"References? As to your bein" able to pay the three dollars a day, do you mean?"
"Why, no, perhaps that sort of reference may not be necessary. I shall be glad to pay each day"s board in advance."
"Then what sort of references did you mean, references about your character?"
"Why--why, yes, something of the sort."
Her eyes twinkled.
"Mr. Bangs," she asked, "do you really think I ought to have "em?"
Galusha smiled. "For all you know to the contrary," he said, "I may be a desperate ruffian."
"You don"t look desperate. Do you feel that way?"
"Not now, but I did last--ah--evening."
"When you were camped out on that Inn piazza in a pourin" rain, you mean? I don"t blame you for feelin" desperate then.... Well, Mr. Bangs, suppose we don"t worry about the references on either side of this bargain of ours. I"ll take you on trust for the next two or three days, if you"ll take me. And no questions asked, as they say in the advertis.e.m.e.nts for stolen property. Will that suit you?"
"Perfectly, except that I think you are taking all the risk. I, certainly, am not taking any."
"Hum, don"t be too sure. You haven"t tried much of Primmie"s cookin"
yet.... Oh, by the way, what IS your business, Mr. Bangs?"
"I am an archaeologist."
"Yes--oh--yes.... A--a what, did you say?"
"An archaeologist. I specialize princ.i.p.ally in Egyptology."
"Oh.... Oh, yes."
"Yes."
"Yes.... Well, I must run out to the kitchen now. Make yourself right at home, Mr. Bangs."
CHAPTER IV
Galusha Cabot Bangs" first day in East Wellmouth was spent for the most part indoors. He was willing that it should he; the stiffness and lameness in various parts of his body, together with the shakiness at the knees which he experienced when he tried to walk, warned him that a trip abroad would not be a judicious undertaking. The doctor having granted him permission, however, he did go out into the yard for a brief period.
Gould"s Bluffs and their surroundings were more attractive on this pleasant October afternoon than on the previous evening. The Phipps house was a story and a half cottage, of the regulation Cape Cod type, with a long "L" and sheds connecting it with a barn and chicken yards.
The house was spotlessly white, with blinds conventionally green, as most New England houses are. There was a white fence shutting it off from the road, the winding, narrow road which even yet held puddles and pools of mud in its hollows, souvenirs of the downpour of the night before. Across the road, perhaps a hundred yards away, was the long, brown--and now of course bleak--broadside of the Restabit Inn, its veranda looking lonesome and forsaken even in the brilliant light of day. Behind it and beyond it were rolling hills, brown and bare, except for the scattered clumps of beach-plum and bayberry bushes. There were no trees, except a grove of scrub pine perhaps a mile away. Between the higher hills and over the tops of the lower ones Galusha caught glimpses of the sea. In the opposite direction lay a little cl.u.s.ter of roofs, with a church spire rising above them. He judged this to be East Wellmouth village.
The road, leading from the village, wound in and out between the hills, past the Restabit Inn and the Phipps homestead until it ended at another clump of buildings; a house, with ells and extensions, several other buildings and sheds, and a st.u.r.dy white and black lighthouse. He was leaning upon the fence rail peering through his spectacles when Primmie came up behind him.
"That"s a lighthouse you"re lookin" at, Mr. Bangs," she observed, with the air of one imparting valuable information.
Galusha started; he had not heard her coming.
"Eh? Oh! Yes, so I--ah--surmised," he said.
"Hey? What did you do?"
"I say I thought it was a lighthouse."
""Tis. Ever see one afore, have you?"
Galusha admitted that he had seen a lighthouse before. "Kind of interestin" things, ain"t they? You know I never realized till I come down here to live what interestin" things lighthouses was. There"s so much TO "em, you know, ain"t there?"
"Why--ah--is there?"
"I should say there was. I don"t mean the tower part, though that"s interestin" of itself, with them round and round steps--What is it Miss Martha said folks called "em? Oh, yes, spinal stairs, that"s it. I never see any spinal stairs till I come here. They don"t have "em up to North Mashpaug. That"s where I used to live, up to North Mashpaug. Ever been to North Mashpaug, Mr. Bangs?"
"No."
"Well, a good many folks ain"t, far"s that goes. Where _I_ lived was way off in the woods, anyhow. My family was Indian, way back. Not all Indian, but some, you know; the rest was white, though Pa he used to cal"late there might be a little Portygee strung along in somewhere.
It"s kind of funny to be all mixed up that way, ain"t it? h.e.l.lo, there"s Cap"n Jethro! See him? See him?"
Bangs saw the figure of a man emerge from the door of the white house by the light and stand upon the platform. There was nothing particularly exciting about the man"s appearance, but Primmie seemed to be excited.
"See him, Mr. Bangs?" she repeated.
"Yes, I see him. Who is he?"
"Don"t you know? No, course you don"t; why should you? He"s Cap"n Jethro Hallett, keeps the lighthouse, he does--him and Lulie and Zach."
"Oh, he is the light keeper, is he? What has he got his head tied up for?"
"Hey? HEAD tied up?"
"Why, yes. Isn"t there something gray--a--ah--scarf or something tied about his head? I think I see it flutter in the wind."
"That? That ain"t no scarf, them"s his whiskers. He wears "em long and they blow consider"ble. Say, what do you think?" Primmie leaned forward and whispered mysteriously. "He sees his wife."
Galusha turned to look at her. Her expression was a combination of awe and excitement.
"I--I beg your pardon," he stammered, "but really I--What did you say he did?"
"I said he sees his wife. Anyhow, he thinks he does. She comes to him nights and stands alongside of his bed and they talk. Ain"t that awful?"
Galusha took off his spectacles and rubbed them.
"Ain"t it awful, Mr. Bangs?" repeated Primmie.
Galusha"s faint smile twitched the corners of his lips. "We-ll," he observed, "I--really I can"t say. I never met the lady."