TREACHERY
Still in his dripping raincoat, Hal approached the berth.
“Whew, but it’s hot and stifling in here, gramp!” said he. He turned
and opened a window, letting the damp, chill wind draw through. “There,
that’s better now. Well, what’s the big news, eh?”
The old captain regarded him a moment, deeply moved. In the
dining-room, Ezra had hastily stuffed the bills into his pocket. Now
he was retreating to his galley. Filhiol, undecided what to do, did
nothing; but remained in the front hall.
“What’s the news?” repeated Hal. He looked disheveled, excited. “And
what are _you_ in bed for, this time of day?”
His voice betrayed nothing save curiosity. No sympathy softened it.
“The doctor made me turn in,” Briggs explained. “I got wet through,
going to town. But it was all for you, boy. So why should _I_ mind?”
“For me, eh?” demanded Hal. “More trouble? Enough storm outside,
without kicking up any more rows inside. Some weather, gramp! Some
sailing weather, once a boat got out past the breakwater, where she
could make her manners to the nor’east blow!” His tongue seemed a
trifle thick, but the captain perceived nothing. “Well, gramp, what was
the idea of going to town an afternoon like this?”
“To set you on the right road again, boy.” The captain raised himself
on one elbow, and peered at his beloved Hal. “To open up a better
career for you than _I_ had. No more sea-life, Hal. There’s been far
too much salt in our blood for generations. It’s time the Briggs family
came ashore. You’ve got better things ahead of you, now, than fighting
the sea. Peel your wet coat off, Hal, and sit down. You’ll take cold,
I’m afraid.”
“Cold, nothing! This is the kind of weather I like!”
He pulled up a chair by the berth, and flung himself down into it,
hulking, rude, flushed. In the dim light old Captain Briggs did not see
that telltale flush of drink. He did not note the sinister exultation
in his grandson’s voice. Nor did he understand the look of Hal’s
searching eyes that tried to fathom whether the old man as yet had any
suspicions of the robbery.
The captain reached out from the bedclothes he should have kept well
over him, and laid his hand on Hal’s.
“Listen,” said he, weak and shaken. His forehead glistened, damp with
sweat. “It’s good news. I’ve been down to see Squire Bean. I’ve paid
him the money for McLaughlin, and got a receipt for it, and the case
against you is all settled. Ended!”
“Is, eh?” demanded Hal, with calculating eyes. “Great! And the apology
stuff is all off, too?”
“Well, no, not that. Of course you’ve still got to apologize to him so
all the crew can hear it. But that’s only a little detail. Any time
will do. I know that after what I’ve sacrificed for you, boy, you’ll be
glad to play the part of a man and go down there and apologize, won’t
you?”
“Surest little thing you know!” Filhiol heard him answer, with malice
and deceit which Captain Briggs could not fathom. “The crew will hear
from me, all right. Some of ’em have already. Yes, that’s a fact. I’ve
already apologized to three of ’em. I’ll square everything, gramp. So
that’s all settled. Anything more?”
“You’re true metal, at heart!” murmured Briggs, shivering as the draft
from the open window struck him. “Thank God for it! Yes, there’s one
more thing. I’ve sent the money to the college. Sent a money-order, and
got a receipt for that, too. Both receipts are in the money-drawer, in
the safe.”
“They _are_?” Hal could not dissemble his sudden anxiety. How much,
now, did his grandfather know? Everything? Suspiciously he blinked
at the old man. “So you put ’em in the safe, did you?” asked he,
determined to force the issue.
“The doctor did for me.”
“Oh, _he_ did, did he? H-m! Well, all right. What next?” Hal stiffened
for the blow, but the captain only said:
“It’s fine to have the whole thing cleaned up, so you can start on
another tack!” The old man smiled with pitiful affection. “Everything’s
coming out right, after all. You don’t know how wonderfully happy I am
to-day. It won’t be long before I have you back in some other college
again.”
“The devil it won’t!” thought Hal. The doctor, at the rear of the
hallway, felt a clutch on his arm. There stood old Ezra.
“Doctor,” he whispered in a way that meant business, “you ain’t goin’
to stand here listenin’ to ’em, this way!”
“I’m not, eh?” And Filhiol blinked astonishment. “Why not?”
“There’s ten reasons. One is, because I ain’t goin’ to let you, an’
the other nine is because I ain’t goin’ to let you! I wouldn’t do it
myself, an’ _you_ ain’t goin’ to, neither. Will you clear out o’ here,
peaceful, or be you goin’ to make me matt onta you an’ carry you out?”
The doctor hesitated. Ezra added:
“Now, doc, don’t you git me harr’d up, or there’ll be stormy times!”
Filhiol yielded. He followed Ezra to the galley, where the old man
practically interned him. Inwardly he cursed this development. What
might not happen, were the captain now to discover the loss of the
money while Hal was there? But to argue with Ezra was hopeless. Filhiol
settled down by the stove and resigned himself to moody ponderings.
“This summer, take things easy,” the captain was saying, with
indulgence. “In the fall you’ll enter some other college and win honors
as we all expect you to. So you’ll be glad to go, won’t you, Hal?”
“I’ll be glad to _go_, all right!”
“That’s fine!” smiled the captain. He got out of bed in his bathrobe,
slid his feet into slippers, and stood there a moment, looking at Hal.
“Boy,” said he, “on the way back from town I made up my mind to do the
right thing by you, to give you something every young fellow along the
coast ought to have. You were asking me for a boat, and I refused you.
I was wrong. Nothing finer, after all, than a little cruising up and
down the shore. I’ve changed my mind, Hal.” He laid an affectionate
hand on the boy’s shoulder. “I’m going to give you the money for
Gordon’s _Kittiwink_.”
“Huh?” grunted Hal, standing up in vast astonishment and anxiety.
“Take the money, Hal, and buy your heart’s dearest wish,” said the
old captain. “It’ll maybe pinch me, for a while, but you’re all I’ve
got to love and some way I can rub along. If I can give you a happy
summer the few hundred dollars won’t mean much, after all. So, boy,
get yourself the boat. Why, what’s the matter? You look kind of
flabbergasted, Hal. Aren’t you glad and thankful?”
“Surest thing you know, I am!” the boy rallied with a strong effort.
“It’s great of you, gramp! But—can you afford it?”
“That’s for me to judge, Hal,” smiled the captain, shivering as the
draft struck him. He turned towards the safe. Hal detained him with a
hand upon his arm.
“Don’t give it to me just yet,” said he, anxiously. “Wait a little!”
“No, no, that wouldn’t be the same at all,” insisted Briggs. “I want
you to have this present now, to-day, to make you always remember your
fresh start in life.”
“Not to-day, gramp!” exclaimed Hal. “I don’t feel right about it,
and—and I can’t accept it. I want to make a really new start. To make
my own way—be a man, not a dependent! Please don’t spoil everything
the first minute by doing this!”
“But, Hal—”
“I know how you feel,” said the boy, with feverish energy. “But
I’ve got feelings, too, and now you’re hurting them. Please don’t,
grandfather! Please let me stand on my own feet, and be a man!”
Old Briggs, who had with feeble steps made his way half across the
floor, turned and looked at Hal with eyes of profound affection.
“God bless you, boy!” said he with deep emotion. “Do you really mean
that?”
“Of course I do! Come, get back into bed now. You’re taking cold there.
Get back before you have another chill!”
Anxiously he led the captain back towards the berth. His touch was
complete betrayal. Into his voice he forced a tone of caressing
sincerity, music to the old man’s ears.
“I’ve learned a great deal the last day or two,” said he, as with
traitor solicitude he put the captain into his berth, and covered him
up. “I’ve been learning some great lessons. What you said to me up
there among the graves, has opened my eyes.”
“Bless God for that!” And in the captain’s eyes tears glistened.
“That’s wonderful for me to hear, in this room where all those relics
of the past—that kris and everything—can’t help reminding me of other
and worse days. A wonderful, blessèd thing to hear!”
“Well, I’m glad it is, gramp,” said Hal, “and it’s every bit true. On
my honor as a gentleman, it is! From to-day I’m going to stand on my
own feet and be a man. You don’t know what I’ve been doing already
to give myself a start in life, but if you did, you’d be wonderfully
surprised. What I’m still going to do will certainly surprise you more!”
“Lord above, Hal, but you’re the right stuff after all!” exclaimed
Captain Briggs, the tears now coursing freely. “Oh, if you could only
realize what all this means for me after all the years of sacrifice and
hopes and fears. We came pretty nigh shipwreck on the reefs, didn’t we,
boy? But it’s all right. It’s all right now at last!”
“It surely is. And I’m certainly going to surprise you and Laura and
everybody.”
“Kneel down beside me, just a minute, boy, and then I’ll go to sleep
again.”
Hal, making a wry face to himself, knelt by the bedside. Old Briggs,
with one arm, drew him close. The other hand stroked back Hal’s thick,
wet hair with a touch that love made gentle as a woman’s.
“This is a day of days to me,” he whispered. “A wonderful blessèd day!
God guide and keep you, forever and ever. Amen!”
He sighed deeply and relaxed. His eyes drooped shut. Hal pulled the
blankets up and got to his feet, peering down with eyes of malice.
A moment he stood there while the wind gusted against the house, the
rain sprayed along the porch, and branches whipped the roof.
Then, with a smile of infernal triumph, he turned.
“Cinch!” he muttered, as he left the cabin and made his way up-stairs.
“Why, it’s like taking candy from a baby. He’ll sleep for hours now.
But won’t it jar the old geezer when his pipe goes out, to-night? Just
won’t it, though?”
With silent laughter Hal reached his room, where, without delay, he
started on his final preparations for events now swiftly impending.
Over all the heavens—a blind, gray face of wrath—seemed peering down.
But on that face was now no laughter.
Even for Vishnu the Avenger some things must be too terrible.