第78章

Captain Sam entered the windmill shop about two o'clock one windy afternoon in the first week of March.He was wearing a heavy fur overcoat and a motoring cap.He pulled off the coat, threw it over a pile of boards and sat down.

"Whew!" he exclaimed."It's blowing hard enough to start the bark on a log."Jed looked up.

"Did you say log or dog?" he asked, solemnly.

The captain grinned."I said log," he answered."This gale of wind would blow a dog away, bark and all.Whew! I'm all out of breath.It's some consider'ble of a drive over from Wapatomac.

Comin' across that stretch of marsh road by West Ostable I didn't know but the little flivver would turn herself into a flyin'-machine and go up."

Jed stopped in the middle of the first note of a hymn.

"What in the world sent you autoin' way over to Wapatomac and back this day?" he asked.

His friend bit the end from a cigar."Oh, diggin' up the root of all evil," he said."I had to collect a note that was due over there.""Humph! I don't know much about such things, but I never mistrusted 'twas necessary for you to go cruisin' like that to collect notes.Seems consider'ble like sendin' the skipper up town to buy onions for the cook.Couldn't the--the feller that owed the money send you a check?"Captain Sam chuckled."He could, I cal'late, but he wouldn't," he observed."'Twas old Sylvester Sage, up to South Wapatomac, the 'cranberry king' they call him up there.He owns cranberry bogs from one end of the Cape to the other.You've heard of him, of course."Jed rubbed his chin."Maybe so," he drawled, "but if I have I've forgot him.The only sage I recollect is the sage tea Mother used to make me take when I had a cold sometimes.I COULDN'T forget that.""Well, everybody but you has heard of old Sylvester.He's the biggest crank on earth.""Hum-m.Seems 's if he and I ought to know each other....But maybe he's a different kind of crank; eh?""He's all kinds.One of his notions is that he won't pay bills by check, if he can possibly help it.He'll travel fifty miles to pay money for a thing sooner than send a check for it.He had this note--fourteen hundred dollars 'twas--comin' due at our bank to-day and he'd sent word if we wanted the cash we must send for it 'cause his lumbago was too bad for him to travel.I wanted to see him anyhow, about a little matter of a political appointment up his way, so I decided to take the car and go myself.Well, I've just got back and I had a windy v'yage, too.And cold, don't talk!""Um...yes....Get your money, did you?""Yes, I got it.It's in my overcoat pocket now.I thought one spell I wasn't goin' to get it, for the old feller was mad about some one of his cranberry buyers failin' up on him and he was as cross-grained as a scrub oak root.He and I had a regular row over the matter of politics I went there to see him about 'special.Itold him what he was and he told me where I could go.That's how we parted.Then I came home.""Hum....You'd have had a warmer trip if you'd gone where he sent you, I presume likely....Um....Yes, yes....

'There's a place in this chorus For you and for me, And the theme of it ever And always shall be:

Hallelujah, 'tis do-ne!

I believe....'

Hum!...I thought that paint can was full and there ain't more'n a half pint in it.I must have drunk it in my sleep, Iguess.Do I look green around the mouth, Sam?"It was just before Captain Sam's departure that he spoke of his daughter and young Phillips.He mentioned them in a most casual fashion, as he was putting on his coat to go, but Jed had a feeling that his friend had stopped at the windmill shop on purpose to discuss that very subject and that all the detail of his Wapatomac trip had been in the nature of a subterfuge to conceal this fact.

"Oh," said the captain, with somewhat elaborate carelessness, as he struggled into the heavy coat, "I don't know as I told you that the directors voted to raise Charlie's salary.Um-hm, at last Saturday's meetin' they did it.'Twas unanimous, too.He's as smart as a whip, that young chap.We all think a heap of him."Jed nodded, but made no comment.The captain fidgeted with a button of his coat.He turned toward the door, stopped, cleared his throat, hesitated, and then turned back again.

"Jed," he said, "has--has it seemed to you that--that he--that Charlie was--maybe--comin' to think consider'ble of--of my daughter--of Maud?"Jed looked up, caught his eye, and looked down again.Captain Sam sighed.

"I see," he said."You don't need to answer.I presume likely the whole town has been talkin' about it for land knows how long.It's generally the folks at home that don't notice till the last gun fires.Of course I knew he was comin' to the house a good deal and that he and Maud seemed to like each other's society, and all that.

But it never struck me that--that it meant anything serious, you know--anything--anything--well, you know what I mean, Jed.""Yes.Yes, Sam, I suppose I do."

"Yes.Well, I--I don't know why it never struck me, either.If Georgianna--if my wife had been alive, she'd have noticed, I'll bet, but I didn't.'Twas only last evenin'; when he came to get her to go to the pictures, that it came across me, you might say, like--like a wet, cold rope's end' slappin' me in the face.I give you my word, Jed, I--I kind of shivered all over.She means--she means somethin' to me, that little girl and--and--"He seemed to find it hard to go on.Jed leaned forward.

"I know, Sam, I know," he said.His friend nodded.

"I know you do, Jed," he said."I don't think there's anybody else knows so well.I'm glad I've got you to talk to.I cal'late, though," he added, with a short laugh, "if some folks knew I came here to--to talk over my private affairs they'd think I was goin'

soft in the head."

Jed smiled, and there was no resentment in the smile.

"They'd locate the softness in t'other head of the two, Sam," he suggested.