"No," Eve said. "Let her go. It can't do any harm." She dismissed the
matter from her mind. "Tell me, Adam, what made you so savage as we were
coming up. What were you thinking about?"
I laughed rather shamefacedly. "It was of no consequence, Eve. I was
thinking that life, for some people, is just one disappointment after
another." I must remember that Eve has pacifist tendencies.
Eve looked up at me with sober eyes.
"Were you thinking of anything in particular?"
"Of the unimportant men in a great office with long rows of desks and
endless routine; especially of men who are growing old in it and can see
no escape. I was thinking of the same thing, I remember, on Wednesday,
down on the shore. It was a driving drizzle from the northeast, and
gray, with rolling seas. It made the round of an office seem so futile
and so useless. I envied Jimmy and Bobby and Ogilvie, off on patrol. I
would have liked to be on patrol myself."
"Would you?" asked Eve. There was speculation in her eyes--and something
else that I had seen there before. I could not fathom it. "How many of
the men in the office--the men who are growing old--would exchange the
comforts of the office for a driving drizzle out of the northeast, and
gray and rolling seas--and a motor-boat? Not one in ten."
"It was that one I was thinking of."
Eve looked away from me and nodded slowly.
"Can't you leave your gardening? Come and sit down."
So I left my tools in the field, as a poor farmer leaves his tools where
he has last used them in the fall, the plough beside the furrow, and the
mowing-machine and the horserake at the edge of the meadow; and in the
spring he is sorrowful, and wonders and bemoans the winter. And Eve took
my hand in hers, and we went to my great pine and sat us down upon the
bench. And, behind us, came Tidda over the wall, dragging the reluctant
Sands girl, who giggled and held back; and they sat by the hole that is
scooped in the ground and lined with great stones, for they would play
at having a clambake. The chatter of our daughter's tongue was like an
accompaniment; and nobody pays any attention to an accompaniment.
"Now, Adam," said Eve, "for the important business. You know we decided
that Jack Ogilvie must have had a birthday, or he would not have got his
commission. I have been making inquiries. He did; and I find that
everybody can come next Saturday, probably,--a week from to-day."
Eve looked thoughtful and counted up on her fingers, which I released
for the purpose--"the second of June. Do you think, Adam," she went on,
"that clams will be ripe on the second of June?"
I laughed. "We can see. But many things will be lacking which belong to
a clambake. Do you want me to issue a call to the Clam Beds Protective
Company?"
"Oh, yes, Adam. How will it run? To assemble, at their armory,--that is
the bank above the clam beds,--in uniform, with arms and accoutrements,
an hour before low tide. When will that be? But never mind. And shall I
tell father?" She glanced toward the hole scooped in the ground. "He
will be glad to--but mercy on us, Adam, where is Tidda?"
She sighed and started to her feet. I laughed, and pointed along the
shore.
"Stole away," I said. Tidda and the Sands girl were picking their way
among the great pebbles of the shore, Tidda with light feet skipping
from pebble to pebble, the Sands girl going more cautiously and
clumsily.
Eve sighed again. "We may as well follow. There is no knowing what they
will be up to next."
So I rose and we turned to follow, and there was Elizabeth Radnor not
ten steps away, smiling and regarding us with friendly eyes. As she drew
near her eyes looked gray-green, not hazel, calm and humorous and
knowing. Perhaps they are of the changeable kind. I have seen changeable
eyes before. I would like to know what thoughts lie behind those eyes to
give them their peculiar light. And at a guess I think that Bobby would
give something to know. But they were friendly eyes, and they gave you a
look that was straight and true.
"Oh, Elizabeth,"--Eve has got that far with her, which is in her favor.
I have never yet known Eve to be deceived in people--"Oh, Elizabeth, we
have to go after Tidda, just along the shore. Will you come? Tidda leads
us a chase. Her spirit of adventure will lead her into trouble."
Elizabeth laughed. We were descending the steep path to the shore.
"I'm afraid I had a spirit of adventure as great as Tidda's," she said;
"fortunately no disaster happened to me, although I must have been
rather a trial to my mother. And as to going into the water when I
shouldn't--why, I was in the water all the time--whenever I could get
in. You see the unhappy result. We were poor, you know; in what is
called straitened circumstances. My father died when I was a little tot,
and we never had a maid until a few years ago. You go on in your own
way. It is pretty sure to be right."
I do not know whether Eve thought Elizabeth was referring to the path,
but she turned and began to descend again.
"I'm glad you think so," she flung back over her shoulder, "but I am not
so sure. I really think that it would be better for Tidda if she were
left more to her own devices--she has plenty--but I just can't do it."
We had got down to the shore, and Elizabeth turned to me.
"I am always saying things," she said, "that I don't mean. It is one of
the results of too much freedom."
"So am I," I replied, "and this is one of them."
And Elizabeth looked at me queerly, and laughed suddenly, and looked
away. I wondered if she understood. I wondered further about her. A
reputation for unconsidered speech is the best of protections for
secrets. I did not believe that she was generally guilty of unconsidered
speech. And we had come to the clam beds, but the bank was too wet to
sit on, and we stood around until I found some stones that were dry, and
we sat on the stones in a row, like three crows. Eve said nothing to
Tidda and the Sands girl, but watched them as they pulled off their
stockings. And, Tidda having trouble with hers, as usual, Eve got up
from her stone and helped her.
While Eve was busy with stockings, I spoke.
"Miss Radnor," I said, "what--"
She was gazing fixedly at the water over the clam beds--there was about
a foot of it--and her thoughts were far away. But at the sound of her
name she started almost imperceptibly, and looked at me, and smiled.
"My name is Elizabeth," she said, interrupting. "Perhaps you didn't know
it. Yes, that is a hint."
Her eyes were like deep pools under a summer sun, and all sorts of
colors played over them, flashing and sparkling gently and merrily, so
that there was no telling what depths lay beneath, or what in the
depths--except humor. They seemed to be looking always for a joke, and
usually finding one too good to tell. What else they were looking for I
did not know, but there was something.
"Thank you," I replied. "I take hints on occasion. And my name is Adam.
That is a hint too. If you can reconcile the use of it with the respect
due to age,--to a man too old to fight,--I shall be glad. It is a very
old name and quite respectable."
She nodded and laughed. "Thank you, Adam. But you were going to ask me
something."
"I was going to ask you, Elizabeth, if you know what has become of
Bobby. We haven't seen him for a long time."
The pools flashed and sparkled once more. "Why do you ask me? Am I
Bobby's keeper?"
"You seemed to be. And you transferred him, and we haven't seen him
since."
"Captain Fergus transferred him. I have no doubt that he will turn up in
time."
Eve had finished with the stockings, and she came and sat down again
upon her stone, while the children splashed noisily into that foot of
water. Tidda had a stout stick, and she began immediately to poke about
with it.
"Who will turn up in time?" asked Eve. "What are you talking about?"
"Bobby," I answered. "I wish I could share Elizabeth's faith. I must
notify Bobby."
"I think you will have an opportunity," said Elizabeth, "if you have a
little patience."
"I will notify you meanwhile, Elizabeth. The Clam Beds Protective
Company meets here next Saturday at nine o'clock. In uniform, with arms
and equipment. If you lack anything, speak to Eve. I'm sorry to make it
quite so early, but the tide, you know--and Eve has set the day."
"I'm going to have a birthday party for Jack Ogilvie, Elizabeth. It's a
little late, but I didn't know in time, and Jimmy and Bobby and Ogilvie
can come then, I think. I wish you'd tell me something more about him."
"About Jack? What shall I tell you? I've known him always, since he was
knee-high to a grasshopper. He's as good as there is made. His family
are nice people, with a very moderate income, just about enough to keep
them going, and not enough to put him through college, although they
would be willing to sacrifice a good deal to do it. But Jack prefers to
put himself through, and he was doing it very well until he went into
the navy. He has been preparing for that for a year or more. He doesn't
make nearly as much in the navy, even as an ensign--but I don't know
about that. I guess he does. An ensign's pay is pretty good for a boy of
twenty-one."
"And his father," Eve pursued; "what does he do? Is he in some great
office, grinding away for Jack?"
Elizabeth smiled again. "No. He is a country doctor, and a very good
one. I don't know what the town would do without him. But a country
doctor, you know, can't make much."
"I'm glad," said Eve.
"Why? Because he can't make much?"
Eve laughed. "Glad that he's a doctor. I wish I could manage to swell
his income."
Tidda and the Sands girl had been pursuing the elusive clam with some
success. Tidda's hands were full of clams which she had dug out with the
stick and her hands, burrowing into the sand and mud under the water,
and her skirt was wet, and her sleeves were wet nearly to the shoulder.
I called Eve's attention to that fact as she splashed out, ran to the
bank, and deposited her clams in an old rusty tin can with jagged edges,
which she drew from some hiding place evidently in familiar use. She
must have done that same thing many times, and this was the first that
we knew of it.
Eve glanced up and smiled.
"Never mind, Adam. Let them have their fun. I'll put dry clothes on her
when we get home." Then she turned again to Elizabeth. "And Olivia," she
said, "is--"
"I think," said Elizabeth, interrupting, "that Olivia is coming now."
As she spoke there was a slight rustling in the path through the
greenery, and Olivia emerged upon the edge of the bank. She was stepping
lightly, diffident and hesitating, a hand over her heart. It was like a
young doe coming out of the woods.
"Oh!" she said. "I beg your pardon."
And Elizabeth laughed silently, mostly with her eyes; but Eve rose and
went to meet Olivia.
"What's the joke, Elizabeth?" I asked in her ear. "Tell me, won't you?"
She turned merry eyes to mine. "Olivia's the joke," she said. "I can't
explain, but if you knew her as well as I do--"
She did not finish, for Eve was speaking.
"We were just thinking of you, Olivia."
"How very nice of you! May I come?"
She advanced--still with that diffident and hesitating step like a
doe's. I got up and offered her my stone.
Olivia looked startled; but Olivia had a way of looking startled, so it
seemed.
"Oh," she protested, "oh, I don't want to take your seat."
"Don't feel that you are putting me to an inconvenience," I said. "That
stone is harder than it was. I am sorry that we can offer you nothing
better than a stone, but it is all we have."
And Olivia laughed politely, and took my stone, and looked about.
"Clams!" she cried. "I have dug clams."
"Many?" I asked.
Olivia looked up at me and laughed again. "Oh, a good many," she
replied, "in all sorts of places; and baked them too."
"A recruit for our company," I said, looking at Elizabeth and Eve.
"Will you join the company?" I asked Olivia.
"I shall be glad to," she answered. "What is it?"
And Eve laughed, and I explained, and Olivia seemed delighted. But
Elizabeth was more amused than ever.
"What is it now, Elizabeth?"
"Olivia knows," said she.
"Elizabeth!" Olivia cried from her stone. "I didn't either come for--"
She stopped suddenly, her hand over her mouth.
"If she came for that purpose, Elizabeth," I said, "she is to be
commended. Do you think that Captain Fergus and Mrs. Fergus would join?
Would you speak to them about it?"
And Elizabeth signified that she would, and there was other noise in
the path through the greenery, a noise which was something more than a
rustling, and Old Goodwin appeared, and behind him came Bobby. When
Bobby appeared, I looked hard at Elizabeth, but I could detect no sign
of confusion. She is so sunburned and tanned that a flush would not show
anyway.
"What did you tell me about Bobby, Elizabeth?"