ACROSS THE BAY
Darry welcomed the coming of dawn.
He was glad to see that the sky was clear, for he anticipated a long row
across the broad bay that day, bearing the mail for those at the
life-saving station, as well as several things he had been commissioned
to fetch over by Abner.
Hardly had they finished breakfast than there arrived a visitor.
Mrs. Peake saw him coming along the road, for she could look out of the
window of the kitchen, where they ate, and have a view of the open
stretch.
"Here comes old Hank Squires. I reckon he's heard something about what
happened here last night. It's about time he took notice of some of the
mean pranks those village boys play on those who live outside. Tell him
all he wants to hear, Darry; but unless you can swear to it perhaps
you'd better not say that you think it was Jim Dilks and his crowd. If
you feel sure, go ahead," she remarked, for with all her temper Mrs.
Peake was a woman with a due sense of caution.
The constable knocked, and in response to her call to "come in," he
entered.
"I heard ye had a little shindig up to here last night, Mrs. Peake, an'
I jest called 'round to see what it is all 'bout," said Hank, seating
himself. "I see thar was a fire here all right, an' it kim near burning
yer buildings down in the bargain. Some says as how it was sot by a
passel o' boys. How 'bout that, ma'am?"
"I didn't see anyone," answered the woman. "When I got out Darry here
had the fire pretty well under control, and I only helped him finish.
You can ask him about it, Mr. Squires."
Darry had already learned through the grocer that previous to her
marriage to Abner the good woman had been for some years a teacher in
the schools, which fact accounted for her superior language and
knowledge of things that were far above the intelligence of most of her
neighbors.
The constable looked keenly at our hero.
"I b'lieve this is the boy wot was saved from the wreck o' that
brigantine. So he's gwine to be your boy now, Mrs. Peake? Well, I
understand he's got the makin' o' a man in him, so Mr. Keeler sez to me
last night, and I hope you'll never have no reason to be sorry. I want
to know, Darry, what about this here fire?"
"I'll be only too glad to tell you all I know, sir," replied the boy
promptly.
"When did it happen?" began the constable, with the air of a famous
lawyer, with a bewildered witness on the rack.
"I think it was somewhere near midnight. I have no watch, and Mrs. Peake
took the little clock in her room with her."
"That was near the time. It was half-past one when I went back to my bed
with my two little girls," remarked the owner of the house.
"S'pose you tell me what happened, jest as it comes to you, lad."
With this invitation Darry soon related the whole matter, even to his
firing after the vanishing culprits.
This latter event appeared to interest the constable more than anything
else.
"Do you think you hit any o' 'em?" he asked, eagerly.
"They didn't stop to tell me, but I heard a lot of howling, and they ran
faster than ever," replied Darry, smiling.
"That sounds as if you did some damage. Mrs. Peake, I must look into
this outrage closer, and if I can only git my hands on any dead-sure
evidence somebody's boys is a gwine to pay for the fiddlin'. I'm tired
o' sech goings-on. They sure are a disgrace to our village. But you know
how it is--my hands are tied acause theys politics back o' it all. If I
arrested Jim Dilks now on the strength o' a suspicion I'd get tied up in
litigation and lose my job in the bargain. I hears as how theys gwine to
be a meetin' called at the house o' the dominie to discuss this
question, an' see what kin be did to change things."
"I'm sure I'm glad to know it, and if they want another to join in tell
them to count on Nancy Peake. The women must take this thing in hand,
since the men are too much afraid of that ruffian, big Jim Dilks, to do
anything. Be sure and let me know when that meeting is coming off, Mr.
Squires," said Abner's better half; and when he saw the fire in her eyes
and the determination shining there Constable Squires realized that the
day of salvation for Ashley village was not so very far away.
"Then you wouldn't like to swear to its being any particular pusson?" he
went on, turning again to Darry.
"I did not see a face, and without that my evidence would hardly
convict. No, sir, I would not swear that one of the three was Jim."
"That's bad. I stand ready to do my duty and arrest the boy if so be
any one makes a complaint; but without that it wouldn't pay and only
makes useless trouble all 'round. But I'm goin' to keep my eyes open
from now on, and when I git a sure case on Jim he comes in."
That was all Mr. Squires would say, and he soon departed; but not before
he had called Darry outside for a few words in parting.
"Looks like you was marked to be the central figger o' the comin' storm,
lad. Keep your eye open for squalls. If things git too black around jest
slip over to the dominie's leetle house and hev a talk with him. I knows
more about what's gwine to happen than I let on; but somebody's due to
hev a surprise that hain't a donation party either. You seem to have the
right stuff in you, lad. I heard from Mr. Keeler how you took that bully
Jim into camp mighty neat. He'll never be satisfied till he's paid you
back. A word to the wise is sufficient. Goodbye, Darry."
After all the constable did not seem to be a bad sort of fellow.
During the morning Darry accomplished many things for Abner's wife, and
she showed in her manner how pleased she was to have him there.
When noon had come and gone he prepared for his row across the bay, for
she insisted upon his making an early start.
"Clouds are banking up in the southeast, and we look for trouble
whenever that comes about. Still, you will have plenty of time to row
over. Stay with Abner to-night and return in the morning if it is safe
on the bay. Perhaps you may have a chance to see how the life savers
work," said Mrs. Peake.
It was almost two when he pushed off from the float and started on his
long row directly across the bay.
Steadily he kept pushing across the wide stretch of shallow water.
As Abner had said, a new pair of oars seemed to be badly needed in
connection with the old boat; but a willing heart and sturdy arms sent
the craft along until finally Darry reached his goal.
The storm was drawing near, for by now the heavens were clouded over,
and the haze seemed to thicken. Perhaps had he lingered another hour
Darry might have stood a chance of losing his way, and being drawn out
of the inlet by the powerful ebb tide--just as the unfortunate Joe had
been.
Abner was waiting at the landing for him.
"Glad to see yuh, lad. How's everything to home?" he asked.
Of course Darry understood this to mean with regard to himself and his
relations with the good woman of the house.
Truth to tell Abner had worried more than a little since parting from
the boy, for his wife had shown more than unusual ill temper lately, and
he feared that he had possibly done an unwise thing in leaving Darry
there to be a constant reminder of the son she had lost.
But the happy look on the boy's countenance eased his mind even before
the boy spoke a single word.
"He kin do it, if any boy kin," was what the life saver was saying under
his breath.
"All well, and your wife sent this over to you, sir. Here's the mail,
too. The postmaster didn't want to give it to me, but Mr. Keeler told
him it was all right, and that I belonged with the crew over here."
Unconsciously his tones were full of pride as he made this assertion,
and the grocer had evidently done more to please the lad in making that
assertion than he would ever know.
But Abner seemed to be staring down at something.
"Seems like as if yuh bed ben a leetle mite keerless, son, with them
trousers. Don't strike me thet burn was on 'em yesterday," he remarked.
"It wasn't, Mr. Peake. I got that last night," he said, quickly.
"Doin' what?" went on Abner, who seemed to guess that there was a story
back of it all that he ought to hear.
"Putting out the pigsty, that was on fire, sir."
"What's that? Who sot it afire, I'd like to know? Them pigs never has
smoked, leastways not yit. Jest tell me the hull bloomin' thing, lad."
To begin at the start Darry had to take up the subject of his encounter
on the road, and from that he went on until the whole story had been
told, including the visit of Hank Squires.