At last they were almost there--that is, the main body. Kendrick noted, with sudden uneasiness, that there were stragglers. A gaily decorated old rooster, a fowl with a dissipated and immoral swagger and a knowing, devil-may-care tilt of the head, was sidling off to the left. Two or three young pullets were following the lead of this ancient pirate, evidently fascinated by his recklessness. The captain turned to head off the wanderers. They squawked and ran hither and thither. He succeeded in turning them back, but, at the moment of his success, heard triumphant cluckings at his rear. The rest of the flock had, while his attention was diverted by the rooster and his followers, galloped joyfully back to the garden again. Now, as Captain Sears gazed, the rooster and his satellites flew to join them. All hands--or, more literally, all feet--resumed excavating with the abandon of conscientious workers striving to make up lost time.
And now Sears Kendrick did lose his temper. Probably at another time he might have laughed, but now he was tired, in pain, and in no mood to see the humorous side of the situation. He expressed his opinion of the hens and the rooster, using quarter deck idioms and withholding little. If the objects of his wrath were disturbed they did not show it. If they were shocked they hid their confusion in the newly turned earth of Judah Cahoon"s squash bed.
Whether they were shocked or not Sears did not stop to consider. He intended to shock them to the fullest extent of the word"s meaning. At his feet was a stick, almost a log, part of the limb of a pear tree. He picked up this missile and hurled it at the marauders. It missed them but it struck in the squash bed and tore at least six of the delicate young squashlings from their moorings. Kendrick plunged after it--the hens separating as he advanced and rejoining at his rear--picked up the log and, turning, again hurled it.
"There!" roared the captain, "take that, d.a.m.n you!"
One of the hens did "take it." So did some one else. The missile struck just beneath the fowl as she fled, lifted her and a peck or two of soil as well, and hurled the whole ma.s.s almost into the face of a person who, unseen until then, had advanced along the path from the gate and had arrived at that spot at that psychological instant. This person uttered a little scream, the hen fled with insane yells, the log and its accompanying shower fell back to earth, and Sears Kendrick and the young woman--for the newcomer was a young woman--stood and looked at each other.
She was bareheaded and her hair was dark and abundant, and she was wearing a gingham dress and a white ap.r.o.n. So much he noticed at this, their first meeting. Afterward he became aware that she was slender and that her age might perhaps be twenty-four or twenty-five. At that moment, of course, he did not notice anything except that her ap.r.o.n and dress--yes, even her hair and face--were plentifully besprinkled with earth and that she was holding a hand to her eyes as if they, too, might have received a share of the results of the terrestrial disturbance.
"Oh!" he stammered. "I"m awfully sorry! I--I hope I didn"t hurt you."
If she heard him she did not answer, but, removing her hand, opened and shut her eyes rapidly. The captain"s alarm grew as he watched this proceeding.
"I--I _do_ hope I didn"t hurt you," he repeated. "It--it didn"t put your eyes out, did it?"
She smiled, although rather uncertainly. "No," she said.
"You"re sure?"
"Yes." The smile became broader. "It"s not quite as bad as that, I guess. I seem to be able to see all right."
He drew a relieved breath. "Well, I"m thankful for so much, then," he announced. "But it"s all over your dress--and--and in your hair--and....
Oh, I _am_ sorry!"
She laughed at this outburst. "It is all right," she declared. "Of course it was an accident, and I"m not hurt a bit, really."
"I"m glad of that. Yes, it was an accident--your part of it, I mean. I didn"t see you at all. I meant the part the hen got, though."
Her laugh was over, but there was still a twinkle in her eye. Kendrick was, by this time, aware that her eyes were brown.
"Yes," she observed, demurely, "I--gathered that you did."
"Yes, I--" It suddenly occurred to him that his language had been as emphatic as his actions. "Good lord!" he exclaimed. "I forgot. I beg your pardon for that, too. When I lose my temper I am liable to--to make salt water remarks, I"m afraid. And those hens.... Eh? There they are again, hard at it! Will you excuse me while I kill three or four of "em?
You see, I"m in charge of that garden and.... _Get out!_"
This last was, of course, another roar at the fowl, who, under the leadership of the rake-h.e.l.ly rooster, were scratching harder than ever in the beds. The captain reached for another missile, but his visitor stepped forward.
"Please don"t," she begged. "Please don"t kill them."
"Eh? Why not? They ought to be killed."
"I know it, but I don"t want them killed--yet, at any rate. You see, they are my hens."
"Yours?" The captain straightened up and looked at her. "You don"t mean it?" he exclaimed.
"Yes, I do. They are mine, or my mother"s, which is the same thing. I am dreadfully sorry they got in here. I"ll have them out in just a minute.
Oh, yes, I will, really."
Kendrick regarded her doubtfully.
"Well," he said, slowly, "I know it isn"t polite to contradict a lady but if you"ll tell me _how_ you are goin" to get "em out without killin"
"em, I"ll be ever so much obliged. You can"t drive "em, I know that."
"I shan"t try. Just wait, I"ll be right back."
She hurried away, down the path and through the open gate. Captain Sears Kendrick looked after her. Behind and about him the Fair Harbor hens clucked and scratched blissfully.
In very little more than the promised minute the young woman returned.
She carried a round wooden receptacle--what Cape Codders used to call a "two quart measure"--and, as she approached, she shook it. Something within rattled. The hens, some of them, heard the rattle and ceased their digging.
"Come, chick, chick! Come, biddy, biddy, biddy!" called the young woman, rattling the measure. More of the fowl gave up their labors, and looked and listened. Some even began to follow her. She dipped a hand into the measure, withdrew it filled with corn, and scattered a few grains in the path.
"Come, biddy, biddy, biddy!" she said again.
And the biddies came. Forgetting the possibilities of Judah Cahoon"s garden, they rushed headlong upon the golden certainties of those yellow kernels. The young woman retreated along the path, scattering corn as she went, and after her scrambled and pecked and squawked the fowl. Even the sophisticated rooster yielded to temptation and was among the leaders in the rush. The corn bearer and the flock pa.s.sed through the open gate, along the path beneath the Fair Harbor apple trees, out of sight around the bend. Sears Kendrick was left alone upon the battle ground, amid the dead and wounded young vegetables.
But he was not left alone long. A few minutes later his visitor returned. She had evidently hurried, for there was a red spot on each of her cheeks and she was breathing quickly. She pa.s.sed through the gate into the grounds of the General Minot place and closed that gate behind her.
"There!" she said. "Now they are locked up in the hen yard. How in the world they ever got out of there I don"t see. I suppose some one left the gate open. I--What were you going to say?"
The captain had been about to confess that it was he who left the gate open, but he changed his mind. Apparently she had been on the point of saying something more. The confession could wait.
"What was it?" asked the young woman.
"Oh, nothin", nothin"."
"Well, I suppose it doesn"t matter much how they got out, as long as they did. But I am _very_ sorry they got into Mr. Cahoon"s garden. I hope they haven"t completely ruined it."
They both turned to survey the battlefield. It was--like all battlefields after the strife is ended--a sad spectacle.
"Oh, dear!" exclaimed the visitor. "I am afraid they have. What _will_ Mr. Cahoon say?"
The captain smiled slightly.
"I hope you don"t expect me to answer that," he observed.
"Why?... Oh, I see! Well, I don"t know that I should blame him much.
Have--have they left anything?"
"Oh, yes! Yes, indeed. There are a good many--er--sprouts left. And they dug up a lot of weeds besides. Judah ought to be thankful for the weeds, anyhow."
"I am afraid he won"t be, under the circ.u.mstances."
"Maybe not, but there is one thing that, under the same circ.u.mstances, he _ought_ to be thankful for. That is, that you came when you did. You may not know it, but I had been tryin" to get those hens out of that garden for--for a year, I guess. It seems longer, but I presume likely it wasn"t more than a year."
She laughed again. "No," she said, "I guess it wasn"t more than that."