"He insisted on doing it--on asking my advice. So I advised in a way to help you. I am glad, for your sake, that he is coming to his senses."
"I thank you for your help," she said, stiffly.
"Of course it"s none of my business. I"m sorry he told me. But I wish you all happiness."
She rose as if to go away. Then she stamped her foot and sat down. "My father ought to be muzzled!"
She realized that he might misinterpret her indignation, for he said: "I"m ashamed because I meddled in your affairs. But from what you saw to-day in my case, I felt that I ought to help others who are in the same trouble."
"But my father has mistaken my--" She broke off in much confusion, not understanding the queer look he gave her. "I--I am glad my father is coming to his senses and will allow me to--to--marry the young man," she stammered. "And now I think I may be allowed to say that I hope you may have the girl you love, some day. Would you like to have me talk to you about her--how dear and pretty I think she is?"
"No, it hurts! But I do want you to know, Miss Can-dage, that I"m not out fortune-hunting. I love her for herself--just herself--nothing more!"
"I know it must be so."
"And I know that a young man you would choose is worthy of you. I told your father--"
"No matter. _That_ hurts, too! We both understand. We"ll leave it there!"
After the declaration of that truce they were frankly at ease and began to chat with friendly freedom. The dusk came shading into the west, the evening star dripped silver light.
"It"s a peaceful spot here," she suggested. "Everybody seems to be contented."
"Contentment--in a rut--that may be the best way of pa.s.sing this life, after all."
"But if you were in the rut, Captain Mayo, you might find that contentment would not agree to come and live with you."
"Probably it wouldn"t! I"d have to be born to the life here like this chap who is coming up the hill. You can see that he isn"t worrying about himself or the world outside."
The man was clumping slowly along in his rubber boots; an old cap was slewed awry on his head, its peak drawn down over one ear. He c.o.c.ked up the other ear at sound of voices on the porch and loafed up and sat down on the edge of the boarding. Captain Mayo and the girl, accustomed to bland indifference to formality in rural neighborhoods, accepted this interruption without surprise or protest.
""Tain"t a bad night as nights go," stated the caller.
"It"s a beautiful night," said Polly Candage.
"I reckon it seems so to you, after what you went through. I"ve been harking to your father telling the yarn down to the store."
They did not reply, having their own ideas as to Captain Candage"s loquacity.
The caller hauled a plug of tobacco from his pocket, gnawed off a chew, and began slow wagging of his jaws. "This world is full of trouble," he observed,
"It seems to be," agreed Captain Mayo.
"Them what"s down get kicked further down."
"Also true, in many cases."
"Take your case! It"s bad. But our"n is worse!" The caller pointed to the dim bulk of a small island which the cove held between the bold jaws of its headland. "The old sir who named that Hue and Cry Island must have smelt into the future so as to know what was going to happen there some day--and this is the day!" He chewed on, and his silence became irritating.
"Well, what has happened?" demanded the captain.
"It hasn"t happened just yet--it"s going to."
Further silence.
"Tell us what"s going to happen, can"t you?"
"Of course I can, now that you have asked me. I ain"t no hand to b.u.t.t in. I ain"t no hand to do things unless I"m asked. There"s seventeen fam"lies of us on Hue and Cry and they"ve told us to get off."
"Who told you?"
"The state! Some big bugs come along and said the Governor sent "em, and they showed papers and we"ve got to go."
"But I know about Hue and Cry!" protested Mayo. "You people have lived there for years!"
"Sure have! My grandfather was one of the first settlers. Most all of us who live there had grandfathers who settled the place. But according to what is told us, some heirs have found papers what say that they own the island. The state bought out the heirs. Now the state says get off.
We"re only squatters, state says."
"But, good Caesar, man, you have squatter rights after all these years.
Hire a lawyer. Fight the case!"
"We ain"t fighters. "Ain"t got no money--"ain"t got no friends. Might have fit plain heirs, but you can"t fight the state--leastways, poor cusses like us can"t."
"Where are you going?"
"Well, there"s the problem! That"s what made me say that this world is full of trouble. You see, we have taken town help in years past--had to do it or starve winters. And we have had state aid, too. They say that makes paupers of us. Every town round about has served notice that we can"t settle there and gain pauper residence. Hue and Cry "ain"t ever been admitted to any town. Towns say, seeing that the state has ordered us off, now let the state take care of us."
"And men have been here, representing the state?"
"You bet they have."
"What do they say?"
"Say get off! But they won"t let us settle on the main. Looks like they wanted us to go up in balloons. But we hain"t got no balloons. Got to move, though."
"I never heard of such a thing!"
"Nor I, neither," admitted this man, with a sort of calm numbness of discouragement. "But that ain"t anyways surprising. We don"t hear much about anything on Hue and Cry till they come and tell us. Speaking for myself, I ain"t so awful much fussed up. I"ve got a house-bo"t to take my wife and young ones on, and we"ll keep on digging clams for trawlers--sixty cents a bucket, shucked, and we can dig and shuck a bucket a day, all hands turning to. We won"t starve. But I pity the poor critters that "ain"t got a house-bo"t. Looks like they"d need wings. I ain"t worrying a mite, I say. I had the best house on the island, and the state has allowed a hundred and fifty dollars for it. I consider I"m well fixed."
The plutocrat of the unhappy tribe of Hue and Cry rose and stretched with a comfortable grunt.
"If it ain"t one thing it"s another," he said, as he started off. "We"ve got to have about so much trouble, anyway, and it might just as well be this as anything else." %
"Why, that"s an awful thing to happen to those people!" declared the girl. "I must say, he takes it calmly."
"He is a fair sample of some of the human jellyfish I have found hidden away in odd corners on this coast," stated Captain Mayo. "Not enough mind or spirit left to fight for his own protection. But this thing is almost unbelievable. It can"t be possible that the state is gunning an affair like this! I"ll find somebody who knows more about it than that clam-digging machine!"
A little later a man strolled past, hands behind his back. He was placidly smoking a cigar, and, though the dusk had deepened, Mayo could perceive that he was attired with some pretensions to city smartness.