"No, no, Mr. Cabot. Of course not, of course not."
"No." Cabot had been turning over the leaves of the memorandum book while speaking. "And yet," he went on, "there are one or two names here concerning which you might be able to help us. Pulcifer writes that two of the largest stockholders.... Humph!... Eh? Why, by Jove, this is remarkable! You are Miss Martha Phipps, aren"t you?"
"Yes."
"Was your father, by any chance, James H. Phipps?"
"Yes."
"Well, I declare! This IS remarkable.... And--why, you have been speaking of a Captain--er--Jethro Somebody? Is he--He isn"t Jethro Hallett, is he?"
"Why, yes. I told you his name. He is the light keeper here at Gould"s Bluffs and we are all goin" over to his house in a few minutes, for the seance, you know."
"Well, well, well! And here I have been sitting and talking with one of the very persons whom I came down here hoping to see."
"To see? You came down here hopin" to see ME? Mr. Cabot, is this another joke?"
"Not a bit of it. If it is, the joke is on me for not identifying you with the Martha Phipps that Pulcifer writes he can"t do business with.
Miss Phipps, you own something we want to buy."
"I? Somethin" you want to buy?"
"Yes. Williams wants to buy it and I am interested with him. Miss Phipps, you own two hundred and fifty shares of the stock of the Wellmouth Development Company, don"t you?"
He must have been surprised at the effect of this question. Martha stared at him. Then, without speaking, she turned and looked past him at Galusha Bangs. She looked so long and so steadily that Cabot also turned and looked. What he saw caused him to utter an exclamation.
"For heaven"s sakes, Loosh!" he exclaimed.
His cousin, as white as the proverbial sheet, which means much whiter than some sheets, Elmer Rogers", for example, was slowly rising from his chair. One hand was pressed against his forehead and he looked as if he were dazed, stunned, suffering from a stroke. As a matter of fact, he was suffering from all three. The spark had at last reached the powder and the barrel was in the very act of disintegrating.
"Galusha," demanded Cousin Gussie, "are you sick? What is it?"
Galusha did not answer. Before the alarmed banker could repeat his question there came a knock at the door.
"Miss Martha," called Primmie, in tremulous excitement. "Miss Martha, Zach he"s come and he says the seance is just a-goin" to begin and Cap"n Jeth says to hurry right straight over. Zach says the old man is as t.i.ttered up and nervous as ever he see him and "twon"t do to keep him waitin" a minute. My savin" soul, no! Zach says for all hands to heave right straight ahead and come."
CHAPTER XX
In the melodramas, the sort which most people laugh at as "old-fashioned" and enjoy thoroughly, there is usually a scene in which the hero, or the heroine, or both, are about to be drowned in the sinking ship or roasted in the loft of the burning building, or butchered by the attacking savages, or executed by the villain and his agents. The audience enjoys some delightful thrills while watching this situation--whichever it may be--develop, but is spared any acute anxiety, knowing from experience that just at the last moment the rescuing boat, or the heroic firemen, or the troops, or a reprieve from the Governor, will arrive and save the leading man or woman and the play from a premature end and for another act.
It does not happen as often in real life, at least one cannot count upon it with the certainty of the theater. But when Miss Primrose Cash knocked upon the door of the Phipps" sitting room and delivered her call to the seance, she was as opportune and nick-of-timey as was ever a dramatic Governor"s messenger. Certainly that summons of hers was to Galusha Bangs a reprieve which saved him from instant destruction.
Cousin Gussie, who had been on the point of repeating his demand to know if his relative was ill, turned instead to look toward the door. Martha, whose gaze had been fixed upon her lodger with an intentness which indicated at least the dawning of a suspicion, turned to look in the same direction. Galusha, left poised upon the very apex of the explosion, awaited the moment when the fragments, of which he was one, should begin to fall.
But they did not fall--then. Primmie gave them no opportunity to do so.
"Miss Martha," she cried, "Miss Martha, do you hear me? Zach--he says--"
Her mistress answered. "Yes, yes, Primmie," she said, "I hear you."
Then, turning again toward the banker and his relative, she said, "Mr.
Cabot, I--did I understand you to say--?"
"Miss Martha!" The voice outside the door was more insistent than ever.
"Miss Martha, Zach he says we"ve all hands got to come right straight off, "cause if we don"t there"ll be h.e.l.l to pay.... My savin" soul, I never meant to say that, Miss Martha! Zach, he said it, but _I_ never meant to. I--I--Oh, my Lord of Isrul! I--I--oh, Miss Martha!"
Further wails of the frightened and repentant one were lost in an ecstatic shout of laughter from Mr. Cabot. Martha slowly shook her head.
"Well," she observed, dryly, "I guess likely we"d better go, hadn"t we? If it is as bad as all that I should say we had, sure and certain.
Primmie Cash, I"m ashamed of you. Mr. Cabot, we"ll finish our talk when we come back. What under the sun you can possibly mean I declare I don"t understand.... But, there, it will keep. Come, Mr. Bangs."
She led the way from the sitting room. Cabot followed her and, staggering slightly and with a hand still pressed to his forehead, Galusha followed them. He was saved for the time, he realized that, but for such a very short time. For an hour or two he was to hang in the air and then would come the inevitable crash. When they returned home, after the seance was over, Martha would question Cousin Gussie, Cousin Gussie would answer, then he would be questioned and--and the end would come.
Martha would know him for what he was. As they emerged from the Phipps"
door into the damp chill and blackness of that October evening, Galusha Bangs looked hopelessly up and down and for the first time in months yearned for Egypt, to be in Egypt, in Abyssinia, in the middle of the great Sahara--anywhere except where he was and where he was fated to be.
The windows of the light keeper"s cottage were ablaze as they drew near.
Overhead the great stream of radiance from the lantern in the tower shot far out. There was almost no wind, and the grumble of the surf at the foot of the bluff was a steady ba.s.s monotone.
Zacheus, who had waited to walk over with them, was in a fault-finding state of mind. It developed that he could not attend the meeting in the parlor; his superior had ordered that he "tend light."
"The old man says I hadn"t no business comin" to the other sea-ants thing," said Zach. "Says him and me ain"t both supposed never to leave the light alone. I cal"late he"s right, but that don"t make it any better. There"s a whole lot of things that"s right that hadn"t ought to be. I presume likely it"s right enough for you to play that mouth organ of yours, Posy. They ain"t pa.s.sed no law against it yet. But--"
"Oh, be still, Zach Bloomer! You"re always talkin" about my playin" the mouth organ. I notice you can"t play anything, no, nor sing neither."
"You"re right, Pansy Blossom. But the difference between you and me is that I know I can"t.... Hey? Why, yes, Martha, I shouldn"t be a bit surprised if the fog came in any time. If it does that means I"ve got to tend foghorn as well as light. G.o.dfreys!"
Before they opened the side door of the Hallett home, the buzz of voices in the parlor was distinctly audible. Lulie heard the door open and met them in the dining room. She was looking anxious and disturbed. Martha drew her aside and questioned her concerning her father. Lulie glanced toward the parlor door and then whispered:
"I don"t know, Martha. Father seems queer to-night, awfully queer. I can"t make him out."
"Queer? In what way? He is always nervous and worked up before these silly affairs, isn"t he?"
"Yes, but I don"t mean that, exactly. He has been that way for over a week. But for the last two days he has been--well, different. He seems to be troubled and--and suspicious."
"Suspicious? Suspicious of what?"
"I don"t know. Of every one."
"Humph! Well, if he would only begin to get suspicious of Marietta and her spirit chasers I should feel like givin" three cheers. But I suppose those are exactly the ones he isn"t suspicious of."
Lulie again glanced toward the parlor door.
"I am not so sure," she said. "It seemed to me that he wasn"t as cordial to them as usual when they came to-night. He keeps looking at Marietta and pulling his beard and scowling, the way he does when he is puzzled and troubled. I"m not sure, but I think something came in the mail yesterday noon and another something again to-day which may be the cause of his acting so strangely. I don"t know what they were, he wouldn"t answer when I asked him, but I saw him reading a good deal yesterday afternoon. And then he came into the kitchen where I was, took the lid off the cookstove and put a bundle of printed pages on the fire. I asked him what he was doing and he snapped at me that he was burning the words of Satan or something of that sort."
"And couldn"t you save enough of the--er--Old Scratch"s words to find out what the old boy was talkin" about?"