He went out, followed by the mate, leaving the landlord wiping down the counter with one hand while he mechanically stroked his moustache with the other. By the time a suitable retort occurred to him the couple were out of earshot.
CHAPTER II.
Captain Wilson, hot with the combined effects of exercise and wrath, continued the pursuit, but the pause to say sweet nothings to the second in command was fatal to his success. He had often before had occasion to comment ruefully upon the pace of the quarry, and especially at such times when he felt that he had strung his courage almost up to speaking point. To-day he was just in time to see her vanish into the front garden of a small house, upon the door of which she knocked with expressive vigor. She disappeared into the house just as he reached the gate.
"d.a.m.n the mate!" he said irritably-"and the boy," he added, anxious to be strictly impartial.
He walked on aimlessly at a slow pace until the houses ended and the road became a lane shaded with tall trees and flanked by hawthorn hedges. Along this he walked a little way, and then, nervously fingering a note in his jacket pocket, retraced his steps.
"I"ll see her and speak to her anyway," he muttered. "Here goes."
He walked slowly back to the house, and, with his heart thumping, and a choking sensation in his throat, walked up to the door and gave a little whisper of a knock upon it. It was so faint that, after waiting a considerable time, he concluded that it had not been heard, and raised the knocker again. Then the door opened suddenly, and the knocker, half detained in his grasp, slipped from his fingers and fell with a crash that made him tremble at his hardihood. An elderly woman with white hair opened the door. She repressed a start and looked at him inquiringly.
"Cap"n Jackson in?" inquired the skipper, his nerves thoroughly upset by the knocker.
"Who?" said the other.
"Cap"n Jackson," repeated the skipper, reddening.
"There is no such man here," said the old woman. "Are you sure it is Captain Jackson you want?" she added.
"I"m-I"m not sure," said Wilson truthfully.
The old woman looked at him eagerly. "Will you come in?" she said slowly, and, without giving him time to refuse, led the way into the small front room. The skipper followed her with the conscience of a fox invited into a poultry yard, and bringing up in the doorway, gazed uncomfortably at the girl who had risen at his entrance.
"This gentleman is inquiring for a Captain Jackson," said the old woman, turning to the girl. "I thought he-he doesn"t seem quite sure whether it is Captain Jackson he wants-he may bring news," she concluded incoherently.
"It"s not likely, mother," said the girl, regarding the adventurous mariner by no means favorably. "There is no Captain Jackson here, sir."
"Have you been looking for him long?" inquired the mother.
"Years and years," said the other, forgetting himself.
The old woman sighed sympathetically. "Won"t you sit down?" she said.
"Thank you," said the skipper, and took the edge of the sofa.
"You"re not quite certain of the name?" suggested the girl coldly.
"It-it sounded like Jackson," murmured the intruder in a small, modest voice. "It might have been Blackson, or Dackson, or even Snackson-I won"t swear to it."
The old woman put her hand to her brow. "I thought perhaps you might have brought me some news of my poor husband," she said at length. "I lost him some years ago, and when you came here inquiring for a seafaring man I thought you might somehow have brought news."
"You must see, mother, that this gentleman is looking for somebody else," said the girl; "you are hindering him from finding Captain Jackson."
"If he"s been looking for him for years," said the old woman, bridling mildly, "a few minutes will not make much difference."
"Certainly not," said Wilson, in a voice which he tried in vain to make stronger. "When you say lost, ma"am, you mean missing?"
"Five years," said the old woman, shaking her head and folding her hands in her lap. "How long do you say you"ve been looking for Captain Jackson?"
"Seven," said the skipper with a calmness which surprised himself.
"And you haven"t given up hope, I suppose?"
"Not while life lasts," said the other, studying the carpet.
"That"s the way I feel," said the old woman energetically. "What a surprise it"ll be when you meet him!"
"For both of them," said the girl.
"It"s five years last May-the 20th of May," said the old woman, "since I last saw my poor husband. He-"
"It can"t be of any interest to this gentleman, mother," interposed the girl.
"I"m very much interested, ma"am," said the skipper defiantly; "besides, when I"m looking for poor Jackson, who knows I mightn"t run up against the other."
"Ah! who knows but what you might," said the old woman. "There"s one gentleman looking for him now-Mr. Glover, my daughter"s husband that is to be."
There was a long pause, then the skipper, by dint of combining his entire stock of Christianity and politeness, found speech. "I hope he finds him," he said slowly.
"All that a man can do he"s doing," said the old lady. "He"s a commercial traveller by trade, and he gets about a great deal in the way of business."
"Have you tried advertising?" inquired the skipper, striving manfully to keep his interest up to its former pitch.
The other shook her head and looked uneasily at her daughter.
"It wouldn"t be any good," she said in a low voice-"it wouldn"t be any good."
"Well, I don"t want to pry into your business in any way," said Wilson, "but I go into a good many ports in the course of the year, and if you think it would be any use my looking about I"ll be pleased and proud to do so, if you"ll give me some idea of who to look for."
The old lady fidgeted with all the manner of one half desiring and half fearing to divulge a secret.
"You see we lost him in rather peculiar circ.u.mstances," she said, glancing uneasily at her daughter again. "He-"
"I don"t want to know anything about that, you know, ma"am," interposed the skipper gently.
"It would be no good advertising for my father," said the girl in her clear voice, "because he can neither read nor write. He is a very pa.s.sionate, hasty man, and five years ago he struck a man down and thought he had killed him. We have seen nothing and heard nothing of him since."
"He must have been a strong man," commented the skipper.
"He had something in his hand," said the girl, bending low over her work. "But he didn"t hurt him really. The man was at work two days after, and he bears him no ill-will at all."