NELLY TREFETHEN FINDS A LETTER
Having donned his best suit for the interview with Major Arkell, and
realizing that his mine clothing would be more in keeping with the job
now on hand, Peveril first hastened home to make the change. He found
only Mrs. Trefethen in the house, and at sight of him she expressed an
eager curiosity to learn the result of his recent interview.
"It's all right," he laughed, as he bounded up the narrow stairway
leading to his room. "I'm to turn sailor, and be captain of a craft
somewhere up the coast."
"Whativer can lad mean?" exclaimed the perplexed woman. "'Im a sailor!
Did iver any one 'ear the like o' that? Oh, Maister Peril! be iver
coming back?"
"Of course I am!" shouted Peveril from the little upper room, in which
he was hastily changing his clothing. "I shall be back whenever my
ship comes in, which will probably be in a week, or it may take a few
days longer. There's a wreck, you know, and I am going to save the
pieces. But I'll be down directly."
"A wrack!" gasped Mrs. Trefethen, "and 'im in hit! Save us! but 'twill
be worse than down shaft. Shaft be dry land, anyway, but they awful
sea that rageth like a lion seeking whom it may devour. Oh, Maister
Peril!"
"Yes, coming!"
The young man was just then making a hasty transfer of the contents of
his pockets, besides cramming into those of his working-suit several
articles that he imagined might prove useful. At that moment an
impatient whistle from the timber train that would take him to the
landing warned him that he had no more time to spare, and, snatching
his hat, he sprang down the stairway.
"Good-bye, Mrs. Trefethen!" he cried. "Tell Miss Nelly she sha'n't be
turned out of her own room any longer, and tell her--But never mind;
only tell her that I will have something important to say to her when
I come back. Give her my love, and--" Here his words were cut short by
another shrill whistle from the waiting train; and Peveril ran from
the house, shouting back "Good-bye!" as he went, and leaving the good
woman gasping with the breathless flurry of his departure.
When Nelly Trefethen reached home a half-hour later she received such
a confused account of what had just happened as caused her rosy cheeks
to take on a deeper color and filled her with a strange agitation. Mr.
Peril had gone to be a sailor, and would come back very shortly as
captain of a ship. Perhaps it would be a splendid, great steamer, such
as she had seen lying at the Marquette ore docks. He had left his
love for her; he would have something of the greatest importance to
say the next time he saw her; and she was not to be turned out of her
room again. What could he mean by that, and what a very strange thing
it was for a young man to say? Since he had said it to her mother,
though, it must have meant--Oh dear! how she wished she had not gone
out that morning, and what an endless time a whole week seemed!
At length, anxious to escape from her mother's torrent of words, and
to be alone with her own thoughts, the blushing girl fled up-stairs on
the pretence of putting Mr. Peril's room in order.
The very first thing she spied on entering the room, about which his
belongings were scattered in every direction, was a letter lying on
the floor, and almost hidden beneath the bed. Picking it up, she was
surprised to find it sealed, and still more so to note that it was
addressed to Mr. Richard _Peveril_. How could that be? Was their guest
living among them under an assumed name? No, of course he wouldn't do
such a thing; and this letter must have been handed to him by mistake.
That was the reason why he had not opened it. The names were very much
alike in sound, though so differently spelled. Besides, this letter
was addressed in a lady's handwriting, and evidently came from some
foreign country. She knew Mr. Peril was an American, because he had
said so. He had also told them that he was, so far as he knew, without
a relative in the world, so there were no sisters or young lady
cousins to write to him.
She did not think he could be engaged, because he had never mentioned
the fact, while all the other young men of her acquaintance were in
the habit of talking very freely about their "best girls," if they
were so fortunate as to have such. Besides, had not Mr. Peril just
left his love for _her_, and a message to the effect that he had
something very important to tell _her_? She would keep this hateful
letter, though, and confront him with it the moment she saw him again.
Then his manner would convey the information she wanted. How she did
long to open it and just glance at its contents! The impulse to do
this was so strong that only by thrusting the letter into her pocket
could she resist it.
Now the innocent cause of her perplexity seemed to burn like a coal of
fire until she again drew it forth. A dozen times that day did she do
this, with the temptation to set her doubts at rest by tearing open
the sealed envelope always assailing her with increased force.
Finally, to her great relief, an honorable way of escaping this
temptation presented itself. She would return the horrid letter to the
post-office. From there, if it were indeed for Mr. Peril, he would in
due course of time receive it, as he had before; while, if it were
intended for some one else, it would be delivered to its rightful
owner. This plan was no sooner conceived than executed; and, as the
troublesome missive disappeared through the narrow slit of the
post-office letter-box, the girl heaved a sigh of relief.
When, the very next day, that identical letter was advertised on the
post-office bulletin, and Nelly Trefethen saw the notice, she was
assured that she had done the right thing. For ten days that
advertisement stared her in the face whenever she visited the office,
and then, to her great satisfaction, it disappeared. Rose Bonnifay's
message from across the sea had gone to the place of "dead" letters,
but Nelly believed that it had at last found its rightful owner.
On the very evening of Peveril's departure Miss Nelly's old
sweetheart, Mike Connell, joined her for a walk, and, after much
preliminary conversation, finally plucked up courage to ask if Mr.
Peril had told her anything of importance before going away.
"What should he have to tell me?" asked the girl, evasively.
"He might have tould you that he liked you better than any other girl
in the world," was the diplomatic answer.
"You know he'd never say a thing like that, Mr. Connell," cried Nelly,
blushing furiously.
"Well, then, he might have said he was already bespoke."
"I don't believe it."
"It's true, all the same."
"What right have you to say so?" asked Nelly, whose face was now quite
pale.
"The right of his own words, for he telled me so himself."
"Who is she?"
"He didn't say."
"Where does she live, then?"
"Divil a bit do I know."
"I don't believe you know anything at all about it. You are just
making up a story to tease me."
"T'asing you is the last thing I'd be thinking of, Nelly darlin',
except it was t'asing ye to marry me. No, alanna, it's the truth I'm
telling you, and if you can't believe me just ax him. At the same
time, I'm sore hurted that ye should be caring whether he's bespoke or
no."
"I will ask him," answered the girl, "and until I do I'll thank you,
Mr. Connell, never to mention Mr. Peril's name again."
"Not even to tell you what a brave, bowld lad he is, and how
handsome?"
"You'd not be telling me anything I don't know."
"But, darlin', when he tells you with his own mouth that he's already
bespoke and not to be had at all, you'll not refuse a bit of hope to
one who loves the very ground trod by your two little feet."
"Good-night, Mr. Connell. Here's the door, and I'm going in."
In the meantime Peveril, after bidding good-bye to Mrs. Trefethen, had
been whirled away by the little timber train to a landing on the lake
shore, where he found the tug _Broncho_ awaiting him. Towing behind it
was a light double-ended skiff, and on its narrow deck he saw three
men, dressed very much as he was himself, whom he knew must be those
chosen to assist him in his forthcoming labors. One of them was a
bright-looking French Canadian, while the others were evidently
foreigners of the same class as the car-pushers in the mine. The
captain of the tug was a Yankee named Spillins.
The latter glanced over the note from Major Arkell that the new-comer
handed him, and said, "All right, Mr. Peril; if you're ready for a
start, I am."
"Yes," replied Peveril, "I'm ready," and in another minute they were
off. As they got under way the young leader of the expedition walked
aft to make the acquaintance of his men. He was annoyed to find that,
while two of them were brawny fellows who looked well fit for work,
they could not muster a dozen words of English between them. Noting
his efforts to converse with them, the third man, who introduced
himself as Joe Pintaud, came to his assistance.
"No goot you talk to dem Dago feller, Mist Pearl," he said; "zey can
spik ze Anglais no more as woodchuck. You tell 'em, 'dam lazy
scoundrel,' zey onstan pret goot; but, by gar, you talk lak white man
you got kick it in hees head."
Realizing the truth of Joe Pintaud's words, Peveril left the others to
a stolid smoking of their long-stemmed pipes, and sought whatever
information their more intelligent companion had to give concerning
their present undertaking. He quickly discovered that, while Joe was
as ignorant as himself of that coast, he was an expert raftsman and
logger. He also found that the tug carried a good supply of rope,
axes, pike-poles, and other things necessary for the work in hand.
After having satisfied himself on these points, Peveril gazed for a
while at the bleak, rock-bound coast along which they were running,
and then, suddenly bethinking himself of a pleasure that he had
reserved for a leisure moment, he entered the pilot-house, and,
sitting down on a cushioned locker behind Captain Spillins, who stood
at the wheel, began to feel in his pockets.
As he did this his movements grew more and more impatient, until
finally, with a muttered exclamation, he turned the entire contents of
his pockets out on the cushion.
"Lost something?" asked the captain, looking around.
"Yes."
"Not your money, I hope."
"No, but a letter that was worth more to me than all the money in the
world."
"Whew!" whistled the captain. "Must have been important."