Flood Tide Page 9

  CHAPTER IX

  A WIDENING OF THE BREACH

  "So," piped Janoah, "that's what you're doin', is it, Willie Spence?Well, you needn't 'a' been so all-fired still about it. I guessed asmuch all the time." There was an acid flavor in the words. "Yes, Iknowed it from the beginnin' well as if I'd been here, even if you didshut me out an' take this city feller in to help you in place of me.Mebbe he has studied 'bout boats; but how do you know what he's up to?How do you know, anyhow, who he is or where he came from? He says, ofcourse, that he's Tiny's nephew, an' he may be, fur all I can tell; butwhat proof have you he ain't somebody else who's come here to stealyour ideas an' get money for 'em?"

  There was a moment of stunned silence, as the barbs from his tonguepierced the stillness.

  Then Delight stepped in front of the interloper.

  "How dare you, Janoah Eldridge!" she cried. "How dare you insultWillie's friend and--and--mine! You've no right to speak so about Mr.Morton."

  Before her indignation Janoah quailed. In all his life he had neverbefore seen Delight Hathaway angry, and something in her flashing eyesand flaming cheeks startled him.

  "I--I--warn't meanin' to say 'twas actually so," mumbled heapologetically. "Like as not the young man's 'xactly what he claims tobe. Still, Willie's awful gullible, an' there's times when a word ofwarnin' ain't such a bad thing. I'm sorry if you didn't like it."

  "I didn't like it, not at all," the girl returned, only slightlymollified by his conciliatory tone. "If you are anything of agentleman you will apologize to Mr. Morton immediately."

  "Ain't I just said I was sorry?" hedged the sheepish Janoah.

  "Indeed, there is no need for anything further," Robert Mortonprotested. "Perhaps, knowing me so little, it was only natural that heshould distrust me."

  "It was neither natural nor courteous," came hotly from Delight, "and Ifor one am mortified that any visitor to the village should receivesuch treatment."

  Then as if clearing her skirts of the offending Mr. Eldridge, she drewherself to her full height and swept magnificently out the door. Anawkward silence followed her departure.

  Robert Morton hesitated, glancing uneasily from Willie to Janoah,scented a storm and, slipping softly from the shop, went in pursuit ofthe retreating figure.

  "For goodness sake, Janoah, whatever set you makin' a speech likethat?" Willie demanded, when the two were alone. "Have you gone plumbcrazy? The very notion of your lightin' into that innocent youngfeller! What are you thinkin' of?"

  "Mebbe he ain't so innocent as he seems," the accuser sneered.

  The little old man faced him sharply.

  "Come," he persisted, "let's have this thing out. What do you knowabout him?"

  "What do you?" retorted Janoah, evading the question.

  The inventor paused, chagrined.

  "You don't know nothin' an' I don't know nothin'," continued Janoah,seizing the advantage he had gained. "Each of us is welcome to hisopinion, ain't he? It's a free country. You're all fur believin' thechap's an angel out of heaven. You've swallered down every word he'suttered like as if it was gospel truth, an' took him into your ownhouse same's if he was a relation. There's fish that gobble down baitjust that way. I ain't that kind. Young men don't bury themselves upin a quiet spot like Wilton without they've got somethin' up theirsleeve."

  Staring intently at his friend, he noted with satisfaction thatWillie's brow had clouded into a frown.

  "Is it to be expected, I ask you now, is it to be expected that aspirited young sprig of a college feller such as him relishes spendin'his time workin' away in this shop day in an' day out? What's he doin'it fur, tell me that? This world ain't a benevolent institution, an'the folks in it don't go throwin' their elbow-grease away unless theylook to get somethin' out of it. This Morton boy has boned down herelike a slave. What's in it fur him?"

  "Why, it's his vacation an'--"

  "Vacation!" interrupted Janoah scornfully. "You call it a vacation, doyou, for him to be workin' away here with you? You honestly think hehankers after doin' it?"

  "He said he did."

  "An' you believed it, I s'pose, same's you credited the rest of histalk," jeered Mr. Eldridge. "Look out the winder, Willie Spence, an'tell me, if you was twenty instead of 'most seventy, if you'd bestayin' indoors a-carpenterin' these summer days when you could beoutside?"

  He swept a hand dramatically toward the casement and in spite ofhimself the old man obeyed his injunction and looked.

  A dome blue as larkspur arched the sky and to its farthest bound thesea, reflecting its azure tints, flashed and sparkled as if set withstars of gold. Along the shore where glittered reaches of hard whitesand and a gentle breeze tossed into billows the salt grass edging themargin of the little creeks, fishermen launching their dories called toone another, their voices floating upward on the still air with musicalclearness.

  "Would you be puttin' in your vacation a-workin' all summer, Willie, ifyou was the age of that young man?" repeated Janoah.

  "He ain't here for all summer," protested the unhappy inventor,catching at a straw. "He's only goin' to stay a little while."

  "He was here fur over night at first, warn't he?" inquired thetormentor. "Then it lengthened into a week; an' the Lord only knowsnow how much longer he's plannin' to hang round the place. Besides, ifhe's only makin' a short visit, it's less likely than ever he'd want toput in the whole of it tinkerin' with you. He'd be goin' about seein'Wilton, sailin', fishin', swimmin' or clammin', like other folks dothat come here fur the summer, if he was a normal human bein'. But hashe been anywheres yet? No, sir! I've had my weather eye out, an' Ican answer for it that the feller ain't once poked his head out of thisshop. What's made him so keen fur stayin' in Wilton an' workin'?"

  Willie did not answer, but he took a great bandanna with a flamingborder of scarlet from his pocket and mopped his forehead nervously.

  "That young chap," resumed Janoah, holding up a grimy finger which heshook impressively at the wretched figure opposite, "is here for one oftwo reasons. You can like 'em or not, but they're true. He's eitherhere to steal your ideas from you, or he's got his eye on DelightHathaway."

  He saw his victim start violently.

  "Mebbe it's the one, mebbe it's the other; I ain't sayin'," announcedJanoah with malicious pleasure. "It may even be both reasons puttogether. He's aimin' fur some landin' place, you can be certain ofthat, an' I'm warnin yer as a friend to look out fur him, that's all."

  "I--I--don't believe it," burst out the little inventor, his benumbedfaculties beginning slowly to assemble themselves. "Why, there ain't afiner, better-spoken young man to be found than Bob Morton."

  Janoah caught up the final phrase with derision.

  "The better spoken he is the more watchin' he'll bear," remarked he."There's many a villain with an oily gift of gab."

  "I'll not believe it!" Willie reiterated.

  Mr. Eldridge shrugged his shoulders.

  "Take it or leave it," he said. "You're welcome to your own way. Onlydon't say I didn't warn yer."

  Flinging this parting shot backward into the room, Janoah Eldridgepassed out into the rose-scented sunshine.

  With a sad look in his eyes Willie let him go, watching the tall formas it strode waist-high through the brakes and sweet fern that patchedthe meadow. It was his first real quarrel with Janoah. Since boyhoodthey had been friends, the gentleness of the little inventor bridgingthe many disagreements that had arisen between them. Now had come thismammoth difference, a divergence of standard too vital to be smoothedover by a gloss of cajolery. Willie was angry through every fiber ofhis being. Slowly it seeped into his consciousness that Janoah'sfundamental philosophy and his own were at odds; their attitude of mindas antagonistic as the poles. Against trust loomed suspicion, againstgenerosity narrowness, against optimism pessimism. Janoah believed theworst of the individual while he, Willie, reason as he might,inherently believed the best. One creed was the fruit of a jealous
andenvious personality that rejoiced rather than grieved over thelimitations of our human clay; the other was a result of that charity_that beareth all things, believeth all things, hopeth all things_,because of a divine faith in the God in man.

  For a long time Willie stood there thinking, his gaze fixed upon thegently swaying plumage of the pines. The shock of his discovery lefthim suddenly feeling very sad and very much alone. It was as if he hadburied the friend of half a century. Yet even to bring Janoah back hecould not retract the words he had uttered or exchange the light hefollowed for Janoah's sinister beckonings. In spite of a certainreasonableness in the pessimist's logic; in spite of circumstances hewas incapable of explaining; in spite, even, of Cynthia Galbraith, alatent belief in Robert Morton's integrity crystallized into certainty,and he rose to his feet freed of the doubts that had previouslyassailed him.

  At the instant of this emancipation the young man himself entered.

  What had passed during the interval since he had gone out of theworkshop Willie could only surmise, but it had evidently been ofsufficiently inspiring a character to bring into his countenance aradiance almost supernatural in its splendor. Nevertheless he did notspeak but stood immovable before the little old inventor as if awaitinga judge's decree, the glory fading from his eyes and a half-veiledanxiety stealing into them.

  Willie smiled and, reaching up, placed his hands on the broad shouldersthat towered opposite.

  "I'm sorry, Bob," he affirmed with a sweetness as winning as a woman's."You mustn't mind what Jan said. He's gettin' old an' a mite crabbed,an' he's kinder foolish about me, mebbe. I wouldn't 'a' had him hurtyour feelin's--"

  Robert Morton caught the expression of pain in the troubled face andcut the apology short.

  "It's all right, Mr. Spence," he cried. "Don't give it anotherthought. So long as you remain my friend I don't care what Mr.Eldridge thinks. We'll pass it off as jealousy and let it go at that."

  The old man tried to smile, but the corners of his mouth drooped and hesighed instead. To have Janoah's weaknesses thus nakedly set forth byanother was a very different thing from recognizing them himself, andinstinctively his loyalty rose in protest.

  "Mebbe 'twas jealousy," he replied. "Folks have always stood out thatJanoah was jealous. But somehow I'd rather think 'twas tryin' to lookafter me an' my affairs that misled him. S'pose we call it a sort ofslab-sided friendliness."

  "We'll call it anything you like," assented Bob, with a happy laugh.

  This time Willie laughed also.

  "So she stood by you, did she?" queried he with quick understanding.

  "Yes."

  "'Twas like her."

  "It was like both of you."

  The old man raised a hand in protest against the gratitude the remarkimplied.

  "Delight ain't often wrong; she's a fair dealer." Then he addedsignificantly, "Them as ain't fair with her deserve no salvation."

  "Hanging would be too good for the man who was not square with a girllike that," came from Robert Morton with an emphasis unmistakable inits sincerity.