DICK LYNCH GOES ON THE WAR-PATH
Black Dennis Nolan's explorations in the wilderness in search of the
corpse of Foxey Jack Quinn served no purpose save that of occupying his
three days of exile from Chance Along. Of course he acquired a deal of
exact information of the country lying beyond the little harbor and
north and south of it for several miles; but this knowledge of the
minute details of the landscape did not seem of much value to him, at
the time. He searched high and low, far and wide, returning at intervals
of from three to five hours to within sound of the axes of his men. He
dug the dry snow from clefts between granite boulders and ransacked the
tangled hearts of thickets of spruce-tuck and alder. He investigated
frozen swamps, wooded slopes, rocky knolls and hummocks, and gazed down
through black ice at the brown waters of frozen ponds. He carried on his
search scientifically, taking his camp as a point of departure and
moving away from it in ever widening and lengthening curves. He found
the shed antlers of a stag, the barrel of an old, long-lost sealing gun,
the skeleton of a caribou, and the bones of a fox with one shank still
gripped in the jaws of a rusty trap. He found a large dry cave in the
side of a knoll. He found the charred butts of an old camp-fire and near
it that which had once been a plug of tobacco--a brown, rotten mass,
smelling of dead leaves and wet rags. He found a rusted fish-hook, so
thorough was his search--aye, and a horn button. In such signs he read
the fleeting history of the passing of generations of men that way--of
men from Chance Along who had sought in this wilderness for flesh for
their pots and timber for their huts, boats and stages. He found
everything but what he was looking for--the frozen body of Foxey Jack
Quinn with the necklace of diamonds and rubies in its pocket. Then a
haunting fear came to him that the thief had escaped--had won out to the
big world in spite of the storm and by some other course than Witless
Bay.
With this fear in him, he carried on terribly for a few minutes, raging
around his fire, cursing the name and the soul of Foxey Jack Quinn,
calling upon the saints for justice, confounding his luck and his
enemies. He stopped it suddenly, for he had a way of regaining command
of his threshing passions all at once. He did not have to let them
thresh themselves out, as is the case with weaker men; but he gripped
them, full-blooded, to quiet, by sheer will power and a turn of thought.
The force of mastery was strong in Black Dennis Nolan's wild nature.
When he wished it he could master himself as well as others. Now he sat
down quietly beside his fire and lit his pipe. The evening was near at
hand--the evening of the third and last day of his exile. The sun, like
a small round window of red glass, hung low above the black hills to the
north and west. He got to his feet, threw snow on the breaking fire and
scattered the steaming coals with his foot. Then he pulled down his
shelter and threw the poles and spruce branches into a thicket, so that
no marks of his encampment were left except the wet coals and smudged
ashes of the fire.
The crimson sun slid down out of sight behind the black hills to the
west and north, and the gray twilight thickened over the wilderness. The
last red tint had faded from the west and the windows of the cabins
were glowing when the skipper reached the top of the path leading down
to Chance Along. A dog barked--Pat Kavanagh's black crackie--and the
whisper of the tide fumbling at edges of ice came up from the land-wash
below the fish-house and drying-stages. He saw the spars of his little
schooner etched black against the slate-gray of the eastern sky. He
stood at the edge of the broken slope, looking and listening. Presently
he heard a mutter of voices and saw two dark figures ascending the path.
"Good evenin', men," he said.
The two halted. "Glory be!" exclaimed the voice of Bill Brennen. "The
skipper himself, sure, praise the saints! Bes it yerself, skipper, an'
no mistake?"
"Aye, Bill, an' why for not?" returned Nolan. "Didn't ye t'ink as I
could make the trip to Witless Bay an' back in t'ree days? Bes that
yerself, Nick Leary?"
"Aye, skipper, aye," replied Nick. The two were now at the top of the
path, staring anxiously at the skipper through the gloom. Leary's head
was still in a bandage.
"We was jist a-settin' out to look for ye, skipper," said Bill.
Black Dennis Nolan laughed at that. "Was ye t'inkin' I couldn't find me
way back to me own harbor, in fair weather?" he asked.
"Aye, skipper, sure ye could," said Bill Brennen; "but it bes like this
wid us. Dick Lynch give us the slip this very day, wid a bottle o' rum
in his belly an' the smoke of it in his head, an' a gun in his hand.
Aye, skipper, an' we didn't larn it till only a minute ago from little
Patsy Burke."
"Aye, that bes the right o' it," broke in Nick Leary. "We heard tell o'
Dick Lynch a-slippin' away to the south'ard jist this minute from little
Patsy Burke. Drunk as a bo's'un he was, wid his old swilin'-gun on his
shoulder an' the divil's own flare in the eyes o' him. So we hauled out
too, skipper, intendin' to catch him afore he come up wid yerself if the
saints would give us the luck."
"Sure, then, I didn't catch a sight o' the treacherous squid," said the
skipper. "Ye see, b'ys, I took a swing off to the westward to-day to spy
out some timber. But what would Dick Lynch be huntin' me wid his
swilin'-gun for? Why for d'ye say he was huntin' me? Didn't I put the
comather on to him last time? The divil's own courage must be in him if
he bes out huntin' for me."
"He was tryin' all he knowed how to raise trouble yesterday," said Bill;
"but the b'ys wasn't wid him. This very mornin', when I called in to see
how he was feelin' for work, there he laid in his bed wid the covers
drug up over his ugly face, a-moanin' an' groanin' as how he wasn't fit
to hit a clip. Then we all o' us goes off to the choppin', to cut timber
for his riverence's blessed little church, an' mugs-up in the woods
widout comin' home, an' when we gets back to the harbor, maybe a few
minutes afore sun-down, little Patsy Burke gives us the word as how Dick
Lynch went off wid a gun, swearin' by the whole assembly of heaven as
how he'd be blowin' yer heart out o' ye the minute he clapped eye on ye.
An' then, skipper dear, Pat Kavanagh's girl Mary comes a-runnin' wid
word as how Dick Lynch t'iefed a bottle o' rum from Pat himself and was
brow-sprit under wid the glory of it an' fit to take a shot--except for
the aim of him--at Saint Peter himself. She telled as how he'd shaped
his course to the south'ard, with his gun on his shoulder, swearin' he'd
blow the head off ye or never come home to Chance Along no more. So
Nick an' me puts two an' two forninst each other an' figgered as how
Dick would have ye if somethin' didn't happen to t'row out his plans."
"Ye bain't got the right o' it there, Bill," said Nick. "'Twas Mary
telled us to follow after Dick Lynch. She'd gone herself, she said, but
she'd heard o' it no more'n a minute ago from Pat, her bein' over to the
skipper's house an' tryin' to cheer up the lady what come off the wrack!
'Save the skipper,' says Mary, the eyes o' her like lumps o' ice on the
coast in June. 'Save him from the drunk dog wid the gun, even if it bes
the death o' yerselves.' Aye, that bes what Mary Kavanagh said to
us--an' here we bes, skipper."
"Mary bes a good girl," said the skipper. Then he laughed harshly and
slapped Bill Brennen on the back.
"Me brains bes still in me head an' me hands on the ends o' me two
arms," he exclaimed; "but what bes happenin' to Dick Lynch, I wonder? If
ever he comes back--but he'll not dare! Aye, ye kin lay to that. He'd as
soon jump into hell wid the divil as come back now to Chance Along.
Maybe he'll be losin' himself like Foxey Jack Quinn went an' done wid
himself. Aye, lads, fools kin tell as how me luck bes gone--but the
saints themselves bes wid me, drivin' me enemies out o' Chance Along
widout me so much as havin' to kill one o' them!"
"Sure, skipper, it looks that way, an' no mistake," said Bill Brennen.
"The saints be wid ye for the kind heart ye has for helpless women an'
childer, an' for yer love o' Father McQueen, an' for the work ye bes at
to build the little church; but most of all, skipper, for the kind heart
o' ye to every helpless woman an' child."
A scowl, or was it a shadow, crossed Black Dennis Nolan's face at that.
"Sure, a kind heart bes a grand t'ing," he said,--"and so bes sharp wits
an' hard hands!"
They turned and went down the path. Mother Nolan met the skipper just
inside the door, with the big wooden spoon from the stew-pot dripping in
her hand. Her black eyes looked blacker and keener than usual as they
met those of her grandson.
"So here ye be, safe back from Witless Bay," she said. "Ye didn't waste
a minute, Denny."
"Sure I didn't," returned the skipper, quickly. "It beed fair weather
an' fair goin' all the way an' one little letter bain't much o' a pack
to tote. How be ye all, Granny? How bes the lass from the wrack?"
"Grand altogether," said the old woman, returning to the stove and the
pot of stew.
"Aye," said young Cormick, "she was singin' to-day fit to drag the heart
o' ye out t'rough yer ears. Sure, Denny, if ye heard a fairy singin'
'twould sound no grander!"
"Aye, like a fairy," agreed the old woman, wagging her head. "I bain't
wonderin' a mite at how she brought the salt tears a-hoppin' out o' the
eyes o' the blessed Queen herself! An' she was that happy, Denny,
a-t'inkin' o' how her letter to up-along was safe an' sure on its way,
that didn't she have Pat Kavanagh down wid his fiddle, an' atween the
two o' 'em they made the finest music was ever heard on this coast. Her
heart bes fair set on up-along, Denny, an' on what she calls her career,
meanin' songs an' glory an' money an' her name on the lips o' men."
The skipper was silent for a moment after that, staring at the floor. He
raised his eyes to the old woman and found that she was gazing at him
fixedly.
"Sure, an' why for not?" he said. "An' what bes she doin' now?"
"Sleepin'," replied Mother Nolan. "Sleepin' an' dreamin' o' up-along an'
all her grand friends."
A scowl darkened the skipper's eyes and brow, but he had no remark to
make on the matter of the lady's dreams. He threw aside his outer coat,
ate his supper, smoked his pipe, and at last retired to his bed. In the
meantime, Nick Leary had taken word to Pat and Mary Kavanagh that the
skipper was home in Chance Along, safe and sound, having missed Dick
Lynch by shaping his course westward to spy out timber. Mary's face
brightened at the news. Pat glanced at her, then nodded his tangled head
toward Leary.
"The skipper bes still alive an' the letter bes gone on its way," he
said. "So, come spring, they be takin' that singin' lady wid the eyes o'
magic away from Chance Along. Maybe they'll be comin' for her widout
waitin' for spring? She bes a wonder at the singin', an' no mistake--the
best I ever hear in all me v'yages into foreign ports. An' the looks o'
her! Holy saints, they bain't scarce human!"
Nick Leary grinned through his bandage.
"Aye, Pat, ye've got the discarnin' eye in yer head--ye an' the
skipper," he said. "However the skipper kep' himself away from Chance
Along for t'ree entire days, wid herself a-singin' an' a-flashin' her
eyes right in his own house, bes a puzzle to me. Aye, sure it do, for
didn't I see her put the spell o' women on to him the very first minute
she opened her eyes at him on the fore-top o' the wrack."
"Leave the skipper be, Nick Leary," said Mary. "Never half a word would
ye be sayin' if he could hear ye. Leave him an' his business be. He bes
a good friend to ye--aye, an' to every soul in the harbor who don't
cross him."
"Sure, Mary, I bain't meanin' naught," returned Nick. "Sure he bes a
good friend to me!"
Pat Kavanagh smiled and took up his fiddle and his bow. His hands were
still for a minute, and then the instrument began to sigh and trill. The
sounds gathered in strength, soared high, then thinned and sank to no
more than the whisper of a tune--and then Pat began to sing. This is
part of what he sang:--
"Come all ye hardy fishermen
An' harken to me song,
O' how the mermaid from the wrack
Come ashore in Chance Along.
"Her eyes was like the sea in June,
Her lips was like a rose,
Her voice was like a fairy bell
A-ringin' crost the snows.
"The Skipper he forgot the wrack,
Forgot the waves a-rollin',
For she had put the witchy spell
On Skipper Dennis Nolan.
* * * * *
"Come all ye hardy fishermen
An' larn from this me song,
To turn yer eyes the other way
To the girls from up-along."
"Yer songs get more foolish every day, father dear," said Mary.
"Sure, Pat, Mary bes right," said Leary. "Ye sings as if the girls in
Chance Along hadn't so much as one eye in the heads o' the entire crew
o' them. Now I bes t'inkin' as how there bes a girl in this harbor wid
eyes an' lips----"
"Sure, Nick, yer thoughts bes no better nor father's songs," interrupted
Mary.