THE BREAKING OF THE DAWN
September weather on Barnegat beach! Fine gowns and fine hats on the
wide piazzas of Beach Haven! Too cool for bathing, but not too cool to
sit on the sand and throw pebbles and loll under kindly umbrellas; air
fresh and bracing, with a touch of June in it; skies full of
mares'-tails--slips of a painter's brush dragged flat across the film
of blue; sea gone to rest; not a ripple, no long break of the surf,
only a gentle lift and fall like the breathing of a sleeping child.
Uncle Isaac shook his head when he swept his eye round at all this
loveliness; then he turned on his heel and took a look at the aneroid
fastened to the wall of the sitting-room of the Life-Saving Station.
The arrow showed a steady shrinkage. The barometer had fallen six
points.
"What do ye think, Captain Holt?" asked the old surfman.
"I ain't thinkin', Polhemus; can't tell nothin' 'bout the weather this
month till the moon changes; may go on this way for a week or two, or
it may let loose and come out to the sou'-east I've seen these dog-days
last till October."
Again Uncle Isaac shook his head, and this time kept his peace; now
that his superior officer had spoken he had no further opinion to
express.
Sam Green dropped his feet to the floor, swung himself over to the
barometer, gazed at it for a moment, passed out of the door, swept his
eye around, and resumed his seat--tilted back against the wall. What
his opinion might be was not for publication--not in the captain's
hearing.
Captain Holt now consulted the glass, picked up his cap bearing the
insignia of his rank, and went out through the kitchen to the land side
of the house. The sky and sea--feathery clouds and still, oily
flatness--did not interest him this September morning. It was the
rolling dune that caught his eye, and the straggly path that threaded
its way along the marshes and around and beyond the clump of scrub
pines and bushes until it was lost in the haze that hid the village.
This land inspection had been going on for a month, and always when Tod
was returning from the post-office with the morning mail. The men had
noticed it, but no one had given vent to his thoughts.
Tod, of course, knew the cause of the captain's impatience, but no one
of the others did, not even Archie; time enough for that when the
Swede's story was proved true. If the fellow had lied that was an end
to it; if he had told the truth Bart would answer, and the mystery be
cleared up. This same silence had been maintained toward Jane and the
doctor; better not raise hopes he could not verify--certainly not in
Jane's breast.
Not that he had much hope himself; he dared not hope. Hope meant a prop
to his old age; hope meant joy to Jane, who would welcome the prodigal;
hope meant relief to the doctor, who could then claim his own; hope
meant redemption for Lucy, a clean name for Archie, and honor to
himself and his only son.
No wonder, then, that he watched for an answer to his letter with
feverish impatience. His own missive had been blunt and to the point,
asking the direct question: "Are you alive or dead, and if alive, why
did you fool me with that lie about your dying of fever in a hospital
and keep me waiting all these years?" Anything more would have been
superfluous in the captain's judgment--certainly until he received some
more definite information as to whether the man was his son.
Half a dozen times this lovely September morning the captain had
strolled leisurely out of the back door and had mounted the low hillock
for a better view. Suddenly a light flashed in his face, followed by a
look in his eyes that they had not known for weeks--not since the Swede
left. The light came when his glance fell upon Tod's lithe figure
swinging along the road; the look kindled when he saw Tod stop and wave
his hand triumphantly over his head.
The letter had arrived!
With a movement as quick as that of a horse touched by a whip, he
started across the sand to meet the surfman.
"Guess we got it all right this time, captain," cried Tod. "It's got
the Nassau postmark, anyhow. There warn't nothin' else in the box but
the newspapers," and he handed the package to his chief.
The two walked to the house and entered the captain's office. Tod hung
back, but the captain laid his hand on his shoulder.
"Come in with me, Fogarty. Shut the door. I'll send these papers in to
the men soon's I open this."
Tod obeyed mechanically. There was a tone in the captain's voice that
was new to him. It sounded as if he were reluctant to be left alone
with the letter.
"Now hand me them spectacles."
Tod reached over and laid the glasses in his chief's hand. The captain
settled himself deliberately in his revolving chair, adjusted his
spectacles, and slit the envelope with his thumb-nail. Out came a sheet
of foolscap closely written on both sides. This he read to the end,
turning the page as carefully as if it had been a set of official
instructions, his face growing paler and paler, his mouth tight shut.
Tod stood beside him watching the lights and shadows playing across his
face. The letter was as follows:
"Nassau, No. 4 Calle Valenzuela,
"Aug. 29, 18--.
"Father: Your letter was not what I expected, although it is, perhaps,
all I deserve. I am not going into that part of it, now I know that
Lucy and my child are alive. What has been done in the past I can't
undo, and maybe I wouldn't if I could, for if I am worth anything
to-day it comes from what I have suffered; that's over now, and I won't
rake it up, but I think you would have written me some word of kindness
if you had known what I have gone through since I left you. I don't
blame you for what you did--I don't blame anybody; all I want now is to
get back home among the people who knew me when I was a boy, and try
and make up for the misery I have caused you and the Cobdens. I would
have done this before, but it has only been for the last two years that
I have had any money. I have got an interest in the mine now and am
considerably ahead, and I can do what I have always determined to do if
I ever had the chance and means--come home to Lucy and the child; it
must be big now--and take them back with me to Bolivia, where I have a
good home and where, in a few years, I shall be able to give them
everything they need. That's due to her and to the child, and it's due
to you; and if she'll come I'll do my best to make her happy while she
lives. I heard about five years ago from a man who worked for a short
time in Farguson's ship-yard how she was suffering, and what names the
people called the child, and my one thought ever since has been to do
the decent thing by both. I couldn't then, for I was living in a hut
back in the mountains a thousand miles from the coast, or tramping from
place to place; so I kept still. He told me, too, how you felt toward
me, and I didn't want to come and have bad blood between us, and so I
stayed on. When Olssen Strom, my foreman, sailed for Perth Amboy, where
they are making some machinery for the company, I thought I'd try
again, so I sent him to find out. One thing in your letter is wrong. I
never went to the hospital with yellow fever; some of the men had it
aboard ship, and I took one of them to the ward the night I ran away.
The doctor at the hospital wanted my name, and I gave it, and this may
have been how they thought it was me, but I did not intend to deceive
you or anybody else, nor cover up any tracks. Yes, father, I'm coming
home. If you'll hold out your hand to me I'll take it gladly. I've had
a hard time since I left you; you'd forgive me if you knew how hard it
has been. I haven't had anybody out here to care whether I lived or
died, and I would like to see how it feels. But if you don't I can't
help it. My hope is that Lucy and the boy will feel differently. There
is a steamer sailing from here next Wednesday; she goes direct to
Amboy, and you may expect me on her. Your son,
"Barton."
"It's him, Tod," cried the captain, shaking the letter over his head;
"it's him!" The tears stood in his eyes now, his voice trembled; his
iron nerve was giving way. "Alive, and comin' home! Be here next week!
Keep the door shut, boy, till I pull myself together. Oh, my God, Tod,
think of it! I haven't had a day's peace since I druv him out nigh on
to twenty year ago. He hurt me here"--and he pointed to his
breast--"where I couldn't forgive him. But it's all over now. He's come
to himself like a man, and he's square and honest, and he's goin' to
stay home till everything is straightened out. O God! it can't be true!
it CAN'T be true!"
He was sobbing now, his face hidden by his wrist and the cuff of his
coat, the big tears striking his pea-jacket and bounding off. It had
been many years since these springs had yielded a drop--not when
anybody could see. They must have scalded his rugged cheeks as molten
metal scalds a sand-pit.
Tod stood amazed. The outburst was a revelation. He had known the
captain ever since he could remember, but always as an austere,
exacting man.
"I'm glad, captain," Tod said simply; "the men'll be glad, too. Shall I
tell 'em?"
The captain raised his head.
"Wait a minute, son." His heart was very tender, all discipline was
forgotten now; and then he had known Tod from his boyhood. "I'll go
myself and tell 'em," and he drew his hand across his eyes as if to dry
them. "Yes, tell 'em. Come, I'll go 'long with ye and tell 'em myself.
I ain't 'shamed of the way I feel, and the men won't be 'shamed
neither."
The sitting-room was full when he entered. Dinner had been announced by
Morgan, who was cook that week, by shouting the glad tidings from his
place beside the stove, and the men were sitting about in their chairs.
Two fishermen who had come for their papers occupied seats against the
wall.
The captain walked to the corner of the table, stood behind his own
chair and rested the knuckles of one hand on the white oilcloth. The
look on his face attracted every eye. Pausing for a moment, he turned
to Polhemus and spoke to him for the others:
"Isaac, I got a letter just now. Fogarty brought it over. You knew my
boy Bart, didn't ye, the one that's been dead nigh on to twenty years?"
The old surfman nodded, his eyes still fastened on the captain. This
calling him "Isaac" was evidence that something personal and unusual
was coming. The men, too, leaned forward in attention; the story of
Bart's disappearance and death had been discussed up and down the coast
for years.
"Well, he's alive," rejoined the captain with a triumphant tone in his
voice, "and he'll be here in a week--comin' to Amboy on a steamer.
There ain't no mistake about it; here's his letter."
The announcement was received in dead silence. To be surprised was not
characteristic of these men, especially over a matter of this kind.
Death was a part of their daily experience, and a resurrection neither
extraordinary nor uncommon. They were glad for the captain, if the
captain was glad--and he, evidently was. But what did Bart's turning up
at this late day mean? Had his money given out, or was he figuring to
get something out of his father--something he couldn't get as long as
he remained dead?
The captain continued, his voice stronger and with a more positive ring
in it:
"He's part owner in a mine now, and he's comin' home to see me and to
straighten out some things he's interested in." It was the first time
in nearly twenty years that he had ever been able to speak of his son
with pride.
A ripple of pleasure went through the room. If the prodigal was
bringing some money with him and was not to be a drag on the captain,
that put a new aspect on the situation. In that case the father was to
be congratulated.
"Well, that's a comfort to you, captain," cried Uncle Isaac in a cheery
tone. "A good son is a good thing. I never had one, dead or alive, but
I'd 'a' loved him if I had had. I'm glad for you, Captain Nat, and I
know the men are." (Polhemus's age and long friendship gave him this
privilege. Then, of course, the occasion was not an official one.)
"Been at the mines, did ye say, captain?" remarked Green. Not that it
was of any interest to him; merely to show his appreciation of the
captain's confidence. This could best be done by prolonging the
conversation.
"Yes, up in the mountains of Brazil some'er's, I guess, though he don't
say," answered the captain in a tone that showed that the subject was
still open for discussion.
Mulligan now caught the friendly ball and tossed it back 'with:
"I knowed a feller once who was in Brazil--so he said. Purty hot down
there, ain't it, captain?"
"Yes; on the coast. I ain't never been back in the interior."
Tod kept silent. It was not his time to speak, nor would it be proper
for him, nor necessary. His chief knew his opinion and sympathies and
no word of his could add to their sincerity.
Archie was the only man in the room, except Uncle Isaac, who regarded
the announcement as personal to the captain. Boys without fathers and
fathers without boys had been topics which had occupied his mind ever
since he could remember. That this old man had found one of his own
whom he loved and whom he wanted to get his arms around, was an
inspiring thought to Archie.
"There's no one happier than I am, captain," he burst out
enthusiastically. "I've often heard of your son, and of his going away
and of your giving him up for dead. I'm mighty glad for you," and he
grasped his chief's hand and shook it heartily.
As the lad's fingers closed around the rough hand of the captain a
furtive look flashed from out Morgan's eyes. It was directed to
Parks--they were both Barnegat men--and was answered by that surfman
with a slow-falling wink. Tod saw it, and his face flushed. Certain
stories connected with Archie rose in his mind; some out of his
childhood, others since he had joined the crew.
The captain's eyes filled as he shook the boy's hand, but he made no
reply to Archie's outburst. Pausing for a moment, as if willing to
listen to any further comments, and finding that no one else had any
word for him, he turned on his heel and reentered his office.
Once inside, he strode to the window and looked out on the dunes, his
big hands hooked behind his back, his eyes fixed on vacancy.
"It won't be long, now, Archie, not long, my lad," he said in a low
voice, speaking aloud to himself. "I kin say you're my grandson out
loud when Bart comes, and nothin' kin or will stop me! And now I kin
tell Miss Jane."
Thrusting the letter into his inside pocket, he picked up his cap, and
strode across the dune in the direction of the new hospital.
Jane was in one of the wards when the captain sent word to her to come
to the visiting-room. She had been helping the doctor in an important
operation. The building was but half way between the Station and
Warehold, which made it easier for the captain to keep his eye on the
sea should there be any change in the weather.
Jane listened to the captain's outburst covering the announcement that
Bart was alive without a comment. Her face paled and her breathing came
short, but she showed no signs of either joy or sorrow. She had faced
too many surprises in her life to be startled at anything. Then again,
Bart alive or dead could make no difference now in either her own or
Lucy's future.
The captain continued, his face brightening, his voice full of hope:
"And your troubles are all over now, Miss Jane; your name will be
cleared up, and so will Archie's, and the doctor'll git his own, and
Lucy kin look everybody in the face. See what Bart says," and he handed
her the open letter.
Jane read it word by word to the end and handed it back to the captain.
Once in the reading she had tightened her grasp on her chair as if to
steady herself, but she did not flinch; she even read some sentences
twice, so that she might be sure of their meaning.
In his eagerness the captain had not caught the expression of agony
that crossed her face as her mind, grasping the purport of the letter,
began to measure the misery that would follow if Bart's plan was
carried out.
"I knew how ye'd feel," he went on, "and I've been huggin' myself ever
since it come when I thought how happy ye'd be when I told ye; but I
ain't so sure 'bout Lucy. What do you think? Will she do what Bart
wants?"
"No," said Jane in a quiet, restrained voice; "she will not do it."
"Why?" said the captain in a surprised tone. He was not accustomed to
be thwarted in anything he had fixed his mind upon, and he saw from
Jane's expression that her own was in opposition.
"Because I won't permit it."
The captain leaned forward and looked at Jane in astonishment.
"You won't permit it!"
"No, I won't permit it."
"Why?" The word came from the captain as if it had been shot from a gun.
"Because it would not be right." Her eyes were still fixed on the
captain's.
"Well, ain't it right that he should make some amends for what he's
done?" he retorted with increasing anger. "When he said he wouldn't
marry her I druv him out; now he says he's sorry and wants to do
squarely by her and my hand's out to him. She ain't got nothin' in her
life that's doin' her any good. And that boy's got to be baptized right
and take his father's name, Archie Holt, out loud, so everybody kin
hear."
Jane made no answer except to shake her head. Her eyes were still on
the captain's, but her mind was neither on him nor on what fell from
his lips. She was again confronting that spectre which for years had
lain buried and which the man before her was exorcising back to life.
The captain sprang from his seat and stood before her; the words now
poured from his lips in a torrent.
"And you'll git out from this death blanket you been sleepin' under,
bearin' her sin; breakin' the doctor's heart and your own; and Archie
kin hold his head up then and say he's got a father. You ain't heard
how the boys talk 'bout him behind his back. Tod Fogarty's stuck to
him, but who else is there 'round here? We all make mistakes; that's
what half the folks that's livin' do. Everything's been a lie--nothin'
but lies--for near twenty years. You've lived a lie motherin' this boy
and breakin' your heart over the whitest man that ever stepped in shoe
leather. Doctor John's lived a lie, tellin' folks he wanted to devote
himself to his hospital when he'd rather live in the sound o' your
voice and die a pauper than run a college anywhere else. Lucy has lived
a lie, and is livin' it yet--and LIKES IT, TOO, that's the worst of it.
And I been muzzled all these years; mad one minute and wantin' to twist
his neck, and the next with my eyes runnin' tears that the only boy I
got was lyin' out among strangers. The only one that's honest is the
little Pond Lily. She ain't got nothin' to hide and you see it in her
face. Her father was square and her mother's with her and nothin' can't
touch her and don't. Let's have this out. I'm tired of it--"
The captain was out of breath now, his emotions still controlling him,
his astonishment at the unexpected opposition from the woman of all
others on whose assistance he most relied unabated.
Jane rose from her chair and stood facing him, a great light in her
eyes:
"No! No! NO! A thousand times, no! You don't know Lucy; I do. What you
want done now should have been done when Archie was born. It was my
fault. I couldn't see her suffer. I loved her too much. I thought to
save her, I didn't care how. It would have been better for her if she
had faced her sin then and taken the consequences; better for all of
us. I didn't think so then, and it has taken me years to find it out. I
began to be conscious of it first in her marriage, then when she kept
on living her lie with her husband, and last when she deserted Ellen
and went off to Beach Haven alone--that broke my heart, and my mistake
rose up before me, and I KNEW!"
The captain stared at her in astonishment. He could hardly credit his
ears.
"Yes, better, if she'd faced it. She would have lived here then under
my care, and she might have loved her child as I have done. Now she has
no tie, no care, no responsibility, no thought of anything but the
pleasures of the moment. I have tried to save her, and I have only
helped to ruin her."
"Make her settle down, then, and face the music!" blurted out the
captain, resuming his seat. "Bart warn't all bad; he was only young and
foolish. He'll take care of her. It ain't never too late to begin to
turn honest. Bart wants to begin; make her begin, too. He's got money
now to do it; and she kin live in South America same's she kin here.
She's got no home anywhere. She don't like it here, and never did; you
kin see that from the way she swings 'round from place to place. MAKE
her face it, I tell ye. You been too easy with her all your life; pull
her down now and keep her nose p'inted close to the compass."
"You do not know of what you talk," Jane answered, her eyes blazing.
"She hates the past; hates everything connected with it; hates the very
name of Barton Holt. Never once has she mentioned it since her return.
She never loved Archie; she cared no more for him than a bird that has
dropped its young out of its nest. Besides, your plan is impossible.
Marriage does not condone a sin. The power to rise and rectify the
wrong lies in the woman. Lucy has not got it in her, and she never will
have it. Part of it is her fault; a large part of it is mine. She has
lived this lie all these years, and I have only myself to blame. I have
taught her to live it. I began it when I carried her away from here; I
should have kept her at home and had her face the consequences of her
sin then. I ought to have laid Archie in her arms and kept him there. I
was a coward and could not, and in my fear I destroyed the only thing
that could have saved her--the mother-love. Now she will run her
course. She's her own mistress; no one can compel her to do anything."
The captain raised his clenched hand:
"Bart will, when he comes."
"How?"
"By claimin' the boy and shamin' her before the world, if she don't.
She liked him well enough when he was a disgrace to himself and to me,
without a dollar to his name. What ails him now, when he comes back and
owns up like a man and wants to do the square thing, and has got money
enough to see it through? She's nothin' but a THING, if she knew it,
till this disgrace's wiped off'n her. By God, Miss Jane, I tell you
this has got to be put through just as Bart wants it, and quick!"
Jane stepped closer and laid her hand on the captain's arm. The look in
her eyes, the low, incisive, fearless ring in her voice, overawed him.
Her courage astounded him. This side of her character was a revelation.
Under their influence he became silent and humbled--as a boisterous
advocate is humbled by the measured tones of a just judge.
"It is not my friend, Captain Nat, who is talking now. It is the father
who is speaking. Think for a moment. Who has borne the weight of this,
you or I? You had a wayward son whom the people here think you drove
out of your home for gambling on Sunday. No other taint attaches to him
or to you. Dozens of other sons and fathers have done the same. He
returns a reformed man and lives out his life in the home he left.
"I had a wayward sister who forgot her mother, me, her womanhood, and
herself, and yet at whose door no suspicion of fault has been laid. I
stepped in and took the brunt and still do. I did this for my father's
name and for my promise to him and for my love of her. To her child I
have given my life. To him I am his mother and will always be--always,
because I will stand by my fault. That is a redemption in itself, and
that is the only thing that saves me from remorse. You and I, outside
of his father and mother, are the only ones living that know of his
parentage. The world has long since forgotten the little they
suspected. Let it rest; no good could come--only suffering and misery.
To stir it now would only open old wounds and, worst of all, it would
make a new one."
"In you?"
"No, worse than that. My heart is already scarred all over; no fresh
wound would hurt."
"In the doctor?"
"Yes and no. He has never asked the truth and I have never told him."
"Who, then?"
"In little Ellen. Let us keep that one flower untouched."
The captain rested his head in his hand, and for some minutes made no
answer. Ellen was the apple of his eye.
"But if Bart insists?"
"He won't insist when he sees Lucy. She is no more the woman that he
loved and wronged than I am. He would not know her if he met her
outside this house."
"What shall I do?"
"Nothing. Let matters take their course. If he is the man you think he
is he will never break the silence."
"And you will suffer on--and the doctor?"
Jane bowed her head and the tears sprang to her eyes.
"Yes, always; there is nothing else to do."