"I HAD to deliver it, Grandfather," he said hotly. "He had all but called me a liar and--and by George, I wasn"t going to--"
His grandfather held up a warning hand.
"Sshh! Ssh!" he said. "Go on with your yarn, boy."
Albert told of the lame horse, of his effort to hire another team, and finally how in desperation he had engaged Ves Young as a last resort.
The captain"s face was serious but there was the twinkle under his heavy brows. He pulled at his beard.
"Humph!" he grunted. "Did you know Ves and Simp had been drinkin" when you hired "em?"
"Of course I didn"t. After they had gone Issy said he suspected that they had been drinking a little, but _I_ didn"t know it. All I wanted was to prove to HIM," with a motion toward Mr. Calvin, "that I kept my word."
Captain Zelotes pulled at his beard. "All right, Al," he said, after a moment; "you can go."
Albert went out of the private office. After he had gone the captain turned to his irate customer.
"I"m sorry this happened, Mr. Calvin," he said, "and if Keeler or I had been here it probably wouldn"t. But," he added, "as far as I can see, the boy did what he thought was the best thing to do. And," the twinkle reappeared in the gray eyes, "you sartinly did get your lumber when "twas promised."
Mr. Calvin stiffened. He had his good points, but he suffered from what Laban Keeler once called "ingrowin" importance," and this ailment often affected his judgment. Also he had to face Mrs. Calvin upon his return home.
"Do I understand," he demanded, "that you are excusing that young man for putting that outrage upon me?"
"We-ll, as I say, I"m sorry it happened. But, honest, Mr. Calvin, I don"t know"s the boy"s to blame so very much, after all. He delivered your lumber, and that"s somethin"."
"Is that all you have to say, Captain Snow? Is that--that impudent young clerk of yours to go unpunished?"
"Why, yes, I guess likely he is."
"Then I shall NEVER buy another dollar"s worth of your house again, sir."
Captain Zelotes bowed. "I"m sorry to lose your trade, Mr. Calvin," he said. "Good mornin"."
Albert, at his desk in the outer office, was waiting rebelliously to be called before his grandfather and upbraided. And when so called he was in a mood to speak his mind. He would say a few things, no matter what happened in consequence. But he had no chance to say them. Captain Zelotes did not mention the Calvin affair to him, either that day or afterward. Albert waited and waited, expecting trouble, but the trouble, so far as his grandfather was concerned, did not materialize. He could not understand it.
But if in that office there was silence concerning the unusual delivery of the lumber for the Calvin porch, outside there was talk enough and to spare. Each Welfare Worker talked when she reached home and the story spread. Small boys shouted after Albert when he walked down the main street, demanding to know how Ves Young"s cart was smellin" these days.
When he entered the post office some one in the crowd was almost sure to hum, "Here"s to the good old whiskey, drink her down." On the train on the way to the picnic, girls and young fellows had slyly nagged him about it. The affair and its consequence were the princ.i.p.al causes of his mood that day; this particular "Portygee streak" was due to it.
The path along the edge of the high bluff entered a grove of scraggy pitch pines about a mile from the lighthouse and the picnic ground.
Albert stalked gloomily through the shadows of the little grove and emerged on the other side. There he saw another person ahead of him on the path. This other person was a girl. He recognized her even at this distance. She was Helen Kendall.
She and he had not been quite as friendly of late. Not that there was any unfriendliness between them, but she was teaching in the primary school and, as her father had not been well, spent most of her evenings at home. During the early part of the winter he had called occasionally but, somehow, it had seemed to him that she was not quite as cordial, or as interested in his society and conversation as she used to be. It was but a slight indifference on her part, perhaps, but Albert Speranza was not accustomed to indifference on the part of his feminine acquaintances. So he did not call again. He had seen her at the picnic ground and they had spoken, but not at any length.
And he did not care to speak with her now. He had left the pavilion because of his desire to be alone, and that desire still persisted.
However, she was some little distance ahead of him and he waited in the edge of the grove until she should go over the crest of the little hill at the next point.
But she did not go over the crest. Instead, when she reached it, she walked to the very edge of the bluff and stood there looking off at the ocean. The sea breeze ruffled her hair and blew her skirts about her and she made a pretty picture. But to Albert it seemed that she was standing much too near the edge. She could not see it, of course, but from where he stood he could see that the bank at that point was much undercut by the winter rains and winds, and although the sod looked firm enough from above, in reality there was little to support it. Her standing there made him a trifle uneasy and he had a mind to shout and warn her.
He hesitated, however, and as he watched she stepped back of her own accord. He turned, re-entered the grove and started to walk back to the pavilion.
He had scarcely done so when he heard a short scream followed by a thump and a rumbling, rattling sound. He turned like a flash, his heart pounding violently.
The bluff edge was untenanted. A semi-circular section of the sod where Helen had stood was missing. From the torn opening where it had been rose a yellow cloud of dust.
CHAPTER VI
A goodly number of the South Harniss "natives," those who had not seen him play tennis, would have been willing to swear that running was, for Albert Speranza, an impossibility. His usual gait was a rather languid saunter. They would have changed their minds had they seen him now.
He ran along that path as he had run in school at the last track meet, where he had been second in the hundred-yard dash. He reached the spot where the sod had broken and, dropping on his knees, looked fearfully over. The dust was still rising, the sand and pebbles were still rattling in a diminishing shower down to the beach so far below. But he did not see what he had so feared to see.
What he did see, however, was neither pleasant nor altogether rea.s.suring. The bluff below the sod at its top dropped sheer and undercut for perhaps ten feet. Then the sand and clay sloped outward and the slope extended down for another fifty feet, its surface broken by occasional clinging chunks of beach gra.s.s. Then it broke sharply again, a straight drop of eighty feet to the mounds and dunes bordering the beach.
Helen had of course fallen straight to the upper edge of the slope, where she had struck feet first, and from there had slid and rolled to the very edge of the long drop to the beach. Her skirt had caught in the branches of an enterprising bayberry bush which had managed to find roothold there, and to this bush and a clump of beach gra.s.s she was clinging, her hands outstretched and her body extended along the edge of the clay precipice.
Albert gasped.
"Helen!" he called breathlessly.
She turned her head and looked up at him. Her face was white, but she did not scream.
"Helen!" cried Albert, again. "Helen, do you hear me?"
"Yes."
"Are you badly hurt?"
"No. No, I don"t think so."
"Can you hold on just as you are for a few minutes?"
"Yes, I--I think so."
"You"ve got to, you know. Here! You"re not going to faint, are you?"
"No, I--I don"t think I am."
"You can"t! You mustn"t! Here! Don"t you do it! Stop!"
There was just a trace of his grandfather in the way he shouted the order. Whether or not the vigor of the command produced the result is a question, but at any rate she did not faint.
"Now you stay right where you are," he ordered again. "And hang on as tight as you can. I"m coming down."
Come down he did, swinging over the brink with his face to the bank, dropping on his toes to the upper edge of the slope and digging boots and fingers into the clay to prevent sliding further.
"Hang on!" he cautioned, over his shoulder. "I"ll be there in a second.
There! Now wait until I get my feet braced. Now give me your hand--your left hand. Hold on with your right."