Flood Tide

by Sara Ware Bassett

  CHAPTER XX

  ONE MORE OF WILLIE'S SHIPS REACHES PORT

  Three feverish days passed, days of constant hard work and myriadtrivial annoyances. A train of misadventures had attended thetransference of Willie's "idee" to Zenas Henry's boat. Parts hadfailed to fit, and much wearisome toil had been demanded before thedevice was actually in place. At last, however, all was ready, andAbbie Brewster, a party to the conspiracy, had on a sunny morning urgedher reluctant spouse and the three captains to make a trip out to theBar for clams. They were none too keen about the proposed expedition,for the weather was warm and their course lay through shallow waterswhich after the recent storm were turbid with seaweed. Nevertheless,ignoring their unwillingness, Abbie declared she must have the clams,and was not her word law?

  Therefore, without enthusiasm, the four fishermen had set forth withtheir buckets and their clam forks, and it was now a full three hourssince the motor-boat that carried them had disappeared around the pointof sand jutting into the sparkling waters of the bay.

  Bob and Willie, secreted in the workshop, had breathlessly watched the_Sea Gull_ thread her way through the channel and make the curvingshelter of the dunes, and ever since the old inventor had sat alert onan overturned nail keg, his binoculars in one hand and his great silverwatch in the other, counting the moments until the little craft shouldreturn from its momentous cruise. The vigil had been long and tedious,with only the ticking of the mammoth timepiece and the far-off rumbleof the surf to break the stillness.

  Presently Celestina came from the kitchen into the shop.

  "I'm bringin' you a dish of hot doughnuts," she said, a kindly sympathyin her face. "Oughtn't them men to be comin' pretty soon now?"

  For the hundredth time Willie raised the glasses and scanned theshimmering golden waters.

  "We should sight 'em before long," he nodded.

  "You don't see nothin' of 'em?"

  "Not yet."

  There was an anxious frown on his forehead.

  "Why don't you eat somethin'?" suggested she. "It might take your mindoff worryin'."

  "I ain't worryin', Tiny," was the confident reply. "The boat's allright."

  "S'pose it should be snagged or somethin' outside the bay?" sheventured. "I wish to goodness they'd come back. Look, here's Delightan' Abbie comin' through the grove. Likely they've been gettin'uneasy, too."

  Sure enough, moving among the low pines that shaded the slope betweenthe Spence and Brewster houses they saw the two women.

  Abbie was stouter now than when she had come as a bride to ZenasHenry's white cottage, but there was a serenity in her mien thatsoftened her expression into charming womanliness. As she neared theshed she glanced at Willie with an uneasiness she could not whollyconceal.

  "Don't it seem to you, Willie, that it's gettin' most time for 'em tobe gettin' home?"

  "You ain't nervous, Abbie," smiled the little old man.

  "N--o, not really. Of course, I know they're all right. Still, theyain't never stayed clammin' so long before."

  "I wouldn't worry, Auntie," Delight put in, taking her handreassuringly. "A thousand things may have delayed them. I am sure--"

  "They're comin'!" broke in Willie with sudden excitement. "The boat'scomin'. Ain't that her makin' the point, Bob? She's clippin' alonglike a race horse, too. Lord! Watch her go."

  "That's the _Sea Gull_!" cried Abbie. "I don't need no glasses to makeher out. That's her! How foolish I was to go fussin'. Still, Ialways have a kind of dread--"

  "I know, I know," interrupted the inventor gently. "But there warn'tno call for worry this time. I felt mortal certain they'd be heavin'into sight pretty soon."

  "I guess likely now we know they're on the way, we'd better slip homeagain," Abbie smiled. "I'd feel silly enough to have 'em find us here."

  "Nonsense, Abbie!" said Celestina. "They needn't know you was worried.Ain't it possible you might have come down here on an errand? Wait'til they pass and walk back with 'em. What difference does it make ifyour dinner is late?"

  Abbie hesitated. Her dinner never was late; yet, for that matter, shenever was out visiting her neighbors in the middle of the day, either.Perhaps, as she had followed one demoralizing impulse and transgressedall her domestic traditions, the breaking of another did not matter.

  "I--s'pose I might wait," she answered. "I'd love dearly to hear whatthey'll have to say."

  "Oh, do wait, Auntie!" Delight begged. "It won't be long now beforethey get here."

  "Better stay, Abbie," put in Willie. "Bob an' I won't be inventin'every day."

  "Well," was the half unwilling answer.

  "Don't you wonder how it worked?" cried Delight, addressing Bob, hercheeks scarlet with excitement. "See, here they come! Did you everhear such a chatter! Zenas Henry is swinging that clam bucket as ifthere wasn't a thing in it. He will spill them all out if he isn'tcareful."

  On strode the four men. With a bound they cleared the bank before theSpence cottage and crowded in at the narrow gate.

  "Whar is he? Whar's Willie?" demanded Zenas Henry. Then, catchingsight of the old inventor half concealed behind his workbench, heshouted:

  "Here, Willie, you rascal, out with you! Don't go hidin' there behindthat table. Man alive, why didn't you tell us what you was up to?"

  "Did it work, Zenas Henry?" queried the little fellow eagerly.

  "Did it work!" mimicked Zenas Henry with a guffaw. "Say, Phineas, didit?"

  The fishermen gave an exuberant roar of laughter.

  "Did it work?" repeated Zenas Henry so out of breath that he couldscarcely articulate the words. "Good Lord, don't it just! Why, weclipped along through that seaweed as if it warn't there."

  "You didn't get snagged then?"

  "Snagged? Not much! Ain't we been ridin' in an' out every little eelgrass cove along the shore just for the sheer deviltry of seein' if wecould get snagged?" piped Captain Benjamin. "There'll be no morerockin' in the channel for us. My eye! Think of that!"

  "How ever did you manage it, Willie?" Zenas Henry questioned.

  "What makes you so sure it was me?"

  "Oh, Lord! Who else would it be?"

  "Well, it warn't all me," protested the little inventor modestly."Most of it was Bob. I got the idee an' he did the rest--him an' Mr.Galbraith's friend, Mr. Snellin'."

  "Well, I'm clean beat--that's all I can say," observed Zenas Henry,mopping his brow. "I tell you what, it's made a new thing of thatmotor-boat. There's no thankin' you. All is, Willie, if you wantanything of mine it's yours for the askin'. Just speak up an' you canhave it."

  A radiant smile spread over the face of the spinner of cobwebs.

  "You ain't got nothin' I covet, Zenas Henry," he answered slowly, "butyou've got somethin' Bob Morton wants powerful bad."

  He saw a mystified expression steal into Zenas Henry's face.

  "Happiness didn't come to you early in life, Zenas Henry," went onWillie, his voice taking on a note of gentle persuasion, "an' oftenI've heard you lament you was cheated out of spendin' your youth withAbbie. Of course, marryin' late is better than not marryin' at all,though. Some of the rest of us--" he motioned toward the threecaptains and Celestina, "have got passed by altogether. But Delightan' Bob have found love early, while the bloom is still on it. Youwouldn't wish to keep 'em from their birthright, would you, ZenasHenry?"

  In the hush that followed the plea, Abbie crept up to her husband andslipped her hand into his.

  "The child loves him, dear," she said, looking up into the man's sternface. "I read it in her eyes long ago. You want her to be happy,don't you?"

  Her voice trembled. Only the mother instinct, supreme in itsselflessness, gave her the strength to continue: "We must not think ofourselves. Real love is heaven-sent. It is ours neither to give norto deny."

  How still the room was. Suddenly it had been transformed into a battleground on which a soul waged mortal combat. There was no question inthe minds of those who
viewed the struggle that the issue presented hadcome as a shock, and that to meet it taxed every ounce of forbearanceand control that the man possessed. He looked as one stricken, hisface a turmoil of jealousy, grief, despair, and disappointment. Butgradually a gentler light shone in his eyes,--a light radiant, andtriumphant; love was conqueror and raising his head he murmured:

  "Where is the child?"

  She sped to his side.

  "So you love him, do you, little girl?" he asked, smiling faintly downat her as he encircled her with his great arm.

  "Yes, Zenas Henry," she whispered.

  For a moment he held her close as if he could never let her go.

  "Well, Tiny," he said, "I don't know as we have anything to say againstit. He's your nephew an' she's my daughter--yes, my daughter," headded fiercely, "in spite of the Lees and the Galbraiths." With aswift gesture he turned toward Robert Morton. "Young man, I am payin'you a heavy fee for that motor-boat. I'm handin' over to you the mostprecious thing I have in the world. See you value it as you should or,by God, your life won't be worth a straw to Willie, the three captains,or me."

  They saw him wheel abruptly and stride alone into the shadow of the lowpines. Silently the others drifted from the room and Delight was leftalone with her lover.

  As Bob caught the girl in his arms, a great wave of passion surgedthrough his body, causing its every fiber to vibrate in tune with themad beating of his heart. He kissed her hair, her cheeks, the whitecurve of her exquisite throat; he buried his face in her hair and lethis hands wander over its silky ripples.

  "I love you," he panted,--"I love you with all my heart. Tell me youlove me, Delight."

  "You know I do," was the shy answer.

  Again he kissed her soft lips.

  "I mustn't stay, Bob," she said at last, trying to draw herself fromhis embrace. "Zenas Henry is alone somewhere, almost broken-hearted; Imust find and comfort him."

  But the arms that held her did not loosen their hold.

  "Please let me go, Bob dear," she coaxed. "We mustn't be selfish."

  Her request struck the right note and instantly she was free.

  Robert Morton followed her to the door and stood watching as shehurried along the copper-matted path of the woods sunflecked andmottled with shadow.

  What a sweet miracle it was, he mused! She was his now before all theworld, thanks to Willie's skilful pilotage. Where was the little oldman--that dreamer of dreams, who with Midas-like touch left uponeverything with which he came in contact the golden impress of hisheart? He must seek him out and thank him for his aid.

  Perhaps the thought carried with it a potent charm of magic, for nosooner had Robert Morton framed it than the inventor himself appearedon the threshold.

  "Well, another of my ships has made port!" cried he triumphantly.

  His delicate face was illumined with a joy so transcendent that onemight easily have believed that it was to him love's touchstone hadbeen given.

  "I never can thank you, Willie!" burst out the young man.

  "Be good to Delight, my boy, an' make her happy; that's all the thanksI want," was the grave response.

  A pause fell between them. Perhaps Willie was thinking of the daysthat must inevitably come when the girl he had loved since childhoodwould be far away. How dull the gray house would be when she no longerflitted in and out its doors! Try as he would to banish the selfishreflection, it returned persistently. Then suddenly something quiteoutside himself put the reverie to rout.

  It was the querulous voice of Janoah Eldridge.

  "I was right about them Galbraiths," he cried exultantly, standing inthe doorway and hurling the words into the room where the two menlingered. "'Twas exactly as I said. Lyman Bearse's boy went up on theBoston train one afternoon in front of Snelling an' that other fellerwho was here, an' he heard every word they uttered. He said theytalked the whole way about gettin' a patent out on your invention.Now, Willie Spence, was I right or warn't I? Mebbe you'll believe methe next time I warn you against folks."