THE SKIPPER CARRIES A LETTER
Mary Kavanagh paled, flushed again, and lowered her eyes. Old Mother
Nolan turned a searching glance upon her grandson--a glance with
derision and something of pity in it.
"An' how would Chance Along be good enough for the likes o' her?" said
she. "Denny Nolan, bes ye a fool entirely? Good enough for her, says
ye--an' her singin' like a lark afore the young Queen herself, saints
presarve her, wid the Prince an' the dukes a-settin' round in their
grand gold crowns, a-t'rowin' roses an' jewels at her little feet! What
bes Chance Along to her--aye, an' any poor soul in it? We've give her
life back to her, Denny, me lad, an' now we'll give herself back to the
grand world o' up-along, where great singers bes nigh the same as great
ladies, as I have heard me own grandfather tell, who was once in Dublin
a-holdin' the gentry's horses at the play-house door."
The skipper glared straight before him, then sank into his chair.
"I'll pen no letter," he said, "I swears it by the knuckle-bones o' the
holy saints!"
Mother Nolan turned to Mary, wagging her head.
"There bes ink an' a pen on the shelf there, an' a scrap o' clean paper
in Denny's great book yonder," she said. "Take 'em to her an' let her
pen the word wid her own hand." She turned to Denny. "And ye, Denny
Nolan, will send it out to Witless Bay, an' from Witless Bay to St.
John's, an' so to New York."
"I hears ye," returned the skipper.
"Aye, that ye do," said the spirited old woman, "an' a good t'ing for ye
I bes here to tell ye! Why for wouldn't ye be sendin' out the letter?
What for d'ye be wantin' Miss Flora Lockhart to stop here in Chance
Along?--and her who never put a hand to a stroke o' honest work since
her mother bore her!--her who sang to the Queen o' England! Ye'd be
better, Denny, wid a real true mermaid, tail an' all, in Chance Along.
Wrack ye kin break abroad; cargoes ye kin lift an' devour; gold an'
jewels ye kin hide away; but when live women be t'rowed up to ye by the
sea ye kin do naught but let 'em go. The divil bes in the women,
lad--the women from up-along. An' the law would be on yer heels--aye,
an' on to yer neck--afore ye knowed how the wind was blowin'! An' what
would his riverence be sayin' to ye?"
Mary Kavanagh had left the kitchen by this time, carrying pen, ink and
paper to the girl in Father McQueen's room. Denny raised his head, and
met the regard of his grandmother's bright old eyes proudly.
"I wants to marry her," he said. "An' why not? Bain't I skipper
here--aye, skipper o' every man an' boat in the harbor? She'd have no
call to touch her hand to honest work if she was my wife. Bain't I
rich?--and like to be richer? I'll build her a grand house. She'll have
wine every day, an' jewels on her fingers, an' naught to do all day, by
Saint Peter, but put the gowns o' silk on to her back. Bain't that
better nor singin' an' cavortin' afore the Queen?"
"Denny, ye bes a fool, sure, for all yer great oaths an' masterful ways
wid the men," said Mother Nolan. "Ye bes a fool over a woman--an' that
be the weakest kind o' fool! What would a lady like her be wantin' wid
ye for a husband?--wid a ignorant great fisherman the like o' ye,
skipper o' no skipper? What bes a skipper to the like o' her? No more
nor a dog, Denny Nolan! She'd break yer heart an' send yer soul to
damnation!"
The skipper left his chair without a word, and strode from the kitchen
to Mother Nolan's own room, stooping as he passed through the low
doorway. He advanced until he reached Flora's room. It was shut. He
halted for a moment, breathing quickly, then rapped with his knuckles,
and opened the door. Flora was sitting upright in the bed, backed by
pillows and with a shawl over her shoulders. She had been writing; and
Mary stood beside the bed and held the bottle of time-faded ink for her.
Both girls looked up with startled faces at the skipper's entrance. The
young man halted in the middle of the room, and stared at the singer. It
was the first time he had seen her since the day he had saved her from
the _Royal William's_ fore-top and brought her to this house. He saw
that her face was thinner now than on that day, but no paler. The
wonderful eyes were as clear, as bright as crystal, and yet as limpid,
as when they had first opened to him, there on the swaying cross-trees,
and worked their spell on him. But the lips were red now--as red and
bewitching as a mermaid's lips are supposed to be. She was the first to
speak.
"What is it? What do you want?" she asked somewhat fretfully, in that
silver voice that had delighted the ears of the young Queen on the other
side of the ocean. The question, or perhaps the way it was asked, sent a
chill through Black Dennis Nolan. His glance wavered and he crumpled his
fur cap in his hands. His sudden confusion showed in his dark face.
"It bes the skipper," said Mary Kavanagh, "him that fetched ye from the
wrack."
"Oh, I beg your pardon," said Flora. "Of course I should have remembered
your face, and now I do. I am very, very grateful to you for saving my
life, and I shall never forget it. I shall do everything in my power to
repay you for your courage and kindness, you may be sure; but why did
you not send out word that I was here? You knew that I could not do it
myself, lying here ill with fever. Perhaps they have grown tired of
waiting for me by now, in New York. Perhaps they think I am dead.
Perhaps they have forgotten me--and that would be worse than death!"
The skipper felt like a fool, then like a whipped dog. It was this last
sensation that sent a wave of choking anger through him. He was not
accustomed to it. Had any other woman taken him to task so he would have
laughed and forgotten the incident in a minute. Had any man shown such
ingratitude he would have smashed his head; but now his dark face
flushed and he muttered a few words thickly which passed unheard and
unheeded even by himself.
"I am writing now," continued Flora, "and must ask you to send it out to
some place from which it can reach civilization, and be mailed to New
York. It is very important--almost a matter of life and death to me--for
it may yet be in time to save my career, even my engagement in New
York."
The skipper maintained his silence, crushing his cap in his big hands
and glowering at the rag-mat under his feet. Two kinds of love, several
kinds of devils, pride, anger and despair were battling in his heart.
"Ye'll take out the letter, skipper, sure ye will," said Mary, smiling
at him across the bed. Her fair face was pink and her eyes perturbed.
The man did not notice the pink of her cheeks or the anxiety in her
eyes.
"Why, of course you will take it--or send it," said Miss Lockhart. "It
is a very small thing to do for a person for whom you have already done
so much. You are the kindest people in the world--you three. You have
saved my life twice, among you. I shall never, never forget your
kindness, and as soon as I reach New York I shall repay you all. I shall
soon be rich."
Black Dennis Nolan looked at her, straight into her sea-eyes, and felt
the bitter-sweet spell of them again to the very depths of his being.
Her glance was the first to waver. A veil of color slipped up softly
across her pale cheeks. Young as she was, she had seen other men gaze at
her with that same light in their eyes. They had all been young men, she
reflected. Others, in Paris and London, had looked with less of pure
bewitchment and more of desire in their eyes. She was not ignorant of
her charms, her power, her equipment to pluck the pearl from the oyster
of the world. She could marry wealth; she could win wealth and more fame
with her voice and beauty on the concert-stage; she could do both. But
in spite of her knowledge of the great world, her heart was neither
blinded to the true things of worth nor entirely hardened. If she ever
married, it would be for wealth and position, as the world counted such
things, but never a man--lord or commoner--who did not come to her with
the light of pure witchery in his eyes. She remembered, smiling down at
the half-written letter to her New York agent, how that light had shone
in the honest eyes of a young officer of the ship in which she had
sailed from America to Europe. Her reflections, which had passed through
her brain with a swiftness beyond that of any spoken or written words,
were interrupted by the skipper.
"I bes rich now," he said thickly.
Mary Kavanagh lost color at that and turned her face away from them
both, toward the fire in the wide chimney. Flora Lockhart looked up at
the speaker, puzzled, but still smiling faintly. Her face was very
beautiful and kind--but with an elfin kindness that seemed not all
womanly, scarcely all human. Her beauty was almost too delicate,
striking and unusual to bear the impress of a common-day kindness. She
laughed gently but clearly.
"I am glad you are rich," she said. "You are rich in virtues, I
know--all three of you."
"I bes rich in gold an' gear," said the skipper. "Rich as any marchant."
"I am glad," returned the girl. "It will be pleasant for me, in the
future, to always picture my preservers in comfort. I hope you may
continue to prosper, skipper--you and all your people. But here is the
letter. How will you get it to New York, do you think?"
The skipper advanced to the bed, and took the letter. His fingers
touched hers.
"I'll be takin' it to Witless Bay meself," he stammered. "Sure, that
would be safest. It bes a longish trip; but I'll do it." He paused and
stared down at the letter in his hand. "But 'twould take me t'ree days
an' more, there an' back--an' what would the men be doing wid me away?
The divil himself only knows! Maybe they'd get to t'inkin' agin as ye
bes a witch. I'll be sendin' Bill Brennen wid it, afore sun-up
to-morrow."
"And who will take it from Witless Bay to St. John's?" asked Flora.
"Foxey Garge Hudson, the Queen's own mail-carrier. There bes a
post-office in Witless Bay," returned the skipper. "He makes the trip
to St. John's once every week in winter-time, bar flurries an' fog, an'
maybe twice every week in the summer-time. If it be'd summer-time now
I'd sail the letter right round to St. John's in me fore-an'-aft
schooner."
"What a terrible place! It seems to be thousands of miles out of the
world," murmured the singer. "Don't any ships ever come to this
harbor--except wrecks?"
The skipper shook his head. "Me own fore-an'-aft, the _Polly_, bes the
only vessel trades wid this harbor," he said. He stowed the letter away
in his pocket, turned and strode from the room and out of the house. He
looked calm enough now, but the battle was still raging within him.
The skipper was out of bed next morning at the first peep of dawn. He
dressed for a long journey, stuffed his pockets with food, and then
wakened his grandmother.
"I bes goin' meself wid this letter," he said. "The men won't be tryin'
any o' their tricks, I bes t'inkin'. Dick Lynch bain't fit for any
divilment yet awhile an' 'tothers be busy gettin' timber for the
church. Send Cormy to tell Bill Brennen an' Nick Leary to keep 'em to
it."
"Why bes ye goin' yerself, Denny?" inquired the old woman.
"Sure, it bes safest for me to carry the letter, Granny," returned the
skipper.
He ate his breakfast, drank three mugs of strong tea, and set out. A
little dry snow had fallen during the night. The air was bitterly cold
and motionless, and the only sound was the sharp crackling of the tide
fingering the ice along the frozen land-wash. The sky was clear. With
the rising of the sun above the rim of the sea a faint breath of icy
wind came out of the west. By this time the skipper was up on the edge
of the barrens, a mile and more away from the little harbor. He was
walking at a good pace, smoking his pipe and thinking hard. A thing was
in his mind that he could not bring himself to face fairly, as yet. It
had been with him several hours of yesterday, and all night, and had
caused him to change his plan of sending Bill Brennen with the
letter--and still it lurked like a shadow in the back of his mind,
unilluminated and unproven. But he knew, deep in his heart, that he
would presently consider and act upon this lurking, sinister
half-thought. Otherwise, he was a fool to be heading for Witless Bay.
Bill Brennen, or any other man in the harbor, could have carried the
letter as well--except for the idea that had been blindly at work all
night in the back of his brain.
He had made four miles of his journey when he halted, turned and looked
back along the desolate barrens and the irregular edge of the cliffs.
Misgivings assailed him. Was Flora safe? What if something should
happen--had already happened, perhaps--to stir his treacherous fellows
to mutiny again? Any little accident might do it if they knew that he
was on his way to Witless Bay. If one of them should cut his foot with
an axe, or drop a tree on one of his comrades, it would be enough (with
the skipper out of the way) to raise the suspicion of witchcraft and
curses in their silly, mad souls again. And then what would happen? What
would happen to Flora, the helpless, wonderful, most beautiful creature
in the world. He stared back along his path, but the many curves and
breaks in the cliff hid from him every sign of Chance Along. Not a roof,
chimney, or streamer of smoke broke the desolation. In all the frozen
scene he could find no mark of man or man's handiwork. South and north,
east and west, lay the frosted barrens, the gray sea, the edge of the
cliff twisting away to nothingness around innumerable lifeless bays and
coves, and the far horizons fencing all in a desolate circle. But what
mattered to the skipper, what weighed on his heart like despair was the
fact that he was out of sight of Chance Along--of the roof that
sheltered the girl he had saved from the wreck. He felt the loneliness
of that dreary season and coast--for the first time in his life, I
think. Anxiety was his teacher.
And now he knew that he must go on to Witless Bay, and so prove himself
a fool for not having sent one of the men, or else face and act upon the
thought lurking in the back of his mind. He drew the letter from his
pocket and looked at it for a long time, turning it over and over
between his fur-clad hands.
"She'll soon be forgettin'," he said. "Come summer-time, she'll be
forgettin'. I bes rich--an' when she sees the grand house I kin build
for her she'll marry me, sure, an' be happy as a queen. An' why not?
Bain't I rich as any marchant? She'll be wearin' gold an' silk every
day, an' eatin' like any queen--an' bain't that better for a grand lady
nor singin' songs for a livin'?--nor singin' songs for her bread an'
baccy like old Pat Kavanagh wid the wooden leg?"
He tore the letter to fragments and scattered it upon the snow. He had
faced the lurking thought at last and acted upon it.
"Praise be to the saints!" exclaimed the skipper with intense relief.
"That bes done--an' a good job, too. That letter'll never be gettin' to
up-along, anyhow, an' when she larns how rich I be, an' begins to love
me, she'll be praisin' the saints the same as me. Why for would she want
to be goin' up-along to New York, anyhow? Now I'll jist shape me course
'round beyant the harbor an' see if they squid be up to any divilment or
no."
He made his way inland for about half a mile and then headed southward.
As he drew near the line of Chance Along he edged farther away from the
coast, deeper into the wilderness of hummocks, frozen bogs and narrow
belts of spruce and fir. When at last he heard the axes thumping between
himself and the harbor he sat down in a sheltered place and filled and
lit his pipe. The men were at work. The letter that would have torn
Flora Lockhart from him was not on its way to New York. All was well
with the skipper and the world! He remained there for an hour, smoking,
listening, congratulating himself. By the thumping of the axes and the
slow crashings of falling trees he knew that Bill Brennen had put a big
crew at the chopping. This knowledge stilled his anxiety for the girl's
safety. He knocked out his pipe and stowed it away and moved farther
westward until he found a suitable camping-place behind a wooded hill.
Here he made a fire, built a little shelter of poles and spruce
branches, and rested at his ease. He thought of Flora Lockhart. Her
sea-eyes and red lips were as clear and bright as a picture in his
brain. Her wonderful, bell-like voice rang in his ears like fairy music.
The spell of her was like a ravishing fire in his heart.
Suddenly the skipper sprang to his feet and slapped a hand on his thigh.
He had remembered the necklace for the first time for many days, and
with the memory had flashed the thought that with it to offer he would
have no difficulty in proving his wealth to the lady and winning her
heart. Those white diamonds and red rubies were surely just the things a
great lady from up-along would appreciate. Could a king on his throne
make her a finer gift? He doubted it. The sight of that necklace would
open her eyes and melt her heart to the real worth and greatness of the
skipper of Chance Along. Poor Skipper Nolan! But after all, he was
little more than a savage. Of the hearts of women--even of the women of
Chance Along--he was as ignorant as a spotted harbor-seal. He knew no
more of Mary Kavanagh's heart than of Flora Lockhart's, but even a
savage may win a heart in ignorance, and even a savage may learn!
With a great oath the skipper vowed that he would find that necklace;
but not to sell for gold, as his old intention had been, but to sell for
the possession of the girl from up-along. It seemed an easy thing to do.
Foxey Jack Quinn could not have gone very far away from the harbor in
that "flurry." Perhaps he had turned back and inland, searching blindly
for shelter, and lay even now somewhere near this fire? It struck the
skipper as a great idea. He would have three clear days to give to the
quest of the body of Jack Quinn without arousing the curiosity of the
harbor. Three days, as nearly as he could reckon, was the shortest time
in which a man could make the journey to Witless Bay and back. As he
could not show himself in Chance Along within that time without raising
doubts as to the safe delivery of the letter, he was free to devote the
time to the recovery of the necklace. It was a grand arrangement
altogether. Of course he would keep covertly in touch with the harbor,
in case of another panic of superstition; and of course he would find
the corpse of Jack Quinn with the precious necklace in its pocket.