WHAT HAPPENED
Gibralter was thoroughly enjoying their suspense. “Wall,” he drawled,
making the moment as dramatic as possible, “’long about midnight, once,
Pa heard a gallopin’ horse comin’ along the road from the sea. Pa knew
thar wan’t no one as rode horseback but the old Colonel himself, an’,
bein’ as he’d been gettin’ gouty, he hadn’t been doin’ much ridin’ of
late days, Pa said, but thar was somethin’ about the way the horse was
gallopin’ that made Pa sit right up in bed. He an’ Ma’d jest been married
an’ started keepin’ house in the store right whar we live now. Pa woke up
and they both listened. Then they heard someone hollerin’ an’ Pa knew
’twas the old Colonel’s voice, an’ Ma said, ‘Like’s not someone’s sick
over to the mansion!’ Pa got into his clothes fast as greased lightnin’,
took a lantern and went down to the porch, and thar was the ol’ Colonel
wi’out any hat on. His gray hair was all rumped up and his eyes was
wild-like. Pa said the ol’ Colonel was brown as leather most times, but
that night he was white as sheets.
“As soon as the Colonel saw Pa, he hollered, ‘Whar kin I get a steam
launch? I wanta foller my daughter. She an’ the woman that takes keer o’
her is plumb gone, an’, what’s more, my yacht’s gone too. They’ve made
off wi’ it. That scalawag of a furriner that’s been wantin’ to marry her
has kidnapped ’em all. She’s only seventeen, my daughter is, an’ I’ll
have the law on him.’
“Pa said when he got up clost to the horse the Colonel was ridin’, he
could see the old man was shakin’ like he had the palsy. Pa didn’t know
no place at all whar a steam launch could be had, leastwise not near enuf
to Siquaw to help any, so the old Colonel said he’d take the train an’ go
up the coast to a town whar he could get a launch an’ he’d chase arter
that slow-sailin’ yacht an’ he’d have the law on whoever was kidnappin’
his daughter.
“The ol’ Colonel was in an awful state, Pa said. He went into the store
part o’ our house and paced up an’ down, an’ up an’ down, an’ up an’
down, till Pa thought he must be goin’ crazy, an’ every onct in a while
he’d mutter, like ’twas just for himself to hear, ‘She’ll pay fer this,
Darlina will!’”
The boy looked up and smiled at his listeners. “Queer name, wasn’t it?”
he queried. “Most as funny as my name, but I guess likely ’taint quite.”
“I suppose they wanted to call her something that meant darling,” Dories
began, but Nann put in eagerly with, “Oh, Gib, do go on. What happened
next? Did the old Colonel go somewhere and get a fast boat and overtake
the yacht. I do hope that he didn’t.”
“Wall, than yo’ get what yer hopin’ fer, all right. About a week arter
he’d took the early mornin’ train along back came the ol’ Colonel, Pa
said, an’ he looked ten year older. He didn’t s’plain nothin’, but gave
Pa some money fer takin’ keer o’ his horse while he’d been gone, an’ then
back he came here to his house an’ lived shut in all by himself an’ his
man-servant for nigh ten year, Pa said. Nobody ever set eyes on him; his
man-servant bein’ the only one who came to the store for mail an’
supplies, an’ he never said nuthin’, tho Pa said now an’ then he’d ask if
Darlina’d been heard from. He knew when he’d ask, Pa said, as how he
wouldn’t get any answer, but he couldn’t help askin’; he was that
interested. But arter a time folks around here began to think morne’n
like the Phantom Yacht, as Pa’d called it, had gone to the bottom before
it reached wherever ’twas they’d been headin’ fer, when all of a sudden
somethin’ happened. Gee, but Pa said he’d never been so excited before in
all his days as he was the day that somethin’ happened. It was ten year
ago an’ Pa’d jest had a letter from yer aunt—” the boy leaned over to nod
at Dori, “askin’ him to go to the Point an’ open up her cottage as she’d
built the summer before. Thar was only two cottages on the shore then;
hers an’ the Burtons’, that’s nearest the point. Pa said as how he
thought he’d get down thar before sun up, so’s he could get back in time
to open up the store, bein’ as Ma wan’t well, an’ so he set off to walk
to the beach.
“Pa said he was up on the roof of the front porch takin’ the blind off
thet little front window in the loft whar yo’ girls sleep when the gray
dawn over to the east sort o’ got pink. Pa said ’twas such a purty sight
he turned ’round to watch it a spell when, all of a sudden sailin’ right
around that long, rocky island out thar, _what_ should he see but the
Phantom Yacht, her white sails glistening as the sun rose up out o’ the
water. Pa said he had to hold on, he was so sure it was a spook boat. He
couldn’t no-how believe ’twas real, but thar came up a spry wind wi’ the
sun an’ that yacht sailed as purty as could be right up to the long dock
whar the sailors tied it. Wall, Pa said he was so flabbergasted that he
fergot all about the blind he was to take off an’ slid right down the
roof and made fer a place as near the long dock as he could an’ hid
behind some rocks an’ waited. Pa said nothin’ happened fer two hours, or
seemed that long to him; then out of that yacht stepped the mos’
beautiful young woman as Pa’d ever set eyes on. He knew at onct ’twas the
ol’ Colonel’s daughter growed up. She was dressed all in white jest like
she’d used to be, but what was different was the two kids she had holdin’
on to her hands. One was a boy, Pa said, about nine year old, dressed in
black velvet wi’ a white lace color. Pa said he was a handsome little
fellar, but ’twas the wee girl, Pa said, that looked like a gold and
white angel wi’ long yellow curls. She was younger’n the boy by nigh two
year, Pa reckoned. Their ma’s face was pale and looked like sufferin’, Pa
said, as she an’ her children walked up to the sea wall and went up over
the stone steps thar was then to climb over it. Pa knew they was goin’ on
up to the house, but from whar he hid he couldn’t see no more, an’ so
bein’ as he had to go on back to open up the store, he didn’t see what
the meetin’ between the ol’ Colonel an’ his daughter was like.
How-some-ever it couldn’t o’ been very pleasant, fer along about noon, Pa
said he recollected as how he had fergot to take off the blind on yer
aunt’s cottage, an’ knowin’ how mad she’d be, he locked up the store an’
went back down to the beach, an’ the first thing he saw was that
glistenin’ white yacht a-sailin’ away. The wind had been gettin’ stiffer
all the mornin’ an’ Pa said as he watched the yacht roundin’ the island,
it looked to him like it was bound to go on the shoals an’ be wrecked on
the rocks. Whoever was steerin’ Pa said, didn’t seem to know nothin’
about the reefs. Pa stood starin’ till the yacht was out of sight, an’
then he heard a hollerin’ an’ yellin’ down the beach, an’ thar come the
ol’ man-servant runnin’ an’ stumblin’ an’ shoutin’ to Pa to come quick.
“‘Colonel Wadbury’s took a stroke!’ was what he was hollerin’, an’ so Pa
follered arter him as fast as he could an’ when they got into the big
library-room, whar all the books an’ pictures was, Pa saw the ol’ Colonel
on the floor an’ his face was all drawed up somethin’ awful. Pa helped
the man-servant get him to bed, and fer onct the man-servant was willin’
to talk. He told Pa all that had happened. He said how Darlina’s furrin
husband had died an’ how she wanted to come back to America to live. She
didn’t ask to live wi’ her Pa, but she did want him to give her the deed
to a country place near Boston. It ’pears her ma had left it for her to
have when she got to be eighteen, but the ol’ Colonel wouldn’t give her
the papers, though they was hers by rights, an’ he wouldn’t even look at
the two children; he jest turned ’em all right out, and then as soon as
they was gone, he tuk a stroke. ’Twan’t likely, so Pa said, he’d ever be
able to speak again. The man-servant said as the last words the ol’
Colonel spoke was to call a curse down on his daughter’s head.
“Wall, the curse come all right,” Gibralter nodded in the direction of
the crumbling ruin, “but ’twas himself as it hit.
“You’ll recollect awhile back I was mentionin’ that folks in Siquaw
Center had warned ol’ Colonel Wadbury not to build a hefty house on
shiftin’ sand that was lower’n the sea. Thar was nothin’ keepin’ the
water back but a wall o’ rocks. But the Colonel sort o’ dared Fate to do
its worst, and Fate tuk the dare.
“When November set in, Pa says, folks in town began to take in reefs, so
to speak; shuttin’ the blinds over their windows and boltin’ ’em on to
the inside. Gettin’ ready for the nor’easter that usually came at that
time o’ year, sort o’ headin’ the procession o’ winter storms. Wall, it
came all right; an’ though ’twas allays purty lively, Pa says that one
beat all former records, and was a howlin’ hurricane. Folks didn’t put
their heads out o’ doors, day or night, while it lasted, an’ some of ’em
camped in their cellars. That thar storm had all the accompaniments. Thar
was hail beatin’ down as big and hard as marbles, but the windows, havin’
blinds on ’em, didn’t get smashed. Then it warmed up some, and how it
rained! Pa says Noah’s flood was a dribble beside it, he’s sure sartin.
Then the wind tuk a turn, and how it howled and blustered. All the
outbuildin’s toppled right over; but the houses in Siquaw Center was
built to stand, and they stood. Then on the third night, Pa says, ’long
about midnight, thar was a roarin’ noise, louder’n wind or rain. It was
kinder far off at first, but seemed like ’twas comin’ nearer. ‘That thar
stone wall’s broke down,’ Pa told Ma, ‘an’ the sea’s coverin’ the
lowland.’
“Wall, Pa was right. The tide had never risen so high in the memory of
Ol’ Timer as had been around these parts nigh a hundred years. The waves
had banged agin that wall till it went down; then they swirled around the
house till they dug the sand out an’ the walls fell jest like yo’ see ’em
now.
“The next mornin’ the sky was clear an’ smilin’, as though nothin’ had
happened, or else as though ’twas pleased with its work. Pa and Gus
Pilsley an’ some other Siquaw men made for the coast to see what the
damage had been, but they couldn’t get within half a mile, bein’ as the
road was under water. How-some-ever, ’bout a week later, the road, bein’
higher, dried; but the water never left the lowlands, an’ that’s how the
swamp come all about the old ruin—reeds and things grew up, just like
’tis today.
“Pa and Gus come up to this here point an’ looked down at what was left
of the fine stone house. ‘’Pears like it served him right,’ was what the
two of ’em said. Then they went away, and the ol’ place was left alone.
Folks never tried to get to the ruin, sayin’ as the marsh around it was
oozy, and would draw a body right in.”
“But what became of old Colonel Wadbury and the man-servant?” Dories
inquired.
“Dunno,” the boy replied, laconically. “Some thar be as guess one thing,
and some another. Ol’ Timer said as how he’d seen two men board the train
that passes through Siquaw Center ’long ’bout two in the mornin’, but Pa
says the storm was fiercest then, and no trains went through for three
days; and who’d be out to see, if it had? Pa thinks they tried to get
away an’ was washed out to sea an’ drowned, an’ I guess likely that’s
what happened, all right.”
Dories rose. “We ought to be getting back.” She glanced at the sun as she
spoke. “Aunt Jane may be needing us.” The other two stood up and for a
moment Nann gazed down at the ruin; then she called to it: “Some day I am
coming to visit you, old house, and find out the secret that you hold.”
Dories shuddered and seemed glad to climb down on the side of the rocks
where the sun was shining so brightly and from where one could not see
the dismal swamp and the crumbling old ruin.