REAL TROUBLE
Many a Paul Revere has ridden through New England hamlets since the
original courier of that name and fame saw the lights twinkle in Old
North's steeple. None ever carried more exciting news to the rural folk
than Zeke Bassett in his motor car brought to the Twin Rocks Light early
on this summer morning.
For two months the life saving crews were excused from duty at the
stations. Only the captain of the crew remained on guard at the Lower
Trillion station. These two summer months Zeke usually spent with
Tobias and Heppy at the Light.
Occasionally Zeke made an odd dollar taking a passenger to and from the
railroad station. On this morning he had driven a neighbor to the early
train--"the clam train"--that stopped at Clinkerport at 5:30. When he
came back he scattered along the shell road driblets of news that was
destined to flash over the countryside in wide excitement.
Zeke kept his car under Ezra Condon's shed down the road, but he stopped
before Miss Heppy's flower garden, where she was weeding, to tell her
the news. He startled her so that the lightkeeper's sister fell back in
the sand, trowel in hand, her broad face paling slowly under the peak of
her sunbonnet.
"Zeke! You don't mean it's true?" demanded Miss Heppy in a smothered
shriek.
"Cross my heart, Cousin Heppy!" declared the young man. "There's a
crowd around the door already--and it's shut. They'll be howlin' there
like wolves b'fore noon."
He started the shaking car again, and it wheezed away. Miss Heppy was
several moments getting upon her feet. All strength seemed to have left
her limbs.
She tottered into the lighthouse. Tobias was up in the lamp room
polishing the brasswork. She might have called to him, but it did not
seem to her that she could lift her voice sufficiently to make him hear.
Weak as she felt bodily, she started to climb the spiral stair.
That climb was an unforgettable experience for Hephzibah Bassett. The
higher she climbed the lower her spirits fell. In all her long life
disaster had never looked so black and threatening before her as it did
now.
For many years she and Tobias had worked, and she had scrimped and
saved, against that "rainy day" that is the dread of most cautious souls
of middle age. Each dollar added to their slowly growing hoard had
seemed positively to lighten the burden of fear of old age on Miss
Heppy's heart.
Tobias frequently called her "Martha." She admitted she was cumbered by
many cares. She believed they had been very real, those troubles she
saw in the offing.
And here, of late, had come the unexpected good fortune--a blessing long
hoped for, yet never really believed possible by either Miss Heppy or
her brother. A few hundred dollars from the estate of Cap'n Jethro
Potts would have delighted them. But six thousand dollars! The gain of
that sum had been quite outside their imagination.
Altogether to their joint account in the Clinkerport Bank their bankbook
showed now just a few dollars over eight thousand--to these plain
longshore people an actual fortune.
And now----
Miss Heppy panted her way up the last few steps. Ordinarily her flesh
would have caused her to more than pant. Her face would have been as
red as a sunset.
But it was positively a pallid countenance that appeared to Tobias as he
briskly polished brasswork and whistled a wandering little tune through
his teeth. He did not look at her at first as she appeared through the
hatchway; but he recognized her step.
"I give it as my opinion," he said reflectively, "that if I had to puff
and blow like a ship's donkey-engine, comin' up them stairs, I wouldn't
come aloft no oftener than I could help. What's sprung a leak now to
bring you 'way up here, Heppy?"
"Tobias! Tobias!" gasped Miss Heppy.
"Oh, sugar! Take your time. Get your breath. If it's bad news I'd just
as lief not hear it at all. If it's good news I've found that
expectation is a sight more satisfying than fulfilment most times. I can
wait----
"Dad fetch it, Heppy! what's the matter o' ye?"
She had fairly tottered into his arms. She hung to him, sobbing and
gasping for breath. Tobias staggered under her weight. It was a minute
or more before Miss Heppy could make audible her trouble.
"Tobias, it's gone!"
"What ye lost? Them false teeth again? I knowed----"
"Tobias, it's worse than that. It's the money!"
"What money?"
"Our money, Tobias! All our money! Uncle Jethro's legacy and all!"
"Oh, sugar, Heppy, you been dreamin'? You know that money's safe in the
bank," he urged.
"But it ain't safe. The bank ain't safe. We've been robbed!" she
cried, her voice rising to a thin shriek.
"Heppy! What ever do you mean? That dratted Arad Thompson! You don't
mean to say he's got away with it? And in that wheel chair?"
"It isn't Arad Thompson! Oh, it isn't him!" wailed his sister. "The
bank has been robbed! Burglars! Last night! Every penny of cash in it!
A hundred and forty thousand dollars, so Zeke says!"
"My soul and body!" murmured the lightkeeper reverently. "A hundred and
forty thousand? My! My!"
"The bank's closed----"
"Course it is this time in the morning. Them bank fellers don't work
the morning tide--never."
"But there's a sign on the door. 'Tisn't going to be open. Our money's
gone!"
"Say!" ejaculated Tobias, his brain beginning to function, "a hundred
and forty thousand dollars oughtn't to break the Clinkerport Bank--nor
yet Arad Thompson. We'll get our money----"
"'Tain't likely. Not all of it. We'll have to stand our sheer of the
loss, Tobias. If _'twas_ burglary! Think of it!"
"Oh, sugar!" exclaimed her brother, seating her on a stool. "You
needn't never mind about that. I'm thinking of it all right. I can't
think of nothin' else. Who'd you say told ye?"
"Zeke."
"Cal'late it's pretty straight then. I give it as my opinion he ain't
no false alarm. Well! Well!"
He started for the stairway.
"What you goin' to do, Tobias?" sobbed Heppy.
"I cal'late to change out o' these ily clo'es and go to town. Zeke will
stand by ye. I got to know the wust, as the feller in jail for murder
said when they interduced the hangman to him."
Miss Heppy could not follow him at the moment. The promptness of the
old seaman soon put Tobias in a presentable suit--though not the funeral
garments before described. He got away before his sister was able to
descend the stairs.
Zeke appeared. Tobias put a question or two and learned that the
disaster was all Heppy had said. A hundred and forty thousand dollars
was indeed a great fortune for Clinkerport people. Nor was it a small
slice of the bank's capital.
"They tell me, Tobias," Zeke said, "that Mr. Thompson had called in a
lot o' money just lately from small loans and sech, so't the bank could
make an investment that he cal'lated would yield a much bigger return.
Somebody must ha' knowed this for a fac', to have busted the vault door
open at jest this time."
"Oh, sugar!" observed the lightkeeper. "They don't mean to say it's
what them city detectives that you read about call an inside job?"
"Gosh blame it! Of course it was done inside. How'd they git to the
vault door otherwise?" demanded Zeke.
Tobias grinned. He asked:
"Did they bust the door with dynamite, or did they open it fair an'
proper by workin' out the combination of the vault?"
"I dunno. They busted it open an' got the money. That's all I know."
"Wal, you stay here and stand by Heppy. I'm going to town to see about
it," Tobias concluded.
"Don't you want my car?"
"No. I cal'late somebody'll be along to pick me up."
In fact the lightkeeper's sharp eye had already descried a bustle about
the Nicholet garage. Jackson had the car out.
When he reached the road gate of the Nicholet property, the car was just
sliding down into the highway. Lorna waved him a friendly hand from the
tonneau.
"Am I lucky enough to catch you going to town, Mr. Bassett?"
"I cal'late," said Tobias grimly, "the luck ain't all on one side."
"Do get in," she said as Jackson brought the automobile to a throbbing
halt once he was on the highway. "I want to talk to you, anyway. What
do you suppose is the matter with Ralph Endicott?"
"Huh? Oh, sugar! Why don't you ax me to explain this here fourth
dimension they talk so much about? I can easy tell how wide, high, and
thick Ralph Endicott is," and his eyes twinkled despite his inner
trouble. "But I can't tell you the _why_ of him. That's beyond all
nater."
"Then you do not really know why he has gone away?"
"Oh, sugar! He _has_ gone, has he? I'd disremembered. He did bid me
an' Heppy good-bye night b'fore last."
"He went away with his trunk yesterday afternoon. Jerome told me nobody
knew at the house where Ralph was going. They did not dare tell
Professor Endicott, for he was completely submerged in some experiment
and had locked the laboratory door. Ralph tucked a note under the door
when he left."
"You don't say?"
"Did he not explain to you, Mr. Bassett?"
"Not a word."
"Nor to us. He came over and bade us good-bye just before he left, in a
very formal way. I did not get a word with him alone. Aunt Ida asked
him where he was going, and he said he could not tell just where he
would finally bring up. Tobias Bassett!"
"Yes, ma'am?"
"I believe Ralph has gone away to get a job of work and is ashamed to
tell us."
"If it's honest work he ain't no call to be ashamed."
"Too proud to tell us, then," flashed the girl.
"That sounds more likely."
"Anyway, he's gone!" She could not hide something besides vexation in
her voice. Disturbed as Tobias was by his own trouble, he marked this
fact. He believed his matchmaking scheme, as far as Lorna was concerned,
was working!
"Hard work never hurt nobody." He firmly believed this fallacy. "And
Ralph is rugged and capable."
"But he has not been trained to any kind of work," cried the girl with
anxiety.
"Why ain't he? He can do most anything any other fellow can on a ship.
And he's got a good idea of navigation into the bargain. He favors the
sea, too."
"A sailor!" There was dread more than disapproval in Lorna's tone. She
had never forgotten Miss Heppy's explanation of her own fear and hatred
of the sea. She repeated: "A sailor!"
"No. A mate. Then a skipper. A lad like Ralph can soon work up----"
"And is that all his college training can do for him?"
"College l'arnin' won't hurt him none for a sea-farin' life," said
Tobias complacently. "He can aspire to walkin' the bridge of one o'
them big liners. You hafter be part dancin' master as well as navigator
to sit at the head o' the captain's table on one o' them floatin'
palaces. Ralph would shine there."
"Oh, Mr. Bassett! he would not be so foolish, would he? I wish I had
offered to lend him some money--enough money to straighten out the
family's affairs."
"Do you cal'late what I told you I'd heard whispered about the professor
foolin' away their money is so?" asked Tobias slyly.
"Oh, yes. Father is away just now. Professor Endicott came to the
house to find him, and he seemed in great trouble. He as good as let
the cat out of the bag."
"That he was broke?" ejaculated the startled lightkeeper.
"Yes. Something like that. To Aunt Ida."
"Oh, sugar!" murmured Tobias. Then: "Guess we're all in the same
pickle."
"What do you mean?" asked Lorna, a little startled by the sudden change
in the expression of the old man's countenance.
"Ain't you heard?"
"Heard what? I have heard nothing at all startling."
"Didn't your folks have any money in the Clinkerport Bank?"
"Only Aunt Ida's household account. A matter of a few hundred dollars.
Why?"
"You're terrible lucky, I cal'late." Tobias sighed and shook his head.
"You kin afford to lose that much."
"Why! what do you mean?" she repeated. "What has happened to the bank?"
"Been robbed. Burglars. Last night. Said to have cleaned out the
cash. And the bank's shet up tight."
"Mercy!"
"Heppy's purt' near done up. She----"
"But you won't lose your money, will you? You and Miss Heppy?"
"I cal'late. And we never had a mite of fun out of it. Heppy wouldn't
hear to our making no splurge with that legacy we got from Cap'n Jethro
Potts. It's a judgment on us, I believe. I might have got me that
silver-banded pipe I've always wanted."
She looked at him with understanding.
"You never would have smoked it, Tobias Bassett."
"Well, I could have hung it up over the mantel, couldn't I, for an
ornament? Oh, sugar! My doughnut always did have the biggest hole!"
"But if the bank has been robbed----"
They came into the head of Clinkerport's main street as she spoke.
Their gaze swept the thoroughfare as far as the bank building which
stood directly beside the post-office.
A crowd--really a throng for Clinkerport--was gathered in front of the
bank's door. The stores were deserted while the excited people milled
before the barred windows and grated door of the bank, and more were
coming on foot and in vehicles from all directions.
"I cal'late folks is some stirred up," observed Tobias, as he proceeded
to get out of the car.