"You DID! Well, I swear! Then why in thunder didn"t you--"
He was interrupted. The bell attached to the door of the outer shop rang. The maker of windmills rose jerkily to his feet.
Captain Sam made a gesture of impatience.
"Get rid of your customer and come back here soon as you can," he ordered. Having commanded a steamer before he left the sea and become a banker, the captain usually ordered rather than requested.
"Hurry all you can. I ain"t half through talkin" with you. For the land sakes, MOVE! Of all the deliberate, slow travelin"--"
He did not finish his sentence, nor did Winslow, who had started toward the door, have time to reach it. The door was opened and a short, thickset man, with a leathery face and a bristling yellow- white chin beard, burst into the room. At the sight of its occupants he uttered a grunt of satisfaction and his bushy brows were drawn together above his little eyes, the latter a washed-out gray and set very close together.
"Humph!" he snarled, vindictively. "So you BE here. Gabe Bea.r.s.e said you was, but I thought probably he was lyin", as usual. Did he lie about the other thing, that"s what I"ve come here to find out? Sam Hunniwell, have you been put on that Draft Exemption Board?"
"Yes," he said, curtly, "I have."
The man trembled all over.
"You have?" he cried, raising his voice almost to a scream.
"Yes, I have. What"s it matter to you, Phin Babbitt? Seems to have het you up some, that or somethin" else."
"Het me up! By--" Mr. Phineas Babbitt swore steadily for a full minute. When he stopped for breath Jed Winslow, who had stepped over and was looking out of the window, uttered an observation.
"I"m afraid I made a mistake, changin" that sign," he said, musingly. "I cal"late I"ll make another: "Prayer meetin"s must be held outside.""
"By--," began Mr. Babbitt again, but this time it was Captain Sam who interrupted. The captain occasionally swore at other people, but he was not accustomed to be sworn at. He, too, began to "heat up." He rose to his feet.
"That"ll do, Babbitt," he commanded. "What"s the matter with you?
Is it me you"re cussin"? Because if it is--"
The little Babbitt eyes snapped defiance.
"If it is, what?" he demanded. But before the captain could reply Winslow, turning away from the window, did so for him.
"If it is, I should say "twas a pretty complete job," he drawled.
"I don"t know when I"ve heard fewer things left out. You have reason to be proud, both of you. And now, Phineas," he went on, "what"s it all about? What"s the matter?"
Mr. Babbitt waved his fists again, preparatory to another outburst.
Jed laid a big hand on his shoulder.
"Don"t seem to me time for the benediction yet, Phineas," he said.
"Ought to preach your sermon or sing a hymn first, seems so. What did you come here for?"
Phineas Babbitt"s hard gray eyes looked up into the big brown ones gazing mildly down upon him. His gaze shifted and his tone when he next spoke was a trifle less savage.
"He knows well enough what I came here for," he growled, indicating Hunniwell with a jerk of his thumb. "He knows that just as well as he knows why he had himself put on that Exemption Board."
"I didn"t have myself put there," declared the captain. "The job was wished on me. Lord knows I didn"t want it. I was just tellin"
Jed here that very thing."
"Wished on you nothin"! You planned to get it and you worked to get it and I know why you did it, too. "Twas to get another crack at me. "Twas to play another dirty trick on me like the one you played that cheated me out of the post office. You knew they"d drafted my boy and you wanted to make sure he didn"t get clear.
You--"
"That"ll do!" Captain Hunniwell seized him by the shoulder.
"That"s enough," cried the captain. "Your boy had nothin" to do with it. I never thought of his name bein" drawn when I said I"d accept the job."
"You lie!"
"WHAT? Why, you little sawed-off, dried-up, sa.s.sy son of a sea cook! I"ll--"
Winslow"s lanky form was interposed between the pair; and his slow, gentle drawl made itself heard.
"I"m sorry to interrupt the experience meetin"," he said, "but I"VE got a call to testify and I feel the spirit aworkin". Set down again, Sam, will you please. Phineas, you set down over there.
Please set down, both of you. Sam, as a favor to me--"
But the captain was not in a favor-extending mood. He glowered at his adversary and remained standing.
"Phin--" begged Winslow. But Mr. Babbitt, although a trifle paler than when he entered the shop, was not more yielding.
"I"m particular who I set down along of," he declared. "I"d as soon set down with a--a rattlesnake as I would with some humans."
Captain Sam was not pale, far from it.
"Skunks are always afraid of snakes, they tell me," he observed, tartly. "A rattlesnake"s honest, anyhow, and he ain"t afraid to bite. He ain"t all bad smell and nothin" else."
Babbitt"s bristling chin beard quivered with inarticulate hatred.
Winslow sighed resignedly.
"Well," he asked, "you don"t mind the other--er--critter in the menagerie sittin", do you? Now--now--now, just a minute," he pleaded, as his two companions showed symptoms of speaking simultaneously. "Just a minute; let me say a word. Phineas, I judge the only reason you have for objectin" to the captain"s bein"
on the Exemption Board is on account of your son, ain"t it? It"s just on Leander"s account?"
But before the furious Mr. Babbitt could answer there came another interruption. The bell attached to the door of the outer shop rang once more. Jed, who had accepted his own invitation to sit, rose again with a groan.
"Now I wonder who THAT is?" he drawled, in mild surprise.
Captain Hunniwell"s frayed patience, never noted for long endurance, snapped again. "Gracious king! go and find out," he roared. "Whoever "tis "ll die of old age before you get there."
The slow smile drifted over Mr. Winslow"s face. "Probably if I wait and give "em a chance they"ll come in here and have apoplexy instead," he said. "That seems to be the fashionable disease this afternoon. They won"t stay out there and be lonesome; they"ll come in here where it"s private and there"s a crowd. Eh? Yes, here they come."
But the newest visitor did not come, like the others, uninvited into the "private" room. Instead he knocked on its door. When Winslow opened it he saw a small boy with a yellow envelope in his hand.
"h.e.l.lo, Josiah," hailed Jed, genially. "How"s the president of the Western Union these days?"
The boy grinned bashfully and opined the magnate just mentioned was "all right." Then he added:
"Is Mr. Babbitt here? Mr. Bea.r.s.e--Mr. Gabe Bea.r.s.e--is over at the office and he said he saw Mr. Babbitt come in here."
"Yes, he"s here. Want to see him, do you?"
"I"ve got a telegram for him."