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diff --git a/7807.txt b/7807.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..de9d062 --- /dev/null +++ b/7807.txt @@ -0,0 +1,8883 @@ +Project Gutenberg's Georgina of the Rainbows, by Annie Fellows Johnston + +Copyright laws are changing all over the world. Be sure to check the +copyright laws for your country before downloading or redistributing +this or any other Project Gutenberg eBook. + +This header should be the first thing seen when viewing this Project +Gutenberg file. Please do not remove it. Do not change or edit the +header without written permission. + +Please read the "legal small print," and other information about the +eBook and Project Gutenberg at the bottom of this file. Included is +important information about your specific rights and restrictions in +how the file may be used. You can also find out about how to make a +donation to Project Gutenberg, and how to get involved. + + +**Welcome To The World of Free Plain Vanilla Electronic Texts** + +**eBooks Readable By Both Humans and By Computers, Since 1971** + +*****These eBooks Were Prepared By Thousands of Volunteers!***** + + +Title: Georgina of the Rainbows + +Author: Annie Fellows Johnston + +Release Date: April, 2005 [EBook #7807] +[Yes, we are more than one year ahead of schedule] +[This file was first posted on May 18, 2003] + +Edition: 10 + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK GEORGINA OF THE RAINBOWS *** + + + + +Produced by Curtis A. Weyant + + + + + + +[Illustration: Georgiana of the Rainbows] + + + +GEORGIANA OF THE RAINBOWS + +BY + +ANNIE FELLOWS JOHNSTON + + +AUTHOR OF TWO LITTLE KNIGHTS OF KENTUCKY, THE GIANT SCISSORS, +THE DESERT OF WAITING, ETC. + + + "... _Still bear up and steer + right onward._" MILTON + + + +To +My Little God-daughter +"ANNE ELIZABETH" + + + +[Illustration: "At the Tip of Old Cape Cod."] + + + + +Contents + + + + I. Her Earlier Memories + II. Georgina's Playmate Mother + III. The Towncrier Has His Say + IV. New Friends and the Green Stairs + V. In the Footsteps of Pirates + VI. Spend-the-Day Guests + VII. "The Tishbite" + VIII. The Telegram that Took Barby Away + IX. The Birthday Prism + X. Moving Pictures + XI. The Old Rifle Gives Up Its Secret + XII. A Hard Promise + XIII. Lost and Found at the Liniment Wagon + XIV. Buried Treasure + XV. A Narrow Escape + XVI. What the Storm Did + XVII. In the Keeping of the Dunes + XVIII. Found Out + XIX. Tracing the Liniment Wagon + XX. Dance of the Rainbow Fairies + XXI. On the Trail of the Wild-Cat Woman + XXII. The Rainbow Game + XXIII. Light Dawns for Uncle Darcy + XXIV. A Contrast in Fathers + XXV. A Letter to Hong-Kong + XXVI. Peggy Joins the Rainbow-Makers + XXVII. A Modern "St. George and the Dragon" +XXVIII. The Doctor's Discovery + XXIX. While They Waited + XXX. Nearing the End + XXXI. Comings and Goings + + + + +[Illustration: "As Long as a Man Keeps Hope at the Prow He Keeps Afloat."] + +[Illustration: "Put a Rainbow 'Round Your Troubles."--Georgina.] + + + + +Chapter I + +Her Earlier Memories + + + +If old Jeremy Clapp had not sneezed his teeth into the fire that winter +day this story might have had a more seemly beginning; but, being a true +record, it must start with that sneeze, because it was the first +happening in Georgina Huntingdon's life which she could remember +distinctly. + +She was in her high-chair by a window overlooking a gray sea, and with a +bib under her chin, was being fed dripping spoonfuls of bread and milk +from the silver porringer which rested on the sill. The bowl was almost +on a level with her little blue shoes which she kept kicking up and down +on the step of her high-chair, wherefore the restraining hand which +seized her ankles at intervals. It was Mrs. Triplett's firm hand which +clutched her, and Mrs. Triplett's firm hand which fed her, so there was +not the usual dilly-dallying over Georgina's breakfast as when her mother +held the spoon. She always made a game of it, chanting nursery rhymes in +a gay, silver-bell-cockle-shell sort of way, as if she were one of the +"pretty maids all in a row," just stepped out of a picture book. + +Mrs. Triplett was an elderly widow, a distant relative of the family, who +lived with them. "Tippy" the child called her before she could speak +plainly--a foolish name for such a severe and dignified person, but Mrs. +Triplett rather seemed to like it. Being the working housekeeper, +companion and everything else which occasion required, she had no time to +make a game of Georgina's breakfast, even if she had known how. Not once +did she stop to say, "Curly-locks, Curly-locks, wilt thou be mine?" or to +press her face suddenly against Georgina's dimpled rose-leaf cheek as if +it were somthing too temptingly dear and sweet to be resisted. She merely +said, "Here!" each time she thrust the spoon towards her. + +Mrs. Triplett was in an especial hurry this morning, and did not even +look up when old Jeremy came into the room to put more wood on the fire. +In winter, when there was no garden work, Jeremy did everything about the +house which required a man's hand. Although he must have been nearly +eighty years old, he came in, tall and unbending, with a big log across +his shoulder. He walked stiffly, but his back was as straight as the long +poker with which he mended the fire. + +Georgina had seen him coming and going about the place every day since +she had been brought to live in this old gray house beside the sea, but +this was the first time he had made any lasting impression upon her +memory. Henceforth, she was to carry with her as long as she should live +the picture of a hale, red-faced old man with a woolen muffler wound +around his lean throat. His knitted "wrist-warmers" slipped down over his +mottled, deeply-veined bands when he stooped to roll the log into the +fire. He let go with a grunt. The next instant a mighty sneeze seized +him, and Georgina, who had been gazing in fascination at the shower of +sparks he was making, saw all of his teeth go flying into the fire. If +his eyes had suddenly dropped from their sockets upon the hearth, or his +ears floated off from the sides of his head, she could not have been more +terrified, for she had not yet learned that one's teeth may be a separate +part of one's anatomy. It was such a terrible thing to see a man go to +pieces in this undreamed-of fashion, that she began to scream and writhe +around in her high-chair until it nearly turned over. + +She did upset the silver porringer, and what was left of the bread and +milk splashed out on the floor, barely missing the rug. Mrs. Triplett +sprang to snatch her from the toppling chair, thinking the child was +having a spasm. She did not connect it with old Jeremy's sneeze until she +heard his wrathful gibbering, and turned to see him holding up the teeth, +which he had fished out of the fire with the tongs. + +They were an old-fashioned set such as one never sees now. They had been +made in England. They were hinged together like jaws, and Georgina yelled +again as she saw them all blackened and gaping, dangling from the tongs. +It was not the grinning teeth themselves, however, which frightened her. +It was the awful knowledge, vague though it was to her infant mind, that +a human body could fly apart in that way. And Tippy, not understanding +the cause of her terror, never thought to explain that they were false +and had been made by a man in some out-of-the-way corner of Yorkshire, +instead of by the Almighty, and that their removal was painless. + +It was several years before Georgina learned the truth, and the +impression made by the accident grew into a lurking fear which often +haunted her as time wore on. She never knew at what moment she might fly +apart herself. That it was a distressing experience she knew from the +look on old Jeremy's face and the desperate pace at which he set off to +have himself mended. + +She held her breath long enough to hear the door bang shut after him and +his hob-nailed shoes go scrunch, scrunch, through the gravel of the path +around the house, then she broke out crying again so violently that Tippy +had hard work quieting her. She picked up the silver porringer from the +floor and told her to look at the pretty bowl. The fall had put a dent +into its side. And what would Georgina's great-great aunt have said could +she have known what was going to happen to her handsome dish, poor lady! +Surely she never would have left it to such a naughty namesake! Then, to +stop her sobbing, Mrs. Triplett took one tiny finger-tip in her large +ones, and traced the name which was engraved around the rim in tall, +slim-looped letters: the name which had passed down through many +christenings to its present owner, "Georgina Huntingdon." + +Failing thus to pacify the frightened child, Mrs. Triplett held her up to +the window overlooking the harbor, and dramatically bade her "hark!" +Standing with her blue shoes on the window-sill, and a tear on each pink +cheek, Georgina flattened her nose against the glass and obediently +listened. + +The main street of the ancient seaport town, upon which she gazed +expectantly, curved three miles around the harbor, and the narrow board- +walk which ran along one side of it all the way, ended abruptly just in +front of the house in a waste of sand. So there was nothing to be seen +but a fishing boat at anchor, and the waves crawling up the beach, and +nothing to be heard but the jangle of a bell somewhere down the street. +The sobs broke out again. "Hush!" commanded Mrs. Triplett, giving her an +impatient shake. "Hark to what's coming up along. Can't you stop a minute +and give the Towncrier a chance? Or is it you're trying to outdo him?" + +The word "Towncrier" was meaningless to Georgina. There was nothing by +that name in her linen book which held the pictures of all the animals +from Ape to Zebra, and there was nothing by that name down in Kentucky +where she had lived all of her short life until these last few weeks. She +did not even know whether what Mrs. Triplett said was coming along would +be wearing a hat or horns. The cow that lowed at the pasture bars every +night back in Kentucky jangled a bell. Georgina had no distinct +recollection of the cow, but because of it the sound of a bell was +associated in her mind with horns. So horns were what she halfway +expected to see, as she watched breathlessly, with her face against the +glass. + +"Hark to what he's calling!" urged Mrs. Triplett. "A fish auction. +There's a big boat in this morning with a load of fish, and the Towncrier +is telling everybody about it." + +So a Towncrier was a man! The next instant Georgina saw him. He was an +old man, with bent shoulders and a fringe of gray hair showing under the +fur cap pulled down to meet his ears. But there was such a happy twinkle +in his faded blue eyes, such goodness of heart in every wrinkle of the +weather-beaten old face, that even the grumpiest people smiled a little +when they met him, and everybody he spoke to stepped along a bit more +cheerful, just because the hearty way he said "_Good_ morning!" made +the day seem really good. + +"He's cold," said Tippy. "Let's tap on the window and beckon him to come +in and warm himself before he starts back to town." + +She caught up Georgina's hand to make it do the tapping, thinking it +would please her to give her a share in the invitation, but in her touchy +frame of mind it was only an added grievance to have her knuckles knocked +against the pane, and her wails began afresh as the old man, answering +the signal, shook his bell at her playfully, and turned towards the +house. + +As to what happened after that, Georgina's memory is a blank, save for a +confused recollection of being galloped to Banbury Cross on somebody's +knee, while a big hand helped her to clang the clapper of a bell far too +heavy for her to swing alone. But some dim picture of the kindly face +puckered into smiles for her comforting, stayed on in her mind as an +object seen through a fog, and thereafter she never saw the Towncrier go +kling-klanging along the street without feeling a return of that same +sense of safety which his song gave her that morning. Somehow, it +restored her confidence in all Creation which Jeremy's teeth had +shattered in their fall. + +Taking advantage of Georgina's contentment at being settled on the +visitor's knee, Mrs. Triplett hurried for a cloth to wipe up the bread +and milk. Kneeling on the floor beside it she sopped it up so +energetically that what she was saying came in jerks. + +"It's a mercy you happened along, Mr. Darcy, or she might have been +screaming yet. I never saw a child go into such a sudden tantrum." + +The answer came in jerks also, for it took a vigorous trotting of the +knees to keep such a heavy child as Georgina on the bounce. And in order +that his words might not interfere with the game he sang them to the tune +of "Ride a Cock Horse." + + "There must have been--some--very good---- + Reason for such--a hulla-ba-loo!" + +"I'll tell you when I come back," said Mrs. Triplett, on her feet again +by this time and halfway to the kitchen with the dripping floor cloth. +But when she reappeared in the doorway her own concerns had crowded out +the thought of old Jeremy's misfortune. + +"My yeast is running all over the top of the crock, Mr. Darcy, and if I +don't get it mixed right away the whole baking will be spoiled." + +"That's all right, ma'am," was the answer. "Go ahead with your dough. +I'll keep the little lass out of mischief. Many's the time I have sat by +this fire with her father on my knee, as you know. But it's been years +since I was in this room last." + +There was a long pause in the Banbury Cross ride. The Crier was looking +around the room from one familiar object to another with the gentle +wistfulness which creeps into old eyes when they peer into the past for +something that has ceased to be. Georgina grew impatient. + +"More ride!" she commanded, waving her hands and clucking her tongue as +he had just taught her to do. + +"Don't let her worry you, Mr. Darcy," called Mrs. Triplett from the +kitchen. "Her mother will be back from the post-office most any minute +now. Just send her out here to me if she gets too bothersome." + +Instantly Georgina cuddled her head down against his shoulder. She had no +mind to be separated from this new-found playfellow. When he produced a +battered silver watch from the pocket of his velveteen waistcoat, holding +it over her ear, she was charmed into a prolonged silence. The clack of +Tippy's spoon against the crock came in from the kitchen, and now and +then the fire snapped or the green fore-log made a sing-song hissing. + +More than thirty years had passed by since the old Towncrier first +visited the Huntingdon home. He was not the Towncrier then, but a +seafaring man who had sailed many times around the globe, and had his +fill of adventure. Tired at last of such a roving life, he had found +anchorage to his liking in this quaint old fishing town at the tip end of +Cape Cod. Georgina's grandfather, George Justin Huntingdon, a judge and a +writer of dry law books, had been one of the first to open his home to +him. They had been great friends, and little Justin, now Georgina's +father, had been a still closer friend. Many a day they had spent +together, these two, fishing or blueberrying or tramping across the +dunes. The boy called him "Uncle Darcy," tagging after him like a shadow, +and feeling a kinship in their mutual love of adventure which drew as +strongly as family ties. The Judge always said that it was the old +sailor's yarns of sea life which sent Justin into the navy "instead of +the law office where he belonged." + +As the old man looked down at Georgina's soft, brown curls pressed +against his shoulder, and felt her little dimpled hand lying warm on his +neck, he could almost believe it was the same child who had crept into +his heart thirty years ago. It was hard to think of the little lad as +grown, or as filling the responsible position of a naval surgeon. Yet +when he counted back he realized that the Judge had been dead several +years, and the house had been standing empty all that time. Justin had +never been back since it was boarded up. He had written occasionally +during the first of his absence, but only boyish scrawls which told +little about himself. + +The only real news which the old man had of him was in the three +clippings from the Provincetown _Beacon_, which he carried about in +his wallet. The first was a mention of Justin's excellent record in +fighting a fever epidemic in some naval station in the tropics. The next +was the notice of his marriage to a Kentucky girl by the name of Barbara +Shirley, and the last was a paragraph clipped from a newspaper dated only +a few weeks back. It said that Mrs. Justin Huntingdon and little +daughter, Georgina, would arrive soon to take possession of the old +Huntingdon homestead which had been closed for many years. During the +absence of her husband, serving in foreign parts, she would have with her +Mrs. Maria Triplett. + +The Towncrier had known Mrs. Triplett as long as he had known the town. +She had been kind to him when he and his wife were in great trouble. He +was thinking about that time now, because it had something to do with his +last visit to the Judge in this very room. She had happened to be +present, too. And the green fore-log had made that same sing-song +hissing. The sound carried his thoughts back so far that for a few +moments he ceased to hear the clack of the spoon. + + + + +Chapter II + +Georgina's Playmate Mother + + + +As the Towncrier's revery brought him around to Mrs. Triplett's part in +the painful scene which he was recalling, he heard her voice, and looking +up, saw that she had come back into the room, and was standing by the +window. + +"There's Justin's wife now, Mr. Darcy, coming up the beach. Poor child, +she didn't get her letter. I can tell she's disappointed from the way she +walks along as if she could hardly push against the wind." + +The old man, leaning sideways over the arm of his chair, craned his neck +toward the window to peer out, but he did it without dislodging Georgina, +who was repeating the "tick-tick" of the watch in a whisper, as she lay +contentedly against the Towncrier's shoulder. + +"She's naught but a slip of a girl," he commented, referring to +Georgina's mother, slowly drawing into closer view. "She must be years +younger than Justin. She came up to me in the post-office last week and +told me who she was, and I've been intending ever since to get up this +far to talk with her about him." + +As they watched her she reached the end of the board-walk, and plunging +ankle-deep into the sand, trudged slowly along as if pushed back by the +wind. It whipped her skirts about her and blew the ends of her fringed +scarf back over her shoulder. She made a bright flash of color against +the desolate background. Scarf, cap and thick knitted reefer were all of +a warm rose shade. Once she stopped, and with hands thrust into her +reefer pockets, stood looking off towards the lighthouse on Long Point. +Mrs. Triplett spoke again, still watching her. + +"I didn't want to take Justin's offer when he first wrote to me, although +the salary he named was a good one, and I knew the work wouldn't be more +than I've always been used to. But I had planned to stay in Wellfleet +this winter, and it always goes against the grain with me to have to +change a plan once made. I only promised to stay until she was +comfortably settled. A Portugese woman on one of the back streets would +have come and cooked for her. But land! When I saw how strange and +lonesome she seemed and how she turned to me for everything, I didn't +have the heart to say go. I only named it once to her, and she sort of +choked up and winked back the tears and said in that soft-spoken +Southern way of hers, 'Oh, don't leave me, Tippy!' She's taken to calling +me Tippy, just as Georgina does. 'When you talk about it I feel like a +kitten shipwrecked on a desert island. It's all so strange and dreadful +here with just sea on one side and sand dunes on the other.'" + +At the sound of her name, Georgina suddenly sat up straight and began +fumbling the watch back into the velveteen pocket. She felt that it was +time for her to come into the foreground again. + +"More ride!" she demanded. The galloping began again, gently at first, +then faster and faster in obedience to her wishes, until she seemed only +a swirl of white dress and blue ribbon and flying brown curls. But this +time the giddy going up and down was in tame silence. There was no +accompanying song to make the game lively. Mrs. Triplett had more to say, +and Mr. Darcy was too deeply interested to sing. + +"Look at her now, stopping to read that sign set up on the spot where the +Pilgrims landed. She does that every time she passes it. Says it cheers +her up something wonderful, no matter how downhearted she is, to think +that she wasn't one of the Mayflower passengers, and that she's nearly +three hundred years away from their hardships and that dreadful first +wash-day of theirs. Does seem to me though, that's a poor way to make +yourself cheerful, just thinking of all the hard times you might have had +but didn't." + +"_Thing_ it!" lisped Georgina, wanting undivided attention, and +laying an imperious little hand on his cheek to force it. "_Thing_!" + +He shook his head reprovingly, with a finger across his lips to remind +her that Mrs. Triplett was still talking; but she was not to be silenced +in such a way. Leaning over until her mischievous brown eyes compelled +him to look at her, she smiled like a dimpled cherub. Georgina's smile +was something irresistible when she wanted her own way. + +"_Pleathe!_" she lisped, her face so radiantly sure that no one +could be hardhearted enough to resist the magic appeal of that word, that +he could not disappoint her. + +"The little witch!" he exclaimed. "She could wheedle the fish out of the +sea if she'd say please to 'em that way. But how that honey-sweet tone +and the yells she was letting loose awhile back could come out of that +same little rose of a mouth, passes my understanding." + +Mrs. Triplett had left them again and he was singing at the top of his +quavering voice, "Rings on her fingers and bells on her toes," when the +front door opened and Georgina's mother came in. The salt wind had blown +color into her cheeks as bright as her rose-pink reefer. Her +disappointment about the letter had left a wistful shadow in her big gray +eyes, but it changed to a light of pleasure when she saw who was romping +with Georgina. They were so busy with their game that neither of them +noticed her entrance. + +She closed the door softly behind her and stood with her back against it +watching them a moment. Then Georgina spied her, and with a rapturous cry +of "_Barby!_" scrambled down and ran to throw herself into her +mother's arms. Barby was her way of saying Barbara. It was the first word +she had ever spoken and her proud young mother encouraged her to repeat +it, even when her Grandmother Shirley insisted that it wasn't respectful +for a child to call its mother by her first name. + +"But I don't care whether it is or not," Barbara had answered. "All I +want is for her to feel that we're the best chums in the world. And I'm +_not_ going to spoil her even if I am young and inexperienced. There +are a few things that I expect to be very strict about, but making her +respectful to me isn't one of them." + +Now one of the things which Barbara had decided to be very strict about +in Georgina's training was making her respectful to guests. She was not +to thrust herself upon their notice, she was not to interrupt their +conversation, or make a nuisance of herself. So, young as she was, +Georgina had already learned what was expected of her, when her mother +having greeted Mr. Darcy and laid aside her wraps, drew up to the fire to +talk to him. But instead of doing the expected thing, Georgina did the +forbidden. Since the old man's knees were crossed so that she could no +longer climb upon them, she attempted to seat herself on his foot, +clamoring, "Do it again!" + +"No, dear," Barbara said firmly. "Uncle Darcy's tired." She had noticed +the long-drawn sigh of relief with which he ended the last gallop. "He's +going to tell us about father when he was a little boy no bigger than +you. So come here to Barby and listen or else go off to your own corner +and play with your whirligig." + +Usually, at the mention of some particularly pleasing toy Georgina would +trot off happily to find it; but to-day she stood with her face drawn +into a rebellious pucker and scowled at her mother savagely. Then +throwing herself down on the rug she began kicking her blue shoes up and +down on the hearth, roaring, _"No! No!"_ at the top of her voice. +Barbara paid no attention at first, but finding it impossible to talk +with such a noise going on, dragged her up from the floor and looked +around helplessly, considering what to do with her. Then she remembered +the huge wicker clothes hamper, standing empty in the kitchen, and +carrying her out, gently lowered her into it. + +It was so deep that even on tiptoe Georgina could not look over the rim. +All she could see was the ceiling directly overhead. The surprise of such +a novel punishment made her hold her breath to find what was going to +happen next, and in the stillness she heard her mother say calmly as she +walked out of the room: "If she roars any more, Tippy, just put the lid +on; but as soon as she is ready to act like a little lady, lift her out, +please." + +The strangeness of her surroundings kept her quiet a moment longer, and +in that moment she discovered that by putting one eye to a loosely-woven +spot in the hamper she could see what Mrs. Triplett was doing. She was +polishing the silver porringer, trying to rub out the dent which the fall +had made in its side. It was such an interesting kitchen, seen through +this peep-hole that Georgina became absorbed in rolling her eye around +for wider views. Then she found another outlook on the other side of the +hamper, and was quiet so long that Mrs. Triplett came over and peered +down at her to see what was the matter. Georgina looked up at her with a +roguish smile. One never knew how she was going to take a punishment or +what she would do next. + +"Are you ready to be a little lady now? Want me to lift you out?" Both +little arms were stretched joyously up to her, and a voice of angelic +sweetness said coaxingly: "_Pleathe_, Tippy." + +The porringer was in Mrs. Triplett's hand when she leaned over the hamper +to ask the question. The gleam of its freshly-polished sides caught +Georgina's attention an instant before she was lifted out, and it was +impressed on her memory still more deeply by being put into her own hands +afterwards as she sat in Mrs. Triplett's lap. Once more her tiny finger's +tip was made to trace the letters engraved around the rim, as she was +told about her great-great aunt and what was expected of her. The solemn +tone clutched her attention as firmly as the hand which held her, and +somehow, before she was set free, she was made to feel that because of +that old porringer she was obliged to be a little lady. + +Tippy was not one who could sit calmly by and see a child suffer for lack +of proper instruction, and while Georgina never knew just how it was +done, the fact was impressed upon her as years went by that there were +many things which she could not do, simply because she was a Huntingdon +and because her name had been graven for so many generations around that +shining silver rim. + +Although to older eyes the happenings of that morning were trivial, they +were far-reaching in their importance to Georgina, for they gave her +three memories--Jeremy's teeth, the Towncrier's bell, and her own name on +the porringer--to make a deep impression on all her after-life. + + + + +Chapter III + +The Towncrier Has His Say + + + +The old Huntingdon house with its gray gables and stone chimneys, stood +on the beach near the breakwater, just beyond the place where everything +seemed to come to an end. The house itself marked the end of the town. +Back of it the dreary dunes stretched away toward the Atlantic, and in +front the Cape ran out in a long, thin tongue of sand between the bay and +the harbor, with a lighthouse on its farthest point. It gave one the +feeling of being at the very tip end of the world to look across and see +the water closing in on both sides. Even the road ended in front of the +house in a broad loop in which machines could turn around. + +In summer there was always a string of sightseers coming up to this end +of the beach. They came to read the tablet erected on the spot known to +Georgina as "holy ground," because it marked the first landing of the +Pilgrims. Long before she could read, Mrs. Triplett taught her to lisp +part of a poem which said: + + "Aye, call it holy ground, + The thoil where firth they trod." + +She taught it to Georgina because she thought it was only fair to Justin +that his child should grow up to be as proud of her New England home as +she was of her Southern one. Barbara was always singing to her about "My +Old Kentucky Home," and "Going Back to Dixie," and when they played +together on the beach their favorite game was building Grandfather +Shirley's house in the sand. + +Day after day they built it up with shells and wet sand and pebbles, even +to the stately gate posts topped by lanterns. Twigs of bayberry and wild +beach plum made trees with which to border its avenues, and every dear +delight of swing and arbor and garden pool beloved in Barbara's play- +days, was reproduced in miniature until Georgina loved them, too. She +knew just where the bee-hives ought to be put, and the sun-dial, and the +hole in the fence where the little pigs squeezed through. There was a +story for everything. By the time she had outgrown her lisp she could +make the whole fair structure by herself, without even a suggestion from +Barbara. + +When she grew older the shore was her schoolroom also. She learned to +read from letters traced in the sand, and to make them herself with +shells and pebbles. She did her sums that, way, too, after she had +learned to count the sails in the harbor, the gulls feeding at ebb-tide, +and the great granite blocks which formed the break-water. + +Mrs. Triplett's time for lessons was when Georgina was following her +about the house. Such following taught her to move briskly, for Tippy, +like time and tide, never waited, and it behooved one to be close at her +heels if one would see what she put into a pan before she whisked it into +the oven. Also it was necessary to keep up with her as she moved swiftly +from the cellar to the pantry if one would hear her thrilling tales of +Indians and early settlers and brave forefathers of colony times. + +There was a powder horn hanging over the dining room mantel, which had +been in the battle of Lexington, and Tippy expected Georgina to find the +same inspiration in it which she did, because the forefather who carried +it was an ancestor of each. + +"The idea of a descendant of one of the Minutemen being afraid of +_rats!_" she would say with a scornful rolling of her words which +seemed to wither her listener with ridicule. "Or of an empty garret! +_Tut!_" + +When Georgina was no more than six, that disgusted "Tut!" would start her +instantly down a dark cellar-way or up into the dreaded garret, even when +she could feel the goose-flesh rising all over her. Between the +porringer, which obliged her to be a little lady, and the powder horn, +which obliged her to be brave, even while she shivered, some times +Georgina felt that she had almost too much to live up to. There were +times when she was sorry that she had ancestors. She was proud to think +that one of them shared in the honors of the tall Pilgrim monument +overlooking the town and harbor, but there were days when she would have +traded him gladly far an hour's play with two little Portugese boys and +their sister, who often wandered up to the dunes back of the house. + +She had watched them often enough to know that their names were Manuel +and Joseph and Rosa. They were beautiful children, such as some of the +old masters delighted to paint, but they fought and quarreled and--Tippy +said--used "shocking language." That is why Georgina was not allowed to +play with them, but she often stood at the back gate watching them, +envying their good times together and hoping to hear a sample of their +shocking language. + +One day when they strolled by dragging a young puppy in a rusty saucepan +by a string tied to the handle, the temptation to join them overcame her. +Inch by inch her hand moved up nearer the forbidden gate latch and she +was just slipping through when old Jeremy, hidden behind a hedge where he +was weeding the borders, rose up like an all-seeing dragon and roared at +her, "Coom away, lass! Ye maun't do that!" + +She had not known that he was anywhere around, and the voice coming +suddenly out of the unseen startled her so that her heart seemed to jump +up into her throat. It made her angry, too. Only the moment before she +had heard Rosa scream at Manuel, "You ain't my boss; shut your big +mouth!" + +It was on the tip of her tongue to scream the same thing at old Jeremy +and see what would happen. She felt, instinctively, that this was +shocking language. But she had not yet outgrown the lurking fear which +always seized her in his presence that either her teeth or his might fly +out if she wasn't careful, so she made no answer. But compelled to vent +her inward rebellion in some way, she turned her back on the hedge that +screened him and shook the gate till the latch rattled. + +Looking up she saw the tall Pilgrim monument towering over the town like +a watchful giant. She had a feeling that it, too, was spying on her. No +matter where she went, even away out in the harbor in a motor boat, it +was always stretching its long neck up to watch her. Shaking back her +curls, she looked up at it defiantly and made a face at it, just the +ugliest pucker of a face she could twist her little features into. + +But it was only on rare occasions that Georgina felt the longing for +playmates of her own age. Usually she was busy with her lessons or +happily following her mother and Mrs. Triplett around the house, sharing +all their occupations. In jelly-making time she had the scrapings of the +kettle to fill her own little glass. When they sewed she sewed with them, +even when she was so small that she had to have the thread tied in the +needle's eye, and could do no more than pucker up a piece of soft goods +into big wallops. But by the time she was nine years old she had learned +to make such neat stitches that Barbara sent specimens of her needlework +back to Kentucky, and folded others away in a little trunk of keepsakes, +to save for her until she should be grown. + +Abo by the time she was nine she could play quite creditably a number of +simple Etudes on the tinkly old piano which had lost some of its ivories. +Her daily practicing was one of the few things about which Barbara was +strict. So much attention had been given to her own education in music +that she found joy in keeping up her interest in it, and wanted to make +it one of Georgina's chief sources of pleasure. To that end she mixed the +stories of the great operas and composers with her fairy tales and folk +lore, until the child knew them as intimately as she did her Hans +Andersen and Uncle Remus. + +They often acted stories together, too. Even Mrs. Triplett was dragged +into these, albeit unwillingly, for minor but necessary parts. For +instance, in "Lord Ullin's Daughter," she could keep on with her knitting +and at the same time do "the horsemen hard behind us ride," by clapping +her heels on the hearth to sound like hoof-beats. + +Acting came as naturally to Georgina as breathing. She could not repeat +the simplest message without unconsciously imitating the tone and gesture +of the one who sent it. This dramatic instinct made a good reader of her +when she took her turn with Barbara in reading aloud. They used to take +page about, sitting with their arms around each other on the old claw- +foot sofa, backed up against the library table. + +At such performances the old Towncrier was often an interested spectator. +Barbara welcomed him when he first came because he seemed to want to talk +about Justin as much as she desired to hear. Later she welcomed him for +his own sake, and grew to depend upon him for counsel and encouragement. +Most of all she appreciated his affectionate interest in Georgina. If he +had been her own grandfather he could not have taken greater pride in her +little accomplishments. More than once he had tied her thread in her +needle for her when she was learning to sew, and it was his unfailing +praise of her awkward attempts which encouraged her to I keep on until +her stitches were really praiseworthy. + +He applauded her piano playing from her first stumbling attempt at scales +to the last simple waltz she had just learned. He attended many readings, +beginning with words of one syllable, on up to such books as "The +Leatherstocking Tales." He came in one day, however, as they were +finishing a chapter in one of the Judge's favorite novels, and no sooner +had Georgina skipped out of the room on an errand than he began to take +her mother to task for allowing her to read anything of that sort. + +"You'll make the lass old before her time!" he scolded. "A little scrap +like her ought to be playing with other children instead of reading books +so far over her head that she can only sort of tip-toe up to them." + +"But it's the stretching that makes her grow, Uncle Darcy," Barbara +answered in an indulgent tone. He went on heedless of her interruption. + +"And she tells me that she sometimes sits as much as an hour at a time, +listening to you play on the piano, especially if it's 'sad music that +makes you think of someone looking off to sea for a ship that never comes +in, or of waves creeping up in a lonely place where the fog-bell tolls.' +Those were her very words, and she looked so mournful that it worried me. +It isn't natural for a child of her age to sit with a far-away look in +her eyes, as if she were seeing things that ain't there." + +Barbara laughed. + +"Nonsense, Uncle Darcy. As long as she keeps her rosy cheeks and is full +of life, a little dreaming can't hurt her. You should have seen her doing +the elfin dance this morning. She entered into the spirit of it like a +little whirlwind. And, besides, there are no children anywhere near that +I can allow her to play with. I have only a few acquaintances in the +town, and they are too far from us to make visiting easy between the +children. But look at the time _I_ give to her. I play with her so +much that we're more like two chums than mother and child." + +"Yes, but it would be better for both of you if you had more friends +outside. Then Georgina wouldn't feel the sadness of 'someone looking off +to sea for a ship that never comes in.' She feels your separation from +Justin and your watching for his letters and your making your whole life +just a waiting time between his furloughs, more than you have any idea +of." + +"But, Uncle Darcy!" exclaimed Barbara, "it would be just the same no +matter how many friends I had. They couldn't make me forget his absence." + +"No, but they could get you interested in other things, and Georgina +would feel the difference, and be happier because you would not seem to +be waiting and anxious. There's some rare, good people in this town, old +friends of the family who tried to make you feel at home among them when +you first came." + +"I know," admitted Barbara, slowly, "but I was so young then, and so +homesick that strangers didn't interest me. Now Georgina is old enough to +be thoroughly companionable, and our music and sewing and household +duties fill our days." + +It was a subject they had discussed before, without either convincing the +other, and the old man had always gone away at such times with a feeling +of defeat. But this time as he took his leave, it was with the +determination to take the matter in hand himself. He felt he owed it to +the Judge to do that much for his grandchild. The usual crowds of summer +people would be coming soon. He had heard that Gray Inn was to be +reopened this summer. That meant there would probably be children at this +end of the beach. If Opportunity came that near to Georgina's door he +knew several ways of inducing it to knock. So he went off smiling to +himself. + + + + +Chapter IV + +New Friends and the Green Stairs + + + +The town filled up with artists earlier than usual that summer. Stable +lofts and old boathouses along the shore blossomed into studios. +Sketching classes met in the rooms of the big summer art schools which +made the Cape end famous, or set up their models down by the wharfs. One +ran into easels pitched in the most public places: on busy street +corners, on the steps of the souvenir shops and even in front of the town +hall. People in paint-besmeared smocks, loaded with canvases, sketching +stools and palettes, filled the board-walk and overflowed into the middle +of the street. + +The _Dorothy Bradford_ steamed up to the wharf from Boston with her +daily load of excursionists, and the "accommodation" busses began to ply +up and down the three miles of narrow street with its restless tide of +summer visitors. + +Up along, through the thick of it one June morning, came the Towncrier, a +picturesque figure in his short blue jacket and wide seaman's trousers, a +red bandanna knotted around his throat and a wide-rimmed straw hat on the +back of his head. + +"Notice!" he cried, after each vigorous ringing of his big brass bell. +"Lost, between Mayflower Heights and the Gray Inn, a black leather bill- +case with important papers." + +He made slow progress, for someone stopped him at almost every rod with a +word of greeting, and he stopped to pat every dog which thrust a friendly +nose into his hand in passing. Several times strangers stepped up to him +to inquire into his affairs as if he were some ancient historical +personage come to life. Once he heard a man say: + +"Quick with your kodak, Ethel. Catch the Towncrier as he comes along. +They say there's only one other place in the whole United States that has +one. You can't afford to miss anything _this_ quaint." + +It was nearly noon when he came towards the end of the beach. He walked +still more slowly here, for many cottages had been opened for summer +residents since the last time he passed along, and he knew some of the +owners. He noticed that the loft above a boat-house which had once been +the studio of a famous painter of marine scenes was again in use. He +wondered who had taken it. Almost across from it was the "Green Stairs" +where Georgina always came to meet him if she were outdoors and heard his +bell. + +The "Green Stairs" was the name she had given to a long flight of wooden +steps with a railing on each side, leading from the sidewalk up a steep +embankment to the bungalow on top. It was a wide-spreading bungalow with +as many windows looking out to sea as a lighthouse, and had had an +especial interest for Georgina, since she heard someone say that its +owner, Mr. Milford, was an old bachelor who lived by himself. She used to +wonder when she was younger if "all the bread and cheese he got he kept +upon a shelf." Once she asked Barbara why he didn't "go to London to get +him a wife," and was told probably because he had so many guests that +there wasn't time. Interesting people were always coming and going about +the house; men famous for things they had done or written or painted. + +Now as the Towncrier came nearer, he saw Georgina skipping along toward +him with her jumping rope. She was bare-headed, her pink dress fluttering +in the salt breeze, her curls blowing back from her glowing little face. +He would have hastened his steps to meet her, but his honest soul always +demanded a certain amount of service from himself for the dollar paid him +for each trip of this kind. So he went on at his customary gait, stopping +at the usual intervals to ring his bell and call his news. + +At the Green Stairs Georgina paused, her attention attracted by a +foreign-looking battleship just steaming into the harbor. She was +familiar with nearly every kind of sea-going craft that ever anchored +here, but she could not classify this one. With her hands behind her, +clasping her jumping rope ready for another throw, she stood looking out +to sea. Presently a slight scratching sound behind her made her turn +suddenly. Then she drew back startled, for she was face to face with a +dog which was sitting on the step just on a level with her eyes. He was a +ragged-looking tramp of a dog, an Irish terrier, but he looked at her in +such a knowing, human way that she spoke to him as if he had been a +person. + +"For goodness' sake, how you made me jump! I didn't know anybody was +sitting there behind me." It was almost uncanny the way his eyes twinkled +through his hair, as if he were laughing with her over some good joke +they had together. It gave her such a feeling of comradeship that she +stood and smiled back at him. Suddenly he raised his right paw and thrust +it towards her. She drew back another step. She was not used to dogs, and +she hesitated about touching anything with such claws in it as the paw he +gravely presented. + +But as he continued to hold it out she felt it would be impolite not to +respond in some way, so reaching out very cautiously she gave it a limp +shake. Then as he still kept looking at her with questioning eyes she +asked quite as if she expected him to speak, "What's your name, Dog?" + +A voice from the top of the steps answered, "It's Captain Kidd." Even +more startled than when the dog had claimed her attention, she glanced up +to see a small boy on the highest step. He was sucking an orange, but he +took his mouth away from it long enough to add, "His name's on his collar +that he got yesterday, and so's mine. You can look at 'em if you want +to." + +Georgina leaned forward to peer at the engraving on the front of the +collar, but the hair on the shaggy throat hid it, and she was timid about +touching a spot just below such a wide open mouth with a red tongue +lolling out of it. She put her hands behind her instead. + +"Is--is he--a pirate dog?" she ventured. + +The boy considered a minute, not wanting to say yes if pirates were not +respectable in her eyes, and not wanting to lose the chance of glorifying +him if she held them in as high esteem as he did. After a long meditative +suck at his orange he announced, "Well, he's just as good as one. He +buries all his treasures. That's why we call him Captain Kidd." + +Georgina shot a long, appraising glance at the boy from under her dark +lashes. His eyes were dark, too. There was something about him that +attracted her, even if his face was smeary with orange juice and streaked +with dirty finger marks. She wanted to ask more about Captain Kidd, but +her acquaintance with boys was as slight as with dogs. Overcome by a +sudden shyness she threw her rope over her head and went skipping on down +the boardwalk to meet the Towncrier. + +The boy stood up and looked after her. He wished she hadn't been in such +a hurry. It had been the longest morning he ever lived through. Having +arrived only the day before with his father to visit at the bungalow he +hadn't yet discovered what there was for a boy to do in this strange +place. Everybody had gone off and left him with the servants, and told +him to play around till they got back. It wouldn't be long, they said, +but he had waited and waited until he felt he had been looking out to sea +from the top of those green steps all the days of his life. Of course, he +wouldn't want to play with just a girl, but---- + +He watched the pink dress go fluttering on, and then he saw Georgina take +the bell away from the old man as if it were her right to do so. She +turned and walked along beside him, tinkling it faintly as she talked. He +wished he had a chance at it. He'd show her how loud he could make it +sound. + +"Notice," called the old man, seeing faces appear at some of the windows +they were passing. "Lost, a black leather bill-case----" + +The boy, listening curiously, slid down the steps until he reached the +one on which the dog was sitting, and put his arm around its neck. The +banister posts hid him from the approaching couple. He could hear +Georgina's eager voice piping up flute-like: + +"It's a pirate dog, Uncle Darcy. He's named Captain Kidd because he +buries his treasures." + +In answer the old man's quavering voice rose in a song which he had +roared lustily many a time in his younger days, aboard many a gallant +vessel: + + "Oh, my name is Captain Kidd, + And many wick-ud things I did, + And heaps of gold I hid, + As I sailed." + +The way his voice slid down on the word wick-_ud_ made a queer +thrilly feeling run down the boy's back, and all of a sudden the day grew +wonderfully interesting, and this old seaport town one of the nicest +places he had ever been in. The singer stopped at the steps and Georgina, +disconcerted at finding the boy at such close range when she expected to +see him far above her, got no further in her introduction to Captain Kidd +than "Here he------" + +But the old man needed no introduction. He had only to speak to the dog +to set every inch of him quivering in affectionate response. "Here's a +friend worth having," the raggedy tail seemed to signal in a wig-wag code +of its own. + +Then the wrinkled hand went from the dog's head to the boy's shoulder +with the same kind of an affectionate pat. "What's _your_ name, +son?" + +"Richard Morland." + +"What?" was the surprised question. "Are you a son of the artist Morland, +who is visiting up here at the Milford bungalow?" + +"Yes, that's us." + +"Well, bless my stars, it's _his_ bill-case I have been crying all +morning. If I'd known there was a fine lad like you sitting about doing +nothing, I'd had you with me, ringing the bell." + +The little fellow's face glowed. He was as quick to recognize a friend +worth having as Captain Kidd had been. + +"Say," he began, "if it was Daddy's bill-case you were shouting about, +you needn't do it any longer. It's found. Captain Kidd came in with it in +his mouth just after Daddy went away. He was starting to dig a hole in +the sand down by the garage to bury it in, like he does everything. He's +hardly done being a puppy yet, you know. I took it away from him and +reckanized it, and I've been waiting here all morning for Dad to come +home." + +He began tugging at the pocket into which he had stowed the bill-case for +safe-keeping, and Captain Kidd, feeling that it was his by right of +discovery, stood up, wagging himself all over, and poking his nose in +between them, with an air of excited interest. The Towncrier shook his +finger at him. + +"You rascal! I suppose you'll be claiming the reward next thing, you old +pirate! How old is he, Richard?" + +"About a year. He was given to me when he was just a little puppy." + +"And how old are you, son?" + +"Ten my last birthday, but I'm so big for my age I wear 'leven-year-old +suits." + +Now the Towncrier hadn't intended to stop, but the dog began burrowing +its head ecstatically against him, and there was something in the boy's +lonesome, dirty little face which appealed to him, and the next thing he +knew he was sitting on the bottom step of the Green Stairs with Georgina +beside him, telling the most thrilling pirate story he knew. And he told +it more thrillingly than he had ever told it before. The reason for this +was he had never had such a spellbound listener before. Not even Justin +had hung on each word with the rapt interest this boy showed. His dark +eyes seemed to grow bigger and more luminous with each sentence, more +intense in their piercing gaze. His sensitive mouth changed expression +with every phase of the adventure--danger, suspense, triumph. He scarcely +breathed, he was listening so hard. + +Suddenly the whistle at the cold-storage plant began to blow for noon, +and the old man rose stiffly, saying: + +"I'm a long way from home, I should have started back sooner." + +"Oh, but you haven't finished the story!" cried the boy, in distress at +this sudden ending. "It _couldn't_ stop there." + +Georgina caught him by the sleeve of the old blue jacket to pull him back +to the seat beside her. + +"Please, Uncle Darcy!" + +It was the first time in all her coaxing that that magic word failed to +bend him to her wishes. + +"No," he answered firmly, "I can't finish it now, but I'll tell you what +I'll do. This afternoon I'll row up to this end of the beach in my dory +and take you two children out to the weirs to see the net hauled in. +There's apt to be a big catch of squid worth going to see, and I'll +finish the story on the way. Will that suit you?" + +Richard stood up, as eager and excited as Captain Kidd always was when +anybody said "Rats!" But the next instant the light died out of his eyes +and he plumped himself gloomily down on the step, as if life were no +longer worth living. + +"Oh, bother!" he exclaimed. "I forgot. I can't go anywhere. Dad's +painting my portrait, and I have to stick around so's he can work on it +any old time he feels like it. That's why he brought me on this visit +with him, so's he can finish it up here." + +"Maybe you can beg off, just for to-day," suggested Mr. Darcy. + +"No, it's very important," he explained gravely. "It's the best one +Daddy's done yet, and the last thing before we left home Aunt Letty said, +'Whatever you do, boys, don't let anything interfere with getting that +picture done in time to hang in the exhibition,' and we both promised." + +There was gloomy silence for a moment, broken by the old man's cheerful +voice. + +"Well, don't you worry till you see what we can do. I want to see your +father anyhow about this bill-case business, so I'll come around this +afternoon, and if he doesn't let you off to-day maybe he will to-morrow. +Just trust your Uncle Darcy for getting where he starts out to go. Skip +along home, Georgina, and tell your mother I want to borrow you for the +afternoon." + +An excited little pink whirlwind with a jumping rope going over and over +its head, went flying up the street toward the end of the beach. A +smiling old man with age looking out of his faded blue eyes but with the +spirit of boyhood undimmed in his heart, walked slowly down towards the +town. And on the bottom step of the Green Stairs, his arm around Captain +Kidd, the boy sat watching them, looking from one to the other as long as +they were in sight. The heart of him was pounding deliciously to the +music of such phrases as, _"Fathoms deep, lonely beach, spade and +pickaxe, skull and crossbones, bags of golden doubloons and chests of +ducats and pearls!"_ + + + + +Chapter V + +In the Footsteps of Pirates + + + +The weirs, to which they took their way that afternoon in the Towncrier's +dory, _The Betsey_, was "the biggest fish-trap in any waters +thereabouts," the old man told them. And it happened that the net held an +unusually large catch that day. Barrels and barrels of flapping squid and +mackerel were emptied into the big motor boat anchored alongside of it. + +At a word from Uncle Darcy, an obliging fisherman in oilskins held out +his hand to help the children scramble over the side of _The Betsey_ +to a seat on top of the cabin where they could have a better view. All +the crew were Portuguese. The man who helped them climb over was Joe +Fayal, father of Manuel and Joseph and Rosa. He stood like a young brown +Neptune, his white teeth flashing when he laughed, a pitchfork in his +hands with which to spear the goosefish as they turned up in the net, and +throw them back into the sea. If nothing else had happened that sight +alone was enough to mark it as a memorable afternoon. + +Nothing else did happen, really, except that on the way out, Uncle Darcy +finished the story begun on the Green Stairs and on the way back told +them another. But what Richard remembered ever after as seeming to have +happened, was that _The Betsey_ suddenly turned into a Brigantine. +Perched up on one of the masts, an unseen spectator, he watched a mutiny +flare up among the sailors, and saw that "strutting, swaggering villain, +John Quelch, throw the captain overboard and take command himself." He +saw them hoist a flag they called "Old Roger," "having in the middle of +it an Anatomy (skeleton) with an hour-glass in one hand and a dart in the +heart with three drops of blood proceeding from it." + +He heard the roar that went up from all those bearded throats--(wonderful +how Uncle Darcy's thin, quavering voice could sound that whole chorus)---- + + "Of all the lives, I ever say, + A Pirate's be for I. + Hap what hap may, he's allus gay + An' drinks an' bungs his eye. + For his work he's never loth, + An' a-pleasurin' he'll go + Tho' certain sure to be popt of. + Yo ho, with the rum below."_ + +And then they made after the Portuguese vessels, nine of them, and took +them all (What a bloody fight it was!), and sailed away with a dazzling +store of treasure, "enough to make an honest sailorman rub his eyes and +stagger in his tracks." + +Richard had not been brought up on stories as Georgina had. He had had +few of this kind, and none so breathlessly realistic. It carried him out +of himself so completely that as they rowed slowly back to town he did +not see a single house in it, although every western window-pane flashed +back the out-going sun like a golden mirror. His serious, brown eyes were +following the adventures of these bold sea-robbers, "marooned three times +and wounded nine and blowed up in the air." + +When all of a sudden the brigantine changed back into _The Betsey_, +and he had to climb out at the boat-landing, he had somewhat of the dazed +feeling of that honest sailor-man. He had heard enough to make him "rub +his eyes and stagger in his tracks." + +Uncle Darcy, having put them ashore, rowed off with the parting +injunction to skip along home. Georgina did skip, so light of foot and +quick of movement that she was in the lead all the way to the Green +Stairs. There she paused and waited for Richard to join her. As he came +up he spoke for the first time since leaving the weirs. + +"Wish I knew the boys in this town. Wish I knew which one would be the +best to get to go digging with me." + +Georgina did not need to ask, "digging for what?" She, too, had been +thinking of buried treasure. + +"_I'll_ go with you," she volunteered sweetly. + +He turned on her an inquiring look, as if he were taking her measure, +then glanced away indifferently. + +"You couldn't. You're a girl." + +It was a matter-of-fact statement with no suspicion of a taunt in it, but +it stung Georgina's pride. Her eyes blazed defiantly and she tossed back +her curls with a proud little uplift of the chin. It must be acknowledged +that her nose, too, took on the trifle of a tilt. Her challenge was +unspoken but so evident that he answered it. + +"Well, you know you couldn't creep out into the night and go along a +lonely shore into dark caves and everything." + +"_Pity_ I couldn't!" she answered with withering scorn. "I could go +anywhere _you_ could, anybody descended from heroes like _I_ +am. I don't want to be braggity, but I'd have you to know they put up +that big monument over there for one of them, and another was a Minute- +man. With all that, for you to think I'd be afraid! _Tut!_" + +Not Tippy herself had ever spoken that word with finer scorn. With a +flirt of her short skirts Georgina turned and started disdainfully up the +street. + +"Wait," called Richard. He liked the sudden flare-up of her manner. There +was something convincing about it. Besides, he didn't want her to go off +in that independent way as if she meant never to come back. It was she +who had brought the Towncrier, that matchless Teller of Tales, across his +path. + +[Illustration: They took their Way in the Betsey] + +"I didn't say you wasn't brave," he called after her. + +She hesitated, then stopped, turning half-way around. + +"I just said you was a girl. Most of them _are_ 'fraid cats, but if +you ain't I don't know as I'd mind taking you along. That is," he added +cautiously, "if I could be dead sure that you're game." + +At that Georgina turned all the way around and came back a few steps. + +"You can try me," she answered, anxious to prove herself worthy to be +taken on such a quest, and as eager as he to begin it. + +"You think of the thing you're most afraid of yourself, and tell me to do +it, and then just watch me." + +Richard declined to admit any fear of anything. Georgina named several +terrors at which he stoutly shook his head, but presently with uncanny +insight she touched upon his weakest point. + +"Would you be afraid of coffins and spooks or to go to a graveyard in the +dead of the night the way Tom Sawyer and Huck Finn did?" + +Not having read Tom Sawyer, Richard evaded the question by asking, "How +did they do?" + +"Oh, don't you know? They had the dead cat and they saw old Injun Joe +come with the lantern and kill the man that was with Muff Potter." + +By the time Georgina had given the bare outline of the story in her +dramatic way, Richard was quite sure that no power under heaven could +entice him into a graveyard at midnight, though nothing could have +induced him to admit this to Georgina. As far back as he could remember +he had had an unreasoning dread of coffins. Even now, big as he was, big +enough to wear "'leven-year-old suits," nothing could tempt him into a +furniture shop for fear of seeing a coffin. + +One of his earliest recollections was of his nurse taking him into a +little shop, at some village where they were spending the summer, and his +cold terror when he found himself directly beside a long brown one, +smelling of varnish, and with silver handles. His nurse's tales had much +to do with creating this repulsion, also her threat of shutting him up in +a coffin if he wasn't a good boy. When she found that she could exact +obedience by keeping that dread hanging over him, she used the threat +daily. + +"I'll tell you what I'll do," he said finally. "I'll let you go digging +with me if you're game enough to go to the graveyard and walk clear +across it all by yourself and"--dropping his voice to a hollow whisper-- +"_touch--ten--tombstones!_" + +Now, if Richard hadn't dropped his voice in that scary way when he said, +"and touch ten tombstones," it would have been no test at all of +Georgina's courage. Strange, how just his way of saying those four words +suddenly made the act such a fearsome one. + +"Do it right now," he suggested. + +"But it isn't night yet," she answered, "let alone being mid-night." + +"No, but it's clouding up, and the sun's down. By the time we'd get to a +graveyard it would be dark enough for me to tell if you're game." + +Up to this time Georgina had never gone anywhere without permission. But +this was something one couldn't explain very well at home. It seemed +better to do it first and explain afterward. + +Fifteen minutes later, two children and a dog arrived hot and panting at +the entrance to the old burying ground. On a high sand dune, covered with +thin patches of beach and poverty grass, and a sparse growth of scraggly +pines, it was a desolate spot at any time, and now doubly so in the +gathering twilight. The lichen-covered slabs that marked the graves of +the early settlers leaned this way and that along the hill. + +The gate was locked, but Georgina found a place where the palings were +loose, and squeezed through, leaving Richard and the dog outside. They +watched her through the fence as she toiled up the steep hill. The sand +was so deep that she plunged in over her shoe-tops at every step. Once on +top it was easier going. The matted beach grass made a firm turf. She +stopped and read the names on some of the slabs before she plucked up +courage to touch one. She would not have hesitated an instant if only +Richard had not dared her in that scary way. + +Some little, wild creature started up out of the grass ahead of her and +scurried away. Her heart beat so fast she could hear the blood pounding +against her ear-drums. She looked back. Richard was watching, and she was +to wave her hand each time she touched a stone so that he could keep +count with her. She stooped and peered at one, trying to read the +inscription. The clouds had hurried the coming of twilight. It was hard +to decipher the words. + +"None knew him but to love him," she read slowly. Instantly her dread of +the place vanished. She laid her hand on the stone and then waved to +Richard. Then she ran on and read and touched another. "Lost at sea," +that one said, and under the next slabs slept "Deliverance" and +"Experience," "Mercy," and "Thankful." What queer names people had in +those early days! And what strange pictures they etched in the stone of +those old gray slabs--urns and angels and weeping willows! + +She signaled the tenth and last. Richard wondered why she did not turn +and come back. At the highest point of the hill she stood as if +transfixed, a slim little silhouette against the darkening sky, her hands +clasped in amazement. Suddenly she turned and came tearing down the hill, +floundering through sand, falling and picking herself up, only to +flounder and fall again, finally rolling down the last few yards of the +embankment. + +"What scared you?" asked Richard, his eyes big with excitement as he +watched what seemed to be her terrified exit. "What did you see?" But she +would not speak until she had squeezed between the palings and stood +beside him. Then she told him in an impressive whisper, glancing +furtively over her shoulder: + +"There's a whole row of tombstones up there with _skulls and cross- +bones on them! They must be pirate graves!"_ + +Her mysterious air was so contagious that he answered in a whisper, and +in a moment each was convinced by the other's mere manner that their +suspicion was true. Presently Georgina spoke in her natural voice. + +"You go up and look at them." + +"Naw, I'll take your word for it," he answered in a patronizing tone. +"Besides, there isn't time now. It's getting too dark. They'll be +expecting me home to supper." + +Georgina glanced about her. The clouds settling heavily made it seem +later than it really was. She had a guilty feeling that Barby was +worrying about her long absence, maybe imagining that something had +happened to _The Betsey_. She startad homeward, half running, but +her pace slackened as Richard, hurrying along beside her, began to plan +what they would do with their treasure when they found it. + +"There's sure to be piles of buried gold around here," he said. "Those +pirate graves prove that a lot of 'em lived here once. Let's buy a moving +picture show first." + +Georgina's face grew radiant at this tacit admission of herself into +partnership. + +"Oh, yes," she assented joyfully. "And then we can have moving pictures +made of _us_ doing all sorts of things. Won't it be fun to sit back +and watch ourselves and see how we look doing 'em?" + +"Say! that's great," he exclaimed. "All the kids in town will want to be +in the pictures, too, but we'll have the say-so, and only those who do +exactly to suit us can have a chance of getting in." + +"But the more we let in the more money we'd make in the show," was +Georgina's shrewd answer. "Everybody will want to see what their child +looks like in the movies, so, of course, that'll make people come to our +show instead of the other ones." + +"Say," was the admiring reply. "You're a partner worth having. You've got +a _head_." + +Such praise was the sweetest incense to Georgina. She burned to call +forth more. + +"Oh, I can think of lots of things when once I get started," she assured +him with a grand air. + +As they ran along Richard glanced several times at the head from which +had come such valuable suggestions. There was a gleam of gold in the +brown curls which bobbed over her shoulders. He liked it. He hadn't +noticed before that her hair was pretty. + +There was a gleam of gold, also, in the thoughts of each. They could +fairly see the nuggets they were soon to unearth, and their imaginations, +each fired by the other, shoveled out the coin which the picture show was +to yield them, in the same way that the fisherman had shoveled the +shining mackerel into the boat. They had not attempted to count them, +simply measured them by the barrelful. + +"Don't tell anybody," Richard counseled her as they parted at the Green +Stairs. "Cross your heart and body you won't tell a soul. We want to +surprise 'em." + +Georgina gave the required sign and promise, as gravely as if it were an +oath. + +From the front porch Richard's father and cousin, James Milford, watched +him climb slowly up the Green Stairs. + +"Dicky looks as if the affairs of the nation were on his shoulders," +observed Cousin James. "Pity he doesn't realize these are his care-free +days." + +"They're not," answered the elder Richard. "They're the most deadly +serious ones he'll ever have. I don't know what he's got on his mind now, +but whatever it is I'll wager it is more important business than that +deal you're trying to pull off with the Cold Storage people." + + + + +Chapter VI + +Spend-the-Day Guests + + + +There was a storm that night and next day a heavy fog dropped down like a +thick white veil over town and sea. It was so cold that Jeremy lighted a +fire, not only in the living room but in the guest chamber across the +hall. + +A week earlier Tippy had announced, "It'll never do to let Cousin +Mehitable Huntingdon go back to Hyannis without having broken bread with +us. She'd talk about it to the end of her days, if we were the only +relations in town who failed to ask her in to a meal, during her +fortnight's visit. And, of course, if we ask her, all the family she's +staying with ought to be invited, and we've never had the new minister +and his wife here to eat. Might as well do it all up at once while we're +about it." + +Spend-the-day guests were rare in Georgina's experience. The grand +preparations for their entertainment which went on that morning put the +new partnership and the treasure-quest far into the back-ground. She +forgot it entirely while the dining-room table, stretched to its limit, +was being set with the best china and silver as if for a Thanksgiving +feast. Mrs. Fayal, the mother of Manuel and Joseph and Rosa, came over to +help in the kitchen, and Tippy whisked around so fast that Georgina, +tagging after, was continually meeting her coming back. + +Georgina was following to ask questions about the expected guests. She +liked the gruesome sound of that term "blood relations" as Tippy used it, +and wanted to know all about this recently discovered "in-law," the widow +of her grandfather's cousin, Thomas Huntingdon. Barby could not tell her +and Mrs. Triplett, too busy to be bothered, set her down to turn the +leaves of the family album. But the photograph of Cousin Mehitable had +been taken when she was a boarding-school miss in a disfiguring hat and +basque, and bore little resemblance to the imposing personage who headed +the procession of visitors, arriving promptly at eleven o'clock. + +When Cousin Mehitable came into the room in her widow's bonnet with the +long black veil hanging down behind, she seemed to fill the place as the +massive black walnut wardrobe upstairs filled the alcove. She lifted her +eyeglasses from the hook on her dress to her hooked nose to look at +Georgina before she kissed her. Under that gaze the child felt as awed as +if the big wardrobe had bent over and put a wooden kiss on her forehead +and said in a deep, whispery sort of voice, "So this is the Judge's +grand-daughter. How do you do, my dear?" + +All the guests were middle aged and most of them portly. There were so +many that they filled all the chairs and the long claw-foot sofa besides. +Georgina sat on a foot-stool, her hands folded in her lap until the +others took out their knitting and embroidery. Then she ran to get the +napkin she was hemming. The husbands who had been invited did not arrive +until time to sit down to dinner and they left immediately after the +feast. + +Georgina wished that everybody would keep still and let one guest at a +time do the talking. After the first few minutes of general conversation +the circle broke into little groups, and it wasn't possible to follow the +thread of the story in more than one. Each group kept bringing to light +some bit of family history that she wanted to hear or some old family +joke which they laughed over as if it were the funniest thing that ever +happened. It was tantalizing not to be able to hear them all. It made her +think of times when she rummaged through the chests in the attic, pulling +out fascinating old garments and holding them up for Tippy to supply +their history. But this was as bad as opening all the chests at once. +While she was busy with one she was missing all that was being hauled out +to the light of day from the others. + +Several times she moved her foot-stool from one group to another, drawn +by some sentence such as, "Well, she certainly was the prettiest bride I +ever laid my two eyes on, but not many of us would want to stand in her +shoes now." Or from across the room, "They do say it was what happened +the night of the wreck that unbalanced his mind, but I've always thought +it was having things go at sixes and sevens at home as they did." + +Georgina would have settled herself permanently near Cousin Mehitable, +she being the most dramatic and voluble of them all, but she had a +tantalizing way of lowering her voice at the most interesting part, and +whispering the last sentence behind her hand. Georgina was nearly +consumed with curiosity each time that happened, and fairly ached to know +these whispered revelations. + +It was an entrancing day--the dinner so good, the ancient jokes passing +around the table all so new and witty to Georgina, hearing them now for +the first time. She wished that a storm would come up to keep everybody +at the house overnight and thus prolong the festal feeling. She liked +this "Company" atmosphere in which everyone seemed to grow expansive of +soul and gracious of speech. She loved every relative she had to the +remotest "in-law." + +Her heart swelled with a great thankfulness to think that she was not an +orphan. Had she been one there would have been no one to remark that her +eyes were exactly like Justin's and she carried herself like a +Huntingdon, but that she must have inherited her smile from the other +side of the house. Barbara had that same smile and winning way with her. +It was pleasant to be discussed when only pleasant things were said, and +to have her neat stitches exclaimed over and praised as they were passed +around. + +She thought about it again after dinner, and felt so sorry for children +who were orphans, that she decided to spend a large part of her share of +the buried treasure in making them happy. She was sure that Richard would +give part of his share, too, when he found it, and when the picture show +which they were going to buy was in good running order, they would make +it a rule that orphans should always be let in free. + +She came back from this pleasant day-dream to hear Cousin Mehitable +saying, "Speaking of thieves, does anyone know what ever became of poor +Dan Darcy?" + +Nobody knew, and they all shook their heads and said that it was a pity +that he had turned out so badly. It was hard to believe it of him when he +had always been such a kind, pleasant-spoken boy, just like his father; +and if ever there was an honest soul in the whole round world it was the +old Town-crier. + +At that Georgina gave such a start that she ran, her needle into her +thumb, and a tiny drop of blood spurted out. She did not know that Uncle +Darcy had a son. She had never heard his name mentioned before. She had +been at his house many a time, and there never was anyone there besides +himself except his wife, "Aunt Elspeth" (who was so old and feeble that +she stayed in bed most of the time), and the three cats, "John Darcy and +Mary Darcy and old Yellownose." That's the way the old man always spoke +of them. He called them his family. + +Georgina was glad that the minister's wife was a newcomer in the town and +asked to have it explained. Everybody contributed a scrap of the story, +for all side conversations stopped at the mention of Dan Darcy's name, +and the interest of the whole room centered on him. + +It was years ago, when he was not more than eighteen that it happened. He +was a happy-go-lucky sort of fellow who couldn't be kept down to steady +work such as a job in the bank or a store. He was always off a-fishing or +on the water, but everybody liked him and said he'd settle down when he +was a bit older. He had a friend much like himself, only a little older. +Emmett Potter was his name. There was a regular David and Jonathan +friendship between those two. They were hand-in-glove in everything till +Dan went wrong. Both even liked the same girl, Belle Triplett. + +Here Georgina's needle gave her another jab. She laid down her hemming to +listen. This was bringing the story close home, for Belle Triplett was +Tippy's niece, or rather her husband's niece. While that did not make +Belle one of the Huntingdon family, Georgina had always looked upon her +as such. She visited at the house oftener than anyone else. + +Nobody in the room came right out and said what it was that Dan had done, +but by putting the scraps together Georgina discovered presently that the +trouble was about some stolen money. Lots of people wouldn't believe that +he was guilty at first, but so many things pointed his way that finally +they had to. The case was about to be brought to trial when one night Dan +suddenly disappeared as if the sea had swallowed him, and nothing had +ever been heard from him since. Judge Huntingdon said it was a pity, for +even if he was guilty he thought he could have got him off, there being +nothing but circumstantial evidence. + +Well, it nearly killed his father and mother and Emmett Potter, too. + +It came out then that Emmett was engaged to Belle. For nearly a year he +grieved about Dan's disappearance. Seems he took it to heart so that he +couldn't bear to do any of the things they'd always done together or go +to the old places. Belle had her wedding dress made and thought if she +could once get him down to Truro to live, he'd brace up and get over it. + +They had settled on the day, when one wild, stormy night word came that a +vessel was pounding itself to pieces off Peaked Hill Bar, and the life- +saving crew was starting to the rescue. Emmett lit out to see it, and +when something happened to the breeches buoy so they couldn't use it, he +was the first to answer when the call came for volunteers to man a boat +to put out to them. He would have had a medal if he'd lived to wear it, +for he saved five lives that night. But he lost his own the last time he +climbed up on the vessel. Nobody knew whether it was a rope gave way or +whether his fingers were so nearly frozen he couldn't hold on, but he +dropped into that raging sea, and his body was washed up on the beach +next day. + +Georgina listened, horrified. + +"And Belle with her wedding dress all ready," said Cousin Mehitable with +a husky sigh. + +"What became of her?" asked the minister's wife. + +"Oh, she's still living here in town, but it blighted her whole life in a +way, although she was just in her teens when it happened. It helped her +to bear up, knowing he'd died such a hero. Some of the town people put up +a tombstone to his memory, with a beautiful inscription on it that the +summer people go to see, almost as much as the landing place of the +Pilgrims. She'll be true to his memory always, and it's something +beautiful to see her devotion to Emmett's father. She calls him 'Father' +Potter, and is always doing things for him. He's that old net-mender who +lives alone out on the edge of town near the cranberry bogs." + +Cousin Mehitable took up the tale: + +"I'll never forget if I live to be a hundred, what I saw on my way home +the night after Emmett was drowned. I was living here then, you know. I +was passing through Fishburn Court, and I thought I'd go in and speak a +word to Mr. Darcy, knowing how fond he'd always been of Emmett on account +of Dan and him being such friends. I went across that sandy place they +call the Court, to the row of cottages at the end. But I didn't see +anything until I had opened the Darcy's gate and stepped into the yard. +The house sits sideways to the Court, you know. + +"The yellow blind was pulled down over the front window, but the lamp +threw a shadow on it, plain as a photograph. It was the shadow of the old +man, sitting there with his arms flung out across the table, and his head +bowed down on them. I was just hesitating, whether to knock or to slip +away, when I heard him groan, and sort of cry out, 'Oh, my Danny! My +Danny! If only you could have gone _that_ way.'" + +Barbara, hearing a muffled sob behind her, turned to see the tears +running down Georgina's face. The next instant she was up, and with her +arms around the child, was gently pushing her ahead of her out of the +room, into the hall. With the door shut behind her she said soothingly: + +"Barby didn't know they were going to tell such unhappy stories, darling. +I shouldn't have let you stay." + +"But I _want_ to know," sobbed Georgina. "When people you love have +trouble you ought to know, so's to be kinder to them. Oh, Barby, I'm so +sorry I ever was saucy to him. And I wish I hadn't teased his cats. I +tied paper bags on all of John Darcy and Mary Darcy's paws, and he said I +made old Y-yellownose n-nervous, tickling his ears----" + +Barbara stopped the sobbing confessions with a kiss and took Georgina's +jacket from the hatrack. + +"Here," she said. "It's bad for you to sit in the house all day and +listen to grown people talk. Slip into this and run outdoors with your +skipping rope a while. Uncle Darcy has had very great trouble, but he's +learned to bear it like a hero, and nothing would make him grieve more +than to know that any shadow of his sorrow was making you unhappy. The +way for you to help him most is to be as bright and jolly as you can, and +to _tease_ his old cats once in a while." + +Georgina looked up through her tears, her dimples all showing, and threw +her arms around her adoringly. + +"What a funny mother you are, Barby. Not a bit like the ones in books." + +A cold wind was blowing the fog away. She raced up and down the beach for +a long time, and when she came back it was with red cheeks and ruffled +curls. Having left the company in tears she did not like to venture back +for fear of the remarks which might be made. So she crossed the hall and +stood in the door of the guest chamber, considering what to do next. Its +usual chill repellance had been changed into something inviting by the +wood fire on the hearth, and on the bed where the guests had deposited +their wraps lay an array of millinery which drew her irresistibly. + +It was a huge four-poster bed which one could mount only by the aid of a +set of bedside steps, and so high that the valance, draped around it like +a skirt, would have reached from her neck to her heels had it been draped +on her. It was a chintz valance with birds of paradise patterned on its +pink back-ground, and there was pink silk quilled into the quaint tester +overhead, reminding her of old Jeremy's favorite quill dahlias. + +Usually when she went into this room which was seldom opened, she mounted +the steps to gaze up at that fascinating pink loveliness. Also she walked +around the valance, counting its birds of paradise. She did not do so +to-day. She knew from many previous countings that there were exactly +eighty-seven and a half of those birds. The joining seam cut off all but +the magnificent tail of what would have been the eighty-eighth. + +Mounting the steps she leaned over, careful not to touch the crocheted +counterpane, which Tippy always treated as if it were something sacred, +and looked at the hats spread out upon it. Then she laid daring fingers +on Cousin Mehitable's bonnet. It was a temptation to know what she would +look like if she should grow up to be a widow and have to wear an +imposing head-gear like that with a white ruche in front and a long black +veil floating down behind. The next instant she was tying the strings +under her chin. + +It made her look like such an odd little dwarf of a woman that she stuck +out her tongue at her reflection in the mirror. The grimace was so +comical, framed by the stately bonnet, that Georgina was delighted. She +twisted her face another way and was still more amused at results. Wholly +forgetful of the fact that it was a mourning bonnet, she went on making +faces at herself until the sound of voices suddenly growing louder, told +her that the door across the hall had opened. Someone was coming across. + +There was no time to take off the bonnet. With a frightened gasp she +dived under the bed, with it still on, her heels disappearing just as +someone came into the room. The bed was so high she could easily sit +upright under it, but she was so afraid that a cough or a sneeze might +betray her, that she drew up her knees and sat with her face pressed +against them hard. The long veil shrouded her shoulders. She felt that +she would surely die if anyone should notice that the bonnet was gone, or +happen to lift the valance and find her sitting there with it on her +head. Then she forgot her fear in listening to what Cousin Mehitable was +saying. + + + + +Chapter VII + +"The Tishbite" + + + +Cousin Mehitable was speaking to Mrs. Triplett, who seemed to be +searching through bureau drawers for something. Georgina could tell what +she was doing from the sounds which reached her. These drawers always +stuck, and had to be jerked violently until the mirror rattled. + +"Oh, don't bother about it, Maria. I just made an excuse of wanting to +see it, because I knew you always kept it in here, and I wanted to get +you off by yourself for a minute's talk with you alone. Since I've been +in town I've heard so much about Justin and the way he is doing that I +wanted to ask somebody who knew and who could tell me the straight of it. +What's this about his leaving the service and going junketing off to the +interior of China on some mission of his own? Jane tells me he got a +year's leave of absence from the Navy just to study up some outlandish +disease that attacks the sailors in foreign ports. She says why should he +take a whole year out of the best part of his life to poke around the +huts of dirty heathen to find out the kind of microbe that's eating 'em? +He'd ought to think of Barbara and what's eating her heart out. I've +taken a great fancy to that girl, and I'd like to give Justin a piece of +my mind. It probably wouldn't do a bit of good though. He always was +peculiar." + +Georgina could hear only a few words of the answer because Tippy had her +head in the closet now, reaching for the box on the top shelf. She +stopped her search as soon as Cousin Mehitable said that, and the two of +them went over to the fire and talked in low tones for a few minutes, +leaning against the mantel. Georgina heard a word now and then. Several +times it was her own name. Finally, in a louder tone Cousin Mehitable +said: + +"Well, I wanted to know, and I was sure you could tell me if anyone +could." + +They went back across the hall to the other guests. The instant they were +gone Georgina crawled out from under the bed with the big bonnet cocked +over one eye. Then she scudded down the hall and up the back stairs. She +knew the company would be going soon, and she would be expected to bid +them good-bye if she were there. She didn't want Cousin Mehitable to kiss +her again. She didn't like her any more since she had called her father +"peculiar." + +She wandered aimlessly about for a few minutes, then pushed the door open +into Mrs. Triplett's room. It was warm and cozy in there for a small fire +still burned in the little drum stove. She opened the front damper to +make it burn faster, and the light shone out in four long rays which made +a flickering in the room. She sat down on the floor in front of it and +began to wonder. + +"What did Cousin Mehitable mean by something eating Barby's heart out?" +Did people die of it? She had read of the Spartan youth who let the fox +gnaw his vitals under his cloak and never showed, even by the twitching +of a muscle, that he was in pain. Of course, she knew that no live thing +was tearing at her mother's heart, but what if something that she +couldn't understand was hurting her darling Barby night and day and she +was bravely hiding it from the world like the Spartan youth? + +Did _all_ grown people have troubles? It had seemed such a happy +world until to-day, and now all at once she had heard about Dan Darcy and +Belle Triplett. Nearly everyone whom the guests talked about had borne +some unhappiness, and even her own father was "peculiar." She wished she +hadn't found out all these things. A great weight seemed to settle down +upon her. + +Thinking of Barbara in the light of what she had just learned she +recalled that she often looked sorry and disappointed, especially after +the postman had come and gone without leaving a letter. Only this morning +Tippy had said--could it be she thought something was wrong and was +trying to comfort her? + +"Justin always was a poor hand for writing letters. Many a time I've +heard the Judge scolding and stewing around because he hadn't heard from +him when he was away at school. Letter writing came so easy to the Judge +he couldn't understand why Justin shirked it so." + +Then Georgina thought of Belle in the light of what she had just learned. +Belle had carried her around in her arms when she was first brought to +live in this old gray house by the sea. She had made a companion of her +whenever she came to visit her Aunt Maria, and Georgina had admired her +because she was so pretty and blonde and gentle, and enjoyed her because +she was always so willing to do whatever Georgina wished. And now to +think that instead of being the like-everybody-else kind of a young lady +she seemed, she was like a heroine in a book who had lived through +trouble which would "blight her whole life." + +Sitting there on the floor with her knees drawn up and her chin resting +on them, Georgina looked into the fire through the slits of the damper +and thought and thought. Then she looked out through the little square +window-panes across the wind-swept dunes. It did not seem like summer +with the sky all overcast with clouds. It was more like the end of a day +in the early autumn. Life seemed overcast, too. + +Presently through a rift in the sky an early star stole out, and she made +a wish on it. That was one of the things Belle had taught her. She +started to wish that Barby might be happy. But before the whispered verse +had entirely passed her lips she stopped to amend it, adding Uncle +Darcy's name and Belle's. Then she stopped again, overcome by the +knowledge of all the woe in the world, and gathering all the universe +into her generous little heart she exclaimed earnestly: + +"I wish _everybody in the world could be happy_." + +Having made the wish, fervently, almost fiercely, in her intense desire +to set things right, she scrambled to her feet. There was another thing +that Belle had told her which she must do. + +"If you open the Bible and it chances to be at a chapter beginning with +the words, 'It came to pass,' the wish will come true without fail." + +Taking Tippy's Bible from the stand beside the bed, she opened it at +random, then carried it over to the stove in order to scan the pages by +the firelight streaming through the damper. The book opened at First +Kings, seventeenth chapter. She held it directly in the broad rays +examining the pages anxiously. There was only that one chapter head on +either page, and alas, its opening words were not "it came to pass." What +she read with a sinking heart was: + +_"And Elijah the Tishbite."_ + +Now Georgina hadn't the slightest idea what a Tishbite was, but it +sounded as if it were something dreadful. Somehow it is a thousand times +worse to be scared by a fear which is not understood than by one which is +familiar. Suddenly she felt as bewildered and frightened as she had on +that morning long ago, when Jeremy's teeth went flying into the fire. The +happiness of her whole little world seemed to be going to pieces. + +Throwing herself across the foot of Tippy's bed she crawled under the +afghan thrown over it, even burrowing her head beneath it in order to +shut out the dreadful things closing down on her. It had puzzled and +frightened her to know that something was eating Barby's heart out, even +in a figurative way, and now the word "Tishbite" filled her with a vague +sense of helplessness and impending disaster. + +Barbara, coming upstairs to hunt her after the guests were gone, found +her sound asleep with the afghan still over her head. She folded it +gently back from the flushed face, not intending to waken her, but +Georgina's eyes opened and after a bewildered stare around the room she +sat up, remembering. She had wakened to a world of trouble. Somehow it +did not seem quite so bad with Barbara standing over her, smiling. When +she went downstairs a little later, freshly washed and brushed, the +Tishbite rolled out of her thoughts as a fog lifts when the sun shines. + +But it came back at bedtime, when having said her prayers, she joined her +voice with Barbara's in the hymn that had been her earliest lullaby. It +was a custom never omitted. It always closed the day for her: + + "Eternal Father, strong to save, + Whose arm doth bind the restless wave, + Oh, hear us when we cry to thee + For those in peril on the sea."_ + +As they sang she stole an anxious glance at Barbara several times. Then +she made up her mind that Cousin Mehitable was mistaken. If her father +were "peculiar," Barby wouldn't have that sweet look on her face when she +sang that prayer for him. If he were making her unhappy she wouldn't be +singing it at all. She wouldn't care whether he was protected or not +"from rock and tempest, fire and foe." + +And yet, after Barby had gone downstairs and the sound of the piano came +softly up from below--another bedtime custom, Georgina began thinking +again about those whispering voices which she had heard as she sat under +the bed, behind the bird-of-paradise valance. More than ever before the +music suggested someone waiting for a ship which never came home, or fog +bells on a lonely shore. + +Nearly a week went by before Richard made his first visit to the old gray +house at the end of town. He came with the Towncrier, carrying his bell, +and keeping close to his side for the first few minutes. Then he found +the place far more interesting than the bungalow. Georgina took him all +over it, from the garret where she played on rainy days to the seat up in +the willow, where standing in its highest crotch one could look clear +across the Cape to the Atlantic. They made several plans for their +treasure-quest while up in the willow. They could see a place off towards +Wood End Lighthouse which looked like one of the pirate places Uncle +Darcy had described in one of his tales. + +Barby had lemonade and cake waiting for them when they came down, and +when she talked to him it wasn't at all in the way the ladies did who +came to see his Aunt Letty, as if they were talking merely to be gracious +and kind to a strange little boy in whom they had no interest. Barby gave +his ear a tweak and said with a smile that made him feel as if they had +known each other always: + +"Oh, the good times I've had with boys just your size. I always played +with my brother Eddy's friends. Boys make such good chums. I've often +thought how much Georgina misses that I had." + +Presently Georgina took him out to the see-saw, where Captain Kidd +persisted in riding on Richard's end of the plank. + +"That's exactly the way my Uncle Eddy's terrier used to do back in +Kentucky when I visited there one summer," she said, after the plank was +adjusted so as to balance them properly. "Only he barked all the time he +was riding. But he was fierce because Uncle Eddy fed him gunpowder." + +"What did he do that for?" + +"To keep him from being gun-shy. And Uncle Eddy ate some, too, one time +when he was little, because the colored stable boy told him it would make +him game." + +"Did it?" + +"I don't know whether that did or not. Something did though, for he's the +gamest man I know." + +Richard considered this a moment and then said: "I wonder what it would +do to Captain Kidd if I fed him some." + +"Let's try it!" exclaimed Georgina, delighted with the suggestion. +"There's some hanging up in the old powder-horn over the dining-room +mantel. You have to give it to 'em in milk. Wait a minute." + +Jumping from the see-saw after giving fair warning, she ran to one of the +side windows. + +"Barby," she called. "I'm going to give Captain Kidd some milk." + +Barbara turned from her conversation with Uncle Darcy to say: + +"Very well, if you can get it yourself. But be careful not to disturb the +pans that haven't been skimmed. Tippy wouldn't like it." + +"I know what to get it out of," called Georgina, "out of the blue +pitcher." + +Richard watched while she opened the refrigerator door and poured some +milk into a saucer. + +"Carry it in and put it on the kitchen table," she bade him, "while I get +the powder." + +When he followed her into the dining-room she was upon a chair, reaching +for the old powder horn, which hung on a hook under the firearm that had +done duty in the battle of Lexington. Richard wanted to get his hands on +it, and was glad when she could not pull out the wooden plug which +stopped the small end of the horn. She turned it over to him to open. He +peered into it, then shook it. + +"There isn't more than a spoonful left in it," he said. + +"Well, gunpowder is so strong you don't need much. You know just a little +will make a gun go off. It mightn't be safe to feed him much. Pour some +out in your hand and drop it in the milk." + +Richard slowly poured a small mound out into the hollow of his hand, and +passed the horn back to her, then went to the kitchen whistling for +Captain Kidd. Not all of the powder went into the milk, however. The last +bit he swallowed himself, after looking at it long and thoughtfully. + +At the same moment, Georgina, before putting back the plug, paused, +looked all around, and poured out a few grains into her own hand. If the +Tishbite was going to do anybody any harm, it would be well to be +prepared. She had just hastily swallowed it and was hanging the horn back +in place, when Richard returned. + +"He lapped up the last drop as if he liked it," he reported. "Now we'll +see what happens." + + + + +Chapter VIII + +The Telegram that Took Barby Away + + + +The painting of Richard's portrait interfered with the quest for buried +treasure from day to day; but unbeknown either to artist or model, the +dreams of that quest helped in the fashioning of the picture. In the +preliminary sittings in the studio at home Richard's father found it +necessary always to begin with some exhortation such as: + +"Now, Dicky, this has _got_ to be more than just a 'Study of a Boy's +Head.' I want to show by the expression of your face that it is an +illustration of that poem, 'A boy's will is the wind's will, and the +thoughts of youth are long, long thoughts.' Chase that Binney Rogers and +his gang out of your mind for a while, can't you, and think of something +beside shinny and the hokey-pokey man." + +So far the portrait was satisfactory in that it was a remarkably good +likeness of an unusually good-looking boy, but it was of a boy who seemed +to be alertly listening for such things as Binney's cat-call, signaling +him from the alley. Here by the sea there was no need for such +exhortations. No sooner was he seated before the easel in the loft which +served as a studio, with its barn-like, double doors thrown open above +the water, than the rapt expression which his father coveted, crept into +his dark eyes. They grew big and dreamy, following the white sails across +the harbor. He was planning the secret expedition he and Georgina +intended to undertake, just as soon as the portrait was finished. + +There were many preparations to make for it. They would have to secrete +tools and provisions; and in a book from which Georgina read aloud +whenever there was opportunity, were descriptions of various rites that +it were well to perform. One was to sacrifice a black cock, and sprinkle +its blood upon the spot before beginning to dig. Richard did not question +why this should be done. The book recommended it as a practice which had +been followed by some very famous treasure hunters. If at times a certain +wide-awake and calculating gleam suddenly dispelled the dreaminess of +expression in which his father was exulting, it was because a black +Orpington rooster which daily strayed from a nearby cottage to the beach +below the studio window, chose that moment to crow. Richard had marked +that black cock for the sacrifice. It was lordly enough to bring success +upon any enterprise. + +In the meantime, as soon as his duties as model were over each morning, +he was out of the studio with a whoop and up the beach as hard as he +could run to the Huntingdon house. By the time he reached it he was no +longer the artist's only son, hedged about with many limitations which +belonged to that distinction. He was "Dare-devil Dick, the Dread +Destroyer," and Georgina was "Gory George, the Menace of the Main." + +Together they commanded a brigantine of their own. Passers-by saw only an +old sailboat anchored at the deserted and rotting wharf up nearest the +breakwater. But the passers-by who saw only that failed to see either +Dare-devil Dick or Gory George. They saw, instead, two children whose +fierce mustachios were the streakings of a burnt match, whose massive +hoop ear-rings were the brass rings from a curtain pole, whose faithful +following of the acts of Captain Quelch and other piratical gentlemen was +only the mimicry of play. + +But Barbara knew how real they were, from the spotted handkerchief tied +around the "bunged eye" of Dare-devil Dick, under his evil-looking slouch +hat, to the old horse pistol buckled to his belt. Gory George wore the +same. And Barbara knew what serious business it was to them, even more +serious than the affairs of eating and drinking. + +Tippy scolded when she found that her half-pint bottles which she kept +especially for cream had been smuggled away in the hold of the +brigantine. But without bottles how could one give a realistic touch to +the singing of "Yo ho, and the rum below"? + +And Tippy thought it was heathenish for Barbara to let Georgina dress up +in some little knickerbockers and a roundabout which had been stored away +with other clothes worn by Justin as a small boy. But her disapproval was +beyond words when Barbara herself appeared at the back door one morning, +so cleverly disguised as a gypsy, that Mrs. Triplett grudgingly handed +out some cold biscuits before she discovered the imposition. The poor she +was glad to feed, but she had no use for an impudent, strolling gypsy. + +"Don't be cross, Tippy," pleaded Barbara, laughing till the tears came. +"I _had_ to do it. I can't bear to feel that Georgina is growing +away from me--that she is satisfied to leave me out of her games. Since +she's so taken up with that little Richard Moreland I don't seem as +necessary to her as I used to be. And I can't bear that, Tippy, when I've +always been first in everything with her. She's so necessary to me." + +Mrs. Triplett made no answer. She felt that she couldn't do justice to +the occasion. She doubted if the Pilgrim monument itself could, even if +it were to stretch itself up to its full height and deliver a lecture on +the dignity of motherhood. She wondered what the Mayflower mothers would +have thought if they could have met this modern one on the beach, with +face stained brown, playacting that she was a beggar of a gypsy. How +could she hope to be one of those written of in Proverbs--"Her children +rise up and call her blessed. Her own works praise her in the gates." + +Tippy ate her dinner alone that day, glancing grimly through the open +window from time to time to the sand dunes back of the house, where an +old hag of a gypsy in a short red dress with a gay bandanna knotted over +her head, broiled bacon and boiled corn over a smoky campfire; and two +swaggering villains who smelled of tar and codfish (because of the old +net which half-way filled the brigantine), sucked the very cobs when the +corn was eaten from them, forever registering that feast high above all +other feasts in the tablet of blessed memories. + +The interruption to all this came as unexpectedly as a clap of thunder +from a clear sky. A messenger boy on a wheel whirled up to the front gate +with a telegram. Tippy signed for it, not wanting the boy to see Barbara +in such outlandish dress, then carried it out to the picnickers. She held +it under her apron until she reached them. Telegrams always spelled +trouble to Mrs. Triplett, but Barbara took this one from her with a +smiling thank you, without, rising from her seat on the sand. Her father +often telegraphed instead of writing when away on his vacations, and she +knew he was up at a lake resort in Michigan, at an Editors' Convention. +Telegrams had always been pleasant things in her experience. But as she +tore this open and read she turned pale even under her brown stain. + +"It's papa," she gasped. "Hurt in an automobile accident. They don't say +how bad--just hurt. And he wants me. I must take the first train." + +She looked up at Mrs. Triplett helplessly, not even making an effort to +rise from the sand, she was so dazed and distressed by the sudden +summons. It was the first time she had ever had the shock of bad news. It +was the first time she had ever been called upon to act for herself in +such an emergency, and she felt perfectly numb, mind and body. Tippy's +voice sounded a mile away when she said: + +"You can catch the boat. It's an hour till the _Dorothy Bradford_ +starts back to Boston." + +Still Barbara sat limp and powerless, as one sits in a nightmare. + +Georgina gave a choking gasp as two awful words rose up in her throat and +stuck there. _"The Tishbite."_ Whatever that mysterious horror might +be, plainly its evil workings had begun. + +"Tut!" exclaimed Tippy, pulling Barbara to her feet. "Keep your head. +You'll have to begin scrubbing that brown paint off your face if you +expect to reach the boat on time." + +Automatically Georgina responded to that "tut" as if it were the old +challenge of the powder horn. No matter how she shivered she must show +what brave stuff she was made of. Even with that awful foreboding +clutching at her heart like an iron hand and Barby about to leave her, +she mustn't show one sign of her distress. + +It was well that Georgina had learned to move briskly in her long +following after Tippy, else she could not have been of such service in +this emergency. Her eyes were blurred with tears as she hurried up to the +garret for suitcase and satchel, and down the hall to look up numbers in +the telephone directory. But it was a comfort even in the midst of her +distress to feel that she could take such an important part in the +preparations, that Tippy trusted her to do the necessary telephoning, and +to put up a lunch for Barby without dictating either the messages or the +contents of the lunch-box. + +When Mr. James Milford called up, immediately after Richard had raced +home with the news, and offered to take Mrs. Huntingdon to the boat in +his machine, he thought it was Mrs. Huntingdon herself who answered him. +The trembling voice seemed only natural under the circumstances. He would +have smiled could he have seen the pathetic little face uplifted towards +the receiver, the quivering lip still adorned with the fierce mustachios +of Gory George, in strange contrast to the soft curls hanging over her +shoulders now that they were no longer hidden by a piratical hat. She had +forgotten that she was in knickerbockers instead of skirts, and that the +old horse-pistol was still at her belt, until Barbara caught her to her +at parting with a laugh that turned into a sob, looking for a spot on her +face clean enough to kiss. + +It was all over so soon--the machine whirling up to the door and away +again to stop at the bank an instant for the money which Georgina had +telephoned to have waiting, and then on to the railroad wharf where the +_Dorothy Bradford_ had already sounded her first warning whistle. +Georgina had no time to realize what was actually happening until it was +over. She climbed up into the mammoth willow tree in the corner of the +yard to watch for the steamboat. It would come into view in a few minutes +as it ploughed majestically through the water towards the lighthouse. + +Then desolation fell upon her. She had never realized until that moment +how dear her mother was to her. Then the thought came to her, suppose it +was Barby who had been hurt in an accident, and she Georgina, was +hurrying to her as Barby was hurrying to grandfather Shirley, unknowing +what awaited her at the journey's end. For a moment she forgot her own +unhappiness at being left behind, in sympathetic understanding of her +mother's distress. She wasn't going to think about her part of it she +told herself, she was going to be so brave---- + +Then her glance fell on the "holiday tree." + +The holiday tree was a little evergreen of Barby's christening if not of +her planting. For every gala day in the year it bore strange fruit, no +matter what the season. At Hallowe'en it was as gay with jack-o-lanterns +and witches' caps as if the pixies themselves had decorated it. On +Washington's birthday each branch was tipped with a flag and a cherry +tart. On the fourteenth of February it was hung with valentines, and at +Easter she was always sure of finding a candy rabbit or two perched among +its branches and nests of colored eggs. It seemed to be at its best at +Christmas, but it was when it took its turns at birthday celebrations +that it was most wonderful. Then it blossomed with little glass lanterns +of every color, glowing like red and green and golden stars. Last year it +had borne a great toy ship with all sails set, and nine "surprise" +oranges, round, yellow boxes, each containing a gift, because she was +nine years old. In just two more days she would be ten, and Barby gone! + +At that instant the boat whistle sounded long and deep, sending its +melodious boom across the water. It seemed to strike some chord in the +very center of her being, and make her feel as if something inside were +sinking down and down and down. The sensation was sickening. It grew +worse as the boat steamed away. She stood up on a limb to watch it. +Smaller and smaller it seemed, leaving only a long plume of smoke in its +wake as it disappeared around Long Point. Then even the smoke faded, and +a forlorn little figure, strangely at variance with the fierce pirate +suit, she crumpled up in the crotch of the willow, her face hidden in her +elbow, and began to sob piteously: "Oh, Barby! Barby!" + + + + +Chapter IX + +The Birthday Prism + + + +The Towncrier, passing along the street on an early morning trip to the +bakery, stopped at the door of the antique shop, for a word with Mrs. +Yates, the lady who kept it. She wanted him to "cry" an especial bargain +sale of old lamps later in the week. That is how he happened to be +standing in the front door when the crash came in the rear of the shop, +and it was because he was standing there that the crash came. + +Because Mrs. Yates was talking to him she couldn't be at the back door +when the fish-boy came with the fish, and nobody being there to take it +the instant he knocked, the boy looked in and threw it down on the table +nearest the door. And because the fish was left to lie there a moment +while Mrs. Yates finished her conversation, the cat, stretched out on the +high window ledge above the table, decided to have his breakfast without +waiting to be called. He was an enormous cat by the name of "Grandpa," +and because he was old and ponderous, and no longer light on his feet, +when he leaped from the windowsill he came down clumsily in the middle of +the very table _full_ of the old lamps which were set aside for the +bargain sale. + +Of course, it was the biggest and fanciest lamp in the lot that was +broken--a tall one with a frosted glass shade and a row of crystal prisms +dangling around the bowl of it. It toppled over on to a pair of old brass +andirons, smashing into a thousand pieces. Bits of glass flew in every +direction, and "Grandpa," his fur electrified by his fright until he +looked twice his natural size, shot through the door as if fired from a +cannon, and was seen no more that morning. + +Naturally, Mrs. Yates hurried to the back of the store to see what had +happened, and Mr. Darcy, following, picked up from the wreck the only +piece of the lamp not shattered to bits by the fall. It was one of the +prisms, which in some miraculous way had survived the crash, a beautiful +crystal pendant without a single nick or crack. + +He picked it up and rubbed his coat sleeve down each of its three sides, +and when he held it up to the light it sent a ripple of rainbows dancing +across the shop. He watched them, pleased as a child; and when Mrs. +Yates, loud in her complaints of Grandpa, came with broom and dustpan to +sweep up the litter, he bargained with her for the prism. + +That is how he happened to have an offering for Georgina's birthday when +he reached the house a couple of hours later, not knowing that it was her +birthday. Nobody had remembered it, Barby being gone. + +It seemed to Georgina the forlornest day she had ever opened her eyes +upon. The very fact that it was gloriously sunny with a delicious summer +breeze ruffling the harbor and sending the white sails scudding along +like wings, made her feel all the more desolate. She was trying her best +to forget what day it was, but there wasn't much to keep her mind off the +subject. Even opportunities for helping Tippy were taken away, for Belle +had come to stay during Barby's absence, and she insisted on doing what +Georgina otherwise would have done. + +If Barby had been at home there would have been no piano practice on such +a gala occasion as a tenth birthday. There would have been no time for it +in the program of joyful happenings. But because time dragged, Georgina +went to her scales and five-finger exercises as usual. With the hour- +glass on the piano beside her, she practised not only her accustomed +time, till the sand had run half through, but until all but a quarter of +it had slipped down. Then she sauntered listlessly out into the dining- +room and stood by one of the open windows, looking out through the wire +screen into the garden. + +On any other day she would have found entertainment in the kitchen +listening to Belle and Mrs. Triplett. Belle seemed doubly interesting now +that she had heard of the unused wedding dress and the sorrow that would +"blight her whole life." But Georgina did not want anyone to see how +bitterly she was disappointed. + +Just outside, so close to the window that she could have reached out and +touched it had it not been for the screen, stood the holiday tree. It had +held out its laden arms to her on so many festal occasions that Georgina +had grown to feel that it took a human interest in all her celebrations. +To see it standing bare now, like any ordinary tree, made her feel that +her last friend was indifferent. Nobody cared. Nobody was glad that she +was in the world. In spite of all she could do to check them, two big +tears welled up and rolled down her cheeks; then another and another. She +lifted up the hem of her dress to wipe them away, and as she did so Uncle +Darcy came around the hoase. + +He looked in at the open window, then asked: "Weather a bit squally, hey? +Better put into port and tie up till storm's over. Let your Uncle Darcy +have a hand at the helm. Come out here, Barby, and let's talk it over on +the door-step." + +There was something so heartening in the cheery voice that Georgina made +one more dab at her eyes with the hem of her dress skirt, then dropped it +and went out through the screen door to join him on the steps which led +down into the garden. At first she was loath to confess the cause of her +tears. She felt ashamed of being caught crying simply because no one had +remembered the date. It wasn't that she wanted presents, she sobbed. It +was that she wanted someone to be glad that she'd been born and it was so +lonesome without Barby-- + +In the midst of her reluctant confession Mr. Darcy bethought himself of +the prism in his pocket. + +"Here," he said, drawing it out. "Take this and put a rainbow around your +troubles. It's a sort of magic glass. When you look through it, it shows +you things you can't see with your ordinary eyes. Look what it does to +the holiday tree." + +There was a long-drawn breath of amazement from Georgina as she held the +prism to her eyes and looked through it at the tree. + +"Oh! Oh! It does put a rainbow around every branch and every little tuft +of green needles. It's even lovelier than the colored lanterns were. +Isn't it wonderful? It puts a rainbow around the whole outdoors." + +Her gaze went from the grape arbor to the back garden gate. Then she +jumped up and started around the house, the old man following, and +smiling over each enthusiastic "oh" she uttered, as the prism showed her +new beauty at every step. He was pleased to have been the source of her +new pleasure. + +"It's like looking into a different world," she cried, as she reached the +kitchen door, and eagerly turned the prism from one object to another. +Mrs. Triplett was scowling intently over the task of trying to turn the +lid of a glass jar which refused to budge. + +"Oh, it even puts a rainbow around Tippy's frown," Georgina cried +excitedly. Then she ran to hold the prism over Belle's eyes. + +"Look what Uncle Darcy brought me for my birthday. See how it puts a +rainbow around every blessed thing, even the old black pots and pans!" + +In showing it to Tippy she discovered a tiny hole in the end of the prism +by which it had been hung from the lamp, and she ran upstairs to find a +piece of ribbon to run through it. When she came down again, the prism +hanging from her neck by a long pink ribbon, Uncle Darcy greeted her with +a new version of the Banbury Cross song: + + "Rings on her fingers and ribbon of rose, + She shall have rainbows wherever she goes." + +"That's even better than having music wherever you go," answered +Georgina, whirling around on her toes. Then she stopped in a listening +attitude, hearing the postman. + +When she came back from the front door with only a magazine her +disappointment was keen, butl she said bravely: + +"Of course, I _knew_ there couldn't be a letter from Barby this +soon. She couldn't get there till last night--but just for a minute I +couldn't help hoping--but I didn't mind it half so much, Uncle Darcy, +when I looked at the postman through the prism. Even his whiskers were +blue and red and yellow." + +That afternoon a little boat went dipping up and down across the waves. +It was _The Betsey_, with Uncle Darcy pulling at the oars and +Georgina as passenger. Lifting the prism which still hung from her neck +by the pink ribbon, she looked out upon what seemed to be an enchanted +harbor. It was filled with a fleet of rainbows. Every sail was outlined +with one, every mast edged with lines of red and gold and blue. Even the +gray wharves were tinged with magical color, and the water itself, to her +reverent thought, suggested the "sea of glass mingled with fire," which +is pictured as one of the glories of the New Jerusalem. + +"Isn't it _wonderful,_ Uncle Darcy?" she asked in a hushed, awed +tone. "It's just like a miracle the way this bit of glass changes the +whole world. Isn't it?" + +Before he could answer, a shrill whistle sounded near at hand. They were +passing the boathouse on the beach below the Green Stairs. Looking up +they saw Richard, hanging out of the open doors of the loft, waving to +them. Georgina stood up in the boat and beckoned, but he shook his head, +pointing backward with his thumb into the studio, and disconsolately +lately shrugged his shoulders. + +"He wants to go _so_ bad!" exclaimed Georgina. "Seems as if his +father's a mighty slow painter. Maybe if you'd ask him the way you did +before, Uncle Darcy, he'd let Richard off this one more time--being my +birthday, you know." + +She looked at him with the bewitching smile which he usually found +impossible to resist, but this time he shook his head. + +"No, I don't want him along to-day. I've brought you out here to show you +something and have a little talk with you alone. Maybe I ought to wait +till you're older before I say what I want to say, but at my time of life +I'm liable to slip off without much warning, and I don't want to go till +I've said it to you." + +Georgina put down her prism to stare at him in eager-eyed wonder. She was +curious to know what he could show her out here on the water, and what he +wanted to tell her that was as important as his solemn words implied. + +"Wait till we come to it," he said, answering the unspoken question in +her eyes. And Georgina, who dearly loved dramatic effects in her own +story-telling, waited for something--she knew not what--to burst upon her +expectant sight. + +They followed the line of the beach for some time, dodging in between +motor boats and launches, under the high railroad wharf and around the +smaller ones where the old fish-houses stood. Past groups of children, +playing in the sand they went, past artists sketching under their white +umbrellas, past gardens gay with bright masses of color, past drying nets +spread out on the shore. + +Presently Uncle Darcy stopped rowing and pointed across a vacant strip of +beach between two houses, to one on the opposite side of the street. + +"There it is," he announced. "That's what I wanted to show you." + +Georgina followed the direction of his pointing finger. + +"Oh, that!" she said in a disappointed tone. "I've seen that all my life. +It's nothing but the Figurehead House." + +She was looking at a large white house with a portico over the front +door, on the roof of which portico was perched half of the wooden figure +of a woman. It was of heroic size, head thrown back as if looking off to +sea, and with a green wreath in its hands. Weather-beaten and discolored, +it was not an imposing object at first glance, and many a jibe and laugh +it had called forth from passing tourists. + +Georgina's disappointment showed in her face. + +"I know all about that," she remarked. "Mrs. Tupman told me herself. She +calls it the Lady of Mystery. She said that years and years ago a +schooner put out from this town on a whaling cruise, and was gone more +than a year. When it was crossing the equator, headed for home, the look- +out at the masthead saw a strange object in the water that looked like a +woman afloat. The Captain gave orders to lower the boats, and when they +did so they found this figurehead. She said it must have come from the +prow of some great clipper in the East India trade. They were in the +Indian Ocean, you know. + +"There had been some frightful storms and afterwards they heard of many +wrecks. This figurehead was so long they had to cut it in two to get it +into the hold of the vessel. They brought it home and set it up there +over the front door, and they call it the Lady of Mystery, because they +said 'from whence that ship came, what was its fate and what was its +destination will always be shrouded in mystery.' And Mrs. Tupman said +that a famous artist looked at it once and said it was probably the work +of a Spanish artist, and that from the pose of its head and the wreath in +its hands he was sure it was intended to represent Hope. Was _that_ +what you were going to tell me?" + +The old man had rested on his oars while she hurried through this tale, +with a mischievous twinkle in her eyes, as if she thought she was +forestalling him. Now he picked them up again and began rowing out into +the harbor. + +"That was a part of it," he admitted, "but that's only the part that the +whole town knows. That old figurehead has a meaning for me that nobody +else that's living knows about. That's what I want to pass on to you." + +He rowed several minutes more before he said slowly, with a wistful +tenderness coming into his dim old eyes as he looked at her: + +"Georgina, I don't suppose anybody's ever told you about the troubles +I've had. They wouldn't talk about such things to a child like you. Maybe +I shouldn't, now; but when I saw how disappointed you were this morning, +I said to myself, 'If she's old enough to feel trouble that way, she's +old enough to understand and to be helped by hearing about mine.'" + +It seemed hard for him to go on, for again he paused, looking off toward +the lighthouse in the distance. Then he said slowly, in a voice that +shook at times: + +"Once--I had a boy--that I set all my hopes on--just as a man puts all +his cargo into one vessel; and nobody was ever prouder than I was, when +that little craft went sailing along with the best of them. I used to +look at him and think, _'Danny'll_ weather the seas no matter how +rough they are, and he'll bring up in the harbor I'm hoping he'll reach, +with all flags flying.' And then--something went wrong--" + +The tremulous voice broke. "My little ship went down--all my precious +cargo lost--" + +Another and a longer pause. In it Georgina seemed to hear Cousin +Mehitable's husky voice, half whispering: + +_"And the lamp threw a shadow on the yellow blind, plain as a +photograph. The shadow of an old man sitting with his arms flung out +across the table and his head bowed on-them. And he was groaning, 'Oh, my +Danny! My Danny! If you could only have gone that way.'"_ + +For a moment Georgina felt the cruel hurt of his grief as if the pain had +stabbed her own heart. The old man went on: + +"If it had only been any other kind of a load, anything but +_disgrace_, I could have carried it without flinching. But that, it +seemed I just couldn't face. Only the good Lord knows how I lived through +those first few weeks. Then your grandfather Huntingdon came to me. He +was always a good friend. And he asked me to row him out here on the +water. When we passed the Figurehead House he pointed up at that head. It +was all white and fair in those days, before the paint wore off. And he +said, 'Dan'l Darcy, _as long as a man keeps Hope at the prow he keeps +afloat_. As soon as he drops it he goes to pieces and down to the +bottom, the way that ship did when it lost its figurehead. You mustn't +let go, Dan'l. You _must_ keep Hope at the prow. + +"'Somewhere in God's universe either in this world or another your boy is +alive and still your son. You've got to go on hoping that if he's +innocent his name will be cleared of this disgrace, and if he's guilty +he'll wipe out the old score against him some way and make good.' + +"And then he gave me a line to live by. A line he said that had been +written by a man who was stone blind, and hadn't anything to look forward +to all the rest of his life but groping in the dark. He said he'd not + + "'Bate a jot + Of heart or hope, but still bear up and steer + Right onward.' + +"At first it didn't seem to mean anything to me, but he made me say it +after him as if it were a sort of promise, and I've been saying it every +day of every year since then. I'd said it to myself first, when I met +people on the street that I knew were thinking of Danny's disgrace, and I +didn't see how I was going to get up courage to pass 'em. And I said it +when I was lying on my bed at night with my heart so sore and heavy I +couldn't sleep, and after a while it did begin to put courage into me, so +that I could hope in earnest. And when I did _that,_ little lass--" + +He leaned over to smile into her eyes, now full of tears, he had so +wrought upon her tender sympathies-- + +"When I did that, it put a rainbow around my trouble just as that prism +did around your empty holiday tree. It changed the looks of the whole +world for me. + +"_That's_ what I brought you out here to tell you, Georgina. I want +to give you the same thing that your grandfather Huntingdon gave me--that +line to live by. Because troubles come to everybody. They'll come to you, +too, but I want you to know this, Baby, they can't hurt you as long as +you keep Hope at the prow, because Hope is a magic glass that makes +rainbows of our tears. Now you won't forget that, will you? Even after +Uncle Darcy is dead and gone, you'll remember that he brought you out +here on your birthday to give you that good word--_'still bear up and +steer right onward,'_ no matter what happens. And to tell you that in +all the long, hard years he's lived through, he's proved it was good." + +Georgina, awed and touched of soul, could only nod her assent. But +because Childhood sometimes has no answer to make to the confidences of +Age is no reason that they are not taken to heart and stowed away there +for the years to build upon. In the unbroken silence with which they +rowed back to shore, Georgina might have claimed three score years +besides her own ten, so perfect was the feeling of comradeship between +them. + +As they passed the pier back of the antique shop, a great gray cat rose +and stretched itself, then walked ponderously down to the water's edge. +It was "Grandpa." Georgina, laughing a little shakily because of recent +tears, raised her prism to put a rainbow around the cat's tail, unknowing +that but for him the crystal pendant would now be hanging from an antique +lamp instead of from the ribbon around her neck. + + + + +Chapter X + +Moving Pictures + + + +It often happens that when one is all primed and cocked for trouble, that +trouble flaps its wings and flies away for a time, leaving nothing to +fire at. So Georgina, going home with her prism and her "line to live +by," ready and eager to prove how bravely she could meet disappointments, +found only pleasant surprises awaiting her. + +Mrs. Triplett had made a birthday cake in her absence. It was on the +supper table with ten red candles atop. And there was a note from Barby +beside her plate which had come in the last mail. It had been posted at +some way-station. There was a check inside for a dollar which she was to +spend as she pleased. A dear little note it was, which made Georgina's +throat ache even while it brought a glow to her heart. Then Belle, who +had not known it was her birthday in time to make her a present, +announced that she would take her to a moving picture show after supper, +instead. + +Georgina had frequently been taken to afternoon performances, but never +at night. It was an adventure in itself just to be down in the part of +town where the shops were, when they were all lighted, and when the +summer people were surging along the board-walk and out into the middle +of the narrow street in such crowds that the automobiles and +"accommodations" had to push their way through slowly, with a great +honking of warning horns. + +The Town Hall was lighted for a dance when they passed it. The windows of +the little souvenir shops seemed twice as attractive as when seen by day, +and early as it was in the evening, people were already lined up in the +drug-store, three deep around the soda-water fountain. + +Georgina, thankful that Tippy had allowed her to wear her gold locket for +the occasion, walked down the aisle and took her seat near the stage, +feeling as conspicuous and self-conscious as any debutante entering a box +at Grand Opera. + +It was a hot night, but on a line with the front seats, there was a +double side door opening out onto a dock. From where Georgina sat she +could look out through the door and see the lights of a hundred boats +twinkling in long wavy lines across the black water, and now and then a +salt breeze with the fishy tang she loved, stole across the room and +touched her cheek like a cool finger. + +The play was not one which Barbara would have chosen for Georgina to see, +being one that was advertised as a thriller. It was full of hair-breadth +escapes and tragic scenes. There was a shipwreck in it, and passengers +were brought ashore in the breeches buoy, just as she had seen sailors +brought in on practice days over at the Race Point Lifesaving station. +And there was a still form stretched out stark and dripping under a piece +of tarpaulin, and a girl with long fair hair streaming wildly over her +shoulders knelt beside it wringing her hands. + +Georgina stole a quick side-glance at Belle. That was the way it had been +in the story of Emmett Potter's drowning, as they told it on the day of +Cousin Mehitable's visit. Belle's hands were locked together in her lap, +and her lips were pressed in a thin line as if she were trying to keep +from saying something. Several times in the semi-darkness of the house +her handkerchief went furtively to her eyes. + +Georgina's heart beat faster. Somehow, with the piano pounding out that +deep tum-tum, like waves booming up on the rocks, she began to feel +strangely confused, as if _she_ were the heroine on the films; as if +_she_ were kneeling there on the shore in that tragic moment of +parting from her dead lover. She was sure that she knew exactly how Belle +felt then, how she was feeling now. + +When the lights were switched on again and they rose to go out, Georgina +was so deeply under the spell of the play that it gave her a little shock +of surprise when Belle began talking quite cheerfully and in her ordinary +manner to her next neighbor. She even laughed in response to some joking +remark as they edged their way slowly up the aisle to the door. It seemed +to Georgina that if she had lived through a scene like the one they had +just witnessed, she could never smile again. On the way out she glanced +up again at Belie several times, wondering. + +Going home the street was even more crowded than it had been coming. They +could barely push their way along, and were bumped into constantly by +people dodging back to escape the jam when the crowd had to part to let a +vehicle through. But after a few blocks of such jostling the going was +easier. The drug-store absorbed part of the throng, and most of the +procession turned up Carver Street to the Gifford House and the cottages +beyond on Bradford Street. + +By the time Georgina and Belle came to the last half-mile of the plank +walk, scarcely a footstep sounded behind them. After passing the Green +Stairs there was an unobstructed view of the harbor. A full moon was high +overhead, flooding the water and beach with such a witchery of light that +Georgina moved along as if she were in a dream--in a silver dream beside +a silver sea. + +Belle pointed to a little pavilion in sight of the breakwater. "Let's go +over there and sit down a few minutes," she said. "It's a waste of good +material to go indoors on a night like this." + +They crossed over, sinking in the sand as they stepped from the road to +the beach, till Georgina had to take off her slippers and shake them +before she could settle down comfortably on the bench in the pavilion. +They sat there a while without speaking, just as they had sat before the +pictures on the films, for never on any film was ever shown a scene of +such entrancing loveliness as the one spread out before them. In the +broad path made by the moon hung ghostly sails, rose great masts, +twinkled myriads of lights. It was so still they could hear the swish of +the tide creeping up below, the dip of near-by oars and the chug of a +motor boat, far away down by the railroad wharf. + +Then Belle began to talk. She looked straight out across the shining path +of the moon and spoke as if she were by herself. She did not look at +Georgina, sitting there beside her. Perhaps if she had, she would have +realized that her listener was only a child and would not have said all +she did. Or maybe, something within her felt the influence of the night, +the magical drawing of the moon as the tide feels it, and she could not +hold back the long-repressed speech that rose to her lips. Maybe it was +that the play they had seen, quickened old memories into painful life +again. + +It was on a night just like this, she told Georgina, that Emmett first +told her that he cared for her--ten years ago this summer. Ten years! +The whole of Georgina's little lifetime! And now Belle was twenty-seven. +Twenty-seven seemed very old to Georgina. She stole another upward glance +at her companion. Belle did not look old, sitting there in her white +dress, like a white moonflower in that silver radiance, a little lock of +soft blonde hair fluttering across her cheek. + +In a rush of broken sentences with long pauses between which somehow told +almost as much as words, Belle recalled some of the scenes of that +summer, and Georgina, who up to this night had only glimpsed the dim +outlines of romance, as a child of ten would glimpse them through old +books, suddenly saw it face to face, and thereafter found it something to +wonder about and dream sweet, vague dreams over. + +Suddenly Belle stood up with a complete change of manner. + +"My! it must be getting late," she said briskly. "Aunt Maria will scold +if I keep you out any longer." + +Going home, she was like the Belle whom Georgina had always known--so +different from the one lifting the veil of memories for the little while +they sat in the pavilion. + +Georgina had thought that with no Barby to "button her eyes shut with a +kiss" at the end of her birthday, the going-to-sleep time would be sad. +But she was so busy recalling the events of the day that she never +thought of the omitted ceremony. For a long time she lay awake, imagining +all sorts of beautiful scenes in which she was the heroine. + +First, she went back to what Uncle Darcy had told her, and imagined +herself as rescuing an only child who was drowning. The whole town stood +by and cheered when she came up with it, dripping, and the mother took +her in her arms and said, _"You_ are our prism, Georgina Huntingdon! +But for your noble act our lives would be, indeed, desolate. It is you +who have filled them with rainbows." + +Then she was in a ship crossing the ocean, and a poor sailor hearing her +speak of Cape Cod would come and ask her to tell him of its people, and +she would find he was Danny. She would be the means of restoring him to +his parents. + +And then, she and Richard on some of their treasure-hunting expeditions +which they were still planning every time they met, would unearth a +casket some dark night by the light of a fitful lantern, and inside would +be a confession written by the man who had really stolen the money, +saying that Dan Darcy was innocent. And Uncle Darcy and Aunt Elspeth +would be so heavenly glad--The tears came to Georgina's eyes as she +pictured the scene in the little house in Fishburn Court, it came to her +so vividly. + +The clock downstairs struck twelve, but still she went on with the +pleasing pictures moving through her mind as they had moved across the +films earlier in the evening. The last one was a combination of what she +had seen there and what Belle had told her. + +She was sitting beside a silver sea across which a silver moon was making +a wonderful shining path of silver ripples, and somebody was telling her-- +what Emmett had told Belle ten years ago. And she knew past all doubting +that if that shadowy somebody beside her should die, she would carry the +memory of him to her grave as Belle was doing. It seemed such a sweet, +sad way to live that she thought it would be more interesting to have her +life like that, than to have it go along like the lives of all the +married people of her acquaintance. And if _he_ had a father like +Emmett's father she would cling to him as Belle did, and go to see him +often and take the part of a real daughter to him. But she wouldn't want +him to be like Belle's "Father Potter." He was an old fisherman, too +crippled to follow the sea any longer, so now he was just a mender of +nets, sitting all day knotting twine with dirty tar-blackened fingers. + +The next morning when she went downstairs it was Belle and not Mrs. +Triplett who was stepping about the kitchen in a big gingham apron, +preparing breakfast. Mrs. Triplett was still in bed. Such a thing had +never happened before within Georgina's recollection. + +"It's the rheumatism in her back," Belle reported. "It's so bad she can't +lie still with any comfort, and she can't move without groaning. So she's +sort of 'between the de'il and the deep sea.' And touchy is no name for +it. She doesn't like it if you don't and she doesn't like it if you do; +but you can't wonder when the pain's so bad. It's pretty near lumbago." + +Georgina, who had finished her dressing by tying the prism around her +neck, was still burning with the desire which Uncle Darcy's talk had +kindled within her, to be a little comfort to everybody. + +"Let me take her toast and tea up to her," she begged. With that toast +and tea she intended to pass along the good word Uncle Darcy had given +her--"the line to live by." But Tippy was in no humor to be adjured by a +chit of a child to bear up and steer right onward. Such advice would have +been coldly received just then even from her minister. + +"You don't know what you're talking about," she exclaimed testily. "Bear +up? Of course I'll bear up. There's nothing else _to_ do with +rheumatism, but you needn't come around with any talk of putting rainbows +around it or me either." + +She gave her pillow an impatient thump with her hard knuckles. + +"Deliver me from people who make it their business in life always to act +cheerful no matter _what._ The Scripture itself says 'There's a time +to laugh and a time to weep, a time to mourn and a time to dance.' When +the weeping time comes I can't abide either people or books that go +around spreading cheerful sayings on everybody like salve!" + +Tippy, lying there with her hair screwed into a tight little button on +the top of her head, looked strangely unlike herself. Georgina descended +to the kitchen, much offended. It hurt her feelings to have her good +offices spurned in such a way. She didn't care how bad anybody's +rheumatism was she muttured. "It was no excuse for saying such nasty +things to people who were trying to be kind to them." + +Belle suggested presently that the customary piano practice be omitted +that morning for fear it might disturb Aunt Maria, so when the usual +little tasks were done Georgina would have found time dragging, had it +not been for the night letter which a messenger boy brought soon after +breakfast. Grandfather Shirley was better than she had expected to find +him, Barby wired. Particulars would follow soon in a letter. It cheered +Georgina up so much that she took a pencil and tablet of paper up into +the willow tree and wrote a long account to her mother of the birthday +happenings. What with the red-candled cake and the picture show and the +afternoon in the boat it sounded as if she had had a very happy day. But +mostly she wrote about the prism, and what Uncle Darcy had told her about +the magic glass of Hope. When it was done she went in to Belle. + +"May I go down to the post-office to mail this and stop on my way back at +the Green Stairs and see if Richard can come and play with me?" she +asked. + +Belle considered. "Better stay down at the Milford's to do your playing," +she answered. "It might bother Aunt Maria to have a boy romping around +here." + +So Georgina fared forth, after taking off her prism and hanging it in a +safe place. Only Captain Kidd frisked down to meet her when she stood +under the studio window and gave the alley yodel which Richard had taught +her. There was no answer. She repeated it several times, and then Mr. +Moreland appeared at the window, in his artist's smock with a palette on +his thumb and a decidedly impatient expression on his handsome face. +Richard was posing, he told her, and couldn't leave for half an hour. His +tone was impatient, too, for he had just gotten a good start after many +interruptions. + +Undecided whether to go back home or sit down on the sand and wait, +Georgina stood looking idly about her. And while she hesitated, Manuel +and Joseph and Rosa came straggling along the beach in search of +adventure. + +It came to Georgina like an inspiration that it wasn't Barby who had +forbidden her to play with them, it was Tippy. And with a vague feeling +that she was justified in disobeying her because of her recent crossness, +she rounded them up for a chase over the granite slabs of the breakwater. +If they would be Indians, she proposed, she'd be the Deerslayer, like the +hero of the Leather-Stocking Tales, and chase 'em with a gun. + +They had never heard of those tales, but they were more than willing to +undertake any game which Georgina might propose. So after a little +coaching in war-whoops, with a battered tin pan for a tom-tom, three +impromptu Indians sped down the beach under the studio windows, pursued +by a swift-footed Deerslayer with flying curls. The end of a broken oar +was her musket, which she brandished fiercely as she echoed their yells. + +Mr. Moreland gave a groan of despair as he looked at his model when those +war-whoops broke loose. Richard, who had succeeded after many trials in +lapsing into the dreamy attitude which his father wanted, started up at +the first whoop, so alert and interested that his nostrils quivered. He +scented excitement of some kind and was so eager to be in the midst of it +that the noise of the tom-tom made him wriggle in his chair. + +He looked at his father appealingly, then made an effort to settle down +into his former attitude. His body assumed the same listless pose as +before, but his eyes were so eager and shining with interest that they +fairly spoke each time the rattly drumming on the tin pan sounded a +challenge. + +"It's no use, Dicky," said his father at last. "It's all up with us for +this time. You might as well go on. But I wish that little tom-boy had +stayed at home." + +And Richard went, with a yell and a hand-spring, to throw in his lot with +Manuel and Joseph and be chased by the doughty Deer-slayer and her hound. +In the readjustment of parts Rosa was told to answer to the name of +Hector. It was all one to Rosa whether she was hound or redskin, so long +as she was allowed a part in the thrilling new game. Richard had the +promise of being Deer-slayer next time they played it. + + + + +Chapter XI + +The Old Rifle Gives Up Its Secret + + + +Out of that game with forbidden playmates, grew events which changed the +lives of several people. It began by Richard's deciding that a real gun +was necessary for his equipment if he was to play the part of Leather- +Stocking properly. Also, he argued, it would be a valuable addition to +their stock of fire-arms. The broken old horse-pistols were good enough +to play at pirating with, but something which would really shoot was +needed when they started out in earnest on a sure-enough adventure. + +Georgina suggested that he go to Fishburn Court and borrow a rifle that +she had seen up in Uncle Darcy's attic. She would go with him and do the +asking, she added, but Belle had promised to take her with her the next +time she went to see the net-mender, and the next time would be the +following afternoon, if Tippy was well enough to be up and around. +Georgina couldn't miss the chance to see inside the cottage that had been +the home of a hero and Belle's drowned lover. She wanted to see the +newspaper which Mr. Potter showed everybody who went to the house. It had +an account of the wreck and the rescue in it, with Emmett's picture on +the front page, and black headlines under it that said, "Died like a +hero." + +Tippy was well enough to be up next day, so Richard went alone to +Fishburn Court, and Georgina trudged along the sandy road with Belle to +the weather-beaten cottage on the edge of the cranberry bog. Belle told +her more about the old man as they walked along. + +"Seems as if he just lives on that memory. He can't get out in the boats +any more, being so crippled up, and he can't see to read much, so there's +lots of time for him to sit and think on the past. If it wasn't for the +nets he'd about lose his mind. I wouldn't say it out, and you needn't +repeat it, but sometimes I think it's already touched a mite. You see the +two of them lived there together so long alone, that Emmett was all in +all to his father. I suppose that's why Emmett is all he can talk about +now." + +When they reached the cottage Mr. Potter was sitting out in front as +usual, busy with his work. Georgina was glad that he did not offer to +shake hands. His were so dirty and black with tar she felt she could not +bear to touch them. He was a swarthy old man with skin like wrinkled +leather, and a bushy, grizzled beard which grew up nearly to his eyes. +Again Georgina wondered, looking at Belle in her crisp, white dress and +white shoes. How could she care for this unkempt old creature enough to +call him Father? + +As she followed Belle around inside the dreary three-room cottage she +wanted to ask if this would have been her home if Emmett had not been +drowned, but she felt a delicacy about asking such a question. She +couldn't imagine Belle in such a setting, but after she had followed her +around a while longer she realized that the house wouldn't stay dreary +with such a mistress. In almost no time the place was put to rights, and +there was a pan of cookies ready to slip into the oven. + +When the smell of their browning stole out to the front door the old man +left his bench and came in to get a handful of the hot cakes. Then, just +as Belle said he would, he told Georgina all that had happened the night +of the wreck. + +"That's the very chair he was sittin' in, when Luke Jones come in with +the word that men were needed. He started right off with Luke soon as he +could get into his oil-skins, for 'twas stormin' to beat the band. But he +didn't go fur. Almost no time it seemed like, he was comin' into the +house agin, and he went into that bedroom there, and shet the door behind +him. That of itself ought to 'uv made me know something out of the usual +was beginnin' to happen, for he never done such a thing before. A few +minutes later he came out with an old rifle that him and Dan Darcy used +to carry around in the dunes for target shootin' and he set it right down +in that corner by the chimney jamb. + +"'First time anybody passes this way goin' down ito Fishburn Court,' he +says, 'I wish you'd send this along to Uncle Dan'l. It's his by rights, +and he'd ought a had it long ago.' + +"An' them was his last words to me, except as he pulled the door to after +him he called 'Good-bye Pop, if I don't see you agin.' + +"I don't know when he'd done such a thing before as to say good-bye when +he went out, and I've often wondered over it sence, could he 'a had any +warnin' that something was goin' to happen to him?" + +Georgina gazed at the picture in the newspaper long and curiously. It had +been copied from a faded tin-type, but even making allowances for that +Emmett didn't look as she imagined a hero should, nor did it seem +possible it could be the man Belle had talked about. She wished she +hadn't seen it. It dimmed the glamor of romance which seemed to surround +him like a halo. Hearing about him in the magical moonlight she had +pictured him as looking as Sir Galahad. But if _this_ was what he +really looked like--Again she glanced wonderingly at Belle. How could she +care so hard for ten long years for just an ordinary man like that? + +When it was time to go home Belle suggested that they walk around by +Fishburn Court. It would be out of their way, but she had heard that Aunt +Elspeth wasn't as well as usual. + +"Emmett always called her Aunt," she explained to Georgina as they walked +along, "so I got into the way of doing it, too. He was so fond of Dan's +mother. She was so good to him after his own went that I feel I want to +be nice to her whenever I can, for his sake." + +"You know," she continued, "Aunt Elspeth never would give up but that Dan +was innocent, and since her memory's been failing her this last year, she +talks all the time about his coming home; just lies there in bed half her +time and babbles about him. It almost kills Uncle Dan'l to hear her, +because, of course, he knows the truth of the matter, that Dan _was_ +guilty. He as good as confessed it before he ran away, and the running +away itself told the story." + +When they reached Fishburn Court they could see two people sitting in +front of the cottage. Uncle Darcy was in an armchair on the grass with +one of the cats in his lap, and Richard sat on one seat of the red, +wooden swing with Captain Kidd on the opposite site one. Richard had a +rifle across his knees, the one Georgina had suggested borrowing. He +passed his hand caressingly along its stock now and then, and at +intervals raised it to sight along the barrel. It was so heavy he could +not keep it from wobbling when he raised it to take aim in various +directions. + +At the click of the gate-latch the old man tumbled Yellownose out of his +lap and rose stiffly to welcome his guests. + +"Come right in," he said cordially. "Mother'll be glad to see you, Belle. +She's been sort of low in her mind lately, and needs cheering up." + +He led the way into a low-ceilinged, inner bedroom with the shades all +pulled down. It was so dark, compared to the glaring road they had been +following, that Georgina blinked at the dim interior. She could scarcely +make out the figure on the high-posted bed, and drew back, whispering to +Belle that she'd stay outside until they were ready to go home. Leaving +them on the threshold, she went back to the shady door-yard to a seat in +the swing beside Captain Kidd. + +"It's Uncle Darcy's son's rifle," explained Richard. "He's been telling +me about him. Feel how smooth the stock is." + +Georgina reached over and passed her hand lightly along the polished +wood. + +"He and a friend of his called Emmett Potter used to carry it on the +dunes sometimes to shoot at a mark with. It wasn't good for much else, +it's so old. Dan got it in a trade once; traded a whole litter of collie +pups for it. Uncle Darcy says he'd forgotten there was such a gun till +somebody brought it to him after Emmett was drowned." + +"Oh," interrupted Georgina, her eyes wide with interest. "Emmett's father +has just been telling me about this very rifle. But I didn't dream it was +the one I'd seen up in the attic here. He showed me the corner where +Emmett stood it when he left for the wreck, and told what was to be done +with it. 'Them were his last words,'" she added, quoting Mr. Potter. + +She reached out her hand for the clumsy old firearm and almost dropped +it, finding it so much heavier than she expected. She wanted to touch +with her own fingers the weapon that had such an interesting history, and +about which a hero had spoken his last words. + +"The hammer's broken," continued Richard. "Whoever brought it home let it +fall. It's all rusty, too, because it was up in the attic so many years +and the roof leaked on it. But Uncle Darcy said lots of museums would be +glad to have it because there aren't many of these old flint-locks left +now. He's going to leave it to the Pilgrim museum up by the monument when +he's dead and gone, but he wants to keep it as long as he lives because +Danny set such store by it." + +"There's some numbers or letters or something on it," announced Georgina, +peering at a small brass plate on the stock. "I can't make them out. I +tell you what let's do," she exclaimed in a burst of enthusiasm. "Let's +polish it up so's we can read them. Tippy uses vinegar and wood ashes for +brass. I'll run get some." + +Georgina was enough at home here to find what she wanted without asking, +and as full of resources as Robinson Crusoe. She was back in a very few +minutes with a shovel full of ashes from the kitchen stove, and an old +can lid full of vinegar, drawn from a jug in the corner cupboard. With a +scrap of a rag dipped first in vinegar, then in ashes, she began +scrubbing the brass plate diligently. It had corroded until there was an +edge of green entirely around it. + +"I love to take an old thing like this and scrub it till it shines like +gold," she said, scouring away with such evident enjoyment of the job +that Richard insisted on having a turn. She surrendered the rag +grudgingly, but continued to direct operations. + +"Now dip it in the ashes again. No, not that way, double the rag up and +use more vinegar. Rub around that other corner a while. Here, let me show +you." + +She took the rifle away from him again and proceeded to illustrate her +advice. Suddenly she looked up, startled. + +"I believe we've rubbed it loose. It moved a little to one side. See?" + +He grabbed it back and examined it closely. "I bet it's meant to move," +he said finally. "It looks like a lid, see! It slides sideways." + +"Oh, I remember now," she cried, much excited. "That's the way Leather- +Stocking's rifle was made. There was a hole in the stock with a brass +plate over it, and he kept little pieces of oiled deer-skin inside of it +to wrap bullets in before he loaded 'em in. I remember just as plain, the +place in the story where he stopped to open it and take out a piece of +oiled deer-skin when he started to load." + +As she explained she snatched the rifle back into her own hands once +more, and pried at the brass plate until she broke the edge of her thumb +nail. Then Richard took it, and with the aid of a rusty button-hook which +he happened to have in his pocket, having found it on the street that +morning, he pushed the plate entirely back. + +"There's something white inside!" he exclaimed. Instantly two heads bent +over with his in an attempt to see, for Captain Kidd's shaggy hair was +side by side with Georgina's curls, his niriosity as great as hers. + +"Whatever's in there has been there an awful long time," said Richard as +he poked at the contents with his button-hook, "for Uncle Darcy said the +rifle's never been used since it was brought back to him." + +"And it's ten years come Michaelmas since Emmett was drowned," said +Georgina, again quoting the old net-mender. + +The piece of paper which they finally succeeded in drawing out had been +folded many times and crumpled into a flat wad. Evidently the message on +it had been scrawled hastily in pencil by someone little used to letter +writing. It was written in an odd hand, and the united efforts of the two +little readers could decipher only parts of it. + +"I can read any kind of plain writing like they do in school," said +Richard, "but not this sharp-cornered kind where the m's and u's are +alike, and all the tails are pointed." + +Slowly they puzzled out parts of it, halting long over some of the +undecipherable words, but a few words here and there were all they could +recognize. There were long stretches that had no meaning whatever for +them. This much, however, they managed to spell out: + +"Dan never took the money.... I did it.... He went away because he knew I +did it and wouldn't tell.... Sorry.... Can't stand it any longer.... Put +an end to it all...." + +It was signed "Emmett Potter." + +The two children looked at each other with puzzled eyes until into +Georgina's came a sudden and startled understanding. Snatching up the +paper she almost fell out of the swing and ran towards the house +screaming: + +"Uncle Darcy! Uncle Darcy! Look what we've found." + +She tripped over a piece of loose carpet spread just inside the front +door as a rug and fell full length, but too excited to know that she had +skinned her elbow she scrambled up, still calling: + +"Uncle Darcy, _Dan never took the money. It was Emmett Potter. He said +so himself!"_ + + + + +Chapter XII + +A Hard Promise + + + +A dozen times in Georgina's day-dreaming she had imagined this scene. She +had run to Uncle Darcy with the proof of Dan's innocence, heard his glad +cry, seen his face fairly transfigured as he read the confession aloud. +Now it was actually happening before her very eyes, but where was the +scene of heavenly gladness that should have followed? + +Belle, startled even more than he by Georgina's outcry, and quicker to +act, read the message over his shoulder, recognized the handwriting and +grasped the full significance of the situation before he reached the name +at the end. For ten years three little notes in that same peculiar hand +had lain in her box of keepsakes. There was no mistaking that signature. +She had read it and cried over it so many times that now as it suddenly +confronted her with its familiar twists and angles it was as startling as +if Emmett's voice had called to her. + +As Uncle Darcy looked up from the second reading, with a faltering +exclamation of thanksgiving, she snatched the paper from his shaking +hands and tore it in two. Then crumpling the pieces and flinging them +from her, she seized him by the wrists. + +"No, you're _not_ going to tell the whole world," she cried wildly, +answering the announcement he made with the tears raining down his +cheeks. "You're not going to tell anybody! Think of me! Think of Father +Potter!" + +She almost screamed her demand. He could hardly believe it was Belle, +this frenzied girl, who, heretofore, had seemed the gentlest of souls. He +looked at her in a dazed way, so overwhelmed by the discovery that had +just been made, that he failed to comprehend the reason for her white +face and agonized eyes, till she threw up her arms crying: + +_"Emmett_ a thief! God in heaven! It'll kill me!" + +It was the sight of Georgina's shocked face with Richard's at the door, +that made things clear to the old man. He waved them away, with hands +which shook as if he had the palsy. + +"Go on out, children, for a little while," he said gently, and closed the +door in their faces. + +Slowly they retreated to the swing, Georgina clasping the skinned elbow +which had begun to smart. She climbed into one seat of the swing and +Richard and Captain Kidd took the other. As they swung back and forth she +demanded in a whisper: + +"Why is it that grown people always shut children out of their secrets? +Seems as if we have a right to know what's the matter when _we_ +found the paper." + +Richard made no answer, for just then the sound of Belle's crying came +out to them. The windows of the cottage were all open and the grass plot +between the windows and the swing being a narrow one the closed door was +of little avail. It was very still there in the shady dooryard, so still +that they could hear old Yellownose purr, asleep on the cushion in the +wooden arm-chair beside the swing. The broken sentences between the sobs +were plainly audible. It seemed so terrible to hear a grown person cry, +that Georgina felt as she did that morning long ago, when old Jeremy's +teeth flew into the fire. Her confidence was shaken in the world. She +felt there could be no abiding happiness in anything. + +"She's begging him not to tell," whispered Richard. + +"But I owe it to Danny," they heard Uncle Darcy say. And then, "Why +should I spare Emmett's father? Emmett never spared me, he never spared +Danny." + +An indistinct murmur as if Belle's answer was muffled in her +handkerchief, then Uncle Darcy's voice again: + +"It isn't fair that the town should go on counting him a hero and brand +my boy as a coward, when it's Emmett who was the coward as well as the +thief." + +Again Belle's voice in a quick cry of pain, as sharp as if she had been +struck. Then the sound of another door shutting, and when the voices +began again it was evident they had withdrawn into the kitchen. + +"They don't want Aunt Elspeth to hear," said Georgina. + +"What's it all about?" asked Richard, much mystified. + +Georgina told him all that she knew herself, gathered from the scraps she +had heard the day of Cousin Mehitable's visit, and from various sources +since; told him in a half whisper stopping now and then when some +fragment of a sentence floated out to them from the kitchen; for +occasional words still continued to reach them through the windows in the +rear, when the voices rose at intervals to a higher pitch. + +What passed behind those closed doors the children never knew. They felt +rather than understood what was happening. Belle's pleading was beginning +to be effectual, and the old man was rising to the same heights of self- +sacrifice which Dan had reached, when he slipped away from home with the +taint of his friend's disgrace upon him in order to save that friend. + +That some soul tragedy had been enacted m that little room the children +felt vaguely when Belle came out after a while. Her eyes were red and +swollen and her face drawn and pinched looking. She did not glance in +their direction, but stood with her face averted and hand on the gate- +latch while Uncle Darcy stopped beside the swing. + +"Children," he said solemnly, "I want you to promise me never to speak to +anyone about finding that note in the old rifle till I give you +permission. Will you do this for me, just because I ask it, even if I +can't tell you why?" + +"Mustn't I even tell Barby?" asked Georgina, anxiously. + +He hesitated, glancing uncertainly at Belle, then answered: + +"No, not even your mother, till I tell you that you can. Now you see what +a very important secret it is. Can _you_ keep it, son? Will you +promise me too?" + +He turned to Richard with the question. With a finger under the boy's +chin he tipped up his face and looked into it searchingly. The serious, +brown eyes looked back into his, honest and unflinching. + +"Yes, I promise," he answered. "Honor bright I'll not tell." + +The old man turned to the waiting figure at the gate. + +"It's all right, Belle. You needn't worry about it any more. You can +trust us." + +She made no answer, but looking as if she had aged years in the last half +hour, she passed through the gate and into the sandy court, moving slowly +across it towards the street beyond. + +With a long-drawn sigh the old man sank down on the door-step and buried +his face in his hands. They were still shaking as if he had the palsy. +For some time the children sat in embarrassed silence, thinking every +moment that he would look up and say something. They wanted to go, but +waited for him to make some movement. He seemed to have forgotten they +were there. Finally a clock inside the cottage began striking five. It +broke the spell which bound them. + +"Let's go," whispered Richard. + +"All right," was the answer, also whispered. "Wait till I take the shovel +and can lid back to the kitchen." + +"I'll take 'em," he offered. "I want to get a drink, anyhow." + +Stealthily, as if playing Indian, they stepped out of the swing and +tiptoed through the grass around the corner of the house. Even the dog +went noiselessly, instead of frisking and barking as he usually did when +starting anywhere. Their return was equally stealthy. As they slipped +through the gate Georgina looked back at the old man. He was still +sitting on the step, his face in his hands, as if he were bowed down by +some weight too heavy for his shoulders to bear. + +The weary hopelessness of his attitude made her want to run back and +throw her arms around his neck, but she did not dare. Trouble as great as +that seemed to raise a wall around itself. It could not be comforted by a +caress. The only thing to do was to slip past and not look. + +Richard shared the same awe, for he went away leaving the rifle lying in +the grass. Instinctively he felt that it ought not to be played with now. +It was the rifle which had changed everything. + + + + +Chapter XIII + +Lost and Found at the Liniment Wagon + + + +With Mrs. Triplett back in bed again on account of the rheumatism which +crippled her, and Belle going about white of face and sick of soul, home +held little cheer for Georgina. But with Mrs. Triplett averse to company +of any kind, and Belle anxious to be alone with her misery, there was +nothing to hinder Georgina from seeking cheer elsewhere and she sought it +early and late. + +She had spent her birthday dollar in imagination many times before she +took her check to the bank to have it cashed. With Richard to lend her +courage, and Manuel, Joseph and Rosa trailing after by special +invitation, she walked in and asked for Mr. Gates. That is the way Barby +always did, and as far as Georgina knew he was the only one to apply to +for money. + +The paying teller hesitated a moment about summoning the president of the +bank from his private office at the behest of so small a child, so small +that even on tiptoe her eyes could barely peer into the window of his +cage. But they were entreating eyes, so big and brown and sure of their +appeal that he decided to do their bidding. + +Just as he turned to knock at the door behind him it opened, and Mr. +Gates came out with the man with whom he had been closeted in private +conference. It was Richard's Cousin James. The children did not see him, +however, for he stopped at one of the high desks inside to look at some +papers which one of the clerks spread out before him. + +"Oh, it's my little friend, Georgina," said Mr. Gates, smiling in +response to the beaming smile she gave him. "Well, what can I do for you, +my dear?" + +"Cash my check, please," she said, pushing the slip of paper towards him +with as grand an air as if it had been for a million dollars instead of +one, "and all in nickels, please." + +He glanced at the name she had written painstakingly across the back. + +"Well, Miss Huntingdon," he exclaimed gravely, although there was a +twinkle in his eyes, "if all lady customers were as businesslike in +endorsing their checks and in knowing what they want, we bankers would be +spared a lot of trouble." + +It was the first time that Georgina had ever been called Miss Huntingdon, +and knowing he said it to tease her, it embarrassed her to the point of +making her stammer, when he asked her most unexpectedly while picking out +twenty shining new nickels to stuff into the little red purse: + +"All of these going to buy tracts for the missionaries to take to the +little heathen?" + +"No, they're all going to--to----" + +She didn't like to say for soda water and chewing gum and the movies, and +hesitated till a substitute word occurred to her. + +"They're all going to go for buying good times. It's for a sort of a club +we made up this morning, Richard and me." + +"May I ask the name of the club?" + +Georgina glanced around. No other customer happened to be in the bank at +the moment and Richard had wandered out to the street to wait for her. So +tiptoeing a little higher she said in a low tone as if imparting a +secret: + +"It's the _Rainbow_ Club. We pretend that everytime we make anybody +happy we've made a little rainbow in the world." + +"Well, bless your heart," was the appreciative answer. "You've already +made one in here. You do that every time you come around." + +Then he looked thoughtfully at her over his spectacles. + +"Would you take an old fellow like me into your club?" + +Georgina considered a moment, first stealing a glance at him to see if he +were in earnest or still trying to tease. He seemed quite serious so she +answered: + +"If you really _want_ to belong. Anybody with a bank full of money +ought to be able to make happy times for the whole town." + +"Any dues to pay? What are the rules and what are the duties of a +member?" + +Again Georgina was embarrassed. He seemed to expect so much more than she +had to offer. She swung the red purse around nervously as she answered: + +"I guess you won't think it's much of a club. There's nothing to it but +just its name, and all we do is just to go around making what it says." + +"Count me as Member number Three," said Mr. Gates gravely. "I'm proud to +join you. Shake hands on it. I'll try to be a credit to the organization, +and I hope you'll drop around once in a while and let me know how it's +getting along." + +The beaming smile with which Georgina shook hands came back to him all +morning at intervals. + +Cousin James Milford, who had been an interested listener, followed her +out of the bank presently and as he drove his machine slowly past the +drug-store he saw the five children draining their glasses at the soda- +water fountain. He stopped, thinking to invite Richard and Georgina to go +to Truro with him. It never would have occurred to him to give the three +little Portuguese children a ride also had he not overheard that +conversation in the bank. + +"Well, why not?" he asked himself, smiling inwardly. "It might as well be +rainbows for the crowd while I'm about it." + +So for the first time in their lives Manuel and Joseph and Rosa rode in +one of the "honk wagons" which heretofore they had known only as +something to be dodged when one walked abroad. Judging by the blissful +grins which took permanent lodging on their dirty faces, Cousin James was +eligible to the highest position the new club could bestow, if ever he +should apply for membership. + +If Mrs. Triplett had been downstairs that evening, none of the birthday +nickels would have found their way through the ticket window of the +moving picture show. She supposed that Georgina was reading as usual +beside the evening lamp, or was out on the front porch talking to Belle. +But Belle, not caring to talk to anyone, had given instant consent when +Georgina, who wanted to go to the show, having seen wonderful posters +advertising it, suggested that Mrs. Fayal would take her in charge. She +did not add that she had already seen Mrs. Fayal and promised to provide +tickets for her and the children in case she could get permission from +home. Belle did not seem interested in hearing such things, so Georgina +hurried off lest something might happen to interfere before she was +beyond the reach of summoning voices. + +On the return from Truro she had asked to be put out at the Fayal +cottage, having it in mind to make some such arrangement. Manuel had seen +one show, but Joseph and Rosa had never so much as had their heads inside +of one. She found Mrs. Fayal glooming over a wash-tub, not because she +objected to washing for the summer people. She was used to that, having +done it six days out of seven every summer since she had married Joe +Fayal. What she was glooming over was that Joe was home from a week's +fishing trip with his share of the money for the biggest catch of the +season, and not a dime of it had she seen. It had all gone into the +pocket of an itinerant vendor, and Joe was lying in a sodden stupor out +under the grape arbor at the side of the cottage. + +Georgina started to back away when she found the state of affairs. She +did not suppose Mrs. Fayal would have a mind for merry-making under the +circumstances. But, indeed, Mrs. Fayal did. + +"All the more reason that I should go off and forget my troubles and have +a good time for a while," she said decidedly. Georgina recognized the +spirit if not the words of her own "line to live by." Mrs. Fayal could +bear up and steer onward with a joyful heart any time she had the price +of admission to a movie in her pocket. So feeling that as a member of the +new club she could not have a better opportunity to make good its name, +Georgina promised the tickets for the family even if she could not go +herself. She would send them by Richard if not allowed to take them in +person. + +It was still light when Georgina fared forth at the end of the long +summer day. Richard joined her at the foot of the Green Stairs with the +price of his own ticket in his pocket, and Captain Kidd tagging at his +heels. + +"They won't let the dog into the show," Georgina reminded him. + +"That's so, and he might get into a fight or run over if I left him +outside," Richard answered. "B'leeve I'll shut him up in the garage." + +This he did, fastening the door securely, and returning in time to see +the rest of the party turning the corner, and coming towards the Green +Stairs. + +Mrs. Fayal, after her long day over the wash-tub, was resplendent in +lavender shirt-waist, blue serge skirt and white tennis shoes, with long +gold ear-rings dangling half-way to her shoulders. Manuel and Joseph were +barefooted as usual, and in over-alls as usual, but their lack of gala +attire was made up for by Rosa's. No wax doll was ever more daintily and +lacily dressed. Georgina looked at her in surprise, wishing Tippy could +see her now. Rosa in her white dress and slippers and with her face +clean, was a little beauty. + +Mrs. Fayal made a delightful chaperon. She was just as ready as anyone in +her train to stop in front of shop windows, to straggle slowly down the +middle of the street, or to thrust her hand into Richard's bag of peanuts +whenever he passed it around. Cracking shells and munching the nuts, they +strolled along with a sense of freedom which thrilled Georgina to the +core. She had never felt it before. She had just bought five tickets and +Richard his one, and they were about to pass in although Mrs. Fayal said +it was early yet, when a deep voice roaring through the crowd attracted +their attention. It was as sonorous as a megaphone. + +"Walk up, ladies and gentlemen. See the wild-cat, _Texas Tim,_ +brought from the banks of the Brazos." + +"Let's go," said Richard and Georgina in the same breath. Mrs. Fayal, out +for a good time and to see all that was to be seen, bobbed her long +earrings in gracious assent, and headed the procession, in order that her +ample form might make an entering wedge for the others, as she elbowed +her way through the crowd gathered at the street end of Railroad wharf. + +It clustered thickest around a wagon in which stood a broad-shouldered +man, mounted on a chair. He wore a cow-boy hat. A flaming torch set up +beside the wagon lighted a cage in one end of it, in which crouched a +wild-cat bewildered by the light and the bedlam of noisy, pushing human +beings. The children could not see the animal at first, but pushed nearer +the wagon to hear what the man was saying. He held up a bottle and shook +it over the heads of the people. + +"Here's your marvelous rheumatism remedy," he cried, "made from the fat +of wild-cats. Warranted to cure every kind of ache, sprain and misery +known to man. Only fifty cents, ladies and gentlemen, sure cure or your +money back. Anybody here with an ache or a pain?" + +The children pushed closer. Richard, feeling the effect of the gun-powder +he had eaten, turned to Georgina. + +"I dare you to climb up and touch the end of the wild-cat's tail." + +Georgina stood on tiptoe, then dodged under someone's elbow for a nearer +view. The end of the tail protruded from between the bars of the cage, in +easy reach if one were on the wagon, but those furtive eyes keeping watch +above it were savage in their gleaming. Then she, too, remembered the +gun-powder. + +"I'll do it if you will." + +Before Richard could put the gun-powder to the test the man reached down +for a guitar leaning against his chair, and with a twanging of chords +which made the shifting people on the outskirts stand still to see what +would happen next, he began to sing a song that had been popular in his +youth. Or, rather, it was a parody of the song. Georgina recognized it as +one that she had heard Uncle Darcy sing, and even Tippy hummed it +sometimes when she was sewing. It was, "When you and I were young, +Maggie." + + "They say we are aged and gray, Maggie, + As spray by the white breakers flung, + But the liniment keeps us as spry, Maggie, + As when you and I were young." + +Several people laughed and passed on when the song was done, but the +greater part of the crowd stayed, hoping to hear another, for the voice +was a powerful one and fairly sweet. + +"Anybody here with any aches or pains?" he called again. "If so, step +this way, please, and let me make a simple demonstration of how quickly +this magic oil will cure you." + +There was a commotion near the wagon, and a man pushed his way through +and climbed up on the wheel. He offered a stiff wrist for treatment. The +vendor tipped up the bottle and poured out some pungent volatile oil from +the bottle, the odor of which was far-reaching. He rubbed the wrist +briskly for a moment, then gave it a slap saying, "Now see what you can +do with it, my friend." + +The patient scowled at it, twisting his arm in every possible direction +as if skeptical of any help from such a source, but gradually letting a +look of pleased surprise spread across his face. The crowd watched in +amusement, and nearly everybody laughed when the patient finally +announced in a loud voice that he was cured, that it was nothing short of +a miracle and that he'd buy half a dozen bottles of that witch stuff to +take home to his friends. + +The vendor began his speech-making again, calling attention to the cure +they had just witnessed, and urging others to follow. As the subject of +the cure stepped down from the wheel Richard sprang up in his place. +Georgina, pressing closer, saw him lean over the side of the wagon and +boldly take hold of the end of the beast's tail. + +"There. I did it," he announced. "Now it's your turn." + +Georgina gave one glance at the wild-cat's eyes and drew back. They +seemed to glare directly at her. She wondered how strong the bars were, +and if they would hold the beast in case it rose up in a rage and sprang +at her. But Richard was waiting, and she clambered up on the hub of the +wheel. Luckily its owner was turned towards the other side at that moment +or she might have been ordered down. + +"There! I did it, too," she announced an instant later. "Now you can't +crow over me." + +She was about to step down when she saw in the other end of the wagon, +something she had not been able to see from her place on the ground under +the elbows of the crowd. In a low rocking chair sat an elderly woman, +oddly out of place in this traveling medicine show as far as appearance +was concerned. She had a calm, motherly face, gray hair combed smoothly +down over her ears, a plain old-fashioned gray dress and an air of being +perfectly at home. It was the serene, unconscious manner one would have +in sitting on the door-step at home. She did not seem to belong in the +midst of this seething curious mass, or to realize that she was a part of +the show. She smiled now at Georgina in such a friendly way that Georgina +smiled back and continued to stand on the wheel. She hoped that this nice +old lady would say something about the virtues of the medicine, for it +cured two more people, even while she looked, and if she could be sure it +did all that was claimed for it she would spend all the rest of her +birthday money in buying a bottle for Tippy. + +The placid old lady said nothing, but her reassuring presence finally +made Georgina decide to buy the bottle, and she emptied the red purse of +everything except the tickets. Then the man embarrassed her until her +cheeks flamed. + +"That's right, little girl. Carry it to the dear sufferer at home who +will bless you for your kindness. Anybody else here who will imitate this +child's generous act? If you haven't any pain yourself, show your +gratitude by thinking of someone less fortunate than you." + +Georgina felt that her blushes were burning her up at thus being made the +centre of public notice. She almost fell off the wheel in her haste to +get down, and in doing so stumbled over a dog which suddenly emerged from +under the wagon at that instant. + +"Why, it's Captain Kidd!" she exclaimed in astonishment. "How ever did he +get here?" + +"Must have scratched under the door and trailed us," answered Richard. +"Go on home, sir!" he commanded, sternly, stamping his foot. "You know +they won't let you into the show with us, and you'll get into trouble if +you stay downtown alone. Go on home I say." + +With drooping tail and a look so reproachful that it was fairly human, +Captain Kidd slunk away, starting mournfully homeward. He sneaked back in +a few minutes, however, and trailed his party as far as the door of the +theatre. Somebody kicked at him and he fled down the street again, +retracing the trail that had led him to the wagon. + +A long time after when the performance was nearly over he went swinging +up the beach with something in his mouth which he had picked up from near +the end of the wagon. It was a tobacco pouch of soft gray leather that +had never been used for tobacco. There was something hard and round +inside which felt like a bone. At the top of the Green Stairs he lay down +and mouthed it a while, tugging at it with his sharp teeth; but after he +had mumbled and gnawed it for some time without bringing the bone any +nearer the surface, he grew tired of his newfound plaything. Dropping it +in the grass, he betook himself to the door-mat on the front porch, to +await his master's return. + + + + +Chapter XIV + +Buried Treasure + + + +When Georgina tiptoed up the walk to the front porch where Belle sat +waiting for her in the moonlight, Tippy called down that she wasn't +asleep, and they needn't stay out there on her account, whispering. It +did not seem an auspicious time to present the bottle of liniment, but to +Georgina's surprise Tippy seemed glad to try the new remedy. The long- +continued pain which refused to yield to treatment made her willing to +try anything which promised relief. + +It was vile-smelling stuff, so pungent that whenever the cork was taken +out of the bottle the whole house knew it, but it burned with soothing +fire and Tippy rose up and called it blessed before the next day was +over. Before that happened, however, Georgina took advantage of Belle's +easy rule to leave home as soon as her little morning tasks were done. +Strolling down the board-walk with many stops she came at last to the +foot of the Green Stairs. Richard sat on the top step, tugging at a +knotted string. + +"Come on up," he called. "See what I've taken away from Captain Kidd. He +was just starting to bury it. Looks like a tobacco pouch, but I haven't +got it untied yet. He made the string all wet, gnawing on it." + +Georgina climbed to the top of the steps and sat down beside him, +watching in deep and silent interest. When the string finally gave way +she offered her lap to receive the contents of the pouch. Two five-dollar +gold pieces rolled out first, then a handful of small change, a black +ring evidently whittled out of a rubber button and lastly a watch-fob +ornament. It was a little compass, set in something which looked like a +nut. + +"I believe that's a buckeye," said Richard. He examined it carefully on +all sides, then called excitedly: + +"Aw, look here! See those letters scratched on the side--'D. D.'? That +stands for my name, Dare-devil Dick. I'm going to keep it." + +"That's the cunningest thing I ever saw," declared Georgina in a tone +both admiring and envious, which plainly showed that she wished the +initials were such as could be claimed by a Gory George. Then she picked +up the pouch and thrust in her hand. Something rustled. It was a letter. +Evidently it had been forwarded many times, for the envelope was entirely +criss-crossed with names that had been written and blotted out that new +ones might be added. All they could make out was "Mrs. Henry"--"Texas" +and "Mass." + +"I'd like to have that stamp for my album," said Richard. "It's foreign. +Seems to me I've got one that looks something like it, but I'm not sure. +Maybe the letter will tell who the pouch belongs to." + +"But we can't read other people's letters," objected Georgina. + +"Well, who wants to? It won't be reading it just to look at the head and +tail, will it?" + +"No," admitted Georgina, hesitatingly. "Though it does seem like +peeking." + +"Well, if you lost something wouldn't you rather whoever found it should +peek and find out it was yours, than to have it stay lost forever?" + +"Yes, I s'pose so." + +"Let's look, then." + +Two heads bent over the sheet spread out on Richard's knee. They read +slowly in unison, "Dear friend," then turned over the paper and sought +the last line. "Your grateful friend Dave." + +"We don't know any more now than we did before," said Georgina, +virtuously folding up the letter and slipping it back into the envelope. + +"Let's take it to Uncle Darcy. Then he'll let us go along and ring the +bell when he calls, 'Found.'" + +Richard had two objections to this. "Who'd pay him for doing it? Besides, +it's gold money, and anybody who loses that much would advertise for it +in the papers. Let's keep it till this week's papers come out, and then +we'll have the fun of taking it to the person who lost it." + +"It wouldn't be safe for us to keep it," was Georgina's next objection. +"It's gold money and burglars might find out we had it." + +"Then I'll tell you"--Richard's face shone as he made the suggestion-- +"Let's _bury_ it. That will keep it safe till we can find the owner, +and when we dig it up we can play it's pirate gold and it'll be like +finding real treasure." + +"Lets!" agreed Georgina. "We can keep out something, a nickel or a dime, +and when we go to dig up the pouch we can throw it over toward the place +where we buried the bag and say, 'Brother, go find your brother,' the way +Tom Sawyer did. Then we'll be certain to hit the spot." + +Richard picked up the compass, and rubbed the polished sides of the nut +in which it was set. + +"I'll keep this out instead of a nickel. I wonder what the fellow's name +was that this D. D. stands for?" + +Half an hour later two bloody-minded sea-robbers slipped through the back +gate of the Milford place and took their stealthy way out into the dunes. +No fierce mustachios or hoop ear-rings marked them on this occasion as +the Dread Destroyer or the Menace of the Main. The time did not seem +favorable for donning their real costumes. So one went disguised as a +dainty maiden in a short pink frock and long brown curls, and the other +as a sturdy boy in a grass-stained linen suit with a hole in the knee of +his stocking. But their speech would have betrayed their evil business +had anyone been in earshot of it. One would have thought it was + + "Wild Roger come again. + He spoke of forays and of frays upon the Spanish Main._" + +Having real gold to bury made the whole affair seem a real adventure. +They were recounting to each other as they dug, the bloody fight it had +taken to secure this lot of treasure. + +Down in a hollow where the surrounding sandridges sheltered them from +view, they crouched over a small basket they had brought with them and +performed certain ceremonies. First the pouch was wrapped in many sheets +of tin foil, which Richard had been long in collecting from various +tobacco-loving friends. When that was done it flashed in the sun like a +nugget of wrinkled silver. This was stuffed into a baking-powder can from +which the label had been carefully scraped, and on whose lid had been +scratched with a nail, the names Georgina Huntingdon and Richard +Moreland, with the date. + +"We'd better put our everyday names on it instead of our pirate names," +Gory George suggested. "For if anything should happen that some other +pirate dug it up first they wouldn't know who the Dread Destroyer and the +Menace of the Main were." + +Lastly, from the basket was taken the end of a wax candle, several +matches and a stick of red sealing-wax, borrowed from Cousin James' desk. +Holding the end of the sealing-wax over the lighted candle until it was +soft and dripping, Richard daubed it around the edge of the can lid, as +he had seen the man in the express office seal packages. He had always +longed to try it himself. There was something peculiarly pleasing in the +smell of melted sealing-wax. Georgina found it equally alluring. She took +the stick away from him when it was about half used, and finished it. + +"There won't be any to put back in Cousin James' desk if you keep on +using it," he warned her. + +"I'm not using any more than you did," she answered, and calmly proceeded +to smear on the remainder. "If you had let me seal with the first end of +the stick, you'd have had all the last end to save." + +All this time Captain Kidd sat close beside them, an interested +spectator, but as they began digging the hole he rushed towards it and +pawed violently at each shovelful of sand thrown out. + +"Aw, let him help!" Richard exclaimed when Georgina ordered him to stop. +"He ought to have a part in it because he found the pouch and was +starting to bury it his own self when I took it away from him and spoiled +his fun." + +Georgina saw the justice of the claim and allowed Captain Kidd to join in +as he pleased, but no sooner did they stop digging to give him a chance +than he stopped also. + +"Rats!" called Richard in a shrill whisper. + +At that familiar word the dog began digging so frantically that the sand +flew in every direction. Each time he paused for breath Richard called +"Rats" again. It doubled the interest for both children to have the dog +take such frantic and earnest part in their game. + +When the hole was pronounced deep enough the can was dropped in, the sand +shoveled over it and tramped down, and a marker made. A long, forked +stick, broken from a bayberry bush, was run into the ground so that only +the fork of it was visible. Then at twenty paces from the stick, Richard +stepping them off in four directions, consulting the little compass in so +doing, Georgina placed the markers, four sections of a broken crock +rescued from the ash-barrel and brought down in the basket for that +especial purpose. + +"We'll let it stay buried for a week," said Richard when all was done. +"Unless somebody claims it sooner. If they don't come in a week, then +we'll know they're never coming, and the gold will be ours." + + + + +Chapter XV + +A Narrow Escape + + + +Mr. Milford was stretched out in a hammock on the front porch of the +bungalow when the children came back from the dunes with their empty +basket. They could not see him as they climbed up the terrace, the porch +being high above them and draped with vines; and he deep in a new book +was only vaguely conscious of approaching voices. + +They were discussing the "Rescues of Rosalind," the play they had seen +the night before on the films. Their shrill, eager tones would have +attracted the attention of anyone less absorbed than Mr. Milford. + +"I'll bet you couldn't," Georgina was saying. "If you were gagged and +bound the way Rosalind was, you _couldn't_ get loose, no matter how +you squirmed and twisted." + +"Come back in the garage and try me," Richard retorted. "I'll prove it to +you that I can." + +"_Always_ an automobile dashes up and there's a chase. It's been +that way in every movie I ever saw," announced Georgina with the air of +one who has attended nightly through many seasons. + +"I can do that part all right," declared Richard. "I can run an +automobile." + +There was no disputing that fact, no matter how contradictory Georgina's +frame of mind. Only the day before she had seen him take the wheel and +run the car for three miles under the direction of Cousin James, when +they came to a level stretch of road. + +"Yes, but you know your Cousin James said you were never to do it unless +he was along himself. You wasn't to dare to touch it when you were out +with only the chauffeur." + +"He wouldn't care if we got in and didn't start anything but the engine," +said Richard. "Climb in and play that I'm running away with you. With the +motor chugging away and shaking the machine it'll seem as if we're really +going." + +By this time they were inside the garage, with the doors closed behind +them. + +"Now you get in and keep looking back the way Rosalind did to see how +near they are to catching us." + +Instantly Georgina threw herself into the spirit of the game. Climbing +into the back seat she assumed the pose of the kidnapped bride whose +adventures had thrilled them the night before. + +"Play my white veil is floating out in the wind," she commanded, "and I'm +looking back and waving to my husband to come faster and take me away +from the dreadful villain who is going to kill me for my jewels. I wish +this car was out of doors instead of in this dark garage. When I look +back I look bang against the closed door every time, aid I can't make it +seem as if I was seeing far down the road." + +"Play it's night," suggested Richard. He had put on a pair of goggles and +was making a great pretence of getting ready to start. Georgina, leaning +out as Rosalind had done, waved her lily hand in frantic beckonings for +her rescuers to follow faster. The motor chugged harder and harder. The +car shook violently. + +To the vivid imaginations of the passengers, the chase was as exciting as +if the automobile were really plunging down the road instead of throbbing +steadily in one spot in the dim garage. The gas rolling up from somewhere +in the back made it wonderfully realistic. But out on the open road the +smell of burning gasoline would not have been so overpowering. Inside the +little box-like garage it began to close in on them and settle down like +a dense fog. + +Georgina coughed and Richard looked back apprehensively, feeling that +something was wrong, and if that queer smoke didn't stop pouring out in +such a thick cloud he'd have to shut off the engine or do something. +Another moment passed and he leaned forward, fumbling for the key, but he +couldn't find it. He had grown queerly confused and light-headed. He +couldn't make his fingers move where he wanted them to go. + +He looked back at Georgina. She wasn't waving her hands any more. She was +lying limply back on the seat as if too tired to play any longer. And a +thousand miles away--at least it sounded that far--above the terrific +noise the motor was making, he heard Captain Kidd barking. They were +short, excited barks, so thin and queer, almost as thin and queer as if +he were barking with the voice of a mosquito instead of his own. + +And then--Richard heard nothing more, not even the noise of the motor. +His hand dropped from the wheel, and he began slipping down, down from +the seat to the floor of the car, white and limp, overcome like Georgina, +by the fumes of the poisonous gas rolling up from the carburetor. + +Mr. Milford, up in the hammock, had been vaguely conscious for several +minutes of unusual sounds somewhere in the neighborhood, but it was not +until he reached the end of the chapter that he took any intelligent +notice. Then he looked up thinking somebody's machine was making a +terrible fuss somewhere near. But it wasn't that sound which made him sit +up in the hammock. It was Captain Kidd's frantic barking and yelping and +whining as if something terrible was happening to him. + +Standing up to stretch himself, then walking to the corner of the porch, +Mr. Milford looked out. He could see the little terrier alternately +scratching on the garage door and making frantic efforts to dig under it. +Evidently he felt left out and was trying desperately to join his little +playmates, or else he felt that something was wrong inside. + +Then it came to Mr. Milford in a flash that something was wrong inside. +Nobody ever touched that machine but himself and the chauffeur, and the +chauffeur, who was having a day off, was half-way to Yarmouth by this +time. He didn't wait to go down by the steps. With one leap he was over +the railing, crashing through the vines, and running down the terrace to +the garage. + +As he rolled back one of the sliding doors a suffocating burst of gas +rushed into his face. He pushed both doors open wide, and with a hand +over his mouth and nose hurried through the heavily-charged atmosphere to +shut off the motor. The fresh air rushing in, began clearing away the +fumes, and he seized Georgina and carried her out, thinking she would be +revived by the time he was back with Richard. But neither child stirred +from the grass where he stretched them out. + +As he called for the cook and the housekeeper, there flashed into his +mind an account he had read recently in a New York paper, of a man and +his wife who had been asphyxiated in just such a way as this. Now +thoroughly alarmed, he sent the cook running down the Green Stairs to +summon Richard's father from the studio, and the housekeeper to telephone +in various directions. Three doctors were there in a miraculously short +time, but despite all they could do at the end of half an hour both +little figures still lay white and motionless. + +Then the pulmotor that had been frantically telephoned for arrived from +the life-saving station, and just as the man dashed up with that, Mrs. +Triplett staggered up the terrace, her knees shaking so that she could +scarcely manage to climb the last few steps. + +Afterwards, the happenings of the day were very hazy in Georgina's mind. +She had an indistinct recollection of being lifted in somebody's arms and +moved about, and of feeling very sick and weak. Somebody said soothingly +to somebody who was crying: + +"Oh, the worst is over now. They're both beginning to come around." + +Then she was in her own bed and the wild-cat from the banks of the Brazos +was bending over her. At least, she thought it was the wild-cat, because +she smelled the liniment as strongly as she did when she climbed up in +the wagon beside it. But when she opened her eyes it was Tippy who was +bending over her, smoothing her curls in a comforting, purry way, but the +smell of liniment still hung in the air. + +Then Georgina remembered something that must have happened before she was +carried home from the bungalow--Captain Kidd squirming out of Tippy's +arms, and Tippy with the tears streaming down her face trying to hold him +and hug him as if he had been a person, and the Milford's cook saying: +"If it hadn't been for the little beast's barkin' they'd have been dead +in a few minutes more. Then there'd have been a double funeral, poor +lambs." + +Georgina smiled drowsily now and slipped off to sleep again, but later +when she awakened the charm of the cook's phrase aroused her thoroughly, +and she lay wondering what "a double funeral" was like. Would it have +been at her house or Richard's? Would two little white coffins have stood +side by side, or would each have been in its own place, with the two +solemn processions meeting and joining at the foot of the Green Stairs. +Maybe they would have put on her tombstone, "None knew her but to love +her." No, that couldn't be said about her. She'd been wilfully +disobedient too often for that, like the time she played with the +Portuguese children on purpose to spite Tippy. She was sorry for that +disobedience now, for she had discovered that Tippy was fonder of her +than she had supposed. She had proved it by hugging Captain Kidd so +gratefully for saving their lives, when she simply _loathed_ dogs. + +Somehow Georgina felt that she was better acquainted with Mrs. Triplett +than she had ever been before, and fonder of her. Lying there in the dark +she made several good resolutions. She was going to be a better girl in +the future. She was going to do kind, lovely things for everybody, so +that if an early tomb should claim her, every heart in town would be +saddened by her going. It would be lovely to leave a widespread heartache +behind her. She wished she could live such a life that there wouldn't be +a dry eye in the town when it was whispered from house to house that +little Georgina Huntingdon was with the angels. + +She pictured Belle's grief, and Uncle Darcy's and Richard's. She had +already seen Tippy's. But it was a very different thing when she thought +of Barby. There was no pleasure in imagining Barby's grief. There was +something too real and sharp in the pain which darted into her own heart +at the thought of it. She wanted to put her arms around her mother and +ward off sorrow and trouble from her and keep all tears away from those +dear eyes. She wanted to grow up and take care of her darling Barby and +protect her from the Tishbite. + +Suddenly it occurred to Georgina that in this escape she had been kept +from the power of that mysterious evil which had threatened her ever +since she called it forth by doing such a wicked thing as to use the +"Sacred Book" to work a charm. + +She had been put to bed in the daytime, hence her evening petitions were +still unsaid. Now she pulled the covers over her head and included them +all in one fervent appeal: + +"And keep on delivering us from the Tishbite, forever and ever, Amen!" + + + + +Chapter XVI + +What the Storm Did + + + +Next morning nearly everyone in the town was talking about the storm. +Belle said what with the booming of the waves against the breakwater and +the wind rattling the shutters, she hadn't slept a wink all night. It +seemed as if every gust would surely take the house off its foundations. + +Old Jeremy reported that it was one of the worst wind-storms ever known +along the Cape, wild enough to blow all the sand dunes into the sea. +They'd had the best shaking up and shifting around that they'd had in +years, he declared. Captain Ames' cranberry bog was buried so deep in +sand you couldn't see a blossom or a leaf. And there was sand drifted all +over the garden. It had whirled clear over the wall, till the bird pool +was half full of it. + +Georgina listened languidly, feeling very comfortable and important with +her breakfast brought in to her on a tray. Tippy thought it was too +chilly for her in the dining-room where there was no fire. Jeremy had +kindled a cheerful blaze on the living-room hearth and his tales of +damage done to the shipping and to roofs and chimneys about town, seemed +to emphasize her own safety and comfort. The only thing which made the +storm seem a personal affair was the big limb blown off the willow tree. + +Mrs. Triplett and Jeremy could remember a storm years ago which shifted +the sand until the whole face of the Cape seemed changed. That was before +the Government planted grass all over it, to bind it together with firm +roots. Later when the ring of an axe told that the willow limb was being +chopped in pieces, Georgina begged to be allowed to go outdoors. + +"Let me go out and see the tracks of the storm," she urged. "I feel all +right. I'm all over the gas now." + +But Mrs. Triplett preferred to run no risks. All she said to Georgina +was: + +"No, after such a close call as you had yesterday you stay right here +where I can keep an eye on you, and take it quietly for a day or two," +but when she went into the next room Georgina heard her say to Belle: + +"There's no knowing how that gas may have affected her heart." + +Georgina made a face at the first speech, but the second one made her lie +down languidly on the sofa with her finger on her pulse. She was half +persuaded that there was something wrong with the way it beat, and was +about to ask faintly if she couldn't have a little blackberry cordial +with her lunch, when she heard Richard's alley call outside and Captain +Kidd's quick bark. + +She started up, forgetting all about the cordial and her pulse, and was +skipping to the front door when Tippy hurried in from the dining-room and +reached it first. She had a piece of an old coffee sack in her hand. + +"Here!" she said abruptly to Richard, who was so surprised at the sudden +opening of the door that he nearly fell in against her. + +"You catch that dog and hold him while I wipe his feet. I can't have any +dirty quadruped like that, tracking up my clean floors." + +Georgina looked at the performance in amazement. Tippy scrubbing away at +Captain Kidd's muddy paws till all four of them were clean, and then +actually letting him come into the house and curl up on the hearth! +Tippy, who never touched dogs except with the end of a broom! She could +scarcely believe what her own eyes told her. She and Richard must have +had a "close call," indeed, closer than either of them realized, to make +such a wonderful change in Tippy. + +And the change was towards Richard, too. She had never seemed to like him +much better than his dog. She blamed him for taking the cream bottles +when they played pirate, and she thought it made little girls boisterous +and rude to play with boys, and she wondered at Barby's letting Georgina +play with him. Several times she had done her wondering out loud, so that +Georgina heard her, and wanted to say things back--shocking things, such +as Rosa said to Joseph. But she never said them. There was always that +old silver porringer, sitting prim and lady-like upon the sideboard. + +Things were different to-day. After the dog's paws were wiped dry Tippy +asked Richard how he felt after the accident, and she asked it as if she +really cared and wanted to know. And she brought in a plate of early +summer apples, the first in the market, and told him to help himself and +put some in his pocket. And there was the checker-board if they wanted to +play checkers or dominoes. Her unusual concern for their entertainment +impressed Georgina more than anything else she could have done with the +seriousness of the danger they had been in. She felt very solemn and +important, and thanked Tippy with a sweet, patient air, befitting one who +has just been brought up from the "valley of the shadow." + +The moment they were alone Richard began breathlessly: + +"Say. On the way here I went by that place where we buried the pouch, and +what do you think? The markers are out of sight and the whole place +itself is buried--just filled up level. What are we going to do about +it?" + +The seriousness of the situation did not impress Georgina until he added, +"S'pose the person who lost it comes back for it? Maybe we'd be put in +prison." + +"But nobody knows it's buried except you and me." + +Richard scuffed one shoe against the other and looked into the fire. + +"But Aunt Letty says there's no getting around it, 'Be sure your sin will +find you out,' always. And I'm awfully unlucky that way. Seems to me I +never did anything in my life that I oughtn't to a done, that I didn't +get found out. Aunt Letty has a book that she reads to me sometimes when +I'm going to bed, that proves it. Every story in it proves it. One is +about a traveler who murdered a man, and kept it secret for twenty years. +Then he gave it away, talking in his sleep. And one was a feather in a +boy's coat pocket. It led to its being found out that he was a chicken +thief. There's about forty such stories, and everyone of them prove your +sin is sure to find you out some time before you die, even if you cover +it up for years and years." + +"But we didn't do any sin," protested Georgina. "We just buried a pouch +that the dog found, to keep it safe, and if a big wind came along and +covered it up so we can't find it, that isn't our fault. We didn't make +the wind blow, did we?" + +"But there was gold money in that pouch," insisted Richard, "and it +wasn't ours, and maybe the letter was important and we ought to have +turned it over to Dad or Uncle Darcy or the police or somebody." + +Aunt Letty's bedtime efforts to keep Richard's conscience tender were far +more effective than she had dreamed. He was quoting Aunt Letty now. + +"We wouldn't want anybody to do _our_ things that way." Then a +thought of his own came to him, "You wouldn't want the police coming +round and taking you off to the lockup, would you? I saw 'em take Binney +Rogers one time, just because he broke a window that he didn't mean to. +He was only shying a rock at a sparrow. There was a cop on each side of +him a hold of his arm, and Binney's mother and sister were following +along behind crying and begging them not to take him something awful. But +all they could say didn't do a speck of good." + +The picture carried weight. In spite of her light tone Georgina was +impressed, but she said defiantly: + +"Well, nobody saw us do it." + +"You don't know," was the gloomy answer. "Somebody might have been up in +the monument with a spy glass, looking down. There's always people up +there spying around, or out on the masts in the harbor, and if some +sleuth was put on the trail of that pouch the first thing that would +happen would be he'd come across the very person with the glass. It +always happens that way, and I know, because Binney Rogers has read +almost all the detective stories there is, and he said so." + +A feeling of uneasiness began to clutch at Georgina's interior. Richard +spoke so knowingly and convincingly that she felt a real need for +blackberry cordial. But she said with a defiant little uplift of her +chin: + +"Well, as long as we didn't mean to do anything wrong, I'm not going to +get scared about it. I'm just going to bear up and steer right on, and +keep hoping that everything will turn out all right so hard that it +will." + +Her "line to live by" buoyed her up so successfully for the time being, +that Richard, too, felt the cheerful influence of it, and passed to more +cheerful subjects. + +"We're going to be in all the papers," he announced. "A reporter called +up from Boston to ask Cousin James how it happened. There's only been a +few cases like ours in the whole United States. Won't you feel funny to +see your name in the paper? Captain Kidd will have his name in, too. I +heard Cousin James say over the telephone that he was the hero of the +hour; that if he hadn't given the alarm we wouldn't have been discovered +till it was too late." + +Richard did not stay long. The finished portrait was to be hung in the +Art gallery in the Town Hall that morning and he wanted to be on hand at +the hanging. Later it would be sent to the New York exhibition. + +"Daddy's going to let me go with him when Mr. Locke comes for him on his +yacht. He's going to take me because I sat still and let him get such a +good picture. It's the best he's ever done. We'll be gone a week." + +"When are you going?" demanded Georgina. + +"Oh, in a few days, whenever Mr. Locke comes." + +"I hope we can find that pouch first," she answered. Already she was +beginning to feel little and forlorn and left behind. "It'll be awful +lonesome with you and Barby both gone." + +Tippy came in soon after Richard left and sat down at the secretary. + +"I've been thinking I ought to write to your mother and let her know +about yesterday's performance before she has a chance to hear it from +outsiders or the papers. It's a whole week to-day since she left." + +"A week," echoed Georgina. "Is that all? It seems a month at least. It's +been so long." + +Mrs. Triplett tossed her a calendar from the desk. + +"Count it up for yourself," she said. "She left two days before your +birthday and this is the Wednesday after." + +While Mrs. Triplett began her letter Georgina studied the calendar, +putting her finger on a date as she recalled the various happenings of +it. Each day had been long and full. That one afternoon when she and +Richard found the paper in the rifle seemed an age in itself. It seemed +months since they had promised Belle and Uncle Darcy to keep the secret. + +She glanced up, about to say so, then bit her tongue, startled at having +so nearly betrayed the fact of their having a secret. Then the thought +came to her that Emmett's sin had found him out in as strange a way as +that of the man who talked in his sleep or the chicken thief to whom the +feather clung. It was one more proof added to the forty in Aunt Letty's +book. Richard's positiveness made a deeper impression on her than she +liked to acknowledge. She shut her eyes a moment, squinting them up so +tight that her eyelids wrinkled, and hoped as hard as she could hope that +everything would turn out all right. + +"What on earth is the matter with you, child?" exclaimed Tippy, looking +up from her letter in time to catch Georgina with her face thus screwed +into wrinkles. + +Georgina opened her eyes with a start. + +"Nothing," was the embarrassed answer. "I was just thinking." + + + + +Chapter XVII + +In the Keeping of the Dunes + + + +Scarcely had Georgina convinced herself by the calendar that it had been +only one short week since Barby went away instead of the endlessly long +time it seemed, than a letter was brought in to her. + +"My Dear Little Rainbow-maker," it began. + +"You are surely a prism your own self, for you have made a blessed bright +spot in the world for me, ever since you came into it. I read your letter +to papa, telling all about your birthday and the prism Uncle Darcy gave +you. It cheered him up wonderfully. I was so proud of you when he said it +was a fine letter, and that he'd have to engage you as a special +correspondent on his paper some day. + +"At first the doctors thought his sight was entirely destroyed, by the +flying glass of the broken windshield, but now they are beginning to hope +that one eye at least may be saved, and possibly the other. Papa is very +doubtful about it himself, and gets very despondent at times. He had just +been having an especially blue morning when your letter was brought in, +and he said, when I read it: + +"'That _is_ a good line to live by, daughter,' and he had me get out +his volume of Milton and read the whole sonnet that the line is taken +from. The fact that Milton was blind when he wrote it made it specially +interesting to him. + +"He and mamma both need me sorely now for a little while, Baby dear, and +if you can keep busy and happy without me I'll stay away a couple of +weeks longer and help take him home to Kentucky, but I can't be contented +to stay unless you send me a postal every day. If nothing more is on it +than your name, written by your own little fingers, it will put a rainbow +around my troubles and help me to be contented away from you." + +Georgina spent the rest of the morning answering it. She had a feeling +that she must make up for her father's neglect as a correspondent, by +writing often herself. Maybe the family at Grandfather Shirley's wouldn't +notice that there was never any letter with a Chinese stamp on it, +addressed in a man's big hand in Barby's pile of mail, if there were +others for her to smile over. + +It had been four months since the last one came. Georgina had kept +careful count, although she had not betrayed her interest except in the +wistful way she watched Barby when the postman came. It made her throat +ache to see that little shadow of disappointment creep into Barby's +lovely gray eyes and then see her turn away with her lips pressed +together tight for a moment before she began to hum or speak brightly +about something else. No Chinese letter had come in her absence to be +forwarded. + +Georgina wished her father could know how very much Barby cared about +hearing from him. Maybe if his attention were called to it he would write +oftener. If the editor of a big newspaper like Grandfather Shirley, +thought her letters were good enough to print, maybe her father might pay +attention to one of them. A resolve to write to him some day began to +shape itself in her mind. + +She would have been surprised could she have known that already one of +her epistles was on its way to him. Barby had sent him the "rainbow +letter." For Barby had not drawn off silent and hurt when his letters +ceased to come, as many a woman would have done. + +"Away off there in the interior he has missed the mails," she told +herself. "Or the messenger he trusted may have failed to post his +letters, or he may be ill. I'll not judge him until I know." + +After Georgina's letter came she resolutely put her forebodings and +misgivings aside many a time, prompted by it to steer onward so steadily +that hope must do as Uncle Darcy said, "make rainbows even of her tears." + +Georgina wrote on until dinner time, telling all about the way she had +spent her birthday dollar. After dinner when the sunshine had dried all +traces of the previous night's rain, she persuaded Tippy that she was +entirely over the effects of the gas, and perfectly able to go down +street and select the picture postals with which to conduct her daily +correspondence. + +Richard joined her as she passed the bungalow. They made a thrilling +afternoon for themselves by whispering to each other whenever any +strange-looking person passed them, "S'pose _that_ was the owner of +the pouch and he was looking for us." The dread of their sin finding them +out walked like a silent-footed ghost beside them all the way, making the +two pairs of brown eyes steal furtive glances at each other now and then, +and delicious little shivers of apprehension creep up and down their +backs. + +Whether it was the passing of the unseasonable weather into hot July +sunshine again or whether the wild-cat liniment was responsible, no one +undertook to say, but Mrs. Triplett's rheumatism left her suddenly, and +at a time when she was specially glad to be rid of it. The Sewing Circle, +to which she belonged, was preparing for a bazaar at the Church of the +Pilgrims, and her part in it would keep her away from home most of the +time for three days. + +That is why Georgina had unlimited freedom for a while. She was left in +Belle's charge, and Belle, still brooding over her troubles, listlessly +assented to anything proposed to her. Belle had been allowed to go and +come as she pleased when she was ten, and she saw no reason why Georgina +was not equally capable of taking care of herself. + +Hardly was Mrs. Triplett out of sight that first morning when Georgina +slipped out of the back gate with a long brass-handled fire-shovel, to +meet Richard out on the dunes. He brought a hoe, and in his hand was the +little compass imbedded in the nut. + +When all was ready, according to Georgina's instructions, he turned +around three times, then facing the east tossed the compass over his +shoulder, saying solemnly, "Brother, go find your brother." She stood +ready to mark the spot when it should fall, but Captain Kidd was ahead of +her and had the nut in his teeth before she could reach the place where +it had touched the ground. So Richard took the nut away and held the +agitated little terrier by the collar while Georgina went through the +same ceremony. + +This time Richard reached the nut before the dog, and drew a circle +around the spot where it had lain. Then he began digging into the sand +with the hoe so industriously that Captain Kidd was moved to frantic +barking. + +"Here, get to work yourself and keep quiet," ordered Richard. "Rats! +You'll have Cousin James coming out to see what we're doing, first thing +you know. He thinks something is the matter now, every time you bark. +Rats! I say." + +The magic word had its effect. After an instant of quivering eagerness +the dog pounced into the hole which Richard had started, and sent the +sand flying furiously around him with his active little paws. Georgina +dragged the accumulating piles aside with the fire-shovel on one side, +and Richard plied the hoe on the other. When the hole grew too deep for +Captain Kidd to dig in longer, Richard stepped in and went deeper. But it +was unsatisfactory work. The shifting sand, dry as powder at this depth, +was constantly caving in and filling up the space. + +They tried making new holes, to the north of the old one, then to the +south, then on the remaining sides. They were still at it when the +whistle at the cold-storage plant blew for noon. Georgina rubbed a sleeve +across her red, perspiring face, and shook the ends of her curls up and +down to cool her hot neck. + +"I don't see how we can dig any more to-day," she said wearily. "The sun +is blistering. I feel all scorched." + +"I've had enough," confessed Richard. "But we've got to find that pouch." + +After a moment's rest, leaning on the hoe-handle, he had an inspiration. +"Let's get Manuel and Joseph and Rosa to help us. They'd dig all day for +a nickel." + +"I haven't one nickel left," said Georgina. Then she thought a moment. +"But I could bring some jelly-roll. Those Fayals would dig for eats as +quick as they would for money. I'll tell Belle we're going to have a sort +of a picnic over here and she'll let me bring all that's left in the cake +box." + +Richard investigated his pockets. A solitary nickel was all he could turn +out. "Two cents for each of the boys and one for Rosa," he said, but +Georgina shook her head. + +"Rosa would make trouble if you divided that way. She'd howl till +somebody came to see what was the matter. But we could do this way. The +one who gets the least money gets the most jelly-roll. We'll wait till +the digging is over and then let them divide it to suit themselves." + +By five o'clock that afternoon, the compass had been sent to "hunt +brother" in a hundred different places, and the hollow circled by the +bayberry bushes and beach plums where the pouch had been hidden filled +with deep holes. Captain Kidd had responded to the repeated call of +"Rats" until the magic word had lost all charm for him. Even a dog comes +to understand in time when a fellow creature has "an axe to grind." +Finally, he went off and lay down, merely wagging his tail in a bored way +when any further effort was made to arouse his enthusiasm. + +The Fayal children, working valiantly in the trenches, laid down arms at +last and strolled home, their faces streaked with jelly-roll, and +Georgina went wearily up the beach, dragging her fire-shovel after her. +She felt that she had had enough of the dunes to last her the rest of her +natural lifetime. She seemed to see piles of sand even when she looked at +the water or when her eyes were shut. + +"But we won't give up," she said staunchly as she parted from Richard. +"We're obliged to find that pouch, so we've _got_ to keep hope at +the prow." + +"Pity all this good digging has to be wasted," said Richard, looking +around at the various holes. "If it had all been in one place, straight +down, it would have been deep enough to strike a pirate's chest by this +time. I hope they'll fill up before anybody comes this way to notice +them." + +"Somehow, I'm not so anxious as I was to go off 'a-piratin' so bold,'" +said Georgina with a tired sigh. "I've had enough digging to last me +forever and always, amen." + +The Fayal children, surfeited with one afternoon of such effort, and not +altogether satisfied as to the division of wages which had led to war in +their midst, did not come back to the Place of the Pouch next morning, +but Richard and Georgina appeared promptly, albeit with sore muscles and +ebbing enthusiasm. Only stern necessity and fear of consequences kept +them at their task. + +Cousin James had reported that there was a fishing vessel in that morning +with two enormous horse mackerel in the catch, which were to be cut up +and salted at Railroad wharf. It was deliciously cool down on the wharf, +with the breeze blowing off the water through the great packing shed, and +the white sails scudding past the open doors like fans. With Mrs. +Triplett busy with the affairs of the Bazaar, it would have been a +wonderful opportunity for Georgina to have gone loitering along the pier, +watching the summer people start off in motor boats or spread themselves +lazily under flapping sails for a trip around the harbor. + +But something of the grim spirit of their ancestors, typified by the +monument looking down on them from the hill, nerved both Richard and +Georgina one more time to answer to the stern call of Duty. + + + + +Chapter XVIII + +Found Out + + + +"I dreamed about that old pouch last night," said Richard in one of the +intervals of rest which they allowed themselves. + +"I dreamed that it belonged to a Chinese man with crooked, yellow finger- +nails a foot long. He came and stood over my bed and said that because +there was important news in that letter and we buried it, and kept it +from going to where it ought to go, _we_ had to be buried alive. And +he picked me up like I was that nut and tossed me over his shoulder, and +said, 'Brother, go find your brother.' And I began sinking down in the +sand deeper and deeper until I began to smother." + +Georgina made no answer. The dream did not impress her as being at all +terrifying. She had swung her prism around her neck that morning when she +dressed, and now while she rested she amused herself by flashing the bars +of color across Captain Kidd. Richard resented her lack of interest. + +"Well, it may not sound very bad out here in the daylight, but you ought +to have _had_ it. I yelled until Daddy shook me and told me I'd wake +up the whole end of town with such a nightmare. If you'd have seen that +old Chinaman's face like a dragon's, you'd understand why I feel that +we've just got to find that pouch. It's going to get us into some kind of +trouble, certain sure, if we don't." + +Georgina rose to begin digging again. "It's lucky nobody ever comes this +way to see all these holes," she began, but stopped with her shovel half +lifted. A familiar voice from the circle of bushes at the top of the dune +called down cheerily: + +"Ship ahoy, mates. What port are you bound for now? Digging through to +China?" + +"It's Uncle Darcy!" they exclaimed in the same breath. He came plunging +down the side of the dune before they could recover from their confusion. +There was a pail of blueberries in each hand. He had been down the state +road picking them, and was now on his way to the Gray Inn to sell them to +the housekeeper. Leaving the pails in a level spot under the shade of a +scrubby bush, he came on to where the children were standing, and eased +himself stiffly down to a seat on the sand. It amused him to see their +evident embarrassment, and his eyes twinkled as he inquired: + +"What mischief are you up to now, digging all those gopher holes?" + +Neither answered for a moment, then Georgina gulped and found her voice. +"It's--it's a secret," she managed to say. + +"Oh," he answered, growing instantly grave at the sound of that word. +"Then I mustn't ask any questions. We must always keep our secrets. +Sometimes it's a pity though, when one has to promise to do so. I hope +yours isn't the burden to you that mine is to me." + +This was the first time he had spoken to them of the promise they had +made to him and Belle. With a look all around as if to make certain the +coast was clear, he said: + +"There's something I've been wanting to say to you children ever since +that day you had the rifle, and now's as good a chance as any. I want you +to know that I never would have promised what I did if it could have made +any possible difference to Mother. But lately she seems all confused +about Danny's trouble. She seems to have forgotten there was any trouble +except that he went away from home. For months she's been looking for him +to walk in most any day. + +"Ever since I gave my word to Belle, I've been studying over the right +and wrong of it. I felt I wasn't acting fair to Danny. But now it's clear +in my mind that it _was_ the right thing to do. I argue it this way. +Danny cared so much about saving Emmett from disgrace and Belle from the +pain of finding it out, that he was willing to give up his home and good +name and everything. Now it wouldn't be fair to him to make that +sacrifice in vain by telling while it can still be such a death-blow to +Emmett's father and hurt Belle much as ever. She's gone on all these +years fairly worshiping Emmett's memory for being such a hero." + +Uncle Darcy stopped suddenly and seemed to be drawn far away from them as +if he had gone inside of himself with his own thoughts and forgotten +their presence. Georgina sat and fanned herself with her shade hat. +Richard fumbled with the little compass, rolling it from one hand to the +other, without giving any thought to what he was doing. Presently it +rolled away from him and Captain Kidd darted after it, striking it with +his forepaws as he landed on it, and thus rolling it still farther till +it stopped at the old man's feet. + +Recalled to his surroundings in this way, Uncle Darcy glanced at the +object indifferently, but something strangely familiar in its appearance +made him lean closer and give it another look. He picked it up, examining +it eagerly. Then he stood up and gazed all around as if it had dropped +from the sky and he expected to see the hand that had dropped it. + +"Where did you get this?" he demanded huskily, in such a queer, +breathless way that Richard thought his day of reckoning had come. His +sin had found him out. He looked at Georgina helplessly. + +"Yes, tell!" she exclaimed, answering his look. + +"I--I--just _played_ it was mine," he began. "'Cause the initials on +it are the same as mine when we play pirate and I'm Dare-devil Dick. I +was only going to keep it till we dug up the pouch again. We were keeping +it to help find the pouch like Tom Sawyer did--" + +It seemed to Richard that Uncle Darcy's hand, clutching his shoulder, was +even more threatening than the Chinaman's of his nightmare, and his voice +more imperative. + +"Tell me! Where did you get it? _That's my compass!_ I scratched +those letters on that nut. 'D. D.' stands for Dan'l Darcy. I brought it +home from my last voyage. 'Twas a good-luck nut they told me in the last +port I sailed from. It was one of the first things Danny ever played +with. There's the marks of his first little tooth under those letters. I +gave it to him when he got old enough to claim it, for the letters were +his, too. He always carried it in his pocket and _he had it with him +when he went away_. For the love of heaven, child, tell me where you +found it?" + +The hand which clutched Richard's shoulder was shaking as violently as it +had the day the old rifle gave up its secret, and Richard, feeling the +same unnamable terror he had felt in his nightmare, could only stammer, +"I--I don't know. Captain Kidd found it." + +Then all three of them started violently, for a hearty voice just behind +them called out unexpectedly: + +"Hullo, what's all the excitement about?" + +It was Captain James Milford, who had strolled down from the bungalow, +his hat stuck jauntily on the back of his head, and his hands in his +pockets. A few moments before he had been scanning the harbor through a +long spy-glass, and happening to turn it towards the dunes had seen the +two children digging diligently with shovel and hoe. + +"Looks as if they'd started to honey-comb the whole Cape with holes," he +thought. "Curious how many things kids of that age can think of. It might +be well to step down and see what they're about." + +He put up the spy-glass and started down, approaching them on one side as +the Towncrier reached them on the other. + +"Now for a yarn that'll make their eyes stand out," he thought with a +smile as he saw the old man sit down on the sand. + +"Wonder if it would sound as thrilling now as it did when I was Dick's +age. I believe I'll just slip up and listen to one for old times' sake." + +Uncle Darcy let go of Richard's shoulder and turned to the newcomer +appealingly. + +"Jimmy," he said with a choke in his voice. "Look at this! The first +trace of my boy since he left me, and they can't tell me where they got +it." + +He held out the compass and Mr. Milford took it from his trembling +fingers. + +"Why, _I_ remember this old trinket, Uncle Dan'l!" exclaimed Mr. +Milford. "You let me carry it in my pocket one day when I was no bigger +than Dicky, here, when you took me fishing with you. I thought it was +responsible for my luck, for I made my first big catch that day. Got a +mackerel that I bragged about all season." + +Uncle Darcy seized the man's arm with the same desperate grip which had +held the boy's. + +"You don't seem to understand!" he exclaimed. "I'm trying to tell you +that _Danny_ is mixed up with this in some way. Either he's been +near here or somebody else has who's seen him. He had this with him when +he went away, I tell you. These children say they took it out of a pouch +that the dog found. Help me, Jimmy. I can't seem to think--" + +He sat weakly down on the sand again, his head in his hands, and Mr. +Milford, deeply interested, turned to the children. His questions called +out a confusing and involved account, told piecemeal by Georgina and +Richard in turn. + +"Hold on, now, let's get the straight of this," he interrupted, growing +more bewildered as the story proceeded. "What was in the pouch besides +the gold pieces, the other money and this compass?" + +"A letter with a foreign stamp on it," answered Richard. "I noticed +specially, because I have a stamp almost like it in my album." + +On being closely cross-questioned he could not say positively to what +country the stamp belonged. He thought it was Siam or China. Georgina +recalled several names of towns partially scratched out on the back of +the envelope, and the word Texas. She was sure of that and of "Mass." and +of "Mrs. Henry--" something or other. + +"But the inside of the letter," persisted Mr. Milford. "Didn't you try to +read that?" + +"Course not," said Georgina, her head indignantly high. "We only looked +at each end of it to see if the person's name was on it, but it began, +'Dear friend,' and ended, 'Your grateful friend Dave.'" + +"So the letter was addressed '_Mrs_.'" began Mr. Milford, musingly, +"but was in a tobacco pouch. The first fact argues that a woman lost it, +the last that it was a man." + +"But it didn't smell of tobacco," volunteered Georgina. "It was nice and +clean only where Captain Kidd chewed the string." + +"I suppose it didn't have any smell at all," said Mr. Milford, not as if +he expected anyone to remember, but that he happened to think of it. A +slowly dawning recollection began to brighten in Georgina's eyes. + +"But it did have a smell," she exclaimed. "I remember it perfectly well +now. Don't you know, Richard, when you were untying it at the top of the +steps I said 'Phew! that makes me think of the liniment I bought from the +wild-cat woman last night,' I had to hold the bottle in my lap all the +time we were at the moving picture show so I had a chance to get pretty +well acquainted with that smell. And afterwards when we were wrapping the +tin foil around the pouch, getting ready to bury it we both turned up our +noses at the way it smelled. It seemed stronger when the sun shone on +it." + +"The wild-cat woman," repeated Mr. Milford, turning on Georgina. "Where +was she? What did you have to do with her? Was the dog with you?" + +Little by little they began to recall the evening, how they had started +to the show with the Fayal family and turned aside to hear the patent +medicine man sing, how Richard and Georgina had dared each other to touch +the wild-cat's tail through the bars, and how Georgina in climbing down +from the wheel had stumbled over Captain Kidd whom they thought safely +shut up at home. + +"I believe we've found a clue," said Mr. Milford at last. "If anybody in +town had lost it there'd have been a notice put up in the post-office or +the owner would have been around for you to cry it, Uncle Dan'l. But if +it's the wild-cat woman's she probably did not discover her loss till she +was well out of town, and maybe not until she reached her next stopping- +place." + +"There's been nothing of the sort posted on the bulletin board at the +post-office," said the old man. "I always glance in at it every morning." + +Mr. Milford looked at him thoughtfully as if considering something. Then +he said slowly: + +"Uncle Dan'l, just how much would it mean to you to find the owner of +that pouch?" + +"Why, Jimmy," was the tremulous answer, "if it led to any trace of my boy +it would be the one great hope of my life realized." + +"You are quite sure that you _want_ to bring him back? That it would +be best for all concerned?" he continued meaningly. + +There was a silence, then the old man answered with dignity: + +"I know what you're thinking of, and considering all that's gone before, +I'm not blaming you, but I can tell you this, Jimmy Milford. If the town +could know all that I know it'd be glad and proud to have my boy brought +back to it." + +He smote the fist of one hand into the palm of the other and looked about +like something trapped, seeking escape. + +"It isn't fair!" he exclaimed. "It isn't fair! Him worthy to hold up his +head with the best of them, and me bound not to tell. But I've given my +promise," he added, shaking his head slowly from side to side. "I s'pose +it'll all work out for the best, somehow, in the Lord's own good time, +but I can't seem to see the justice in it now." + +He sat staring dejectedly ahead of him with dim, appealing eyes. + +The younger man took a step forward and laid an arm across the bent +shoulders. + +"All right, Uncle Dan'l," he said heartily. "If there's anything under +the sun I can do to help you I'm going to do it, beginning right now. +Come on up to the house and I'll begin this Sherlock Holmes business by +telephoning down the Cape to every town on it till we locate this wild- +cat liniment wagon, and then we'll get after it as fast as the best +automobile in Provincetown can take us." + + + + +Chapter XIX + +Tracing the Liniment Wagon + + + +To Wellfleet, to Orleans, to Chatham went the telephone call, to +Harwichport and then back again to the little towns on the bay side of +the Cape, for the wild-cat and its keepers did not follow a straight +course in their meanderings. It was some time before Mr. Milford +succeeded in locating them. At last he hung up the receiver announcing: + +"They showed in Orleans last night all right, but it wasn't the road to +Chatham they took out of there this morning. It was to Brewster. We can +easily overtake them somewhere along in that direction and get back home +before dark." + +There was one ecstatic moment for Georgina when it was made clear to her +that she was included in that "we"; that she was actually to have a share +in an automobile chase like the ones that had thrilled her in the movies. +But that moment was soon over. + +"I hardly know what to do about leaving Mother," began Uncle Darcy in a +troubled voice. "She's feeling uncommon poorly to-day--she's in bed and +can't seem to remember anything longer than you're telling it. Mrs. Saggs +came in to sit with her while I was out blueberrying, but she said she +couldn't stay past ten o'clock. She has company coming." + +"Couldn't you get some of the other neighbors to come in for the few +hours you'd be away?" asked Mr. Milford. "It's important you should follow +up this clue yourself." + +"No, Mrs. Saggs is the only one who keeps Mother from fretting when I'm +away from her. Her side window looks right into our front yard, and +ordinarily it would be enough just for her to call across to her now and +then, but it wouldn't do to-day, Mother not being as well as common. +She'd forget where I was gone and I couldn't bear to have her lying there +frightened and worried and not remembering why I had left her alone. +She's like a child at times. _You_ know how it is," he said, turning +to Georgina. "Not flighty, but just needing to be soothed and talked to." + +Georgina nodded. She knew, for on several occasions she had sat beside +Aunt Elspeth when she was in such a mood, and had quieted and pleased her +with little songs and simple rhymes. She knew she could do it again +to-day as effectually as Mrs. Saggs, if it wasn't for giving up that +exciting motor chase after the wild-cat woman. It seemed to her a greater +sacrifice than flesh and blood should be called upon to make. She sat on +the porch step, twirling her prism carelessly on its pink ribbon while +she waited for the machine to be brought around. Then she climbed into +the back seat with Uncle Darcy and the two pails of blueberries, while +Richard settled himself and Captain Kidd in front with his Cousin James. + +They whirled up to the Gray Inn to leave the blueberries, and then around +down Bradford Street to Fishburn Court to attempt to explain to Aunt +Elspeth. On the way they passed the Pilgrim monument. Georgina tried not +to look at it, but she couldn't help glancing up at it from the corner of +her eye. + +"You must," it seemed to say to her. + +"I won't," she as silently answered back. + +"It's your duty," it reminded her, "and the idea of a descendant of one +of the Pilgrim Fathers and one of the Minute-men shirking her duty. A +pretty member of the Rainbow Club _you_ are," it scoffed. + +They whirled by the grim monster of a monument quickly, but Georgina felt +impelled to turn and look back at it, her gaze following it up higher and +higher, above the gargoyles, to the tipmost stones which seemed to touch +the sky. + +"I hate that word Duty," she said savagely to herself. "It's as big and +ugly and as always-in-front-of-you as that old monument. They're exactly +alike. You can't help seeing them no matter which way you look or how +hard you try not to." + +At the gate she tried to put the obnoxious word out of her mind by +leaning luxuriously back in the car and looking up at the chimney tops +while Uncle Darcy stepped out and went into the house. He came out again +almost immediately, crossed the little front yard and put his head in at +Mrs. Saggs' side window. After a short conversation with her he came out +to the gate and stood irresolutely fingering the latch. + +"I don't know what to do," he repeated, his voice even more troubled than +before. "Mother's asleep now. Mrs. Saggs says she'll go over at twelve +and take her her tea, but--I can't help feeling I ought not to leave her +alone for so long. Couldn't you manage without me?" + +And then, Georgina inwardly protesting, "I don't want to and I won't," +found herself stepping out of the car, and heard her own voice saying +sweetly: + +"I'll stay with Aunt Elspeth, Uncle Darcy. I can keep her from fretting." + +A smile of relief broke over the old man's face and he said heartily: + +"Why, of course you can, honey. It never occurred to me to ask a little +lass like you to stop and care for her, but you can do it better than +anybody else, because Mother's so fond of you." + +Neither had it occurred to him or to either of the others that it was a +sacrifice for her to give up this ride. There was not a word from anyone +about its being a noble thing for her to do. Mr. Milford, in a hurry to +be off, merely nodded his satisfaction at having the matter arranged so +quickly. Uncle Darcy stepped back to the window for a parting word with +Mrs. Saggs. + +"She'll keep an ear out for you, Georgina," he said as he went back to +the car. "Just call her if you want her for any reason. There's plenty +cooked in the cupboard for your dinner, and Mrs. Saggs will tend to +Mother's tea when the time comes. When she wakes up and asks for me best +not tell her I'm out of town. Just say I'll be back bye and bye, and +humor her along that way." + +And then they were off with a whirr and a clang that sent the chickens in +the road scattering in every direction. Georgina was left standing by the +gate thinking, "What made me do it? What _made_ me do it? I don't +want to stay one bit." + +The odor of gasoline cleared away and the usual Sabbath-like stillness +settled down over all the court. She walked slowly across the shady +little grass plot to the front door, hesitated there a moment, then went +into the cottage and took off her hat. + +A glance into the dim bedroom beyond showed her Aunt Elspeth's white head +lying motionless on her pillow. The sight of the quiet sleeper made her +feel appallingly lonesome. It was like being all by herself in the house +to be there with one who made no sound or movement. She would have to +find something to do. It was only eleven o'clock. She tiptoed out into +the kitchen. + +The almanac had been left lying on the table. She looked slowly through +it, and was rewarded by finding something of interest. On the last page +was a column of riddles, and one of them was so good she started to +memorize it so that she could propound it to Richard. She was sure he +never could guess it. Finding it harder to remember than it seemed at +first glance, she decided to copy it. She did not know where to look for +a sheet of paper, but remembered several paper bags on the pantry +shelves, so she went in search of one. Finding one with only a cupful of +sugar left in it, she tore off the top and wrote the riddle on that with +a stub of a pencil which she found on the table. + +While searching for the bag she took an inventory of the supplies in the +pantry from which she was to choose her dinner. When she had finished +copying the riddle she went back to them. There were baked beans and +blueberry pie, cold biscuit and a dish of honey. + +"I'll get my dinner now," she decided, "then I'll be ready to sit with +Aunt Elspeth when her tea comes." + +As Georgina went back and forth from table to shelf it was in unconscious +imitation of Mrs. Triplett's brisk manner. Pattering after that capable +housekeeper on her busy rounds as persistently as Georgina had done all +her life, had taught her to move in the same way. Presently she +discovered that there was a fire laid in the little wood stove ready to +light. The stove was so small in comparison to the big kitchen range at +home, that it appealed to Georgina as a toy stove might have done. She +stood looking at it thinking what fun it would be to cook something on it +all by herself with no Tippy standing by to say do this or don't do the +other. + +"I think I ought to be allowed to have some fun to make up for my +disappointment," she said to herself as the temptation grew stronger and +stronger. + +"I could cook me an egg. Tippy lets me beat them but she never lets me +break them and I've always wanted to break one and let it go plunk into +the pan." + +She did not resist the temptation long. There was the sputter of a match, +the puff of a flame, and the little stove was roaring away so effectively +that one of old Jeremy's sayings rose to her lips. Jeremy had a proverb +for everything. + +"Little pot, soon hot," she said out loud, gleefully, and reached into +the cupboard for the crock of bran in which the eggs were kept. Then +Georgina's skill as an actor showed itself again, although she was not +conscious of imitating anyone. In Tippy's best manner she wiped out the +frying-pan, settled it in a hot place on the stove, dropped in a bit of +butter. + +With the assured air of one who has had long practice, she picked up an +egg and gave it a sharp crack on the edge of the pan, expecting it to +part evenly into halves and its contents to glide properly into the +butter. It looked so alluringly simple and easy that she had always +resented Tippy's saying she would make a mess of it if she tried to do +it. But mess was the only name which could be given to what poured out on +the top of the stove as her fingers went crashing through the shell and +into the slimy feeling contents. The broken yolk dripped from her hands, +and in the one instant she stood holding them out from her in disgust, +all the rest of the egg which had gone sliding over the stove, cooked, +scorched and turned to a cinder. + +The smell and smoke of the burning egg rose to the ceiling and filled the +room. Georgina sprang to close the door so that the odor would not rouse +Aunt Elspeth, and then with carving knife and stove-lid lifter, she +scraped the charred remains into the fire. + +"And it looked _so_ easy," she mourned. "Maybe I didn't whack it +quickly enough. I'm going to try again." She felt into the bran for +another egg. This time she struck the shell so hard that its contents +splashed out sideways with an unexpected squirt and slid to the floor. +She was ready to cry as she wiped up the slippery stuff, but there came +to her mind some verses which Tippy had taught her long ago. And so +determined had Tippy been for her to learn them, that she offered the +inducement of a string of blue beads. The name of the poem was +"Perseverance," and it began: + + "Here's a lesson all should heed-- + Try, try again. + If at first you don't succeed, + Try, try again." + +and it ended, + + "That which other folks can do + Why with patience may not you? + Try, try again." + +Tippy sowed that seed the same winter that she taught Georgina "The +Landing of the Pilgrims"; but surely, no matter how long a time since +then, Tippy should be held accountable for the after effects of that +planting. If Georgina persevered it was no more than could be expected +considering her rigorous up-bringing. + +Georgina pushed the frying-pan to the back of the stove where it was +cooler, and with her red lips pursed into a tight line, chose another +egg, smote it sharply on the edge of the pan, thereby cracking it and +breaking the shell into halves. Her thumbs punched through into the yolk +of this one also, but by letting part of the shell drop with it, she +managed to land it all in the pan. That was better. She fished out the +fragment of shell and took another egg. + +This time the feat was accomplished as deftly as an exoert chef could +have done it, and a pleased smile took the place of the grim +determination on Georgina's face. Elated by her success she broke another +egg, then another and another. It was as easy as breathing or winking. +She broke another for the pure joy of putting her dexterity to the test +once more. Then she stopped, appalled by the pile of empty shells +confronting her accusingly. She counted them. She had broken eight-- +three-fourths of a setting. What would Uncle Darcy say to such a wicked +waste? She could burn the shells, but what an awful lot of insides to +dispose of. All mixed up as they were, they couldn't be saved for cake. +There was nothing to do but to scramble them. + +Scramble them she did, and the pan seemed to grow fuller and fuller as +she tossed the fluffy mass about with a fork. It was fun doing that. She +made the most of this short space of time, and it was over all too soon. +She knew that Aunt Elspeth had grown tired of eggs early in the summer. +There was no use saving any for her. Georgina herself was not especially +fond of them, but she would have to eat all she could to keep them from +being wasted. + +Some time after she rose from the table and looked at the dish with a +feeling of disgust that there could still be such a quantity left, after +she had eaten so much that it was impossible to enjoy even a taste of the +blueberry pie or the honey. Carrying the dish out through the back door +she emptied it into the cats' pan, fervently wishing that John and Mary +Darcy and old Yellownose could dispose of it all without being made ill. + +Long ago she had learned to do her sums in the sand. Now she stooped down +and with the handle of her spoon scratched some figures in the path. "If +twelve eggs cost thirty cents, how much will eight eggs cost?" That was +the sum she set for herself. Only that morning she had heard Tippy +inquire the price of eggs from the butter-woman, and say they were +unusually high and hard to get because they were so many summer people in +town this season. She didn't know where they were going to get enough for +all the cakes necessary for the Bazaar. + +It took Georgina some time to solve the problem. Then going back to the +kitchen she gathered up all the shells and dropped them into the fire. +Her sacrifice was costing her far more than she had anticipated. Somehow, +somewhere, she must get hold of twenty cents to pay for those eggs. Duty +again. _Always_ Duty. But for that one horrid word she would be +racing down the road to Brewster in the wake of the wild-cat woman. She +wondered if they had caught up with her yet. + + + + +Chapter XX + +Dance of the Rainbow Fairies + + + +Georgina, intent on washing the frying-pan and cleaning the last vestige +of burnt egg from the top of the stove, did not hear Mrs. Saggs come in +at the front door with Aunt Elspeth's dinner on a tray. Nor did she hear +the murmur of voices that went on while it was being eaten. The bedroom +was in the front of the house, and the rasping noise she was making as +she scratched away with the edge of an iron spoon, kept her from hearing +anything else. So when the door into the kitchen suddenly opened it gave +her such a start that she dropped the dishcloth into the woodbox. + +Mrs. Saggs sniffed suspiciously. There was something reproachful in the +mere tilt of her nose which Georgina felt and resented. + +"I thought I smelled something burning." + +"I s'pect you did," Georgina answered calmly. "But it's all over now. I +was getting my dinner early, so's I could sit with Aunt Elspeth +afterward." + +Mrs. Saggs had both hands full, as she was carrying her tray, so she +could not open the stove to look in; but she walked over towards it and +peered at it from a closer viewpoint, continuing to sniff. But there was +nothing for her to discover, no clue to the smell. Everything which +Georgina had used was washed and back in place now. The sharp eyes made a +survey of the kitchen, watching Georgina narrowly as the child, having +rinsed the dishcloth after its fall, leaned out of the back door to hang +it on a bush in the sun, as Uncle Darcy always did. + +"You've been taught to be real neat, haven't you?" she said in an +approving tone which made Georgina like her better. Then her glance fell +on a work-basket which had been left sitting on top of the flour barrel. +In it was a piece of half-finished mending. The sharp eyes softened. + +"I declare!" she exclaimed. "It's downright pitiful the way that old man +tries to do for himself and his poor old wife. It's surprising, though, +how well he gets along with the housework and taking care of her and +all." + +She glanced again at the needle left sticking in the clumsy unfinished +seam, and recognized the garment. + +"Well, I wish you'd look at that! Even trying to patch her poor old +nightgown for her! Can you beat that? Here, child, give it to me. My +hands are full with this tray, so just stick it under my arm. I'll mend +it this afternoon while I'm setting talking to the company." + +She tightened her grip on the bundle which Georgina thrust under her arm, +and looked down at it. + +"Them pitiful old stiff fingers of his'n!" she exclaimed. "They sure make +a botch of sewing, but they don't ever make a botch of being kind. Well, +I'm off now. Guess you'd better run in and set with Mis' Darcy for a +spell, for she's waked up real natural and knowing now, and seems to +crave company." + +Georgina went, but paused on the way, seeing the familiar rooms in a new +light, since Mrs. Saggs' remarks had given her new and illuminating +insight. Everywhere she looked there was something as eloquent as that +bit of unfinished mending to bear witness that Uncle Darcy was far more +than just a weather-beaten old man with a smile and word of cheer for +everybody. Ringing the Towncrier's bell and fishing and blueberrying and +telling yarns and helping everybody bear their trouble was the least part +of his doings. That was only what the world saw. That was all she had +seen herself until this moment. + +Now she was suddenly aware of his bigness of soul which made him capable +of an infinite tenderness and capacity to serve. His devotion to Aunt +Elspeth spread an encircling care around her as a great oak throws the +arms of its shade, till her comfort was his constant thought, her +happiness his greatest desire. + +"Them pitiful, old, stiff fingers of his'n!" How could Mrs. Saggs speak +of them so? They were heroic, effectual fingers. Theirs was something far +greater than the Midas touch--they transmuted the smallest service into +Love's gold. + +Georgina, with her long stretching up to books that were "over her head," +understood this without being able to put it into words. Nor could she +put into words the longing which seized her like a dull ache, for +_Barby_ to be loved and cared for like that, to be as constantly and +supremely considered. She couldn't understand how Aunt Elspeth, old and +wrinkled and childish, could be the object of such wonderful devotion, +and Barby, her adorable, winsome Barby, call forth less. + +"Not one letter in four long months," she thought bitterly. + +"Dan'l," called Aunt Elspeth feebly from the next room, and Georgina went +in to assure her that Uncle Darcy was _not_ out in the boat and +would not be brought home drowned. He was attending to some important +business and would be back bye and bye. In the meantime, she was going to +hang her prism in the window where the sun could touch it and let the +rainbow fairies dance over the bed. + +The gay flashes of color, darting like elfin wings here and there as +Georgina twisted the ribbon, pleased Aunt Elspeth as if she were a child. +She lifted a thin, shriveled hand to catch at them and gave a weak little +laugh each time they eluded her grasp. It was such a thin hand, almost +transparent, with thick, purplish veins standing out on it. Georgina +glanced at her own and wondered if Aunt Elspeth's ever could have been +dimpled and soft like hers. It did not seem possible that this frail old +woman with the snowy-white hair and sunken cheeks could ever have been a +rosy child like herself. As if in answer to her thought, Aunt Elspeth +spoke, groping again with weak, ineffectual passes after the rainbows. + +"I can't catch them. They bob around so. That's the way I used to be, +always on the move. They called me 'Bouncing Bet!'" + +"Tell me about that time," urged Georgina. Back among early memories Aunt +Elspeth's mind walked with firm, unfailing tread. It was only among those +of later years that she hesitated and groped her way as if lost in fog. +By the time the clock had struck the hours twice more Georgina felt that +she knew intimately a mischievous girl whom her family called Bouncing +Bet for her wild ways, but who bore no trace of a resemblance to the +feeble old creature who recounted her pranks. + +And the blue-eyed romp who could sail a boat like a boy or swim like a +mackerel grew up into a slender slip of a lass with a shy grace which +made one think of a wild-flower. At least that is what the old +daguerreotype showed Georgina when Aunt Elspeth sent her rummaging +through a trunk to find it. It was taken in a white dress standing beside +a young sailor in his uniform. No wonder Uncle Darcy looked proud in the +picture. But Georgina never would have known it was Uncle Darcy if she +hadn't been told. He had changed, too. + +The picture make Georgina think of one of Barby's songs, and presently +when Aunt Elspeth was tired of talking she sang it to her: + + "Hand in hand when our life was May. + Hand in hand when our hair is gray. + Sorrow and sun for everyone + As the years roll on. + Hand in hand when the long night tide + Gently covers us side by side------ + Ah, lad, though we know not when, + Love will be with us forever then. + Always the same, Darby my own, + Always the same to your old wife Joan!" + +After that there were other songs which Aunt Elspeth asked for, "Oh, wert +thou in the cauld blast," and "Robin Adair." Then came a long tiresome +pause when Georgina didn't know what to do next, and Aunt Elspeth turned +her head restlessly on the pillow and seemed uneasy. + +Georgina wished with all her heart she was out of the stuffy little +bedroom. If she had gone with the others, she would be speeding along the +smooth, white road now, coming home from Brewster, with the wind and +sunshine of all the wide, free outdoors around her. + +Aunt Elspeth drew a long, tired sigh. + +"Maybe you'd like me to read to you," ventured Georgina. She hesitated +over making such an offer, because there were so few books in the house. +Nothing but the almanac looked interesting. Aunt Elspeth assented, and +pointed out a worn little volume of devotions on top of the bureau, +saying: + +"That's what Dan'l reads me on Sundays." + +Georgina opened it. Evidently it had been compiled for the use of sea- +faring people, for it was full of the promises that sailor-folk best +understand; none of the shepherd psalms or talk of green pastures and +help-giving hills. It was all about mighty waters and paths through the +deep. She settled herself comfortably in the low rocking-chair beside the +bed, tossed back her curls and was about to begin, when one of the +rainbow lights from the prism danced across the page. She waited, +smiling, until it glimmered away. Then she read the verses on which it +had shone. + +_"All thy waves and thy billows are gone over me, yet the Lord will +command His loving kindness in the daytime, and in the night His song +shall be with me."_ + +The sweet little voice soothed the troubled spirit that listened like +music. + +_"When thou passeth through the waters I will be with thee, and through +the rivers: they shall not overflow thee.... Thus saith the Lord which +maketh a way in the sea, and a path in the mighty waters."_ + +Aunt Elspeth reached out a groping hand for Georgina's and took the soft +little fingers in hers. Georgina didn't want to have her hand held, +especially in such a stiff, bony clasp. It made her uncomfortable to sit +with her arm stretched up in such a position, but she was too polite to +withdraw it, so she read on for several pages. + +_"He maketh the storm a calm, so that the waves thereof are still. So +He bringeth them into their desired haven."_ + +Attracted by the sound of heavy breathing, she looked up. Aunt Elspeth +was asleep. Georgina laid the book on the table, and slowly, very slowly +began to raise herself out of the chair, afraid of arousing the sleeper +who still held her hand. As she stood up, the board in the floor under +her squeaked. She was afraid to take another step or to try to pull her +hand away. She had come to the end of her resources for entertainment, +and she was afraid Aunt Elspeth's next awakening might be to a crying, +restless mood which she could not control. So she sat down again. + +It was very still in the bedroom. A fly buzzed on the outside of the +window screen, and away off on another street the "accommodation" was +going by. She could hear the bells jingling on the horses. As she sat +thus, not even rocking, but just jiggling the chair a trifle, the words +she had read began to come back to her after a while like a refrain: "So +He bringeth them into their desired haven. So He bringeth them into their +desired haven." She whispered them over and over as she often whispered +songs, hearing the music which had no tone except in her thought. + +And presently, as the whispered song repeated itself, the words began to +bring a wonderful sense of peace and security. She did not realize what +it was that was speaking to her through them. It was the faith which had +lived so long in these lowly little rooms. It was the faith which had +upborne Uncle Darcy year after year, helping him to steer onward in the +confidence that the Hand he trusted would fulfil all its promises. She +felt the subtle influence that goes out from such lives, without knowing +what it was that touched her. She was conscious of it only as she was +conscious of the nearness of mignonette when its fragrance stole in from +the flower-bed under the window. They were both unseen but the +mignonette's fragrance was wonderfully sweet, and the feeling of +confidence, breathing through the words of the old psalm was wonderfully +strong. Some day she, too, would be brought, and Barby would he brought +into "their desired haven." + +Georgina was tired. It had been a full day, beginning with that digging +in the dunes. Presently she began to nod. Then the rocking chair ceased +to sway. When the clock struck again she did not hear it. She was sound +asleep with her hand still clasped in Aunt Elspeth's. + + + + +Chapter XXI + +On the Trail of the Wild-Cat Woman + + + +Meanwhile, the pursuing party had made the trip to Brewster and were on +their way home. At the various small towns where they stopped to ask +questions, they found that the patent-medicine vendors had invariably +followed one course. They had taken supper at the hotel, but after each +evening's performance had driven into the country a little way to camp +for the night, in the open. At Orleans an acquaintance of Mr. Milford's +in a feed store had much to say about them. + +"I don't know whether they camp out of consideration for the wild-cat, or +whether it's because they're attached to that rovin', gypsy life. They're +good spenders, and from the way they sold their liniment here last night, +you'd think they could afford to put up at a hotel all the time and take +a room for the cat in the bargain. You needn't tell me that beast ever +saw the banks of the Brazos. I'll bet they caught it up in the Maine +woods some'rs. But they seem such honest, straightforward sort of folks, +somehow you have to believe 'em. They're a friendly pair, too, specially +the old lady. Seems funny to hear you speak of her as the wild-cat woman. +That name is sure a misfit for her." + +Mr. Milford thought so himself, when a little later he came across her, a +mile out of Brewster. She was sitting in the wooden rocking chair in one +end of the ivagon, placidly darning a pair of socks, while she waited for +her husband to bring the horses from some place up in the woods where he +had taken them for water. They had been staked by the roadside all night +to graze. The wild-cat was blinking drowsily in its cage, having just +been fed. + +Some charred sticks and a little pile of ashes by the roadside, showed +where she had cooked dinner over a camp-fire, but the embers were +carefully extinguished and the frying pan and dishes were stowed out of +sight in some mysterious compartment under the wagon bed, as compactly as +if they had been parts of a Chinese puzzle. Long experience on the road +had taught her how to pack with ease and dexterity. + +She looked up with interest as the automobile drew out of the road, and +stopped alongside the wagon. She was used to purchasers following them +out of town for the liniment after a successful show like last night's +performance. + +Despite the feedman's description of her, Mr. Milford had expected to see +some sort of an adventuress such as one naturally associates with such a +business, and when he saw the placid old lady with the smooth, gray hair, +and met the gaze of the motherly eyes peering over her spectacles at him, +he scarcely knew how to begin. Uncle Darcy, growing impatient at the time +consumed in politely leading up to the object of their coming, fidgetted +in his seat. At last he could wait no longer for remarks about weather +and wild-cats. Such conversational paths led nowhere. He interrupted +abruptly. + +"I'm the Towncrier from Provincetown, ma'am. Did you lose anything while +you were there?" + +"Well, now," she began slowly. "I can't say where I lost it. I didn't +think it was in Provincetown though. I made sure it was some place +between Harwichport and Orleans, and I had my man post notices in both +those places." + +"And what was it you lost?" inquired Mr. Milford politely. He had +cautioned his old friend on the way down at intervals of every few miles, +not to build his hopes up too much on finding that this woman was the +owner of the pouch. + +"You may have to follow a hundred different clues before you get hold of +the right one," he warned him. "We're taking this trip on the mere chance +that we'll find the owner, just because two children associated the pouch +in their memory with the odor of liniment. It is more than likely they're +mistaken and that this is all a wild-goose chase." + +But Uncle Darcy _had_ built his hopes on it, had set his heart on +finding this was the right clue, and his beaming face said, "I told you +so," when she answered: + +"It was a little tobacco pouch, and I'm dreadfully put out over losing +it, because aside from the valuables and keep-sakes in it there was a +letter that's been following me all over the country. It didn't reach me +till just before I got to Provincetown. It's from some heathen country +with such an outlandish name I couldn't remember it while I was reading +it, scarcely, and now I'll never think of it again while the world wags, +and there's no way for me to answer it unless I do." + +"Oh, don't say that!" exclaimed Uncle Darcy. "You _must_ think of +it. And I _must_ know. How did this come into your hands?" + +He held out the little watch-fob charm, the compass set in a nut and she +seized it eagerly. + +"Well, you did find my pouch, didn't you?" she exclaimed. "I made sure +that was what you were aiming to tell me. That's a good-luck charm. It +was given to me as much as eight years ago, by a young fellow who was +taken sick on our ranch down in Texas. He'd been working around the docks +in Galveston, but came on inland because somebody roped him in to believe +he could make a fortune in cattle in a few months. He was riding fences +for Henry, and he came down with a fever and Henry and me nursed him +through." + +Always talkative, she poured out her information now in a stream, drawn +on by the compelling eagerness of the old man's gaze. + +"He was a nice boy and the most grateful soul you ever saw. But he didn't +take to the cattle business, and he soon pushed on. He was all broke up +when it came to saying good-bye. You could see that, although he's one of +your quiet kind, hiding his real feelings like an Indian. He gave me this +good-luck charm when he left, because he didn't have anything else to +give, to show he appreciated our nursing him and doing for him, and he +said that he'd _make_ it bring us good luck or die a-trying and we'd +hear from him some of these days." + +"And you did?" + +The old man's face was twitching with eagerness as he asked the question. + +"Yes, about five years ago he sent us a nice little check at Christmas. +Said he had a good job with a wealthy Englishman who spent his time going +around the world discovering queer plants and writing books about them. +He was in South America then. We've heard from him several times since. +This last letter followed me around from pillar to post, always just +missing me and having to have the address scratched out and written over +till you could hardly make head or tail of what was on it. + +"He asked me to write to the address he gave me, but whether it was in +'Afric's sunny fountain or India's coral strand,' I can't tell now. It +was some heathenish 'land in error's chain,' as the missionary hymn says. +I was so worried over losing the letter on account of the address, for he +did seem so bent on hearing from us, and he's a nice boy. I'd hate to +loose track of him. So I'm mighty thankful you found the pouch." + +She stopped, expecting them to hand it over. Mr. Milford made the +necessary explanation. He told of Captain Kidd finding it and bringing it +home, of the two children burying it in play and the storm sweeping away +every trace of the markers. While he told the story several automobiles +passed them and the occupants leaned out to look at the strange group +beside the road. It was not every day one could see an old lady seated in +a rocking chair in one end of an unattached wagon with a wild-cat in the +other. These passing tourists would have thought it stranger still, could +they have known how fate had been tangling the life threads of these +people who were in such earnest conversation, or how it had wound them +together into a queer skein of happenings. + +"And the only reason this compass was saved," concluded Mr. Milford, "was +because it had the initials 'D. D.' scratched on it, which stands for +this little boy's name when he plays pirate--Dare-devil Dick." + +The motherly eyes smiled on Richard "If you want to know the real name +those letters stand for," she said, "it's Dave Daniels. That's the name +of the boy who gave it to me." + +Richard looked alarmed, and even Mr. Milford turned with a questioning +glance towards Uncle Darcy, about to say something, when the old man +leaned past him and spoke quickly, almost defiantly, as a child might +have done. + +"That's all right. I don't care what he told you his name was. He had a +good reason for changing it. And I'm going to tell you this much no +matter what I promised. _I_ scratched those initials on there my own +self, over forty years ago. And the boy who gave it to you _is_ +named Daniel, but it's his first name, same as mine. Dan'l Darcy. And the +boy's mine, and I've been hunting him for ten long years, and I've faith +to believe that the good Lord isn't going to disappoint me now that I'm +this near the end of my hunt. He had a good reason for going away from +home the way he did. He'd a good reason for changing his name as he did, +but the time has come now when it's all right for him to come back and," +shaking his finger solemnly and impressively at the woman, "_I want you +to get that word back to him without fail_." + +"But this is only circumstantial evidence, Uncle Dan'l," said Mr. +Milford, soothingly. "You haven't any real proof that this Dave is your +Danny." + +"Proof, proof," was the excited answer. "I tell you, man, I've all the +proof I need. All I ask for is the address in that letter. I'll find my +boy quick enough." + +"But I don't know," was all the woman could answer. "The only way in the +world to find it is to dig up that pouch." + +"But even if you can't remember the new address tell me one of the old +ones," he pleaded. "I'll take a chance on writing there and having it +forwarded." + +But the woman could not recall the name of a single city. South America, +Australia, New Zealand, she remembered he had been in those countries, +but that was all. Richard, upon being cross-questioned again, "b'leeved" +the stamp was from Siam or China but couldn't be certain which. + +"Here comes Henry!" exclaimed the woman in a relieved tone. "Maybe he'll +remember." + +Henry, a tall, raw-boned man with iron-gray hair under his Texas +sombrero, in his shirt sleeves and with his after-dinner pipe still in +his mouth, came leisurely out of the woods, leading the horses. They were +already harnessed, ready to be hitched to the wagon. He backed them up to +the tongue and snapped the chains in place before he paused to give the +strangers more than a passing nod of greeting. Then he came around to the +side of the wagon nearest the machine, and putting one foot up on a spoke +of his front wheel, leaned over in a listening attitude, while the whole +story was repeated for his benefit. + +"So you're his father," he said musingly, looking at Uncle Darcy with +shrewd eyes that were used to appraising strangers. + +"Who ever would a thought of coming across Dave Daniels' tracks up here +on old Cape Cod? You look like him though. I bet at his age you were as +much alike as two peas in a pod. I never did know where he hailed from. +He was a close-mouthed chap. But I somehow got the idea he must have been +brought up near salt water. He talked so much sailor lingo." + +"Put on your thinking-cap, Henry," demanded his wife. "The gentlemen +wants to know where that last letter was written from, what the postmark +was, or the address inside, or what country the stamp belonged to. And if +you don't know that, what are some of the other places he wrote to us +from?" + +"You're barking up the wrong tree when you ask _me_ any such +questions," was the only answer he could give. "I didn't pay any +attention to anything but the reading matter." + +Questions, surmises, suggestions, everything that could be brought up as +aids to memory were of no avail. Henry's memory was a blank in that one +important particular. Finally, Mr. Milford took two five-dollar gold +pieces out of his pocket and a handful of small change which he dropped +into the woman's lap despite her protests. + +"We'll square up the damage the children did as far as possible," he said +with a laugh. "But we can't get the letter back until the wind is ready +to turn the dunes topsy-turvy again. That may be in years and it may be +never. Let me have your address and if ever it is found it shall be sent +directly back to you, and the children can inherit the money if I'm not +here to claim it." + +The man made a wry face at mention of his address. "We sort of belong to +what they call the floating population now. Home with us means any old +place where Mother happens to set her rocking chair. We've turned the +ranch over to my daughter and her husband while we see something of the +world, and as long as things go as smoothly as they do, we're in no great +shakes of a hurry to get back." + +"But the ranch address will always find us, Henry," she insisted. "Write +it down for the gentlemen. Ain't this been a strange happening?" she +commented, as she received Mr. Milford's card in return with the +Towncrier's name penciled on the back. She looked searchingly at Richard. + +"I remember you, now," she said. "There was such a pretty little girl +with you--climbed up on the wagon to touch Tim's tail through the bars. +She had long curls and a smile that made me want to hug her. She bought a +bottle of liniment, I remember, and I've thought of her a dozen times +since then, thought how a little face like that brightens up all the +world around it." + +"That was Georgina Huntingdon," volunteered Richard. + +"Well, now, that's a pretty name. Write it down on the other side of this +piece of paper, sonny, and yours, too. Then when I go about the country +I'll know what to call you when I think about you. This is just like a +story. If there was somebody who knew how to write it up 'twould make a +good piece for the papers, wouldn't it?" + +They were ready to start back now, since there was no more information to +be had, but on one pretext or another Uncle Darcy delayed. He was so +pitifully eager for more news of Danny. The smallest crumb about the way +he looked, what he did and said was seized upon hungrily, although it was +news eight years old. And he begged to hear once more just what it was +Danny had said about the Englishman, and the work they were doing +together. He could have sat there the rest of the day listening to her +repeat the same things over and over if he had had his wish. Then she +asked a question. + +"Who is Belle? I mind when he was out of his head so long with the fever +he kept saying, '_Belle_ mustn't suffer. No matter what happens +_Belle_ must be spared.' I remembered because that's my name, and +hearing it called out in the dead of night the way a man crazy with fever +would call it, naturally makes you recollect it." + +"That was just a friend of his," answered Uncle Darcy, "the girl who was +going to marry his chum." + +"Oh," was the answer in a tone which seemed to convey a shade of +disappontment. "I thought maybe--" + +She did not finish the sentence, for the engine had begun to shake +noisily, and it seemed to distract her thoughts. And now there being +really nothing more to give them an excuse for lingering they said +goodbye to their wayside acquaintances, feeling that they were parting +from two old friends, so cordial were the good wishes which accompanied +the leave-taking. + + + + +Chapter XXII + +The Rainbow Game + + + +With her arm stiff and cramped from being held so long in one position, +Georgina waked suddenly and looked around her in bewilderment. Uncle +Darcy was in the room, saying something about her riding home in the +machine. He didn't want to hurry her off, but Mr. Milford was waiting at +the gate, and it would save her a long walk home----. + +While he talked he was leaning over Aunt Elspeth, patting her cheek, and +she was clinging to his hand and smiling up at him as if he had just been +restored to her after a long, long absence, instead of a separation of +only a few hours. And he looked so glad about something, as if the nicest +thing in the world had happened, that Georgina rubbed her eyes and stared +at him, wondering what it could have been. + +Evidently, it was the honk of the horn which had aroused Georgina, and +when it sounded again she sprang up, still confused by the suddenness of +her awakening, with only one thing clear in her mind, the necessity for +haste. She snatched her prism from the window and caught up her hat as +she ran through the next room, but not until she was half-way home did +she remember that she had said nothing about the eggs and had asked no +questions about the trip to Brewster. She had not even said good-bye. + +Mr. Milford nodded pleasantly when she went out to the car, saying, "Hop +in, kiddie," but he did not turn around after they started and she did +not feel well enough acquainted with him to shout out questions behind +his back. Besides, after they had gone a couple of blocks he began +explaining something to Richard, who was sitting up in front of him, +about the workings of the car, and kept on explaining all the rest of the +way home. She couldn't interrupt. + +Not until she climbed out in front of her own gate with a shy "Thank you, +Mr. Milford, for bringing me home," did she find courage and opportunity +to ask the question she longed to know. + +"Did you find the woman? _Was_ it her pouch?" + +Mr. Milford was leaning forward in his seat to examine something that had +to do with the shifting of the gears, and he answered while he +investigated, without looking up. + +"Yes, but she couldn't remember where the letter was from, so we're not +much wiser than we were before, except that we know for a certainty that +Dan was alive and well less than two months ago. At least Uncle Dan'l +believes it is Dan. The woman calls him Dave, but Uncle Dan'l vows +they're one and the same." + +Having adjusted the difficulty, Mr. Milford, with a good-bye nod to +Georgina, started on down the street again. Georgina stood looking after +the rapidly disappearing car. + +"Well, no wonder Uncle Darcy looked so happy," she thought, recalling his +radiant face. "It was knowing that Danny is alive and well that made it +shine so. I wish I'd been along. Wish I could have heard every thing each +one of them said. I could have remembered every single word to tell +Richard, but he won't remember even half to tell me." + +It was in the pursuit of all the information which could be pumped out of +Richard that Georgina sought the Green Stairs soon after breakfast next +morning. Incidentally, she was on her way to a nearby grocery and had +been told to hurry. She ran all the way down in order to gain a few extra +moments in which to loiter. As usual at this time of morning, Richard was +romping over the terraces with Captain Kidd. + +"Hi, Georgina," he called, as he spied her coming. "I've got a new game. +A new way to play tag. Look." + +Plunging down the steps he held out for her inspection a crystal +paperweight which he had picked up from the library table. Its round +surface had been cut into many facets, as a diamond is cut to make it +flash the light, and the spots of color it threw as he turned it in the +sun were rainbow-hued. + +"See," he explained. "Instead of tagging Captain Kidd with my hand I +touch him with a rainbow, and it's lots harder to do because you can't +always make it light where you want it to go, or where you think it is +going to fall. I've only tagged him twice so far in all the time I've +been trying, because he bobs around so fast. Come on, I'll get you before +you tag me," he added, seeing that her prism hung from the ribbon on her +neck. + +She did not wear it every day, but she had felt an especial need for its +comforting this morning, and had put it on as she slowly dressed. The +difficulty of restoring the eggs loomed up in front of her as a real +trouble, and she needed this to remind her to keep on hoping that some +way would soon turn up to end it. + +It was a fascinating game. Such tags are elusive, uncertain things. The +pursuer can never be certain of touching the pursued. Georgina entered +into it, alert and glowing, darting this way and that to escape being +touched by the spots of vivid color. Her prism threw it in bars, +Richard's in tiny squares and triangles. + +"Let's make them fight!" Richard exclaimed in the midst of it, and for a +few moments the color spots flashed across each other like flocks of +darting birds. Suddenly Georgina stopped, saying: + +"Oh, I forgot. I'm on my way to the grocery, and I must hurry back. But I +wanted to ask you two things. One was, tell me all about what the woman +said yesterday, and the other was, think of some way for me to earn +twenty cents. There isn't time to hear about the first one now, but think +right quick and answer the second question." + +She started down the street, skipping backwards slowly, and Richard +walked after her. + +"Aw, I don't know," he answered in a vague way. "At home when we wanted +to make money we always gave a show and charged a penny to get in, or we +kept a lemonade stand; but we don't know enough kids here to make that +pay." + +Then he looked out over the water and made a suggestion at random. A boy +going along the beach towards one of the summer cottages with a pail in +his hand, made him think of it. + +"Pick blueberries and sell them." + +"I thought of that," answered Georgina, still progressing towards the +grocery backward. "And it would be a good time now to slip away while +Tippy's busy with the Bazaar. This is the third day. But they've done so +well they're going to keep on with it another day, and they've thought up +a lot of new things to-morrow to draw a crowd. One of them is a kind of +talking tableau. I'm to be in it, so it wouldn't do for me to go and get +my hands all stained with berries when I'm to be dressed up as a part of +the show for the whole town to come and take a look at me." + +Richard had no more suggestions to offer, so with one more flash of the +prism and a cry of "last tag," Georgina turned and started on a run to +the grocery. Richard and the paperweight followed in hot pursuit. + +Up at one of the front windows of the bungalow, two interested spectators +had been watching the game below. One was Richard's father, the other was +a new guest of Mr. Milford's who had arrived only the night before. He +was the Mr. Locke who was to take Richard and his father and Cousin James +away on his yacht next morning. He was also a famous illustrator of +juvenile books, and he sometimes wrote the rhymes and fairy tales himself +which he illustrated. Everybody in this town of artists who knew anything +at all of the world of books and pictures outside, knew of Milford Norris +Locke. Now as he watched the graceful passes of the two children darting +back and forth on the board-walk below, he asked: + +"Who's the little girl, Moreland? She's the child of my dreams--the very +one I've been hunting for weeks. She has not only the sparkle and spirit +that I want to put into those pictures I was telling you about, but the +grace and the curls and the mischievous eyes as well. Reckon I could get +her to pose for me?" + +That is how it came about that Georgina found Richard's father waiting +for her at the foot of the Green Stairs when she came running back from +the grocery. When she went home a few minutes later, she carried with her +something more than the cake of sweet chocolate that Tippy had sent her +for in such a hurry. It was the flattering knowledge that a famous +illustrator had asked to make a sketch of her which would be published in +a book if it turned out to be a good one. + +With a sailing party and a studio reception and several other engagements +to fill up his one day in Provincetown, Mr. Locke could give only a part +of the morning to the sketches, and wanted to begin as soon as possible. +So a few minutes after Georgina went dancing in with the news, he +followed in Mr. Milford's machine. He arrived so soon after, in fact, +that Tippy had to receive him just as she was in her gingham house dress +and apron. + +After looking all over the place he took Georgina down to the garden and +posed her on a stone bench near the sun-dial, at the end of a tall, +bright aisle of hollyhocks. There was no time to waste. + +"We'll pretend you're sitting on the stone rim of a great fountain in the +King's garden," he said. "You're trying to find some trace of the +beautiful Princess who has been bewitched and carried away to a castle +under the sea, that had 'a ceiling of amber, a pavement of pearl.'" + +Georgina looked up, delighted that he had used a line from a poem she +loved. It made her feel as if he were an old friend. + +"This is for a fairy tale that has just begun to hatch itself out in my +mind, so you see it isn't all quite clear yet. There'll be lily pads in +the fountain. Maybe you can hear what they are saying, or maybe the gold- +fish will bring you a message, because you are a little mortal who has +such a kind heart that you have been given the power to understand the +speech of everything which creeps or swims or flies." + +Georgina leaned over and looked into the imaginary fountain dubiously, +forgetting in her interest of the moment that her companion was the great +Milford Norris Locke. She was entering with him into the spirit of his +game of "pretend" as if he were Richard. + +"No, I'll tell you," she suggested. "Have it a frog instead of a fish +that brings the message. He can jump right out of that lily pad on to the +edge of the fountain where I am sitting, and then when you look at the +picture you can see us talking together. No one could tell what I was +doing if they saw me just looking down into the fountain, but they could +tell right away if the frog was here and I was shaking my finger at him +as if I were saying: + +"'Now tell me the truth, Mr. Frog, or the Ogre of the Oozy Marsh shall +eat you ere the day be done.'" + +"Don't move. Don't move!" called Mr. Locke, excitedly. "Ah, that's +perfect. That's exactly what I want. Hold that pose for a moment or two. +Why, Georgina, you've given me exactly what I wanted and a splendid idea +besides. It will give the fairy tale an entirely new turn. If you can +only hold that position a bit longer, then you may rest." + +His pencil flew with magical rapidity and as he sketched he kept on +talking in order to hold the look of intense interest which showed in her +glowing face. + +"I dearly love stories like that," sighed Georgina when he came to the +end and told her to lean back and rest a while. + +"Barby--I mean my mother--and I act them all the time, and sometimes we +make them up ourselves." + +"Maybe you'll write them when you grow up," suggested Mr. Locke not +losing a moment, but sketching her in the position she had taken of her +own accord. + +"Maybe I shall," exclaimed Georgina, thrilled by the thought. "My +grandfather Shirley said I could write for his paper some day. You know +he's an editor, down in Kentucky. I'd like to be the editor of a magazine +that children would adore the way I do the _St. Nicholas_." + +Tippy would have said that Georgina was "run-ning on." But Mr. Locke did +not think so. Children always opened their hearts to him. He held the +magic key. Georgina found it easier to tell him her inmost feelings than +anybody else in the world but Barby. + +"That's a beautiful game you and Dicky were playing this morning," he +remarked presently, "tagging each other with rainbows. I believe I'll put +it into this fairy tale, have the water-nixies do it as they slide over +the water-fall." + +"But it isn't half as nice as the game we play in earnest," she assured +him. "In our Rainbow Club we have a sort of game of tag. We tag a person +with a good time, or some kindness to make them happy, and we pretend +that makes a little rainbow in the world. Do you think it does?" + +"It makes a very real one, I am sure," was the serious answer. "Have you +many members?" + +"Just Richard and me and the bank president, Mr. Gates, so far, but--but +you can belong--if you'd like to." + +She hesitated a trifle over the last part of her invitation, having just +remembered what a famous man she was talking to. He might think she was +taking a liberty even to suggest that he might care to belong. + +"I'd like it very much," he assured her gravely, "if you think I can live +up to the requirements." + +"Oh, you already have," she cried. "Think of all the happy hours you have +made for people with your books and pictures--just swarms and bevies and +_flocks_ of rainbows! We would have put you on the list of honorary +members anyhow. Those are the members who don't know they are members," +she explained. "They're just like the prisms themselves. Prisms don't +know they are prisms but everybody who looks at them sees the beautiful +places they make in the world." + +"Georgina," he said solemnly, "that is the very loveliest thing that was +ever said to me in all my life. Make me club member number four and I'll +play the game to my very best ability. I'll try to do some tagging really +worth while." + +He had been sketching constantly all the time he talked, and now, +impelled by curiosity, Georgina got up from the stone bench and walked +over to take a look at his work. He had laid aside the several outline +studies he had made of her, and was now exercising his imagination in +sketching a ship. + +"This is to be the one that brings the Princess home, and in a minute I +want you to pose for the Princess, for she is to have curls, long, golden +ones, and she is to hold her head as you did a few moments ago when you +were talking about looking off to sea." + +Georgina brought her hands together in a quick gesture as she said +imploringly, "Oh, _do_ put Hope at the prow. Every time I pass the +Figurehead House and see Hope sitting up on the portico roof I wish I +could see how she looked when she was riding the waves on the prow of a +gallant vessel. That's where she ought to be, I heard a man say. He said +Hope squatting on a portico roof may look ridiculous, but Hope breasting +the billows is superb." + +[Illustration: Coming across a Sea of Dreams] + +Mr. Locke was no stranger in the town. He knew the story of the +figurehead as the townspeople knew it, now he heard its message as Uncle +Darcy knew it. He listened as intently to Georgina as she had listened to +him. At the end he lifted his head, peering fixedly through half-closed +eyes at nothing. + +"You have made me see the most beautiful ship," he said, musingly. "It is +a silver shallop coming across a sea of Dreams, its silken sails set +wide, and at the prow is an angel. 'White-handed Hope, thou hovering +angel girt with golden wings,'" he quoted. "Yes, I'll make it with golden +wings sweeping back over the sides this way. See?" + +His pencil flew over the paper again, showing her in a few swift strokes +an outline of the vision she had given him. And now Tippy would have +said not only that Georgina was "running on," but that she was "wound +up," for with such a sympathetic and appreciative listener, she told him +the many things she would have taken to Barby had she been at home. +Especially, she talked about her difficulties in living up to the aim of +the club. In stories there are always poor people whom one can benefit; +patient sufferers at hospitals, pallid children of the slums. But in the +range of Georgina's life there seemed to be so few opportunities and +those few did not always turn out the way they should. + +For instance, there was the time she tried to cheer Tippy up with her +"line to live by," and her efforts were neither appreciated nor +understood. And there was the time only yesterday when she stayed with +Aunt Elspeth, and got into trouble with the eggs, and now had a debt on +her conscience equal to eight eggs or twenty cents. + +It showed how well Mr. Locke understood children when he did not laugh +over the recital of that last calamity, although it sounded unspeakably +funny to him as Georgina told it. In such congenial company the time flew +so fast that Georgina was amazed when Mr. Milford drove up to take his +distinguished guest away. Mr. Locke took with him what he had hoped to +get, a number of sketches to fill in at his leisure. + +"They're exactly what I wanted," he assured her gratefully as he shook +hands at parting. "And that suggestion of yours for the ship will make +the most fetching illustration of all. I'll send you a copy in oils when +I get time for it, and I'll always think of you, my little friend, as +_Georgina of the Rainbows_." + +With a courtly bow he was gone, and Georgina went into the house to look +for the little blank book in which she had started to keep her two lists +of Club members, honorary and real. The name of Milford Norris Locke she +wrote in both lists. If there had been a third list, she would have +written him down in that as the very nicest gentleman she had ever met. +Then she began a letter to Barby, telling all about her wonderful +morning. But it seemed to her she had barely begun, when Mr. Milford's +chauffeur came driving back with something for her in a paper bag. When +she peeped inside she was so astonished she nearly dropped it. + +"Eggs!" she exclaimed. Then in unconscious imitation of Mrs. Saggs, she +added, "Can you beat _that_!" + +One by one she took them out and counted them. There were exactly eight. +Then she read the card which had dropped down to the bottom of the bag. + +"Mr. Milford Norris Locke." + +Above the name was a tiny rainbow done in water colors, and below was +scribbled the words, "Last tag." + +It was a pity that the new member could not have seen her face at that +instant, its expression was so eloquent of surprise, of pleasure and of +relief that her trouble had thus been wiped out of existence. + + + + +Chapter XXIII + +Light Dawns for Uncle Darcy + + + +For some time the faint jangle of a bell had been sounding at intervals +far down the street. Ordinarily it would have caught Georgina's attention +long before this, but absorbed in the letter to which she had returned +after putting the eggs down cellar, she did not hear the ringing until it +was near enough for the Towncrier's message to be audible also. He was +announcing the extra day of the Bazaar, and calling attention to the many +new attractions it would have to offer on the morrow. + +Instantly, Georgina dropped her pencil and flew out to meet him. Here was +an opportunity to find out all about the Brewster trip. As he came +towards her she saw the same look in his weather-beaten old face which +she had wondered at the day before, when he was bending over Aunt +Elspeth, patting her on the cheek. It was like the shining of a newly- +lighted candle. + +She was not the only one who had noticed it. All the way up the street +glances had followed him. People turned for a second look, wondering what +good fortune had befallen the old fellow. They had come to expect a +cheery greeting from him. He always left a kindly glow behind him +whenever he passed. But to-day the cheeriness was so intensified that he +seemed to be brimming over with good will to everybody. + +"Why, Uncle Darcy!" cried Georgina. "You look so happy!" + +"Well, is it any wonder, lass, with such news from Danny? Him alive and +well and sure to come back to me some of these days! I could hardly keep +from shouting it out to everybody as I came along the street. I'm afraid +it'll just naturally tell itself some day, in spite of my promise to +Belle. I'm glad I can let off steam up here, you knowing the secret, too, +for this old heart of mine is just about to burst with all the gladness +that's inside of me." + +Here was someone as anxious to tell as she was to hear; someone who could +recall every word of the interview with the wild-cat woman. Georgina +swung on to his arm which held the bell, and began to ask questions, and +nothing loath, he let her lead him into the yard and to the rustic seat +running around the trunk of the big willow tree. He was ready to rest, +now that his route was traveled and his dollar earned. + +Belle, back in the kitchen, preparing a light dinner for herself and +Georgina, Tippy being away for the day, did not see him come in. She had +not seen him since the day the old rifle gave up its secret, and she +tried to put him out of her mind as much as possible, for she was +miserable every time she thought of him. She would have been still more +miserable could she have heard all that he was saying to Georgina. + +"Jimmy Milford thought that the liniment folks calling the boy 'Dave,' +proved that he wasn't the same as my Danny. But just one thing would have +settled all doubts for me if I'd a had any. That was what he kept a +calling in his fever when he was out of his head: 'Belle mustn't suffer. +Belle must be spared, no matter what happens!' + +"And that's the one thing that reconciles me to keeping still a while +longer. It was his wish to spare her, and if he could sacrifice so much +to do it, I can't make his sacrifice seem in vain. I lay awake last night +till nearly daylight, thinking how I'd like to take this old bell of +mine, and go from one end of the town to the other, ringing it till it +cracked, crying out, _'Danny is innocent,_' to the whole world. But +the time hasn't come yet. I'll have to be patient a while longer and bear +up the best I can." + +Georgina, gazing fixedly ahead of her at nothing in particular, pondered +seriously for a long, silent moment. + +"If you did that," she said finally, "cried the good news through the +town till everybody knew--then when people found out that it was Emmett +Potter who was the thief and that he was too much of a coward to own up +and take the blame--would they let the monument go on standing there, +that they'd put up to show he was brave? It would serve him right if they +took it down, wouldn't it!" she exclaimed with a savage little scowl +drawing her brows together. + +"No, no, child!" he said gently. "Give the lad his due. He _was_ +brave that one time. He saved all those lives as it is chiseled on his +headstone. It is better he should be remembered for the best act in his +life than for the worst one. A man's measure should be taken when he's +stretched up to his full height, just as far as he can lift up his head; +not when he's stooped to the lowest. It's only fair to judge either the +living or the dead that way." + +For some time after that nothing more was said. The harbor was full of +boats this morning. It was a sight worth watching. One naturally drifted +into day-dreams, following the sweep of the sails moving silently toward +the far horizon. Georgina was busy picturing a home-coming scene that +made the prodigal son's welcome seem mild in comparison, when Uncle Darcy +startled her by exclaiming: + +"Oh, it _pays_ to bear up and steer right onward! S'pose I hadn't +done that. S'pose I _hadn't_ kept Hope at the prow. I believe I'd +have been in my grave by this time with all the grief and worry. But +now----" + +He stopped and shook his head, unable to find words to express the +emotion which was making his voice tremble and his face glow with that +wonderful inner shining. Georgina finished the sentence for him, looking +out on the sail-filled harbor and thinking of the day he had taken her +out in his boat to tell her of his son. + +"But now you'll be all ready and waiting when your ship comes home from +sea with its precious cargo." They were his own words she was repeating. + +"Danny'll weather the storms at last and come into port with all flags +flying." + +The picture her words suggested was too much for the old father. He put +his hat up in front of his face, and his shoulders shook with silent +sobs. Georgina laid a sympathetic little hand on the rough sleeve next +her. Suddenly the sails in the harbor seemed to run together all blurry +and queer. She drew her hand across her eyes and looked again at the +heaving shoulders. A happiness so deep that it found its expression that +way, filled her with awe. It must be the kind of happiness that people +felt when they reached "the shining shore, the other side, of Jordan," +and their loved ones came down to welcome them "into their desired +haven." + +That last phrase came to her lips like a bit of remembered music and +unconsciously she repeated it aloud. Uncle Darcy heard it, and looked up. +His cheeks were wet when he put down his hat, but it was the happiest +face she had ever seen, and there was no shake in his voice now when he +said solemnly: + +"And nobody but the good Lord who's helped his poor sailors through +shipwreck and storm, knows how mightily they've desired that haven, or +what it means to them to be brought into it." + +A delivery wagon from one of the fruit stores stopped in front of the +gate, and the driver came in, carrying a basket. Uncle Darcy spoke to him +as he passed the willow tree. + +"Well, Joe, this looks like a chance for me to get a lift most of the way +home." + +"Sure," was the cordial reply. "Climb in. I'll be right back." + +Georgina thought of something as he rose to go. + +"Oh, wait just a minute, Uncle Darcy, I want to get something of yours +that's down cellar." + +When she came back there was no time or opportunity for an explanation. +He and the driver were both in the wagon. She reached up and put the bag +on the seat beside him. + +"I--I did something to some of your eggs, yesterday," she stammered, "and +these are to take the place of the ones I broke." + +Uncle Darcy peered into the bag with a puzzled expression. He had not +missed any eggs from the crock of bran. He didn't know what she was +talking about. But before he could ask any questions the driver slapped +the horse with the reins, and they were rattling off down street. +Georgina stood looking after them a moment, then turned her head to +listen. Somebody was calling her. It was Belle, who had come to the front +door to say that dinner was ready. + +Whenever Mrs. Triplett was at home, Belle made extra efforts to talk and +appear interested in what was going on around her. She was afraid her +keen-eyed Aunt Maria would see that she was unhappy. But alone with +Georgina who shared her secret, she relapsed into a silence so deep it +could be felt, responding only with a wan smile when the child's lively +chatter seemed to force an answer of some kind. But to-day when Georgina +came to the table she was strangely silent herself, so mute that Belle +noticed it, and found that she was being furtively watched by the big +brown eyes opposite her. Every time Belle looked up she caught Georgina's +gaze fastened on her, and each time it was immediately transferred to her +plate. + +"What's the matter, Georgina?" she asked finally. "Why do you keep +staring at me?" + +Georgina flushed guiltily. "Nothing," was the embarrassed answer. "I was +just wondering whether to tell you or not. I thought maybe you'd like to +know, and maybe you ought to know, but I wasn't sure whether you'd want +me to talk to you about it or not." + +Belle put down her tea-cup. It was her turn to stare. + +"For goodness' sake! What _are_ you beating around the bush about?" + +"About the news from Danny," answered Georgina. "About the letter he +wrote to the wild-cat woman and that got buried in the dunes too deep +ever to be dug up again." + +As this was the first Belle had heard of either the letter or the woman, +her expression of astonishment was all that Georgina could desire. Her +news had made a sensation. Belle showed plainly that she was startled, +and as eager to hear as Georgina was to tell. So she began at the +beginning, from the time of the opening of the pouch on the Green Stairs, +to the last word of the wild-cat woman's conversation which Uncle Darcy +had repeated to her only a few moments before under the willow. + +Instinctively, she gave the recital a dramatic touch which made Belle +feel almost like an eye witness as she listened. And it was with Uncle +Darcy's own gestures and manner that she repeated his final statement. + +"Jimmy Milford thought the liniment folks calling the boy Dave proved he +wasn't the same as my Danny. But just one thing would have settled all +doubts for me if I'd had any. That was what he kept a calling in his +fever when he was out of his head: '_Belle_ mustn't suffer. +_Belle_ must be spared no matter what happens.'" + +At the bringing of her own name into the story Belle gave a perceptible +start and a tinge of red crept into her pale cheeks. + +"Did he say that, Georgina?" she demanded, leaning forward and looking at +her intently. "Are you sure those are his exact words?" + +"His very-own-exactly-the-same words," declared Georgina solemnly. "I +cross my heart and body they're just as Uncle Darcy told them to me." + +Rising from the table, Belle walked over to the window and stood with her +back to Georgina, looking out into the garden. + +"Well, and what next?" she demanded in a queer, breathless sort of way. + +"And then Uncle Darcy said that his saying that was the one thing that +made him feel willing to keep still a while longer about--you know--what +was in the rifle. 'Cause if Danny cared enough about sparing you to give +up home and his good name and everything else in life he couldn't spoil +it all by telling now. But Uncle Darcy said he lay awake nearly all last +night thinking how he'd love to take that old bell of his and go ringing +it through the town till it cracked, calling out to the world, 'My boy is +innocent.' + +"And when I said something about it's all coming out all right some day, +and that Danny would weather the storms and come into port with all flags +flying----" Here Georgina lowered her voice and went on slowly as if she +hesitated to speak of what happened next--"he just put his old hat over +his face and cried. And I felt so sorry----" + +Georgina's voice choked. There were tears in her eyes as she spoke of the +scene. + +"_Don't_!" groaned Belle, her back still turned. + +The note of distress in Belle's voice stilled Georgina's lively tongue a +few seconds, but there was one more thing in her mind to be said, and +with the persistence of a mosquito she returned to the subject to give +that final stab, quite unconscious of how deeply it would sting. She was +only wondering aloud, something which she had often wondered to herself. + +"I should think that when anybody had suffered as long as Danny has to +spare you, it would make you want to spare him. Doesn't it? I should +think that you'd want to do something to sort of make up to him for it +all. Don't you?" + +"Oh, _don't_!" exclaimed Belle again, sharply this time. Then to +Georgina's utter amazement she buried her face in her apron, stood +sobbing by the window a moment, and ran out of the room. She did not come +downstairs again until nearly supper time. + +Georgina sat at the table, not knowing what to do next. She felt that she +had muddled things dreadfully. Instead of making Belle feel better as she +hoped to do, she realized she had hurt her in some unintentional way. +Presently, she slowly drew herself up from her chair and began to clear +the table, piling the few dishes they had used, under the dish-pan in the +sink. The house stood open to the summer breeze. It seemed so desolate +and deserted with Belle upstairs, drawn in alone with her troubles and +Tippy away, that she couldn't bear to stay in the silent rooms. She +wandered out into the yard and climbed up into the willow to look across +the water. + +Somewhere out there on those shining waves, Richard was sailing along, in +the party given for Mr. Locke, and to-morrow he would be going away on +the yacht. If he were at home she wouldn't be up in the willow wondering +what to do next. Well, as long as she couldn't have a good time herself +she'd think of someone else she could make happy. For several minutes she +sent her thoughts wandering over the list of all the people she knew, but +it seemed as if her friends were capable of making their own good times, +all except poor Belle. Probably _she_ never would be happy again, no +matter what anybody did to try to brighten her life. It was so +discouraging when one was trying to play the game of "Rainbow Tag," for +there to be no one to tag. She wished she knew some needy person, some +unfortunate soul who would be glad of her efforts to make them happy. + +Once she thought of slipping off down street to the library. Miss Tupman +always let her go in where the shelves were and choose her own book. Miss +Tupman was always so interesting, too, more than any of the books when +she had time to talk. But that grim old word Duty rose up in front of +her, telling her that she ought not to run away and leave the house all +open with Belle locked in her room upstairs. Somebody ought to be within +hearing if the telephone rang or anyone came. She went into the house for +a book which she had read many times but which never failed to interest +her, and curled up in a big rocking chair on the front porch. + +Late in the afternoon she smelled burning pine chips and smoke from the +kitchen chimney which told that a fire was being started in the stove. +After a while she went around the house to the kitchen door and peeped +in, apprehensively. Belle was piling the dinner dishes into the pan, +preparatory to washing them while supper was cooking. Her eyes were red +and she did not look up when Georgina came in, but there was an air of +silent determination about her as forcible as her Aunt Maria's. Picking +up the tea-kettle, she filled the dishpan and carried the kettle back to +the stove, setting it down hard before she spoke. Then she said: + +"Nobody'll ever know what I've been through with, fighting this thing out +with myself. I can't go all the way yet. I can't say the word that'll let +the blow fall on poor old Father Potter. But I don't seem to care about +my part of it any more. I see things differently from what I did that +first day--you know. Even Emmett don't seem the same any more." + +For several minutes there was a rattling of dishes, but no further speech +from Belle. Georgina, not knowing what to say or do, stood poised +uncertainly on the door-sill. Then Belle spoke again. + +"I'm willing it should be told if only it could be kept from getting back +to Father Potter, for the way Dan's done _does_ make me want to set +him square with the world. I would like to make up to him in some way for +all he's suffered on my account. I can't get over it that it was +_him_ that had all the bravery and the nobleness that I was fairly +worshiping in Emmett all these years. Seems like the whole world has +turned upside down." + +Georgina waited a long time, but Belle seemed to have said all that she +intended to say, so presently she walked over and stood beside the sink. + +"Belle," she said slowly, "does what you said mean that you're really +willing I should tell Barby? Right away?" + +Belle waited an instant before replying, then taking a deep breath as if +about to make a desperate plunge into a chasm on whose brink she had long +been poised, said: + +"Yes. Uncle Dan'l would rather have her know than anybody else. He sets +such store by her good opinion. But oh, _do_ make it plain it +mustn't be talked about outside, so's it'll get back to Father Potter." + +The next instant Georgina's arms were around her in a silent but joyful +squeeze, and she ran upstairs to write to Barby before the sun should go +down or Tippy get back from the Bazaar. + + + + +Chapter XXIV + +A Contrast in Fathers + + + + Georgina was having a beautiful day. It was the first time she had ever +taken part in a Bazaar, and so important was the role assigned her that +she was in a booth all by herself. Moreover, the little mahogany chair in +which she sat was on a high platform inside the booth, so that all might +behold her. Dressed in a quaint old costume borrowed from the chests in +the Figurehead House, she represented "A Little Girl of Long Ago." + +On a table beside her stood other borrowed treasures from the Figurehead +House--a doll bedstead made by an old sea captain on one of his voyages. +Each of its high posts was tipped with a white point, carved from the +bone of a whale. Wonderful little patchwork quilts, a feather bed and +tiny pillows made especially for the bed, were objects of interest to +everyone who crowded around the booth. So were the toys and dishes +brought home from other long cruises by the same old sea captain, who +evidently was an indulgent father and thought often of the little +daughter left behind in the home port. A row of dolls dressed in fashions +half a century old were also on exhibition. + +With unfailing politeness Georgina explained to the curious summer people +who thronged around her, that they all belonged in the house where the +figurehead of Hope sat on the portico roof, and were not for sale at any +price. + +Until to-day Georgina had been unconscious that she possessed any unusual +personal charms, except her curls. Her attention had been called to them +from the time she was old enough to understand remarks people made about +them as she passed along the street. Their beauty would have been a great +pleasure to her if Tippy had not impressed upon her the fact that looking +in the mirror makes one vain, and it's wicked to be vain. One way in +which Tippy guarded her against the sin of vanity was to mention some of +her bad points, such as her mouth being a trifle too large, or her nose +not quite so shapely as her mother's, each time anyone unwisely called +attention to her "glorious hair." + +Another way was to repeat a poem from a book called "Songs for the Little +Ones at Home," the same book which had furnished the "Landing of the +Pilgrims" and "Try, Try Again." It began: + + "What! Looking in the glass again? + Why's my silly child so vain?"_ + +The disgust, the surprise, the scorn of Tippy's voice when she repeated +that was enough to make one hurry past a mirror in shame-faced +embarrassment. + + "Beauty soon will fade away. + Your rosy cheeks must soon decay. + There's nothing lasting you will find, + But the treasures of the mind." + +Rosy cheeks might not be lasting, but it was certainly pleasant to +Georgina to hear them complimented so continually by passers-by. +Sometimes the remarks were addressed directly to her. + +"My _dear_," said one enthusiastic admirer, "if I could only buy +_you_ and put you in a gold frame, I'd have a prettier picture than +any artist in town can paint." Then she turned to a companion to add: +"Isn't she a love in that little poke bonnet with the row of rose-buds +inside the rim? I never saw such exquisite coloring or such gorgeous +eyes." + +Georgina blushed and looked confused as she smoothed the long lace mitts +over her arms. But by the time the day was over she had heard the +sentiment repeated so many times that she began to expect it and to feel +vaguely disappointed if it were not forthcoming from each new group which +approached her. + +Another thing gave her a new sense of pleasure and enriched her day. On +the table beside her, under a glass case, to protect it from careless +handling, was a little blank book which contained the records of the +first sewing circle in Provincetown. The book lay open, displaying a page +of the minutes, and a column of names of members, written in an +exquisitely fine and beautiful hand. The name of Georgina's great-great +grandmother was in that column. It gave her a feeling of being well born +and distinguished to be able to point it out. + +The little book seemed to reinforce and emphasize the claims of the +monument and the silver porringer. She felt it was so nice to be +beautiful and to belong; to have belonged from the beginning both to a +first family and a first sewing circle. + +Still another thing added to her contentment whenever the recollection of +it came to her. There was no longer any secret looming up between her and +Barby like a dreadful wall. The letter telling all about the wonderful +and exciting things which had happened in her absence was already on its +way to Kentucky. It was not a letter to be proud of. It was scrawled as +fast as she could write it with a pencil, and she knew perfectly well +that a dozen or more words were misspelled, but she couldn't take time to +correct them, or to think of easy words to put in their places. But Barby +wouldn't care. She would be so happy for Uncle Darcy's sake and so +interested in knowing that her own little daughter had had an important +part in finding the good news that she wouldn't notice the spelling or +the scraggly writing. + +As the day wore on, Georgina, growing more and more satisfied with +herself and her lot, felt that there was no one in the whole world with +whom she would change places. Towards the last of the afternoon a group +of people came in whom Georgina recognized as a family from the Gray Inn. +They had been at the Inn several days, and she had noticed them each time +she passed them, because the children seemed on such surprisingly +intimate terms with their father. That he was a naval officer she knew +from the way he dressed, and that he was on a long furlough she knew from +some remark which she overheard. + +He had a grave, stern face, and when he came into the room he gave a +searching glance from left to right as if to take notice of every object +in it. His manner made Georgina think of "Casabianca," another poem of +Tippy's teaching: + + "He stood + As born to rule the storm. + A creature of heroic blood, + A brave though ....... form." + +"Childlike" was the word she left out because it did not fit in this +case. "A brave and manlike form" would be better. She repeated the verse +to herself with this alteration. + +When he spoke to his little daughter or she spoke to him his expression +changed so wonderfully that Georgina watched him with deep interest. The +oldest boy was with them. He was about fourteen and as tall as his +mother. He was walking beside her but every few steps he turned to say +something to the others, and they seemed to be enjoying some joke +together. Somebody who knew them came up as they reached the booth of +"The Little Girl of Long Ago," and introduced them to Georgina, so she +found out their names. It was Burrell. He was a Captain, and the children +were Peggy and Bailey. + +As Georgina looked down at Peggy from the little platform where she sat +in the old mahogany chair, she thought with a throb of satisfaction that +she was glad she didn't have to change places with that homely little +thing. Evidently, Peggy was just up from a severe illness. Her hair had +been cut so short one could scarcely tell the color of it. She was so +thin and white that her eyes looked too large for her face and her neck +too slender for her head, and the freckles which would scarcely have +shown had she been her usual rosy self, stood out like big brown spotches +on her pallid little face. She limped a trifle too, as she walked. + +With a satisfied consciousness of her own rose leaf complexion, Georgina +was almost patronizing as she bent over the table to say graciously once +more after countless number of times, "no, that is not for sale." + +The next instant Peggy was swinging on her father's arm exclaiming, "Oh, +Dad-o'-my-heart! See that cunning doll bathing suit. Please get it for +me." Almost in the same breath Bailey, jogging the Captain's elbow on the +other side, exclaimed, "Look, Partner, _that's_ a relic worth +having." + +Georgina listened, fascinated. To think of calling one's father "Dad-o'- +my-heart" or "Partner!" And they looked up at him as if they adored him, +even that big boy, nearly grown. And a sort of laugh come into the +Captain's eyes each time they spoke to him, as if he thought everything +they said and did was perfect. + +A wave of loneliness swept over Georgina as she listened. There was an +empty spot in her heart that ached with longing--not for Barby, but for +the father whom she had never known in this sweet intimate way. She knew +now how if felt to be an orphan. What satisfaction was there in having +beautiful curls if no big, kind hand ever passed over them in a fatherly +caress such as was passing over Peggy Burrell's closely-clipped head? +What pleasure was there in having people praise you if they said behind +your back: + +"Oh, that's Justin Huntingdon's daughter. Don't you think a man would +want to come home once or twice in a lifetime to such a lovely child as +that?" + +Georgina had heard that very remark earlier in the day, also the answer +given with a significant shrug of the shoulders: + +"Oh, he has other fish to fry." + +The remarks had not annoyed her especially at the time, but they rankled +now as she recalled them. They hurt until they took all the pleasure and +satisfaction out of her beautiful day, just as the sun, going under a +cloud, leaves the world bereft of all its shine and sparkle. She looked +around, wishing it were time to go home. + +Presently, Captain Burrell, having made the rounds of the room, came back +to Georgina. He smiled at her so warmly that she wondered that she could +have thought his face was stern. + +"They tell me that you are Doctor Huntingdon's little girl," he said with +a smile that went straight to her heart. "So I've come back to ask you +all about him. Where is he now and how is he? You see I have an especial +interest in your distinguished father. He pulled me through a fever in +the Philippines that all but ended me. I have reason to remember him for +his many, many kindnesses to me at that time." + +The flush that rose to Georgina's face might naturally have been taken +for one of pride or pleasure, but it was only miserable embarrassment at +not being able to answer the Captain's questions. She could not bear to +confess that she knew nothing of her father's whereabouts except the +vague fact that he was somewhere in the interior of China, and that there +had been no letter from him for months and that she had not seen him for +nearly four years. + +"He--he was well the last time we heard from him," she managed to +stammer. "But I haven't heard anything lately. You know my mother isn't +home now. She went to Kentucky because my grandfather Shirley was hurt in +an accident." + +"Oh, I'm sorry to hear that," was the answer in a cordial, sympathetic +voice. "I hoped to have the pleasure of meeting her and I wanted Mrs. +Burrell to know her, too. But I hope you'll come over to the Inn and play +with Peggy sometimes. We'll be here another week." + +Georgina thanked him in her prettiest manner, but she was relieved when +he passed on, and she was freed from the fear of any more embarrassing +questions about her father. Yet her hand still tingled with the +friendliness of his good-bye clasp, and she wished that she could know +him better. As she watched him pass out of the door with Peggy holding +his hand and swinging it as they walked, she thought hungrily: + +"How good it must seem to have a father like _that_." + +Mrs. Triplett came up to her soon after. It was time to close the Bazaar. +The last probable customer had gone, and the ladies in charge of the +booths were beginning to dismantle them. Someone's chauffeur was waiting +to take Georgina's costume back to the Figurehead House. + +She followed Mrs. Triplett obediently into an improvised dressing-room in +the corner, behind a tall screen, and in a very few minutes was about to +emerge clad in her own clothes, when Mrs. Triplett exclaimed: + +"For pity sakes! Those gold beads!" + +Georgina's hand went up to the string of gold beads still around her +neck. They also were borrowed from Mrs. Tupman of the Figurehead House. + +"I was going to ask Mrs. Tupman to take them home herself," said Mrs. +Triplett, "but she left earlier than I thought she would, and I had no +chance to say anything about them. We oughtn't to trust anything as +valuable as gold beads that are an heirloom to any outsider, no matter +how honest. They might be lost. Suppose you just _wear_ them home to +her. Do you feel like doing that? And keep them on your neck till she +unclasps them with her own hands. Don't leave them with a servant." + +Georgina, tired of sitting all day in the booth, was glad of an excuse +for a long walk. It was almost six o'clock, but the sun was still high. +As she went along, jostled off the narrow sidewalk and back on to it +again every few steps by the good-natured crowd which swarmed the streets +at this hour, she could smell supper cooking in the houses along the way. +It would be delayed in many homes because the tide was in and people were +running down the beach from the various cottages for a dip into the sea. +Some carried their bathing suits in bundles, some wore them under +raincoats or dressing gowns, and some walked boldly along bare-armed and +bare-legged in the suits themselves. + +It was a gay scene, with touches of color in every direction. Vivid green +grass in all the door-yards, masses of roses and hollyhocks and clematis +against the clean white of the houses. Color of every shade in the caps +and sweaters and bathing suits and floating motor veils and parasols, +jolly laughter everywhere, and friendly voices calling back and forth +across the street. It was a holiday town full of happy holiday people. + +Georgina, skipping along through the midst of it, added another pretty +touch of color to the scene, with her blue ribbons and hat with the +forget-me-nots around it, but if her thoughts could have been seen, they +would have showed a sober drab. The meeting with Captain Burrell had left +her depressed and unhappy. The thought uppermost in her mind was why +should there be such a difference in fathers? Why should Peggy Burrell +have such an adorable one, and she be left to feel like an orphan? + +When she reached the Figurehead House she was told that Mrs. Tupman had +stepped out to a neighbor's for a few minutes but would be right back. +She could have left the beads with a member of the family, but having +been told to deliver them into the hands of the owner only, she sat down +in the swing in the yard to wait. + +From where she sat she could look up at the figurehead over the portico. +It was the best opportunity she had ever had for studying it closely. +Always before she had been limited to the few seconds that were hers in +walking or driving by. Now she could sit and gaze at it intently as she +pleased. + +The fact that it was weather-stained and dark as an Indian with the paint +worn off its face in patches, only enhanced its interest in her eyes. It +seemed to bear the scars of one who has suffered and come up through +great tribulation. No matter how battered this Lady of Mystery was in +appearance, to Georgina she still stood for "Hope," clinging to her +wreath, still facing the future with head held high, the symbol of all +those, who having ships at sea, watch and wait for their home-coming with +proud, undaunted courage. + +Only an old wooden image, but out of a past of shipwreck and storm its +message survived and in some subtle manner found its way into the heart +of Georgina. + +"And I'll do it, too," she resolved valiantly, looking up at it. "I'm +going to hope so hard that he'll be the way I want him to be, that he'll +just _have_ to. And if he isn't--then I'll just steer straight +onward as if I didn't mind it, so Barby'll never know how disappointed I +am. Barby must never know that." + +A few minutes later, the gold beads being delivered into Mrs. Tupman's +own hands, Georgina took her way homeward, considerably lighter of heart, +for those moments of reflection in the swing. As she passed the antique +shop a great gray cat on the door-step, rose and stretched itself. + +"Nice kitty!" she said, stopping to smooth the thick fur which stood up +as he arched his back. + +It was "Grandpa," to whose taste for fish she owed her prism and the bit +of philosophy which was to brighten not only her own life but all those +which touched hers. But she passed on, unconscious of her debt to him. + +When she reached the Gray Inn she walked more slowly, for on the beach +back of it she saw several people whom she recognized. Captain Burrell +was in the water with Peggy and Bailey and half a dozen other children +from the Inn. They were all splashing and laughing. They seemed to be +having some sort of a game. She stood a moment wishing that she had on +her bathing suit and was down in the water with them. She could swim +better than any of the children there. But she hadn't been in the sea +since Barby left. That was one of the things she promised in their dark +hour of parting, not to go in while Barby was gone. + +While she stood there, Mrs. Burrell came out on the piazza of the Inn, +followed by the colored nurse with the baby who was just learning to +walk. The Captain, seeing them, threw up his hand to signal them. Mrs. +Burrell fluttered her handkerchief in reply. + +Georgina watched the group in the water a moment longer, then turned and +walked slowly on. She felt that if she could do it without having to give +up Barby, she'd be willing to change places with Peggy Burrell. She'd +take her homely little pale, freckled face, straight hair and--yes, even +her limp, for the right to cling to that strong protecting shoulder as +Peggy was doing there in the water, and to whisper in his ear, "Dad-o-my- +heart." + + + + +Chapter XXV + +A Letter to Hong-Kong + + + + There are some subjects one hesitates to discuss with one's family. It +is easier to seek information from strangers or servants, who do not feel +free to come back at you with the disconcerting question, "But why do you +ask?" + +It was with the half-formed resolution of leading up to a certain one of +these difficult subjects if she could, that Georgina wandered down the +beach next morning to a little pavilion near the Gray Inn. It was +occupied by Peggy Burrell, her baby brother and the colored nurse +Melindy. + +Georgina, sorely wanting companionship now that Richard and Captain Kidd +were off on their yachting trip, was thankful that Mrs. Triplett had met +Captain Burrell the day before at the Bazaar, and had agreed with him +that Georgina and Peggy ought to be friends because their fathers were. +Otherwise, the occupants of the pavilion would have been counted as +undesirable playmates being outside the pale of her acquaintance. + +Peggy welcomed her joyfully. She wasn't strong enough yet to go off on a +whole morning's fishing trip with brother and Daddy, she told Georgina, +and her mother was playing bridge on the hotel piazza. Peggy was a little +thing, only eight, and Georgina not knowing what to do to entertain her, +resurrected an old play that she had not thought of for several summers. +She built Grandfather Shirley's house in the sand. + +It took so long to find the right kind of shells with which to make the +lanterns for the gate-posts, and to gather the twigs of bayberry and +beach plum for the avenues (she had to go into the dunes for them), that +the question she was intending to ask Melindy slipped from her mind for a +while. It came back to her, however, as she scooped a place in the wall +of pebbles and wet sand which stood for the fence. + +"Here's the place where the postman drops the mail." + +Then she looked up at Melindy, the question on the tip of her tongue. But +Peggy, on her knees, was watching her so intently that she seemed to be +looking straight into her mouth every time it opened, and her courage +failed her. Instead of saying what she had started to say, she exclaimed: + +"Here's the hole in the fence where the little pigs squeezed through." +Then she told the story that went with this part of the game. When it was +time to put in the bee-hives, however, and Peggy volunteered to look up +and down the beach for the right kind of a pebble to set the bee-hives +on, Georgina took advantage of the moment alone with Melindy. There +wasn't time to lead up to the question properly. There wasn't even time +to frame the question in such a way that it would seem a casual, matter- +of-course one. Georgina was conscious that the blood was surging up into +her cheeks until they must seem as red as fire. She leaned forward toward +the sand-pile she was shaping till her curls fell over her face. Then she +blurted out: + +"How often do husbands write to wives?" + +Melindy either did not hear or did not understand, and Georgina had the +mortifying experience of repeating the question. It was harder to give +utterance to it the second time than the first. She was relieved when +Melindy answered without showing any surprise. + +"Why, most every week I reckon, when they loves 'em. Leastways white +folks do. It comes easy to them to write. An' I lived in one place where +the lady got a lettah every othah day." + +"But I mean when the husband's gone for a long, long time, off to sea or +to another country, and is dreadfully busy, like Captain Burrell is when +he's on his ship." + +Melindy gave a short laugh. "Huh! Let me tell you, honey, when a man +_wants_ to write he's gwine to write, busy or no busy." + +Later, Georgina went home pondering Melindy's answer. "Most every week +when they love's 'em. Sometimes every other day." And Barby had had no +letter for over four months. + +Something happened that afternoon which had never happened before in all +Georgina's experience. She was taken to the Gray Inn to call. Mrs. +Triplett, dressed in her new black summer silk, took her. + +"As long as Barbara isn't here to pay some attention to that Mrs. +Burrell," Tippy said to Belle, "it seems to me it's my place as next of +kin. The Captain couldn't get done saying nice things about Justin." + +Evidently, she approved of both Mrs. Burrell and Peggy, for when each +begged that Georgina be allowed to stay to supper she graciously gave +permission. + +"Peggy has taken the wildest fancy to you, dear," Mrs. Burrell said in an +aside to Georgina. "You gave her a beautiful morning on the beach. The +poor little thing has suffered so much with her lame knee, that we are +grateful to anyone who makes her forget all that she has gone through. +It's only last week that she could have the brace taken off. She hasn't +been able to run and play like other children for two years, but we're +hoping she may outgrow the trouble in time." + +The dining-room of the Gray Inn overlooked thel sea, and was so close to +the water one had the feeling of being in a boat, when looking out of its +windows. There were two South American transports in the harbor. Some of +the officers had come ashore and were dining with friends at the Gray +Inn. Afterwards they stayed to dance a while in the long parlor with the +young ladies of the party. Peggy and Georgina sat on the piazza just +outside one of the long French windows, where they could watch the gay +scene inside. It seemed almost as gay outside, when one turned to look +across the harbor filled with moving lights. Captain and Mrs. Burrell +were outside also. They sat farther down the piazza, near the railing, +talking to one of the officers who was not dancing. Once when the music +stopped, Peggy turned to Georgina to say: + +"Do you hear Daddy speaking Spanish to that officer from South America? +Doesn't he do it well? I can understand a little of what they say because +we lived in South America a while last year. We join him whenever he is +stationed at a port where officers can take their families. He says that +children of the navy have to learn to be regular gypsies. I love going to +new places. How many languages can your father speak?" + +Georgina, thus suddenly questioned, felt that she would rather die than +acknowledge that she knew so little of her father that she could not +answer. She was saved the mortification of confessing it, however, by the +music striking up again at that moment. + +"Oh, I can play that!" she exclaimed. "That's the dance of the tarantula. +Isn't it a weird sort of thing?" + +The air of absorbed interest with which Georgioa turned to listen to the +music made Peggy forget her question, and listen in the same way. She +wanted to do everything in the same way that Georgina did it, and from +that moment that piece of music held special charm for her because +Georgina called it weird. + +The next time Georgina glanced down the piazza Mrs. Burrell was alone. In +her dimly-lighted corner, she looked like one of the pretty summer girls +one sees sometimes on a magazine cover. She was all in white with a pale +blue wrap of some kind about her that was so soft and fleecy it looked +like a pale blue cloud. Georgina found herself looking down that way +often, with admiring glances. She happened to have her eyes turned that +way when the Captain came back and stood beside her chair. The blue wrap +had slipped from her shoulders without her notice, and he stooped and +picked it up. Then he drew the soft, warm thing up around her, and +bending over, laid his cheek for just an instant against hers. + +It was such a fleeting little caress that no one saw but Georgina, and +she turned her eyes away instantly, feeling that she had no right to +look, yet glad that she had seen, because of the warm glow it sent +through her. She couldn't tell why, but somehow the world seemed a +happier sort of place for everybody because such things happened in it. + +"I wonder," she thought wistfully, as her eyes followed the graceful +steps of the foreign dancers and her thoughts stayed with what she had +just witnessed, "I wonder if that had been Barby and my father, would +_he_?"---- + +But she did not finish even to herself the question which rose up to +worry her. It came back every time she recalled the little scene. + +On the morning after her visit to the Gray Inn she climbed up on the +piano stool when she had finished practising her scales. She wanted a +closer view of the portrait which hung over it. It was an oil painting of +her father at the age of five. He wore kilts and little socks with plaid +tops, and he carried a white rabbit in his arms. Georgina knew every inch +of the canvas, having admired it from the time she was first held up to +it in someone's arms to "see the pretty bunny." Now she looked at it long +and searchingly. + +Then she opened the book-case and took out an old photograph album. There +were several pictures of her father in that. One taken with his High +School class, and one with a group of young medical students, and one in +the white service dress of an assistant surgeon of the navy. None of them +corresponded with her dim memory of him. + +Then she went upstairs to Barby's room, and stood before the bureau, +studying the picture upon it in a large silver frame. It was taken in a +standing position and had been carefully colored, so that she knew +accurately every detail of the dress uniform of a naval surgeon from the +stripes of gold lace and maroon velvet on the sleeves, to the eagle on +the belt buckle and the sword knot dangling over the scabbard. There were +various medals pinned on his breast which had always interested her. + +But this morning it was not the uniform or the decorations which claimed +her attention. It was the face itself. She was looking for something in +the depths of those serious dark eyes, that she had seen in Captain +Burrell's when he looked at Peggy; something more than a smile, something +that made his whole face light up till you felt warm and happy just to +look at him. She wondered if the closely-set lips she was studying could +curve into a welcoming smile if anybody ran to meet him with happy +outstretched arms. But the picture was baffling and disappointing, +because it was a profile view. + +Presently, she picked it up and carried it to her own room, placing it on +the table where she always sat to write. She had screwed up her courage +at last, to the point of writing the letter which long ago she had +decided ought to be written by somebody. + +Once Barby said, "When you can't think of anything to put in a letter, +look at the person's picture, and pretend you're talking to it." Georgina +followed that advice now. But one cannot talk enthusiastically to a +listener who continues to show you only his profile. + +Suddenly, her resentment flamed hot against this handsome, averted face +which was all she knew of a father. She thought bitterly that he had no +business to be such a stranger to her that she didn't even know what he +looked like when he smiled. Something of the sternness of her old Pilgrim +forbears crept into her soul as she sat there judging him and biting the +end of her pen. She glanced down at the sheet of paper on which she had +painstakingly written "Dear Father." Then she scratched out the words, +feeling she could not honestly call him that when he was such a stranger. +Taking a clean sheet of paper, she wrote even more painstakingly: + +"Dear Sir: There are two reesons----" + +Then she looked up in doubt about the spelling of that last word. She +might have gone downstairs and consulted the dictionary but her +experience had proved that a dictionary is an unsatisfactory book when +one does not know how to spell a word. It is by mere chance that what one +is looking for can be found. After thinking a moment she put her head out +of the window and called softly down to Belle, who was sewing on the side +porch. She called softly so that Tippy could not hear and answer and +maybe add the remark, "But why do you ask? Are you writing to your +mother?" + +Belle spelled the word for her, and taking another sheet of paper +Georgina made a fresh start. This time she did not hesitate over the +spelling, but scribbled recklessly on until all that was crowding up to +be said was on the paper. + +"Dear Sir: There are two reasons for writing this. One is about your +wife. Cousin Mehitable says something is eating her heart out, and I +thought you ought to know. Maybe as you can cure so many strange diseeses +you can do something for her. The other is to ask you to send us another +picture of yourself. The only ones we have of you are looking off +sideways, and I can't feel as well acquainted with you as if I could look +into your eyes. + +"There is a lovely father staying at the Gray Inn. He is Peggy Burrell's. +He is a naval officer, too. It makes me feel like an orfan when I see him +going down the street holding her hand. He asked me to tell him all about +where you are and what you are doing, because you cured him once on a +hospital ship, and I was ashamed to tell him that I didn't know because +Barby has not had a letter from you for over four months. Please don't +let on to her that I wrote this. She doesn't know that I was under the +bed when Cousin Mehitable was talking about you, and saying that +everybody thinks it is queer you never come home. If you can do only one +of the things I asked, please do the first one. Yours truly, Georgina +Huntingdon." + +Having blotted the letter, Georgina read it over carefully, finding two +words that did not look quite right, although she did not know what was +the matter with them. So she called softly out of the window again to +Belle: + +"How do you spell diseases?" + +Belle told her but added the question, "Why do you ask a word like that? +Whose diseases can you be writing about?" + +Georgina drew in her head without answering. She could not seek help in +that quarter again, especially for such a word as "orfan." After studying +over it a moment she remembered there was a poem in "Songs for the Little +Ones at Home," called "The Orphan Nosegay Girl." + +A trip downstairs for the tattered volume gave her the word she wanted, +and soon the misspelled one was scratched out and rewritten. There were +now three unsightly blots on the letter and she hovered over them a +moment, her pride demanding that she should make a clean, fair copy. But +it seemed such an endless task to rewrite it from beginning to end, that +she finally decided to send it as it stood. + +Addressed, stamped and sealed, it was ready at last and she dropped it +into the mail-box. Then she had a moment of panic. It was actually +started on its way to Hong-Kong and nothing in her power could stop it or +bring it back. She wondered if she hadn't done exactly the wrong thing, +and made a bad matter worse. + + + + +Chapter XXVI + +Peggy Joins the Rainbow-Makers + + + +Only one more thing happened before Barby's return that is worth +recording. Georgina went to spend the way at the Gray Inn. Captain +Burrell, himself, came to ask her. Peggy had to be put back into her +brace again he said. He was afraid it had been taken off too soon. She +was very uncomfortable and unhappy on account of it. They would be +leaving in the morning, much earlier than they had intended, because it +was necessary for her physician to see her at once, and quite probable +that she would have to go back to the sanitarium for a while. She didn't +want to leave Provincetown, because she did not want to go away from +Georgina. + +"You have no idea how she admires you," the Captain added, "or how she +tries to copy you. Her dream of perfect happiness is to look and act just +like you. Yesterday she made her mother tie a big pink bow on her poor +little cropped head because you passed by wearing one on your curls. You +can cheer her up more than anyone else in the world." + +So Georgina, touched both by the Captain's evident distress over Peggy's +returning lameness, and Peggy's fondness for her, went gladly. The +knowledge that everything she said and did was admired, made it easy for +her to entertain the child, and the pity that welled up in her heart +every time she watched the thin little body move around in the tiresome +brace, made her long to do something that would really ease the burden of +such a misfortune. + +Mrs. Burrell was busy packing all morning, and in the afternoon went down +the street to do some shopping that their hurried departure made +necessary. Peggy brought out her post-card album, in which to fasten all +the postals she had added to her collection while on the Cape. Among them +was one of the Figurehead House, showing "Hope" perched over the portico. + +"Bailey says that's a sea-cook," Peggy explained gravely. "A sea-cook who +was such a wooden-head that when he made doughnuts they turned green. +He's got one in his hand that he's about to heave into the sea." + +"Oh, horrors! No!" exclaimed Georgina, as scandalized as if some false +report had been circulated about one of her family. + +"That is Hope with a wreath in her hand, looking up with her head held +high, just as she did when she was on the prow of a gallant ship. +Whenever I have any trouble or disappointment I think of her, and she +helps me to bear up and be brave, and go on as if nothing had happened." + +"How?" asked Peggy, gazing with wondering eyes at the picture of the +figurehead, which was too small on the postal to be very distinct. +Anything that Georgina respected and admired so deeply, Peggy wanted to +respect and admire in the same way, but it was puzzling to understand +just what it was that Georgina saw in that wooden figure to make her feel +so. Accustomed to thinking of it in Bailey's way, as a sea-cook with a +doughnut, it was hard to switch around to a point of view that showed it +as Hope with a wreath, or to understand how it could help one to be brave +about anything. + +Something of her bewilderment crept into the wondering "why," and +Georgina hesitated, a bit puzzled herself. It was hard to explain to a +child two years younger what had been taught to her by the old Towncrier. + +"You wait till I run home and get my prism," she answered. "Then I can +show you right away, and we can play a new kind of tag game with it." + +Before Peggy could protest that she would rather have her question +unanswered than be left alone, Georgina was off and running up the beach +as fast as her little white shoes could carry her. Her cheeks were as red +as the coral necklace she wore, when she came back breathless from her +flying trip. + +There followed a few moments of rapture for Peggy, when the beautiful +crystal pendant was placed in her own hands, and she looked through it +into a world transformed by the magic of its coloring. She saw the room +changed in a twinkling, as when a fairy wand transforms a mantle of +homespun to cloth-of-gold. Through the open window she saw an enchanted +harbor filled with a fleet of rainbows. Every sail was outlined with one, +every mast edged with lines of red and gold and blue. And while she +looked, and at the same time listened, Georgina's explanation caught some +of the same glamor, and sank deep into her tender little heart. + +That was the way that _she_ could change the world for people she +loved--put a rainbow around their troubles by being so cheery and hopeful +that everything would be brighter just because she was there. To keep +Hope at the prow simply meant that she mustn't get discouraged about her +knee. No matter how much it hurt her or the brace bothered her, she must +bear up and steer right on. To do that bravely, without any fretting, was +the surest way in the world to put a rainbow around her father's +troubles. + +Thus Georgina mixed her "line to live by" and her prism philosophy, but +it was clear enough to the child who listened with heart as well as ears. +And clear enough to the man who sat just outside the open window on the +upper porch, with his pipe, listening also as he gazed off to sea. + +"The poor little lamb," he said to himself. "To think of that baby trying +to bear up and be brave on my account! It breaks me all up." + +A few minutes later as he started across the hall, Peggy, seeing him pass +her door, called to him. "Oh, Daddy! Come look through this wonderful +fairy glass. You'll think the whole world is bewitched." + +She was lying back in a long steamer chair, and impatient to reach him, +she started to climb out as he entered the room. But she had not grown +accustomed to the brace again, and she stumbled clumsily on account of +it. He caught her just in time to save her from falling, but the prism, +the shining crystal pendant, dropped from her hands and struck the rocker +of a chair in its fall to the floor. + +She gave a frightened cry, and stood holding her breath while Georgina +stooped and picked it up. It was in two pieces now. The long, radiant +point, cut in many facets like a diamond, was broken off. + +Georgina, pale and trembling at this sudden destruction of her greatest +treasure, turned her back, and for one horrible moment it was all she +could do to keep from bursting out crying. Peggy, seeing her turn away +and realizing all that her awkwardness was costing Georgina, buried her +face on her father's shoulder and went into such a wild paroxysm of +sobbing and crying that all his comforting failed to comfort her. + +"Oh, I wish I'd _died_ first," she wailed. "She'll never love me +again. She said it was her most precious treasure, and now I've broken +it----" + +"There, there, there," soothed the Captain, patting the thin little arm +reached up to cling around his neck. "Georgina knows it was an accident. +She's going to forgive my poor little Peggykins for what she couldn't +help. She doesn't mind its being broken as much as you think." + +He looked across at Georgina, appealingly, helplessly. Peggy's grief was +so uncontrollable he was growing alarmed. Georgina wanted to cry out: + +"Oh, I _do_ mind! How can you say that? I can't stand it to have my +beautiful, beautiful prism ruined!" + +She was only a little girl herself, with no comforting shoulder to run +to. But something came to her help just then. She remembered the old +silver porringer with its tall, slim-looped letters. She remembered there +were some things she could not do. She _had_ to be brave now, +because her name had been written around that shining rim through so many +brave generations. She could not deepen the hurt of this poor little +thing already nearly frantic over what she had done. Tippy's early +lessons carried her gallantly through now. She ran across the room to +where Peggy sat on her father's knee, and put an arm around her. + +"Listen, Peggy," she said brightly. "There's a piece of prism for each of +us now. Isn't that nice? You take one and I'll keep the other, and that +will make you a member of our club. We call it the Rainbow Club, and +we're running a race seeing who can make the most bright spots in the +world, by making people happy. There's just four members in it so far; +Richard and me and the president of the bank and Mr. Locke, the artist, +who made the pictures in your blue and gold fairy-tale book. And you can +be the fifth. But you'll have to begin this minute by stopping your +crying, or you can't belong. What did I tell you about fretting?" + +And Peggy stopped. Not instantly, she couldn't do that after such a hard +spell. The big sobs kept jerking her for a few minutes no matter how hard +she tried to stiffle them; but she sat up and let her father wipe her +face on his big handkerchief, and she smiled her bravest, to show that +she was worthy of membership in the new club. + +The Captain suddenly drew Georgina to his other knee and kissed her. + +"You blessed little rainbow maker!" he exclaimed. "I'd like to join your +club myself. What a happy world this would be if everybody belonged to +it." + +Peggy clasped her hands together beseechingly. + +"Oh, _please_ let him belong, Georgina. I'll lend him my piece of +prism half the time." + +"Of course he can," consented Georgina. "But he can belong without having +a prism. Grown people don't need anything to help them remember about +making good times in the world." + +"I wonder," said the Captain, as if he were talking to himself. Georgina, +looking at him shyly from the corner of her eye, wondered what it was he +wondered. + +It was almost supper time when she went home. She had kept the upper half +of the prism which had the hole in it, and it dangled from her neck on +the pink ribbon as she walked. + +"If only Barby could have seen it first," she mourned. "I wouldn't mind +it so much. But she'll never know how beautiful it was." + +But every time that thought came to her it was followed by a recollection +which made her tingle with happiness. It was the Captain's deep voice +saying tenderly, "You blessed little rainbow-maker!" + + + + +Chapter XXVII + +A Modern "St. George and the Dragon" + + + +Barby was at home again. Georgina, hearing the jangle of a bell, ran +down the street to meet the old Towncrier with the news. She knew now, he +felt when he wanted to go through the town ringing his bell and calling +out the good tidings about his Danny to all the world. That's the way she +felt her mother's home-coming ought to be proclaimed. It was such a +joyful thing to have her back again. + +And Grandfather Shirley wasn't going to be blind, Georgina confided in +her next breath. The sight of both eyes would be all right in time. They +were _so_ thankful about that. And Barby had brought her the +darlingest little pink silk parasol ever made or dreamed of, all the way +from Louisville, and some beaten biscuit and a comb of honey from the +beehives in her old home garden. + +It was wonderful how much news Georgina managed to crowd into the short +time that it took to walk back to the gate. The Burrells had left town +and Belle had gone home, and Richard had sent her a postal card from Bar +Harbor with a snapshot of himself and Captain Kidd on it. And--she +lowered her voice almost to a whisper as she told the next item: + +"Barby knows about Danny! Belle said I might tell her if she'd promise +not to let it get back to Mr. Potter." + +They had reached the house by this time, and Georgina led him in to Barby +who rose to welcome him with both hands outstretched. + +"Oh, Uncle Darcy," she exclaimed. "I know--and I'm _so_ glad. And +Justin will be, too. I sent Georgina's letter to him the very day it +came. I knew he'd be so interested, and it can do no harm for him to +know, away off there in the interior of China." + +Georgina was startled, remembering the letter which _she_ had sent +to the interior of China. Surely her father wouldn't send that back to +Barby! Such a panic seized her at the bare possibility of such a thing, +that she did not hear Uncle Darcy's reply. She wondered what Barby would +say if it should come back to her. Then she recalled what had happened +the first few moments of Barby's return and wondered what made her think +of it. + +Barby's first act on coming into the house, was to walk over to the old +secretary where the mail was always laid, and look to see if any letters +were waiting there for her. And that was before she had even stopped to +take off her veil or gloves. There were three which had arrived that +morning, but she only glanced at them and tossed them aside. The one she +wanted wasn't there. Georgina had turned away and pretended that she +wasn't watching but she was, and for a moment she felt that the sun had +gone behind a cloud, Barby looked so disappointed. + +But it was only for a moment, for Barby immediately began to tell about +an amusing experience she had on her way home, and started upstairs to +take off her hat, with Georgina tagging after to ask a thousand +questions, just as she had been tagging ever since. + +And later she had thrown her arms arpund her mother, exclaiming as she +held her fast, "You haven't changed a single bit, Barby," and Barby +answered gaily: + +"What did you expect, dearest, in a few short weeks? White hair and +spectacles?" + +"But it doesn't seem like a few short weeks," sighed Georgina. "It seems +as if years full of things had happened, and that I'm as old as you are." + +Now as Uncle Darcy recounted some of these happenings, and Barby realized +how many strange experiences Georgina had lived through during her +absence, how many new acquaintances she had made and how much she had +been allowed to go about by herself, she understood why the child felt so +much older. She understood still better that night as she sat brushing +Georgina's curls. The little girl on the footstool at her knee was +beginning to reach up--was beginning to ask questions about the strange +grown-up world whose sayings and doings are always so puzzling to little +heads. + +"Barby," she asked hesitatingly, "what do people mean exactly, when they +say they have other fish to fry?" + +"Oh, just other business to attend to or something else they'd rather +do." + +"But when they shrug their shoulders at the same time," persisted +Georgina. + +"A shrug can stand for almost anything," answered Barby. "Sometimes it +says meaner things than words can convey." + +Then came the inevitable question which made Georgina wish that she had +not spoken. + +"But why do you ask, dear? Tell me how the expression was used, and I can +explain better." + +Now Georgina could not understand why she had brought up the subject. It +had been uppermost in her mind all evening, but every time it reached the +tip of her tongue she drove it back. That is, until this last time. Then +it seemed to say itself. Having gone this far she could not lightly +change the subject as an older person might have done. Barby was waiting +for an answer. It came in a moment, halting but truthful. + +"That day I was at the Bazaar, you know, and everybody was saying how +nice I looked, dressed up like a little girl of long ago, I heard Mrs. +Whitman say to Miss Minnis that one would think that Justin Huntingdon +would want to come home once or twice in a lifetime to see me; and Miss +Minnis shrugged her shoulders, this way, and said: + +"'Oh, he has other fish to fry.'" + +Georgina, with her usual aptitude for mimicry, made the shrug so eloquent +that Barby understood exactly what Miss Minnis intended to convey, and +what it had meant to the wondering child. + +"Miss Minnis is an old cat!" she exclaimed impatiently. Then she laid +down the brush, and gathering Georgina's curls into one hand, turned her +head so that she could look into the troubled little face. + +"Tell me, Baby," she demanded. "Have you heard anyone else say things +like that?" + +"Yes," admitted Georgina, "several times. And yesterday a woman who came +into the bakery while I was getting the rolls Tippy sent me for, asked me +if I was Doctor Huntingdon's little girl. And when I said yes, she asked +me when he was coming home." + +"And what did you say?" + +"Well, I thought she hadn't any right to ask, specially in the way she +made her question sound. She doesn't belong in this town, anyhow. She's +only one of the summer boarders. So I drew myself up the way the Duchess +always did in 'The Fortunes of Romney Tower.' Don't you remember? and I +said, 'It will probably be some time, Madam.' Then I took up my bag of +hot rolls and marched out. I think that word Madam always sounds so +freezing, when you say it the way the Duchess was always doing." + +"Oh, you ridiculous baby!" exclaimed Barby, clasping her close and +kissing her again and again. Then seeing the trouble still lingering in +the big brown eyes, she took the little face between her hands and looked +into it long and intently, as if reading her thoughts. + +"Georgina," she said presently, "I understand now, what is the matter. +You're wondering the same thing about your father that these busybodies +are. It's my fault though. I took it for granted that you understood +about his long absence. I never dreamed that it was hurting you in any +way." + +Georgina hid her face in Barby's lap, her silence proof enough that her +mother had guessed aright. For a moment or two Barby's hand strayed +caressingly over the bowed head. Then she said: + +"I wonder if you remember this old story I used to tell you, beginning, +'St. George of Merry England was the youngest and the bravest of the +seven champions of Christendom. Clad in bright armor with his magic sword +Ascalon by his side, he used to travel on his war horse in far countries +in search of adventure.' Do you remember that?" + +Georgina nodded yes without raising her head. + +"Then you remember he came to a beach where the Princess Saba called to +him to flee, because the Dragon, the most terrible monster ever seen on +earth, was about to come up out of the sea and destroy the city. Every +year it came up to do this, and only the sacrifice of a beautiful maiden +could stop it from destroying the people. + +"But undismayed, Saint George refused to flee. He stayed on and fought +the dragon, and wounded it, and bound it with the maiden's sash and led +it into the market place where it was finally killed. And the people were +forever freed from the terrible monster because of his prowess. Do you +remember all that?" + +Again Georgina nodded. She knew the story well. Every Christmas as far +back as she could remember she had eaten her bit of plum pudding from a +certain rare old blue plate, on which was the picture of Saint George, +the dragon and the Princess. "Nowadays," Barby went on, "because men do +not ride around 'clad in bright armor,' doing knightly deeds, people do +not recognize them as knights. But your father is doing something that is +just as great and just as brave as any of the deeds of any knight who +ever drew a sword. Over in foreign ports where he has been stationed, is +a strange disease which seems to rise out of the marshes every year, just +as the dragon did, and threaten the health and the lives of the people. +It is especially bad on shipboard, and it is really harder to fight than +a real dragon would be, because it is an invisible foe, a sickness that +comes because of a tiny, unseen microbe. + +"Your father has watched it, year after year, attacking not only the +sailors of foreign navies but our own men, when they have to live in +those ports, and he made up his mind to go on a quest for this invisible +monster, and kill it if possible. It is such a very important quest that +the Government was glad to grant him a year's leave of absence from the +service. + +"He was about to come home to see us first, when he met an old friend, a +very wealthy Englishman, who has spent the greater part of his life +collecting rare plants and studying their habits. He has written several +valuable books on Botany, and the last ten years he has been especially +interested in the plants of China. He was getting ready to go to the very +places that your father was planning to visit, and he had with him an +interpreter and a young American assistant. When he invited your father +to join him it was an opportunity too great to be refused. This Mr. +Bowles is familiar with the country and the people, even speaks the +language himself a little. He had letters to many of the high officials, +and could be of the greatest assistance to your father in many ways, even +though he did not stay with the party. He could always be in +communication with it. + +"So, of course, he accepted the invitation. It is far better for the +quest and far better for himself to be with such companions. + +"I am not uneasy about him, knowing he has friends within call in case of +sickness and accident, and he will probably be able to accomplish his +purpose more quickly with the help they will be able to give. You know he +has to go off into all sorts of dirty, uncomfortable places, risk his own +health and safety, go among the sick and suffering where he can watch the +progress of the disease under different conditions. + +"The whole year may be spent in a vain search, with nothing to show for +it at the end, and even if he is successful and finds the cause of this +strange illness and a remedy, his only reward will be the satisfaction of +knowing he has done something to relieve the suffering of his fellow- +creatures. People can understand the kind of bravery that shows. If he +were rescuing one person from a burning house or a sinking boat they +would cry out, 'What a hero.' But they don't seem to appreciate this kind +of rescue work. It will do a thousand times more good, because it will +free the whole navy from the teeth of the dragon. + +"If there were a war, people would not expect him to come home. We are +giving him up to his country now, just as truly as if he were in the +midst of battle. A soldier's wife and a soldier's daughter--it is the +proof of our love and loyalty, Georgina, to bear his long absence +cheerfully, no matter how hard that is to do; to be proud that he can +serve his country if not with his sword, with the purpose and prowess of +a Saint George." + +Barby's eyes were wet but there was a starry light in them, as she lifted +Georgina's head and kissed her. Two little arms were thrown impulsively +around her neck. + +"Oh, Barby! I'm so sorry that I didn't know all that before! I didn't +understand, and I felt real ugly about it when I heard people whispering +and saying things as if he didn't love us any more. And--when I said my +prayers at bedtime--I didn't sing 'Eternal Father Strong to Save' a +single night while you were gone." + +Comforting arms held her close. + +"Why didn't you write and tell mother about it?" + +"I didn't want to make you feel bad. I was afraid from what Cousin +Mehitable said you were going to _die_. I worried and worried over +it. Oh, I had the miserablest time!" + +Another kiss interrupted her. "But you'll never do that way again, +Georgina. Promise me that no matter what happens you'll come straight to +me and have it set right." + +The promise was given, with what remorse and penitence no one could know +but Georgina, recalling the letter she had written, beginning with a +stern "Dear Sir." But to justify herself, she asked after the hair- +brushing had begun again: + +"But Barby, why has he stayed away from home four whole years? He wasn't +hunting dragons before this, was he?" + +"No, but I thought you understood that, too. He didn't come back here to +the Cape because there were important things which kept him in Washington +during his furloughs. Maybe you were too small to remember that the time +you and I were spending the summer in Kentucky he had planned to join us +there. But he wired that his best friend in the Navy, an old Admiral, was +at the point of death, and didn't want him to leave him. The Admiral had +befriended him in so many ways when he first went into the service that +there was nothing else for your father to do but stay with him as long as +he was needed. You were only six then, and I was afraid the long, hot +trip might make you sick, so I left you with mamma while I went on for +several weeks. Surely you remember something of that time." + +"No, just being in Kentucky is all I remember, and your going away for a +while." + +"And the next time some business affairs of his own kept him in +Washington, something very important. You were just getting over the +measles and I didn't dare take you, so you stayed with Tippy. So you see +it wasn't your father's fault that he didn't see you. He had expected you +to be brought down to Washington." + +Georgina pondered over the explanation a while, then presently said with +a sigh, "Goodness me, how easy it is to look at things the wrong way." + +Soon after her voice blended with Barby's in a return to the long +neglected bedtime rite: + + "Oh, hear us when we cry to Thee, + For those in peril on the sea." + +Afterward, her troubles all smoothed and explained away, she lay in the +dark, comforted and at peace with the world. Once a little black doubt +thrust its head up like a snake, to remind her of Melindy's utterance, +"When a man _wants_ to write, he's gwine to write, busy or no busy." +But even that found an explanation in her thoughts. + +Of course, Melindy meant just ordinary men, Not those who had great deeds +to do in the world like her father. Probably Saint George himself hadn't +written to his family often, if he had a family. He couldn't be expected +to. He had "other fish to fry," and it was perfectly right and proper for +him to put his mind on the frying of them to the neglect of everything +else. + +The four months' long silence was unexplained save for this comforting +thought, but Georgina worried about it no longer. Up from below came the +sound of keys touched softly as Barby sang an old lullaby. She sang it in +a glad, trustful sort of way, + + "He is far across the sea, + But he's coming home to me, + Baby mine!" + +Lying there in the dark, Georgina composed another letter to send after +her first one, and next morning this is what she wrote, sitting up in the +willow tree with a magazine on her knees for a writing table: + +"Dearest Father: I am sorry that I wrote that last letter, because +everything is different from what I thought it was. I did not know until +Barby came home and told me, that you are just as brave as St. George +was, clad in bright armor, when he went to rescue the people from the +dragon. I hope you get the monster that comes up out of the sea every +year after the poor sailors. Barby says we are giving you to our country +in this way, as much as if there was war, so now I'm prouder of having a +St.-George-and-the-dragon-kind of a father than one like Peggy Burrell's, +even if she does know him well enough to call him 'Dad-o'-my-heart.' Even +if people don't understand, and say things about your never coming home +to see us, we are going to 'still bear up and steer right onward,' +because that's our line to live by. And we hope as hard as we can every +day, that you'll get the mike-robe you are in kwest of. Your loving +little daughter, Georgina Huntingdon." + + + + +Chapter XXVIII + +The Doctor's Discovery + + + +In due time the letter written in the willow tree reached the city of +Hong-Kong, and was carried to the big English hotel, overlooking the +loveliest of Chinese harbors. But it was not delivered to Doctor +Huntingdon. It was piled on top of all the other mail which lay there, +awaiting his return. Under it was Georgina's first letter to him and the +one she had written to her mother about Dan Darcy and the rifle. And +under that was the one which Barbara called the "rainbow letter," and +then at least half a dozen from Barbara herself, with the beautiful +colored photograph of the Towncrier and his lass. Also there were several +bundles of official-looking documents and many American newspapers. + +Nothing had been forwarded to him for two months, because he had left +instructions to hold his mail until further notice. The first part of +that time he was moving constantly from one out-of-the-way place to +another where postal delivery was slow and uncertain. The last part of +that time he was lying ill in the grip of the very disease which he had +gone out to study and to conquer. + +He was glad then to be traveling in the wake of the friendly old +Englishman and his party. Through their interpreter, arrangements were +made to have him carried to one of the tents of a primitive sort of a +hospital, kept by some native missionaries. The Englishman's young +assistant went with him. He was a quiet fellow whom Mr. Bowles had +jokingly dubbed David the silent, because it was so hard to make him +talk. But Doctor Huntingdon, a reserved, silent man himself, had been +attracted to him by that very trait. + +During the months they had been thrown together so much, Dave had taken +great interest in the Doctor's reports of the experiments he was making +in treating the disease. When the Doctor was told that Mr. Bowles had +gone back to the coast, having found what he wanted and made his notes +for his next book, and consequently Dave was free to stay and nurse him, +he gave a sigh of relief. + +Dave stopped his thanks almost gruffly. + +"There's more than one reason for my staying," he said. "I've been sick +among strangers in a strange country, myself, and I know how it feels. +Besides, I'm interested in seeing if this new treatment of yours works +out on a white man as well as it did on these natives. I'll be doing as +much in the way of scientific research, keeping a chart on you, as if I +were taking notes for Mr. Bowles." + +That was a long speech for Dave, the longest that he made during the +Doctor's illness. But in the days which followed, one might well have +wondered if there was not a greater reason than those he offered for such +devoted attendance. He was always within call, always so quick to notice +a want that usually a wish was gratified before it could be expressed. +His was a devotion too constant to be prompted merely by sympathy for a +fellow-country-man or interest in medical experiments. + +Once, when the Doctor was convalescing, he opened his eyes to find his +silent attendant sitting beside him reading, and studied him for some +time, unobserved. + +"Dave," he said, after watching him a while--"it's the queerest thing-- +lately every time I look at you I'm reminded of home. You must resemble +someone I used to know back there, but for the life of me I can't recall +who." + +Dave answered indifferently, without glancing up from the page. + +"There's probably a thousand fellows that look like me. I'm medium height +and about every third person you see back in the States has gray eyes +like mine, and just the ordinary every-day sort of features that I have." + +The Doctor made no answer. It never would have occurred to him to tell +Dave in what way his face differed from the many others of his type. +There was a certain kindliness of twinkle in the gray eyes at times, and +always a straightforward honesty of gaze that made one instinctively +trust him. There was strength of purpose in the resolute set of his +mouth, and one could not imagine him being turned back on any road which +he had made up his mind to travel to the end. + +Several days after that when the Doctor was sitting up outside the tent, +the resemblance to someone whom he could not recall, puzzled him again. +Dave was whittling, his lips pursed up as he whistled softly in an +absent-minded sort of way. + +"Dave," exclaimed the Doctor, "there's something in the way you sit +there, whittling and whistling that brings little old Provincetown right +up before my eyes. I can see old Captain Ames sitting there on the wharf +on a coil of rope, whittling just as you are doing, and joking with Sam +and the crew as they pile into the boat to go out to the weirs. I can see +the nets spread out to dry alongshore, and smell tar and codfish as plain +as if it were here right under my nose. And down in Fishburn Court +there's the little house that was always a second home to me, with Uncle +Darcy pottering around in the yard, singing his old sailors' songs." + +The Doctor closed his eyes and drew in a long, slow breath. + +"Um! There's the most delicious smell coming out of that kitchen-- +blueberry pies that Aunt Elspeth's baking. What wouldn't I give this +minute for one of those good, juicy blueberry pies of hers, smoking hot. +I can smell it clear over here in China. There never was anything in the +world that tasted half so good. I was always tagging around after Uncle +Darcy, as I called him. He was the Towncrier, and one of those staunch, +honest souls who make you believe in the goodness of God and man no +matter what happens to shake the foundations of your faith." + +The Doctor opened his eyes and looked up inquiringly, startled by the +knocking over of the stool on which Dave had been sitting. He had risen +abruptly and gone inside the tent. + +"Go on," he called back. "I can hear you." He seemed to be looking for +something, for he was striding up and down in its narrow space. The +Doctor raised his voice a trifle. + +"That's all I had to say. I didn't intend to bore you talking about +people and places you never heard of. But it just came over me in a big +wave--that feeling of homesickness that makes you feel you've got to get +back or die. Did you ever have it?" + +"Yes," came the answer in an indifferent tone. "Several times." + +"Well, it's got me now, right by the throat." + +Presently he called, "Dave, while you're in there I wish you'd look in my +luggage and see what newspapers are folded up with it. I have a dim +recollection that a _Provincetown Advocate_ came about the time I +was taken sick and I never opened it. + +"Ah, that's it!" he exclaimed when Dave emerged presently, holding out +the newspaper. "Look at the cut across the top of the first page. Old +Provincetown itself. It's more for the name of the town printed across +that picture of the harbor than for the news that I keep on taking the +paper. Ordinarily, I never do more than glance at the news items, but +there's time to-day to read even the advertisements. You've no idea how +good those familiar old names look to me." + +He read some of them aloud, smiling over the memories they awakened. But +he read without an auditor, for Dave found he had business with one of +the missionaries, and put off to attend to it. On his return he was +greeted with the announcement: + +"Dave, I want to get out of here. I'm sure there must be a big pile of +mail waiting for me right now in Hong-Kong, and I'm willing to risk the +trip. Let's start back to-morrow." + +Several days later they were in Hong-Kong, enjoying the luxuries of +civilization in the big hotel. Still weak from his recent illness and +fatigued by the hardships of his journey, Doctor Huntingdon did not go +down to lunch the day of their arrival. It was served in his room, and as +he ate he stopped at intervals to take another dip into the pile of mail +which had been brought up to him. + +In his methodical way he opened the letters in the order of their +arrival, beginning with the one whose postmark showed the earliest date. +It took a long time to finish eating on account of these pauses. Hop +Ching was bringing in his coffee when Dave came back, having had not only +his lunch in the diningroom, but a stroll through the streets afterward. +He found Doctor Huntingdon with a photograph propped up in front of him, +studying it intently while Hop Ching served the coffee. The Doctor passed +the photograph to Dave. + +"Take it over to the window where you can get a good light on it," he +commanded. "Isn't that a peach of a picture? That's my little daughter +and the old friend I'm always quoting. The two seem to be as great chums +as he and I used to be. I don't want to bore you, Dave, but I would like +to read you this letter that she wrote to her mother, and her mother sent +on to me. In the first place I'm proud of her writing such a letter. I +had no idea she could express herself so well, and secondly the subject +matter makes it an interesting document. + +"On my little girl's birthday Uncle Darcy took her out in his boat, +_The Betsey_. The name of that old boat certainly does sound good to +me! He told her--but wait! I'd rather read it to you in her own words. +It'll give you such a good idea of the old man. Perhaps I ought to +explain that he Had a son who got into trouble some ten years ago, and +left home. He was just a little chap when I saw him last, hardly out of +dresses, the fall I left home for college. + +[Illustration: The Towncrier and his Lass] + +"Uncle Darcy and Aunt Elspeth were fairly foolish about him. He had come +into their lives late, you see, after their older children died. I don't +believe it would make any difference to them what he'd do. They would +welcome him back from the very gallows if he'd only come. His mother +never has believed he did anything wrong, and the hope of the old man's +life is that his 'Danny,' as he calls him, will make good in some way--do +something to wipe out the stain on his name and come back to him." + +The Doctor paused as if waiting for some encouragement to read. + +"Go on," said Dave. "I'd like to hear it, best in the world." + +He turned his chair so that he could look out of the window at the +harbor. The Chinese sampans of every color were gliding across the water +like a flock of gaily-hued swans. He seemed to be dividing his attention +between those native boats and the letter when the Doctor first began to +read. It was Georgina's rainbow letter, and the colors of the rainbow +were repeated again and again by the reds and yellows and blues of that +fleet of sampans. + +But as the Doctor read on Dave listened more intently, so intently, in +fact, that he withdrew his attention entirely from the window, and +leaning forward, buried his face in his hands, his elbows resting on his +knees. The Doctor found him in this attitude when he looked up at the +end, expecting some sort of comment. He was used to Dave's silences, but +he had thought this surely would call forth some remark. Then as he +studied the bowed figure, it flashed into his mind that the letter must +have touched some chord in the boy's own past. Maybe Dave had an old +father somewhere, longing for his return, and the memory was breaking him +all up. + +Silently, the Doctor turned aside to the pile of letters still unread. +Georgina's stern little note beginning "Dear Sir" was the next in order +and was in such sharp contrast to the loving, intimate way she addressed +her mother, that he felt the intended reproach of it, even while it +amused and surprised him. But it hurt a little. It wasn't pleasant to +have his only child regard him as a stranger. It was fortunate that the +next letter was the one in which she hastened to call him "a Saint- +George-and-the-dragon sort of father." + +When he read Barbara's explanation of his long silence and Georgina's +quick acceptance of it, he wanted to take them both in his arms and tell +them how deeply he was touched by their love and loyalty; that he hadn't +intended to be neglectful of them or so absorbed in his work that he put +it first in his life. But it was hard for him to put such things into +words, either written or spoken. He had left too much to be taken for +granted he admitted remorsefully to himself. + +For a long time he sat staring sternly into space. So people had been +gossiping about him, had they? And Barbara and the baby had heard the +whispers and been hurt by them----He'd go home and put a stop to it. He +straightened himself up and turned to report his sudden decision to Dave. +But the chair by the window was empty. The Doctor glanced over his +shoulder. Dave had changed his seat and was sitting behind him. They were +back to back, but a mirror hung in such a way the Doctor could see Dave's +face. + +With arms crossed on a little table in front of him, he was leaning +forward for another look at the photograph which he had propped up +against a vase. A hungry yearning was in his face as he bent towards it, +gazing into it as if he could not look his fill. Suddenly his head went +down on his crossed arms in such a hopeless fashion that in a flash +Doctor Huntingdon divined the reason, and recognized the resemblance that +had haunted him. Now he understood why the boy had stayed behind to nurse +him. Now a dozen trifling incidents that had seemed of no importance to +him at the time, confirmed his suspicion. + +His first impulse was to Cry out "Dan!" but his life-long habit of +repression checked him. He felt he had no right to intrude on the privacy +which the boy guarded so jealously. But Uncle Darcy's son! Off here in a +foreign land, bowed down with remorse and homesickness! How he must have +been tortured with all that talk of the old town and its people! + +A great wave of pity and yearning tenderness swept through the Doctor's +heart as he sat twisted around in his chair, staring at that reflection +in the mirror. He was uncertain what he ought to do. He longed to go to +him with some word of comfort, but he shrank from the thought of saying +anything which would seem an intrusion. + +Finally he rose, and walking across the room, laid his hand on the bowed +shoulder with a sympathetic pressure. + +"Look here, my boy," he said, in his deep, quiet voice. "I'm not asking +you what the trouble is, but whatever it is you'll let me help you, won't +you? You've given me the right to ask that by all you've done for me. +Anything I could do would be only too little for one who has stood by me +the way you have. I want you to feel that I'm your friend in the deepest +meaning of that word. You can count on me for anything." Then in a +lighter tone as he gave the shoulder a half-playful slap he added, "I'm +_for_ you, son." + +The younger man raised his head and straightened himself up in his chair. + +"You wouldn't be!" he exclaimed, "if you knew who I am." Then he blurted +out the confession: "I'm Dan Darcy. I can't let you go on believing in me +when you talk like that." + +"But I knew it when I said what I did," interrupted Doctor Huntingdon. +"It flashed over me first when I saw you looking at your father's +picture. No man could look at a stranger's face that way. Then I knew +what the resemblance was that has puzzled me ever since I met you. The +only wonder to me is that I did not see it long ago." + +"You knew it," repeated Dan slowly, "and yet you told me to count you as +a friend in the deepest meaning of that word. How could you mean it?" + +The Doctor's answer came with deep impressiveness. + +"Because, despite whatever slip you may have made as a boy of eighteen, +you have grown into a man worthy of such a friendship. A surgeon in my +position learns to read character, learns to know an honest man when he +sees one. No matter what lies behind you that you regret, I have every +confidence in you now, Dan. I am convinced you are worthy to be the son +of even such a man as Daniel Darcy." + +He held out his hand to have it taken in a long, silent grip that made it +ache. + +"Come on and go back home with me," urged the Doctor. "You've made good +out here. Do the brave thing now and go back and live down the past. +It'll make the old folks so happy it'll wipe out the heart-break of all +those years that you've been away." + +Dan's only response was another grasp of the Doctor's hand as strong and +as painful as the first. Pulling himself up by it he stood an instant +trying to say something, then, too overcome to utter a word, made a dash +for the door. + +Doctor Huntingdon was so stirred by the scene that he found it difficult +to go back to his letters, but the very next one in order happened to be +the one Georgina wrote to her mother just after Belle had given her +consent to Barby's being told of Emmett's confession. He read the latter +part of it, standing, for he had sprung to his feet with the surprise of +its opening sentence. He did not even know that Emmett had been dead all +these years, and Dan, who had had no word from home during all his +absence, could not know it either. He was in a tremor of eagerness to +hurry to him with the news, but he waited to scan the rest of the letter. + +Then with it fluttering open in his hand he strode across the hall and +burst into Dan's room without knocking. + +"Pack up your junk, this minute, boy," he shouted. "We take the first +boat out of here for home. Look at this!" + +He thrust Georgina's letter before Dan's bewildered eyes. + + + + +Chapter XXIX + +While they Waited + + + +"There comes the boy from the telegraph office." Mrs. Triplett spoke with +such a raven-like note of foreboding in her voice that Georgina, +practising her daily scales, let her hands fall limply from the keys. + +"The Tishbite!" she thought uneasily. What evil was it about to send into +the house now, under cover of that yellow envelope? Would it take Barby +away from her as it had done before? + +Sitting motionless on the piano stool, she waited in dread while Mrs. +Triplett hurried to the door before the boy could ring, signed for the +message and silently bore it upstairs. The very fact that she went up +with it herself, instead of calling to Barby that a message had come, +gave Georgina the impression that it contained bad news. + +"A _cablegram_ for me?" she heard Barby ask. Then there was a +moment's silence in which she knew the message was being opened and read. +Then there was a murmur as if she were reading it aloud to Tippy and +then--an excited whirlwind of a Barby flying down the stairs, her eyes +like happy stars, her arms outstretched to gather Georgina into them, and +her voice half laugh, half sob, singing: + + "Oh, he's coming home to me + Baby mine!" + +Never before had Georgina seen her so radiant, so excited, so +overflowingly happy that she gave vent to her feelings as a little +schoolgirl might have done. Seizing Georgina in her arms she waltzed her +around the room until she was dizzy. Coming to a pause at the piano stool +she seated herself and played, "The Year of Jubilee Has Come," in deep, +crashing chords and trickly little runs and trills, till the old tune was +transformed into a paen of jubilation. + +Then she took the message from her belt, where she had tucked it and +re-read it to assure herself of its reality. + +"Starting home immediately. Stay three months, dragon captured." + +"That must mean that his quest has been fairly successful," she said. "If +he's found the cause of the disease it'll be only a matter of time till +he finds how to kill it." + +Then she looked up, puzzled. + +"How strange for him to call it the _dragon_. How could he know we'd +understand, and that we've been calling it that?" + +Georgina's time had come for confession. + +"Oh, I wrote him a little note after you told me the story and told him I +was proud of having a Saint-George-kind of a father, and that we hoped +every day he'd get the microbe." + +"You darling!" exclaimed Barbara, drawing her to her for another +impulsive hug. She did not ask as Georgina was afraid she would: + +"Why didn't you tell me you were writing to your father?" Barbara +understood, without asking, remembering the head bowed in her lap after +that confession of her encounter with the prying stranger in the bakery. + +Suddenly Georgina asked: + +"Barby, what is the 'Tishbite?'" + +"The what?" echoed Barby, wrinkling her forehead in perplexity. + +"The Tishbite. Don't you know it says in the Bible, Elijah and the +Tishbite----" + +"Oh, no, dear, you've turned it around, and put the and in the wrong +place. It is 'And Elijah the Tishbite,' just as we'd say William the +Norman or Manuel the Portuguese." + +"Well, for pity sakes!" drawled Georgina in a long, slow breath of +relief. "Is that all? I wish I'd known it long ago. It would have saved +me a lot of scary feelings." + +Then she told how she had made the wish on the star and tried to prove it +as Belle had taught her, by opening the Bible at random. + +"If you had read on," said Barby, "you'd have found what it meant your +own self." + +"But the book shut up before I had a chance," explained Georgina. "And I +never could find the place again, although I've hunted and hunted. And I +was sure it meant some sort of devil, and that it would come and punish +me for using the Bible that way as if it were a hoodoo." + +"Then why didn't you ask me?" insisted Barby. "There's another time you +see, when a big worry and misunderstanding could have been cleared away +with a word. To think of your living in dread all that time, when the +Tishbite was only a good old prophet whose presence brought a blessing to +the house which sheltered him." + +That night when Georgina's curls were being brushed she said, "Barby, I +know now who my Tishbite is; it's Captain Kidd. He's brought a blessing +ever since he came to this town. If it hadn't been for his barking that +day we were playing in the garage I wouldn't be here now to tell the +tale. If it hadn't been for him I wouldn't have known Richard, and we'd +never have started to playing pirate. And if we hadn't played pirate +Richard wouldn't have asked to borrow the rifle, and if he hadn't asked +we never would have found the note hidden in the stock, and if we hadn't +found the note nobody would have known that Danny was innocent. Then if +Captain Kidd hadn't found the pouch we wouldn't have seen the compass +that led to finding the wild-cat woman who told us that Danny was alive +and well." + +"What a House-That-Jack-Built sort of tale that was!" exclaimed Barby, +much amused. "We'll have to do something in Captain Kidd's honor. Give +him a party perhaps, and light up the holiday tree." + +The usual bedtime ceremonies were over, and Barby had turned out the +light and reached the door when Georgina raised herself on her elbow to +call: + +"Barby, I've just thought of it. The wish I made on that star that night +is beginning to come true. Nearly everybody I know is happy about +something." Then she snuggled her head down on the pillow with a little +wriggle of satisfaction. "Ugh! this is such a good world. I'm so glad I'm +living in it. Aren't you?" + +And Barby had to come all the way back in the dark to emphasize her +heartfelt "yes, indeed," with a hug, and to seal the restless eyelids +down with a kiss--the only way to make them stay shut. + +Richard came back the next day. He brought a picture to Georgina from Mr. +Locke. It was the copy of the illustration he had promised her, the fairy +shallop with its sails set wide, coming across a sea of Dreams, and at +the prow, white-handed Hope, the angel girt with golden wings, which +swept back over the sides of the vessel. + +"Think of having a painting by the famous Milford Norris Locke!" +exclaimed Barby. She hung over it admiringly. "Most people would be happy +to have just his autograph." She bent nearer to examine the name in the +corner of the picture. "What's this underneath? Looks like number IV." + +"Oh, that means he's number four in our Rainbow Club. Peggy Burrell is +number five and the Captain is number six. That's all the members we have +so far." + +"Aren't you going to count me in?" asked Barby. + +"Oh, you _are_ counted in. You've belonged from the beginning. We +made you an _honary_ member or whatever it is they call it, people +who deserve to belong because they're always doing nice things, but don't +know it. There's you and Uncle Darcy and Captain Kidd, because he saved +our lives and saved our families from having to have a double funeral." + +Barby stooped to take the little terrier's head between her hands and +pat-a-cake it back and forth with an affectionate caress. + +"Captain Kidd," she said gaily, "you shall have a party this very night, +and there shall be bones and cakes on the holiday tree, and you shall be +the best man with a 'normous blue bow on your collar, and we'll all dance +around in your honor this way." + +Springing to her feet and holding the terrier's front paws, she waltzed +him around and around on his hind legs, singing: + + "All around the barberry bush, + Barberry bush, barberry bush. + All around the barberry bush + So early in the morning." + +Georgina, accustomed all her life to such frisky performances, took it as +a matter of course that Barby should give vent to her feelings in the +same way that she herself would have done, but Richard stood by, +bewildered. It was a revelation to him that anybody's mother could be so +charmingly and unreservedly gay. She seemed more like a big sister than +any of the mothers of his acquaintance. He couldn't remember his own, and +while Aunt Letty was always sweet and good to him he couldn't imagine her +waltzing a dog around on its hind legs any more than he could imagine +Mrs. Martha Washington doing it. + +The holiday tree was another revelation to him, when he came back at dusk +to find it lighted with the colored lanterns and blooming with flags and +hung with surprises for Georgina and himself. + +"You've never seen it lighted," Barby explained, "and Georgina's birthday +had to be skipped because I wasn't here to celebrate, so we've rolled all +the holidays into one, for a grand celebration in Captain Kidd's honor." + +It was to shorten the time of waiting that Barbara threw herself into the +children's games and pleasures so heartily. Every night she tore a leaf +off the calendar and planned something to fill up the next day to the +brim with work or play. They climbed to the top of the monument when she +found that Richard had never made the ascent, and stood long, looking off +to Plymouth, twenty miles away, and at the town spread out below them, +seeming from their great height, a tiny toy village. They went to Truro +to see the bayberry candle-dipping. They played Maud Muller, raking the +yard, because the boy whom old Jeremy had installed in his place had hurt +his foot. Old Jeremy, being well on toward ninety now, no longer +attempted any work, though still hale and hearty. But the garden had been +his especial domain too long for him to give it up entirely, and he spent +hours in it daily, to the disgust of his easy-going successor. + +There were picnics at Highland Light and the Race Point life-saving +station. There were long walks out the state road, through the dunes and +by the cranberry bogs. But everything which speeded Barbara's weeks of +feverish waiting, hurrying her on nearer her heart's desire, brought +Richard nearer ito the time of parting from the old seaport town and the +best times he had ever known. He had kodak pictures of all their outings. +Most of them were light-struck or out of focus or over-exposed, but he +treasured them because he had taken them himself with his first little +Brownie camera. There was nothing wrong or queer with the recollection of +the scenes they brought to him. His memory photographed only perfect +days, and he dreaded to have them end. + +Before those weeks were over Richard began to feel that he belonged to +Barby in a way, and she to him. There were many little scenes of which no +snapshot could be taken, which left indelible impressions. + +For instance, those evenings in the dim room lighted only by the +moonlight streaming in through the open windows, when Barby sat at the +piano with Georgina beside her, singing, while he looked out over the sea +and felt the soul of him stir vaguely, as if he had wings somewhere, +waiting to be unfurled. + +The last Sunday of his vacation he went to church with Barbara and +Georgina. It wasn't the Church of the Pilgrims, but another white-towered +one near by. The president of the bank was one of the ushers. He called +Richard by name when he shook hands with the three of them at the door. +That in itself gave Richard a sense of importance and of being welcome. +It was a plain old-fashioned church, its only decoration a big bowl of +tiger-lilies on a table down in front of the pulpit. When he took his +seat in one of the high front pews he felt that he had never been in such +a quiet, peaceful place before. + +They were very early. The windows were open, and now and then a breeze +blowing in from the sea fluttered the leaves of a hymn-book lying open on +the front seat. Each time they fluttered he heard another sound also, as +faint and sweet as if it were the ringing of little crystal bells. +Georgina, on the other side of Barby, heard it too, and they looked at +each other questioningly. Then Richard discovered where the tinkle came +from, and pointed upward to call her attention to it. There, from the +center of the ceiling swung a great, old-fashioned chandelier, hung with +a circle of pendant prisms, each one as large and shining as the one +Uncle Darcy had given her. + +Georgina knew better than to whisper in such a place, but she couldn't +help leaning past Barby so that Richard could see her lips silently form +the words, "Rainbow Club." She wondered if Mr. Gates had started it. +There were enough prisms for nearly every member in the church to claim +one. + +Barby, reading the silent message of her lips and guessing that Georgina +was wondering over the discovery, moved her own lips to form the words, +"just _honorary_ members." + +Georgina nodded her satisfaction. It was good to know that there were so +many of them in the world, all working for the same end, whether they +realized it or not. + +Just before the service began an old lady in the adjoining pew next to +Richard, reached over the partition and offered him several cloves. He +was too astonished to refuse them and showed them to Barby, not knowing +what to do with them. She leaned down and whispered behind her fan: + +"She eats them to keep her awake in church." + +Richard had no intention of going to sleep, but he chewed one up, finding +it so hot it almost strangled him. Every seat was filled in a short time, +and presently a drowsiness crept into the heated air which began to weave +some kind of a spell around him. His shoes were new and his collar chafed +his neck. His eyelids grew heavier and heavier. He stared at the lilies +till the whole front of the church seemed filled with them. He looked up +at the chandelier and began to count the prisms, and watch for the times +that the breeze swept across them and set them to tinkling. + +Then, the next thing that he knew he was waking from a long doze on +Barby's shoulder. She was fanning him with slow sweeps of her white- +feathered fan which smelled deliciously of some faint per-fume, and the +man from Boston was singing all alone, something about still waves and +being brought into a haven. + +A sense of Sabbath peace and stillness enfolded him, with the beauty of +the music and the lilies, the tinkling prisms, the faint, warm perfume +wafted across his face by Barby's fan. The memory of it all stayed with +him as something very sacred and sweet, he could not tell why, unless it +was that Barby's shoulder was such a dear place for a little motherless +lad's head to lie. + +Georgina, leaning against Barby on the other side, half asleep, sat up +and straightened her hat when the anthem began. Being a Huntingdon she +could not turn as some people did and stare up at the choir loft behind +her when that wonderful voice sang alone. She looked up at the prisms +instead, and as she looked it seemed to her that the voice was the voice +of the white angel Hope, standing at the prow of a boat, its golden wings +sweeping back, as storm-tossed but triumphant, it brought the vessel in +at last to happy anchorage. + +The words which the voice sang were the words on which the rainbow had +rested, that day she read them to Aunt Elspeth: _"So He bringeth them +into their desired haven."_ They had seemed like music then, but now, +rolling upward, as if Hope herself were singing them at the prow of +Life's tossing shallop, they were more than music. They voiced the joy of +great desire finding great fulfilment. + + + + +Chapter XXX + +Nearing the End + + + +"Old Mr. Potter has had a stroke." + +Georgina called the news up to Richard as she paused at the foot of the +Green Stairs on her way to the net-mender's house. + +"Belle sent a note over a little while ago and I'm taking the answer +back. Come and go with me." + +Richard, who had been trundling Captain Kidd around on his forefeet in +the role of wheelbarrow, dropped the dog's hind legs which he had been +using as handles and came jumping down the steps, two at a time to do her +bidding. + +"Belle's gone over to take care of things," Georgina explained, with an +important air as they walked along. "There's a man to help nurse him, but +she'll stay on to the end." Her tone and words were Tippy's own as she +made this announcement. + +"End of what?" asked Richard. "And what's a stroke?" + +Half an hour earlier Georgina could not have answered his question, but +she explained now with the air of one who has had a lifetime of +experience. It was Mrs. Triplett's fund she was drawing on, however, and +old Jeremy's. Belle's note had started them to comparing reminiscences, +and out of their conversation Georgina had gathered many gruesome facts. + +"You may be going about as well and hearty as usual, and suddenly it'll +strike you to earth like lightning, and it may leave you powerless to +move for weeks and sometimes even years. You may know all that's going on +around you but not be able to speak or make a sign. Mr. Potter isn't as +bad as that, but he's speechless. With him the end may come any time, yet +he may linger on for nobody knows how long." + +Richard had often passed the net-mender's cottage in the machine, and +stared in at the old man plying his twine-shuttle in front of the door. +The fact that he was Emmett's father and ignorant of the secret which +Richard shared, made an object of intense interest out of an otherwise +unattractive and commonplace old man. Now that interest grew vast and +overshadowing as the children approached the house. + +Belle, stepping to the front door when she heard the gate click, motioned +for them to go around to the back. As they passed an open side window, +each looked in, involuntarily attracted by the sight of a bed drawn up +close to it. Then they glanced at each other, startled and awed by what +they saw, and bumped into each other in their haste to get by as quickly +as possible. + +On the bed lay a rigid form, stretched out under a white counterpane. All +that showed of the face above the bushy whiskers was as waxen looking as +if death had already touched it, but the sunken eyes half open, showed +that they were still in the mysterious hold of what old Jeremy called a +"living death." It was a sight which neither of them could put out of +their minds for days afterward. + +Belle met them at the back door, solemn, unsmiling, her hushed tones +adding to the air of mystery which seemed to shroud the house. As she +finished reading the note a neighbor came in the back way and Belle asked +the children to wait a few minutes. They dropped down on the grass while +Belle, leaning against the pump, answered Mrs. Brown's questions in low +tones. + +She had been up all night, she told Mrs. Brown. Yes, she was going to +stay on till the call came, no matter whether it was a week or a year. +Mrs. Brown spoke in a hoarse whisper which broke now and then, letting +her natural voice through with startling effect. + +"It's certainly noble of you," she declared. "There's not many who would +put themselves out to do for an old person who hadn't any claim on them +the way you are doing for him. There'll surely be stars in _your_ +crown." + +Later, as the children trudged back home, sobered by all they had seen +and heard, Georgina broke the silence. + +"Well, I think we ought to put Belle's name on the very top line of our +club book. She ought to be an honary member--the very honaryest one of +all." + +"Why?" asked Richard. "You heard all Mrs. Brown said. Seems to me what +she's doing to give old Mr. Potter a good time is the very noblest----" + +There was an amazed look on Richard's face as he interrupted with the +exclamation: + +"Gee-minee! You don't call what that old man's having a good time, do +you?" + +"Well, it's good to what it would be if Belle wasn't taking care of him. +And if she does as Mrs. Brown says, 'carries some comfort into the valley +of the shadow for him, making his last days bright,' isn't that the very +biggest rainbow anybody could make?" + +"Ye-es," admitted Richard in a doubtful tone. "Maybe it is if you put it +that way." + +They walked a few blocks more in silence, then he said: + +"I think _Dan_ ought to be an honary member." + +It was Georgina's turn to ask why. + +"Aw, you know why! Taking the blame on himself the way he did and +everything." + +"But he made just as bad times for Uncle Darcy and Aunt Elspeth as he +made good times for Mr. Potter and Emmett. I don't think he has any right +to belong at all." + +They argued the question hotly for a few minutes, coming nearer to a +quarrel than they had ever been before, and only dropping it as they +crossed to a side street which led into the dunes. + +"Let's turn here and go home this way," suggested Richard. "Let's go look +at the place where we buried the pouch and see if the sand has shifted +any." + +Nothing was changed, however, except that the holes they had dug were +filled to the level now, and the sand stretched an unbroken surface as +before the day of their digging. + +"Cousin James says that if ever the gold comes to the top we can have it, +because he paid the woman. But if it ever does I won't be here to see it. +I've got to go home in eight more days." + +He stood kicking his toes into the sand as he added dolefully, "Here it +is the end of the summer and we've only played at being pirates. We've +never gone after the real stuff in dead earnest, one single time." + +"I know," admitted Georgina. "First we had to wait so long for your +portrait to be finished and then you went off on the yacht, and all in +between times things have happened so fast there never was any time. But +we found something just as good as pirate stuff--that note in the rifle +was worth more to Uncle Darcy than a chest of gold." + +"And Captain Kidd was as good as a real pirate," said Richard, +brightening at the thought, "for he brought home a bag of real gold, and +was the one who started us after the wild-cat woman. I guess Uncle Darcy +would rather know what she told him than have a chest of ducats and +pearls." + +"We can go next summer," suggested Georgina. + +"Maybe I won't be here next summer. Dad always wants to try new places on +his vacation. He and Aunt Letty like to move. But I'd like to stay here +always. I hate to go away until I find out the end of things. I wish I +could stay until the letter is found and Dan comes home." + +"You may be a grown-up man before either of those things happen," +remarked Georgina sagely. + +"Then I'll know I'll be here to see 'm," was the triumphant answer, +"because when I'm a man I'm coming back here to live all the rest of my +life. It's the nicest place there is." + +"If anything happens sooner I'll write and tell you," promised Georgina. + +Something happened the very next morning, however, and Georgina kept part +of her promise though not in writing, when she came running up the Green +Stairs, excited and eager. Her news was so tremendously important that +the words tumbled over each other in her haste to tell it. She could +hardly make herself understood. The gist of it was that a long night +letter had just arrived from her father, saying that he had landed in San +Francisco and was taking the first homeward bound train. He would stop in +Washington for a couple of days to attend to some business, and then was +coming home for a long visit. And--this was the sentence Georgina saved +till last to electrify Richard with: + +"_Am bringing Dan with me._" + +"He didn't say where he found him or anything else about it," added +Georgina, "only 'prepare his family for the surprise.' So Barby went +straight down there to Fishburn Court and she's telling Aunt Elspeth and +Uncle Darcy now, so they'll have time to get used to the news before he +walks in on them." + +They sat down on the top step with the dog between them. + +"They must know it by this time," remarked Georgina. "Oh, don't you wish +you could see what's happening, and how glad everybody is? Uncle Darcy +will want to start right out with his bell and ring it till it cracks, +telling the whole town." + +"But he won't do it," said Richard. "He promised he wouldn't." + +"Anyhow till Belle says he can," amended Georgina. "I'm sure she'll say +so when 'the call' comes, but nobody knows when that will be. It may be +soon and it may not be for years." + +They sat there on the steps a long time, talking quietly, but with the +holiday feeling that one has when waiting for a procession to pass by. +The very air seemed full of that sense of expectancy, of waiting for +something to happen. + + + + +Chapter XXXI + +Comings and Goings + + + +Out towards the cranberry bogs went the Towncrier. No halting step this +time, no weary droop of shoulders. It would have taken a swift-footed boy +to keep pace with him on this errand. He was carrying the news to Belle. +What he expected her to say he did not stop to ask himself, nor did he +notice in the tumultuous joy which kept his old heart pounding at +unwonted speed, that she turned white with the suddenness of his telling, +and then a wave of color surged over her face. Her only answer was to +lead him into the room where the old net-mender lay helpless, turning +appealing eyes to her as she entered, with the look in them that one sees +in the eyes of a grateful dumb animal. His gaze did not reach as far as +the Towncrier, who halted on the threshold until Belle joined him there. +She led him outside. + +"You see for yourself how it is," was all she said. "Do as you think best +about it." + +Out on the road again the Towncrier stood hesitating, uncertain which +course to take. Twice he started in the direction of home, then retraced +his steps again to stand considering. Finally he straightened up with a +determined air and started briskly down the road which led to the center +of the town. Straight to the bank he went, asking for Mr. Gates, and a +moment later was admitted into the president's private office. + +"And what can I do for you, Uncle Dan'l?" was the cordial greeting. + +The old man dropped heavily into the chair set out for him. He was out of +breath from his rapid going. + +"You can do me one of the biggest favors I ever asked of anybody if you +only will. Do you remember a sealed envelope I brought in here the first +of the summer and asked you to keep for me till I called for it?" + +"Yes, do you want it now?" + +"I'm going to show you what's in it." + +He had such an air of suppressed excitement as he said it and his +breathing was so labored, that Mr. Gates wondered what could have +happened to affect him so. When he came back from the vault he carried +the envelope which had been left in his charge earlier in the summer. +Uncle Darcy tore it open with fingers that trembled in their eagerness. + +"What I'm about to show you is for your eyes alone," he said. He took out +a crumpled sheet of paper which had once been torn in two and pasted +together again in clumsy fashion. It was the paper which had been wadded +up in the rifle, which Belle had seized with hysterical fury, torn in two +and flung from her. + +"There! Read that!" he commanded. + +Mr. Gates knew everybody in town. He had been one of the leading citizens +who had subscribed to the monument in Emmett Potter's honor. He could +scarcely believe the evidence of his own eyes as he read the confession +thrust into his hands, and he had never been more surprised at any tale +ever told him than the one Uncle Darcy related now of the way it had been +found, and his promise to Belle Triplett. + +"I'm not going to make it public while old Potter hangs on," he said in +conclusion. "I'll wait till he's past feeling the hurts of earth. But Mr. +Gates, I've had word that my Danny's coming home. I can't let the boy +come back to dark looks and cold shoulders turned on him everywhere. I +thought if you'd just start the word around that he's all right--that +somebody else confessed to what he's accused of--that you'd seen the +proof with your own eyes and could vouch for his being all right--if +_you'd_ just give him a welcoming hand and show you believed in him +it would make all the difference in the world in Danny's home-coming. You +needn't mention any names," he pleaded. "I know it'll make a lot of talk +and surmising, but that won't hurt anybody. If you could just do that----" + +When the old man walked out of the president's office he carried his head +as high as if he had been given a kingdom. He had been given what was +worth more to him, the hearty handclasp of a man whose "word was as good +as a bond," and the promise that Dan should be welcomed back to the town +by great and small, as far as was in his power to make that welcome +cordial and widespread. + + * * * * * + +Dan did not wait in Washington while Doctor Huntingdon made his report. +He came on alone, and having missed the boat, took the railroad journey +down the Cape. In the early September twilight he stepped off the car, +feeling as if he were in a strange dream. But when he turned into one of +the back streets leading to his home, it was all so familiar and +unchanged that he had the stranger feeling of never having been away. It +was the past ten years that seemed a dream. + +He had not realized how he loved the old town or the depth of his longing +for it, until he saw it now, restored to him. Even the familiar, savory +smells floating out from various supper tables as he passed along, gave +him keen enjoyment. Some of them had been unknown all the time of his +wanderings in foreign lands. The voices, the type of features, the dress +of the people he passed, the veriest trifles which he never noticed when +he lived among them, thrilled him now with a sense of having come back to +his own. + +Half a dozen fishermen passed him, their boots clumping heavily. He +recognized two of them if not as individuals, as members of families he +had known, from their resemblance to the older ones. Then he turned his +head aside as he reached the last man. He was not ready to be recognized +himself, yet. He wanted to go home first, and this man at the end was +Peter Winn. He had sailed in his boat many a time. + +A cold fog was settling over the Court when he turned into it. As +silently as the fog itself he stole through the sand and in at the gate. +The front door was shut and the yellow blind pulled down over the window, +but the lamp behind it sent out a glow, reaching dimly through the fog. +He crept up close to it to listen for the sound of voices, and suddenly +two blended shadows were thrown on the blind. The old man was helping his +wife up from her rocking chair and supporting her with a careful arm as +he guided her across to the table. His voice rang out cheerfully to the +waiting listener. + +"That's it, Mother! That's it! Just one more step now. Why, you're doing +fine! I knew the word of Danny's coming home would put you on your feet +again. The lad'll be here soon, thank God! Maybe before another +nightfall." + +A moment later and the lamp-light threw another shadow on the yellow +blind, plain as a photograph. It was well that the fog drew a white veil +between it and the street, for it was a picture of joy too sacred for +curious eyes to see. + +_Danny had come home!_ + + * * * * * + +It was the tenth of September. The town looked strangely deserted with +nearly all the summer people gone. The railroad wharf was the only place +where there was the usual bustle and crowd, and that was because the +_Dorothy Bradford_ was gathering up its passengers for the last trip +of the season. + +Richard was to be one of them, and a most unwilling one. Not that he was +sorry to be going back to school. He had missed Binney and the gang, and +could hardly wait to begin swapping experiences with them. But he was +leaving Captain Kidd behind. Dogs were not allowed in the apartment house +to which his father and Aunt Letty intended moving the next week. + +There had been a sorry morning in the garage when the news was broken to +him. He crept up into the machine and lay down on the back seat, and +cried and cried with his arms around Captain Kidd's neck. The faithful +little tongue reached out now and then to lap away his master's tears, +and once he lifted his paw and clawed at the little striped shirt waist +as if trying to convey some mute comfort. + +"You're just the same as folks!" sobbed Richard, hugging the shaggy head, +laid lovingly on his breast. "And it's _cruel_ of 'em to make me +give you away." Several days had passed since that unhappy morning, +however, and Richard did not feel quite so desolate over the separation +now. For one thing it had not been necessary to give up all claim on +Captain Kidd to insure him a good home. Georgina had gladly accepted the +offer of half of him, and had coaxed even Tippy into according him a +reluctant welcome. + +The passengers already on deck watched with interest the group near the +gang-plank. Richard was putting the clever little terrier through his +whole list of tricks. + +"It's the last time, old fellow," he said implor-ingly when the dog +hesitated over one of them. "Go on and do it for me this once. Maybe I'll +never see you again till I'm grown up and you're too old to remember me." + +"That's what you said about Dan's coming home," remarked Georgina from +under the shade of her pink parasol. That parasol and the pink dress and +the rose-like glow on the happy little face was attracting even more +admiration from the passengers than Captain Kidd's tricks. Barbara, +standing beside her, cool and dainty in a white dress and pale green +sweater and green parasol, made almost as much of a picture. + +"You talked that way about never expecting to see Danny till you were +grown," continued Georgina, "and it turned out that you not only saw him, +but were with him long enough to hear some of his adventures. It would be +the same way about your coming back here if you'd just keep hoping hard +enough." + +"Come Dicky," called Mr. Moreland from the upper deck. "They're about to +take in the gang-plank. Don't get left." + +Maybe it was just as well that there was no time for good-byes. Maybe it +was more than the little fellow could have managed manfully. As it was +his voice sounded suspiciously near breaking as he called back over his +shoulder, almost gruffly: + +"Well you--you be as good to my half of him as you are to yours." + +A moment or two later, leaning over the railing of the upper deck he +could see Captain Kidd struggling and whining to follow him. But Barby +held tightly to the chain fastened to his collar, and Georgina, her +precious pink parasol cast aside, knelt on the wharf beside the +quivering, eager little body to clasp her arms about it and pour out a +flood of comforting endearments. + +Wider and wider grew the stretch of water between the boat and the wharf. +Richard kept on waving until he could no longer distinguish the little +group on the end of the pier. But he knew they would be there until the +last curl of smoke from the steamer disappeared around Long Point. + +"Here," said the friendly voice of a woman stand ing next to him. She had +been one of the interested witnesses of the parting. She thrust an opera- +glass into his hands. For one more long satisfying moment he had another +glimpse of the little group, still faithfully waving, still watching. How +very, very far away they were! + +Suddenly the glass grew so blurry and queer it was no more good, and he +handed it back to the woman. At that moment he would have given all the +pirate gold that was ever on land or sea, were it his to give, to be back +on that pier with the three of them, able to claim that old seaport town +as his home for ever and always. And then the one thing that it had +taught him came to his help. With his head up, he looked back to the +distant shore where the Pilgrim monument reared itself like a watchful +giant, and said hopefully, under his breath: "Well, _some day!_" + + * * * * * + +Georgina, waking earlier than usual that September morning, looked up and +read the verse on the calendar opposite her bed, which she had jead +every, morning since the month came in. + + "Like ships my days sail swift to port, + I know not if this be + The one to bear a cargo rare + Of happiness to me. + +"But I _do_ know this time," she thought exultingly, sitting up in +bed to look out the window and see what kind of weather the dawn had +brought. This was the day her father was coming home. He was coming from +Boston on a battleship, and she and Barby were going out to meet him as +soon as it was sighted in the harbor. + +She had that quivery, excited feeling which sometimes seizes travelers as +they near the journey's end, as if she herself were a little ship, +putting into a long-wished-for port. Well, it would be like that in a +way, she thought, to have her father's arms folded around her, to come at +last into the strange, sweet intimacy she had longed for ever since she +first saw Peggy Burrell and the Captain. + +And it was reaching another long-desired port to have Barby's happiness +so complete. As for Uncle Darcy he said himself that he couldn't be +gladder walking the shining streets of heaven, than he was going along +that old board-walk with Danny beside him, and everybody so friendly and +so pleased to see him. + +Georgina still called him Danny in her thoughts, but it had been somewhat +a shock the first time she saw him, to find that he was a grown man with +a grave, mature face, instead of the boy which Uncle Darcy's way of +speaking of him had led her to expect. He had already been up to the +house to tell them the many things they were eager to know about the +months he had spent with Doctor Huntingdon and their long trip home +together. And listening, Georgina realized how very deep was the respect +and admiration of this younger man for her father, and his work, and, +everything he said made her more eager to see and know him. + +Uncle Darcy and Dan were with them when they put out in the motor boat to +meet the battleship. It was almost sunset when they started, and the man +at the wheel drove so fast they felt the keen whip of the wind as they +cut through the waves. They were glad to button their coats, even up to +their chins. Uncle Darcy and Dan talked all the way over, but Georgina +sat with her hand tightly locked in her mother's, sharing her tense +expectancy, never saying a word. + +Then at last the little boat stopped alongside the big one. There were a +few moments of delay before Georgina looked up and saw her father coming +down to them. He was just as his photograph had pictured him, tall, +erect, commanding, and strangely enough her first view of him was with +his face turned to one side. Then it was hidden from her as he gathered +Barby into his arms and held her close. + +Georgina, watching that meeting with wistful, anxious eyes, felt her last +little doubt of him vanish, and when he turned to her with his stern lips +curved into the smile she had hoped for, and with out-stretched arms, she +sprang into them and threw her arms around his neck with such a welcoming +clasp that his eyes filled with tears. + +Then, remembering certain little letters which he had re-read many times +on his homeward voyage, he held her off to look into her eyes and whisper +with a tender smile which made the teasing question a joy to her: + +"Which is it now? 'Dear Sir' or 'Dad-o'-my heart?'" + +The impetuous pressure of her soft little cheek against his face was +answer eloquent enough. As they neared the shore a bell tolled out over +the water. It was the bell of Saint Peter, patron saint of the fisher- +folk and all those who dwell by the sea. Then Long Point lighthouse +flashed a wel-come, and the red lamp of Wood End blinked in answer. On +the other side Highland Light sent its great, unfailing glare out over +the Atlantic, and the old Towncrier, looking up, saw the first stars +shining overhead. + +Alongshore the home lights began to burn. One shone out in Fishburn Court +where Aunt Elspeth sat waiting. One threw its gleam over the edge of the +cranberry bog from the window where Belle kept faithful vigil--where she +would continue to keep it until "the call" came to release the watcher as +well as the stricken old soul whose peace she guarded. And up in the big +gray house by the break-water, where Tippy was keeping supper hot, a +supper fit to set before a king, lights blazed from every window. + +Pondering on what all these lights stood for, the old man moved away from +the others, and took his place near the prow. His heart was too full just +now to talk as they were doing. Presently he felt a touch on his arm. +Georgina had laid her hand on it with the understanding touch of perfect +comradeship. They were his own words she was repeating to him, but they +bore the added weight of her own experience now. + +"It _pays_ to keep Hope at the prow, Uncle Darcy." + +"Aye, lass," he answered tremulously, "it does." + +"And we're coming into port with all flags flying!" + +"_That_ we are!" + +She stood in silent gladness after that, the rest of the way, her curls +flying back in the wind made by the swift motion of the boat, the white +spray dashing up till she could taste the salt of it on her lips; a +little figure of Hope herself, but of Hope riding triumphantly into the +port of its fulfillment. It was for them all--those words of the old +psalm on which the rainbow had rested, and which the angel voice had +sung--"_Into their desired haven_." + + +THE END + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's Georgina of the Rainbows, by Annie Fellows Johnston + +*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK GEORGINA OF THE RAINBOWS *** + +This file should be named 7807.txt or 7807.zip + +Produced by Curtis A. Weyant + +Project Gutenberg eBooks are often created from several printed +editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the US +unless a copyright notice is included. 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