If I had been giving undivided attention to my combined duties as
steersman and pilot, instead of neglecting them for other and more
engrossing matters, I should, doubtless, have seen the dory before. As
it was I had not seen it at all, nor heard the oars. It had sneaked up
on the Comfort out of the darkness and its occupant had laid us aboard
as neatly as you please.
I was, to say the least, startled and surprised. I dodged the
threatening club and turned a dazed face toward the person brandishing
it. He appeared to be a middle-sized, elderly person, in oilskins and
souwester, and when he spoke a gray whisker wagged above the chin strap
of the souwester.
“Who in blazes are you?” I demanded, as soon as I could get the words
together.
“Never you mind that. You know who I be all right enough. Be you goin'
to pay me for them lobsters? That's what _I_ want to know.”
“What lobsters?”
“Them lobsters you've been stealin' out of my pots for the last
fortnight.”
“_I_ have been stealing?”
“Yes, you. I been layin' for you all night long. I don't know who
you be, but you'll pay for them lobsters or come along with me to the
lock-up, one or t'other.”
I looked about, over the water. The light toward which I had been trying
to steer blazed dead ahead, surprisingly near and bright. Except for
that, however, there was no sign of anything except darkness and waves.
“Look here, my man,” I said. “I haven't stolen your lobsters; but--”
“I know better. I don't know who you be, but I'd know you was a thief if
I run acrost you in prayer-meetin'. Just to look at you is enough.”
I heard a hysterical giggle from the bench beside me. Evidently the
person with the club heard it, too, for he leaned forward to look.
“So there's two of ye, eh!” he said. “Well, by godfreys, I don't care if
there's a million! You'll pay for them lobsters or go to the lock-up.”
I laughed aloud. “Very well,” I said. “I am agreeable.”
“You're agreeable! What do you mean by that? This ain't no laughin'
matter, I'll tell you that.”
I laughed again. “I don't care what you tell me,” I observed. “And if
you will take us somewhere ashore--to the lock-up or anywhere else--I
shall be much obliged.”
The occupant of the dory seemed to be puzzled. He leaned forward once
more.
“What sort of talk is that?” he demanded. “Where's my lobsters? . . .
Hey! What? I swan to man, I believe one of ye's a woman! Have the
females turned thieves, too?”
“I don't know. See here, my friend, my name is Paine, and I'm the only
lobster aboard this craft. This lady and I belong in Denboro. My launch
has run out of gasolene and we have been drifting about the bay since
five o'clock. Now, for heaven's sake, don't talk any more, but take us
to the lock-up and be quick about it.”
The unknown paid no attention to my entreaty. Instead he leaned still
further over the Comfort's rail. The dory careened until I expected to
see her capsize.
“I swan to man!” he muttered. “I swan to man! 'Tain't possible I'm
mistook!”
“It scarcely seems possible, I admit. But I'm afraid it is true.”
I heard the club fall with a clatter.
“My--godfreys! Do you mean to say--? From Denboro? Out of gasolene!
Why--why, you've got sail up!”
“Nothing but a tarpaulin on an oar.”
“And you've been cruisin' all night? Through the fog--the squall--and
all?”
“Yes,” wearily, “yes--yes--yes.”
“But--but ain't you drownded?”
“Not quite. If you don't let go of that rail we shall be soon.”
“Driftin' all night! Ain't you wet through?”
“Yes. Might I suggest that we postpone the rest of the catechism until
we reach--the lock-up?”
This suggestion apparently was accepted. Our captor suddenly became very
much alive.
“Give me a line,” he ordered. “Anchor rope'll do. Where is it? up
for'ard?”
He pawed the dory along, hand over hand, until he reached the Comfort's
bow. I heard the thump of the anchor as he dragged it into the dory.
Then came the creak and splash of oars. His voice sounded from somewhere
ahead.
“Head for the light,” he shouted. “I'm goin' to tow you in.”
“In where?”
“In ashore. That's Mack'rel Island light. My name's Atwood. I'm keeper
of it.”
I turned to my passenger.
“It looks,” I said, “as if our voyage was almost over.”
And it was. Mr. Atwood had a tough job on his hands, towing the launch.
But the make-shift sail helped some and I did my best to steer in his
wake. Miss Colton and I had no opportunity to talk. The gentleman in
the dory kept up a running fire of remarks, shouted between grunts,
and embroidered with cheerful profanity. We caught fragments of the
monologue.
“I swan to man--ugh--I thought ye was thieves, for sartin. Some
everlastin', dam--ugh--have been sneakin' out nights and haulin' my
lobster pots. Ugh--if I'd caught 'em I was cal'latin' to--ugh--break
their--ugh--ugh--This dory pulls like a coal barge--I--Wet through,
ain't ye? And froze, I cal'late--Ugh--and hungry, too--Ugh--ugh--My old
woman's tendin' light. She--ugh--Here we be! Easy now!”
A low shore loomed black across our bows. Above it the lighthouse rose,
a white chalk mark against the sky with a red glare at its upper end.
Mr. Atwood sprang overboard with a splash. The launch was drawn in at
the end of its anchor rope until its keel grated on the sand.
“Now then!” said our rescuer. “Here we be! Made harbor at last, though I
did think I'd crack my back timbers afore we done it. I'll tote the lady
ashore. You can wade, can't ye?”
I could and I was very glad of the opportunity. I turned to take Miss
Colton in my arms, but she avoided me.
“Here I am, Mr. Atwood,” she said. “Oh, thank you.”
She was swung into the air and moved shoreward to the accompaniment of
mighty splashings.
“Don't be scart, ma'am,” said Mr. Atwood. “I shan't let ye drop. Lord
sakes! I've toted more women in my time than you can shake a stick at.
There's more da--that is, there's more summer folks try to land on this
island at low tide than there is moskeeters and there's more of them
than there's fiddles in--Hi! come on, you, Mr. What's-your-name!
Straight as you go.”
I came on wading through eelgrass and water until I reached a sandy
beach. A moment later we stood before a white door in a very white
little house. Mr. Atwood opened the door, revealing a cosy little
sitting room and a gray-haired, plump, pleasant-faced woman sitting in a
rocking chair beside a table with a lamp upon it.
“Hello, Betsy!” bellowed our rescuer, stamping his wet rubber boots on
the braided mat. “Got company come to supper--or breakfast, or whatever
you want to call it. This is Mr. Paine from Denboro. This is his wife,
Mrs. Paine. They've been cruisin' all the way from Cape Cod to Kamchatky
in a motor boat with no power to it. Don't that beat the Old Scratch,
hey?”
The plump woman rose, without a trace of surprise, as if having company
drop in at three o'clock in the morning was nothing out of the ordinary,
and came over to us, beaming with smiles.
“I'm real glad to see you, Mrs. Paine,” she exclaimed. “And your
husband, too. You must be froze to death! Set right down while I fix up
a room for you and hunt up some dry things for you to put on. I won't be
but a minute.”
Before I could offer explanations, or do more than stammer thanks,
and rather incoherent ones at that, she had bustled out of the room. I
caught one glimpse of Mabel Colton's face; it was crimson from neck to
brow. “Mrs. Paine!” “Your husband!” I was grateful to the doughty Mr.
Atwood, but just then I should have enjoyed choking him.
The light keeper, quite unaware that his unfortunate misapprehension of
the relationship between his guests might be embarrassing, was doing his
best to make us feel at home.
“Take off your boots, Mr. Paine,” he urged. “The old lady'll fetch you
a pair of my slippers and some socks in a minute. She'll make your wife
comf'table, too. She's a great hand at makin' folks comf'table. I tell
her she'd make a cake of ice feel to home on a hot stove. She beats--”
The “old lady” herself interrupted him, entering with a bottle in one
hand and a lamp in the other.
“Joshua!” she said, warningly.
“Well, what is it, Betsy?”
“Be careful how you talk.”
“Talk!” with a wink at me. “I wan't goin' to say nothin'.”
“Yes, you was. Mrs. Paine, you mustn't mind him. He used to go mate on
a fishin' schooner and, from all I can learn, they use pretty strong
language aboard these boats.”
“Pick it up same as a poll parrot,” cut in her husband. “Comes natural
when you're handlin' wet trawl line in February. Can't seem to get no
comfort out of anything milder.”
“He's a real good-hearted man, Joshua is, and a profession' church
member, but he does swear more'n he ought to. But, as I tell the
minister, he don't mean nothin' by it.”
“Not a damn thing!” said Mr. Atwood, reassuringly. The bottle, it
appeared, contained Jamaica ginger, a liberal dose of which Mrs. Atwood
insisted upon our taking as a precaution against catching cold.
“There's nothin' better,” she said.
“You bet there ain't!” this from the lightkeeper. “A body can't get
within forty fathoms of a cold with a swallow of that amidships. It's
hotter than--”
“Joshua!”
“The Fourth of July,” concluded her husband, triumphantly.
“And now, Mrs. Paine,” went on the lady of the house, “your room's all
ready. I've laid out some dry things for you on the bed and some of
Joshua's, too. You and your husband--”
I thought it high time to explain.
“The lady is not my wife,” I said, quickly.
“She ain't! Why, I thought Joshua said--”
“He--er--made a mistake. She is Miss Colton, a summer resident and
neighbor of mine in Denboro.”
“Sho! you don't say! That's just like you, Joshua!”
“Just like me! Well, how'd I know? I beg your pardon, Miss, I'm sure.
Shan't beg your hus--I mean Mr. Paine's pardon; he ought to thank me for
the compliment. Haw! haw!”
Miss Colton herself made the next remark.
“If my room is ready, Mrs. Atwood,” she said,, without even a glance in
my direction, “I think I will go to it. I AM rather wet.”
“Wet! Land sakes, yes! I guess you be! Come right in, Joshua, take them
clothes of yours into our room and let Mr. Paine put 'em on.”
Her husband obeyed orders. After I was alone in the room to which
he conducted me and enjoying the luxury of dry socks, I heard him
justifying his mistake in stentorian tones.
“I couldn't help it, Betsy,” I heard him say. “I took it for granted
they was married. When I hove alongside that motor boat they was
a-settin' close up together in the stern sheets and so, of course, I
thought--”
“You hadn't any business to. You made that poor young lady blush
somethin' dreadful. Most likely they're just keepin' company--or
engaged, or somethin'. You ought to be more careful.”
I wondered if the young lady herself heard all this. I didn't see how
she could help it.
Kinder-hearted people than these two never lived, I do believe. It was
after three in the morning, both had been up all night, we were absolute
strangers to them, and yet, without a word of complaint, they gave the
remainder of the hours before daylight to making us comfortable. When I
dressed as much of myself as a suit of Mr. Atwood's--his Sunday best, I
presume--would cover, and, with a pair of carpet slippers about the size
and shape of toy ferry boats on my feet, emerged from the bedroom, I
found the table set in the kitchen, the teapot steaming and Mrs.
Atwood cooking “spider bread” on the stove. When Miss Colton, looking
surprisingly presentable--considering that she, too, was wearing
borrowed apparel four sizes too large for her--made her appearance, we
sat down to a simple meal which, I think, was the most appetizing I ever
tasted.
The Atwoods were bursting with curiosity concerning our getting adrift
in the motor boat. I described the adventure briefly. When I told of
Lute's forgetfulness in the matter of gasolene the lightkeeper thumped
the table.
“There, by godfreys!” he exclaimed. “I could see it comin'! That
feller's for all the world like a cook I had once aboard the Ezry H.
Jones. That cook was the biggest numskull that ever drawed the breath
of life. Always forgettin' somethin', he was, and always at the most
inconvenient time. Once, if you'll believe it, I had a skipper of
another vessel come aboard and, wishin' to be sort of hospitable, as you
might say, I offered him a glass of rum.”
“Joshua!”
“Oh, it's all right, Betsy. This was years ago. I'm as good a teetotaler
now as you be, and I never was what you'd call a soak. But I've SEEN
fellers--Why, I knew one once that used to go to bed in the dark. He
was so full of alcohol he didn't dast to light a match fear he'd catch
a-fire. Fact! He was eighty-odd then, and he lived to be nigh a hundred.
Preserved, you understand, same as one of them specimens in a museum.
He'd kept forever, I cal'late, if he hadn't fell off the dock. The water
fixed him; he wasn't used to it. He was the wust--”
“Never mind him. Stick to the cook.”
“Yes, yes. Well, I sent that cook for the rum and when he fetched it, I
thought it smelt funny. And when I TASTED it--godfreys! 'Twas bay rum;
yes, sir, bay rum! same as they put on your hair. You see, he'd forgot
to buy any rum when we was in our last port and, havin' the bay rum
along he fetched that. 'Twas SOME kind of rum and that was enough for
him. I WAS mad, but that visitin' skipper, he didn't care. Drank it down
and smacked his lips. 'I'm a State of Maine man,' he says, 'and that's
a prohibition state. This tastes like home,' he says. 'If you don't mind
I'll help myself to another.' 'I don't mind,' says I, 'but I'm sorry I
ain't got any hair-ile. If I had you might have a barber-shop toddy.'
Yes, sir! Ho-ho! that's what I said. But he didn't mind. He was--”
And so on. The yarns were not elegant, but, as he told them, they were
funny. Mabel Colton laughed as heartily as the rest of us. She appeared
to be in fine spirits. She talked with the Atwoods, answered their
questions, and ate the hot “spider bread” and butter as if she had never
tasted anything as good. But with me she would not talk. Whenever I
addressed a remark to her, she turned it with a laugh and her next
speech was pretty certain to be addressed to the lightkeeper or his
wife. As for our adventure in the launch, that she treated as a joke.
“Wan't you awful scared when that squall struck so sudden?” inquired
Mrs. Atwood.
“Dreadfully.”
“Humph!” this from Joshua; “I cal'late Mr. Paine was some scart too.
What did you do, Mr. Paine?”
“I rigged that canvas on the oar as soon as possible,” I answered.
“Um-hm. That was good judgment.”
“Tell me, Mr. Atwood,” asked the young lady innocently, “are all
seafaring men very dictatorial under such circumstances?”
“Very--which?”
“I mean do they order people about and make them do all sorts of things,
whether they wish to or not?”
“Sartin. Godfreys! I never asked nobody what they wished aboard the Ezry
H. Jones.”
“And do they tell them to 'sit down and keep still'?”
“Gen'rally they tell 'em to get up and keep movin'. If they don't they
start 'em pretty lively--with a rope's end.”
“I see. Even when they are--ladies?”
“Ladies? Godfreys! we never had but one woman aboard the Ezry. Had the
skipper's wife one v'yage, but nobody ever ordered her around any to
speak of. She was six feet tall and weighed two hundred. All hands was
scart to death of her.”
“Suppose she had been ordered to 'sit down and keep still'; what do you
think would have happened?”
“Don't know. If 'twas one of the hands I guess likely she'd have hove
him overboard. If 'twas the skipper I shouldn't wonder if she'd have
knocked him down--after she got over the surprise of his darin' to do
such, a thing. She had HIM trained, I tell ye!”
“Miss Colton thinks me rather a bully, I am afraid,” I said. “I did
order her about rather roughly.”
Mr. Atwood burst into a laugh. “That Ezry Jones woman was the skipper's
wife,” he declared. “Makes a lot of diff'rence, that does. I was
considerable of a bully myself afore Betsy got me on the parson's books.
Now I'm the most peaceable critter ever you see. Your turn's comin',
Miss Colton. All you got to do is be patient.”
“Joshua!” said Mrs. Atwood, in mild reproof. “You mustn't mind his talk,
Miss Colton. He's a terrible joker.”
Miss Colton changed the subject. She did not so much as look at me again
during the meal and, after it was over, she went to her room, explaining
that she was very tired and would try to get a little sleep.
I had discovered that the lighthouse, being close to the mainland, was
equipped with a telephone. Now I begged permission to use it. I called
up Denboro and asked to be connected with the Colton home. I felt very
sure that there would be no sleep in the big house that night and I
wished to relieve their anxiety and to send word to Mother. Mr. Colton
himself answered my call.
I announced my identity and explained where I was and that his daughter
was in my care and perfectly safe.
“Thank God!” was the fervent exclamation at the other end of the wire,
and the voice which uttered it was shaking with emotion. “Stay where you
are a moment, Paine. Let me tell my wife. She is almost crazy. Hold the
wire.”
I held the wire and waited. The next voice which reached my ears was
Mrs. Colton's. She asked a dozen questions, one after the other. Was
Mabel safe? Was I sure she was safe? Wasn't the poor child almost dead
after all she'd been through? What had happened? What was she doing away
over there in that dreadful place? Why had I taken her there?
I answered as well as I could, telling briefly of the collision in
the fog and what followed. The explanation appeared to be rather
unsatisfactory.
“You take the wire, James,” I heard the lady say. “I can't make it all
out. Mabel is at some horrid lighthouse and there is no kerosene, or
something. The poor child! Alone there, with that man! Tell him she must
be brought home at once. It is dreadful for her! Think what she must
have suffered! And with HIM! What will people say? Tell him to bring her
home! The idea! I don't believe a word--”
“Hello--hello, Paine!” Colton was at the 'phone once more. “Can you get
Mabel--Miss Colton, over to Wellmouth, do you think?”
“Yes. I will get a boat as soon as I can. Miss Colton is in her room,
asleep I hope. She is very tired and I think she should rest until
daylight. I will get her to Wellmouth in time for the morning train.”
“Never mind the train. I'll come after her in the auto. I will start
now. I will meet you at the landing--at the wharf, if there is one.”
“Very well. Will you be good enough to send word to my mother that I am
safe and sound? She will be worried.”
“Yes, yes, I'll send word. Tell Mabel to be careful and not take cold.
. . . Yes, Henrietta, I am attending to everything. Good-by, Paine.”
That was all, not a word of thanks. I did not expect thanks and I made
allowances for the state of mind at the mansion; but that telephone
conversation, particularly Mrs. Colton's share in it, cast a gloom over
my spirits. I did not care to hear more of Mr. Atwood's yarns and jokes.
I went to my own room, but I did not sleep.
At half-past five I was astir again. The lightkeeper, it appeared, had
an auxiliary engine in a catboat which he owned and could let me have a
sufficient supply of gasolene to fill the Comfort's tank. When this was
done--and it took a long time, for Joshua insisted upon helping and
he was provokingly slow--I returned to the sitting room and asked Mrs.
Atwood to call Miss Colton.
“Land sakes!” was the cheery answer, “I didn't have to call her. She's
been up for fifteen minutes. Said she was goin' to take a cruise around
the lighthouse. I cal'late you'll find her out there somewheres. Go
and fetch her here. You two must have a bite--a cup of hot coffee and a
biled egg, anyhow--afore you leave. Yes, you must. I shan't listen to a
no from either of you.”
I went out and crossed the sandy yard to the whitewashed lighthouse.
There was no sign of Miss Colton in the yard, but the door of the
lighthouse was open and I entered. No one there. The stairs, winding
upward, invited me to climb and I did so. The little room with the big
lantern, the latter now covered with a white cloth, was untenanted
also. I looked out of the window. There she was, on the iron gallery
surrounding the top of the tower, leaning on the rail and gazing out
over the water. She had not heard me. For a moment I stood there,
watching her.
She was not wearing Mrs. Atwood's gown now, but her own, wrinkled and
stained from its last night's drenching in salt water, but dry now. She
was bareheaded and her brown hair was tossing in the sea breeze. The
sun, but a little way above the horizon and shining through the morning
haze, edged her delicate profile with a line of red gold. I had never
seen her look more beautiful, or more aristocratic and unapproachable.
The memory of our night in the launch seemed more like an unbelievable
dream than ever, and the awakening more cruel. For I was awake now. What
I had heard over the 'phone had awakened me thoroughly. There should be
no more dreaming.
I stepped out upon the gallery.
“Good morning,” I said.
She turned quickly, and I heard her catch her breath with a little gasp.
“I beg pardon,” said I; “I'm afraid I startled you.”
She was startled, that was evident, and, it seemed to me, a trifle
embarrassed. But the embarrassment was but momentary.
“Good morning,” she said. “How very silent you can be when you choose,
Mr. Paine. How long have you been standing there, pray?”
“Only a moment. I came to call you to breakfast.”
“To breakfast?”
“Yes, Mrs. Atwood insists upon our breakfasting before I take you
ashore.”
“Oh! Why didn't you call me? I would have come down.”
“I did not see you until I reached the lantern room. My silence was not
premeditated. I made noise enough, or so it seemed to me; but you were
so wrapped in your thoughts--”
“Nonsense!” She interrupted me almost sharply. “I was not 'wrapped' in
anything, except the beauty of this view. It IS beautiful, isn't it?”
“Very,” I answered, but fear I was not looking at the view. It may be
that she noticed this, for she said:
“You have come into your own again, I see. So have I.”
She indicated her gown with a smile and a gesture. I laughed.
“Yes,” I said. “I have returned unto Joshua that which was his.”
“You should have kept it. You have no idea what a picturesque
lightkeeper you make, Mr. Paine.”
Somehow or other this harmless joke hurt.
“Yes,” I answered, drily, “that is about my measure, I presume.”
Her eyes twinkled. “I thought the measure rather scant,” she
observed, mischievously. “I wish I might have a snap-shot of you in
that--uniform.”
“I am afraid the opportunity for that is past.”
“But it--” with a little bubble of mirth, “it was so funny.”
“No doubt. I am sorry I can't oblige you with a photograph.”
She looked at me, biting her lip.
“Is your bump of humor a dent, Mr. Paine?” she inquired. “I am afraid it
must be.”
“You may be right. I don't appreciate a joke as keenly as--well, as Mr.
Carver, for instance.”
She turned her back upon me and led the way to the door.
“Shall we go to breakfast?” she asked, in a different tone.
Breakfast was a silent meal, so far as we two were concerned. The
Atwoods, however, talked enough to make up the deficiency.
As we rose from the table the young lady turned to the lightkeeper.
“Mr. Atwood,” she said, “I presume you are going to be kind enough to
take me to Wellmouth?”
“Why, Miss, I--I wan't cal'latin' to. Mr. Paine here, he's got all the
gas he needs now and he'll take you over in his launch.”
“Oh! But you will go, if I ask you to?”
“Sartin sure.”
“You have been so very kind that I dislike to ask another favor; but
I hoped you would send a telegram for me. My father and mother will be
very much alarmed and I must wire them at once. You will have to send it
'collect,' for,” with a rueful smile, “I haven't my purse with me.”
“Land sakes! that'll be all right. Glad to help you out.”
I put in a word. “It will not be necessary,” I said, impatiently. “I
have money enough, Miss Colton.”
I was ignored.
“Thank you so much, Mr. Atwood. You will come with me and look out for
the telegram?”
“Yes. Yes--yes. But I don't see what you need to send no telegram for.
Mr. Paine here, he telephoned to your folks last night.”
She looked at me and then at Joshua.
“Last night?” she repeated.
“Why yes--or this mornin' after you'd gone to bed. He was dead set on
it. I could see he was 'most tired and wore out, but he wouldn't rest
till he'd 'phoned your folks and told 'em you was safe and sound. Didn't
seem to care nothin' about himself, but he was bound your pa and ma
shouldn't worry.”
She turned to me.
“Did you?” she asked.
“Yes,” I answered. “Your father is to meet us at the Wellmouth wharf.”
“Why didn't you tell me?”
“I intended to. I meant to tell you when I saw you in the lighthouse,
but--I forgot it.”
She said no more, but when Joshua, hat and boots on, met us at the door
she spoke to him.
“You need not go, Mr. Atwood,” she said. “It will not be
necessary--now.”
“Godfreys! I'd just as soon as not. Ruther, if anything.”
He hurried down to the beach. I was about to follow when a hand touched
my arm. I turned, to find a pair of brown eyes, misty but wonderful,
looking into mine.
“Thank you,” said Miss Colton.
“Don't mention it.”
“But I shall. It was thoughtful and kind. I had forgotten, or--at
least--I took it for granted there was no 'phone here. But you did not
forget. It was thoughtful, but--it was like you.”
I was breathing hard. I could not look at her.
“Don't,” I said, roughly. “It was nothing. Anyone with common sense
would have thought of it and done it, of course.”
“I did not. But you--Oh, it was like you! Always some one else and
never yourself. You were worn out. You must have been, after--” with a
shudder--“last night. Oh, I have so much to thank you for! I--”
“Come on! Heave ahead!” It was Mr. Atwood, bellowing from the beach.
“All aboard for Wellmouth and pints alongshore.”
Betsy appeared in the door behind us.
“All ready, be you?” she asked.
I could not have answered, but my companion was once more as calm and
cool as the morning itself.
“All ready,” she answered. “Good-by, Mrs. Atwood. And thank you over and
over again. You have been so kind.” With a sudden flash of enthusiasm.
“Every one is kind. It is a beautiful world. Good-by.”
She ran lightly down the slope and I followed.
The trip to Wellmouth was of but a half hour's duration. Atwood talked
all the time. Miss Colton laughed at his stories and seemed to be
without a care. She scarcely looked at me during the passage, and if
she caught me looking at her and our glances met she turned away. On the
wharf was a big automobile, surrounded by a gaping crowd of small boys
and 'longshore loafers.
We drew up beside the landing. Our feminine passenger sprang ashore and
ran up the steps, to be seized in her father's arms. Mrs. Colton was
there also, babbling hysterically. I watched and listened for a moment.
Then I started the engine.
“Shove off,” I ordered. The lightkeeper was astonished.
“Ain't ye goin' ashore?” he demanded.
“No,” I answered, curtly. “I'm going home. Shove off.”
The launch was fifty feet from the pier when I heard a shout. Colton
was standing on the wharf edge, waving his hand. Beside him stood his
daughter, her mother's arms about her.
“Here! Paine!” shouted Colton. “Come back! Come back and go home with us
in the car. There is plenty of room.”
I did not answer.
“Come back! Come back, Paine!” he shouted again. Mrs. Colton raised her
head from her daughter's shoulder.
“James! James!” she cautioned, without taking the trouble to lower
her voice, “don't make a scene. Let him go in his dreadful boat, if he
prefers to.”
“Paine!” cried her husband again.
“I must look out for the launch,” I shouted. “I shall be home almost as
soon as you are. Good-by.”
I left the lightkeeper at his island. He refused to accept a cent
from me, except in payment for the gasolene, and declared he had had a
“fust-rate night of it.”
“Come and see us again, Mr. Paine,” he said. “Come any time and fetch
your lady along. She's a good one, she is, and nice-lookin', don't talk!
You're a lucky critter, did you know it? Haw! haw! Good-by.”
The Comfort never made better time than on that homeward trip. I
anchored her at her moorings, went ashore in the skiff, and hastened up
to the house. It was past ten o'clock and I would be over an hour
late at the bank. A fine beginning for my first day in charge of the
institution!
The dining-room door was open, but no one was in the dining-room. The
kitchen door, however, was shut and from behind it I heard Dorinda's
voice.
“You can get right out of this house,” she said. “I don't care if you've
got a mortgage on the rest of the Cape! You ain't got one on this house,
and you nor nobody else shall stay in it and talk that way. There's the
door.”
“Dorindy!” wailed another voice--Lute's. “You mustn't talk so--to him!
Don't you realize--”
“I realize that if I had a husband instead of a jellyfish I shouldn't
have to talk. Be still, you!”
A third voice made itself heard.
“All right,” it growled. “I ain't anxious to stay here any longer than
is necessary. Bein' an honest, decent man, I'm ashamed to be seen here
as it is. But you can tell that low-lived sneak, Ros Paine, that--”
I opened the door.
“You may tell him yourself, Captain Dean,” said I. “What is it?”