STRANGE TACKLE.
Mildmay Park--or The Park, as it was more generally called--was
peculiarly placed on the slope of a hill climbing toward the cliff.
The lower part of the building was that remnant of the old abbey of
which Violet had spoken to Captain Murpoint. The upper part was the
modern luxurious mansion in which the wealthy merchant prince, John
Mildmay, had lived.
Money can command all things in the way of architecture and luxury, and
The Park was a fitting residence for a marquis, to say nothing of an
East Indian merchant.
Having passed so much of his time in the crowded, bustling streets
of both hemispheres, it was only natural that Violet's father should
choose a quiet resting place.
Penruddie was quiet enough to suit an Anglican monk.
Beside the Cedars there was no other house on the cliff, and the
village in the valley was so small as to scarcely be deserving of
the name. A few fishermen's cottages, a general shop, and an inn,
picturesque and inviting, comprised it.
The fishermen were simple people, who looked upon The Park and its
inmates as a place and people to be worshiped from afar; the general
shop, a little more elevated in its notions, prided itself upon the
custom of the "gentry," and the inn--well, the inn deserves something
more than a statistical mention.
It was a pretty little place, midway in the single street, overgrown
with ivy, from which its windows peered like so many eyes struggling
to catch a glimpse of the glittering sign board through their lids of
leaves.
This sign board was a wonder. In Martha Pettingall's opinion there had
never been, or ever would be a work of art to compare with it. It bore
on its crimson background a lion so blue, so fierce, and in attitude
so wickedly and preposterously unnatural that, perhaps, Martha's pride
was, after all, excusable. Certainly, there was some truth in her
assertion that there was "ne'er a lion in the whole world like it."
Martha Pettingall was a thin old lady, with sharp eyes and a mysterious
complaint. This disease--it was painless--attacked her whenever the
wind was in the East, her customers troublesome, and her niece, pretty
Polly Pettingall, aggravating. It proclaimed itself by sharp tones and
a yellow bandanna.
The sharp tones were freely employed to all about her, and the
fishermen knew when to expect them by the appearance of the yellow flag
tied tightly round Martha's head and face.
At such times it was astonishing how quiet the gruff, hard-voiced men
became, and how early they left the little taproom and departed to
their by no means soft couches.
The day after the captain's arrival Martha appeared in the bar with the
yellow bandanna and the vinegarish tones in full battle array.
Polly--light-hearted, slippery-fingered Polly--had dropped and broken
one of the best jugs, one of that precious set which the late Joe
Pettingall had presented to her aunt as a wedding gift, and there was
wrath in the hostess' bosom and fierce ire in the bandanna.
Polly was red and flushed about the neighborhood of the eyes, and her
pretty lips were fixed in a sullen, tear-threatening pout.
It was a quarter to eleven, the men had just come in from a mackerel
haul and were inclined to be jovial.
"Where's the missus?" inquired Willie Sanderson, as, followed by a
dozen of his mates, young and old, he trudged into the barroom. "Well,
Polly, my lass, thee's as fresh as a herrin' this mornin'! There's a
mack'rel for ye, the biggest I've seen this season."
And Willie, a great, strapping giant with a good-natured face and a
pair of dark, wide-awake eyes, threw an enormous fish upon the polished
counter.
"Thank you, Willie," said Polly, with a dolorous sniggle.
"Why, what's the matter, lass?" exclaimed the brawny fisherman, taking
her by the shoulders and swinging her round. "Here, you Bill, and
Jim, and Jake, here's the lass piping her eye! Can't ye say a word o'
comfort?"
The young fellows, fresh-cheeked, brown-eyed sons of the hamlet,
gathered round sympathetically and admiringly, ready with their
inquiries and their condolences, but pretty Polly with a pout stepped
from among them and ran into the long bar parlor.
"Come along, lads," said Willie, "women's tears are like gurnets--no
sooner here than gone again. Jake, where's the mistress?"
At that moment the door was flung open with no gentle hand, and Martha
appeared with the yellow bandanna tightly bound round her head.
The young fellows looked at one another and sank into the seats round
the sanded room in grim, expressive silence.
"Well!" said Martha, sharply. "Is the haul in? It's mighty early ye
are, Willie Sanderson, and it's no great take, I suppose, as usual."
"Indeed you're wrong, mistress," said big Willie, with a short laugh.
"The haul's as good as ye could wish, and we be come up to wet the fish
afore they starts on their last journey."
"Ye'd better have sent them off and took to your drinking after," said
Martha, sharply.
"That's a matter of opinion, arter all," retorted Willie, who was the
only one in Penruddie who dared bandy words with the owner of the "Blue
Lion" and the yellow bandanna.
"What's it to be, lads?" he continued, looking round.
"Ye'd get nothing but ale so early as this," declared Martha,
decisively, and so, fully aware that any opposite opinion,
however firmly delivered, would be of no avail, the "boys" nodded
good-naturedly, and the shrewish hostess left the room for the ale.
Four huge tankards were soon foaming at the mouth, and Polly was
bearing them into the room on a tray when the low-browed door swung
open and the well-built, dapper form of Mr. Starling entered.
"'Eavens, what a sight!" he exclaimed, throwing himself into an
elaborate pose of ecstatic admiration and arresting Polly's progress
thereby. "It's a study of Michael Hangelo," and he clasped his hands
with an artistic enthusiasm.
Pretty Polly threw up her head with a pert smile and a side glance at
the stranger.
"Oh, indeed!" she said, "and pray who's Mr. Hangelo? And who's a sight,
I should like to know?"
"You're a sight, my dear," retorted Mr. Starling, who, however
deferential and meek he might be in his master's presence, was
thoroughly at home and at his ease in a public house. "You're a sight
beautiful enough to gladden any hartist's eyes."
"Nonsense!" said Polly, tripping into the taproom.
Mr. Starling, with a cast of his sharp eyes in that direction,
strolled up to the bar and bowed with proper respect to the landlady.
"Good-morning, ma'am. I hope I see you well. Beautiful morning for the
hay----"
"Do you want anything to drink?" sternly interrupted Martha.
Not at all discomposed, Mr. Starling intimated that he should feel
obliged if the lady would favor him with a glass of her very best ale,
and draw it mild.
Perfectly unmoved by his grand manner and repeated bows, Martha drew
the glass of ale and flung the twopence with a clash into the large
pocket at her side.
Mr. Starling winked at the ceiling, chuckled noiselessly, and disposed
of the ale with a peculiar drawing in of the breath and turn of the
little finger.
"That's good tackle," he said.
"Ye asked for the best," said Martha, who was not to be conciliated.
"And I've got it; and I'll have another," said Mr. Starling.
This glass he dealt with more mercifully, and after taking a draught
carried the remainder to the taproom door.
The sunburnt faces and bright eyes of the lads were lifted as he
appeared, and Willie's sharp gray orbs seemed to take an inventory of
his every inch, as Mr. Starling, with a nod and a smile, said:
"Good-morning. Any fish this morning?"
"Ay, lots," said Willie, curtly.
"Ah, glad to hear it," said Mr. Starling, edging a little farther into
the room. "I'm very fond of fishing--allus was. Used to catch little
bats with a umbrella handle and a bent pin when I was so high," and he
put his hand about five inches from the floor.
"Oh, we don't fish with that tackle in these parts," said Willie,
quietly. "Won't ye come in?" and he raised his tankard.
Mr. Starling responded candidly, and was soon seated beside the huge
fisherman and discussing a fresh tankard, produced at his expense.
Mr. Starling was of a convivial turn, and the little parlor was soon
echoing with short, sharp laughter and snatches of rough wit, all of
which, however, did not prevent a sharp scrutiny which Big Willie was
continually trying to bear upon the stranger.
Once or twice he raised his eyes and glanced significantly at an old
man who had entered after Starling and was seated near the door, but
the old fisherman shook his head in response to the look of inquiry,
and Big Willie grew more silent and serious. At last he said, in one of
the pauses of conversation:
"You seem to have traveled a main. Where be ye bound for?"
Mr. Starling nodded up toward the ceiling and jerked his thumb over his
shoulder.
"I'm staying at The Park," he said. "Come along with Captain Murpoint."
"You're his servant," said Willie.
"Yes, I'm his servant," said Mr. Starling, looking into the bottom of
his quart pot with one eye closed.
"Oh," said the fisherman, with an air almost of relief. "Oh, that's it,
is it?" he said. "I thought perhaps ye were loafing round a bit."
Mr. Starling grinned.
"I can do a bit at that trade," he said, with a wink that elicited a
guffaw.
"Noo doubt," said Willie. "An' what sort of a man is the captain?" he
asked.
"What sort?" said Mr. Starling. "A good sort, or he wouldn't be my
master."
"And where do ye come from?"
"India."
Willie shook his head.
"Ay, that's where Master John coom from."
"Just so," said Mr. Starling. "They were sworn friends--what you may
call brothers with two mothers. My guv'nor was Mr. Mildmay's particular
pal, thick as thieves, and--come, what do you say to another wet?"
"No more," said Willie, answering for himself and the rest of the
company.
"Well, if you won't I'll see about climbing," said Mr. Starling. "It's
a rum thing to build a house on a hill; it's awkward for a gentleman
after he's took his evening's glass at the pub. Now, if it was me I
should 'a' built it down here in the village, just next door to the
'Blue Lion,'" and with a wink he stuck his hat well on the side of his
head and walked toward the door.
At that moment, however, Martha entered, and, looking round, said,
sharply:
"Are you going to sit here all day, Willie Sanderson, with all them
fish to send off to Lunnon? Are ye daft, man?"
Willie Sanderson rose and looked at her, raising his hand and
scratching first his right, then his left ear.
Mr. Starling, who happened to turn at the doorway to observe how the
customers would take such summary ejections, noticed the action,
and was somewhat struck to observe Mrs. Martha's sharp tone dropped
considerably, and that with a quick pursing of the lips she raised her
hand and scratched her own ears, first her right, then her left.
Now, Mr. Starling, who knew something of signs and countersigns,
and had had occasion during his rather adventurous life to avail
himself of such devices, instantly decided that there was some secret
understanding between the hostess of the "Blue Lion" and the burly
fisherman, and was confirmed in his suspicions by the silent and
immediate obedience of the lads, who, at a toss of the head from their
leader, rose quietly and left the house, giving Mr. Starling a gruff
good-day as they strolled past.
Mr. Starling looked after them, then turned on his heel, stuck his
hands into the mysterious depths of his light trousers, and commenced
his climb.
Halfway up the hill, however, he stopped abruptly and swinging round
smacked his leg with an emphatic thwack, muttering:
"Hang me if I can make it out. What the Villikins and his Dinah does
the landlady of a village inn want a making signs with a wooden-headed
fisherman?"
Mr. Starling's wits would have been still farther sharpened could he
have followed Willie Sanderson down the village and watched him unseen.
The lads, once clear of the "Blue Lion," turned swiftly to the left and
ran down to the beach, where, in a confused heap, were the recently
taken fish and the baskets in which they were to be packed.
Willie Sanderson, however, after a word or two with the old fisherman,
turned to the right and walked slowly toward the end of the village.
As he neared the row of cottages he saw, coming toward him on the road
that led by many a weary mile to London, a smart tax cart.
Willie's eyes were sharp and though the little white-covered cart
apparently differed in nothing from its kindred, he knew it at a
glance, and, drawing a little aside, he sat down on a heap of empty
baskets to wait patiently.
Presently the cart came up, and the driver, a little, thickset man,
dressed in an ordinary guernsey, and thick, white trousers peculiar
to the seacoast, and wearing a patch over his left eye, shot a sharp
glance from the right one at the recumbent figure of the fisherman, and
gruffly gave him "Good-morning."
"Good-morning, Job, lad," replied Willie, and with a smile he repeated
the action which had surprised Mr. Starling.
In an instant the old fellow's hand went up to his ears, and, with a
reflection of Willie Sanderson's smile, he "tckd" to the horse and
passed on.
Beyond the salutation not a word had passed, but Willie Sanderson
rose to his feet and set off toward the beach, whistling with the
satisfaction of a man who has adroitly accomplished a difficult and
dangerous undertaking.