CHAPTER XI
THE BLACK SQUALL
Lorna Nicholet was of a joyous heart-a joy-bringer and a joy-giver. She had spent a happy childhood. Miss Ida"s firm government had been the very best bringing up the girl could have had, for not only was she of a lightsome disposition, but she was inclined to carry that chief trait of her character to recklessness.
Left to herself, impulse would more often have guided her decisions-both momentous and unimportant-than the really good sense with which she was endowed. She was a charming mixture of infantile trustfulness and downright practicality. She was wont to trust in the good intentions of everybody, yet she often shrewdly evaded pitfalls that girls of her cheerfully optimistic type sometimes get into.
Her happy a.s.sociation with Ralph Endicott caused Lorna to look upon all young men as being like her chum. Because Ralph was chivalrous and a "good fellow," Lorna believed such was the character of all young men.
She treated Conway Degger as she always had Ralph. Degger was shrewd enough (or was it because of the warning word Ralph had once given him?) in most instances to pattern his att.i.tude after the example set by the frank and clean-minded Endicott.
Occasionally there were crudities shown in Degger"s nature that rather shocked the gently bred Lorna. But she overlooked these lapses on his part, and their companionship was in the main that of two healthy-minded boys, rather than that of a young man and a young woman.
She had insisted upon blaming Ralph Endicott for the determination of their families to force Ralph and herself into an engagement. She felt that if he had "put his foot down like a man" and refused to hear of any such arrangement the Endicotts and the Nicholets, in conclave a.s.sembled, would give up the idea. That she had not yet declared in her own household that she scorned Ralph and would not marry him, did not count in her opinion. If Ralph was a real man he would not put such a burden upon her. And then, secretly, she knew her Aunt Ida and her father would take any such declaration on her part very lightly indeed.
"Lorna is very young yet, John," Miss Ida said to Lorna"s father, and in the girl"s hearing. "Too young to really know her own mind. But surely, when she throws off this childishness of thought, she must agree with us that there is only one proper course to pursue. Ralph is a splendid boy, and his family is irreproachable."
"He"s a good deal like his Uncle Henry, I should say," observed John Nicholet.
Miss Ida bridled, as she frequently did when Henry Endicott was mentioned. Lorna had more than once noted it.
"I should hope Ralph would have some traits of character not patterned upon those of his uncle," she said. "I believe that if Lorna takes Ralph Endicott for a husband, she will do extremely well."
What could a girl say in rejoinder to such calm and over-riding statements? Individuality was not to be considered at all! She must look upon a marriage contract as of more importance to the family than to herself.
"I might as well be a French girl, instead of a real Yankee," she furiously complained. "What did our ancestors come here for? For freedom! And I mean to have my share."
"There, there!" sighed Miss Ida, smiling faintly. "At least, my dear, don"t be loud if you do insist on being childish."
What could one do under these circ.u.mstances? Run away? Flout her family-and the Endicotts-directly? But Lorna had no place to run away to, and n.o.body she cared to run away with. Least of all at this time did she have any idea of running away with Conny Degger!
That young man bided his time with admirable composure. If he was deeply enamored of Lorna, he succeeded in hiding the feeling from public view. The girl wanted a male companion to "play with." Beyond having a good time swimming, and boating, and fishing, and following other longsh.o.r.e pursuits, Lorna had no thought. Degger was a patient waiter.
The old lightkeeper"s suggestion that Ralph and his family were in financial difficulties gave Lorna certain pause. She had been treating Ralph whenever they met to a mixture of careless comradery and downright snubbing. He could consider himself as being, in her opinion, of small importance. She thought this had begun to make its impression on what she called "His High-Mightiness."
Of late she had caught Ralph looking at her with an expression of countenance that she could not altogether fathom. Was it a look of compa.s.sion? And why? Or did it display his secret fear of losing Lorna altogether? The girl never had believed that Ralph Endicott was as much opposed to the determination of the two families to get them married as she herself was. What girl with a proper amount of pride and vanity could have believed such to be the fact?
Tobias Ba.s.sett"s matchmaking, brought to bear upon Lorna"s mind, caused the girl to reconsider Ralph"s evident disturbed mental state. If Mr.
Henry Endicott had frittered away the family fortune, as Tobias intimated, naturally Ralph"s family would insist more strongly than ever that he marry Lorna.
Upon coming of age Lorna would have a considerable fortune in her own right. This dowry the Endicotts naturally would consider as being the salvation of Ralph"s fortunes, if not of the family"s. Nor did this thought seem at all shocking to the girl"s mind.
The idea of Ralph going away to look for a business opening seemed much more disturbing to Lorna. That an Endicott should be obliged to seek a livelihood in the ordinary marts of trade was a most upsetting thought.
She really wished-did Lorna-that she might do something for her old chum in a financial way without thereby pledging her hand to him in marriage.
The effect of all these disturbing thoughts upon her own peace of mind was to be considered. Already her Aunt Ida had emphatically declared it to be Lorna"s duty to marry Ralph. If Miss Nicholet knew of the waning fortunes of the Endicotts, would she not be the more insistent that her niece keep faith with Ralph and fulfil the contract so long arranged by their kin?
"My goodness!" sighed Lorna, being sorry for Ralph, yet more sorry for herself, "if it would only enter Aunt Ida"s head to marry Professor Endicott. That would be a logical way out of it, and would relieve me.
And if Aunt Ida was once in love with Ralph"s uncle, why shouldn"t she come to the rescue instead of making me the sacrificial offering? Oh, dear!"
Lorna"s confidential relations with Ralph, however, were broken.
Instead of planning the day"s activities with her old chum, it was to Conny Degger she turned for a.s.sistance in pleasurably killing the idle hours alongsh.o.r.e.
Degger did nothing quite as well as Ralph-unless his small talk was more amusing. He did possess a fund of amusing chatter; whereas Ralph had been wont to lapse into long spells of silence while he and Lorna were fishing or sailing. Lorna often accused Degger of "talking the fish off their feeding grounds."
Still, the light chatter of her new chum was not altogether unentertaining. She could not expect any other young man to be just like Ralph Endicott. Indeed, she told herself she did not want Conny Degger to be the same sort of man as Ralph.
Now she had a chance to take the lead when they went fishing or boating.
She knew infinitely more (thanks to Ralph) about such sports than Degger. Lorna could not, however, manage a boat-not even the lightkeeper"s dory-as well as Ralph. No fisherman"s son in all Clinkerport was a better sailor of small craft than Ralph Endicott.
So it was that the day came when Lorna (whether she would or no) desired the presence of Ralph instead of Conny with her in the dory off the Twin Rocks. She had ample opportunity on this occasion to compare the two young men.
The weather had been uncertain all day. When Lorna and Conny Degger came over from the Clay Head and borrowed the lightkeeper"s dory, Tobias would surely have warned them against going out had he seen them. But he was taking his daily nap, for his care of the lamp in the tall tower kept him awake a good part of each night.
Gusts of wind were swooping down upon the sea and ruffling it into lurid patches far off sh.o.r.e-certain indication of coming trouble. After the dory was beyond the shelter of the reefs the pleasure seekers saw streaks of driving rain racing across the wave tops, away out on the open sea. But the fish began to bite ravenously.
It was while their luck was so good that Lorna saw suddenly a figure scrambling over the sh.o.r.e-end of the outer reef, and waving an energetic arm to them.
"Now, what does _he_ want?" the girl demanded, with no little exasperation.
"Who is it? The skipper?" Conny asked lightly, and without turning his head.
"It"s Ralph," she said shortly.
"Oh! Endicott? He is always trying to b.u.t.t in, isn"t he?" suggested Conny, laughing. "Sour grapes, I suppose. Let him swing his arm off.
_He_ doesn"t own this boat."
Lorna giggled. "It"s funny," she commented, glancing back at the figure gyrating on the rock. "Ralph doesn"t often get so excited. And over what, I wonder."
Neither she nor her companion looked skyward. Over the bay a black ma.s.s of cloud had risen and was rolling toward the open sea. Lurid lightnings played upon its edges.
The dory in which the girl and Conny Degger sat was several cable-lengths off the jaws of the reef. It seemed as though they had plenty of clear-way in which to manage the craft if a squall did strike.
Neither, however, expected what was threatening from the cloud.
When Ralph, mooning alone alongsh.o.r.e, as had become his wont of late, spied the coming squall and the couple"s danger therefrom, there was ample time for the fishers to have got up anchor and gained shelter between the Twin Rocks.
It was several minutes before Ralph realized that Lorna at least was deliberately ignoring his effort to warn her of peril. Or was she so much under Conny"s influence that she considered his wisdom in weather matters above that of Ralph?
The latter might be stung in his pride-a vulnerable spot-by such a thought; but the occasion was too serious for him to shake off responsibility by a shrug of his shoulders.
He saw at last that the fishers were determined to yield him no attention. So, turning swiftly, he scrambled back to the sands. At the cove lay his own motor-boat, the _Fenique_, the fastest of the small flock of craft moored in the cove. In five minutes he reached the strand, pushed in a skiff, and sculled out to the _Fenique"s_ moorings.
Already the oily black ma.s.s of cloud had spread over the greater part of Clinkerport Bay. Thunder muttered behind it. The vivid lightnings intermittently lit the edges of the cloud. Behind that screen lurked an electric storm that, when it burst, promised disaster. Any light craft in its path would be as mere culch before a cyclone!
The barren backbones of the two reefs hid the dory on their seaward side from the site of the _Fenique"s_ moorings. Lorna and Conny might see their danger in season and make for shelter while Ralph was getting his motor-boat out of the harbor. But Endicott must take the risk of this.