TAYLOR ACCEPTS DEFEAT
“Hello, Hope!”
Taylor raised himself and stared wonderingly at the visitor. His pale
cheeks flushed and an unaccustomed embarrassment seized upon him. “Sit
down,” he continued. “I--I’d given up looking for you.”
Dick tossed his cap on the table, and drew a chair to a position
near the couch. His face, too, was pale, but there was no sign of
embarrassment visible; only a strong determination was indicated by the
little creases in his forehead and the sudden squaring of his jaw. He
launched into the subject of his visit abruptly.
“I came over because I’m sick of this business, Taylor. Look here, I
acted like a brute and a contemptible cad the other night; I knew it
then; I don’t know what got into me. I’ve tried to stick it out, but
it’s no good.”
Taylor was gazing at him with a puzzled frown.
“I ask your pardon, Taylor, for taking advantage of you--of your
position that night, and I want you to say that you forgive me. The
promise you made--rather, the promise I forced from you--doesn’t hold.
I’m going to resign the captaincy to-morrow, and it’s yours as soon as
you want it, as far as I’m concerned.” He paused and looked intently
at Taylor. The latter gave a little embarrassed laugh, and dropped his
eyes to the book beside him.
“I think you’re talking a good deal of nonsense, Hope,” he answered
finally. “But if you want me to say that I forgive you, why, that’s all
right. I can’t see that there’s anything to forgive. You simply turned
the tables on me when you had the chance; you’d been a silly ass if you
hadn’t. And, anyhow, I don’t see that there is anything to forgive when
a chap saves your life. It may sound rather funny for me to be thanking
you and all that, after we’ve been rowing as we have, and maybe you
don’t want my thanks, but, of course, I’m--I’m awfully grateful. It was
a jolly brave thing to do, though I don’t pretend to know why you did
it. I thought until a minute ago that--that you’d seen your chance of
turning the tables and took advantage of it, but----”
“You mean you thought I started to get you out simply so that I could
bully you into releasing me from my promise?” asked Dick, with a
tremble in his voice.
Taylor glanced up hurriedly, dropped his gaze again, and went on
quickly.
“Well, that was natural, wasn’t it? But I see now that it wasn’t so.
Anyway, I’m awfully much obliged to you. I told Waters to ask you to
come and see me half a dozen times; I wanted to say this before; but I
guess you didn’t care to see me.”
“I was pretty busy,” muttered Dick.
“Oh, I don’t blame you. I dare say I wouldn’t have come if I’d been
in your place. After what I’ve been up to, you know. But that--well,
that’s over with now.”
“Yes,” answered Dick, “that’s done with. We won’t say any more about
it; just forget it; goodness knows, I don’t want to remember it. It
made me act like a regular beast; I’ve been hating myself ever since;
I’ve been ashamed to look any one in the face! After all, it’s only the
success of the boat I want, Taylor, and I believe you’ll work for that.
If I thought you wouldn’t----” He paused and looked at the other with
an ugly glint in his eyes. “But I think you will. When can you take
hold?”
“You’re making a mistake, Hope,” answered Taylor, with the suggestion
of his old mocking smile visible. “I’ve had lots of time for thinking
things over lately. Lying here like this a chap has to think a good
deal. Well, I said it was all over with. What I meant was my captaincy
scheme. I’m beaten; I’ll acknowledge it; not beaten altogether by you,
though, Hope. Luck or Fate or something had a hand in it. You and I
don’t look at things in just the same way; I know you wouldn’t have
done what I’ve done to get a dozen captaincies; I dare say there’s
something in the way you’re brought up. I sort of brought myself up,
you know. I rather imagine having a mother and father and living
with, them makes a difference; I never had either--that is, since I
can remember. But you don’t care about all that, I guess. I wanted the
captaincy, and I set out to get it, using whatever means I could find.
It wasn’t square; I’ll acknowledge that. I never tried to make myself
believe that it was. I’d managed to get what I was after, it seemed,
when luck, or--well, whatever you like to call it--cut in. Then I had
that fall. I suspected then that it was all up. I dare say I’m a little
superstitious. When the fire came and you turned up in the nick of time
I knew that luck was against me. I expected you to make that bargain,
Hope; you see, it was just what I’d have done in your place. When I
got to the window I thought for a minute that you’d lose your chance;
I was calling you a fool; and all the time I was scared blue. I don’t
believe I’m more of a coward than the next chap, but that five minutes
or five years before you came was awful!” He stopped and a shudder
passed over him. “Well, you seized your chance. You say now that that
promise doesn’t hold, but it does hold. Oh, yes, it holds good and fast
for all time, Hope.”
“It doesn’t!” cried Dick. “I won’t have it!”
“But it does,” replied Taylor calmly. “And even if it didn’t, it
wouldn’t make any difference about the captaincy. I may be built
somewhat different from you, but I’ve got some principles. They may be
queer ones, but I won’t fight a fellow that has saved my life. That
settles it. I’ll stick to that promise, just as you would have stuck
to yours. I’ll go back to work on the crew just as soon as the doctor
lets me, which will likely be next week, and I’ll do my level best.”
Taylor lay back on the cushions looking rather tired and pale, and
Dick got up and wandered restlessly about the room for a minute. It
was all so different from what he had looked forward to that he found
himself incapable of deciding whether the course Taylor insisted upon
was right or wrong. It was so easy that it somehow appeared as though
it must be wrong. He was to keep the captaincy, Taylor was to return
to the boat, the whole episode was to be closed; in short, he was to
reap the benefit of his dishonest deed without suffering punishment.
Although, he reflected the next moment, perhaps he had been suffering
the punishment the last two weeks!
“But just the same,” he said aloud, “it doesn’t seem right.”
“That’s your New England conscience,” mocked Taylor. “You think that
because a thing didn’t break your back in the doing it can’t be
anything but an invention of the devil’s. I may have an easier morality
than you, Hope; but, thank Heaven, I wasn’t born in New England!”
Dick stared at him.
“But, see here, Taylor, if I agree to this----”
“You can’t do anything else.”
“Do you mean that you will--will be satisfied?”
“Probably not; and yet, I don’t know; I’m rather sick of it; this
being laid up like a blasted mummy takes the pluck out of a fellow.
Maybe”--he smiled quizzically--“maybe it takes some of the meanness
out, too. Anyhow, I’ll keep to the promise. And if that silly
conscience of yours is still grumbling, why, choke it off. You’ve done
right enough; you’ve done more than I’d have done; though, of course,
that doesn’t signify much. You slipped up for the minute, and now you
are sorry. As far as I’m concerned, I forgive you, although, as I said
before, I don’t see that I’ve anything to forgive.”
“I’ll never forgive myself,” said Dick, with conviction.
Taylor shrugged his shoulders and moved his head as though weary of the
subject.
“You’ll have to settle that with yourself; I dare say you’ll be
fighting it out for the next ten years.”
Dick took up his cap, hesitated an instant, and then strode to the
couch.
“Mind shaking hands?” he asked.
Taylor grinned.
“What’s the use?” he asked. “It won’t make things any better or any
worse.”
“I’d rather, if you don’t mind,” replied Dick gravely.
“Oh, all right.” Taylor put out his, and the two lads clasped hands
silently.
“Good-night,” said Dick, turning away. “I hope you’ll get well soon and
come and help us. We need you.”
“Good-night,” answered Taylor. “I dare say I’ll be out by the last
of the week. You’re not a half bad sort, Hope; if it wasn’t for that
bothersome conscience of yours I think we might get on together fairly
well.”
Dick’s last glance across the room showed him a pallid, tired-looking
youth sitting on the edge of the couch, with dejection expressed in his
attitude, but a mocking smile on his face.