CAPTAIN JULES MAKES A PROMISE
Little by little Madge was able to put together the whole story of Philip
Holt's life. He was old Sal's son, and "Holt" was not his own name, but
he rarely came near his mother, never gave her any help, and denied his
relationship with her whenever it was necessary. When Philip Murphy was a
small boy, he had been taken into the home of a wealthy family named
Holt, but he had never been legally adopted as their child. He was raised
in luxury and had made a great many wealthy friends, and he had learned
to love money more than anything else in the world. But his rich patrons
would not allow him entirely to desert his own mother. Twice every month
he was made to go to see old Sal Murphy in her tenement home on the East
Side. Philip Holt, who now went by the name of his foster parents, fairly
loathed these visits. It was because of his hatred of them that he began
to take his spite out on Tania when he was a lad of about fifteen, and
poor Tania a baby of only six years old.
Tania's mother had died in the same tenement where old Sal lived. There
had been no one who wanted the little girl, so old Sal had taken her,
beaten and starved her, and made her useful in any way that she could.
When Philip Holt had grown to manhood his foster parents lost most of
their money. A little later they died, leaving their foster son nothing.
The young man had been used to luxury and rich friends, and he could not
give them up, therefore he told his wealthy friends that because he had
once been a poor boy he meant to devote his life to charity. He proposed
to work among the New York poor and asked their cooperation. Large sums
of money were given him to be used for charity, but Philip Holt believed
too strongly in the theory that charity begins at home. Whenever it was
possible he used a part of this money for himself. To make more, he began
speculating in Wall Street. He lost two thousand, then five thousand
dollars of the money that had been entrusted to him. For almost a year he
had been the treasurer of a New York charitable organization, and the
time was near at hand when he must give a report of the money that he had
misused. He knew that disgrace, imprisonment, stared him in the face
unless he could persuade Mrs. Curtis to advance him five thousand dollars
for some charitable purpose, or give it to him for himself. He,
therefore, did not intend to be balked in his plan by either Madge or
Tania, no matter what desperate measures he had to employ.
So there were two persons at Cape May who came to believe that they stood
in dire need of money. Yet they wished it for very different reasons:
Philip Holt wanted money to save himself from disgrace; Madge desired it
to help her uncle and aunt save their old home, "Forest House," to send
Eleanor back to graduate at Miss Tolliver's in the fall, to start on her
search for her father, and, last of all, to take care of Tania.
For Madge had managed the little waif's affairs most undiplomatically.
When she discovered the threat that Philip held over Tania if she told
his secret, the little captain went to Mrs. Curtis with the story. She
did not wish her friend to be deceived by the young man, so she confided
to Mrs. Curtis that Philip Holt, who was supposedly the son of some old
friends, was really the child of old Sal of the tenements. Mrs. Curtis
thought that Madge must be mistaken. She wrote to old Sal to ask her if
it were true. The Irish woman was devoted to her son. She would have done
anything in the world not to disgrace him. She answered Mrs. Curtis's
letter by declaring that Philip Holt was no relative of hers, but a young
man whom she knew because of his kindness to the poor. Mrs. Curtis was
indignant. She insisted that Tania had told Madge a falsehood, and that
Philip Holt was right in his opinion of Tania. It would not be well to
send the child to a school; she should be put in some kind of an
institution. This, however, Madge was determined should never happen. She
had no money of her own, nor did she know where she was to obtain the
means, but she made up her mind to find some way to provide for her
quaint little Fairy Godmother.
The morning after Madge's disquieting talk with Mrs. Curtis the four
girls and Tania wandered up the bay to spend the morning in the woods
near the water. Phyllis carried a book that she meant to read aloud,
Madge a box of luncheon, and Eleanor and Lillian their sewing. Tania
skipped along with her hand in Madge's. John had promised to join them
later in the day if he returned in time from his trip on the water.
The girls settled themselves under some trees whence they could command a
view of the land and the bay. Madge lay down in the soft grass and rested
her head in her hands. She meant to listen to Phil's reading, not to
puzzle over her own worries. Phil's book gave a thrilling account of the
early days in the Delaware Bay, when it was the favorite cruising place
for pirates. It was rather hard to believe, when the girls gazed out on
the smooth, blue water, that it had once been the scene of so many fierce
adventures with pirates. Once a crew of seventy men, belonging to the
famous Captain Kidd, had actually sailed up the Delaware Bay and
frightened the people of Philadelphia.
Madge had forgotten to listen. She could hear Phil's voice, but not her
words. The history of piracy, of course, was very thrilling, but Madge
did not see how any long-ago dead and buried pirates or their hidden
treasures could help her out of her present difficulties. She stood in
need of real riches.
A sailboat dipped across the horizon and headed for the landing not far
from where the girls were sitting, but no one of them noticed it.
"Look ahoy! look ahoy!" a friendly voice cried out from across the
water.
Phyllis closed her book with a snap, Lillian and Eleanor dropped their
sewing, Tania ran to the water's edge, and Madge sat up.
It was Captain Jules who had hailed them.
"Well, my hearties, is this a summer camp?" demanded the old sailor as
his boat came near the land. "I have been all the way to the houseboat to
find you. I have something to show you." Captain Jules's broad face shone
with good humor. He was clad in his weather-beaten tarpaulins, and on his
shoulder perched the monkey.
Madge covered the sides of her curly head with her hands. "Please don't
let the monkey pull my hair this morning," she pleaded as the captain
came up.
He tossed the monkey over to Tania, who cuddled it affectionately in her
arms, and began talking softly to it.
Then Captain Jules seated himself on the grass and the houseboat girls
gathered about him in a circle. He put one great hand in his pocket.
"I've some presents for you," he announced, trying to look very serious,
but smiling in spite of himself.
"What are they?" asked Lillian eagerly.
"That's telling," returned the captain. "You must guess."
"Shells," said Tania quickly.
Captain Jules shook his head. "You're warm, little girl," he replied,
"but you haven't guessed right yet."
Lillian sighed. "I never could guess anything," she remarked sadly.
"Please do tell us what it is."
The captain relented and drew out of his pocket a handful of what seemed
to be either oyster or mussel shells.
"You've brought some oysters for our luncheon, haven't you?" guessed
Eleanor. "You must stay and eat them with us."
Captain Jules chuckled. "Oysters are out of season, child, and these are
never good to eat."
But Madge had clapped her hands together suddenly, her eyes shining. "You
have been down to the bottom of the bay, haven't you, Captain Jules? And
you've found some pearls!"
Captain Jules shook his head. "I wouldn't call them pearls, exactly.
They're too little and too poor. But come, now; maybe they are seed
pearls. I went down under the water with the men who were looking over
the oyster beds yesterday. Pearl oysters are not found in beds, like the
edible oysters, so I wandered around on the bottom of the bay a bit and
picked up these." The captain extended his great hand. Five pairs of
eager eyes peered into it. There lay four nearly round, thick shells,
horny and rough with tiny little pearls embedded in them.
"'Pearls are angel's tears'," quoted Phil softly.
Captain Jules seemed worried. "I searched about everywhere in the bay,
but I could only find these four tiny pearls, and pretty lucky I was to
find them!" the sailor continued. "They aren't of much value, but I
wanted to give them to five girls, and that's just the difficulty." The
captain looked at the houseboat party, which now included Tania, as
though he did not know just what he should make up his mind to do.
"Let's draw straws for them," suggested Eleanor sensibly.
Madge shook her head. "No; Captain Jules is to give them to you and to
leave me out. Remember, some stranger gave me a handsome pearl when I
graduated. I have never had it mounted." Madge slipped her arm
confidingly through the old sea captain's and gazed into his face with
her most earnest expression. "Captain Jules is going to do something else
for me; he is going down to the bottom of the bay again in his diving
suit, and he is going to take me with him."
"What a ridiculous idea!" protested Eleanor. "Just as though Captain
Jules would think of doing any such thing."
Lillian laughed unbelievingly, but Phil's face was serious. "It would be
awfully jolly, wouldn't it? There wouldn't be any danger if Captain Jules
should take you. Do please take Madge down with you, and then take me,"
she insisted coaxingly.
Captain Jules shook his head, but the little captain observed that he did
not look half so shocked at the idea as he had the first time she
proposed it. This was encouraging.
Phil took hold of one of the captain's hands, and Madge the other.
"Please, please, _please_!" they pleaded in chorus.
"Miss Jenny Ann wouldn't let you," objected Captain Jules faintly.
"But if we were to get her permission," argued Madge triumphantly, "then
you would take us down to the bottom of the bay. I just knew you would,
you are so splendid! I shall send to New York to see if we can rent a
diving suit."
"Never mind about that, I'll see about the suit," promised Captain Jules.
"But it's all nonsense, and I have never said that I would take you. I
wish I weren't a sailor. There is an old saying that a sailor can never
refuse anything to a woman."
"Here comes Tom," announced Lillian hurriedly.
"Then don't say anything to him about the diving," warned Madge. "He will
think it is perfectly dreadful for girls to attempt it."