Feeling remarkably like a fool, Galusha would follow to the front steps of the post office. There Raish would suddenly and, in a tone of joyful surprise, quite as if they had not met for years, seize his hand, pump it up and down and ask concerning his health, the health of the Gould"s Bluffs colony and the "news down yonder." Then, gazing blandly up the road at nothing in particular, he would add, speaking in a whisper and from the corner of his mouth: "Comin" along, Perfessor. She"s a-comin"
along. Keep your ear out for signals.... What say? Why, no, I don"t think it does look as much like rain as it did, Mr. Bangs."
One evening Galusha, entering the Phipps" sitting room, found Lulie there. She and Martha were in earnest conversation and the girl was plainly much agitated. He was hurriedly withdrawing, but Miss Phipps called him back.
"Come in, Mr. Bangs," she said. "I think Lulie would like to talk to you. She said she would."
"Yes. Yes, I would, Mr. Bangs," put in Lulie, herself. "Could you spare just a minute or two?"
Galusha cheerfully avowed that he had so many spare minutes that he did not know what to do with them.
"If time were money, as they say it is," he added, "I should be a--ah--sort of mint, shouldn"t I?" Then he smiled and added: "Why, no, not exactly that, either. A mint is where they make money and I certainly do not make time. But I have just as much time as if I did.
Yes--ah--quite so. As our philosophizing friend Zacheus is so fond of saying, I have "all the time there is." And if time IS money--why--ah.... Eh? Dear me, possibly you ladies know what I am talking about; _I_ don"t."
They both burst out laughing and he smiled and stroked his chin. Martha looked him over.
"What makes you so nervous, Mr. Bangs?" she asked. He started and colored. He was a trifle nervous, having a shrewd suspicion as to what Miss Hallett wished to talk with him about. She promptly confirmed the suspicion.
"Mr. Bangs," she said, "I am in such trouble. It"s about father, as usual. I"m afraid he is at it again."
"Eh? I beg pardon? Oh, yes, certainly."
Martha shook her head. "He hasn"t the slightest idea what you mean, Lulie," she declared. "That"s why he says "Oh, yes, certainly." She means, Mr. Bangs, that Cap"n Jethro is beginnin" to break out with another attack of Marietta Hoag"s spirits, and we"ve been tryin" to think of a way to stop him. We haven"t yet. Perhaps you can. Can you?"
Lulie went on to explain. Her father had been more gloomy and thoughtful for the last week or two. She had noticed it and so had Zach. He talked with her less and less as the days pa.s.sed, lapsed into silences at meals, and on nights when he was supposed to be off duty and asleep she often heard him walking about his room. If she asked him, as, of course, she often did, what was the matter, if he was not feeling well or if there was anything troubling him, he only growled a negative or ordered her not to bother him.
"And when, last Wednesday at supper," she went on, "Zach said something about the engine for the foghorn not working just as it should, father"s answer showed us both what was in his mind. I had guessed it before and Zach says he had, but then we knew."
"Tell Mr. Bangs what he said," urged Martha.
"He didn"t say so very much, Mr. Bangs, but it was the way he said it.
He glowered at poor Zach, who hadn"t said or done anything wrong, and pulled his beard as he always does. Then he said: "There"s no wonder the engine"s out of kilter. There"s no wonder about that. The wonder is that anything"s right aboard here. We"ve been trying to steer without a compa.s.s. We"ve got so we think we don"t need a pilot or a chart, but are so everlasting smart we can cruise anywhere on our own hook." "Why, father," said I, "what do you mean?" He glared at me then. "Mean?" he asked. "I mean we"ve had guidance offered to us, offered to us over and over again, and we"ve pa.s.sed it by on the other side.""
She paused. Galusha looked puzzled.
"Ah--um, yes," he observed. "On the other side? Yes--ah--quite so."
"Oh, that was just his way of speaking, Mr. Bangs. I tried to change the subject. I asked him if he didn"t think we should report the engine trouble to the inspector when he came next month. It was a mistake, my saying that. He got up from his chair. "I"m going to report," he said.
"I"m going to make my report aloft and ask for guidance. The foghorn ain"t the only thing that"s runnin" wild. My own flesh and blood defies me.""
Martha interrupted. "You hear that, Mr. Bangs?" she said. "And we were all hopin" THAT snarl was straightenin" itself out."
Galusha looked very uneasy. "Dear me," he said. "Really, now. Oh, dear!"
"Well," continued Lulie, "that was enough, of course. And the next day, last Thursday, Zacheus said Ras Beebe told him that Ophelia--that"s his sister, you know--told him that Abel Harding told her that his wife said that Marietta Hoag told HER--I HOPE I"ve got all the "hims" and "hers"
straight--that Cap"n Jeth Hallett was going to have another seance down at the light pretty soon. Marietta said that father felt he needed help from "over the river".... What is it, Mr. Bangs?"
"Oh, nothing, nothing. For a moment I did not get the--ah--allusion, the "over the river," you know. I comprehend now, the--ah--Styx; yes."
But now Martha looked puzzled.
"Sticks!" she repeated. "Lulie didn"t say anything about sticks. Neither did Cap"n Jethro. Spirits he was talkin" about."
"Yes, I know. Certainly, quite so. The shades beyond the Styx."
"SHADES? STICKS! For mercy"s sakes, Mr. Bangs--!"
Lulie laughed aloud. "He means the River Styx, Martha," she explained.
"Don"t you know? The river of the dead, that the ancients believed in, where Charon rowed the ferry."
And now Martha laughed. "My goodness gracious me!" she cried. "Yes, yes, of course. I"ve read about it, but it was a long while ago. Mr. Bangs, I"m dreadfully ignorant, I realize it about once every ten minutes when I"m with you. Perhaps I"ve got a little excuse this time. I"ve been figurin" I must buy new curtains for the dinin" room. I was thinkin"
about it all this forenoon. And when YOU began to talk about shades and sticks, I--Mercy me! I am funny, I declare!"
She laughed again and Lulie and Galusha joined her. They were still laughing when the dining room door opened. Mr. Bloomer"s substantial if not elegant form appeared.
"Ain"t b.u.t.tin" in, be I?" inquired Zach. "I knew you was over here, Lulie, so I stopped to tell you the news. It"s all settled."
"Settled?" Lulie and Martha repeated the word together. Zach nodded, portentously.
"Um-hm," he declared. "Settled"s the word. The whistle"s piped to quarters. All hands, alow and aloft, are ordered to report on board the good ship Gould"s Bluffs Lighthouse, Cap"n Jethro Hallet commandin", on Friday next, the--er--I-forget-what of this month, at seven bells in the--"
"Zach! Zach!" broke in Lulie. "Stop it! What are you talking about?"
"Talkin" about what I"m tryin" to tell you," said Zacheus, who seemed, for him, a good deal disturbed. "All able believers, fo"mast hands, and roustabouts and all full-rated ghosts, spooks, sperits and Chinee controls are ordered to get together in the parlor next Sat.u.r.day night and turn loose and raise-whatever "tis they raise. Signed, Marietta Hoag, Admiral, and Cap"n Jethro Hallett, Skipper. There, by G.o.dfreys!
Now if you don"t know "tain"t my fault, is it? Yes, sir, there"s goin"
to be another one of them fool sea-ants, or whatever "tis they call "em, over to the house next Friday night. And I think it"s a darn shame, if you want to know what _I_ think. And just as you and me, Lulie, was hopin" the old man was gettin" so he"d forgot Marietta and all her crew.
A healthy note, by G.o.dfreys, ain"t it now!"
"A healthy note," or words to that effect, was exactly what it was; Martha and Lulie were in thorough accord with Zach as to that. Galusha did not say very much. He rubbed his chin a good deal and when, after Bloomer had departed, Lulie came close to breaking down and crying, he still was silent, although nervous and evidently much disturbed. Lulie bravely conquered her emotion.
"Please don"t mind me," she begged. "It"s awfully silly of me, I know.
But, you see, Nelson and I had really begun to think that perhaps father had broken away from--from all that. For a time he was--oh, different.
Nelson told you that he bowed to him once and I told you how--But what is the use? Here he goes again. And now goodness knows what dreadful ideas that Hoag woman will put into his head. Nelson and I had hoped that perhaps--perhaps we might be married in six months or a year.
Now--Oh, it is SO discouraging!"
Martha soothed her, told her not to be discouraged, that no doubt this spirit outbreak would be only a mild one, that she was sure Captain Jeth would "come around all right" in time, and grasped at any other straws of comfort she found afloat. Galusha stood awkwardly by, his face expressing concern, but his tongue silent. When Lulie declared she must go home, he insisted upon walking to the light with her.
"But you don"t need to, Mr. Bangs," she declared. "It is a pleasant night and such a little way. And you know I am used to running about alone. Why, what on earth do you think would be likely to hurt me, down here in this lonesomeness?"
Nevertheless, he insisted. But, although she chatted during their short walk, it was not until they reached the light keeper"s gate that he spoke. Then he laid a hand on her arm.
"Ah--ah--Miss Lulie--" he began, but she stopped him.
"I thought we had settled long ago," she said, "that I wasn"t to be "Miss" Lulie. Now you are beginning again."
"Yes--yes. I beg your pardon, of course. Well, Miss--Oh, dear me, HOW ridiculous I am! Well, Lulie, I should like to tell you a story. May I?"
It seemed a queer place and an odd time to tell stories, but she said of course he might.