand her charm. When they were together he found +himself drawn to speak to her and to discuss matters of mutual +interest, as he had heretofore. He could not be rude to her.</p> + +<p>Unless he actually ran away from her they were bound to be thrown often +into each other's company. Pearl had no reason, Helmford supposed, +to suspect his secret perturbation. She eagerly conversed with him +whenever she could.</p> + +<p>Was he in Cap'n Jonah's room playing a game of checkers with the old +man and she came in on an errand, Pearl was sure to linger. Cap'n Jonah +seemed to encourage her to talk, much as his mind might be given to the +intricacies of the game on the board.</p> + +<p>At meal time Helmford sat opposite to the girl at table. If he raised +his eyes from his plate there were her dark eyes pouring all the sweet +sincerity of their gaze into his. They could not stare dumbly at each +other without attracting the family's attention.</p> + +<p>Did he chance to be in his room when Pearl came to clean it, he could +not assume so deep an absorption in his work or study that he did not +see her. They had exchanged mutual confidences at such times, and Pearl +expected him to respond to her innocent advances.</p> + +<p>He could not say to her: "You are going to be rich some day. I am a +poor man and may be comparatively poor all my life. I cannot propose +marriage to you—even if I wanted to—for fear of what people will say!"</p> + +<p>Indeed, not only was the love of money the root of all evil, but it +seemed that the very existence of Cap'n Jonah's fortune was to breed +trouble for all whom it touched. Was the name, Jonah, after all one to +conjure ill luck with?</p> + +<p>An incident, however, brought to a conclusion Joe Helmford's +uncertainties and Pearl's unfulfilled expectations.</p> + +<p>It was prayer and conference-meeting night. Pearl had been to +chapel—the sole member of the family who attended the mid-week +meeting. She was returning alone along the Shell Road, when Helmford +overtook her. A strong, salt-savored gale blew from the sea, and this, +getting under her cape, ballooned the garment under such pressure that +she was all but carried off her feet.</p> + +<p>"To the rescue!" cried Helmford cheerfully, and seized her. She clung +to him until the gust was past, and he beat down the voluminous cape, +passing one arm around her slight figure to do so.</p> + +<p>They stood there for a moment, laughing, Pearl clinging to him and +Helmford half embracing her, when a burly figure burst through the +hedge right beside the Petty lane.</p> + +<p>"Hey, you! I've caught you, ain't I? I've a mind to break every bone in +your body, Joe Helmford!"</p> + +<p>Helmford wheeled to face Tom Petty. His eyes behind his big glasses +sparkled angrily. He had steadied Pearl upon her feet, and now he +started for the newcomer.</p> + +<p>"You get up to the house, Pearl Holden!" cried the angry Tom. "I'll +show this feller what's what. Hangin' 'round you all the time like a +pilot fish around a shark. You can see what he wants, all right. He +thinks Uncle Jonah is going to will you all his money, and he'd marry +you for it. You can bet your sweet life, Pearly, that he'd never look +twice at a longshore girl if he didn't think you was goin' to be rich."</p> + +<p>"Oh, Tom Petty!" gasped the girl, in horror.</p> + +<p>"That's what I say—an' I stick to it," pursued the wildly excited Tom. +"And I saw you lettin' him hug you right out here in the road. I'll +tell marm. She'll fix <i>you</i> for such actions; and she'll tend to this +here Helmford."</p> + +<p>The latter flashed a sudden glance at the cowering girl.</p> + +<p>"Yes, Miss Pearl," he said, "do go into the house. I am sorry this +occurred. But I guarantee another such incident will never happen."</p> + +<p>Tom made a dash at him. He had held a club behind his back, which +neither Helmford nor the girl had perceived. Helmford ducked and the +blow overreached. In coming to close quarters Helmford delivered a +swift and able punch which landed solidly on Tom Petty's neck.</p> + +<p>The youth went down upon the frozen ground like a felled ox. He was +dazed by the collision of the back of his head with the hard earth. +Helmford stepped over him and led Pearl away with a firm hand under her +elbow. She was sobbing.</p> + +<p>The young man felt that there was nothing he could say. After the +vulgar accusation Tom Petty had made, he did not know how to address +the girl.</p> + +<p>So they reached the house without a word being spoken between them. Tom +had picked himself up and was following at a distance. Pearl ran up to +her room without appearing at all before the family.</p> + +<p>Helmford waited in the kitchen with Sarah and Orrin until Tom came in. +He had something to say, and he said it at last, and there was snap to +it.</p> + +<p>"This son of yours," he concluded, particularly addressing Sarah +Petty, "is impossible. You abetted him on a previous occasion when +you rudely entered my room and spoke as you did to a guest of mine. +Now this fellow accuses me of a most vulgar interest in Miss Pearl. +These outbreaks, I can plainly see, will occur with more frequency if +I remain. You are paid to the end of the week, Mrs. Petty. I will go +to-morrow morning."</p> + +<p>He waited for no argument, but went up to his room. He spent half the +night packing. Before breakfast he was gone, and that afternoon Perry +Baker on his usual trip stopped for Mr. Helmford's trunks and boxes.</p> + +<p>"He's got board with the Widder Weth'rel and her darters t'other side +of Cardhaven," said the gossipy Perry. "Guess you be glad to see the +last of him, Sarah, as you say. Them city folks is awful fussy. You've +got to cater to 'em a lot, an' a body must be a purty good cook an' +housekeeper to suit."</p> + +<p>Sarah Petty was almost apoplectic, but she said not a word in reply.</p> + + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> + +<div class="chapter"> +<h2 class="nobreak" id="CHAPTER_XXI">CHAPTER XXI</h2> +</div> + +<h3>THE WISE MEN OUT OF THE SOUTH</h3> + + +<p>The two members of the Petty household who, after all, were to be the +more affected by the abrupt departure of Joe Helmford, knew nothing +about it until the expressman came for the young man's baggage and his +books. His absence at breakfast and dinner chanced to draw no comment +or question from Cap'n Jonah; and Pearl, after the incident on the road +coming from chapel, dreaded meeting the man from the fish hatchery.</p> + +<p>Tom's brutality and his insulting words had utterly overpowered her. +Again, because of her excitement, she had scarcely noted the reference +to Cap'n Jonah's threatened disposal of his fortune. Of all the +inhabitants of this longshore community Pearl Holden probably was the +least interested in money, either in large or small sums.</p> + +<p>But she owned now to a deep and abiding interest in Joe Helmford. +For the moment she was in his arms as he steadied her against the +wind squall, she found herself giving in utterly to the thrill of his +embrace. Had Tom not burst so unexpectedly upon them what might not +have happened?</p> + +<p>The contact of Pearl and Helmford at that exciting instant was as +innocent as that of two children. Yet she had lain awake for hours +after it, living over again the sweet significance of their coming +together through grace of the wind.</p> + +<p>She shrank from meeting Helmford because of what Tom Petty had blurted +out. She would feel shamefaced she knew; and yet she could scarcely +wait to see him.</p> + +<p>When he did not appear at breakfast and dinner she wondered. Sarah +Petty looked grim indeed. She had forced Tom to tell the truth about +his trouble with Helmford—or as near the truth as the lout ever +spoke—and she realized that there was nothing to be made by quarreling +with Pearl.</p> + +<p>Helmford had stated an incontrovertible fact: Her son was "impossible," +and Sarah knew it.</p> + +<p>They were giving the lower part of the house a thorough cleaning on +this day in preparation for the coming of the expected guests. The +chambers were left until after dinner. So Pearl did not discover the +condition of Helmford's room. Sarah refrained from ordering no plate +set for the young man at dinner. For once the woman shrank from telling +her mind outright.</p> + +<p>When Perry Baker came for Helmford's goods the truth came out. +Amazement sat upon Cap'n Jonah's mahogany countenance. Pearl was +bewildered.</p> + +<p>Had Helmford gone without a word—without saying good-bye? Grim-lipped, +Sarah Petty would not explain, and both Orrin and Tom had been ordered +to keep their mouths closed. There had been a contest in the kitchen +the night before, and for once Sarah Petty was worsted by her husband +and son. Orrin, as he had previously promised Tom, had backed the lout +in his determination to get rid of the boarder.</p> + +<p>Pearl could not ask anybody to solve the mystery of Helmford's brusk +departure, and all Sarah would vouchsafe her uncle was:</p> + +<p>"It didn't suit for him to be here no longer."</p> + +<p>"Something fishy 'bout that—something very fishy," whispered Cap'n +Jonah to Pearl. "Wonder what 'tis?"</p> + +<p>"Oh, Cap'n Jonah!"</p> + +<p>"What do you know 'bout it, my gal? Joe Helmford was a good friend of +yours."</p> + +<p>"He—he's gone without a word!" sobbed Pearl.</p> + +<p>"You dunno no reason?"</p> + +<p>"He didn't say anything to me about leaving," she replied, shrinking +from telling anybody of the incident on the road the previous evening.</p> + +<p>"Nor to me. And he's usually a mighty open-spoken, friendly chap. I +don't understand it," declared Cap'n Jonah. "I'm going to look him up +and find out what it means."</p> + +<p>But this was poor comfort for Pearl. To her mind a great gulf had +opened between Joe Helmford and herself. He had gone away without one +word—or look—or handclasp! Had Tom's rude speech the night before +warned him from the dangerous salient into which he and Pearl had +ventured? Unsophisticated as was Pearl Holden she had felt, her woman's +intuition told her, that the young man, too, had experienced the same +pulsation she herself had known as they stood together on the wintry +road.</p> + +<p>Had he run away from her? The thought one moment stung her pride; the +next she was deep in despair because Helmford's abrupt departure did +not seem to conform to his unfailing courtesy.</p> + +<p>She knew, of course, that Tom's ugliness was the spring from which all +this trouble flowed. The actual cause of Helmford's departure must be +his brief struggle with the lout.</p> + +<p>Pearl had felt some primal passion stir within her when Helmford had +so easily overcome the lout. It seemed almost a miracle that one man +with only his bare hands could beat another who held the advantage of +a stout club. And a studious, seemingly gentle man, like Joe Helmford! +Pearl knew nothing about the athletic training our American youth gain +at college; nor did she dream that the lanky, apparently "loose hung" +man from the fish hatchery was the acclaimed champion boxer of his +class.</p> + +<p>But she knew she had been glad, <i>glad</i> when Helmford struck the blow +that knocked Tom Petty to the ground.</p> + +<p>She saw the swollen and inflamed spot upon the side of the lout's neck +which advertised the blow, and she was glad again.</p> + +<p>Nevertheless she could not bring herself to explain to Cap'n Jonah what +had happened, or discuss in any way the disappearance of Joe Helmford. +She was relieved that there was so much to do in preparing for the +coming of the guests from the "south." One cannot entirely give way to +sorrow where one's time is so fully occupied with work. Pearl Holden +sought her bed that night so tired that she would have slept soundly in +any case.</p> + +<p>The four families represented by the four wise men from out of the +south and their wives, lived near Harwich. They came by train to +Paulmouth, from whence Willy Peebles and another driver of an auto car +brought them over to the Petty place on the Shell Road.</p> + +<p>It was a crisp, delightfully cold day, and the extra fires indoors made +most of the house comfortable. Still, the visiting women sat around the +sitting-room stove with knit shawls over their shoulders and gossiped +with Sarah Petty while the men made the usual pilgrimage to the barn to +look over Orrin's stock and to swap stories and tobacco.</p> + +<p>In spite of the fact that Solon Petty was one of the legislators of +the Commonwealth, and Enoch, his cousin, carried a large section of the +politics of Harwich in his vest pocket, as the saying went, they were +longshore born and longshore bred, and would never be anything under +their skins save a combination of farmer and fisherman.</p> + +<p>'Poley and Perseus Heath were storekeepers. All their long lives (they +were now upward of sixty) they had looked, talked, and dressed just +alike. So much alike were they that if you addressed, as you supposed, +Uncle 'Poley, more than likely you would be answered by Uncle Perse. It +was gossip that the twins' wives had certain marks of identification by +which they could tell with precision "which was which"; but nobody else +had such omniscience regarding the Heath twins.</p> + +<p>"Ye haven't even got as much chance," said Cap'n Abe, discussing the +wonder at the Shell Road store, "as they had with them twins, Bill and +Tom, they tell about down to Chatham. Bill fin'ly lost all his teeth; +so if anybody wanted to distinguish 'twixt them two brothers he'd stick +his finger into Bill's mouth, an' if he bit ye, 'twas Tom!"</p> + +<p>To see the Heath twins sitting in the sun on Orrin Petty's barnyard +fence, chewing tobacco in unison, reminded one of a couple of ancient +billygoats—for their sparse chin whiskers moved up and down, and back +and forth, just like a goat chewing a particularly succulent mouthful +of food.</p> + +<p>Naturally Solon and Enoch Petty were looked upon as wise men because +of the political prominence they had gained; but the Heath twins had +gained an equal reputation for wisdom by keeping still tongues in their +heads. Nothing "got by" Apollo and Perseus Heath; but they seldom gave +a verbal opinion on any point.</p> + +<p>"A pair of quahogs with the lockjaw ain't got nothin' on 'Poley and +Perse for dead silence," Orrin Petty observed to Sarah.</p> + +<p>"You'd better take example by them," she snapped. "They've made money +keepin' their mouths shet."</p> + +<p>Cap'n Jonah was down at the store when the "Wise Men from the South" +arrived. So there was plenty of opportunity to discuss him and his +fortune, both in the sitting-room and on the sheltered panel of the +barnyard fence, before the old seaman returned.</p> + +<p>"Ye see, he's re'l old," Sarah Petty explained, "and he don't re'lly +know how broken he is. The rheumatism has settled on him, an'—well, +you know how these deep bottom sailors be when they finally come back +to the Cape and settle down. They ain't long in anybody's way."</p> + +<p>"But ye say he's well fixed, Sarah?" said Uncle 'Poley Heath's wife—a +massive woman with well-developed chin whiskers.</p> + +<p>"Why, he don't talk none of his money, Uncle Jonah don't," confessed +Sarah Petty, as though she thought this was a fault and should be +excused. "Putting the best foot forward" was almost a religion with +her. "He's a Hand," she explained, "and they was always tight-mouthed. +But when he had his strong box over from the Paulmouth Bank the other +day he showed Tom some securities. You know how boys be," hesitated +Tom's mother. "Tom was curious and he took note. Uncle Jonah had him +tot up the amounts of some of his sheers an' such, and Tom says it +comes to more than a hundred thousand dollars."</p> + +<p>"A hundred thousand!" gasped Mrs. Enoch Petty.</p> + +<p>"For the good land's sake!" wheezed Mrs. Perseus Heath, who was little, +and fat, and asthmatic.</p> + +<p>"I sh'd say he was well fixed!" said Solon Petty's wife, who was almost +as sharp of tongue and feature as Sarah herself. "A hundred thousand +dollars! My!"</p> + +<p>Mrs. Enoch Petty was the only one that expressed suspicion: "I s'pose +you are <i>sure</i> he's got all this money, Sarah? He might be foolin' you. +And if he does it just to work on your sympathies, and you took care of +him——"</p> + +<p>"Oh! Indeed!" sniffed Sarah Petty. "Uncle Jonah Hand is one that pays +his way wherever he goes. Of course, I give him our front room and we +have to get along as best we can without a parlor. But he insists on +paying his shot."</p> + +<p>"Oh!" said Mrs. Enoch.</p> + +<p>"That's what I call proper," said Mrs. 'Poley in her heavy voice.</p> + +<p>"How nice!" panted Mrs. Perse.</p> + +<p>"<i>That's</i> an uncle wuth havin'," admitted Mrs. Solon.</p> + +<p>On the barnyard barrier it was the same:</p> + +<p>"This here uncle of your wife's a pretty far-seeing man, Orrin?" asked +Enoch Petty. "The boy that drove us over here said 'twas all around the +neighborhood that Cap'n Jonah Hand had come back from China with his +pockets full of cash."</p> + +<p>"<i>My</i> driver," said Solon, who was a ponderous man, "said the cap'n +brought home more than his pockets full. Said he had a safe here at +the house stuffed full of gold and silver, and that Perry Baker, the +expressman, who brought it over from the bank, was so scare't of being +robbed on the way that he was threatened with nervous prostration—er, +haw! haw! haw!"</p> + +<p>"Hoh!" snorted Tom, in echo, and with disgust.</p> + +<p>"No," said Orrin coolly. "That strong box has gone back to the bank. I +guess Cap'n Jonah is a pretty careful man."</p> + +<p>"But he <i>has</i> got money?" queried Enoch.</p> + +<p>"Some," said the cautious Orrin.</p> + +<p>"Think we could get him interested in that Short Line 'twixt Harwich +and Beanport, Enoch?" suggested Solon slyly.</p> + +<p>The twins' jaws wagged more swiftly. As one man they opened their lips +and together cried:</p> + +<p>"Ye might let us in on that!"</p> + +<p>"No, boys," said Enoch, shaking his head. "This is not a family matter. +We don't let the family in on nothin' but sure things. This here +Harwich and Beanport Line is a sort of gamble."</p> + +<p>"Huh!" ejaculated Orrin. "Ain't Uncle Jonah one of the fam'ly, I'd like +to know?"</p> + +<p>"Not exactly," drawled Enoch.</p> + +<p>"Er-haw! haw! haw!" laughed Solon loudly. "Cap'n Hand's a sort +of step-child in this case. We need money for that Short Line +development——"</p> + +<p>"You seine for some other man's money," Orrin said shortly. "Uncle +Jonah's too old to go in with you boys in any onsartain scheme. He +may not be a Petty; but we don't propose he shall lose any of his +hard-airned money that may in time <i>come</i> to a Petty."</p> + +<p>"Well said!" chorused the twins, with vigorous approval.</p> + +<p>"Never take no risks," added Uncle 'Poley.</p> + +<p>"Penny saved is a penny airned," said Uncle Perse.</p> + +<p>They were full of old saws and sayings, were the Heath twins. Solon +Petty burst out with his rumbling laugh.</p> + +<p>"Those are the tight-lipped and tight-fisted boys. They ought to be +bankers instead of storekeepers. It's taking chances that makes Big +Business."</p> + +<p>"Ye-as. Mebbe," said Orrin. "But Cap'n Jonah Hand has taken all the +chances he's ever goin' to take if <i>I</i> have any influence with him. We +know what he's <i>got</i>; we don't know how much less he might have if he +fooled with these gambling games. Why, there ain't any of 'em square!"</p> + +<p>"Ain't it so?" agreed Tom, with a vivid remembrance of his experience +at the cattle show.</p> + + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> + +<div class="chapter"> +<h2 class="nobreak" id="CHAPTER_XXII">CHAPTER XXII</h2> +</div> + +<h3>THE STING OF HYPOCRISY</h3> + + +<p>Meanwhile Cap'n Jonah was at the Shell Road store wishing heartily that +he did not have to go home.</p> + +<p>Playing a part was already beginning to pall upon the worthy captain. +It was no small satisfaction he had in "foolin' them Pettys"; but the +effect of his hypocrisy, he found, was to be more far-reaching than he +supposed.</p> + +<p>He had not foreseen Sarah Petty's desire to show him off before the +family. He had not forecast in any degree how the story of his wealth +would spread, and grow, and become a Frankenstein to pursue him.</p> + +<p>It was bad enough at the store to have the loungers remark slyly upon +his fortune and hint their curiosity as to how he had obtained it. +None doubted the veracity of Tom Petty's tale. Even Milt Baker, the +Shell Road humorist, was too much awed by the existence of so great +a property in the neighborhood to invent any quips upon the subject. +There is a feeling of reverence born in most Cape Codders for money. +For one reason, it is so hard to get!</p> + +<p>Cap'n Jonah had Abraham Silt at his back while he was in the store, and +if the storekeeper saw him getting cornered he promptly came to the +rescue. But to face all these people from Harwich, and alone, was going +to be something of a job, and Cap'n Jonah dreaded it.</p> + +<p>He felt as though Joe Helmford's defection, too, was a personal +loss. That bright young man had often acted in a way to switch the +conversation from personal matters when Cap'n Jonah was harassed by the +Petty family.</p> + +<p>Had Helmford not left the Petty house Cap'n Jonah would have considered +taking the young man into his confidence. Cap'n Abe had asked him how +close to the bare bones of truth he could trim his ship; but Cap'n +Jonah had found it an ungracious task to befool his friends as well as +those for whom he felt no sympathy whatever.</p> + +<p>Of course, Pearl had to be kept in ignorance of the truth. The +transparency of the girl's character precluded his taking her into his +confidence. And the old captain saw, as time passed, that the fewer +people who knew his secret the better his chance of carrying on the +play.</p> + +<p>What the end would be, Cap'n Jonah dared not meditate upon. He had +forced the Pettys to mend their treatment of Pearl. But he really had +not foreseen all the change the story of his hypothetical fortune +would make in his own affairs.</p> + +<p>Sarah Petty's new tack amazed Cap'n Jonah. He had expected more +consideration at her hands as the result of the conspiracy; but all +this that was going on in the Petty household he certainly had not +imagined.</p> + +<p>"Whatever!" he said privately to the storekeeper. "I'm gettin' things +so soft that I dunno what to do about it. They'll be smotherin' me to +death with their soft-soapin' ways."</p> + +<p>"Take it easy while you can," Cap'n Abe advised. "This is a gre't world +if you don't git cold feet, as the feller said. You jest let 'em git +it fixed in their minds that you are well wuth catering to. They'll +never find out the truth if you don't tell 'em. Mr. Creavy, over to the +bank, will never say a word. I know <i>him</i>. An' of course you can trust +'Liphalet an' me to keep our 'tater-traps shet."</p> + +<p>"Whatever! Yes. That's all right," muttered Cap'n Jonah. "But what's +goin' to happen, I want to know when my money does run out?"</p> + +<p>This was a contingency that was ever in Cap'n Jonah's mind. Sarah Petty +had not hinted as yet at any increase in his board despite his change +of quarters; but the drain of twenty-two and a half dollars monthly was +not to be overlooked, considering Cap'n Jonah's actual resources.</p> + +<p>He could not on this day postpone his return home past the dinner +hour. He must meet the visitors, whether or no; so he finally started +up the road. Here came 'Liphalet Truitt, basket on arm, and his face as +sour as a lime.</p> + +<p>"Ahoy, Truitt!" hailed the captain. "What did you see of that crowd at +the Pettys? That gang of Orrin's rel'tives from Harwich boarded 'em by +this time, I guess?"</p> + +<p>"I seen a couple autos go by," said 'Liphalet ungraciously. "They +turned up at the Pettys."</p> + +<p>"Do you know, Truitt," said Cap'n Jonah, ignoring the other's ill-humor +and drawing near to speak confidentially. "Do you know, this here +imaginary fortune is gettin 'on my nerves? That's what! A feller ought +to be a mighty good actor to play up to it."</p> + +<p>"Uh-huh!" grunted 'Liphalet.</p> + +<p>"Makes a feller wish he re'lly did have a fortune, at that," added +Cap'n Jonah, wistfully. "When a feller's supposed to have money things +is purty soft for him. I sartain sure wish I could git a re'l fortune +as easy as we made this one up."</p> + +<p>"Why don't ye marry a fortune?" snarled 'Liphalet with sudden venom.</p> + +<p>"Heh?" ejaculated the startled captain.</p> + +<p>"There's them with plenty money that might have ye—if ye asked," +pursued 'Liphalet. "Ye wouldn't put it past ye, ye say, to marry for +what cash the woman had."</p> + +<p>"Whatever!" murmured Cap'n Jonah, and he involuntarily stood aside as +the strangely wrathful Mr. Truitt marched on. Cap'n Jonah stared after +his friend in amazement. "Whatever in the world has laid hold upon Life +Truitt?" he gasped.</p> + +<p>"Jest as happy an' pleasant as a man-eating shark," went on the amazed +captain. "And who does he want I should marry—Miss Sue? Why! I was +calc'latin'——"</p> + +<p>He did not finish the audible expression of his thoughts, but went on +up the road shaking his head in a very thoughtful mood. For once Cap'n +Jonah's mind was not fixed upon his own fortunes.</p> + +<p>The extension table was stretched clear across the Petty kitchen. +Orrin's back was so close to the door leading to the porch that the +door could scarcely be opened, while Sarah was so far away from him at +the other end of the table that her frowns and half-audible admonitions +for once made no impression upon her husband.</p> + +<p>Between the two, along both sides of the table, were ranged the +visitors and Tom and Cap'n Jonah. Sarah was rather glad for the moment +that Helmford had gone. The table was more than crowded, and the +guests' elbows clashed as they plied knives and forks. Pearl waited on +them, cheerfully refusing to sit down till all were plentifully served.</p> + +<p>Sarah Petty was a careful housewife, and Orrin was as close as his +own shirt. But when they set out to entertain the Family they did it +right—no two ways about it! The long table was fairly burdened with +things to eat.</p> + +<p>Solon was a master hand at such times as this. He he-hawed his great, +political laugh all through the meal, and declared more than once that +he was "a good table finisher—that was his trade," accepting a third +helping of baked fresh ham and "all the fixin's" to prove his statement.</p> + +<p>Enoch tried to follow the set of his cousin's example, and was +particularly cordial to Cap'n Jonah. "They tell me you calc'late to +settle down here for good, Cap'n Hand?" he said insinuatingly.</p> + +<p>"As long as Sarah will have me," replied Cap'n Jonah, briefly.</p> + +<p>"Haw! haw!" exploded Solon. "I bet after this taste of Sarah's cookin' +you couldn't chase him away with a club. Hey, Cap'n Hand?"</p> + +<p>Sarah preened, accepting the flattery. Cap'n Jonah was uncomfortable. +He was polite to the women, and he tried to speak when spoken to by the +men; but he gained at that meal a reputation for silence only equaled +by 'Poley and Perse Heath themselves.</p> + +<p>Solon drew him like a badger from his hole, and Cap'n Jonah came to the +surface just as much against his will as does that obstinate beast.</p> + +<p>"Le's see," said Solon, "you found chances of turning a penny out there +in the East such as we humdrum stay-at-homes never see, I suppose, +Captain? I knew a man once in your line that made a mint of money +shanghaiing coolies for the guano islands off Chile. You never dipped +into that trade, did you?"</p> + +<p>"No. Never did," said Cap'n Jonah emphatically.</p> + +<p>"They do say, too, that opium smuggling pays big in Chinese waters."</p> + +<p>"I've heard tell," bit off the old mariner.</p> + +<p>"And there's what they call the Chinese passenger trade—runnin' them +laundrymen into 'Frisco or Vancouver, when the immigrant inspectors +ain't lookin'. Know anything about that, Captain?"</p> + +<p>"Only what you tell me," barked Cap'n Jonah, his eyebrows bristling.</p> + +<p>"I expect you got your money in quieter ways, Cap'n Hand," put in Enoch +Petty, observing that his cousin's semi-humorous sallies were not taken +in good part.</p> + +<p>"I got my money," began Cap'n Jonah in some heat. "I got my money——" +He hesitated, then simmered down to: "Wal, I got it as I got it. +Whatever!"</p> + +<p>He did not possess Cap'n Abe Silt's imagination. He could not entertain +these curious people with an apocryphal history of the gathering of his +supposed treasure. And perhaps his very inability to explain made his +fortune seem the more real to them all.</p> + +<p>Sarah, too, came to his rescue. She could not see Uncle Jonah +disturbed. How careful she now was for the comfort of "the dear old +soul!" It was really remarkable, as Aunt 'Poley said to the other +visiting aunts, to see how devoted Sarah was to her last remaining +blood-relative.</p> + +<p>"Let us hope he'll pay her out right, for it," whispered Mrs. Enoch +Petty, the single doubting member of the tribe.</p> + +<p>Sarah's regard for Cap'n Jonah's comfort was fairly overpowering. She +saw to it that tasty bits were heaped upon his plate and that his +coffee cup was kept filled. At dessert time it was:</p> + +<p>"Pearly! don't forget to pass the cake again to Uncle Jonah. And that +mock cherry pie I made deep special for him, 'cause he likes it so. +Taste that beach plum sass, Uncle Jonah. I know you'll like it. Why! +you ain't et more'n enough to keep a sand-piper alive."</p> + +<p>"Whatever!" remonstrated the master mariner. "You're killin' me with +kindness, Sarah."</p> + +<p>And he could have said nothing which would have more thoroughly +gratified Sarah Petty. "The Family" had heard his commendation with +their own ears.</p> + +<p>Back in his own room he whispered to Pearl, who attended him at Sarah's +behest with hot water, lemon, sugar, and a noggin of rum—a real +holiday treat: "Whatever! I might's well be out o' Barnum's show, I've +been exhibited so much. Nex' thing, Sarah Petty'll want me to roll +over and bark at the word of command. I dunno but I could stand her +meannesses better than I can her good will."</p> + +<p>He managed to escape from time to time to the sanctum of the front +room. They did not follow him. But they invited him to join the general +company on all manner of pretexts.</p> + +<p>The womenfolk, as he declared, tried to make a fool of him, while the +men endeavored to pump him dry regarding his adventures in the far +East, hoping thereby to get a line on his method of amassing a fortune +of a hundred thousand dollars.</p> + +<p>He could see, too, that he was going to be a mark for all local +charities and objects of need. Mrs. Enoch Petty, who was a member of +all the women's clubs and associations there were on the Cape, tried +on several occasions to get a contribution from Cap'n Jonah for one or +another of the causes she patronized.</p> + +<p>But Sarah Petty, like Orrin with the men visitors, guarded Uncle +Jonah's pocket with vigilance. There was no reason that she could see +why the old mariner's fortune should be scattered abroad on charities, +suffrage clubs, orphanages, or other so-called worthy causes.</p> + +<p>"Charity begins at home," was Sarah Petty's fixed belief, and as far +as she was concerned she proposed to see that it stayed there.</p> + +<p>The relief to Cap'n Jonah, at least, was great when the visit of the +Harwich folk came to an end on Monday. He accepted four separate and +privately given invitations to visit the several families at his +leisure, with the mental reservation that he would do so only when he +was in that state which he denominated "soft-headed."</p> + +<p>"I've weathered Sarah and Orrin, both when they was down on me and now +that they seem to have had a change of heart. They air bad enough, I do +allow," he said to Cap'n Abe. "But I want to tell you right now, the +rest of the Petty family as fur as I've sampled it, runs wuss towards +the bottom of the cask.</p> + +<p>"Solon Petty never got to the State Legislature because of his brains, +that's sure. Enoch Petty would rob a blind man, I do believe. And as +for them two old billygoats, Apollo and Perseus Heath, they'd drive a +man to strong drink an' no mistake."</p> + +<p>He was too polite to state his opinion of the women of the Harwich +party. He hinted strongly, however, that he more firmly believed than +heretofore that wives were given to men as punishment for their sins. +"All but my own woman," he added with reverence. "She was a good +one—an' she didn't live long after we was married. I dunno but short +sweet'nin' is the best. We wasn't long enough together to git on one +another's nerves."</p> + +<p>"Why," said Cap'n Abe, comfortably, "I dunno but you air too harsh on +'em, Cap'n Hand. You might easy find a woman at your age that would +make you a comfort'ble home. And if she had a bit of prop'ty, like the +Doc's sister——"</p> + +<p>"Why ain't you tried it?" demanded the suspicious Cap'n Jonah.</p> + +<p>"Oh! Wal! <i>Me?</i>" said Cap'n Abe, lowering his voice and casting a +quick glance over his shoulder to make sure that Betty Gallup, his +housekeeper, was not in the offing. "Ye see, I'm fretted enough by the +female sect as 'tis. I wouldn't want one under foot day <i>an'</i> night."</p> + +<p>"I guess," returned Cap'n Jonah, "your opinion an' mine, on the women, +is purty much of a muchness. Whatever!"</p> + + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> + +<div class="chapter"> +<h2 class="nobreak" id="CHAPTER_XXIII">CHAPTER XXIII</h2> +</div> + +<h3>THE CHRISTMAS GALE</h3> + + +<p>This was Christmas week. There was the threat of a serious gale in the +air and sky and on the sea. There had already been a scale of snow upon +the ground, but rain had ensued and that promise of a white Christmas +had proved abortive.</p> + +<p>The Christmas entertainment committee, of which Miss Sue Ambrose was +the very active chairman, had made most of its preparations for the +celebration in spite of the unexplained defection of Eliphalet Truitt. +Indeed, the ex-steward had been "acting offish" for so long that he +ceased to be a general topic of conversation save on one particular +point which, when mentioned, always brought smiles to the faces of his +neighbors—for they loved Life Truitt, no matter what his mood.</p> + +<p>'Liphalet had almost shut himself up in his little box of a house +during the last few days. He shunned his fellow men—even Cap'n Jonah +with whom he had been friendly until recently—like any hermit. And +here it was the morning of the day before Christmas.</p> + +<p>He scuffled out into his close kitchen, redolent of countless messes +of fried fish and potatoes, and set the lamp with its smoky chimney on +the deal board table before shaking the stove grate and opening all the +drafts for "full steam ahead."</p> + +<p>It was a cold morning. The long promised gale out of the northeast was +driving the snow and sleet against the window with a "whish! whish!" +like the sound of fretful waves along the sands. Even through his thick +blue yarn socks which he had knitted himself the ex-steward felt the +cold seep in under the door, the latch of which rattled to the ghostly +hand of the gale.</p> + +<p>He turned up the wick of the lamp and sat down with a sigh to slice +potatoes for frying. It was plain by the woebegone expression on +'Liphalet's face that his heart was not in this usually grateful +matutinal occupation.</p> + +<p>Suddenly returning the knife and half a soggy boiled potato to the +table, he shrugged his feet into a pair of canvas shoes and, rising, +went to the rear door. He held it half open against the insistence of +the wind, staring off across the flatlands toward the sea from under +the sharp of one hand.</p> + +<p>The snow squalls, driven in from the far-flung sea-line, burst like +bomb-shells along the shore, then swept inland in clouds of fine +snow-spray which stung like nettles even 'Liphalet's weather-burned +cheek.</p> + +<p>Between these drifting sheets of sleet he dimly saw outlined the houses +of the neighbors on either side of the Shell Road and dotting the open +fields. Each was pricked out at this hour by the smoke of early kindled +kitchen fires, sucked out of the chimneys in fantastic forms by the +boisterous wind.</p> + +<p>"It's goin' to be a humdinger," muttered 'Liphalet. "Last over +to-morrow, like enough, an' sp'ile everything. Ha! Sue an' them other +foolish folks that's been wishing for a white Christmas will get their +wish, I don't dispute. Ha!"</p> + +<p>With this second snort of disgust he shut the gale out again. The draft +caused by the closing door sucked the flame of the lamp up through +the chimney and it went out with a "plop." The steel gray light of +the winter's dawn filtered in at the window, and, with the firelight, +furnished the kitchen a partial illumination.</p> + +<p>'Liphalet settled himself again in the low rocking chair and picked up +the knife and the potato. "Ha! Sue an' the rest on 'em will get all the +white Christmas they want," he repeated. "Christmas—<i>bah</i>!"</p> + +<p>The emphasis with which he thus expressed his spleen startled Bo'sun +from his nest in the wood-box behind the stove, and he came forth +yawning and stretching to rub a morning's greeting against his master's +shin. But even the friendliness of the cat did not temper the man's +unaccustomed mood.</p> + +<p>The water began to hiss and bubble in the kettle. 'Liphalet reached +for the coffee-pot in which the ground coffee had been soaking in a +cup of cold water over night, and filled it from the boiling kettle. +The aroma permeated all the kitchen atmosphere immediately—an odor to +tempt the appetite of any hungry man.</p> + +<p>But there was something not normal about 'Liphalet Truitt on this +morning. That keen edge to his appetite—a never-failing zest at +mealtime which had been his for nearly half a century—failed him now. +He dumped the handful of sliced potatoes into the pan where the pork +was sizzling, set it forward, and returned to his chair.</p> + +<p>The kitchen was as compact and handy as his stateroom had always +been at sea, and from the rack overhead he reached down his battered +flute. Bo'sun fled—back arched and tail swollen to twice its natural +size—when 'Liphalet extracted from the instrument those introductory +mournful sounds which were always the prelude to his rendition of any +of his loved sea-ditties—even to "Fisher's Hornpipe." Music was the +single topic on which Bo'sun and 'Liphalet Truitt did not agree.</p> + +<p>The flute on this morning, however,—never failing comforter as it had +been during his many voyages—did not soothe the ex-steward's troubled +breast. Its wail, mingling with the whine of the wind, might have been +the cry of the banshee of the gale rattling at the door latch for +sacrament.</p> + +<p>"Drat the thing!" snarled 'Liphalet, flinging down the flute with +exasperation. "Nothin' does go right, and ain't likely to go right +again ever, I reckon." Then he added the phrase that seemed to be both +the text and context of his jeremiad: "Christmas—<i>bah</i>!"</p> + +<p>Suddenly he began wrinkling his nose like a hound on a cold scent.</p> + +<p>"Somethin' burnin'?" he questioned audibly. "By Hannah, it's them +'taters!"</p> + +<p>He rescued but a scorched remnant of the potatoes and dumped it with a +grunt of disgust into Bo'sun's pan on the hearth; making a cold snack +with coffee do for his own breakfast. It was easy, indeed, to see that +'Liphalet Truitt was by no means his normal self.</p> + +<p>He had washed his plate, cup and saucer and rinsed out the coffee pot +before he ventured into the partially sheltered porch again to view the +snowy world. In stinging phalanx the sleet continued to march across +the open fields. The hard ground was laced over with a thin scale of +ice. The road was deserted; but he presumed the committee would by and +by gather at the chapel to hang the Christmas greens and trim the tree +with refurbished tinsel ornaments and newly strung ropes of pink and +white popcorn.</p> + +<p>He pulled the battered southwester over his ears and reached for the +key to the chapel door. The women would come to a cold and cheerless +audience room if did he not step across and light the fire.</p> + +<p>Then, with the key in his hand, he stopped, suddenly venting another +snort of disgust and derision. "Christmas—<i>bah</i>!" Then he hung up the +key.</p> + +<p>"If they want a fire for their foolishness, let 'em light it. If they +want a feller to fetch and carry, let 'em find somebody else. If they +want somebody to buy presents for and play jackanapes to a passel o' +young 'uns let 'em find a new Santa Claus. I've quit! I'll show 'em!"</p> + +<p>A stuttering blast like nothing so much as a foghorn with the croup +next brought the ex-steward to his door and that before mid-forenoon. +He knew the voice of Doctor Ambrose's automobile; and there the +good physician was at the gate. The cranky mechanism of his car had +developed symptoms which baffled any snap diagnosis.</p> + +<p>"Can't stop to fool with her at present," the doctor said jerkily, as +'Liphalet reached the scene. "I'm due at Carey Payne's right now. His +oldest has got pneumonia sure's you're a foot high, 'Liphalet. I've +been over to Suz Montevedo's, beyond The Beaches. He's got a relapse of +his inflammatory rheumatism. Can't lift hand nor foot, and nobody to do +for him."</p> + +<p>"Some o' these fool women that'll be playin' there in the church by +an' by 'ud much better be doin' a neighborly turn for the Portugee," +grumbled 'Liphalet.</p> + +<p>"Sue's gone over," Doctor Ambrose said, jerking his black bag out from +under the seat of the stalled car. "She's left Pearl Holden to boss the +trimmin' of the chapel. Well——"</p> + +<p>"She ain't gone to old Montevedo's shack alone?" demanded 'Liphalet. +"In this mess o' weather? What in tarnation was you thinking of, Doc?"</p> + +<p>The physician flashed him a grim look. "I'm thinking you are about as +much out o' kilter as this car of mine. Didn't you just say the women +ought to tend to 'Suz? Well, that's what one of them's doing. Your +liver's out of order, I tell you, 'Liphalet——"</p> + +<p>"You dumbhead!" roared 'Liphalet. "The gale 'ud blow a strong man off +the surfman's path along the sand cliffs, let alone a frail woman. All +you got in your mind is liver pills! Ha! I should think you'd have some +sense."</p> + +<p>"It seems I haven't," responded the doctor coolly. "I reckon Sue can +take care of herself. She's been out o' leadin' strings some years +now," and he started off through the driving sleet without waiting for +'Liphalet's rejoinder.</p> + +<p>"Ha!" snorted the latter, trying to peer shoreward. "I dunno what's +comin' over folks. All on 'em goin' plum crazy, I vum! Liver—ha!</p> + +<p>"What's a woman want to start off along The Beaches on a day like this +for? And ye'd think even Doc Ambrose 'ud have more sense than to let +her."</p> + +<p>Then, fussing and fuming, he buttoned tight the curtains and storm +shield of the deserted car, and finally dragged a tarpaulin from his +shed, and with difficulty pinned it securely over the entire car, +blanketing the radiator so that it might not freeze. When the gale +abated John-Ed Card or some other neighbor who owned a team of horses +would come and drag the doctor's car home—a grateful service which +none ever refused to perform for the busy physician.</p> + +<p>'Liphalet retired to the kitchen and stoked the fire.</p> + +<p>"Thank the good Lord," he said, "I can stay b'low 'stead of goin' aloft +in this weather. Bein' neighborly and charitable is all right, I don't +dispute. But charity begins to home. And by Hannah! that's where Sue +Ambrose ought to be this minute."</p> + +<p>He jumped up so suddenly at this thought that Bo'sun fled again, +fearing some domestic catastrophe. His master paid him no heed. He +could not sit content with the thought of Miss Sue facing this gale +along the sand cliff beyond Tapp Point.</p> + +<p>There the surfmen's beaten path on the edge of the high bank was often +eaten into—bitten out in savage mouthfuls by the wolfish breakers. +They would be running high, 'Liphalet knew, with this gale. Whenever +he opened the door the drumming of the surf along The Beaches was +audible—like an organ accompaniment to the storm.</p> + +<p>He could see in his mind's eye the small figure in its gray cloak +"beating up" against this sizzling tempest. It was getting worse +hourly. At sea, with plenty of leeway, 'Liphalet would have considered +this storm "just a snifter." With the sound planks of a seaworthy craft +under one's feet a man need seldom fear the elements. But so many +accidents are likely to happen ashore!</p> + +<p>It was a long walk to the old shack of Suz Montevedo in any +weather—half a mile beyond Tapp's Folly, as the ornate villa of the +Salt Water Taffy King was disrespectfully called. The surfmen from the +life saving station had no love for that path in an ugly blow like +this, or on a dark night in any case. The snow, too, was blinding.</p> + +<p>"By Hannah!" ejaculated the ex-steward finally, "I wouldn't call +Doc Ambrose to cure my dog of fleas. He don't show right good +sense—lettin' his sister traipse 'way over there alone. Ugh!" He was +at the door again now. "'Tain't fittin' for a cat to be out."</p> + +<p>Then he proceeded to button himself into a thick pilot coat, tucked his +trousers into sea boots, buckled the strap of his southwester under his +jaw, and plunged into the seething gale.</p> + +<p>There was not a soul on the road to The Beaches. The storm was so +blinding that he did not seek to cut across lots and so save steps; but +kept on along the Shell Road, passing Cap'n Abe's store, which from +without and on this particular occasion looked to be anything but the +lively spot it usually was.</p> + +<p>The summer residents had closed their homes and long since gone to +other places. All, that is, save the younger Tapps, who occupied +their new house on the Point summer and winter. 'Liphalet pressed on +along the firm road of well tamped shell, past these dwellings of the +wealthy, without hailing or being hailed by anybody.</p> + +<p>Beyond the high wall and ornate gates of the Tapp estate, on the bare +cliff, the full force of the wind-driven sleet struck him "square +betwixt the eyes," as 'Liphalet expressed it.</p> + +<p>He fairly had to crouch against this, turning a shoulder to the force +of the wind. Here the outthrust of the land gave the storm a sweep +across the brow of the cliff while the breakers, charging in from the +open sea, flung themselves ravenously against the crumbling wall of +sand and clay—an unstable barrier at best.</p> + +<p>With such a sea as this on, the surfmen from the life-saving station +could not patrol the beach itself, and their worn path along the verge +of the fifty foot bank was the only footway to the Portuguese's shack.</p> + +<p>'Liphalet hesitated. It did not seem as though any woman could +successfully face such a gale. The prospect was one to make the +strongest man turn back. He shielded his eyes with both hands cupped, +and tried to pierce the snow and sleet with a vision long inured to +penetrating thick weather.</p> + +<p>There came a momentary lull in the gale. The sweeping snow parted like +a curtain. It fled away over the cliff, and for a space he could see +for some distance along the path.</p> + +<p>Was that a snow wraith hovering there on the brow of the high bank? Or +was it a human figure which, the next moment, was swallowed in the snow +curtain?</p> + +<p>'Liphalet, vastly disturbed by this uncertain specter in the storm, +plunged into it himself again and pressed ahead.</p> + + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> + +<div class="chapter"> +<h2 class="nobreak" id="CHAPTER_XXIV">CHAPTER XXIV</h2> +</div> + +<h3>THE MISTLETOE BOUGH</h3> + + +<p>Until the day before Christmas, ushered in by the long-threatened gale, +nobody had seen Joe Helmford along the Shell Road since he had left +the Petty place. Cap'n Jonah had been unable to hunt up the young man +and learn, if he could, just why he had so abruptly departed from the +neighborhood.</p> + +<p>In spite of the bustle attending the presence of the guests over Sunday +and the thorough cleaning up after them which followed, Pearl Holden +could not for a moment forget the young man. And her worry of mind was +advertised upon her pretty face. There were shadows under her eyes and +an unnatural pallor spread over her cheeks.</p> + +<p>Cap'n Jonah had strong suspicions as to the reason for Pearl's changed +appearance, although she would admit nothing. He had watched the +intimacy growing day by day between the girl and Helmford, and, arrant +matchmaker that he was, he hoped to see its fruition in an acknowledged +engagement of the two young people.</p> + +<p>Should Pearl marry a man like Helmford, one great burden would be +lifted from Cap'n Jonah's mind. He often felt that he had done a wrong, +a grievous wrong, to the girl in intimating that he had a fortune +and would will all or part of it to her. He presumed that Pearl bore +this half-promise he had made in mind, just as the Pettys bore it in +mind; and having nothing to give Pearl after all, the master mariner's +troubles were thereby added to. If the girl was only sure to marry a +smart young fellow like Joe Helmford——</p> + +<p>Therefore he kept a sharp outlook for the man from the fish hatchery, +and even inquired for him at Cap'n Abe's store. But Helmford had not +been seen in the vicinity since the day of his departure from the Petty +house.</p> + +<p>On this storm-pelted morning, however, when most wise folk kept +indoors—and glad to have such shelter—Joe Helmford could not +be content in his warm and cozy quarters at Mrs. Wetherel's. His +present boarding place was much more to his taste—barring Pearl's +absence—than the Pettys', save that it was farther from his work.</p> + +<p>The Wetherels were urban folk, with the conveniences and the personal +requirements that go with such environment. The daughters were +strictly, however, what Pearl had once called "sour-cranberry old +maids"—otherwise spinsters as fixed in their orbits as the planets. +Even the presence of a young and marriageable man in the house caused +no flutter of their hearts. Their maiden affections had never been in +the least awakened.</p> + +<p>Mrs. Wetherel made Joe very comfortable without any fuss about it, and +the "Wetherel girls," so-called, were not unpleasant associates at meal +time. Nevertheless, Helmford went around with a countenance almost the +equal of 'Liphalet Truitt's.</p> + +<p>He could not remain indoors on this wretchedly stormy day. In the first +place, he was expecting something at the post-office which Noah Coffin +should have brought the night before on his stage, locally known, out +of compliment to Noah's name, as "the Ark."</p> + +<p>Helmford had sent for the article in question as soon as Miss Sue had +asked him to help decorate the Mariner's Chapel for the Christmas +entertainment. Now he plodded through the beating storm in a very +different mood from that which he had expected to enjoy when his +purchase arrived.</p> + +<p>"Yes!" and the post-master passed it out to Helmford with:</p> + +<p>"Christmas gif, Mr. Helmford? They are just pouring in on us. But I +doubt if Noah'll make more'n one trip to-day, 'nless this storm breaks. +She's purty rough outside, ain't she?"</p> + +<p>Helmford admitted that "she" was. Nevertheless he did not turn back +toward his boarding place; but instead, with the light but bulky box +under his arm, he faced the gale and forced his way through it, past +the Cardhaven Inn and around the corner into the highway that led to +the Shell Road neighborhood.</p> + +<p>There was nobody on the road, nor did he see anybody at the +frost-covered windows as he plodded on. There was no sign of life about +the Ambrose cottage; but when he got to Eliphalet Truitt's he saw the +doctor's automobile stalled outside the fence.</p> + +<p>"Can it be that 'Liphalet is ill?" thought Helmford.</p> + +<p>He turned in at the gate and stamped his feet free of snow on the +ex-steward's steps. The kitchen door was unfastened as usual. He peered +in and saw the glowing stove and Bo'sun comfortably purring before it. +He shouted for 'Liphalet, receiving no answer.</p> + +<p>Then, knowing as did everybody else in the community, where the chapel +key was kept, he ran his hand along the clapboards and found the nail. +The key was there. Then, thought Helmford, he was the first of the +decorating committee to arrive.</p> + +<p>He took down the key and kept on to the vestry door. The dead chill of +the place struck him as he entered.</p> + +<p>"Wonder what's happened to Mr. Truitt," Helmford thought; for he, like +everybody else, expected the taut little ex-steward to do all the +chores of the chapel as a matter of course.</p> + +<p>The fire was laid in the Baltimore heater, and soon the young man had +it roaring and the heat radiating from the surface of the stove below +as well as rising through the register above, in the audience room.</p> + +<p>The piles of greens were ready for the workers; but nobody arrived. +Helmford opened the box he had brought from the post-office. In it was +as fine a bough of mistletoe as he had ever seen. It had been sent to +him from Boston by parcel post.</p> + +<p>When he had sent for this bit of Christmas decoration he had secretly +borne Pearl in mind. There was something more in the significance of +the mistletoe than a mere pleasantry. He thrilled even now at the +thought of pressing the girl's dewy lips with his own, under the +benison of the Christmas bough. How lovely Pearl was in her sweet +simplicity.</p> + +<p>Joe Helmford, when he bought the mistletoe, had been playing with fire. +He knew it now. He had come to a full realization of it when Tom Petty +had attacked him on the Shell Road and he had struck that single blow +in Pearl Holden's and his own defense.</p> + +<p>Bitter indeed had been his thoughts as he packed his things that night +after speaking his mind to the Pettys. He had allowed himself to go so +far with Pearl Holden that he felt he should never be at peace again. +She was the object of a growing and consuming passion, and he could not +put thought of her away.</p> + +<p>Yet, there stood the specter of Cap'n Jonah's fortune between them! +He could not deliberately besiege the heart of this girl who had been +chosen to be the recipient of the old seaman's wealth. But how he now +desired to see Pearl again and to be with her!</p> + +<p>He hid the mistletoe bough away in the sexton's closet under the +stairs. Then he went to the door to gaze out upon the storm. Nobody was +coming toward the chapel that he could see. It was past the hour Miss +Sue had set for the decorators to gather, and she was not here herself. +Nor was Pearl coming, it seemed.</p> + +<p>The storm was increasing; but so disturbing were the young man's +thoughts that he scarcely noticed that fact as he stepped out into it +again and closed the vestry door behind him.</p> + +<p>His mind and heart on fire with the passionate thoughts that had +assailed him for days past, Joe Helmford began, like 'Liphalet Truitt, +to challenge the storm; through the buffeting of the elements he sought +mental peace again.</p> + +<hr class="tb"> + +<p>Miss Sue, called to Suz Montevedo's on her charitable mission, had +depended upon Pearl to take the lead in the decoration of the chapel +for the next day's celebration. Unexpected events, however, barred +Pearl from going to the rendezvous at the hour appointed. Indeed, a +greater storm was destined to rage inside the Petty house on this day +than swept the Cape Cod coast.</p> + +<p>There seemed to be a lull in the gale about mid-forenoon, and Cap'n +Jonah, who did not read much and had small means of self entertainment, +bundled up in oils and southwester and ventured forth, bound shoreward. +When he faced the full force of the gale on the open highway he was +really tempted to return.</p> + +<p>"Whatever!" he muttered. "This ain't fittin' for a dog to be out in. If +it keeps up this way, it's goin' to spile all the fun to-morrow."</p> + +<p>Although he observed nobody on the road, he found when he stumbled up +the steps of the store and lifted the doorlatch that Cap'n Abe was +not left even on this blusterous day without his company of habitual +loungers.</p> + +<p>"Hi-mighty!" cried the storekeeper, as Cap'n Jonah staggered in and put +his back against the door which had been all but torn from his grasp by +the wind. "Hi-mighty, Cap'n Hand! can't you find no better weather to +bring 'long with you when you come visiting?</p> + +<p>"Hear that sleet slammin' on the clapboards, will you?" he proceeded, +as Cap'n Joab and Washy Gallup made room for the newcomer at the +stove. "Must sound like the gale Peleg Fosdick, of the <i>Sarah +Truesdale</i>, weathered the time he run under the lee of the sand cliffs +at Barrows Neck.</p> + +<p>"Peleg, they say, although he was the skipper of a haddocker for years +an' years, was always afraid of a capful of wind. A summer squall +looked as big to him as a hurricane; and if he had ever got into a +reg'lar no'theast snorter like this one, I reckon he'd died o' heart +failure.</p> + +<p>"If it come on to blow and he could, he'd up hooks an' run for shelter, +no matter where, till he could see the end o' bad weather. And they do +tell about his holdin' an umbrella over himself in a thunder shower +when he was at the <i>Sarah Truesdale's</i> wheel," and the storekeeper +broke into a mellow chuckle and tucked his silver-bowed spectacles +higher on his bald brow.</p> + +<p>"Ord'narily he went below when it rained or blew. He was jest as techy +about gettin' wet as a cat. Come one time they tell of, and a brisk +gale come up while the <i>Sarah Truesdale</i> was on the Dogfish Bank. Sun +goin' down as pretty as you could wish; but jest the same, Cap'n Peleg +Fosdick seen bad weather comin' in his mind's eye.</p> + +<p>"So they run for it, he an' his mate an' the boy. Barrows Neck, where +is piled all the loose sand that was left over after they made the +Desert of Sairah, offered the nearest shelter. Peleg run in there and +droppd his mudhook just as a hand's breath of cloud spilt a shower on +him. It was near night and he dove below and didn't calc'late to go +aloft again while it rained.</p> + +<p>"His mate asked him was he goin' to stop there, with the hold half full +o' fish, and Peleg made reply he was calc'latin' to. So the mate an' +the boy took the dory and rowed ashore to Barrowsport and Peleg stayed +under hatches listenin' to the rain slammin' on the deck and thinkin' +how smart he was to seek shelter as he'd done.</p> + +<p>"Wal," pursued Cap'n Abe, "the rain didn't 'pear to stop, and Peleg +went to bed. He didn't know if the mate an' the boy come back or not. +But when he woke up in the morning the first thing he heard was the +rain still a-swishin' on the schooner's deck. He had his deadlights +curtained and 'twas dark below. The wind was still blowin' from the +same quarter.</p> + +<p>"'Almighty stormy mornin','" says Peleg, and turns over in bed. Nobody +disturbed him, for his mate had got into a fight ashore and was in the +calaboose, and the boy'd got a chance to ship on a trawler at better +wages and had took French leave.</p> + +<p>"So the <i>Sarah Truesdale</i> lay there purty near all day, an' might ha' +laid there till the fish in her hold stank, if a feller hadn't come +along wantin' to borrer some bait.</p> + +<p>"He opened the cabin door and Peleg sat up in bed to see the afternoon +sunshine streamin' over all. The <i>Sarah Truesdale</i> had been there +twenty-four hours.</p> + +<p>"'What's the matter here?' asked the feller after bait. 'You sick, or +somethin'?'</p> + +<p>"Peleg's ears wagged like a houn' dog's. He could still hear the rain +(or so he supposed) patterin' on the deck.</p> + +<p>"'If you don't git up your hook and warp out of here,' says the other +feller, 'your smack'll be sunk along o' the deckload o' sand that's +been blowin' on to ye from them sandcliffs all night It's ankle deep +out here right now.'"</p> + +<p>For once Cap'n Abe got a laugh from most of the idlers. But Cap'n +Jonah was in a serious mood. He followed the storekeeper to the end of +the counter where he was tying up packages of sugar ready for prompt +delivery. It was dark at this end of the store, for the windows were +completely clouded by the frozen sleet.</p> + +<p>"Wal, Cap'n Hand, how goes the battle?" asked the storekeeper, with +amusement written large on his genial face. "How does it seem to be a +millionaire, or thereabout?"</p> + +<p>Cap'n Jonah took a huge pinch of snuff from his silver box, rapped +the cover with his knuckle, and sneezed softly. "Whatever!" he almost +groaned. "It ain't no laughin' matter, Mr. Silt, this here tryin' to +make folks think you air something you ain't."</p> + +<p>"Sure-<i>ly</i>," interposed Cap'n Abe, "tain't no trick to fool Sarah and +Orrin Petty. They air only too willin' to fool themselves. If you <i>had</i> +a hundred thousan' dollars——"</p> + +<p>"I'd give half of it to git out o' the mess I'm in," snapped Cap'n +Jonah. "You don't know what it means, Mr. Silt, to be foolin' your +friends, as well as those you don't keer a jasper for."</p> + +<p>"Oh! <i>don't</i> I?" ejaculated Cap'n Abe significantly, his memory stung +by thought of Cap'n Amazon.</p> + +<p>"This foolin' Pearly an' young Helmford, an' even Cap'n Beecher and +Miss Sue and the Doc an' all, does go against the grain. If them bonds +and sheer certificates I showed that half-baked boy of Sarah Petty's +was real, instead of phony, and I was rich 'stead of scurcely havin' a +cent to bless myself with, I'd be the happiest man alive, I do guess. +But as 'tis——"</p> + +<p>He spoke earnestly, and he meant it, did Cap'n Jonah. He was never cut +out for a deceitful man, and the strain of the hateful situation was +telling on him.</p> + +<p>Cap'n Abe was called to the rear premises by Betty Gallup, the "Able +Seaman," before he could make reply to the troubled captain. The latter +drifted back into the radiance of the stove's warmth.</p> + +<p>Then out of the dark pocket between soap boxes and sugar barrels at +the end of the counter rose up a figure, the presence of which neither +of the old men had suspected. There was a door into the side hall of +Cap'n Abe's house right here. The eavesdropper opened this softly and +passed through unobserved.</p> + +<p>Once in the entry, he opened the outside door and slipped out into +the storm. So excited and enraged was he that he scarcely noticed +the buffeting of the snow and sleet. He plunged through it, his face +twitching violently, his hands clenched, rage and chagrin seething in +his breast.</p> + +<p>For once Tom Petty, thick-headed though he was, was thoroughly aroused.</p> + + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> + +<div class="chapter"> +<h2 class="nobreak" id="CHAPTER_XXV">CHAPTER XXV</h2> +</div> + +<h3>THE PRICE OF HEROISM</h3> + + +<p>'Liphalet Truitt lifted the latch of Suz Montevedo's door, and a groan +was the response to his first hail.</p> + +<p>"By Hannah! you're darker'n the inside of a nigger's pocket here," he +said. "How ye doin', Suz?"</p> + +<p>"Bad, Mist' Life! Oh, so ver' bad!" moaned the Portuguese, who was a +good deal of a child in time of sickness.</p> + +<p>"And all alone?" 'Liphalet's tone was rather shocked.</p> + +<p>"Ah, I haf not been alone, Mist' Life. The saints be praised! I haf had +an angel veesitor."</p> + +<p>'Liphalet was relieved to some degree. He knew he was on the right +trail. "Where's this here angel gone?" he asked dryly.</p> + +<p>"I know not. Where do angels go when they have made a veesit of mercy, +Mist' Life? Do they not return to heaven?" queried the poetical Suz.</p> + +<p>The ex-steward was willing to agree that Doctor Ambrose's old-fashioned +parlor had often seemed near heaven to him. But he eventually got down +to practicalities with Montevedo. Miss Sue had been there for more than +an hour. She had tidied up the shack, cooked some food for the man, and +left more, with a cooling drink and the doctor's medicine within his +reach. She had promised to come again on the morrow, while she hoped to +send Washy Gallup to spend the night with him.</p> + +<p>"But eef my leetle Loretta was here, she would do for me," moaned Suz.</p> + +<p>"That fly-away young'un!" ejaculated 'Liphalet. "She can't do nothin' +but dance. Crazy as a sand-piper. She's better off with her father's +people and you're better off here without her, Suz."</p> + +<p>Montevedo's hands and knees were swollen to twice their natural size, +and, like all other persons so afflicted, he could not keep the +affected parts quiet. It always seems to the sufferer from inflammatory +rheumatism that some other position than that in which the aching +member is, would be more comfortable. The swollen and padded hands and +arms of the fisherman aroused 'Liphalet's sympathy; but he had still +another question to ask.</p> + +<p>"How long since Miss Sue left here, Suz? Seems like I ought to've met +her comin' along from Tapp Point, if not t'other side of it."</p> + +<p>"She be gone twenty minutes—not more," groaned the sufferer.</p> + +<p>"Twenty minutes? Nonsense!" ejaculated 'Liphalet. "I was all that +comin' along the cliff. I didn't see nary sign of her."</p> + +<p>"Did I not say she was an angel?" cried Montevedo. "Ah, <i>Dios</i>! She has +been carried home t'rough the storm in a chariot of the saints."</p> + +<p>"By Hannah!" ejaculated his visitor, rebuttoning his coat, "she's more +likely to have been carried over that bank by the wind, and without no +chariot. Twenty minutes ago? Are you sure, Suz?"</p> + +<p>"Oh, yes, Mist' Life. Sure as sure," sighed the fisherman. "It seemed +she had scarcely closed the door when you opened it."</p> + +<p>The other said no further word, and he stood not on the order of his +going. He plunged out of the shack into the gale with a stricture about +his heart that was positively painful. Twenty minutes before he had +been at the beginning of the patrol path, there by the corner of the +Tapp estate. Through a rift in the curtain of sleet he had seen faintly +that wraith, or figure, staggering for an instant on the verge of the +cliff.</p> + +<p>Had that ghostly specter of the storm been Sue Ambrose?</p> + +<p>Where could she have gone from Suz Montevedo's shack save toward home? +Yet he had not met her as he plowed along the patrol path. In the other +direction there was no dwelling until one reached the life saving +station. And he was sure Miss Sue would not go there. Why should she? +Was it a haven she craved, the fisherman's shack under this sheltering +bank was sufficient.</p> + +<p>Had she started for home, what other way could the doctor's sister have +gone save by the path by which 'Liphalet came to Suz Montevedo's hovel? +The ex-steward, backed up against the driving sleet, trying to pierce +the smother ahead of him with fear-sharpened vision, chewed for that +moment a bitter cud of uncertainty.</p> + +<p>To the right, across the vacant lots and by an uncertain path, lay +Betty Gallup's little cottage. But the "Able Seaman" was at this time +of day redding up the rooms behind and above the store on the Shell +Road, and her door would be locked. No storm would keep Mrs. Gallup at +home, and the doctor's sister must know there would be no refuge for +her there.</p> + +<p>The path by which she must have come to the shack, was the path by +which she must have essayed her return—this along the treacherous +verge of the sand cliff. Yet taking the Portuguese fisherman's +statement of time with more than the proverbial grain of salt, Miss +Sue could not have so quickly reached the one open house along The +Beaches—that of the younger Tapps—wherein to find shelter.</p> + +<p>The ground, of course, offered no spoor of any character. The force of +the wind was driving the snow and sleet so rapidly that nothing stuck +to the frozen earth. No footprint of any kind, therefore, was visible.</p> + +<p>The fierceness of the wind, so apparent now to 'Liphalet as he leaned +back against it, roweled the fear already roused in his heart. With +this blast behind her how could Sue Ambrose's frail body have offered +resistance?</p> + +<p>In coming over from Tapp Point he had noted no fresh break in the bank +where any part of the patrol path had been recently carried away. +However, as he had declared to Doctor Ambrose, the wind was strong +enough to have picked up his sister and swept her bodily over the +cliff's verge. This thought, born of the travail of the ex-steward's +mind, took hold upon him now with a grip that was not to be shaken +off—with a certainty that no optimism could deny. And just now +Eliphalet Truitt was in no optimistic mood.</p> + +<p>He felt that his suspicion of Sue Ambrose's fate was a certainty. +Possibly the moment following that lull in the gale when he was able +to see some distance along the patrol path, was the instant she had +come to grief. He remembered vividly the spot at which he had seen that +wraith of the storm.</p> + +<p>Her cry as she was carried over the brink would be smothered in the +hullabaloo of the gale. He had passed the place of her catastrophe and +had heard nothing to warn him that she had there come to disaster. The +breakers were covering the narrow beach with wreckage and all manner of +culch. At some points they dashed against the bluff itself and reached +ravening hands half way up its face.</p> + +<p>'Liphalet knew well the lay of the land here, and every contour and +wavering line of the cliff. In his mind's eye he saw a picture of that +bit of the bluff where he believed the tragedy had taken place.</p> + +<p>He whirled suddenly, with a prayer upon his lips, and dashed into the +shed adjoining Suz Montevedo's cottage. There upon a wooden peg hung +the coil of line he had seen the fisherman purchase at Cap'n Abe's +store a week ago, to reeve new halyards on the catboat, <i>Loretta</i>.</p> + +<p>In the corner stood a heavy crowbar. He flung the coil of rope over his +head and one shoulder, hoisted the iron bar to his other shoulder, and +thus burdened, staggered out into the storm again. The wind was really +an aid to him, for it was at first almost directly at his back. It +thrust him on, burden and all, at a furious pace.</p> + +<p>But its cant was toward the edge of the cliff, and he fought away from +that. How could Sue have kept her feet against such a tempest? It was a +mystery. 'Liphalet Truitt groaned again. Her frail body might even now +be tossing in the breakers against the shelving face of the high bank, +from the brow of which he tried at every few rods to peer down into the +tumbling, boiling sea.</p> + +<p>He arrived at the spot where he believed the doctor's sister had come +to grief. The snow and wind were both increasing in intensity. He could +see nothing at a distance of two yards. Nevertheless, he was assured +of his position. Here was where he had seen that mysterious spectral +figure in the storm.</p> + +<p>He stepped back at least two fathoms from the patrol path and drove the +point of the bar into the frozen earth. Again and again he thrust it +downward, with his weight behind each blow, until finally he could work +it around and around, sinking it into the sandy soil for as much as two +feet.</p> + +<p>The bar could not easily be drawn out, and he looped the end of the +line over it. This once secure, he allowed the slack of the line to run +free over the verge of the bluff.</p> + +<p>He would have shouted in vain. The thunder of the breakers and the +howling of the wind made a pandemonium above which no human voice could +rise. Had Sue Ambrose been within twenty feet of him, the man could not +have made her hear.</p> + +<p>Obsessed with the idea that she had been carried over the cliff, he +seized the line and lowered himself, hand under hand, down the break of +it. His head once below the brink, he was immediately out of the gale's +tumult. It roared above him as the sea roared below; but he was in a +calm, and having cleared his eyes with the back of one hand, could +look about.</p> + +<p>His feet had an unstable placement on the face of the pitched bank; +but the line gave him confidence. Here, ten feet below the brow of the +cliff, the flying spume from the bursting waves stung his cheek. Here +and there as his vision cleared he beheld patches of snow clinging to +the steep bank. Yonder was something on a narrow shelf that was not +snow. A dark figure—a human figure! Its garments fluttered in the +suction of the rifted air.</p> + +<p>"Sue! My God! Sue!"</p> + +<p>His cry was simultaneous with the mighty swing he gave his body, his +boots thrust against the crumbling bank. She lay a third of the way +down the bluff. The foam from the crests of the breakers saturated +her as they tore up the steep ascent. He swung to her side, landing +with both boots digging into the frozen sand for a foothold. She was +kneeling, her gloved hands clasped in prayer. His coming seemed to her +a direct answer to her petition.</p> + +<hr class="chap"> + +<div class="figcenter"> + <img src="images/illus4.jpg" alt="" id="illus4"> + <div class="caption"> + <p>He swung to her side, landed with both boots digging into the frozen sand for a foothold.</p> + </div> +</div> + +<hr class="chap"> + +<p>"'Liphalet! The good Lord has sent you to me!" she gasped, and he read +the words on her lips rather than heard them.</p> + +<p>"By Hannah! mebbe He did," responded 'Liphalet. "But I hadn't thought +on it that way till you said it, Susan. How did you get down here?"</p> + +<p>"I—I fell."</p> + +<p>"I thought likely," was his grim response. "And now we're goin' to +have somethin' of a time to scramble up again."</p> + +<p>"Is there nobody to help us, 'Liphalet?"</p> + +<p>"Ain't a soul stirring this weather. All sensible folks is to home," +was his mild criticism of her conduct in venturing forth. "Even the +station crew won't go on patrol before four o'clock. Ev'rybody but us +is as snug as hermit crabs.</p> + +<p>"But don't ye lose heart, Sue," he added cheerfully. "I'll git ye out +o' this all right."</p> + +<p>"I don't doubt it, 'Liphalet," she returned, clinging to his arm with +both hands and gazing expectantly into his face.</p> + +<p>The ex-steward was seriously tempted. The peril of their position +sloughed away from his mind for the moment. He gazed down into her +uplifted face and believed he saw there a response to his unspoken +desire.</p> + +<p>And then there swept over him, like the curtain of snow and sleet that +had buffeted him on the brow of the cliff, the chilling thought of that +forty thousand dollars! That fortune which she had hoarded—of which +she had evidently spent so little during these ten bitter years—parted +them. He could not bring himself into the appearance of being a fortune +hunter.</p> + +<p>He wished with all his heart and soul Sue Ambrose's money had fallen +with her down the face of the cliff. He would cut it loose and save her +for himself—letting the raging sea take toll of her hateful wealth!</p> + +<p>Already he was knotting the line under her arms in true reefer fashion. +He showed her by gesture as well as word of mouth, how to cling to him +as he climbed—actually setting her pickaback across his loins—so that +he might have both hands free.</p> + +<p>Miss Sue, though of almost childish figure, was no weakling. As for +'Liphalet, he silently thanked the Almighty his years of active life at +sea had toughened his muscles and sinews and steadied his mind against +times of stress. With his boots thrust against the broken, frosted +bank, he pulled himself and his burden upward by the sheer strength of +his arms, working his way hand above hand along the rope.</p> + +<p>Nor was the attempt without a certain heart-sickening peril. The shale +rattled from under his boots wherever he set them. The whole face of +the sand cliff was, at this point it seemed, as loose as ashes. Suppose +that bar, thrust into the earth above, should loosen! It might pull out +at any moment and cast them both into the ravening flood.</p> + +<p>Even as Eliphalet Truitt thought of this horrid possibility, a great +sea rose below them, burst, and the wash of it almost sucked them down. +Tons upon tons of earth were bitten out of the bank, and he was in +actual panic for the moment. Had he not come at the moment he had to +Sue's rescue, it would have been too late. The ledge on which she had +lain was engulfed.</p> + +<p>He climbed on. He could not see Miss Sue's features, but he knew her +lips whispered a prayer at his ear.</p> + +<p>"And who can gauge the height to which a good woman's prayer ascends?" +thought 'Liphalet, and was inspirited by the thought—and pressed on +mightily.</p> + +<p>His anxious gaze was fixed on the brow of the bank, into which the line +had so deeply cut. This upper section of the face of the cliff must +have been woefully weakened by the undermining of the sea that had +just broken around them. He expected momentarily to see the cliff for +yards on either hand topple outward and fall, overwhelming them in an +avalanche.</p> + +<p>It might be that the driving of the crowbar into the hard soil beyond +the patrol path was all that was needed to crack off a huge slice of +the cliff's edge. Its barren top had offered nothing upon which the +loop of the line could have been fixed. But he felt that he had done +his best, whatever came.</p> + +<p>Shrieking above them, the wind flung the sleet and snow yards beyond +the cliff's edge; therefore they were sheltered until he had climbed to +the very brow of the bank. He was almost breathless; he waited a few +seconds before essaying the final effort with which to drag himself +and his burden out upon the level ground.</p> + +<p>It was then that he felt the earth's first tremor. The face of the +cliff was actually heaving outward!</p> + +<p>The line slipped. He dropped with his burden for a foot or more.</p> + +<p>"She's goin'!" was 'Liphalet's gasped ejaculation, and he scrambled +desperately upward, determined to make the brink and safety with the +woman he loved.</p> + + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> + +<div class="chapter"> +<h2 class="nobreak" id="CHAPTER_XXVI">CHAPTER XXVI</h2> +</div> + +<h3>CAP'N JONAH'S CHALLENGE</h3> + + +<p>There was a satisfaction for Joe Helmford in his present mood, in +putting his head down, clenching his fists, and struggling with the +blowing sleet and snow as though the storm were an actual enemy. The +rather impassive, gentle-mannered young man craved action to appease +the turmoil aroused in his heart.</p> + +<p>Unlike 'Liphalet Truitt, who had allowed ten unfruitful years to drag +by while his heart and soul starved for the woman whose fortune kept +him at a distance, Helmford's young blood surged against the barrier he +was setting between himself and Pearl Holden.</p> + +<p>He wanted Pearl. He believed the girl had shown him as plainly as a +modest girl could, that she was interested in him. Hang Cap'n Jonah's +fortune! Was it to spoil his life and that of Pearl as well?</p> + +<p>Helmford desired to take Pearl away from her present environment and to +make her the object of his own care. He wanted her to come to him with +empty hands but a full heart. He was quite romantic enough to feel that +a single thought of the fortune which Cap'n Jonah had promised her, +would utterly spoil their happiness.</p> + +<p>As he pressed on down the Shell Road in the face of the gale, he +glanced in passing up the Petty lane. He saw no sign of life about the +house; but had he been a few minutes earlier he would have seen Tom +Petty, fresh from Cap'n Abe's store, black-browed and passion-inflamed, +stamp up the porch steps and burst into the kitchen where his mother +was cooking dinner and his father sat reading the Paulmouth <i>Argus</i>.</p> + +<p>But Helmford did meet Cap'n Jonah as he issued from the store and was +about to head homeward.</p> + +<p>"Well, well!" was the master mariner's greeting, "you're a fine feller. +Where have you been keepin' yourself? And why in tarnation did you cut +your cable and put to sea as you did? Do you s'pose you ain't got any +friends—or don't you want any?"</p> + +<p>"Why, Cap'n Jonah," said Helmford, leading the old man into the shelter +of one of Cap'n Abe's sheds, "I had no intention of ignoring you. I +fancied you would hear all about it from the Pettys and—and Miss +Pearl."</p> + +<p>"Pearly? What does she know about it? She says you never told her you +were goin' to leave. And Sarah Petty's ne'er mentioned your name from +that day to this."</p> + +<p>"Didn't Miss Pearl tell you of what happened yonder on the road, when +she was coming home from church?"</p> + +<p>"The night before you slipped your moorings? Nary a word," declared +Cap'n Jonah, emphatically.</p> + +<p>Helmford was rather taken aback. If Pearl had not told the old seaman +of the incident perhaps she did not want it mentioned to him. Just how +much the girl might be attached to Tom Petty, rough and uncouth as he +was, Helmford did not know.</p> + +<p>"Come now!" exclaimed Cap'n Jonah. "Let's hear the whole on't. I +thought that gal was keepin' something back, but I didn't know what +'twas. You an' she didn't have no quarrel?"</p> + +<p>"Pearl and I? Certainly not!" replied Helmford indignantly. Then he +smiled grimly. "But I did have a brief set-to with Tom Petty."</p> + +<p>"Whatever!" ejaculated Cap'n Jonah. "And you let that lout put you out?"</p> + +<p>"I put myself out. I did not care to remain and quarrel with him +continually—as I should."</p> + +<p>"'Hem! Ye-as. I expect there might ha' been bad blood 'twixt you. Over +Pearly, of course."</p> + +<p>"Now, Cap'n Hand," interrupted Helmford emphatically. "I will not +discuss Miss Pearl's private affairs at all. It is not my business to +do so. You have told me that you intend making her the beneficiary +of your will. Whatever my personal regard may be for Miss Pearl that +fact, in itself, would preclude my being a rival of Tom Petty's for her +favor——"</p> + +<p>"Hoity-toity!" ejaculated Cap'n Jonah. "The kettle <i>has</i> b'iled over +for a fac'! Air you another loony feller like Life Truitt? Afraid of a +woman if she has a little tad of money?"</p> + +<p>"At least, I respect myself—and Miss Pearl—too much to have it said +that I address her because she expects to possess your fortune, Cap'n +Jonah, when you are gone. Tom Petty has already accused me of that."</p> + +<p>"And what did you say to him?" demanded the old man.</p> + +<p>"I didn't say much. I knocked him down," confessed Helmford.</p> + +<p>"Whew!" whistled the captain, his eyes snapping with excitement "I'd +like to have seen you do that. And I bet Pearly would too!"</p> + +<p>"She did."</p> + +<p>"She was there an' saw the fracas?"</p> + +<p>"It wasn't a fracas," explained Helmford, rather shamefaced. "He tried +to hit me with a club, and I got at him first. That's all."</p> + +<p>"And Pearly saw it? With her own eyes? How'd she act?" demanded the +eager captain.</p> + +<p>"She—she cried. Of course she was frightened," the young man said, +somewhat puzzled by the other's questions.</p> + +<p>"'Hem! She didn't throw herself on Tom an' cry 'cause you'd fetched him +a wallop?"</p> + +<p>"Certainly not!" exclaimed Helmford somewhat angrily.</p> + +<p>"Looks, then," observed Cap'n Jonah shrewdly, "as though she wasn't +much int'rested in Tom. Dunno how she could be. I reckon you air no +rival of his'n——"</p> + +<p>"If you please, Cap'n Hand," interrupted Helmford gruffly, "we will not +discuss the matter at all. Miss Pearl is not for me. She should marry a +man of equal fortune."</p> + +<p>He turned abruptly, and instead of entering the store as had been his +intention, he stormed along the road and up the easy ascent toward +Tapp Point and the exposed sand cliff beyond which, at that moment, +'Liphalet Truitt was searching for Sue Ambrose.</p> + +<p>Cap'n Jonah allowed the young man to go without further speech; but +he watched him out of sight in the driving snow, shaking his head +thoughtfully.</p> + +<p>"Whatever!" he muttered. "Dern the fortune, anyway! Looks as though +'twas a boomerang. If them phony sheers sarves to keep them two young +folks apart, then I have made a mess, and no mistake!"</p> + +<p>He was only half an hour or so behind Tom in reaching the house. +But that half hour had served to change the atmosphere of the Petty +household from that of cheerful complacency to one of fierce and eager +antagonism to Cap'n Jonah.</p> + +<p>Tom had brought into the kitchen something worse than the snow that +stuck to his boots, although his mother had first of all begun to scold +about that.</p> + +<p>"What's got into you, Tom Petty? Don't you know enough to stomp your +boots in the porch? One would think you was born and brought up in a +barn," fretted Sarah. "If you air goin' to be a rich man some day, you +better l'arn how to behave nice."</p> + +<p>"Rich!" exploded her son, finally getting his breath. "Who's goin' to +make me rich, I want to know?"</p> + +<p>"Your Uncle Jonah," said Sarah placidly. "If you manage to behave +yourself."</p> + +<p>"Uncle Jonah! That consarned old cheat?" bawled Tom, so angry that he +all but choked.</p> + +<p>"What is the matter with you, Tom?" demanded his father, laying down +his paper. "What's bitin' of you now, I want to know?"</p> + +<p>"That dod-rotted old cheat!" began Tom again, when his mother +interrupted him with:</p> + +<p>"Now, Tom Petty! I won't hear you use sech language about your uncle. +What mess have you managed to stir up?"</p> + +<p>"I tell you what I have been doin'," vouchsafed the lout, his voice +trembling, his face inflamed. "I've been listenin' to Cap'n Cheatin' +Jonah and Abram Silt chucklin' over the way they've fooled us all—an' +ev'rybody else 'round here. You might have known when this old +sea-devil was so almighty thick with Abe Silt that they'd cook up +something——"</p> + +<p>"What do you mean, Tom Petty?"</p> + +<p>Sarah's voice rose almost to a shriek. She started for Tom, her green +eyes snapping, her fingers crooked like talons. Her rage was that of +the feline. Tom actually retreated from her threatening front.</p> + +<p>"I mean that old scoundrel ain't got scurce a cent to bless himself +with. I heard him say it!" Tom panted.</p> + +<p>"Goshamighty!" gasped Orrin.</p> + +<p>"What d'ye mean? Them securities you told us about?" demanded Sarah.</p> + +<p>"Was phony—make-believe. He just said so. He an' Cap'n Abe hatched it +all up to fool you—so you'd treat him nice, an' treat Pearly nice."</p> + +<p>"I can't believe it!" wailed Orrin weakly.</p> + +<p>"If you air tryin' to fool us, Tom Petty, with one o' your silly +jokes," declared his mother, "I'll near 'bout kill you!"</p> + +<p>"I tell you we've been done—an' done good. That box was sent over from +the bank for a joke. Cap'n Abe engineered it all, you bet! And you give +this old sea-robin your parlor, and fed him up, and made much of him, +and showed him off to Uncle 'Poley and Uncle Perse, an' the rest——"</p> + +<p>"You shet your mouth!" commanded Sarah. Her face was as inflamed as his +own. Her sharp features threatened dire work. Her lips, drawn back from +her ragged teeth, were sprayed with foam like those of a maddened wolf.</p> + +<p>Pearl, who had been doing the upstairs work, entered the kitchen on +this tableau. With one accord the three Pettys turned upon her. Tom, in +a single stride, reached the girl's side and seized her by the wrist +with a grip that brought a cry of pain from her lips.</p> + +<p>"Here's one that knew it all the time, I bet my hat!" growled the son.</p> + +<p>"The ungrateful little baggage!" snarled Sarah, coming at Pearl from +the other side.</p> + +<p>Orrin had risen, and now leaned over the table, his hairy fists +clenched and resting on it, his eyes glaring under penthouse brows.</p> + +<p>Their attack was so sudden—so unexpected after the recent treatment +they had accorded her—that Pearl was made speechless.</p> + +<p>She had been about to slip into her coat, throw a hood over her hair, +and venture up to the chapel to see if the committee on decorations +had gathered there. She had not forgotten that Helmford had promised to +help, and the girl hoped to meet him.</p> + +<p>"Let me go, Tom Petty!" she demanded, dropping her outdoor garments and +trying to break away from his rough grasp.</p> + +<p>Sarah seized the girl's other arm and twisted it spitefully.</p> + +<p>"Tell me!" hissed the woman. "Have you knowed this all along, you +little viper, you? Tell me!"</p> + +<p>She shook Pearl one way. Tom shook her another. Orrin demanded from +across the table:</p> + +<p>"Answer us! Is this here true? Has that old whelp been foolin' us? +Ain't Cap'n Jonah got no fortune?"</p> + +<p>"Cap'n Jonah?"</p> + +<p>Pearl gasped the name as the door was flung open allowing the old +seaman and, seemingly, a good part of the storm, to enter. It was such +a furious blast that accompanied Cap'n Jonah into the kitchen that he +had to put his back against the door and so force it shut against wind +and snow.</p> + +<p>He cleared his eyes with the back of his hand. He beheld the three +Pettys surrounding the girl with an astonishment that turned instantly +to indignation.</p> + +<p>"Belay there!" he commanded. "What do you folks mean to do to that +gal? Ain't I told you what I'd do if you didn't stop pickin' on her? +Belay all! What d'you mean?"</p> + +<p>Sarah flung around on him, her eyes fairly sparking. "Ah! Here ye be!" +she cried. "You're the rich Jonah Hand, I hear tell? You got a box full +of securities and money, I wouldn't wonder? <i>And who loaned 'em to +you?</i>"</p> + +<p>Cap'n Jonah was, for the moment, staggered. But he was already leaning +against the door for support and his grim old mahogany face showed no +flicker of emotion as he listened to his niece's tirade.</p> + +<p>"We know all about it now, you pauper!" the woman cried. "Comin' here +an' deceivin' your own blood rel'tives. Livin' on our bounty an' makin' +a show out'n us that has give ye bit an' sup."</p> + +<p>"Easy! Easy!" murmured Cap'n Jonah, grim-lipped. "Ye ain't lost nothin' +by <i>me</i>, Sarah Petty."</p> + +<p>"Shet up!" she shrieked at him. "I've been slavin' for you—ev'rybody +knows it. Aunt 'Poley, an' Aunt Perse seen it. Miz Enoch Petty said I +was a fool to do so much for any old tramp of a sailor——"</p> + +<p>"Sarah Petty!" Cap'n Jonah's voice thundered through the room and +silenced the woman. He was no longer aghast at the discovery the Pettys +had made. His commanding voice and manner held his three relatives in +abeyance as though he were speaking from his quarterdeck.</p> + +<p>"Sarah Petty, I am your father's brother. There was a time, as you well +know, when poor John—and you and your mother—might have been cast on +a lee shore if it hadn't been for me standin' by an' seein' that you +weathered the storm.</p> + +<p>"If I had come to you when I landed here from China and demanded that +you take me in and do for me, 'twould ha' been no more than right, as +you know, Sarah Petty. As 'tis, I don't owe you nothin'.</p> + +<p>"If you let yourself be fooled into believin' I was a wealthy man, you +done it easy. <i>I never said I was!</i></p> + +<p>"I've paid you every cent I agreed to for board and lodgin'—<i>an'</i> +wash. My money is jest as good somewhere else, I reckon, as 'tis here, +as long as it lasts. I'd ruther go to strangers and hire my keep from +'em, than stay under <i>your</i> roof, Sarah Petty, on any terms. I'll go +now. I'll find a shelter somewhere and send for my duffel."</p> + +<p>He thumped his cane resoundingly on the floor and wheeled toward the +door again. Pearl started toward him, both hands held out appealingly:</p> + +<p>"Oh, Cap'n Jonah!"</p> + +<p>"Pick up your coat, gal," Cap'n Jonah said firmly. "You come along +o' me, if you will. I'll not leave you here to be hounded by these +Pettys. Whether I've got money or not, I guarantee we can make a home +together, an' 'twill be a peaceful one—that's whatever!</p> + +<p>"I ain't on my last legs yet. I'm as good a man as Washy Gallup is, +barrin' when the rheumatiz gets me. I can airn a dollar yet—an' so can +you. Will you come along o' me, Pearly—an' take potluck?"</p> + +<p>She was already struggling into her coat. She was laughing and crying +together.</p> + +<p>"Oh, Cap'n Jonah! Oh, Cap'n Jonah. You make me happier than I've been +for a long while back. I wouldn't be afraid to start out with you right +now for a voyage around the world!"</p> + +<p>"That's the talk!" cried the stout-hearted old mariner. "We'll show +'em, Pearly—you an' me."</p> + +<p>He tore the door open. He pulled his southwester more firmly over his +ears. He took Pearl's arm within the crook of his own. The two marched +out of the Petty kitchen and were almost instantly swallowed in the +smother of the storm.</p> + + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> + +<div class="chapter"> +<h2 class="nobreak" id="CHAPTER_XXVII">CHAPTER XXVII</h2> +</div> + +<h3>A RIFT IN THE CLOUDS</h3> + + +<p>This was no day to wander about out of doors, either for pleasure or +exercise. Nor was Joe Helmford bent on either. Nevertheless he kept +on along the deserted road on which the summer colony houses fronted, +until he had passed the wall and gates of the Tapp estate.</p> + +<p>There, as he confronted the waste of the wind-swept bluff, he halted as +'Liphalet Truitt had halted, to peer ahead. Now and then a rift in the +storm revealed to him the ugly, narrow pathway beaten hard by the feet +of the life saving patrol.</p> + +<p>As 'Liphalet had caught a glimpse of a snow wraith in the storm, so Joe +Helmford chanced to see a figure stand out clearly upon the brink of +the cliff, and for a single moment.</p> + +<p>"What's that fellow doing there?" exclaimed the young man. And then: +"Great heavens! he's gone over."</p> + +<p>For in that flash, before the snow curtain shut down again, he had seen +'Liphalet Truitt slide over the brink of the cliff and, clinging to Suz +Montevedo's new line, drop out of sight.</p> + +<p>There was no hesitation in Joe Helmford's actions at this juncture. +Putting away those troubles which had obsessed his mind, in an instant +he was alive to the peril of the man—if it were a man—he had seen +go over the edge of the cliff. He started for the spot, charging +recklessly through the storm.</p> + +<p>He was familiar with this surfman's path. In this direction lay Salt +Creek and the fish hatchery.</p> + +<p>In a few breathless minutes he came stumbling to the spot. He could not +miss it, for he tripped and fell, sprawling across the taut halyard +which was looped over the crowbar. The crowbar was canted forward +toward the cliff's brink and the frozen ground all about it was broken +and loose.</p> + +<p>Helmford heard no cry from below; but he saw the rope slipping and +realized that there was a burden on it that was doomed, unless he +interfered, to be dashed into the breakers clawing so madly at the face +of the bluff.</p> + +<p>With a shout he leaped upon the slipping hemp with both feet, just as +the crowbar tore loose. That was the moment when 'Liphalet Truitt felt +himself and Miss Sue drop a sudden, nerve-racking foot down the wall of +the precipice.</p> + +<p>"She's goin'!" the ex-steward repeated as the broken earth rattled +about them. That an avalanche had started—that the entire face of the +cliff was about to fall into the sea—he had little doubt. He tore his +hands painfully in lifting himself and Miss Sue up again to the edge of +the caving bank.</p> + +<p>They would never have made it had not two muscular hands seized +'Liphalet's coat collar and dragged him up to the path. He lost the +rope, scrambling blindly on hands and knees, the woman still clinging +to him. The crowbar broke loose entirely and, with the rope, hurtled +over the brink of the cliff.</p> + +<p>With a burst of sound that rose above the clamor of both gale and sea, +the landslip broke away from the brow of the precipice. The men and the +woman almost hung over the ragged break for an instant. Then Helmford +pulled the others farther in and raised Miss Sue gently to her feet.</p> + +<p>"Miss Sue? Great heavens!" cried the young fellow. "What does this +mean?"</p> + +<p>"By Hannah!" ejaculated the ex-steward, scrambling up, "there goes old +Suz Montevedo's new line and crowbar."</p> + +<p>"Oh, 'Liphalet!" cried Miss Sue. "Are we safe?"</p> + +<p>"You ain't—not yet," he declared. "Nor you won't be till we get you +home an' 'tween blankets. Who's this? By Hannah, 'tis Mr. Helmford! You +sartainly was a friend in need, Mr. Helmford. If it hadn't been for +your help we'd have gone down along o' the line <i>an'</i> the crowbar."</p> + +<p>"How can we thank him?" murmured Miss Sue, still clinging to +'Liphalet's coat sleeve.</p> + +<p>"You can postpone that," laughed Helmford, experiencing a great +revulsion of feeling. "We must take her right along to Cap'n Abe's +store, 'Liphalet. That is about the nearest shelter, isn't it?"</p> + +<p>"It's the best place, anyhow," said the ex-steward. "We can get a buggy +to get her home in, from there."</p> + +<p>"Oh, I can walk, 'Liphalet," said the little woman softly.</p> + +<p>But she was thankful for the support of a strong arm on either side as +they started along the path with the gale behind them.</p> + +<p>"This experience, Susan, is enough to give you your never git over," +said the anxious 'Liphalet.</p> + +<p>"Why, I'm neither sugar nor salt, 'Liphalet. I have the use of my limbs +yet. And there's a lot to do to-day. There's the chapel to trim yet, +and the Christmas tree."</p> + +<p>"Christmas——" He could not say it. The disgusted snort which had +become almost an involuntary ejaculation when he was reminded of the +Yuletide season, was cut off on his lips as Miss Sue continued:</p> + +<p>"Were you not going to the chapel to help, Mr. Helmford? I asked Pearly +to go and take charge."</p> + +<p>"She was not there an hour ago," the young man replied, his countenance +falling into somber lines again. "In fact, nobody was there. I got the +key from 'Liphalet's porch and unlocked the vestry door and lit the +fire. But nobody came."</p> + +<p>"Dear me! I must see about that," Miss Sue said more briskly. "I wonder +where Pearly can be?"</p> + +<p>They were glad to get into the partial shelter of I. Tapp's wall and +there take breath. Helmford suggested that Miss Sue stop at Mrs. +Lawford Tapp's to rest, but she would not hear to this.</p> + +<p>"I was Cape born and raised, and there's no difference between me and +my forebears save that I have lived a little softer," she declared. "If +it was Betty Gallup you boys had saved from death, would you expect her +to faint on your hands?"</p> + +<p>"'The Able Seaman'?" chuckled Helmford. "No, Miss Ambrose. I should not +expect Mrs. Gallup to display many of the ordinary feminine weaknesses."</p> + +<p>Nevertheless he and 'Liphalet all but carried Miss Sue between them +as far as Cap'n Abe's store. Here, as the trio approached through the +steadily falling snow, came Milt Baker and Amiel Perdue, bound homeward +for dinner.</p> + +<p>"What in tarnation!" ejaculated Milt, almost swallowing his usual cud +of Brown Mule in his amazement. "Life Truitt? And the Doc's sister? +Sufferin' swordfish! There ain't been no elopement, has there?"</p> + +<p>Fortunately the noise of the wind and sifting snow drowned most of this +unguarded speech, from Miss Sue's ears at least. But 'Liphalet heard +enough, and if a glance would have drowned the Shell Road humorist that +look with which the ex-steward favored Milt would certainly have sent +him to a watery grave.</p> + +<p>The exhausted trio stumbled into Cap'n Abe's store. The usual company +about the stove had scattered. They heard the storekeeper's voice from +the living room in the rear. 'Liphalet led the way to the flap in the +counter, which he lifted to let Miss Sue and Helmford pass through.</p> + +<p>As they crossed the entry between the store and the living room they +heard another voice in reply to Cap'n Abe's. The storm-beaten callers +came to the open door to see Cap'n Jonah and Pearl Holden with the old +store-keeper. Pearl had dropped into the rocking-chair usually favored +by Diddimus, the cat, and had a handkerchief to her eyes. But Cap'n +Jonah was on his feet, his southwester pushed back on his head, his +mahogany face alive with emotion, his snuff-box in his hand.</p> + +<p>"No, Mr. Silt, I warn't never cut out for actin' a part, I don't guess, +and it sarves me right. I'd never ought to have tried to fool them +Pettys into believin' I had a fortune when I ain't got none."</p> + +<p>"Sh!" warned Cap'n Abe, seeing the newly arrived visitors.</p> + +<p>Cap'n Jonah wheeled and saw them too. But his countenance did not +change from its stern and determined expression.</p> + +<p>"They might's well know it here an' now," he declared. "'Liphalet +does know, anyway. And I reckon young Helmford there thinks he has +reason to be glad I ain't got a fortune. Yes, friends, I been gullin' +all on you. I ain't got a penny but what I'm carryin' right now in my +pocket—there! I don't reckon there's a much poorer man on this here +Cape than Cap'n Jonah Hand."</p> + +<p>"Oh, Cap'n Hand!" cried Miss Sue in sympathy. She crossed to his side +and rested a gentle hand upon his coat sleeve.</p> + +<p>'Liphalet, from the doorway, saw and appreciated the picture they +made—the sturdy, stern-faced old seaman looking down upon the petite +Miss Sue with beaming eyes, while she gazed up into his face in full +sympathy for his misfortune. 'Liphalet Truitt had been stirred to the +very depths of his being during the past two hours; but the heart-pang +that smote him now was more severe than anything he had heretofore +suffered.</p> + +<p>Nobody noticed him as he retired from the living room and closed the +door. He passed out of Cap'n Abe's side door and went home. Once there +he stoked his dying fire, changed into dry garments, and made himself +a huge bowl of "composition tea"—a never-failing Cardhaven remedy in +case of chill.</p> + +<p>But the chill at 'Liphalet Truitt's heart was not so easily cured.</p> + +<hr class="tb"> + +<p>Cap'n Abe's and Miss Sue's attention for the moment was fully given to +Cap'n Jonah. But Helmford approached Pearl Holden's side. He stooped +and drew her hands from before her face and lifted her up by the wrists +to stand before him.</p> + +<p>"Is—is this true, Pearly?" he asked. "Is it really <i>so</i>? Hasn't Cap'n +Jonah a fortune?"</p> + +<p>"He—he says he hasn't!" she sobbed.</p> + +<p>"And are you disappointed? I am sorry, Pearl."</p> + +<p>"What you sorry for?" she demanded, raising dewy eyes to his. "Cap'n +Jonah is going to be all right. I can work for him if he gets laid up +by the rheumatism—and I'd be glad to. He's been awfully kind to me."</p> + +<p>"But you will be no heiress," Helmford said, smiling.</p> + +<p>"'Heiress'?" repeated Pearl. "What do you mean, Mr. Helmford? My! do +you s'pose I thought two minutes about Cap'n Jonah's fortune?"</p> + +<p>"But I have been thinking about it," the young man said. "And—forgive +me for saying it—I am glad you are not going to be rich, Pearly."</p> + +<p>She was still looking at him. They had forgotten the others in the +room. Now that the great moment had arrived Pearl Holden showed no +false modesty.</p> + +<p>"Why don't you want me to be rich?" she asked him. "Though goodness +knows, I never expect to be!"</p> + +<p>"Because <i>I</i> am poor. And <i>I</i> never expect to be rich," he said, his +voice shaking with suppressed feeling. "As you are not an heiress, +Pearly, I can tell you something that I have wanted to tell you for a +long while and have not dared. It is——"</p> + +<p>"Say!" exclaimed the harsh voice of Betty Gallup from the kitchen door. +"Shall I dish up the chowder for all hands, Cap'n Abe? It's sp'ilin' to +be et."</p> + +<p>"Sure-<i>ly</i>!" replied the hospitable storekeeper. "This ain't no time to +be starvin' ourselves. Bring it in, Betty. An' afterwards you git two +cabins ready upstairs for guests. Cap'n Jonah and Pearly can stay here +just as well's not till they git located to suit 'em.</p> + +<p>"Hi-mighty!" he added, rubbing his hands together, his benignant old +face glowing with kindliness. "I guess you'll find, Cap'n Jonah, that +you've got plenty friends along the Shell Road, if the Pettys <i>have</i> +turned sour. But Orrin an' Sarah allus was near 'bout like vinegar, +when all's said an' done."</p> + + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> + +<div class="chapter"> +<h2 class="nobreak" id="CHAPTER_XXVIII">CHAPTER XXVIII</h2> +</div> + +<h3>ALL ABOUT A BAD SMELL</h3> + + +<p>The three Pettys were not happy. Somehow Cap'n Jonah's defiance and +Pearl's joyful determination to put herself under the old mariner's +protection, quite took the taste out of any pleasure Sarah Petty might +have felt in seeing the two "paupers" start out into the storm.</p> + +<p>Orrin sank gloomily into his chair and openly groaned. The sand was +cut out from under him, and no mistake! The melting of Cap'n Jonah's +fortune was a catastrophe of overwhelming proportions. Orrin felt that +he would never get over it.</p> + +<p>It was the son who first found voice and energy to put his thoughts +into words.</p> + +<p>"There!" he croaked. "<i>Now</i> you've done it, an' I hope you're +satisfied."</p> + +<p>"What's the matter with you, Tom Petty?" demanded his mother, +apprehending the young fellow's complaint before it was uttered.</p> + +<p>"You've driv' Pearly away. She ain't got no business going off with +that old sea-devil!" cried Tom.</p> + +<p>"Wal, what d'ye want her here for?" queried Sarah. "She ain't wuth her +salt no more. 'Twixt Uncle Jonah and that Helmford feller, they've nigh +'bout ruined her for work."</p> + +<p>"<i>Work?</i>" repeated Tom, with scorn. "That's all you ever think of—you +slave driver! I didn't want Pearl driv' out."</p> + +<p>"Why not? What's she to <i>you</i>—when she ain't goin' to have no money?"</p> + +<p>"She's my girl!" cried Tom hotly. "Or she would ha' been if it wasn't +for that consarned Helmford. And it's your fault he ever come here and +made trouble 'tween us."</p> + +<p>"Why, you talk foolish!" declared Sarah.</p> + +<p>"Is that so?" snarled the lout. "Well, I can tell you right now: If +Pearly's goin' to be turned out o' house an' home, so'm I. I'll go with +her."</p> + +<p>This ridiculous statement, however, did not make Sarah Petty smile. +After all, the woman's very soul was bound up in Tom. He could get his +way with her by such threats at any time. And she was broken in spirit +now.</p> + +<p>"You—you can't get her to come back," she stammered.</p> + +<p>"I can try," declared Tom. "And I'm goin' to. But you've got to promise +to be good to her. If I marry Pearl I ain't goin' to let her be your +slave no more."</p> + +<p>"You ain't married her yet," said Sarah pursing her lips tightly.</p> + +<p>"An' there's another thing," went on Tom, using the gaff without +mercy. "How about if Uncle Jonah turns on you with that old note of +gran'-pop's? He ain't forgot it. You can see that by what he just said +to you. He was throwin' it up to you. An' now it's proved he ain't got +a fortune, he'll try seeing what he can get out o' you."</p> + +<p>"You hesh up," commanded Sarah Petty, suddenly recovering her poise. +Orrin might be utterly helpless; but she had begun to think again. +Tom's point was well taken. She could only judge other people by her +own mind. That was the great lack in her character, after all. She +measured every other person by her own warped standard.</p> + +<p>It was possibly within Uncle Jonah's power to make the Pettys a great +deal of trouble. Even if the old note for two thousand dollars was +outlawed, if the old captain pressed the matter the fact would be made +public that Sarah Petty had not settled her father's just debts when +she had administered his estate.</p> + +<p>The Petty family—Uncles 'Poley, Perse, Solon and Enoch, and their +wives and connections—would hear all about it. Sarah was a social +climber. She had desired to use the prestige of Cap'n Jonah's supposed +fortune as a ladder on which to mount to the higher branches of the +family tree.</p> + +<p>There was nothing criminal in Sarah being deceived by the old sea +captain regarding his financial affairs. That was not her fault. But +if the story got abroad that she, after all, owed Cap'n Jonah all the +attention she had given him—and much more—the Harwich Pettys would +have something to say about it!</p> + +<p>Sarah Petty could better bear being laughed at for being fooled by +Cap'n Jonah, than be exposed as having cheated the old man out of +two thousand dollars. Her calmer thought compassed this fact almost +immediately. Shrewdly she readjusted her plans for the future.</p> + +<p>"Tom Petty," she said briskly, "you go after that gal. You bring +Pearl back here. She ain't got no right to leave us this-a-way in any +case, for we're her guardeens, made so by the 'thority of the town +<i>se</i>lectmen till she's eighteen."</p> + +<p>"You want I should spoil ev'rything," her son complained. "If I try to +order her back——"</p> + +<p>"I didn't say so, did I?" snapped his mother. "We've got a hold on her +just the same. But that's our last resort. You find Pearl an' tell her +to come back. You be nice to her. If you want to marry the girl your +father and I ain't got no objections. She's a fav'rite of Uncle Jonah +Hand. A blind man can see that. And he won't do nothin' that'll hurt +her or her'n. D'ye see? If Pearl an' you marry, he won't press no old +note against this estate that's a-comin' to you some day. That is sure."</p> + +<p>"I dunno can I git her back," grumbled Tom, buttoning his coat again. +"But I'll find out where she's goin' and what she's goin' to do."</p> + +<p>"You can look in at Abe Silt's store," said his mother, sharply. "If +that old tramp's such good friends with Silt, that's where he an' +Pearl's gone."</p> + +<p>Tom thought this very likely, and he made the store his destination. +It seemed as though the storm was abating; but Tom Petty was so deeply +engaged in thought that he paid slight attention to the weather.</p> + +<p>The lout had come to a juncture where he could no longer shift the +burden of decision to other shoulders, or postpone settlement of this +question until a future time. The shock of Pearl deliberately leaving +the house with Cap'n Jonah had roused him to at least one fact.</p> + +<p>He cared a great deal for the girl. His was an utterly selfish love; +but such as it was, it was the very best imitation of affection that +Tom Petty would probably ever experience.</p> + +<p>To his mind Joe Helmford was but a passing fancy of Pearl's. Of course, +in the end, he, Tom, would get her. It was foreordained. They had lived +in such close companionship for so many years that he could imagine no +change. That was why her actual departure had so shocked him.</p> + +<p>Now he was going after her. He never considered that she might not +return home with him. Why, any other outcome of his attempt he did not +contemplate for a moment! He had bullied Pearl for so long that he +expected to keep on doing so indefinitely. Pearl was "easy." That was +the way Tom Petty expressed it to himself.</p> + +<p>He did not enter Cap'n Abe's store, but went around the house to the +kitchen door, expecting to find Betty Gallup there and learn from her +how the land lay. It was not Mrs. Gallup, however, who came to the door +in answer to his knuckles on the panel.</p> + +<p>"Tom Petty!"</p> + +<p>"Hi, Pearly!" the youth greeted her, calling up a grin. "Marm wants you +should come home."</p> + +<p>"I'm never going back to your house again, Tom Petty, only to get my +things."</p> + +<p>"Now, don't say that, Pearly," the young fellow went on, very mildly +for him. "You don't want to be mean. Marm never said for you to go——"</p> + +<p>"I came away with Cap'n Jonah on my own hook," she agreed. "And I'm not +going back."</p> + +<p>"Aw, yes you will," Tom repeated. "You know how much I like you, +Pearly. I couldn't get along without you—no two ways about it! You +got to stop this foolishness and come home. That old feller ain't got +nothin'. He can't look out for himself, let alone do anything for you. +And Helmford wouldn't look at you, you know well enough, if he didn't +think you was goin' to be rich. Come on home, now."</p> + +<p>"I won't!"</p> + +<p>He thought she was about to close the door. Tom Petty had never learned +patience, and his appearance of gentleness was only a veneer. His right +hand shot out and he caught the girl's slim wrist. He jerked her out +upon the step.</p> + +<p>"You come home along o' me and stop your foolishness," he growled. "Do +you hear me, Pearly?"</p> + +<p>She struggled to escape. With her free hand she struck him across his +inflamed and ugly face. She cried out as he forced her down the steps +into the beating storm.</p> + +<p>"Stop! Stop, Tom Petty! I won't go home with you!" she cried.</p> + +<p>Around the corner of the kitchen ell charged Joe Helmford—the very +person Pearl most desired to see.</p> + +<p>"Let her alone!" commanded the man fiercely.</p> + +<p>Tom turned on him, snarling. He was so enraged that he forgot for the +moment to be afraid. Helmford stripped off his beclouded spectacles and +handed them to Pearl. He unbelted and dropped his Mackinaw at his feet.</p> + +<p>"Look out for yourself, Tom Petty!" he said threateningly. "I am going +to give you what you have been suffering for ever since you got too big +for your mother to spank."</p> + +<p>They were not unevenly matched as to height and weight. Tom's muscles +were fully as well developed, and he was as supple as his antagonist. +In a rough and tumble fight he might even have been Helmford's superior.</p> + +<p>But the latter would not allow the lout to get a wrestler's hold upon +him. As Tom charged, Helmford stepped nimbly aside and drove his fist +into Tom's face. Had the latter been wise he would have let that blow +begin and finish the battle. But such courage as the lout owned was +roused by the smart of the blow.</p> + +<p>His face was a mask of blood as he rushed for Helmford a second time. +His antagonist met this onslaught fairly. His hard and capable fists +drove in with all the weight of his shoulders behind them, while Tom +pawed the air blindly with clutching hands.</p> + +<p>Tom could not reach his opponent at all; but it was several moments +and he was a desperately bruised young man, before this truth came +fully home to him. His own arms flung like flails, but to no purpose. +Helmford reached his bruised face and battered it with such lusty blows +that Tom thought his antagonist must have more than the usual number of +fists.</p> + +<p>Petty staggered; he slipped; he fell to his knees; he got up again. +While all the time the blows rained upon him and he was blinded. He +began to bleat like a calf in the grip of the butcher. He could not +escape.</p> + +<p>Finally arrived the last and merciful blow—Helmford's right to the +point of the jaw. Tom was felled and lay there in the snow, for the +moment quite unable to realize where he was or what had happened to him.</p> + +<p>When he actually came to his senses Joe Helmford had taken Pearl away. +They had been ready, as it was, to accompany Miss Sue to the chapel to +trim the Christmas tree. But the storekeeper, Cap'n Jonah, and Betty +Gallup, were grouped about the fallen lout, and were staring at him.</p> + +<p>"I tell ye what 'tis," the able seaman said, in her jerky and emphatic +way, "once in a while one o' these city fellers does somethin' that ye +hafter admire 'em for. Who'd ha' thought Mr. Helmford, whose business +'tis, <i>he</i> says, to teach fishes to hatch their aigs, had so much in +him? Why, this Tom Petty's been sufferin' for this beatin' for years, +an' there ain't been a loafer around this store with public sperit +enough to do it."</p> + +<p>Nevertheless it was Betty Gallup who helped the dazed youth to his +feet and assisted him into the house and made him lie down upon Cap'n +Abe's lounge in the living room. She brought warm water and laved his +bruised face. And she brought vinegar and brown paper and put a patch +on his inflamed eye.</p> + +<p>"Now you lay up here as long as you feel like, Tom Petty," Mrs. Gallup +said, as she cleared the table of the dinner dishes. "Mischief's done +now, and you can't better it. Folks is bound to know you got licked, +for your hull face advertises the fac'."</p> + +<p>The storm kept many customers from interrupting Cap'n Abe, although the +wind was moderating. He sat with Cap'n Jonah in the living room and +discussed the latter's financial affairs more earnestly than heretofore.</p> + +<p>"You say this here money you got in your wallet is all you got in the +world, Cap'n Hand?"</p> + +<p>"Whatever! Nor no more to be had," said Cap'n Jonah. "I got some ile +sheers—but, pshaw! They ain't nothin'."</p> + +<p>"What air them sheers?" demanded Cap'n Abe, suddenly. "Better take +stock of ev'rythin', as the feller said when he listed the litter of +kittens in the sheriff's sale. I was readin' in the <i>Globe</i> paper only +this mornin'——"</p> + +<p>He got up and brought the Boston paper from the rack on the wall. +Unfolding it he found the financial page and pointed a horny forefinger +to the heading of an article there printed.</p> + +<p>"What's this here?" Cap'n Abe asked. "Where's my readin' specs? Never +can find 'em when they air wanted."</p> + +<p>"On your forehead like they always be," said Cap'n Jonah, taking the +paper after having adjusted his own eyeglasses. "'Hem! Whatever! What +d'you make of this, Mr. Silt? Why, them's the very sheers! The Little +Sandy Oil and Coal Company."</p> + +<p>"Lemme see!" said Cap'n Abe eagerly, having twitched his silver-bowed +spectacles astride his nose. "D'you mean to say, Cap'n Hand, that you +got some o' them Little Sandy sheers?"</p> + +<p>"Abe Silt!" ejaculated Cap'n Jonah, almost breathless. "I got two +thousand of 'em! Right here in my pocket! D'you s'pose they can be the +same?"</p> + +<p>"'Little Sandy Oil and Coal Company,'" read Cap'n Abe, slowly. "'Lay +dormant many years.' 'Outskirts of the thriving city of Decatur.' My +soul, Cap'n Hand!"</p> + +<p>"Why," said the other, "they told me two year ago that all they ever +got out o' them wells they drove, was a bad smell."</p> + +<p>"Hi-mighty!" shouted Cap'n Abe, slapping his knee in high delight. +"That's exactly what they did git! Nateral gas! D'you know what that +is, Cap'n Hand? Why, it means they air piping that 'nasty smell' you +speak of into the city of Decatur, an' sellin' it to light <i>an'</i> heat +houses. What d'ye know 'bout that?"</p> + +<p>"Whatever!" gasped Cap'n Jonah.</p> + +<p>"How many of them sheers you got?" demanded the excited storekeeper.</p> + +<p>Cap'n Jonah dragged from the breast pocket of his pilot coat a long +envelope, much stained and worn. From this he produced the ornate +certificate of the Little Sandy Oil and Coal Company, which stated upon +its face that he was the owner of two thousand shares in the capital +stock of the concern. A third pair of eyes, one very much "bunged up" +at present, stared at the certificate. Tom Petty had seen that document +before!</p> + +<p>"Two thousand!" murmured Cap't Abe. "Hi-mighty! Look here! This paper +says the sheers have gone to fifteen dollars already. By the great jib +boom, Cap'n Hand! That there document in your hand is worth thirty +thousand dollars!"</p> + +<p>Cap'n Jonah stared at the storekeeper in utter bewilderment at first. +He repeated slowly: "Thirty thousand dollars? Whatever!"</p> + +<p>"There's your fortune, Cap'n Hand!" cried the storekeeper in vast +delight. "An' a fortune that's wuth while. You needn't worry about the +Pettys no more. Nor about Pearly——"</p> + +<p>"Belay all!" gasped Cap'n Jonah, hoarsely, and laying a restraining +hand on the storekeeper's knee. "Don't say a word to nobody."</p> + +<p>"Huh?"</p> + +<p>"Not a word," repeated Cap'n Jonah, sternly. "I don't want folks to +know about <i>this</i> fortune. Above all, don't let that fish trainer, +Helmford, hear a word about it. For if he does, like as not he'll slip +his moorings again and run out to sea. He's got a fool conviction, +like 'Liphalet Truitt, that if a woman's got a little tad of money, he +mustn't marry her."</p> + +<p>He turned quickly to cast a suspicious glance at Tom Petty. The +battered youth had fallen back on the pillow and his eyes were closed. +To tell the truth, Tom was pretty near all in!</p> + + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> + +<div class="chapter"> +<h2 class="nobreak" id="CHAPTER_XXIX">CHAPTER XXIX</h2> +</div> + +<h3>CHRISTMAS EVE AT CAP'N ABE'S</h3> + + +<p>The gale abated toward evening. The sky was clearing when 'Liphalet +Truitt came out of his door and started down the Shell Road toward the +store.</p> + +<p>It was more habit than anything else that took him to Cap'n Abe's. +The cloud that had for these past few weeks overshadowed the lonely +bachelor who dwelt beside the Mariner's Chapel, rested more heavily +than ever upon his mind and heart this Christmas Eve.</p> + +<p>His perilous adventure with Miss Sue that afternoon had racked his soul +more than it had his body. As they had clung together there in the +storm on the face of the precipice, he felt that so they should cling +together against all the buffetings of life.</p> + +<p>But fate cruelly separated them. Sue's fortune kept them apart. He +shrank from having the neighbors point him out as a money-seeker—a man +who had married a woman for her fortune. And in addition, there was +Cap'n Jonah Hand—a much more masterful man than the ex-steward—who +had seemed to take Miss Sue by storm. The picture he had last seen in +Cap'n Abe's living room, when the doctor's sister had run to sympathize +with the unmasked captain, was etched upon 'Liphalet's memory so deeply +that he believed he could never forget it.</p> + +<p>Yet he felt no hatred in his heart for Miss Sue. He absolved her now of +any blame for his unhappiness. Life Truitt was coming to his senses!</p> + +<p>Sue Ambrose was worthy of the love of the best man who ever lived! +Forty thousand dollars was as nothing beside her intrinsic value +as a woman and a companion for a lonely man. 'Liphalet wished with +all his heart—as he had wished a thousand times before—that Sue's +anti-suffragist relative had left her money elsewhere. Then no +man—Cap'n Jonah, or anybody else—would have beaten him to the goal +that had been so long set before him.</p> + +<p>He had enough money for them both—enough and to spare. It troubled him +now, as it had before, that Sue should have accepted the forty thousand +dollars as a bribe not to exercise her right of franchise.</p> + +<p>To tell the truth 'Liphalet did not think well of woman suffrage. He +was satisfied that Miss Sue did not appear to hold "votes for women" in +high regard. But it would have delighted him had Miss Sue walked into +the polling place on election day and voted, thus throwing her legacy +away.</p> + +<p>So he tramped down the Shell Road in a gloomy frame of mind indeed on +this Christmas Eve; and upon entering into the warmth and light and +bustle of Cap'n Abe's store was as much in the doldrums as ever.</p> + +<p>The greetings showered upon him from those present, men and women +alike, were heartier than usual. Why! it seemed just as though they +were waiting for 'Liphalet's appearance. "Just for what they hope to +get out of you," the devil of distrust again whispered in his ear.</p> + +<p>But for some reason this wicked voice was not so strong as before. +'Liphalet had begun to doubt. Since his adventure with Miss Sue on the +cliff he had lost much of that pessimism that had for so long held sway +in his mind.</p> + +<p>The cheerful smiles, the hearty greetings one to another as the +neighbors entered, began to impress more deeply the apostate Santa +Claus. Retiring to an upturned nail keg behind the stove, 'Liphalet +tried again to wrap himself in gloom. He felt meaner than he had ever +felt before in all his life.</p> + +<p>Here was more than half the congregation of the Mariner's Chapel +gathered in the Shell Road store. Every one had a pleasant word +or smile for him. They sought the ex-steward out to show their +friendliness. They had been looking to him for generous assistance +in the yearly entertainment now but twenty-four hours off, and he had +determined to disappoint and to flout them.</p> + +<p>The apostate Santa Claus began to feel remorse and misgiving, such +as had never been his portion before. He felt he had never done as +mean a thing in all his career as he was doing now. Aside from the +disappointment of the grown members of the congregation, how would +the children feel? 'Liphalet Truitt, in padded and cottonwool trimmed +garments, was always a delight to the children at the Christmas tree +celebration. His unfailing pack and his appropriate words for each +child were looked forward to for months.</p> + +<p>And he purposed to disappoint them all—his adult friends and +neighbors, as well as the children; Cap'n Abe himself; Cap'n Joab; +Washy Gallup; Milt and Amiel, the local buffoons; even Cap'n Jonah Hand +and Mr. Helmford. They were all here and smiling at a man who began to +feel himself to be the very meanest person upon the entire reach of +Cape Cod.</p> + +<p>Suddenly from Cap'n Abe's living room behind the store sounded the +opening bars of the "Fisher's Hornpipe" played on a fiddle and played +better than 'Liphalet had ever heard it rendered before. He sat up +straighter, his ears pricked, and his eyes began to glisten.</p> + +<p>A silence had fallen upon the thronged store. 'Liphalet did not notice +now the smiling and significant glances cast in his direction. He was +attending with all his music-loving soul to the medley of old-time +sea-ditties that the master violinist was playing.</p> + +<p>"By Hannah! who's that fiddling?" gasped 'Liphalet, as the music ceased.</p> + +<p>A moment's pause. Then rose the air of "Black-Eyed Susan" played by +what the deeply moved ex-steward would have called a "brass band."</p> + +<p>The orchestral accompaniment died to a murmur and a voice took up the +old song—a woman's voice so sweet, so compelling, that it tugged at +'Liphalet Truitt's heartstrings. When the song ceased the apostate +Santa Claus found himself on his feet with his hat in his hand and +unwonted moisture in his eyes.</p> + +<p>The grizzled old storekeeper appeared at the door. "Come in here, +'Liphalet," he said, lifting the flap of the counter and beckoning to +the entranced man. "Got somethin' to show ye."</p> + +<p>'Liphalet followed him unsteadily. The thrilling notes of the singer's +voice still rang in his ears. He did not see that the whole storeful +of his neighbors and friends were crowding, giggling and whispering, +behind him into Cap'n Abe's sitting room.</p> + +<p>The homely furnishings of the place, where the table was always set +for the expected guest, was sufficiently illuminated by a big hanging +lamp. What held 'Liphalet's attention was a handsome cabinet-sized +talking machine, with its cover raised, which stood directly under the +empty birdcage hanging in the farther window.</p> + +<p>"By Hannah!" murmured the bemused 'Liphalet, "I wondered who Perry +Baker was a-takin' that machine to."</p> + +<p>"You don't know now," said Cap'n Abe dryly.</p> + +<p>He waited for his audience to crowd into the room behind the puzzled +'Liphalet. The storekeeper never allowed an opportunity to slip for an +impressive oratorical flight.</p> + +<p>"Hum!" said Cap'n Abe. "We're gathered here to-night, as ye might say, +for one o' the pleasantest occasions that it's ever been my privilege +to take part in. It ain't often in this rough an' ready life of +our'n, friends, that we are able to show fittingly our appreciation +of a neighbor's character. And it ain't often, either, that we find a +neighbor whose character is worthy of such appreciation as that which +we honor ourselves by honoring to-night."</p> + +<p>The storekeeper was getting in pretty deep, as he would have himself +admitted; but he struggled on bravely, and everybody save the +bewildered 'Liphalet understood.</p> + +<p>"We've got a man in our midst," went on Cap'n Abe, "who's proved +himself for some years a brother and a friend to every man, woman and +child up and down this Shell Road. There ain't a person in this here +room to whom he ain't done some lastin' favor, and in some cases, many +on 'em.</p> + +<p>"As this season of the year comes around—the most fittin' for us to +show love and gratitude because of Him who gave so much for us," added +Cap'n Abe reverently,—"it was suggested—I reckon it was a spontaneous +feelin' in all our hearts—that we give this man who had given of his +time and money and love to us, somethin' that should speak to him of +our appreciation—somethin' that should tell him, whenever he would, in +sorrow or in joy, how much we love him for what he is and for what he +has been to us."</p> + +<p>The old storekeeper's voice was husky. He cleared it with a vociferous +"Hum!" but could not go on. Therefore he stepped closer to the +talking machine. There was already a disc in place, and touching the +release-spring, this began to revolve.</p> + +<p>To the mellow accompaniment of an organ a male chorus began to croon, +"Should Auld Acquaintance Be Forgot?" The women were wiping their eyes +openly; the men looked straight ahead with set visages, as they did in +church when the minister told a moving incident.</p> + +<p>"'Liphalet Truitt," rose the trumpet call of the storekeeper's voice +above the melody of the old song, "your neighbors and well-wishers +ask me to present this here machine to you as a mark of their esteem +and love, as the feller said. And believe <i>me</i>," concluded Cap'n Abe, +whacking the amazed recipient heartily on his shoulder, "I ain't been +so willin' to do a job since Hector was a pup—an' Hector's a big dog +now!"</p> + +<p>There rose a general—and welcome—laugh at Cap'n Abe's little joke. +But there was no responsive smile upon 'Liphalet's visage. He stood +there as amazed and stunned an individual as there was on all of +storm-swept Cape Cod that night.</p> + +<p>"Hi-mighty!" exclaimed Cap'n Abe at last, "don't you like it?"</p> + +<p>"<i>Like it!</i>"</p> + +<p>The quotation was a vocal explosion. With it there overflowed from +'Liphalet's eyes the unbidden tears. The ice was broken in his soul, +and the apostate Santa Claus stood confessed before his neighbors.</p> + +<p>"I ain't able to tell ye," he said humbly, "how what you all have done +cuts me right down to the Plimsoll mark. I don't know but a little dip +to starbo'd or to larbo'd will founder me for fair. I got it into my +head that I—I was purty much alone in the world. I got a bitter taste +against humanity in my mouth——"</p> + +<p>"That's your liver, 'Liphalet, like I told you," put in Doctor Ambrose, +who had come in.</p> + +<p>"I made up my mind Christmas, and Christmas doin's, was all +foolishness," pursued 'Liphalet. "I just got a grouch on the whole +business. I said I wouldn't play Santa Claus for the young'uns no more, +or have anything to do with such didoes.</p> + +<p>"But I got to confess, brothers and sisters, that I just <i>had</i> to go to +town same's usual and buy a bag full of toys an' sech and a new Santa +Claus suit. They're hid away in my garret!</p> + +<p>"An'—an' here you folks have gone to work and bought me this beautiful +music box——By Hannah! I don't desarve it!" cried the ex-steward +vigorously. "An' I don't desarve to be Santa Claus this year nor to +give out the presents as I used to. I—I ain't been in the Christmas +sperit——"</p> + +<p>"Christmas spirit your granny!" burst out Doctor Ambrose again, amidst +a general use of pocket handkerchiefs by the feminine part of the +audience. "You let me put you through a course of sprouts, and I'll +make you the most spirited Santa Claus that ever came down a cardboard +chimney!"</p> + + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> + +<div class="chapter"> +<h2 class="nobreak" id="CHAPTER_XXX">CHAPTER XXX</h2> +</div> + +<h3>"CHRISTMAS GIFT"</h3> + + +<p>Eliphalet Truitt stumbled out of the Shell Road store a little later +with fingers tingling from the pressure of many friendly hands and with +tear-blinded eyes. Perhaps this latter fact was what caused him to all +but run into a much smaller craft on the wind-swept road. The clouds +were broken overhead and the moon, peering through, shed sufficient +light for the startled ex-steward to identify his vis-à-vis.</p> + +<p>"Sue? By Hannah! I reckoned you'd be 'twixt your blankets," he declared.</p> + +<p>"Oh, 'Liphalet!" she cried. "Pearly and I have been giving the last +touches to the Christmas tree. And Pearly——Why! where is she?"</p> + +<p>Miss Sue had not seen her companion dart ahead to join Helmford, who +had likewise come down the store steps.</p> + +<p>"Pearly's going to live with me, 'Liphalet—for a while at least. Cap'n +Jonah will stay with Cap'n Abe here at the store. But Pearly will need +somebody to help with her sewing—you know——"</p> + +<p>She halted with a blush that 'Liphalet did not see. Then, eagerly: "I +suppose Cap'n Abe presented the music box to you, 'Liphalet? I did not +mean to miss that. But I had to rouse out Washy Gallup and start him +over to old Suz Montevedo's for the night. The Ladies' Aid will find +watchers for poor Suz, turn about, until he is better."</p> + +<p>"By Hannah!" breathed the ex-steward looking hungrily into her face. +"You knowed about that music box the folks was getting me all the time, +didn't you, Susan?"</p> + +<p>"Oh, yes. And I thought you would surely suspect something that day in +front of the post-office when you saw it in Perry Baker's wagon."</p> + +<p>Her laugh, so low and mellow, thrilled him. Somehow he caught both of +her fluttering hands and she let them lie in his grasp.</p> + +<p>"Susan!" he said.</p> + +<p>"Yes, 'Liphalet," and her sweet eyes were suddenly raised boldly to his +own.</p> + +<p>"If you didn't have all that money——"</p> + +<p>"What money do you mean, 'Liphalet?" she asked, puzzled.</p> + +<p>"That fortune your A'nt Amy left you."</p> + +<p>"I—I haven't much of it left, you know, 'Liphalet. Only 'bout ninety +dollars."</p> + +<p>"<i>What?</i>" almost shouted the man. "Ninety dollars?"</p> + +<p>"Yes. You know, Aunt Amy left me a little over four hundred dollars. +I—I bought a dress, that I—I laid away, with part of it." The blush +was again hidden in the uncertain light of an uncertain moon. That +silver gray poplin, laid away in lavender, was the tenderest secret in +all Sue Ambrose's life.</p> + +<p>"Folks reported around," she hastened to add, "that the legacy was a +lot more. You know how stories grow in Cardhaven."</p> + +<p>"Grow! From four hundred to forty thousand? I should say! Why, Susan, +thinking you had all that money——"</p> + +<p>"Only four hundred dollars, 'Liphalet."</p> + +<p>"<i>Forty thousand!</i> By Hannah! Has gossip cheated me out of this here +blessin' for goin' on ten year?"</p> + +<p>He held her in his arms right in the public road. He knew by the very +yielding of her body to his own what her answer was. With the clearing +of the tempest on this Christmas Eve had come the clearing up of all +mistakes and misapprehensions in their lives.</p> + +<p>A raucous "Ahem!" apprised them of the presence of somebody besides +Pearl and Helmford behind them. "Well, I vum!" ejaculated the voice of +Doctor Ambrose. "'Twan't your liver after all, 'Liphalet Truitt, that +was out of kilter. I see now 'twas your heart!"</p> + +<p>The dying gale chased tatters of cloud across the face of the moon. +Only now and then was the road lighted sufficiently for Helmford and +Pearl to see clearly the trio walking on ahead of them toward the +Ambrose cottage. Helmford and Pearl walked close together and slowly. +They were in that ecstatic state where the touch of a hand—even the +caress of their garments against each other—thrilled them. Pearl had +never dreamed, even under the inspiration of the tales in the <i>Ladies' +Home Provider</i>, that love was as sweet as this!</p> + +<p>"This has been one blessed—exciting—<i>astounding</i> day, Pearly," +Helmford said. "How much has happened in a few hours! This morning I +thought——"</p> + +<p>"Yes?" she asked, as he hesitated, and giving a happy little skip as +she clung to his arm. "What did you think?"</p> + +<p>"I thought you were as far away from me as that moon up there."</p> + +<p>"My, how foolish of you!" breathed Pearl, yet delighted. "And just +because poor Uncle Jonah would give me some of his fortune."</p> + +<p>"All of it, he said," Helmford told her grimly. "A hundred thousand +dollars. That is a great sum, Pearl."</p> + +<p>"Is it?" she asked innocently. "It's not so much <i>when it's only in +your mind</i>."</p> + +<p>"And I'm glad you haven't got it—even in your mind, Pearly."</p> + +<p>"Why, say!" cried the girl, "I never thought about having money. Only a +little. If Cap'n Jonah really had a fortune to give me I wouldn't know +what to do with it. Look at Miss Sue. What does she do with all the +money folks say she's got? She can only eat so much, and drink so much, +and sleep in one bed at a time. Of course, she can wear better clothes +than I can. But, Joe," she added roguishly and peered up into his face +with sparkling eyes, "if you teach <i>lots</i> of fishes to hatch eggs, the +Government will raise your pay, and then <i>you</i> can buy all the dresses +I need or want, I am sure!"</p> + +<p>The moon drew a heavier, fleecier cloud across her face just then and +hid a second couple who were locked in each other's arms on the old +Shell Road.</p> + +<hr class="tb"> + +<p>In the brilliant sunshine of that Christmas morning Cap'n Jonah marched +up the Petty lane again. And he thought as he advanced toward the house +of his initial approach to the Petty domicile on the October afternoon +which now seemed so long past—when he had found Pearl Holden taking +down the clothes with the Petty family absent at the Harwich cattle +show.</p> + +<p>"Whatever!" muttered the master mariner. "Things have changed since +then, for a fac'! Why! they've changed ha'f a dozen times around—near +'bout. I ain't ne'er taken a v'y'ge yet—not even that one when I was +purty nigh made into a goulash by cannibals—that's been any more +excitin' than this here.</p> + +<p>"But," concluded the captain with vast satisfaction, "I have made +harbor at last and dropped anchor in a safe roadstead, I do allow."</p> + +<p>Although he expected no pleasant interview with his relatives, he +tramped cheerfully to the door. Nothing could greatly disturb a man who +was worth thirty thousand dollars, and could get the cash any day he +wanted to go to the bank and deliver up the certificate of stock of the +Little Sandy Oil and Coal Company which he had carried around so long, +as a keepsake more than anything else.</p> + +<p>For on the previous afternoon Cap'n Abe had insisted on calling up his +friend at the Paulmouth National Bank by telephone, and this individual +had confirmed the story of the sudden and phenomenal rise in value of +the Little Sandy Oil and Coal Company shares. So after all, Cap'n Jonah +was comfortably wealthy and need never worry about the "bite and sup" +that Sarah Petty had so begrudged him.</p> + +<p>Sarah was in no aggressive mood when Cap'n Jonah came to the door on +this Christmas morning. The sorely battered Tom had returned on the +previous afternoon to relate the wonderful story of Cap'n Jonah's real +fortune. It was more astonishing—indeed, it was a greater shock—to +the Pettys than all that had gone before.</p> + +<p>Without a doubt now—it was a tangible fact—Cap'n Jonah possessed the +equivalent of thirty thousand dollars. It was no mythical fortune such +as Miss Sue's had been. Gossip could not increase or diminish it in +the Pettys' ears. It was an incontrovertible fact—and they had cut +themselves off from any share of it, whether Cap'n Jonah lived or died!</p> + +<p>"I ain't going to bother you for long, Niece Sarah," said the old man +sternly as he entered. "I propose to pack my chist, and Enos Cartright +will come along by an' by with his old Mehitabel, and cart it down to +Mr. Silt's. Pearly is coming to pack her things, too, and Enos will +take them along to Doc Ambrose's, where Pearly will stay till she an' +Mr. Helmford git married."</p> + +<p>"Oh, Uncle Jonah!" murmured Sarah. "I'm sorry you got mad and air +detarmined to leave us——"</p> + +<p>"That'll do for you, my gal!" exclaimed the old captain, speaking with +his sternest quarterdeck manner. "You had your chance and you flung it +away. Don't you, nor your'n, never expect favor of me again, for you +won't get it."</p> + +<p>The blow silenced Orrin and the lout. But Sarah could not give up all. +There was too much at stake. If all chance of getting a share of Cap'n +Jonah's fortune was gone, there was still an attempt to be made to save +something from the wreck of their hopes.</p> + +<p>"Dear Uncle Jonah," Sarah cried, wiping crocodile tears from her +narrow eyes, "do not leave us in an angry sperit. I can never forgit +your kindness to father and mother when I was a gal. We should have +been homeless had it not been for you. And even now you can make us +all—Orrin, an' Tom, an' me—all but penniless if you air so minded."</p> + +<p>"What do you mean, gal?" demanded Cap'n Jonah, eyeing her in amazement.</p> + +<p>"Why—er—you know that note poor father gave you years ago—that +note for two thousand dollars. Of course, it's a long time ago it +happened——"</p> + +<p>"Gal," Cap'n Jonah said quietly, drawing out his snuff box and making +use of it in his usual way, "do you think I'd hold my kith an' +kin—specially my own brother—to sech a hard-and-fast arrangement? +Your father needed that money bad; and at that time I didn't need it. +I sent it to him freely—glad I was to do it. When he sent me his note +for two thousand dollars I tore it up and throwed it into the galley +fire. I tell you what, I hope there isn't nothin' <i>petty</i> about Jonah +Hand!"</p> + +<p>The Mariner's Chapel was alight that evening and filled with the Shell +Road folk and their friends from near and far. Only one family in +the neighborhood was not represented. The Petty house was dark, and +'Liphalet, as the jolly representative of Santa Claus, had no gift in +his sack marked for any of the sadly disappointed trio who had treated +Cap'n Jonah so despitefully.</p> + +<p>But for everybody else the Shell Road Santa Claus found something in +that wonderful sack of his, or on the tree which occupied the site of +the pulpit. Even "the last Tapp" was not forgotten, and that round-eyed +and chubby baby gripped in his tiny fist a wonderful rattle which his +smiling mother had much to do to keep out of his mouth.</p> + +<p>Never had 'Liphalet been jollier, been so ready with quip and jest as +he passed through the company, as on this particular occasion. For +wherever he went with his pack of gifts he could turn his gaze upon +the quiet, yet gay and smiling, countenance of Miss Sue. She paid him +back in his own coin when he looked at her—in the coinage of happy +smiles—so that 'Liphalet thrilled to the very marrow of his being.</p> + +<p>Nor were 'Liphalet and Miss Sue the only happy couple in the Mariner's +Chapel on this blessed Christmas night. The vestry as well as the +audience room had been trimmed with greens and holly; and in the +vestry the young folks gathered in groups when the refreshments had +been served.</p> + +<p>Cap'n Jonah and Cap'n Abe, each with a plate of ice-cream and a +generous slice of cake on his broad knee, sat together on the stairs +like two school boys and watched the young folk below with appreciative +glances. One particular couple they eyed with deep interest. Helmford +was leading the curious Pearl to a spot directly under the main +chandelier of the vestry, from which dangled some mystery wrapped in +muslin.</p> + +<p>"You trimmed this part of the vestry, Joe," they heard Pearl say. "What +<i>is</i> it?"</p> + +<p>Helmford reached up and whipped the covering from his bough of +mistletoe. He held her close under it and boldly took toll from her +ready lips. The others shouted their approval and ran toward them. The +old custom of the mistletoe was due to be honored by more than one +couple that evening. Nor did 'Liphalet fail to lead Miss Sue to the +spot and there kiss the doctor's blushing sister before them all.</p> + +<p>"Tell ye what 'tis," shrilled Washy Gallup. "Looks as though the +Mariner's Chapel could purt' nigh afford to support a reg'lar minister. +There's at least two marriages in the offing."</p> + +<p>Cap'n Abe nudged Cap'n Jonah heartily in the ribs.</p> + +<p>"I guess ye needn't be so scare't," he whispered hoarsely, "of telling +Pearly an' that Helmford 'bout your fortune, Cap'n Hand. Looks to me +as though you couldn't pry that fish trainer away from her now with a +crowbar!"</p> + +<p>"That's whatever!" returned Cap'n Jonah. "Jest the same I'll feel more +satisfied like when I see 'em spliced an' we've all set up housekeepin' +together. For I tell you, Mr. Silt, them two young folks have told me +that they won't be happy unless I share their quarters with 'em.</p> + +<p>"I'm goin' to cast anchor—that's whatever!" said Cap'n Jonah, rapping +his knuckle thoughtfully on the cover of his old silver snuffbox. +"I've come to a pleasant harbor, Mr. Silt. I calc'late I'm goin' to be +happy—and would be happy, fortune or no fortune—for the rest of my +natural life, with little Pearly and her man."</p> + + +<p class="ph2">THE END</p> + +<hr class="tb"> + +<p class="ph2">[Transcriber's Note: Inconsistent hyphenation left as printed.]</p> + +<div style='text-align:center'>*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 75584 ***</div> +</body> +</html> + diff --git a/75584-h/images/cover.jpg b/75584-h/images/cover.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..2a3afbf --- /dev/null +++ b/75584-h/images/cover.jpg diff --git a/75584-h/images/illus1.jpg b/75584-h/images/illus1.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..aabe02f --- /dev/null +++ b/75584-h/images/illus1.jpg diff --git a/75584-h/images/illus2.jpg b/75584-h/images/illus2.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..9ddfeae --- /dev/null +++ b/75584-h/images/illus2.jpg diff --git a/75584-h/images/illus3.jpg b/75584-h/images/illus3.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..d7ac936 --- /dev/null +++ b/75584-h/images/illus3.jpg diff --git a/75584-h/images/illus4.jpg b/75584-h/images/illus4.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..0c038ea --- /dev/null +++ b/75584-h/images/illus4.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. 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