THE OWNER OF THE DISAGREEABLE VOICE
It may be that Madge had another second of consciousness. Afterward she
thought she could recall being caught up by a giant, who unloosed Tania's
hands from about her throat. Quietly the three of them began to float
upward with such steadiness, such quietness, that she had that blessed
sense of security and release from responsibility that a child must feel
who has fallen asleep in its father's arms.
The first thing that she actually knew was, when she opened her eyes, to
look into a pair of deep blue, kindly ones that were smiling bravely and
encouragingly into hers. Near her were her three friends, looking very
wet and miserable, and one little, dark-eyed elf who was sobbing
bitterly. Farther away were two strange girls and one red-faced young
man. Then Madge understood that she had been brought aboard the yacht
that had run down their rowboat.
The little captain sat up indignantly. "I am quite all right," she said
haughtily, looking with an unfriendly countenance at their wreckers.
Then, feeling strangely dizzy, she sank back and with a little sigh
closed her eyes.
"Don't do that," protested Eleanor tragically. "You must not faint.
Captain Jules, please don't let her."
The old captain's strong hands took hold of Madge's cold ones. "Pull
yourself together, my hearty," he whispered. "A girl who can dive down
into the bottom of the bay as you can shows she has good sea-blood in
her. She can see the old captain's diving suit any day she likes--own it
if she has a mind to. Fishing for pearls isn't half so good a trade as
fishing for a human life. You'll be yourself in a minute. Lucky I
happened to walk down the beach in the same direction your boat went."
One of the two strange girls came to Madge's side at this moment with a
cup of strong tea. "_Do_ drink this," she pleaded. "It has taken some
time to make the water boil. I wish to give some to the other girls, too.
I am so sorry that we ran into you. You must know that it was an
accident."
Madge drank the tea obediently, gazing a little less scornfully at the
girl who was serving her, her face pale with fright and sympathy. The
other girl stood apart at a little distance with a young man. They were
both staring at the wet and shivering girls with poorly concealed
amusement.
"We are awfully sorry to give you so much trouble," said Madge to the
girl with the tea. She was trying to control her feelings when she caught
sight of the owner of the small yacht and his friend and her temper got
the better of her.
"I am sorry," she repeated, "that we are giving _you_ trouble. But,
really, your motor launch had no right to bear down on our boat without
blowing its whistle or giving the faintest sign of its approach. It put
the whole responsibility of getting out of the way on us."
Madge was sitting beside the old captain. Her direct mode of attack
showed that she was feeling more like herself.
"What the young lady says is true," declared Captain Jules with emphasis.
"I doubt if you have the faintest legal right to navigate a boat in these
waters. If I hadn't happened to walk along down the shore of the bay
after these young ladies left me two of them would have been drowned.
I'll have to see to it that you keep off this bay if you do any more such
mischief as you did this morning."
The young man in a handsome yachting suit worthy of an admiral in the
United States Navy frowned angrily at Madge and her champion.
"I say it wasn't my fault that I ran into your little paper boat," he
protested angrily. "I gave you plenty of time to get out of my way, but
you girls pulled so slowly that we did slide into you. Still, if you will
admit that it was your fault and not mine, I will have your old skiff
mended, if she isn't too much used up and you can get somebody to tow her
back to land for you. I can't; I have enough to carry as it is."
The girl standing beside the young man giggled hysterically. Madge
decided that she had heard her high, shrill notes before. Phyllis,
Lillian and Eleanor were furiously angry at the young man's retort to
Madge and Captain Jules, but they bit their lips and said nothing. They
were on his yacht, although they were enforced passengers; it was better
not to express their feelings.
But Madge was in a white heat of passion over the young man's boorish
retort.
"It was not our fault in the least that we were run down," she said in a
low, evenly pitched voice. "We are not willing to take the least bit of
the blame. You not only ran into our little boat and sunk her, but you
did not take the least trouble to come to our aid when you had not the
faintest knowledge whether any one of us could swim. _Men_ in the part of
the world where I come from don't do things of that kind. Put your boat
back and tow our rowboat to land," ordered Madge imperiously. "We
certainly will not allow you to have it mended. Neither my friends nor I
wish to accept any kind of recompense from a man who is a _coward_!"
The word was out. Madge had not meant to use it, but somehow it slipped
off her tongue.
"Steady," she heard the old sailor whisper in her ear. He was gazing at
her intently, and something in his face calmed the hot tide of her anger.
"I am sorry I said you were a coward," she added, with one of her quick
repentances. "I don't think you were very brave, but perhaps something
may have happened that prevented your coming to our aid."
"Mr. Dennis does not swim very well," the nicer of the two girls
explained, sitting down beside Madge. She was blushing and biting her
lips. "Mr. Dennis meant to put back as soon as he could. I am Ethel
Swann. I received a letter from Mrs. Curtis this morning, who is one of
my mother's old friends. She wrote that she and her son would be down a
little later to open their cottage, but she hoped that we would meet you
girls before she came. I am so sorry that we have met first in such an
unfortunate fashion."
"Oh, never mind," interrupted Madge impatiently. "If you are Ethel Swann,
Mrs. Curtis has talked to us about you. We are very glad to know you, I
am sure."
"These are my friends, Roy Dennis and Mabel Farrar," Ethel went on, her
face flushing. The four girls bowed coldly. Mabel Farrar acknowledged the
introduction by a stiff nod. The young man took off his cap for the first
time when Madge introduced Captain Jules.
"Run your boat along the side of the overturned skiff and I'll tie her on
for you," ordered Captain Jules quietly. "I think I had better go along
back to land with you."
Roy Dennis, who was a little more frightened at his deed than he cared to
own, was glad to obey the captain's order.
Just as the girls were landing from the launch Mabel Farrar's foot
slipped and she gave a shrill scream. Instantly the girls recognized the
voice which they had heard the night before condemning them to social
oblivion.
Although Captain Jules had only a short time before positively refused
the invitation of the girls to come aboard the "Merry Maid" to pay them a
visit, it was he who handed each girl from the deck of Roy Dennis's boat
into the arms of their frightened chaperon. Finally he crossed over to
the deck of the houseboat himself, bearing little Tania in his arms and
looking in his wet tarpaulins like old King Neptune rising from the
brine.
Captain Jules was made to stay to luncheon on board the houseboat. There
was no getting away from the determined young women. In his heart of
hearts the old sailor had no desire to go. Something inspired him with
the desire to know more of these charming girls.
When the girls had put on dry clothing they led Captain Jules all over
the houseboat, showing him each detail of it. He insisted that the "Merry
Maid" was as trim a little craft as he had ever seen afloat.
After luncheon, at which the captain devoured six of Miss Jenny Ann's
best cornbread gems, he sat down in a chair on the houseboat deck,
holding Tania in his arms. He talked most to Phyllis, but he seldom took
his eyes off Madge's face. Sometimes he frowned at her; now and then he
smiled. Once or twice Madge found herself blushing and wondering why her
rescuer looked at her so hard, but she was too interested to care very
much.
She sat down in her favorite position on a pile of cushions on the deck,
with her head resting against Miss Jenny Ann's knee and her eyes on the
water. "Do tell us, Captain Jules," she pleaded, "something about your
life as a pearl-fisher. You must have had wonderful experiences. We would
dearly love to hear about them, wouldn't we, girls?"
The girls chorused an enthusiastic "Yes," which included Miss Jenny Ann.
Captain Jules laughed. "Haven't you ever heard that it is dangerous to
get an old sea dog started on his adventures? You never can tell when he
will leave off," he teased, stroking Tania's black hair. "But I wouldn't
be surprised if Tania would like to hear how once I was nearly swallowed
whole, diving suit and all, by a giant shark. I was hunting for pearls in
those days off the Philippine Islands. I had been tearing some shells
from the side of a great rock when, of a sudden, I felt a strange
presence before I saw anything. I might have known it was time to expect
trouble, because the little fish that are usually floating about in the
water had all disappeared. A creepy feeling came over me. I was cold as
ice inside my diving suit. Then I turned and looked up. Just a few feet
in front of me was a giant shark that seemed about twenty-five feet long.
He was an evil monster. The upper part of his body was a dirty, dark
green and his fins were black. You never saw a diving suit, did you? So
you don't know that all the body is covered up but the hands. I tucked my
hands under my breastplate in a hurry. It didn't seem to me that a pearl
diver would be much good without any hands. Well, the great fish made a
sweep with its tail, and in a jiffy he and I were face to face. I stood
still for about a second. I held my breath, my heart pounding like a
hammer. Nearer and nearer the monster came swimming toward me, with its
shovel nose pointing directly at the glass that covered my face. I
couldn't stand it. I threw up my hands. I yelled way down at the bottom
of the sea with no one to hear me. There was a swirl of water, a cloud of
mud, and my enemy vanished. He didn't like the noise any better than I
liked him."
The girls breathed sighs of relief. The captain chuckled. "Oh, a diver is
not in real danger from a shark," he went on, "his suit protects him. But
there are plenty of other dangers. Maybe I'll tell you some of them at
another time. Why, I declare, it is nearly sunset. You don't know it,
children, but the bottom of the tropic sea has colors in it as beautiful
as the lights in that sky. The sea-bottom, where the diver is apt to find
pearl shells, is covered with all sorts of sea growths--sponges twelve
feet high, coral cups like inverted mushrooms, sea-fans twenty feet
broad."
As the old diver talked, the girls could see the magic coral wreaths,
glowing rose color and crimson, the tall ferns and sea flowers that waved
with the movement of the water as the earth flowers move to the stirring
of the wind. And there in the land of the mermaids, hidden between
wonderful shells of mother-of-pearl, lie the jewels that are the purest
and most beautiful in the world.
Madge's chin was in her hands. She did not hear the old captain get up
and say good-bye. She was wishing, with all her heart, that she, too,
might go down to the bottom of the sea to view its treasures.
"Madge," Phil interrupted her reverie, "Captain Jules is going."
Madge put her soft, warm hands into the big man's hard, powerful ones.
"Good-bye," she said gratefully. "There is something I wish to tell you,
but I won't until another time."
Miss Jenny Ann stared thoughtfully after the giant figure as Captain
Jules left the houseboat and strode up the shore in search of a small
skiff to take him home.
"You girls have made an unusual friend," she said slowly to Madge. "In
many ways Captain Jules is rough. He may be uneducated in the wisdom of
schools and books, but he is a great man with a great heart."
Before Madge went to bed that night she wrote Tom Curtis. She told him
how sorry they all were that he could not come at once to Cape May. She
also described the day's adventures. She made as light of their accident
as possible, but she ended her letter by asking Tom if he would not send
her a book about pearl fishing.