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diff --git a/77810-0.txt b/77810-0.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..e1ad87f --- /dev/null +++ b/77810-0.txt @@ -0,0 +1,761 @@ +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 77810 *** + +[Epigraph: “I aint begun to fight!” declared the man who was to become +Number One surfman. And then he started in!] + +[Illustration: “That feller run like a deer when we surrounded him ... I +put a bullet in that smuggler’s leg--an’ down he went!”] + + + + + THE COAST GUARDSMAN + + By W. E. Carleton + Illustrated by William Molt + + +“Hell’s bells! You--thutty year old, an’ five of it in the service, an’ +you aint discovered yit that the coast guard aint a substitute for the +old ladies’ home! Devil of a prospec’ _I’ve_ got--Jansen transferred to +Sandy Holler station, an’ you in line to step into his shoes. _You_ to +be Number One surfman!” + +“But, Cap’n Cole--” protested the fair-haired, sun-bronzed young Number +Two surfman, squaring his sturdy shoulders. + +“If the rum-runners o’ Cape Cod hear you’ve replaced Jansen,” the +commander of Santuck station cut in, “they’ll declare a half holiday to +celebrate. The story o’ the latest _Seabright_ affair night ’fore last +will likely go the length an’ breadth o’ the Cape, if it don’t go +further.” + +“You don’t need to remind me o’ _that_.” Aubrey Sears, Number Two +surfman, diligently polished the brasswork of the beachcart, and the +keen black eyes of Cap Cole roved through the apparatus shed--looking +for something else to find fault with, Aubrey presumed. “But sometimes, +Cap’n, things aint always what they seem--’specially on a dark night on +Salt Marsh.” + +“Aint what they seem? What d’yuh mean by that?” + +“Jist that. All I’ve got to say is it’s a pity you didn’t see with yer +own eyes what really happened, an’ not have to take Jansen’s word for +it.” + +Cap Cole’s heavy black mustache and shaggy eyebrows were scarcely darker +than the thundercloud which passed over his square face. Menacingly he +hunched his massive shoulders forward. + +“You tryin’ to make me out a liar?” he roared. + +“No--if I was, I’d tell you point-blank, Cap’n,” Sears clarified his +position in the matter. “But I _do_ accuse Jansen o’ lyin’, though I +know it wont do me no good. When that smuggler from the _Seabright_ run +acrost the marsh towards me--” + +“You let him keep on runnin’--an’ he’d be runnin’ yit if Jansen hadn’t +put a bullet in his leg,” finished the Captain. “An’ I don’t want for +you to call my Number One surfman a liar in my presence, Sears. He’s +rankin’ above you, an’ I’ll take his word as final until I’m shown proof +that’ll change my opinion. When you git through with that job on the +beachcart,” he shifted the subject, “go up in the tower an’ touch up +the brasswork there.” The Santuck commander turned on his heel and +stalked out of the apparatus shed. + + * * * * * + +Sears sighed resignedly, and energetically applied a soft strip of +flannel to the shining metal of the beachcart. Cap’s April-morning +tirade was only a repetition of the mild abuse to which he had subjected +the young surfman of late. It was beginning to keep the conscientious +Aubrey awake nights, preying on his mind during precious hours when he +should be resting for patrol duty on desolate Santuck beach, or getting +in a wink of sleep after such a patrol in preparation for the next day’s +work. And the duties of a member of the Santuck crew were strenuous the +year round, for that strip of coast had come to be the rendezvous of the +various specialists in smuggling who were operating extensively on Cape +Cod. + +The independent Yankee blood of Aubrey Sears had reached the boiling +point, but it hadn’t boiled over--yet. Before he met Mamie Weston two +years ago, he would have kicked over the traces, told Cap Cole where he +could get off, and consigned Santuck and its highly efficient crew to +Davy Jones. He was able-bodied, big-boned, hard as nails, and although +the coast-guard job was the only line of work he was familiar with, he +could find employment inland--something less to his liking, but +productive of sufficient funds to support him. Time and again he was +tempted to inform Cap that he was through. + +But his reward at Santuck for taking Cap’s abuse unwhimperingly would +quite probably be the Number One surfman’s job. He was in direct line +for promotion, and under his skin Cap wasn’t half so savage as he +appeared to be on the surface, for he had always recommended his crew +for promotion without fear or favor according to seniority in the +service. The trouble in the _Seabright_ affair was that Cap believed +Jansen because of the latter’s rating above Aubrey. Cap’s discipline was +maintained by his backing the Number One surfman in all matters. + +On the assumption that he would be thus promoted, Aubrey and Mamie had +planned to marry. She was a pretty, lightbrown-haired and blue-eyed beam +of irresponsible human sunshine who lived with her widowed mother in +Howesport village. + +On one side of the mantel of the cottage parlor where Aubrey and she +could usually be found when he was off duty, hung a portrait of George +Washington; balancing it on the opposite side was suspended one of +Aubrey in his uniform. + +Members of the Santuck crew were always welcome at the Widow Weston’s, +for her husband had been keeper of Santuck station in the days when it +was a unit of the life-saving service. He had died a hero at the wreck +of the _David Rothwell_--one of the unsung martyrs of the grand old +crews of Cape Cod life-savers who have died in vain attempts to rescue +their shipwrecked fellow-men. + +But during the past few weeks Jansen had rather overstepped the +conventions of that hospitality by spending the greater part of his time +off duty at the widow’s. Well enough Aubrey knew the nature of the +attraction. But Mamie had declared to Aubrey that she detested the +surfman Jansen. And Aubrey, putting his trust in that honest-eyed, +straightforward new convert to flapperism who had promised to marry him, +banished his jealousy. After one of Jansen’s calls at the widow’s, +however, Aubrey always glanced at his portrait on the parlor wall to +make sure it was still there. He had a suspicion that Jansen had a way +with women. + + * * * * * + +That night Aubrey donned his best clothes, slipped his automatic pistol +into his hip pocket--a precaution Santuck men always took because of +numerous threats they received anonymously from the smuggling +gentry--and trudged over the sandy road to Howesport village, two miles +away. He had swapped his day off with surf man Paty--but not the night, +for Mamie would be expecting him. + +She was. She ushered him into the parlor as usual, and took a seat +beside him on the sofa. But she didn’t seem like her ordinarily gay and +unburdened self. Aubrey couldn’t remember ever having noticed that she +was worried before. + +“What’s the matter, Mamie?” he asked. + +Mamie did not answer immediately. Then: “Did you see today’s Boston +paper, Aubrey?” + +“No! What’s in it?” But he already suspected. + +And his suspicions were correct. Mamie showed it to him--the account of +how the outlaw schooner _Seabright_ had slipped past the cordon of +coast-guard cutters off the back side of Cape Cod again--how the Santuck +crew had been called out by Surfman Hubbard, who sighted the vessel on +his patrol to the halfway house between Santuck and Sandy Hollow +stations. How the crew had pounced on the landing-party from the +schooner and captured the smuggled cargo of whisky brought ashore in the +speedboat from the _Seabright_, scared off a shore party that had come +from an automobile evidently to receive the contraband beverage, and cut +off one of the landing-party before he could escape with his shipmates +in the speedboat. + +But after finishing that part of the narrative, Aubrey’s gray eyes +fairly shot sparks, his coppery complexion darkened, and the newspaper +shook in his strong calloused fingers. + +[Illustration: Aubrey’s gray eyes fairly shot sparks. “All the rest of +that’s a lie!” he declared in a husky voice.] + +“All the rest o’ that’s a lie!” he declared in a husky voice. “That +feller run like a deer when we surrounded him--run straight for me. I +run to meet him, an’ he up an’ veered off the other direction. Jansen +was standin’ plumb in front o’ him. But when Jansen seen him bearin’ +down on him, he let out a screech an’ turned an’ run. Run away from +him--I swear to God! An’ when I seen that, I put a bullet in the +smuggler’s leg--an’ down he went, moanin’.” + +“But where was Cap Cole an’ the other Santuck boys all that time?” +queried Mamie. + +“Comin’ up from the shore--closin’ in on the smuggler. We was in a wide +circle--” + +“But didn’t Cap see it--see who done the shootin’?” + + * * * * * + +Aubrey sniffed contemptuously. “See it? Huh--if Jansen hadn’t knowed +Cap couldn’t see it, he wouldn’t ’a’ lied like he did. ’Twas dark as a +pocket on Salt Marsh. If Jansen hadn’t been so close to me, I wouldn’t +’a’ reco’nized _him_ until he let out that screech when the smuggler +put for him. But when that smuggler went down with my bullet in his +leg! Lord, _then_ Jansen was Johnny-on-the-spot. He was bendin’ over +that smuggler an’ holdin’ down his arms before the rest o’ the crew +come up. An’ ’twas then he told Cap his story--jist like it’s printed +in that damn’ newspaper--taken, likely, from the report Cap sent to the +superintendent.” + +He crushed the paper in his powerful hands and hurled it to the floor. + + * * * * * + +Mamie laid a soothing little hand on his cheek and looked pityingly +into his angry eyes. + +“I know how you must feel, Aubrey dear,” she sympathized. “An’ I believe +you--ev’ry word. Jansen _is_ mean--I can see that in his eyes when he +comes here. The worst of it is, it makes you out to be a coward. An’ I +know you’d never be a coward, Aubrey.” + +“Jansen’ll pay for this!” stormed Aubrey. “I wish I hadn’t been so meek +for discipline’s sake when he told that lie to Cap. I should ’a’ made +him swaller it right there on Salt Marsh. But I’ll do it +tonight--discipline be damned! He’ll take back ev’ry word, even if I’m +kicked out o’ the service for bearin’ him up!” + +“And then when would we be married?” plaintively asked Mamie. “What +would become of your record in the service? Thrown away! Even if Cap +should be mean enough to hold you back from promotion now, another +opportunity’ll come up where you can make a better name for yourself, +one that Jansen can’t damage with his lies. An’ accordin’ to all +accounts, they’s an opportunity here right now.” + +Aubrey looked at her inquiringly. “What d’yuh mean, opportunity?” he +asked. + +“Amos Swift was in yesterday afternoon. He claims they’s smugglin’ goin’ +on in Howesport harbor, right in front o’ his house.” + +“Pshaw! I don’t b’lieve it!” Aubrey ridiculed the idea. “It aint likely +smugglers’d be so bold. Amos an’ Cap Cole have been at swords’-points +for years. I wouldn’t put it past Amos to start a story like that to +make out that Cap’s asleep on his job.” + +“Cap _is_!” declared Mamie. “None of the Santuck men ever patrol +Howesport harbor now’days. When Father was in command at the station, he +had it patrolled just like the main beach.” + +“Yeah--but times have changed since then,” Aubrey defended his superior. +“That Howesport harbor patrol took us two miles out o’ the reg’lar +patrol--we hated it. That’s _one_ service Jansen done at the station. He +convinced Cap ’twas a waste o’ time, an’ Cap agreed with him. The result +was we got orders from the superintendent not to include Howesport +harbor in our post.” + +“Then no wonder the smugglers are takin’ advantage of it!” retorted +Mamie. “Amos says you can see ’em there any foggy night like tonight. He +thinks they’re from the _Seabright_.” + +“Why doesn’t Amos report it, then?” Aubrey asked indignantly. “If not to +Cap, to one o’ the rest of us.” + +“Aubrey, do you s’pose Amos wants trouble? Those smugglers might murder +him an’ Emma, livin’ apart from the village like they do. You mustn’t +even mention that I told you this, Aubrey, because Amos has left it with +you to do somethin’ about it yourself without lettin’ Cap into it. He +knows how Cap holds you down. It’s a chance for you, Aubrey, to capture +those smugglers an’ get full credit for it yourself without Cap +dictatin’ to you. Don’t you see?” + + * * * * * + +Aubrey saw. But not a chance to make a hero of himself. If those men +Amos had reported were real smugglers, there was a possibility that Cap +had a special reason for urging the discontinuance of the Howesport +harbor patrol. Though Cap appeared to be the soul of honor, one never +could tell. + +If Aubrey should interfere with such an enterprise in which Cap was +directly concerned, a fine chance he would have of winning promotion, +dependingly largely, as he was, on Cap’s recommendation! Then too, he +knew the crew of the _Seabright_ were about as hard a bunch of +cutthroats as the Lord ever put breath into. Jansen’s flight on Salt +Marsh from one of them had been discreet if not valiant. + +“It’s foggy tonight,” Mamie reminded him. “There couldn’t be a better +night to jump on them. An’ after that piece in the Boston paper, +Aubrey--” + +“Amos an’ Emma are nervous,” he protested. “Livin’ alone like they do +apart from the village, they prob’ly imagine--” + +“They _don’t_ imagine!” Mamie vigorously stamped her small foot. “The +least you can do is to investigate. Are you--afraid, Aubrey?” + +“Afraid? Course I aint afraid! If old Amos wants me to soothe his nerves +by goin’ down there an’ lookin’ the ground over, I can do _that_ much to +pacify him. I’ll walk back to the station that way after I leave here, +an’--” + +“Let’s not wait till then. Aubrey,” Mamie pleaded. “Let’s go _now_!” + +Aubrey looked at her through narrowed eyes. “You aint in on this, +Mamie,” he declared. “You’ll stay right here. If Amos _shouldn’t_ be +misrepresentin’ it, an’ they turned out to be real smugglers from the +_Seabright_, it’d be no place for you when they ketch me spyin’ on ’em.” + +“I _am_ goin’! I’ll go to Amos’ an’ call on Emma. You can escort me +there, then go down to the landin’ below the house. We’ll watch from the +upstairs window an’ telephone the station if you need help. Only I hope +you wont need it, Aubrey. I hope you can do it all yourself so’s Cap an’ +Jansen wont come into it.” + +“A lot you’ll see from the upstairs winder, a thick night like this,” +scoffed Aubrey. “But if you’d rather go prowlin’ round Howesport harbor +than entertain me my night off--” + +“Aubrey, you know better’n that!” she rebuked him. “I’m doin’ all this +because--well, I’m sort of ashamed of that piece in the paper. An’ I +want you to show ev’ryone in Howesport that you aint a coward an’ never +was one.” + +“Well, then come on!” Aubrey consented. Mamie ran upstairs, told her +mother she was going to Emma’s, put on her wraps, and with Aubrey went +out into the night. + + * * * * * + +Through the fog they walked down the sandy road to the harbor, talking +in half-whispers, Mamie hurrying three steps to his one to keep up with +him. The village clock dolefully tolled eight, its distant tones +sounding more funereal than ever in the leaden atmosphere. + +They branched off at the side road to the two-story Swift homestead set +on a wooded hill overlooking Swift’s Landing on the sheltered little +beach below. A light burned downstairs in the parlor. + +“Wait here till I’m inside,” whispered Mamie, reassuringly squeezing his +hand. “Then go to the landin’. If you need help, Aubrey, shout. We’ll be +listenin’, an’ we’ll telephone the station if you holler. Amos’ll come +down to help you while the crew’s gittin’ here.” + +Aubrey laughed under his breath. Amos! A lot of help that timid old man +would be! Aubrey waited until the door of the ark on the hill opened and +closed, then descended the path to the landing. + +Tiny waves lapped the fog-shrouded beach. Across the narrow strip of +water--not much wider than Salt Marsh Creek at high tide--two unoccupied +summer cottages bulked in the fog. To their right twinkled the kitchen +light of Reuben Nickerson’s farmhouse, and a restless cow mooed in the +stable behind it. A fine place for smugglers to operate! Why, they’d be +just as likely to run their contraband ashore directly in front of +Santuck station under the very noses of the crack crew of Cape Cod! + +Lord--if the boys at the station ever learned that he’d snooped around +looking for smugglers at Swift’s Landing, he’d never hear the last of +it! It would be a standing joke at the station. + +Aubrey withdrew from the beach to the stunted pines of the upland, and +seated himself on an overturned dory. Far down the harbor mouth the fog +whistle of Narrow Point lighthouse groaned intermittently. There was a +chill in the air--a damper, clammier cold than he experienced in his +patrols on the wider, more exposed stretches of Santuck beach. + +The drone of the fog whistle and the continual _lap-lap_ of the waves +lulled him until he was half asleep. The village clock struck ten. +Somewhere out on the Atlantic outside Howesport harbor a motorboat +chugged. One of the coast-guard flotilla, most likely, combing the +waters inside the three-mile limit for the elusive _Seabright_. + +Suddenly he arose from his seat and strained his eyes at the landing. +Out of the thickness loomed the bow of a dory. And astern of that dory +rode another. Two men in each, one rowing, the other standing in the +stern. And the oars of those dories were muffled! + +Aubrey withdrew deeper into the stunted pines--just in time, for a +flashlight from the leading dory played on the beach, and a deep voice, +slightly hushed, sang out: “All right--straight ahead!” + +The prow of the first dory scraped on the shore; then the second dory +came to rest on the sand beside it. The occupants of both boats stepped +into the water, and their sea-boots splashed as the dories were drawn up +higher. + +“Hand us a crate, thar, Russ!” the deep voice called out. “We’ve got a +few more lobsters here ’n you have, I cal’late.” + +A big arm shot up from a huge lumbering body, and with a thud a hand +proportionately large snatched a flying crate out of the air. Carefully +he and his smaller companion filled it with lobsters from the bottom of +the dory, while the smaller men of the other dory lugged several +lobster-laden crates ashore. + +[Illustration: The watching Aubrey grumbled to himself. Amos’ “smugglers” +were harmless lobstermen!] + +“I might ’a’ known ’twould turn out like this!” the watching Aubrey +grumbled to himself. For Amos’ “smugglers” were old Nathan Holway and +his three sons, harmless, industrious lobstermen who minded their own +business--which was more than Amos could say of himself. And to put +Aubrey in an even more ludicrous light if his presence there were +detected, they were cousins of Jansen. + +The young surfman took a step back, to put more pines between himself +and the beach. But in doing so he stepped on an empty bottle, and it +burst with a loud tinkle under his boots. + +“What the hell was that?” exclaimed Nathan, and the flashlight’s ray +penetrated the pines in which Aubrey was concealed. + +“Thar he is--some one hidin’ in them pines!” the nasal tenor of Russ +Holway rang out. “Come out o’ that thicket, you! We see yuh!” + +“I’ll be damned!” shouted his brother Enoch. “It’s Aubrey Sears!” + +Recognized, Aubrey stepped out of his hiding-place and walked boldly +down to the landing. “Good ev’nin’,” he saluted the lobstermen. “Kinder +thick, aint it?” + +“What’re ye doin’, snoopin’ round an’ spyin’ on us?” belligerently +roared old Nathan. “Can’t honest folks ’arn a livin’ ’thout some damned +coast-guard comin’ two miles off’n his post to peek at us?” + +“P’raps he’s lookin’ for that feller he run away from on Salt Marsh,” +suggested Enoch, and his two brothers snickered. + + * * * * * + +That made Aubrey’s fighting blood heat up. “No matter why I’m here,” he +defied them, resolved to maintain his dignity even though he felt like a +fool. And he seized upon the salient feature of their landing: “You +might tell me why you was rowin’ with muffled oars.” + +“Hear the brave bully boy o’ Santuck!” derided Russ. “He’s puttin’ us +under cross-examination. I don’t know as it’s any o’ his business why--” + +“Shut up!” Nathan silenced his smart-aleck son. “This spotter’s a +low-down, cowardly whelp, but he’s a officer o’ the Fed’ral Gover’mint, +an’ must be treated with respec’ for the uniform he wears if nawthin’ +else, even if he aint wearin’ it now,” he added suggestively. “The +reason we muffled our oars, Mr. Coast Guard,” he explained with mock +courtesy, “is that we didn’t want to distarb Amos Swift an’ Emma, bein’s +how we was kep’ out later’n usual by a strong tide after we’d hauled our +lobster pots.” + +“Does that satisfy ye?” asked Fred, the youngest brother, nastily. “If +it don’t--” + +“Close yer damned trap!” bellowed Nathan. And he turned again to Aubrey. +“Some day ye’ll git yer fool head busted, nosin’ round whar ye’ve no +call to be prowlin’,” he warned. “I’m goin’ to see Cap Cole ’bout this!” + +“An’ seein’s how you’re wearin’ no uniform,” invited Russ, “I’d like to +take ye on for a little go right here, now, bare knuckles. I’d like +nawthin’ better’ll to fix ye up so’s ye wouldn’t have no ambition to +bother any more honest fishermen or runaway smugglers.” + +Aubrey slipped out of his overcoat and the jacket of his best gray suit, +and threw them on the beach. “I’ll accommodate ye, Russ Holway!” he +shouted, assuming a defensive fighting attitude in which he had acquired +a little skill by boxing with Surfman Paty for recreation during leisure +moments at the station. “Come on!” he accepted the fisherman’s +challenge. + +But Nathan stepped between them. “They’ll be no fist-fightin’ here!” he +declared. “Not but what you can lick him, Russ, but I don’t trust +skulkin’ coast guards that are licensed to carry firearms, specially if +they’re gittin’ the wust of it. Now, little coast-guard boy,” he taunted +Aubrey, “run along back to the station. It’s late, an’ me an’ my boys +want to git a night’s rest ’fore termorrer.” + +“To hell with you an’ your rest!” retorted Aubrey. “You may be +law-abidin’, but you seem to forgit that it’s a coast-guard man you’re +makin’ fun of. An’ now that you’ve showed the service so little respec’, +I’m goin’ to assert my authority jist to show you who’s boss here. You +can postpone goin’ to bed until I’ve had a look at your lobsters--an’ a +good long look, too, by Godfrey!” + +“Damned if ye will!” roared Nathan. “You aint in uniform. Here--git back +from that crate!”--as Aubrey bent and began to paw through the lobsters +in it. + +Nathan rushed at Aubrey, but the surfman jumped nimbly to one side. + +“I’ll warn ye--it’s the United States Gover’mint you’re foolin’ +with--not me personal!” Aubrey cautioned the big fisherman. + +Nathan stepped back. “Thar’s my dory,” he stood his ground, pointing to +the nearest boat, his face black with fury. “Now, young feller, I’ll +invite ye to tech my lobsters. I’ll see whether a young sprout who aint +in uniform’ll s’arch my property or not. If ye tech that dory, ye’ll do +it over my dead body!” + +For a few seconds Aubrey hesitated. He knew he was nominally within his +authority, uniform or no uniform. Nor did the colossal strength and +fighting reputation of Nathan deter him. But he fully realized that no +matter what course of action he pursued now, he would emerge the loser. +Public sentiment would favor the Holways if they administered a sound +thrashing to him. And Cap would be sure to reprimand him for such +interference with law-abiding citizens, if not to take steps to have him +dropped from the service altogether. + +But on the other hand, if he refused to search the dory, the Holways +would advertise their triumph, and he would be branded an even greater +coward than Jansen’s lie made him out to be. + +In the midst of his reflections, while Nathan and his sons stood tense +and silent eagerly waiting for his next move, a twig snapped in the +upland. Nathan looked in that direction, and so did Aubrey. The gleam of +the flashlight disclosed Mamie, Amos and Emma hiding there, partly +shielded by the scrawny pines. + +“Mamie--go back to the house!” shouted Aubrey. + +But Mamie stepped out of her partial shelter, Emma following her on to +the beach, while Amos scrambled up the steep path in precipitate retreat +to the house. + +“What are you waitin’ for, Aubrey?” asked Mamie, her eyes flashing, her +voice shrill with excitement. “Aint you goin’ to search that dory?” + +Nathan laughed clownishly. “I cal’late your hero’s thinkin’ better of +it, Miss Weston,” he chuckled. “He knows tormented well that if he gits +hurt doin’ it, Cap Cole’ll back me an’ my boys up.” + +“Then you’re goin’ to let Cap Cole scare you out o’ doin’ your duty, +Aubrey?” Mamie’s tone was ironically sweet. “Oh, if my father was only +here! I know what _he’d_ do!” + +Aubrey clenched his fists, took a step forward--and another. He knew +what doughty old Cap Weston would do if he were alive and placed in such +a predicament. The hero of the wreck of the _David Rothwell_ would do +what he had set out to do, or die in the attempt! + +Straight for the dory Aubrey marched determinedly. He heard Nathan’s +bellow as he and his sons rushed to the attack. + +Aubrey jumped back in time to avoid the headlong charge of Nathan, but +in doing so he collided with Russ. The eldest son had not recovered from +the impact when he received a terrific punch just above his waistline, +and he doubled up gasping for breath. Aubrey whirled on Fred and planted +a wicked wallop on that bewildered youth’s jaw. Like an infuriated bull +goaded by its tormentors in the ring, Aubrey faced Enoch, and after a +short exchange of blows, put a damper on the second son’s ardor by +delivering a haymaker to his nose. + +Panting from his exertion, he turned to Nathan, who bore down on him +with lowered head and flying fists. The surfman sidestepped--but not +soon enough, for one of the fisherman’s blows found its mark on Aubrey’s +chin. Half dazed though he was, Aubrey countered with a right to the +giant’s jaw, which caused no more perceptible damage than birdshot to +the hide of a rhinoceros. + +From that instant on, the fight was a rough-and-tumble, free-for-all, +and general rough-house. No chance for Aubrey to display any of the +science he had acquired boxing with Paty. He struck out blindly, saved +himself from his attackers by quick footwork, oppressed from all sides +at once. Blows light and heavy landed on his cheeks, chin, and jaws, +while he danced and dodged in the center of the melee, confused by the +odds against him, but keeping his antagonists on the jump by avoiding +dirty tactics on their part like tripping or kicking. + +Then as they edged in closer, he broke through the ring surrounding him +and ran a few yards up the beach, where he faced them again. He launched +a right at Enoch which staggered that aggressive little bunch of wiry +sinews. But at the same time the coast-guard received a crushing punch +on the cheek from Russ. He managed, however, to dodge past Enoch and +escape from the circle which was forming around him again. And there, +his back to the harbor, some fifty yards upshore from the dories, once +more he defied the four oncoming fishermen. + + * * * * * + +Aubrey was breathing hard, his nose bleeding, cheeks and lips cut, +one eye closed, and his shirt flapping in shreds. Time and again he +broke clear; and the scene of battle shifted frequently up and down the +beach. + +After one of Aubrey’s eel-like escapes, Nathan shoved his sons back and +faced the surfman alone. “Got--enough?” the huge lobsterman panted, his +leathery face daubed with blood, his thick lips split. + +“Hell--no! I aint begun to fight yit!” Aubrey defied him. “Try it ag’in! +Come on, I’m askin’ ye!” + +Russ and Enoch, battle-grimed and rent as to raiment, started for the +cornered surfman. But Nathan snatched Russ by the arm and flung him +back, and stepped between Enoch and Aubrey. + +“You stay out o’ this!” he commanded his offspring. “This Sears--he +needs a dose o’ the medicine such as only one o’ my generation can hand +him. I’ll take care o’ him in the good old-fashioned way. You three go +back to the dories an’ see ’at no one swipes our lobsters.” + +With a rush, the big fisherman resumed the conflict. Nathan was +fighting, now, with knees as well as fists--the kind of fighting the +old-time Yankee skippers resorted to when all other methods of subduing +refractory members of their crews failed. In his younger days Nathan +Holway had earned the nickname of “Bloody Nathan” from his proficiency +in this style of fighting. Aubrey had seen Cap Cole fight that way once +when he half killed a crazy-drunk sailor, so he knew what to expect. + +He avoided Bloody Nathan by sidestepping, smashing left and right +uppercuts to the fisherman’s lowered face. But the endurance of that +hulk of bone and muscle was nothing short of marvelous, and he seemed to +be wholly unaffected. + +Now and then Aubrey felt the impact of Bloody Nathan’s huge fist as it +smashed through his defense. Once Nathan’s knee caught the coast-guard +in the abdomen, and he doubled up, seeing black. But he pulled himself +together, and came back at his antagonist with a left to the jaw and a +right uppercut to the chin, and again avoided the rush of the +foul-fighting fisherman by sidestepping and smashing in with another +left and right. + +The pace was beginning to tell on Nathan. Aubrey’s wind was less +expended, severely sapped though it was, for he didn’t waste energy in +headlong rushes. One of Bloody Nathan’s eyes was closed, and his +bleeding mouth lolled open. His lungs were wheezy and his knees shaky. + +Then Aubrey rushed. He delivered a quick, swinging blow with his left +that smashed through the fisherman’s awkward defense and crashed upon +his bulbous nose. He groaned, and sank to the sand like a pole-axed +steer. + +The fall of their parent seemed to fire the three sons with fresh zeal. +They pounced on Aubrey from all quarters, and he, his energy sapped by +his vigorous fray with their father, went down on the sand under them, +while they started to pummel him unmercifully. + +But Aubrey twisted and squirmed clear of the three, leaving his +undershirt in their clutches, and upsetting Fred, recovered his footing. +He knew he was licked; the fight with Nathan had taken too much out of +him to go through it all over again with them. But no matter how badly +he was mauled, his was the satisfaction of making Bloody Nathan take the +count. Mamie, wherever she was, couldn’t accuse him of being a coward +now. Neither could Cap, whatever Cap would think of his judgment in +starting the affair. + +He didn’t care about the Number One surfman’s job now. Nor did Mamie +seem a vital factor in his life. She had got him into this mess. It +would be interesting to find out whether she would stick to him or not +if the Number One job went to some one else. + + * * * * * + +He was standing again with his back to the harbor, the three sons of +Bloody Nathan facing him but not carrying the fight to him. Near by he +could make out Mamie trying to reach him, but Amos and Emma were holding +her back. + +“Come on, yuh damned coward!” Aubrey taunted Russ. + +“Come on yerself!” retorted Russ. + +“Start somethin’!” squealed Enoch. + +And Aubrey accepted the invitation by charging Russ, head down, blindly, +adopting Bloody Nathan’s method of attack--a method which had vindicated +itself in free-for-all fighting. Again and again he flailed his fists at +the fisherman’s eldest son, who gave no ground, but stood resigned to +his punishment, if punishment it really were which Aubrey, in his +exhausted state, was administering. + +He was gripped by the shoulder and drawn firmly back, his fists fanning +the air. + +“Sears--behave! You’ve gone fur enough with this!” + +Aubrey weakly raised his head--and his one open eye took in Cap Cole, +holding his shoulder with one strong hand gripping what appeared to be +the cylindrical metal case of a beach-torch in the other. + +“I aint--gone fur--enough!” Aubrey defied his commander, struggling +feebly and unsuccessfully to wrench himself loose. “I aint--_begun_--to +fight!” + +“It’s all his doin’, Cap!” groaned Bloody Nathan, staggering out of the +fog to the Santuck commander, while his three sons retreated to the two +dories. “Sears interfered with us, Cap--in the name o’ the +coast-guard--out o’ spite to keep us from gittin’ a decent night’s +rest--him in plain clothes--with no authority--” + +“Why are you makin’ such a spectacle o’ yerself ag’inst a law-abidin’ +citizen like Nathan?” Cole severely questioned the young surfman. “It’s +a good thing Amos Swift called me up an’ told me you was in hot water at +the landin’, judgin’ by the loud talk he heard. If you had your pistol +here, I cal’late they’d ’a’ been murder committed--with you in your +present frame o’ mind. If Jansen wa’n’t on patrol an’ he’d come here +with me--” + +“Yeah,” Aubrey flung back. “It’s always Jansen. ’Twas him that lied +about me that night on Salt Marsh. An’ you’re no better’n he is, to +b’lieve him, an’ send that lyin’ report to the superintendent!” He +reached into his hip pocket, drew an automatic pistol, and handed it to +Cap, holding it by the barrel. “Here’s my gun, Cap,” he said. “It’s been +in my pants pocket all durin’ the scrap.” + +Cap accepted the weapon without comment, relinquishing his grip on +Aubrey’s shoulder. + +“I’m through with the damn’ coast-guard an’ Santuck!” Aubrey thus kicked +over the traces and stove in the dashboard. “Through with you, an’ +Jansen, an’ your lies ’bout me. I’m going to sea--inland--_anywhere_ to +git away from you two. I told you the truth that night on Salt Marsh. +An’ what did _you_ do? You believed what Jansen told yuh, an’ worse’n +that--you put it in the report to headquarters, an’ it got in the paper. +I done tonight what I set out to do--I’ve got _that_ much satisfaction +out of it, no matter how big a fool you an’ the Howesport folks call +me!” + +A small hand tenderly dabbed at his empurpled eye with a tiny +handkerchief. + +“Good for you, Aubrey!” Mamie applauded. “We wont change our plans a +mite, Aubrey, you ’n’ me. We’ll git along somehow--I’ll go through +anything to make you happy.” She turned savagely on Cap. “The idea o’ +you belittlin’ my Aubrey after he’s been--so brave--” A sob choked her. + + * * * * * + +But Cap laughed, and again laid his hand on Aubrey’s shoulder. “You’re +_not_ goin’ to leave the coast-guard, Sears!” he declared. “You’re goin’ +to be the nex’ Number One surfman at Santuck station, if I have anything +to say about it--an’ I cal’late I will! You don’t s’pose for a minute +that I believed Jansen after he put that piece in the Boston paper, do +ye? That wa’n’t what I reported to the superintendent. I didn’t mention +your name in that report. An’ when I seen that newspaper, I telephoned +it to find out where they got the information, an’ they said ‘From +Jansen.’ He didn’t have no authority to put that in without gittin’ me +to endorse it. It’s an open vi’lation o’ discipline, an’ it’s proof to +me that he aint to be trusted. An’ he wont command Sandy Holler if _I_ +c’n help it, by golly!” + +“Then why didn’t you tell Aubrey that today?” indignantly asked Mamie. + +“Because,” Cap replied, “I wanted to have somethin’ better to report to +the superintendent ’bout Sears before I recommended him for Jansen’s +place. An’ I cal’lated the best way to stir him up so’s I could do that +would be to make him think he’s wuth less’n a healthy damn, an’ git his +fightin’ dander up.” + + * * * * * + +“I can’t see whar he _is_ wuth more’n that,” spoke up Nathan, who had +recovered sufficiently from his mauling to listen interestedly to the +conversation of Mamie and Cap. The glare of a flashlight down the beach +revealed through the thinning fog the fisherman’s three sons and four +uniformed men of the Santuck crew grouped near the dories. “D’you +coast-guard folks promote brave surfmen who pick on harmless fishermen +an’ damn’ nigh beat the tar out of ’em?” he sneered. + +“No--not for beatin’ up _harmless_ fishermen,” countered Cap. “But for +molestin’ them engaged in _this_ kind o’ fishin’.” He held up the metal +cylinder. + +Nathan swayed drunkenly when he looked at it, “Oh, hell!” he moaned. “I +was dependin’ on Russ an’ the boys to take care o’ that!” + +“You was too busy fightin’--you an’ your boys, Nathan--to notice my +Santuck boys searchin’ your lobsters,” explained Cap. “This tube is full +of opium. I’m familiar with it--it’s the same kind the _Seabright’s_ +been runnin’ ashore. Now I cal’late I know why Jansen advanced such good +argymints to me to discontinue the Howesport harbor patrol. I cal’late +his examination in court--an’ yourn, too, Nathan--will be real +interestin’!” + +“Hereafter, Sears,”--he turned to Aubrey,--“what you say at Santuck +station _goes_! That’s final!” + + +[Transcriber’s note: This story appeared in the February, 1930 issue +of _The Blue Book_ magazine.] +*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 77810 *** |