MORE THAN WEATHER INDICATIONS
August seldom breeds such a gale along the Cape Cod coast as this
threatened to be. At that date the Life Saving Service was administered
more economically than it should have been.
But duty is a high mark--and always has been--to the men in this
service. The threat of this mounting gale called the Lower Trillion
crew together on their own responsibility. Not long after midnight Zeke
Bassett left the Twin Rocks Light, got out his little car, and ran down
to the station to see if the captain had need of him.
Zeke returned for early breakfast at the light and to get some of his
chattels that he needed. Hurricane signals were out all along the coast,
and although Captain Edgar of the Lower Trillion station would not send
out beach patrols, he was glad to have his crew within call. The wind
was out of the northeast and had already spun the gauge to sixty-five
miles an hour.
"We've been overhauling the gear and soaking up the old lifeboat since
mid-watch," said Zeke between huge mouthfuls of Tobias's johnnycake and
fried pork. "I dunno why the Service don't give us a power boat.
They've got one at Upper Trillion. But there's a whole flock of
millionaires up there that have got influence with Congress. Huh!"
"I give it as my opinion that money does have some influence sometimes."
"Say, speakin' of money! That reminds me. Jefferson Gallup--he's Number
Six on our crew--gave us a different line on that Endicott boy this
morning."
"Oh, Ralph?"
"Yes. Seems he did go to sea in the _Gullwing_. Jefferson was out with
his brother-in-law in the sloop fishing, and they spied Endicott and the
cat going out and coming in last night. He was hanging around the jaw
of Cape Fisher. He's a good sailor, Jefferson says."
"I cal'late," agreed Tobias, wagging his head. "But what was he doin'
out there?"
"Course," said Zeke, reflectively, "at that time Jefferson Gallup hadn't
heard a word about the bank burglary. Comin' in they ran close to the
_Gullwing_ and hailed Endicott--asked him what he was loafing around
there for. He didn't 'pear to have no fish."
"And what did he say?" asked Tobias eagerly.
"Why, he shouted something about waiting there to spy the _Nelly G._"
"The _Nelly G._?" repeated Tobias. "Why, she's a Banker."
"Yep. Hails from New Bedford. I heard tell she was making an early
start for the Georges. And it seems, from what Jefferson Gallup
gathered, that Ralph Endicott was cal'latin' on going with her."
"Oh, sugar!" exclaimed the lightkeeper. "Of course. He's said to me
more than once that he'd admire to take a trip on one o' them
haddockers. But why didn't he go down to New Bedford and board her
proper?"
"I cal'late," said the sober Zeke, "that other folks is goin' to ask
that same question, Tobias Bassett. If he boards that schooner he's got
to abandon the _Gullwing_. And I bet he paid Gyp Pellet every cent
she's worth for the use of her. Looks suspicious."
"There you go!" ejaculated Tobias, with heat. "That boy never did value
money. If he wanted to do a thing he'd do it, never mind if it cost him
his last cent."
"Wal," was the dry response, as Zeke got up from the table, "if Endicott
had in that suitcase what folks say he had, I reckon it didn't cost him
his last cent to satisfy even such a hog as Gyp Pellet."
Tobias wagged his head and said nothing further. He was more puzzled
than ever now. It did look as though there was something peculiar about
Ralph's departure from home.
The old-lightkeeper would not believe anything against the character of
the boy he had watched grow up and loved so well. He knew Ralph
Endicott was not perfect; but he was "toler'ble sure," as he expressed
it, that Ralph was no bank burglar.
He was as anxious now over the absent youth as Lorna was, and Lorna had
spent a most unhappy night. She arose on this wild and turbulent
morning unable to hide from even the casual glance the traces of tears
and sleeplessness.
And Miss Ida's glance was never casual. The moment Lorna slipped into
the breakfast room--a wee bit late, perhaps--her aunt looked up from
behind the coffee percolator. She was saying:
"I do wish John Nicholet would return. All I get is a scrawl here," she
tapped the letter beside her plate, "saying that he may be delayed a day
or two longer in Boston. I am worried, Lorna, about Prof--about the
Endicotts. If only Ralph had not gone away I certainly would put the
question to him frankly. If the family is in financial difficulties----
What is the matter, Lorna?"
Her tone was sharp. For once Miss Ida's calm was fretted by her niece's
appearance.
"Are you ill?" she cried.
"Why, no, Aunt Ida."
"What is the matter then?"
"I--I--oh, Auntie! The Clinkerport Bank! They say Ralph robbed it!"
"They say---- Are you crazy, child?"
"No, no! It's true!"
"What is true?" demanded Miss Ida, her cheeks actually reddening. "Do
you mean to tell me, Lorna Nicholet, that you for one instant believe
such a vile calumny about Ralph Endicott?"
"But--but the police are hunting him. He has run away. He hired a boat
down at Peehawket Cove and nobody knows where he has gone in it."
"What has that to do with the bank robbery?" asked Miss Ida severely.
Finally Lorna recovered her voice sufficiently to give a detailed
account of the events connecting Ralph's name with the burglary. Miss
Ida listened with haughty impatience. When her niece had finished the
spinster actually snorted--no other word just expresses it!
"Lorna! I think you are a fool," she declared. "If Ralph told me
himself he had committed a burglary I should not believe it."
"You do not know what temptation he may have had," faltered the girl.
She would not breathe a word regarding Cora Devine and her fear that
Ralph might have been hounded for a sum of money that he could not
honestly obtain. It was not that Lorna was really convinced Ralph was a
thief. She feared that the general suspicion that had settled upon him
might be supported by seeming evidence. If he was brought to arrest,
what then?
Miss Ida arose from her seat, leaving her breakfast almost untouched.
"I am going to see Henry Endicott at once. He must take me into his
confidence, as John is not here. If this bitter humiliation comes upon
him at such a time--when he must be already overwhelmed with trouble--no
knowing what the result may be."
"But he is shut up in his laboratory. He even sleeps there. You can't
talk to him, Aunt Ida."
For once Miss Ida spoke impulsively. Indeed, she fairly blazed the
reply at her startled niece.
"I am not afraid of Henry Endicott or of his foolish orders about being
let alone when he is at work. Once I might--well, this is a different
matter. I am not a silly girl, I hope. Henry Endicott must be dragged
out of his shell if need be!"
She made her exit, leaving Lorna wondering just whom Miss Ida had
referred to. Was the "silly girl" mentioned Miss Ida or Lorna? Was it
possible that her aunt harked back to an incident of her past
association with Professor Endicott that Lorna knew nothing about?
She finished her own breakfast hastily and then got into her storm coat
and boots. She had promised the lightkeeper's sister to go this morning
and put in order the living rooms in the light tower. But when she
stepped out of the side door and felt the blast off the sea, Lorna was
almost staggered.
The skyline, where it met and merged with the sea, was blue-black in
hue, and the slate-colored clouds hung low. Racing shoreward the lines
of white-maned waves seemed striving to overtake each other--running a
handicap that left the observer breathless. The thunderous crash of the
waves' recurrent breaking on the reefs was all but deafening. Lorna,
beaten on like a leaf across the sands, had never experienced such a
gale--surely not in midsummer--as this. It was frightful!
The greater powers of both wind and sea were unleashed. Not a spar was
visible on all the wide expanse of tumbling sea. The hurricane had been
long gathering, and the fishermen and other seafarers were forewarned.
Yet this poignant thought smote Lorna Nicholet's mind: Where was Ralph
at this very moment? If he had remained outside in that leaky catboat,
surely he had come to grief. Even large vessels must make plenty of
searoom in such a gale as this, and the _Gullwing_ surely was not a
seaworthy craft.
She staggered to the door of the lighthouse and flung it open. Tobias
Bassett was puttering about the stove. There was a smell of scorched
toast in the air and the eggs he was trying to poach were being cooked
to rags in a saucepan of furiously boiling water.
"My soul and body, Lorny! I sartainly be glad to see you. I thought
mebbe you wouldn't get over, it's such a gale."
He did not notice her agitation, for his attention was fixed upon the
maltreated eggs.
"I could cook once for a crew of haddockers good enough; but none of
them was invalids. An egg is the loosest thing! I vum! how d'ye make
'em stay together, Lorny?"
But the almost breathless girl had that on her mind that precluded her
taking any interest in culinary puzzles. She leaned against the door
she had closed behind her, and gasped:
"What about Ralph? Have you heard anything more? Do you know if he is
safe?"
"Why, I cal'late he is," the lightkeeper rejoined slowly, looking at her
now with attention. "I don't know just why he put to sea out of
Peehawket Cove 'stead o' going to New Bedford to jine the _Nelly
G._----"
"To join the _Nelly G._?" repeated the young woman. "What for?"
"Going to the Banks, I cal'late. He let it be known that he was waiting
outside o' Cape Fisher for the _Nelly G._ to come along."
"He is running away, then!" cried Lorna.
"What do you mean?" said Tobias, forgetting the eggs entirely. "You
ain't got no reason, Lorny, to think so bad of Ralph. He didn't have
nothing to do with that bank robbery--nossir!"
"You cannot prove that, Tobias Bassett," she cried wildly. "You--you
don't know all--all that might have tempted him. And he being without
money."
"Oh, sugar!" muttered the worried lightkeeper, reddening like a
schoolboy caught in a peccadillo. Then: "I tell you there ain't no
reason. He ain't poor."
"Why, Tobias Bassett! if Professor Endicott has lost all his money----"
"But he ain't! It's all torn foolishness. I--I just told you I'd
_heard_ 'twas so, Lorny. And I did hear it. You know how gossip goes
in Clinkerport. Them story-mongers has had Henry Endicott ruined
financially because of his inventions a score of times."
"But you told me----"
"Oh, sugar! I didn't have no business to tell you such a thing. I
never ought to have said it," stammered the lightkeeper. "I was
figgerin' that the matter with you young folks--you and Ralph--was that
you both had too much money. If you was poor I cal'lated you'd begin to
have pity for each other and, as the feller said, 'pity is akin to
love.'"
"Tobias Bassett, you deliberately deceived me? Ralph Endicott is not
poor at all?"
Her face was suddenly aflame. Her eyes sparkled with rage. She stamped
her foot. Tobias had no difficulty in keeping a straight face now. In
truth he could not have called up a grin to save his life.
"That's just what I done, Lorna," he confessed. "I cal'late I trimmed my
sails purt' close to the truth and no mistake. Didn't just foresee this
difficulty, that's a fact. But you disabuse your mind right now of the
idea of Ralph Endicott being anything different from what he's always
been--as straight as a main stick and as clean as a whistle."
"But that penknife you found--and his address book?" she gasped.
"I ain't trying to explain them. I don't have to--just like I told that
detective feller. I give it as my opinion that somebody is trying to
tie something on Ralph. But no evidence they could show me would make
me believe he was a bank burglar--nossir!"
Suddenly Lorna shrieked and ran at him. The old lightkeeper skipped out
of her path with surprising agility.
"Aw--now--Lorny!" he gasped, "don't be too hard on a fellow."
"Tobias Bassett! Those eggs!"
"Oh, sugar! They be a mess, now, ain't they?" And he chuckled.