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Shavings, a novel by Joseph Crosby Lincoln |
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Chapter 16 |
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_ CHAPTER XVI 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. I told 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. . . .
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. "I don't care where they locate it. I can talk to you about things I never mention to other folks. Guess it must be because you--you-- well, I don't know, but it's so, anyhow. . . . Well, to go ahead, after the young folks had gone I sat there alone in the parlor, in the dark, tryin' to think it out. The housekeeper had gone over to her brother's, so I had the place to myself. I thought and thought and the harder I thought the lonesomer the rest of my life began to look. And yet--and yet I kept tellin' myself how selfish and foolish that was. I knew 'twas a dead sartinty she'd be gettin' married some time. You and I have laughed about it and joked about it time and again. And I've joked about it with her, too. But-- but jokin's one thing and this was another. . . . Whew!" He drew a hand across his forehead. Jed did not speak. After a moment the captain went on. "Well," he said, "when she got home, and after he'd gone, I got Maud to sit on my knee, same as she's done ever since she was a little girl, and she and I had a talk. I kind of led up to the subject, as you might say, and by and by we--well, we talked it out pretty straight. She thinks an awful sight of him, Jed. There ain't any doubt about that, she as much as told me in those words, and more than told me in other ways. And he's the only one she's ever cared two straws for, she told me that. And--and--well, I think she thinks he cares for her that way, too, although of course she didn't say so. But he hasn't spoken to her yet. I don't know, but--but it seemed to me, maybe, that he might be waitin' to speak to me first. I'm his--er--boss, you know, and perhaps he may feel a little--little under obligations to me in a business way and that might make it harder for him to speak. Don't it seem to you maybe that might be it, Jed?" Poor Jed hesitated. Then he stammered that he shouldn't be surprised. Captain Sam sighed. "Well," he said, "if that's it, it does him credit, anyhow. I ain't goin' to be selfish in this thing, Jed. If she's goin' to have a husband--and she is, of course--I cal'late I'd rather 'twas Charlie than anybody else I've ever run across. He's smart and he'll climb pretty high, I cal'late. Our little single-sticked bankin' craft ain't goin' to be big enough for him to sail in very long. I can see that already. He'll be navigatin' a clipper one of these days. Well, that's the way I'd want it. I'm pretty ambitious for that girl of mine and I shouldn't be satisfied short of a top-notcher. And he's a GOOD feller, Jed; a straight, clean, honest and above-board young chap. That's the best of it, after all, ain't it?" Jed's reply was almost a groan, but his friend did not notice. He put on his overcoat and turned to go. "So, there you are," he said. "I had to talk to somebody, had to get it off my chest, and, as I just said, it seems to be easier to talk such things to you than anybody else. Now if any of the town gas engines--Gab Bearse or anybody else--comes cruisin' in here heavin' overboard questions about how I like the notion of Maud and Charlie takin' up with each other, you can tell 'em I'm tickled to death. That won't be all lie, neither. I can't say I'm happy, exactly, but Maud is and I'm goin' to make-believe be, for her sake. So long." He went out. Jed put his elbows on the workbench and covered his face with his hands. He was still in that position when Ruth Armstrong came in. He rose hastily, but she motioned him to sit again. "Jed," she said, "Captain Hunniwell was just here with you; I saw him go. Tell me, what was he talking about?" Jed was confused. "Why--why, Mrs. Ruth," he stammered, "he was just talkin' about--about a note he'd been collectin', and--and such." "Wasn't he speaking of his daughter--and--and my brother?" This time Jed actually gasped. Ruth drew a long breath. "I knew it," she said. "But--but, for mercy sakes, HOW did you know? Did he--?" "No, he didn't see me at all. I was watching him from the window. But I saw his face and--" with a sudden gesture of desperation, "Oh, it wasn't that at all, Jed. It was my guilty conscience, I guess. I've been expecting him to speak to you--or me--have been dreading it every day--and now somehow I knew he had spoken. I KNEW it. What did he say, Jed?" Jed told the substance of what Captain Sam had said. She listened. When he finished her eyes were wet. "Oh, it is dreadful," she moaned. "I--I was so hoping she might not care for Charlie. But she does--of course she does. She couldn't help it," with a sudden odd little flash of loyalty. Jed rubbed his chin in desperation. "And--and Charlie?" he asked, anxiously. "Does he--" "Yes, yes, I'm sure he does. He has never told me so, never in so many words, but I can see. I know him better than any one else in the world and I can see. I saw first, I think, on Thanksgiving Day; at least that is when I first began to suspect--to fear." Jed nodded. "When they was at the piano together that time and Sam said somethin' about their bein' a fine-lookin' couple?" he said. "Why, yes, that was it. Are you a mind reader, Jed?" "No-o, I guess not. But I saw you lookin' kind of surprised and-- er--well, scared for a minute. I was feelin' the same way just then, so it didn't need any mind reader to guess what had scared you." "I see. But, oh, Jed, it is dreadful! What SHALL we do? What will become of us all? And now, when I--I had just begun to be happy, really happy." She caught her breath in a sob. Jed instinctively stretched out his hand. "But there," she went on, hurriedly wiping her eyes, "I mustn't do this. This is no time for me to think of myself. Jed, this mustn't go any further. He must not ask her to marry him; he must not think of such a thing." Jed sadly shook his head. "I'm afraid you're right," he said. "Not as things are now he surely mustn't. But--but, Mrs. Ruth--" "Oh, don't!" impatiently. "Don't use that silly 'Mrs.' any longer. Aren't you the--the best friend I have in the world? Do call me Ruth." If she had been looking at his face just then she might have seen-- things. But she was not looking. There was an interval of silence before he spoke. "Well, then--er--Ruth--" he faltered. "That's right. Go on." "I was just goin' to ask you if you thought Charlie was cal'latin' to ask her. I ain't so sure that he is." He told of Charles' recent visit to the windmill shop and the young man's query concerning the making of a decision. She listened anxiously. "But don't you think that means that he was wondering whether or not he should ask her?" she said. "No. That is, I don't think it's sartin sure it means that. I rather had the notion it might mean he was figgerin' whether or not to go straight to Sam and make a clean breast of it." "You mean tell--tell everything?" "Yes, all about the--the business at Middleford. I do honestly believe that's what the boy's got on his mind to do. It ain't very surprisin' that he backs and fills some before that mind's made up. See what it might mean to him: it might mean the loss of his prospects here and his place in the bank and, more'n everything else, losin' Maud. It's some decision to make. If I had to make it I-- Well, I don't know." She put her hand to her eyes. "The POOR boy," she said, under her breath. "But, Jed, DO you think that is the decision he referred to? And why hasn't he said a word to me, his own sister, about it? I'm sure he loves me." "Sartin he does, and that's just it, as I see it. It ain't his own hopes and prospects alone that are all wrapped up in this thing, it's yours--and Babbie's. He's troubled about what'll happen to you. That's why he hasn't asked your advice, I believe." They were both silent for a moment. Then she said, pleadingly, "Oh, Jed, it is up to you and me, isn't it? What shall we do?" It was the "we" in this sentence which thrilled. If she had bade him put his neck in front of the handsaw just then Jed would have obeyed, and smilingly have pulled the lever which set the machine in motion. But the question, nevertheless, was a staggerer. "W-e-e-ll," he admitted, "I--I hardly know what to say, I will give in. To be right down honest--and the Lord knows I hate to say it-- it wouldn't do for a minute to let those two young folks get engaged--to say nothin' of gettin' married--with this thing between 'em. It wouldn't be fair to her, nor to Sam--no, nor to him or you, either. You see that, don't you?" he begged. "You know I don't say it for any reason but just--just for the best interests of all hands. You know that, don't you--Ruth?" "Of course, of course. But what then?" "I don't really know what then. Seems to me the very first thing would be for you to speak to him, put the question right up to him, same as he's been puttin' it to himself all this time. Get him to talk it over with you. And then--well, then--" "Yes?" "Oh, I don't know! I declare I don't." "Suppose he tells me he means to marry her in spite of everything? Suppose he won't listen to me at all?" That possibility had been in Jed's mind from the beginning, but he refused to consider it. "He will listen," he declared, stoutly. "He always has, hasn't he?" "Yes, yes, I suppose he has. He listened to me when I persuaded him that coming here and hiding all--all that happened was the right thing to do. And now see what has come of it! And it is all my fault. Oh, I have been so selfish!" "Sshh! sshh! You ain't; you couldn't be if you tried. And, besides, I was as much to blame as you. I agreed that 'twas the best thing to do." "Oh," reproachfully, "how can you say that? You know you were opposed to it always. You only say it because you think it will comfort me. It isn't true." "Eh? Now--now, don't talk so. Please don't. If you keep on talkin' that way I'll do somethin' desperate, start to make a johnny cake out of sawdust, same as I did yesterday mornin', or somethin' else crazy." "Jed!" "It's true, that about the johnny cake. I came pretty nigh doin' that very thing. I bought a five-pound bag of corn meal yesterday and fetched it home from the store all done up in a nice neat bundle. Comin' through the shop here I had it under my arm, and-- hum--er--well, to anybody else it couldn't have happened, but, bein' Jed Shavin's Winslow, I was luggin' the thing with the top of the bag underneath. I got about abreast of the lathe there when the string came off and in less'n two thirds of a shake all I had under my arm was the bag; the meal was on the floor--what wasn't in my coat pocket and stuck to my clothes and so on. I fetched the water bucket and started to salvage what I could of the cargo. Pretty soon I had, as nigh as I could reckon it, about fourteen pound out of the five scooped up and in the bucket. I begun to think the miracle of loaves and fishes was comin' to pass again. I was some shy on fish, but I was makin' up on loaves. Then I sort of looked matters over and found what I had in the bucket was about one pound of meal to seven of sawdust. Then I gave it up. Seemed to me the stuff might be more fillin' than nourishin'." Ruth smiled faintly. Then she shook her head. "Oh, Jed," she said, "you're as transparent as a windowpane. Thank you, though. If anything could cheer me up and help me to forget I think you could." Jed looked repentant. "I'd no business to tell you all that rigamarole," he said. "I'm sorry. I'm always doin' the wrong thing, seems so. But," he added, earnestly, "I don't want you to worry too much about your brother--er--Ruth. It's goin' to come out all right, I know it. God won't let it come out any other way." She had never heard him speak in just that way before and she looked at him in surprise. "And yet God permits many things that seem entirely wrong to us humans," she said. "I know. Things like the Kaiser, for instance. Well, never mind; this one's goin' to come out all right. I feel it in my bones. And," with a return of his whimsical drawl, "I may be short on brains, but a blind man could see they never skimped me when they passed out the bones." She looked at him a moment. Then, suddenly leaning forward, she put her hand upon his big red one as it lay upon the bench. "Jed," she said, earnestly, "what should I do without you? You are my one present help in time of trouble. I wonder if you know what you have come to mean to me." It was an impulsive speech, made from the heart, and without thought of phrasing or that any meaning other than that intended could be read into it. A moment later, and without waiting for an answer, she hurried from the shop. "I must go," she said. "I shall think over your advice, Jed, and I will let you know what I decide to do. Thank you ever and ever so much." Jed scarcely heard her. After she had gone, he sat perfectly still by the bench for a long period, gazing absently at the bare wall of the shop and thinking strange thoughts. After a time he rose and, walking into the little sitting-room, sat down beside the ugly little oak writing table he had bought at a second-hand sale and opened the upper drawer. Weeks before, Ruth, yielding to Babbie's urgent appeal, had accompanied the latter to the studio of the local photographer and there they had been photographed, together, and separately. The results, although not artistic triumphs, being most inexpensive, had been rather successful as likenesses. Babbie had come trotting in to show Jed the proofs. A day or so later he found one of the said proofs on the shop floor where the little girl had dropped it. It happened to be a photograph of Ruth, sitting alone. And then Jed Winslow did what was perhaps the first dishonest thing he had ever done. He put that proof in the drawer of the oak writing table and said nothing of his having found it. Later he made a wooden frame for it and covered it with glass. It faded and turned black as all proofs do, but still Jed kept it in the drawer and often, very often, opened that drawer and looked at it. Now he looked at it for a long, long time and when he rose to go back to the shop there was in his mind, along with the dream that had been there for days and weeks, for the first time the faintest dawning of a hope. Ruth's impulsive speech, hastily and unthinkingly made, was repeating itself over and over in his brain. "I wonder if you know what you have come to mean to me?" What had he come to mean to her? An hour later, as he sat at his bench, Captain Hunniwell came banging in once more. But this time the captain looked troubled. "Jed," he asked, anxiously, "have you found anything here since I went out?" Jed looked up. "Eh?" he asked, absently. "Found? What have you found, Sam?" "I? I haven't found anything. I've lost four hundred dollars, though. You haven't found it, have you?" Still Jed did not appear to comprehend. He had been wandering the rose-bordered paths of fairyland and was not eager to come back to earth. "Eh?" he drawled. "You've--what?" His friend's peppery temper broke loose. "For thunder sakes wake up!" he roared. "I tell you I've lost four hundred dollars of the fourteen hundred I told you I collected from Sylvester Sage over to Wapatomac this mornin'. I had three packages of bills, two of five hundred dollars each and one of four hundred. The two five hundred packages were in the inside pocket of my overcoat where I put 'em. But the four hundred one's gone. What I want to know is, did it drop out when I took off my coat here in the shop? Do you get that through your head, finally?" It had gotten through. Jed now looked as troubled as his friend. He rose hastily and went over to the pile of boards upon which Captain Sam had thrown his coat upon entering the shop on his previous visit that day. Together they searched, painstakingly and at length. The captain was the first to give up. "'Tain't here," he snapped. "I didn't think 'twas. Where in time is it? That's what I want to know." Jed rubbed his chin. "Are you sure you had it when you left Wapatomac?" he asked. "Sure? No, I ain't sure of anything. But I'd have sworn I did. The money was on the table along with my hat and gloves. I picked it up and shoved it in my overcoat pocket. And that was a darned careless place to put it, too," he added, testily. "I'd have given any feller that worked for me the devil for doin' such a thing." Jed nodded, sympathetically. "But you might have left it there to Sylvester's," he said. "Have you thought of telephonin' to find out?" "Have I thought? Tut, tut, tut! Do you think I've got a head like a six-year-old young-one--or you? Course I've thought--and 'phoned, too. But it didn't do me any good. Sylvester's house is shut up and the old man's gone to Boston, so the postmaster told me when I 'phoned and asked him. Won't be back for a couple of days, anyhow. I remember he told me he was goin'!" "Sho, sho! that's too bad." "Bad enough, but I don't think it makes any real difference. I swear I had that money when I left Sage's. I came in here and then I went straight to the bank." "And after you got there?" "Oh, when I got there I found no less than three men, not countin' old Mrs. Emmeline Bartlett, in my room waitin' to see me. Nellie Hall--my typewriter, you know--she knew where I'd been and what a crank old Sage is and she says: 'Did you get the money, Cap'n?' And I says: 'Yes, it's in my overcoat pocket this minute.' Then I hurried in to 'tend to the folks that was waitin' for me. 'Twas an hour later afore I went to my coat to get the cash. Then, as I say, all I could find was the two five hundred packages. The four hundred one was gone." "Sho, sho! Tut, tut, tut! Where did you put the coat when you took it off?" "On the hook in the clothes closet where I always put it." "Hum-m! And--er--when you told Nellie about it did you speak loud?" "Loud? No louder'n I ever do." "Well--er--that ain't a--er--whisper, Sam, exactly." "Don't make any difference. There wasn't anybody outside the railin' that minute to hear if I'd bellered like a bull of Bashan. There was nobody in the bank, I tell you, except the three men and old Aunt Emmeline and they were waitin' in my private room. And except for Nellie and Eddie Ellis, the messenger, and Charlie Phillips, there wan't a soul around, as it happened. The money hasn't been stolen; I lost it somewheres--but where? Well, I can't stop here any longer. I'm goin' back to the bank to have another hunt." He banged out again. Fortunately he did not look at his friend's face before he went. For that face had a singular expression upon it. Jed sat heavily down in the chair by the bench. A vivid recollection of a recent remark made in that very shop had suddenly come to him. Charlie Phillips had made it in answer to a question of his own. Charlie had declared that he would do almost anything to get five hundred dollars. _ |
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