"I hope not, too, and I don"t believe you are. No, there is some mistake somewheres. "Twas Nelson Howard she must have meant."
"But, Captain Hallett, Mr. Howard is not small."
"No, and he wan"t there that evenin", neither. But I"m bettin" "twas him she meant just the same. Just the same."
"Do you think that is quite fair to Mr. Howard? If he isn"t small, nor very dark, and if he was not in your house that evening, how--"
"I don"t know--I don"t know. Anyhow, I don"t believe she meant you, Mr.
Bangs. She couldn"t have."
"But--ah--why not?"
"Because--well, because you couldn"t be an evil influence if you tried, you wouldn"t know how. THAT much I"ll bet on. There, there, don"t let"s talk no more about it. Julia and me"ll have another talk pretty soon and then I"ll find out more, maybe."
So that was the end of this portion of the conversation. The light keeper positively refused to mention the subject again. Galusha was left with the uneasy feeling that his brilliant idea of claiming to be the small, dark influence for evil had not been as productive of good results as he had hoped. Certainly it had not in the least shaken the captain"s firm belief in his spirit messages, nor had it, apparently, greatly abated his prejudice against young Howard. On the other hand, Lulie found comfort in the fact that in all other respects her father seemed as rational and as keen as he had ever been. The exciting evening with the Hoag spook had worked no lasting harm. For so much she and her friends were grateful.
The autumn gales blew themselves out and blew in their successors, the howling blasts of winter. Winter at Gould"s Bluffs, so Galusha Bangs discovered, was no light jest of the weather bureau. His first January no"theaster taught him that. Lying in his bed at one o"clock in the morning, feeling that bed tremble beneath him as the wind gripped the st.u.r.dy gables of the old house, while the snow beat in hissing tumult against the panes, and the great breakers raved and roared at the foot of the bluff--this was an experience for Galusha. The gray dawn of the morning brought another, for, although it was no longer snowing, the wind was, if anything, stronger than ever and the seaward view from his bedroom window was a picture of frothing gray and white, of flying spray and leaping waves, and on the landward side the pines were bending and threshing as if they were being torn in pieces. He came downstairs, somewhat nervous and a trifle excited, to find Mr. Bloomer, garbed in oilskins and sou"wester, standing upon the mat just inside the dining room door. Zacheus, it developed, had come over to borrow some coffee, the supply at the light having run short. As Galusha entered, a more than usually savage blast rushed shrieking over the house, threatening, so it seemed to Mr. Bangs, to tear every shingle from the roof.
"Goodness gracious!" exclaimed Galusha. "Dear me, what a terrible storm this is!"
Zacheus regarded him calmly. "Commenced about ten last night," he observed. "Been breezin" on steady ever since. Be quite consider"ble gale if it keeps up."
Mr. Bangs looked at him with amazement.
"If it keeps up!" he repeated. "Isn"t it a gale now?"
Zach shook his head.
"Not a reg"lar gale, "tain"t," he said. "Alongside of some gales I"ve seen this one ain"t nothin" but a tops"l breeze. Do you remember the storm the night the Portland was lost, Martha?"
Miss Phipps, who had come in from the kitchen with a can of coffee in her hand, shuddered.
"Indeed I do, Zacheus," she said; "don"t remind me of it."
"Why, dear me, was it worse than this one?" asked Galusha.
Martha smiled. "It blew the roof off the barn here," she said, "and blew down both chimneys on the house and both over at Cap"n Jeth"s. So far as that goes we had plenty of company, for there were nineteen chimneys down along the main road in Wellmouth. And trees--mercy! how the poor trees suffered! East Wellmouth lost thirty-two big silver-leafs and the only two elms it had. Set out over a hundred years ago, those elms were."
"Spray from the breakers flew clear over the top of the bank here," said Zach. "That"s some h"ist for spray, hundred and odd feet. I wan"t here to see it, myself, but Cap"n Jeth told me."
"You were in a more comfortable place, I hope," observed Galusha.
"Um--we-ell, that"s accordin" to what you call comf"table. I was aboard the Hog"s Back lightship, that"s where I was."
"Dear, dear! Is it possible?"
"Um-hm. Possible enough that I was there, and one spell it looked impossible that I"d ever be anywheres else. G.o.dfreys, what a night that was! Whew! G.o.dfreys domino!"
Primmie, who had also come in from the kitchen, was listening, open-mouthed.
"I bet you that lightship pitched up and down somethin" terrible, didn"t it, Zach?" she asked.
Zacheus looked at her solemnly. "Pitched?" he repeated, after a moment"s contemplation. "No, no, she didn"t pitch none."
"Didn"t? Didn"t pitch up and down in such a gale"s that? And with waves a hundred foot high? What kind of talk"s that, Zach Bloomer! How could that lightship help pitchin", I"d like to know?"
Mr. Bloomer adjusted the tin cover on the can in which Martha had put the coffee, then he put the can in the pocket of his slicker.
"We-ll, I tell you, Primmie," he drawled. "You see, we had pretty toler"ble long anchor chains on that craft and when the captain see how "twas blowin" he let them chains out full length. The wind blowed so strong it lifted the lightship right out of the water up to the ends of them chains and kept her there. Course there was a dreadful sea runnin"
underneath us, but we never felt it a mite; that gale was holdin" us up twenty foot clear of it!"
"Zacheus Bloomer, do you mean to say--"
"Um-hm. Twenty foot in the air we was all that night and part of next day. When it slacked off and we settled down again we was leakin" like a sieve; you see, while we was up there that no"thwester had blowed "most all the copper off the vessel"s bottom. Some storm that was, Posy, some storm.... Well, so long, all hands. Much obliged for the coffee, Martha."
He tugged his sou"wester tighter on his head, glanced at Miss Cash"s face, where incredulity and indignation were written large and struggling for expression, turned his head in Mr. Bangs" direction, winked solemnly, and departed. The wind obligingly and enthusiastically saved him the trouble of closing the door.
Galusha was not called upon to endure any such experiences as those described by the veracious Mr. Bloomer in his record-breaking gale, but during that winter he learned a little of what New England coast weather could be and often was. And he learned, also, that that weather was, like most bl.u.s.terers, not nearly as savage when met squarely face to face. He learned to put on layer after layer of garments, topping off with oilskins, sou"wester and mittens, and tramp down to the village for the mail or to do the household errands. He was growing stronger all the time and if the doctor could have seen him plowing through drifts or shouldering his way through a driving rain he would have realized that his patient was certainly obeying the order to "keep out of doors."
Martha Phipps was perfectly certain that her lodger was keeping out of doors altogether too much.
"You aren"t goin" out to-day, Mr. Bangs, are you?" she exclaimed. "It"s as cold as the North Pole. You"ll freeze."
Galusha smiled beneath his cap visor and between the ear-laps.
"Oh, no, indeed," he declared. "It"s brisk and--ah--snappy, that"s all.
A smart walk will do me good. I am accustomed to walking. In Egypt I walk a GREAT deal."
"I don"t doubt it; but you don"t have much of this sort of weather in Egypt, if what I"ve heard is true."
Mr. Bangs" smile broadened. "I fear I shall have to admit that," he said; "but my--ah--physician told me that a change would be good for me.
And this IS a change, now isn"t it?"
"I should say it was. About as much change as a plate of ice cream after a cup of hot coffee. Well, if you"re bound to go, do keep walkin" fast.
Don"t forget that it"s down to zero or thereabouts; don"t forget that and wander over to the old cemetery and kneel down in front of a slate tombstone and freeze to death."
"Oh, I shall be all right, Miss Phipps. Really I shall. Don"t worry, I beg of you."
He had begged her not to worry on many other occasions and she had been accustomed to answer him in a manner half joking and half serious. But this time she did not answer at all for a moment, and when she did there was no hint of a joke in her tone.
"No," she said, slowly. "I won"t. I couldn"t, I guess. Don"t seem as if I could carry any more worries just now, any more than I am carryin", I mean."
She sighed as she said it and he looked at her in troubled alarm.
"Oh, dear me!" he exclaimed. "I--I"m so sorry. Sorry that you are worried, I mean. Is there anything I can do to--to--I should be very glad to help in any way if--"
He was hesitating, trying to say the right thing and very fearful of saying too much, of seeming to be curious concerning her personal affairs, when she interrupted him. She was standing by the kitchen door, with one hand upon the k.n.o.b, and she spoke without looking at him.
"There is nothin" you or anybody can do," she said. "And there isn"t a single bit of use talkin" about it. Trot along and have your walk, Mr. Bangs. And don"t pay any attention to what I said. It was just silliness. I get a little nervous, sometimes, but that"s no reason for my makin" other people that way. Have a good walk."