THE UNEXPECTED PASSENGER.
While Ben Benson was landing Ralph Harrington and Lina, he lost sight of
the boat which had so effectually aroused his interest, and when he was
ready to put out again, it was lost in the inequalities of the shore.
Ben put out into the river, bearing towards the opposite bank at first,
but meeting with no signs of his object, he returned again, consuming
time, and thus giving considerable start to Mrs. Harrington's little
craft.
As Ben neared the land again, he saw a gleam of crimson garments through
the evergreens that fringed the rocky shore, and remembering the shawl
which Mabel had on, was overjoyed to know that she had landed, and was
comparatively safe from the storm, which grew more and more assured in
its signs.
With his anxieties thus appeased, Ben rowed his boat more securely to
the nearest point that promised a safe landing, resolved to court the
recognition of his mistress, and when she was weary of her ramble,
convey her safely home again.
When he reached the desired point, Ben could see that the crimson
garments were moving through the undergrowth with a pace more rapid than
any mere rambler would have chosen; but what surprised him was the
course pursued down the river. His mistress, if frightened by the
clouds, would doubtless have turned homeward.
Ben stood up in his boat and waved his tarpaulin with energy.
"Hallo--Madam--Mrs. Harrington, I say, there's thunder and war ahead, I
tell you. Don't go too far. Don't go out of sight. The water's a-getting
roughish now, and the woods won't be safe after the clouds burst!"
Ben sent these words through an impromptu speaking trumpet made with one
hand curved around his mouth. He was well pleased with the effect, for
the red garments began to flutter, and he saw that the wearer was moving
rapidly down the hill towards the point where he lay.
"That's what I call obeying signals at once!" said the honest fellow,
seating himself in the stern of his boat. "But she knows as Ben Benson
wouldn't take the liberty of hurrying her if he hadn't a good reason for
what he's a-doin'--not he!"
And with this complacent reflection, Ben withdrew the tobacco from his
mouth, and sent it far into the water, remembering Mrs. Harrington's
objections to the weed, and ready to send his life after that, if it
could afford her a moment's gratification.
"Ben," said he, looking after the tobacco as it was tossed from one wave
to another, and shaking his fist after it in virtuous indignation,
"that's a habit as you ought to be ashamed on, Ben Benson, a habit as no
dog wouldn't take from you on any account, yet you've just kept it up
chawing and chawing from morning till night, till she'll catch you at it
some day, and then you'll have done for yourself, and no mistake. I
should like to see her a-settin' in your boat arter that. Tobackee 'll
be the ruin of you yit, Ben. Grog's nothing to it."
A light step upon the moss silenced the boatman, but he kept his
position, resolved to be very severe with himself for his manifold sins,
this of tobacco being uppermost.
"Mr. Benson, you are kind, I am so much obliged!"
Ben started. The voice was a pleasant one, but his rough heart sunk low
with disappointment--the tones were not those of Mrs. Harrington.
"I could not possibly have reached home on foot," said the same sweet
voice, and a young lady sprang lightly into the boat. "I hope the river
will prove safe!"
"I was waiting for Mrs. Harrington, marm, and mistook you for
her--that's all," said Ben, without lifting his eyes to the singular
girl that stood close to him.
"Mrs. Harrington has gone down the river long ago--she passed that point
of land with the last sunbeam," said the young girl, seating herself
comfortably among the cushions.
"Are you sartin of that ere?" questioned Ben, taking up his oars
hurriedly. "Just give me her bearing, and I'll show you what rowing is."
"You can't possibly have a better pilot than I am," answered the lady,
laughing till a row of closely set but uneven teeth were visible in the
waning light. "In searching for Mrs. Harrington, you will naturally take
me homeward; when she is found, I will allow myself to be set ashore."
"The shore's no fit place for a young gal arter dark," said Ben gruffly,
but pushing his boat out into the stream. "For my part, I can't make out
what brings you up into the hills so often. Why don't you come home for
good and all? Miss Lina don't want any more vacation, I reckon."
"Oh, my health isn't quite established yet, Mr. Benson," said the girl,
looking at the boatman with a sidelong glance of her black,
almond-shaped eyes, a glance that Ben was internally comparing to that
of the rattlesnake, when he shrank off into a hollow of the rocks.
"I shouldn't think it very wholesome to be out so much at night!" said
Ben.
"Oh, I live on fresh air, and love it best when moist with dew!"
answered the girl.
"If it ain't moist with something stronger than dew afore long, I lose
my guess!" muttered Ben, looking upward. "If this night don't see a
reg'lar tornado, I'll give up--beat."
For a short time Ben plied his oars, casting anxious glances down the
shore, hoping to find Mrs. Harrington and her boat safe in some inlet or
cove, waiting for them.
"In course," said Ben, muttering as usual to himself. "In course, she'd
know, as I was sure to come. What on the Lord's arth is Ben Benson good
for, but to follow arter and tend on her? The king of all the Sandwich
Islands couldn't have a higher business than that, let alone a poor
feller of a boatman, as has circumwented his sea voyages down to a pair
of oars and a passenger that's not over agreeable."
"Whom are you talking to, Mr. Benson?" inquired the young lady, wasting
a smile on the moody boatman, though the threatening sky made her
somewhat anxious about her own safety.
"To an individual as calls hisself Ben Benson. He's a feller as bears
with my faults better than anybody else, as I knows on, and one as is
rather particular about being intruded on, when he's holding a private
conversation with hisself. That's the individual, Miss Agnes, as I was a
holding a council with."
"And you would a little rather have no interruption--is that it?" said
the lady. "Well, well, I can be silent, you shall see that!"
"Doubtful!" muttered Ben, using his oars with fresh vigor.
The girl he called Agnes, folded her cloak about her and settled down
among the cushions, casting wistful glances at the sky. "Look," she said
at last, pointing upward, "those small lead-colored clouds, how darkly
they drift together! Did you ever see a flock of pigeons flying over the
western woods, Mr. Benson?"
"Knew she wouldn't do it," muttered Ben, with his eyes bent on the
clouds.
"See, see!" cried the girl. "The sky is black--I have seen the same
thing!"
"But them was nothing but innocent birds a flying after something to
eat," said Ben. "These ere clouds, Miss Agnes, has got a good many
unroofed housen', and shipwrecks, and trees broken in two, and torn up
by the roots, in 'em, to say nothing of this ere boat as may be upsot
any minute."
The girl turned pale; her black eyes shone with sudden fear.
"Do you think there is really any danger, Mr. Benson?"
"Danger? Of course there's danger! What did I follow arter that little
boat for, if there wasn't no danger?"
"Perhaps--perhaps," said Agnes tremulously, "it would be safer on shore.
The walk will not be much now. What do you say to running ashore?"
"There'll be a howling among the rocks afore you get round the first
point, that 'ud take your breath; besides, when the winds begin to rush
there'll be a crashing down of trees, and broken limbs will be flying
thick enough. No, no--unsartain as the river is, you'd better keep
still. I don't want your death on my conscience, any how."
"But can you swim if we should capsize?" questioned Agnes, growing pale
and cold.
"Swim, can Ben Benson swim?" cried the boatman with a hoarse laugh.
"Well, I should think that he can swim a trifle."
The girl fixed her black eyes upon him. They were large and bright with
terror.
"Fast, pull fast," she said, "let me help you--is there anything in
which I can help you? How slow the boat goes--pull, pull!"
"We are agin the wind, and it's getting strongish," answered Ben.
"What can we do?" cried out the girl clasping her hands. "Hear how it
howls--how the trees begin to moan! Is not the storm at its height now?"
"You'll see by and by," said Ben, bowing his moist forehead down to the
sleeve of his jacket, and wiping away the perspiration that was now
falling from it like rain.
"Oh, what will become of us?" shrieked the girl.
"What has become of _her_?" echoed Ben, casting sharp despairing glances
toward the shore, which was now darkened, and in a turmoil.
"There is my home--there, there, on the side hill. A light is just
struck in the window. Set me on shore--oh, Mr. Benson, do set me on
shore!"
"Not till I find _her_," answered Ben, resolutely, "you would get in, so
make the best of it."
The girl grew white as death.
"Let me ashore, or it will be my death--I am sick with terror," she
pleaded.
Ben did not appear to listen. He was looking wildly down the stream,
right and left, with despair in his glances.
"Where is she? What can have become of her?" he cried out at last,
sinking forward on his oars, and allowing the boat to struggle for
herself against the wind.
"At home, no doubt," answered the girl, struck with a selfish thought,
in which there was hope of safety.
"How! What?" exclaimed Ben fiercely, "at home!"
"No doubt she left her boat in some cove and went home along the shore,"
persisted the girl. "She would be sure to put in somewhere!"
Ben's face lighted up, and his eyes glowed with hope.
"It may be--of course it is. She went back long ago, no doubt on it," he
exclaimed, joyfully. "Why Ben Benson, what a precious old fool you was
not to think of that. Miss Agnes, I'll set you ashore now anywhere
you'll pint out, if the boat lives through it."
"Now, now!" cried the girl, breathless with terror, "strike for land
anywhere--I know the shore. Only put me on dry land again--it's all I
ask."