"And away he goes; and for an hour that had no less"n sixty thousand minutes in it I clung to that tree like a green apple, with Prince setting open-mouthed underneath waiting for me to get ripe and drop.
"Just as I was figgering that I was growing fast to the limb, I heard somebody calling my name. I unglued my eyes from the dog and looked up, and there, looking over the fence that I"d tried so hard to reach, was Barbara Saunders, Cap"n Eben Saunders" girl, who lived in the house next door to mine.
"Barbara was always a pretty girl, and that morning she looked prettier than ever, with her black hair blowing every which way and her black eyes snapping full of laugh. Barbara Saunders in a white shirt-waist and an old, mended skirt could give ten lengths in a beauty race to any craft in silks and satins that ever _I_ see, and beat "em hull down at that.
""Why, Mr. Nickerson!" she calls. "What are you doing up in that tree?"
"That was kind of a puzzler to answer offhand, and I don"t know what I"d have said if friend Allie hadn"t hove in sight just then and saved me the trouble. He come strolling out of the woods with a cigarette in his mouth, and when he saw Barbara he stopped short and looked and looked at her. And for a minute she looked at him, and the red come up in her cheeks like a sunrise.
""Beg pardon, I"m sure," says Allie, tossing away the cigarette. "May I ask if that--er--deep-sea gentleman in my tree is a friend of yours?"
"Barbara kind of laughed and dropped her eyes, and said why, yes, I was.
""By Jove! he"s luckier than I thought," says Allie, never taking his eyes from her face. "And what do they call him, please, when they want him to answer?" That"s what he asked, though, mind you, he"d said he knew who I was when he first saw me.
""It"s Mr. Nickerson," says Barbara. "He lives in that house there. The one this side of ours."
""Oh, a neighbor! That"s different. Awfully sorry, I"m sure. Prince, come here. Er--Nickerson, for the lady"s sake we"ll call it off. You may--er--vacate the perch."
"I waited till he"d got a clove-hitch onto Prince. He had to give him one or two welts over the head "fore he could do it; the dog acted like he"d been cheated. Then I pried myself loose from that blessed limb and shinned down to solid ground. My! but I was b"iling inside.
"Taint pleasant to be made a show afore folks, but "twas the feller"s condescending what-excuse-you-got-for-living manners that riled me most.
"I picked up what was left of the dreeners and walked over to the fence.
That field was just sowed, as you might say, with clams. If they ever sprouted "twould make a tip-top codfish pasture.
""You see," says Allie, talking to Barbara; "the gov"nor told me he"d been plagued with trespa.s.sers, so I thought I"d give "em a lesson. But neighbors, when they"re scarce as ours are, ought to be friends. Don"t you think so, Miss--? Er--Nickerson," says he, "introduce me to our other neighbor."
"So I had to do it, though I didn"t want to. He turned loose some soft soap about not realizing afore what a beautiful place the Cape was. I thought "twas time to go.
""But Miss Saunders hasn"t answered my question yet," says Allie. "Don"t YOU think neighbors ought to be friends, Miss Saunders?"
"Barbara blushed and laughed and said she guessed they had. Then she walked away. I started to follow, but Allie stopped me.
""Look here, Nickerson," says he. "I let you off this time, but don"t try it again; do you hear?"
""I hear," says I. "You and that hyena of yours have had all the fun this morning. Some day, maybe, the boot"ll be on t"other leg."
"Barbara was waiting for me. We walked on together without speaking for a minute. Then I says, to myself like: "So that"s old man Davidson"s son, is it? Well, he"s the prize peach in the crate, he is!"
"Barbara was thinking, too. "He"s very nice looking, isn"t he?" says she. "Twas what you"d expect a girl to say, but I hated to hear her say it. I went home and marked a big chalk-mark on the inside of my shanty door, signifying that I had a debt so pay some time or other.
"So that"s how I got acquainted with Allie V. P. Davidson. And, what"s full as important, that"s how he got acquainted with Barbara Saunders.
"Shutting an innocent canary-bird up in the same room with a healthy cat is a more or less risky proposition for the bird. Same way, if you take a pretty country girl who"s been to sea with her dad most of the time and tied to the ap.r.o.n-strings of a deef old aunt in a house three miles from nowhere--you take that girl, I say, and then fetch along, as next-door neighbor, a good-looking young shark like Allie, with a hogshead of money and a blame sight too much experience, and that"s a risky proposition for the girl.
"Allie played his cards well; he"d set into a good many similar games afore, I judge. He begun by doing little favors for Phoebe Ann--she was the deef aunt I mentioned--and "twa"n"t long afore he was as solid with the old lady as a kedge-anchor. He had a way of dropping into the Saunders house for a drink of water or a slab of "that delicious apple-pie," and with every drop he got better acquainted with Barbara.
Cap"n Eben was on a v"yage to Buenos Ayres and wouldn"t be home till fall, "twa"n"t likely.
"I didn"t see a great deal of what was going on, being too busy with my fishweirs and clamming to notice. Allie and me wa"n"t exactly David and Jonathan, owing, I judge, to our informal introduction to each other.
But I used to see him scooting "round in his launch--twenty-five foot, she was, with a little mahogany cabin and the land knows what--and the servants at the big house told me yarns about his owning a big steam-yacht, with a sailing-master and crew, which was cruising round Newport somewheres.
"But, busy as I was, I see enough to make me worried. There was a good deal of whispering over the Saunders back gate after supper, and once, when I come up over the bluff from the sh.o.r.e sudden, they was sitting together on a rock and he had his arm round her waist. I dropped a hint to Phoebe Ann, but she shut me up quicker"n a snap-hinge match-box.
Allie had charmed "auntie" all right. And so it drifted along till September.
"One Monday evening about the middle of the month I went over to Phoebe Ann"s to borrow some matches. Barbara wasn"t in--gone out to lock up the hens, or some such fool excuse. But Phoebe was busting full of joy.
Cap"n Eben had arrived in New York a good deal sooner"n was expected and would be home on Thursday morning.
""He"s going from Boston to Provincetown on the steamer, Wednesday,"
says Phoebe. "He"s got some business over there. Then he"s coming home from Provincetown on the early train. Ain"t that splendid?"
"I thought "twas splendid for more reasons than one, and I went out feeling good. But as I come round the corner of the house there was somebody by the back gate, and I heard a girl"s voice sayin": "Oh, no, no! I can"t! I can"t!"
"If I hadn"t trod on a stick maybe I"d have heard more, but the racket broke up the party. Barbara come hurrying past me into the house, and by the light from the back door, I see her face. "Twas white as a clam-sh.e.l.l, and she looked frightened to death.
"Thinks I: "That"s funny! It"s a providence Eben"s coming home so soon."
"And the next day I saw her again, and she was just as white and wouldn"t look me in the eye. Wednesday, though, I felt better, for the servants on the Davidson place told me that Allie had gone to Boston on the morning train to be gone for good, and that they was going to shut up the house and haul up the launch in a day or so.
"Early that afternoon, as I was coming from my shanty to the bluff on my way to the sh.o.r.e after dinner, I noticed a steam-yacht at anchor two mile or so off the bar. She must have come there sence I got in, and I wondered whose she was. Then I see a dingey with three men aboard rowing in, and I walked down the beach to meet "em.
"Sometimes I think there is such things as what old Parson Danvers used to call "dispensations." This was one of "em. There was a feller in a uniform cap steering the dingey, and, b"lieve it or not, I"ll be everlastingly keelhauled if he didn"t turn out to be Ben Henry, who was second mate with me on the old Seafoam. He was surprised enough to see me, and glad, too, but he looked sort of worried.
""Well, Ben," says I, after we had shook hands, "well, Ben," I says, "my shanty ain"t exactly the United States Hotel for gilt paint and bill of fare, but I HAVE got eight or ten gallons of home-made cherry rum and some terbacker and an extry pipe. You fall into my wake."
""I"d like to, Obed," he says; "I"d like to almighty well, but I"ve got to go up to the store, if there is such a thing in this metropolus, and buy some stuff that I forgot to get in Newport. You see, we got orders to sail in a tearing hurry, and--"
""Send one of them fo"mast hands to the store," says I. "You got to come with me."
"He hemmed and hawed a while, but he was dry, and I shook the cherry-rum jug at him, figuratively speaking, so finally he give in.
""You buy so and so," says he to his men, pa.s.sing "em a ten-dollar bill. "And mind, you don"t know nothing. If anybody asks, remember that yacht"s the Mermaid--M-U-R-M-A-D-E," he says, "and she belongs to Mr.
Jones, of Mobile, Georgia."
"So the men went away, and me and Ben headed for my shanty, where we moored abreast of each other at the table, with a jug between us for a buoy, so"s to speak. We talked old times and spun yarns, and the tide went out in the jug consider"ble sight faster than "twas ebbing on the flats. After a spell I asked him about the man that owned the yacht.
""Who? Oh--er--Brown?" he says. "Why, he"s--"
""Brown?" says I. "Thought you said "twas Jones?"
"Well, that kind of upset him, and he took some cherry-rum to grease his memory. Then I asked more questions and he tried to answer "em, and got worse tangled than ever. Finally I had to laugh.
""Look here, Ben," says I. "You can"t fetch port on that tack. The truth"s ten mile astern of you. Who does own that yacht, anyway?"
"He looked at me mighty solemn--cherry-rum solemn. "Obed," he says, "you"re a good feller. Don"t you give me away, now, or I"ll lose my berth. The man that owns that yacht"s named Davidson, and he"s got a summer place right in this town."
""Davidson!" says I. "DAVIDSON? Not young Allie Davidson?"
""That"s him," says he. "And he"s the blankety blankest meanest low-down cub on earth. There! I feel some better. Give me another drink to take the taste of him out of my mouth."