"I don"t understand you at all," said the young man. "Do you mean to say--"
"That Lorny"s got to marry money-yep!" exclaimed Tobias, pursing his lips and nodding. "It "ud ease matters a whole lot for Miss Ida and Lorny"s father if she gets a rich husband. Why, Ralph! I s"posed you knowed _that_."
"I never dreamed it!"
"Cal"late that is why they were so anxious for you and her to make a match of it," pursued the lightkeeper. "O" course, she don"t know nothing about it. But I give it as my opinion that a rich husband for Lorny is going to take a great burden off the shoulders of her family."
"You amaze me." Ralph"s face was a study.
"So ye see," said Tobias, with a cheerfulness that grated on Ralph"s nerves, "this Degger feller, unless he"s got more money than he"s showed any sign of having, ain"t got no chance with Lorna. Leastways," he added, "not with her folks."
"I-I never thought of it before," said Ralph reflectively, "but I do not think Degger has much money."
"Then he"d better be shooed away from the vicinity, as ye might say,"
the matchmaker said vigorously. "For if you air bound not to marry her yourself, Ralph, no use her fallin" into the lap of a poor man."
"You know very well Lorna wouldn"t marry me, Tobias Ba.s.sett!" exclaimed Ralph angrily. "You needn"t talk as though _I_ were at fault."
"Oh, sugar! I don"t see you fallin" over your own feet none, young man, to _make_ her marry ye."
"Don"t you remember how she talked to me that night we were stormbound here? Didn"t she fairly drive me out of the lighthouse right at the worst of the gale? You said yourself it wasn"t a night fit for a dog to be out in. If I"d undertaken to walk to Clinkerport they"d have found me along the road somewhere, frozen stiff! That"s all she cared about me."
"Oh, sugar!" said Tobias again, "I wouldn"t hold that against her.
She"s spirited, Lorny is. She was mad with you--"
"I should say she was!"
"But she didn"t re"lly mean it," pursued the lightkeeper. "If she had thought you were in danger she"d never driv" you out. I"m sartain sure, Ralph, that she thinks a heap of you."
"She shows it!"
"No, she don"t show it. No more than you show how you re"lly feel toward her."
"Huh!"
"Oh, I know," declared Tobias wagging a confident head. "You wouldn"t see no harm come to Lorny. That"s why I tell you as I do that this Degger-"nless he"s a sight richer than he "pears to be-ain"t got no business shining around her. I give it as my opinion that Lorna"s friends have got to come to her rescue and see that she marries a rich man."
He stopped right there. Tobias Ba.s.sett was wise in his iniquity.
Without coming out unequivocally and stating in so many words that the Nicholets had lost the greater part of their wealth, he had intimated enough to trouble the waters of Ralph"s mind.
The latter could not visualize the luxury-loving, softly-bred girl as a poor man"s wife. Why, Lorna never could in this world endure privation, or even a lack of those things which only money-and plenty of it-could purchase.
"Poor girl!" was the young man"s secret thought. "She has always expected to have plenty of money in her own right some day. Wonder what John Nicholet has been doing with the family fortune? Speculating, I bet! He"s a visionary chap.
"But-but it seems terrible for Lorna if she must marry wealth to save the family from penury. And she all unconscious of the fate in store for her. It is a wicked, wicked shame!"
CHAPTER X
STARTING SOMETHING
It was long before this that the lightkeeper and his sister had been put in possession of Jethro Potts" personal estate by Judge Waddams. The nine days" wonder of that happening was past for Clinkerport folk, and as the old couple made no splurge with their fortune, the neighbors put aside the matter for fresher gossip.
With a stern hand Miss Heppy had put down incipient rebellion on her brother"s part. The legacy added to what they already had in the bank made "just a little bit more."
"And that"s purt" average unsatisfying," complained Tobias on occasion.
"You mean to tell me, Tobias Ba.s.sett, that it ain"t a satisfying feeling to know you got nigh eight thousand dollars in the bank?"
"It"s jest so much more of a temptation to Arad Thompson," sighed her brother. "Dunno as we"d be found guiltless if the bank did bust and Arad Thompson should run off with the funds."
"I cal"late he won"t run far in that wheel chair," said Heppy, perhaps with additional confidence because of the bank president"s affliction.
However, their simple minds could not fail to be fixed upon the nest-egg a good part of the time. When one has worked and sc.r.a.ped to get together a few dollars over a long stretch of years, the sudden access of comparative riches cannot fail to become and continue to be a very important topic of thought.
Whenever Tobias took his pay check to the bank and drew the cash needed for their household expenses, he secretly desired to ask the cashier, Mr. Bentley, to let him see that eight thousand in real money so as to be sure the bank was still safely guarding it.
Tobias usually went to Clinkerport in the sloop _Marybird_ on these marketing expeditions, now that the weather was good. Conny Degger on a certain occasion went with him.
Degger"s salvage from the wrecked motor-boat had been an oar, one seat-cushion, and a broken pennant staff. In other words the craft had been a total loss. And this fact appeared to worry the boarder considerably.
He paid his weekly stipend of four dollars to Miss Heppy with admirable promptness, and he had sent for a fairly well-filled trunk, so that he made a presentable appearance in public. But he seemed to be, as Tobias had hinted to Ralph, not overburdened with money.
At least, he spent little in the sight of the lightkeeper. He did not even treat the latter to a good cigar, as might have been expected when Tobias gave him pa.s.sage in the _Marybird_ to and from Clinkerport.
"He ain"t no three-minute egg, that"s sure," was the lightkeeper"s comment to his sister. "He"s hard-boiled all right."
Nor did Degger seem to make himself popular with the loafers around the Clinkerport Inn and the livery stable, as so many of the youthful summer visitors did. On one occasion, however, Tobias heard, and saw the boarder in earnest conference with a man who seemed to be quite well acquainted in Clinkerport, although he was not a resident.
"Well, Conny, take it from me," said this individual, "somebody has got to pay for that motor-boat. When a fellow treats me right I"m the easiest person who ever did another a good turn. But they say patience runs out of virtue after a while. That"s my case exactly."
"But I haven"t any money to spare at present, Burtwell," complained Degger, quite loud enough for the lightkeeper to hear.
"Get busy then and find some. How do you manage to live, I want to know?"
"On expectations," Degger rejoined airily.
"Huh! I"ve seen her. She _looks_ all to the good," Burtwell said coa.r.s.ely. "Folks rich, I suppose?"
"As cream," admitted the optimistic Degger.
"And you expect to make a killing, Con?"
"I fancy I am not altogether wasting my time," the younger man drawled in a tone that made Tobias want to kick him.