A GLORIOUS PROSPECT
Jim had heard enough. He was beginning to be a bit afraid lest this
sturdy new boy who had mastered him so easily in their late encounter,
take a notion to investigate his condition physically; and there were
several little punctures that just then Jim did not care to have seen.
Darry watched the bully saunter away, and it made him smile to see what
an effort the other kept up his careless demeanor, when every step must
have caused him more or less pain.
Perhaps Jim, in spite of his bombastic manner, might have received a
lesson, and would be a little more careful after this how he acted.
So he walked to the store, completed his purchases, and was waiting for
them to be tied up when who should enter but the young fellow he had
seen in the beautiful cedar motor-boat out on the bay.
He was dressed like a sportsman, and there was a frank, genial air about
him that quite attracted Darry.
Apparently he had dropped in to get his mail, for he walked over to the
little cubby hole where a clerk sat.
As his eyes in roving around chanced to fall on Darry, and the latter
saw him give a positive start, and he seemed to be staring at him as
though more than casually interested.
Then he spoke to the clerk, who looked out toward Darry and apparently
went on to explain that he was a stranger in the community, having been
on a brigantine recently wrecked on the deadly reefs off the shore.
The young man sauntered around until Darry left.
Just as our hero put the last of the small shanties that formed the
outskirts of Ashley behind him he caught the sound of hurrying steps.
Thinking of Jim and his ugly promise of future trouble he half turned,
but to his surprise and pleasure he saw that it was the owner of the
launch, and that apparently the youth was hurrying to overtake him.
What his curiosity was founded on Darry could not say; but presumed the
other had liked his looks and wanted to strike up an acquaintance.
It would not be the first time such a thing had happened to him.
"Good morning, or rather good afternoon," said the stranger. "I believe
they told me your name was Darry, and that you are stopping with one of
the life savers. My name is Paul Singleton, and I'm down here, partly
for my health, and also to enjoy the shooting. It turns out to be pretty
lonely work, and I'm looking for a congenial companion to keep me
company and help with the decoys later. I'm willing to pay anything
reasonable, and I carry enough grub for half a dozen. My boat is small,
but affords ample sleeping accommodations for two. How would you like to
try it," and the youth smiled broadly.
Darry was thrilled at the prospect, although he could not see his way
clear to accept it just then.
First of all he would not think of doing so without consulting Abner,
who had been so kind, and who expected him to remain with the little
family; then, it was nice to believe that Mrs. Peake would feel sorry to
lose him; and last of all he knew little or nothing about the bay or the
ways of guides, and the duties connected with the profession.
"I'd like it first-rate, but just now I don't see how I could accept,"
he replied.
"If it's a question of wages--" began the young man, who was watching
the various expressions flit over Darry's face with an eager eye.
"Not at all. I was only thinking of my duty to Abner Peake and his wife,
who have been so good to me. Perhaps later on I might accept, providing
you have not already filled the place."
"I suppose you know best, but somehow I've taken a notion I'd like to
have you along with me, Darry. For a week or two I mean to just knock
around here, sometimes ashore and again afloat. Perhaps when the
shooting begins in earnest you may be able to give me a different
answer."
"At any rate by that time I shall know more about the bay and the habits
of the ducks that drop in here. I'm a stranger, you see, Mr. Singleton,
and though I've done some hunting in India and other places where our
ship lay at anchor for weeks, I know little about this sport. I can cook
as well as the next fellow, and of course know something about boats,
though more used to sails than gasoline."
"You're too modest, Darry. Some chaps would have jumped at the chance to
have a fine time. But I like you all the better for it. I see you are in
a hurry, so I won't detain you any longer. It's understood then that if
you can get off later you'll come to me?"
"I'll only be too glad to do so, Mr. Singleton," was Darry's answer.
The young fellow thrust out his hand, while his gaze still-remained
riveted on Darry's face.
As the boy walked rapidly away, feeling a sense of overpowering delight
at the prospect ahead if all things went well, something caused him to
glance back, and he saw Paul Singleton shaking his head while sauntering
toward the village, as if something puzzled him greatly.
Darry could not understand what ailed the other, or how anything about
his appearance should attract so fine a young gentleman.
He told Mrs. Peake about it, and while she looked displeased at first,
Darry was so apparently loth to leave her that the better element in the
woman's nature soon pushed to the front.
"Of course you can go, after a little. There's nothing to prevent. It
will be a fine thing for you, and may lead to something better. We have
put through one winter without a man in the house, and can again. Time
was when all my children were little, and even then Abner used to be
away most of the time. Don't worry about us, Darry. When the time comes,
I say, go," was what she remarked.
How the skies were brightening for him!
And only a few days back he had faced such a gloomy prospect that it
appalled him!
Now he whistled as he worked, rubbing up the various traps taken from
Joe's box, and preparing to sally out for his first experience in trying
to catch the muskrats that haunted the borders of the watercourses in
the marshes near by.
Carrying that invaluable little notebook along for reference in case he
should become puzzled about anything, and with a few traps slung over
his shoulder Darry followed the paths along the edge of the marsh until
he reached one that seemed to enter the waste land.
Joe had designated this as his favorite tramp, since it paralleled the
creek, and the burrows of the little fur-bearing animals could be easily
located.
Presently Darry was busily engaged in examining the bank, and it was not
long before he had found what he sought.
This was a hole just below the water line.
There were also the tracks of the occupants close by, showing just how
they issued from their snug home to forage for food.
He carefully set his trap under a few inches of water, so that the first
rat coming forth and starting to climb the bank would set his hind feet
in it.
The chain he fastened to a stake out in the creek.
This was done in order that the little rodent would be quickly drowned.
Trappers invariably follow this rule when after water animals, and it is
not always through a spirit of mercy toward the victim that actuates
their motive, but the fact that they would otherwise lose many a catch,
since the captive in despair over its inability to escape would gnaw its
foot off.
Having finished with the trap, Darry walked further into the marsh. It
was a lonely place, seldom visited save by a few hunters in the season,
who looked for mallard ducks there; or it might be some boy trapper,
endeavoring to make a few dollars by catching some of the shy denizens
wearing marketable fur coats.
Here a brace of snipe went spinning away, and a little further a blue
crane got up and flapped off, his long legs sticking out like fishing
poles.
In an hour or so the boy had placed all his traps. He had followed Joe's
directions to the letter, and the morning would show as to whether he
was to make a success of the venture.
One thing was positive, and it was this, that even should he find
nothing in the traps he did not mean to give up; if he had made a
mistake, then it must be rectified, even if he had to secure some old
boat in order to carry out his operations without leaving a scent behind
to alarm the game.
It was late in the afternoon when he reached home.
The twins ran to meet him as though already they looked upon him in the
light of a member of the little family.
Darry threw first one and then the other up into the air, while they
shrieked with laughter, and he could see that Mrs. Peake was looking on
approvingly, as if her desolated mother heart was warming toward this
lad who had never known what it was to have any one love him.
He had been thinking much that afternoon of Paul Singleton, even
repeating the name of the young man over and over, as though striving to
remember whether he could have ever heard it before, which did not seem
likely.
And it was not so much anticipation of the good times coming that
engaged his thought as that queer look on the face of Paul while they
had been talking.
What could it mean?