_ CHAPTER XII
That evening the Captain dropped the brass knocker to the Elder's front door with a heavy thud. A servant opened the door.
"I want to see Mr. Fox."
"He's not in, sir. Will you leave any----"
"Who is it, Debbs?" called a voice from the top of the stair.
"Captain Pott, sir. I thought you was to see no one to-night, sir."
"That's all right. Send him right up to my room."
The Elder's den was across the hall from his daughter's room, in the most quiet part of the house.
"Right in here, Josiah. We shall be more private here than down-stairs."
The Captain entered, and took the chair indicated by the Elder.
"I was very busy, and told Debbs I was not to be disturbed, but I recognized your voice, and--er--wanted to see you. It has been quite a long while since we have had a friendly chat, Josiah. I wish you would come more often. I get very lonesome in this big place. Have a cigar? No? I shall, if you don't mind."
"We ain't been none too neighborly, as you might say."
"Why don't you come up once in a while?"
"Cal'late for the same reason you don't get over to the other end of the road. For one thing, I'm too busy paying off debts."
The Elder looked questioningly at the seaman as he touched the lighted end of a match to his cigar. "That is true. We--er--are busy, too busy for our own good. We ought to be more sociable here in Little River. We need something to stir us up."
"We're too damn selfish, if you ask me. As far as stirring goes, I cal'late we've got as much of that as any town along this coast. About all a feller can do is to set his teeth against the hurricane and grin."
The Elder laughed without restraint, and his visitor began to show signs of uneasiness.
"You'd best be careful with them delicate blood-vessels," mildly suggested the Captain.
"True, Josiah. But that was a good joke, a very good joke. One can take it in two ways."
"Not the way I mean it. There's enough gossip----"
"Yes, we are too selfish," broke in the Elder, "and it is too bad. I often think of the time we were kids together. We had our little scraps, made up, and were ready to fight for each other."
The Captain could recall no occasion when he had fought for Jim Fox.
"How long ago that all seems! Yet how--er--happy were those days. No cares. No sorrows. No troubles. No misunderstandings. Excuse me, Josiah. I don't know why it is that I hark back like this when we get together. But it does me a world of good."
"Maybe you've got another fish to fry," suggested the Captain, wholly untouched by the Elder's memory picture. "That was the way you done when you wanted us boys to do something for you, and you ain't got over it with age."
"I was quite a diplomat in those days, wasn't I? But we can't bring them back. No, sir, we can't. They are--er--gone forever."
"I ain't sartin I want to fetch 'em back. Leastwise, that wa'n't my purpose in coming here to-night. I come over to see you about that mortgage you slipped over on me."
"Mortgage?"
"Yes, mortgage."
"Oh! You refer to that little loan I made you some time ago? That was--er--real humor calling it a mortgage."
"It may be funny to you, but it ain't to me."
"I hope that little matter isn't bothering you."
"It ain't, but a feller from the city is. He told me you was intending to take my place."
"I'm sorry he told you that. I do not know what I should do with it if I had it."
"I don't know what I'd do without it, Jim."
"I think it can be arranged without difficulty. It is such a small matter."
"It may look small to you, but it looks a heap sight different to me."
"I know, Josiah. It is very opportune that you have come to me to-night. Not more than an hour ago I was thinking of you, and wishing I might--er--see you. I have been thinking, too, of others, some who stood by me in time of peril and poverty. I feel greatly indebted to them, and since they were members of your family, I must now show my appreciation for their kindness."
"I cal'late you're referring to them you served a dirty trick over in Australia."
"Why, Josiah! I have told you a hundred times that I was never in Australia," declared the other, paling slightly.
"That's so, you have, Jim. Excuse me."
"As I was saying," he continued, showing great relief, "I feel indebted to them, and I want to pay back----"
"Look here, Jim, you needn't offer none of your blood money. It don't look good to me."
It was a bold stroke, but it went home. The color crept slowly from the Elder's sanguine face.
"I have no intention of offering you charity."
"You know damn well you dasn't. I'm not speaking of charity, and you know that, too, Jim. I'm speaking of blood money, and I mean just what I say."
"You are still the same doubting Thomas, I see. Do you recall how you were always the last one--er--to be won over to a new enterprise?" The Elder tried to smile.
"I had good reason to go slow. A mite of caution is a purty fair endowment of nature where some people's schemes is concerned. If I'd used a little of it last spring I'd not be in the fix I am to-day."
"But that bump of caution on your head is pretty hard on your friends."
"I cal'late it won't hurt my friends none. We wa'n't speaking of them just then. Anyhow, it's kept me with a clean conscience to sleep with, and I'd a heap sight rather ship with clear rigging than be ballasted with some people's money and have to make bedfellows with their conscience."
"Yes,--er--ahem--quite true," was the hasty reply. "What can I do for you, Josiah? If I can be of the least service,--er--I shall be only too glad."
"It depends on what you've got to offer me. The fust thing I'd like to suggest is that you stop that there er-ing and hem-ing. There ain't no one here but me, and it don't make no impression. Being that you're so infernal anxious to get back to boyhood days we might just as well go all-hog on it. You didn't try none of that foolishness then."
"What you say is quite true." The Elder stroked his chops thoughtfully.
"You didn't have them things to pet, neither. You might just as well stop that. It makes me nervous."
Elder Fox eyed him narrowly. He had a mind to tell this man to leave his house at once. He even entertained the thought that it might be a good thing to call Debbs and have him put out. But a certain fear, which had for years haunted the Elder, laid a cold restraining hand on his inclinations.
"Yes, Josiah, those are habits that I have formed in business. Dealing with so many different kinds of men makes us do odd things at times, and if repeated often enough they become habits. I have always tried to be courteous even to men that bore me, and I presume I took on those senseless little syllables to temper my natural brusqueness."
"Well, you don't need 'em to-night, and you can be as brusque as you like."
"Before we speak of that little matter between us, I have something else I want to say. When we have finished, I trust there will be no need to mention the other."
"If it's advice you're wanting to give, I'll tell you right off that I've had enough of it. What I need is time on that mortgage you and your crooked lawyer put over on me."
"There may be lots of money in what I have to propose. In fact, there is, if you do as I say. How badly do you want a ship to man and command?"
"See here, Jim, I ain't in no frame of mind to be fooled with to-night. If you don't mean just what you're going to say, you'd best not say it."
"I mean every word of it, but I shall expect more consideration and respect from you before I open my mouth again."
"If you're in dead earnest, Jim, I beg your pardon. This damn mortgage has got on my nerves purty bad. Heave over your proposition, and get it off your chest."
"I shall have to exact one promise from you."
The Captain took one step toward the Elder's chair, his swarthy old face alight with anticipation and hope. One promise! He would give a hundred, and keep them all. The Captain was fine-looking at all times, every span of him a man and a seaman. But when his face was bright with eagerness, and his muscular body tense with anticipation, he was superb. To those less steeled against human magnetism than Mr. Fox, he was irresistible at such times. The Elder merely waved him back to the vacated chair.
"That one promise will bind us both," he said coldly. "In fact, it is to your interest as well as to mine to make it. You will not see it at first, but time will prove that I am right in asking it."
"I'll promise anything that's reasonable if you'll only swing me the job of skipper."
"Very well." The Elder began to shuffle some papers with deft fingers.
"But that there mortgage, Jim, is soon due, and----"
"We shall not speak of that for the present. There are other ways of disposing of mortgages than by paying them," he remarked, striking a match and holding it significantly beneath a piece of paper which the Captain recognized as the one displayed by the lawyer yesterday.
Captain Pott did not take his eyes from the face of the man across the table. A suspicion was forcing its way into his mind, and it was as unpleasant as it was unwelcome.
"How do I know that you'll keep your end of the promise, Jim?"
"You have my word."
"I had that afore, at the time you give me that money, but it didn't get me nothing."
"I do not remember that I gave any definite promise. I said I would do my best for you, and I did."
"Maybe you done your best, but----"
"We'll not quarrel about that. There is nothing indefinite about the position I have to offer you this time. I have the papers here on my table, and the command is yours in less than five minutes after you make the promise. At the same time the note for my loan to you goes into the fire."
"Well, is there any special reason why you should take so long to get this thing off your chest?"
"I want you to realize the importance of the request I have to make." The Elder threw aside what little mask he had been wearing. An imperious note crept into his voice, giving it a hard metallic ring. "It is time for you to recognize, Josiah, that I have you about where I want you. I can make or ruin you in five minutes, and it all depends on how you reply now. Think hard before you answer."
"That's right, Jim, you've got me with a purty tight hip-hold," admitted the Captain. "But I'm waiting just now for them orders to see if I'm going to sign up."
"You'll sign up, I'm not afraid of that. That is, if you really wish to keep your place. The promise that you are to make to me is concerning the man staying in your house."
Captain Pott stiffened, and threw up his guard. He carefully concealed his rising anger, however. He must be more certain of his ground before he made any leap that might prove dangerous.
"What in tarnation has he got to do with this affair?"
"He has everything to do with it, so far as you are concerned at this particular moment. We must get that man out of this town. You must believe me when I tell you that such action is as much to your interest as mine. If he is permitted to stay here----"
"Heave to, there, Jim!" exploded the seaman. He leaned across the table and glared at the man on the other side.
"There, now, sit down and compose yourself," soothed the Elder. "I was prepared for you to take it this way at first. I don't mean anything against the man, so far as his personal character is concerned, but his presence here is a decided menace both to you and me. If I dared to tell you the whole truth, you, too, would see the sense of my request. It is best that he go for his own good, too. Some physical violence will certainly be done him if he remains. You must see with me that it is best on that one point that we remove him quietly from the town. Sim Hicks has sworn to do him harm. Now, you are the logical man to go to Mr. McGowan, and show him the sense of his leaving Little River. You seem to be the only one who can influence him in any degree."
"By the Almighty, Jim Fox! If it wa'n't for your darter, I'd swipe up this floor with your dirty carcass!"
"It will be best if you take this calmly, Josiah, and stop your foolish raving. Just listen to reason for once in your life. There is a past in that man's life known to a very select few. I came across it accidentally. If it became known it would create no end of scandal and ruin our little church. That man had no good intention in putting in his request for the Little River pulpit. What is more, he is not a real minister of the gospel. He is using it merely as a pretext."
The Captain caught his breath. "He ain't a minister? What do you mean by that?"
"Nothing more than what it conveys to your mind. I cannot tell you more, just now."
"Jim, you're lying to me!"
"Be careful, Josiah. You are making a very serious charge, and I may decide to make you prove it in court."
The seaman reached into his coat-pocket for the yellow bit of paper which Miss Pipkin had given him that morning. But he quickly withdrew his hand without the paper. The thought flashed through his mind that he could not prove with certainty the truth of the message written thereon.
"I've got something here in my pocket that'd interest you a heap, Jim. But I ain't able to prove it all, so it can wait for a spell. But if it leads in the direction I think it does, the Lord pity you!"
"I'd advise you to hold your tongue, as it might get you into trouble. If you will drop all that foolishness about getting even with me for imaginary wrongs, we shall be able to talk business. Here are the receipts for the full amount I loaned you, and here are papers waiting your signature and mine that will put you in command of the best vessel put out by our company in many years. It all depends now on your willingness to help me get Mr. McGowan out of our town."
Mr. Fox shoved the papers temptingly across the table, keeping one hand on the corner of them. The Captain appeared to waver. Of course, he acknowledged, it did seem easy. But he did not touch the papers. He rather drew back as though they were deadly poison. He eyed the Elder narrowly.
"Well, what do you say?"
"Jim Fox,"--began the seaman slowly, his voice lowering with the rise of his anger,--"you're a white-livered coward! You've always been getting others to do your dirty work for you, and I'm sartin now that you're offering me a bribe to help stack your damn cards against Mack. There ain't money enough in the world to make me do that. I see your game just as plain as though you'd written it out like you done them papers. You mean to wreck Mack's life, and you're asking me to sit in with you and the devil while you do it. You mean to throw him out of a job, and you mean to keep him from getting another by working through that Means hypocrite. Yes, I can see through you, as plain as a slit canvas. There's something infernal back of all this, and that something is your goat. You're skeered that the minister is going to get it, and that's what is ailing you. By God! I'll be on deck to help him, whether he's a preacher or a detective from Australia looking for crooks. You've been lying all these years about where you made your money. You've been telling that you got it in Africa, trading in diamonds. I've got a piece of paper in my pocket that blows up your lies like dynamite. You was in Australia all them years. By the Almighty! I'm going to sign up with the preacher, and I don't care a tinker's dam if you get the last cent I have, and send me up Riverhead way to the Poor Farm to eat off the county. Foreclose on my property! That ain't no more than you've been doing to others all your miserable life. It ain't no more than you done to Clemmie Pipkin years ago, leaving her nothing to live on. But mine will be the last you'll foreclose on, and I'm going to see one or two of the best lawyers in the city afore you do that!"
The Captain strode from the room and down the stair. Mr. Fox called feebly, begging him to return. But the seaman was deaf with rage, and he left the house without hearing the mumbled petition of an apparently penitent Elder.
Captain Pott half ran, half stumbled, down to the wharf. He hurriedly untied his dory, and rowed out to the
Jennie P. A little later he anchored his power-boat in the harbor of Little River where the railroad station was located. He rowed ashore, secured his dory, and ran to the depot. He climbed aboard the city-bound train just as it began to move. _