"That's the way home," said Aladdin. Margaret looked wistfullydown-stream, her eyes as misty as the fog.
"If we had the boat we could go now," said Aladdin.
Then he sat moody, evolving enterprise, and neither spoke for a longtime.
"Marg'ret," said Aladdin, at length, "help me find a big log near thewater."
"What you going to do, 'Laddin?"
"You 'll see. Help look."
They crept along the edge of the island, now among the close-growingtrees and now on the bare strip between them and the water, until atlength they came upon a big log, lying like some gnarled amphibian halfin the river and half on the dry land.
"Help push," said Aladdin.
They could move it only a little, not enough.
"Wait till I get a lever," said Aladdin. He went, and came back with along, stiff little birch, that, growing recklessly in the thin soil overa rock, had been willing to yield to the persuasion of a child and comeup by the roots. And then, Margaret pushing her best, and Aladdin pryingand grunting, the log was moved to within an ace of launching. Untilnow, for she was too young to understand about daring and unselfishness,Margaret had considered the log-launching as a game invented by Aladdinto while away the dreary time; but now she realized, from the look inthe pale, set, freckly, almost comical face of the boy, that deeds moreserious were afoot, and when he said, "Somebody'll pick me up, sure,Marg'ret, and help me come back and get you," she broke out cryingafresh and said, "Don't, 'Laddin! Doo-on't, 'Laddin!"
"Don't cry, Marg'ret," said Aladdin, with a gulp. "I'd do more'n thatfor you, and I can swim a little, too--b-better'n I can row."
"Oh, 'Laddin," said Margaret, "it's so cold in the water."
"Shucks!" said Aladdin, whose teeth had been knocking all night. "She'sthe stanch little craft" (he had the phrase of a book) "Good Luck.I'm the captain and you're the builder's daughter"--and so she was."Chrissen 'er, Marg'et. Kiss her on the bow an' say she's the GoodLuck."
Then Margaret, her hat over one ear, and the draggled ostrich feathergreatly in the way, knelt, and putting her arms about the shoreward endof the log, kissed it, and said in a drawn little voice
"The Good Luck."
"And now, Margaret," said Aladdin, "you must stay right here' n' notgo 'way from the shore, so's I can find you when I come back. Butdon't just sit still all the time,--keep moving, so's not to get anycolder,--'n I'll come back for you sure."
Then, because he felt his courage failing, he said, "Good-by, Marg'ret,"and turning abruptly, waded in to his ankles and bent over the log togive it that final impetus which was to set it adrift. In his heartwere several things: the desire to make good, fear of the river, and,poignant and bitter, the feeling that Margaret did not understand. Hewas too young to believe that death might really be near him (almostreckless enough not to care if he had), but keenly aware that hisundertaking was perilous enough to warrant a more adequate farewell. Sohe bent bitterly over the log and stiffened his back for the heave. Itmust be owned that Aladdin wanted more of a scene.
"'Laddin, I forgot something. Come back."
He came, his white lips drawn into a sort of smile. Then they kissedeach other on the mouth with the loud, innocent kiss of little children,and after that Aladdin felt that the river was only a river, the coldonly cold, the danger only danger and flowers--more than flowers.
He moved the log easily and waded with it into the icy waters, until hisfeet were dragged from the bottom, and after one awful instant oftotal submersion the stanch little ship Good Luck and valiant CaptainKissed-by-Margaret were embarked on the voyage perilous. His left armover and about the log, his legs kicking lustily like the legs ofa frog, his right hand paddling desperately for stability, Aladdindisappeared into the fog. After a few minutes he became so freezing coldthat he would have let go and drowned gladly if it had not been for thewonderful lamp which had been lighted in his heart.
Margaret, when she saw him borne from her by the irresistible current,cried out with all the illogic of her womanly little soul, "Come back,'Laddin, come back!" and sank sobbing upon the empty shore.
IV
However imminent the peril of the man, it is the better part ofchivalry to remain by the distressed lady, and though impotent to be ofassistance, we must linger near Margaret, and watch her gradually risefrom prone sobbing to a sitting attitude of tears. For a long time shesat crying on the empty shore, regarding for the most part black lifeand not at all the signs of cheerful change which were becoming evidentin the atmosphere about her. The cold breath across her face and handsand needling through her shivering body, the increasing sounds oftreetops in commotion, the recurring appearance of branches where beforehad been only an opaque vault, did little to inform her that the fog wasabout to lift. The rising wind merely made her the more miserable andalone. Nor was it until a disk of gold smote suddenly on the rock beforeher that she looked up and beheld a twinkle of blue sky. The fogpuffed across the blue, the blue looked down again,--a bigger eye thanbefore,--a wisp of fog filmed it again, and again it gleamed out, everlarger and always more blue. The good wind living far to the south hadheard that in a few days a little girl was to be alone and comfortlessupon a foggy island, and, hearing, had filled his vast chest with warmthand sunshine, and puffed out his merry cheeks and blown. The greatbreath sent the blue waves thundering upon the coral beaches of Florida,tore across the forests of palm and set them all waving hilariously,shook the merry orange-trees till they rattled, whistled through thedismal swamps of Georgia, swept, calling and shouting to itself, overthe Carolinas, where clouds were hatching in men's minds, banked up thewaters of the Chesapeake so that there was a great high tide and theducks were sent scudding to the decoys of the nearest gunner, wentroaring into the oaks and hickories of New York, warmed the veins of NewEngland fruit-trees, and finally coming to the giant fog, rent it apartby handfuls as you pluck feathers from a goose, and hurled it this wayand that, until once more the sky and land could look each other in theface. Then the great wind laughed and ceased. For a long time Margaretlooked down the cleared face of the river, but there was no traceof Aladdin, and in life but one comfort: the sun was hot and she wasgetting warm.
After a time, in the woods directly behind where she sat hoping andfearing and trying to dry her tears, a gun sounded like an exclamationof hope. Had Aladdin by any incredible circumstance returned so soon?Mindful of his warning not to stray from where she was, Margaret stoodup and called in a shrill little voice
"Here I am! Here I am!"
Silence in the woods immediately behind where Margaret stood hoping andfearing!
"Here I am!" she cried. And it had been piteous to hear, so small andshrill was the voice.
Presently, though much farther off, sounded the merry yapping bark ofa little dog, and again, but this time like an echo of itself, theexclamation of hope--hope deferred.
"Here I am! Here--I--am!" called Margaret.
Then there was a long silence--so long that it seemed as if nothing inthe world could have been so long. Margaret sat down gasping. The sunrose higher, the river ran on, and hope flew away. And just as hopehad gone for good, the merry yapping of the dog broke out so near thatMargaret jumped, and bang went the gun--like a promise of salvation.Instantly she was on her feet with her shrill,
"Here I am! Here I am!"
And this time came back a lusty young voice crying:
"I'm coming!"
And hard behind the voice leaves shook, and a boy came striding intothe sunlight. In one hand he trailed a gun, and at his heels trotteda waggish spaniel of immense importance and infinitesimal size. In hisother hand the boy carried by the legs a splendid cock-grouse, ruffledand hunger-compelling. The boy, perhaps two years older than Aladdin,was big and strong for his age, and bore his shining head like a youngwood-god.
Margaret ran to him, telling her story as she went, but so incoherentlythat when she reached him she had to stop and begin over again.
"Then Senator St. John is
your father?" said the boy at length. "Youknow, he's a great friend of my father's. My father's name is PeterManners, and he used to be a congressman for New York. Are you hungry?"
Margaret could only look it.
They sat down, and the boy took wonderful things out of his wonderfulpockets--sandwiches of egg and sandwiches of jam; and Margaret fell to.
"I live in New York," said the boy, "but I'm staying with my cousinsup the river. They told me there were partridges on this island, and Irowed down to try and get some, but I missed two." The boy blushed mostbecomingly whenever he spoke, and his voice, and the way he said words,were different from anything Margaret had ever heard. And she admiredhim tremendously. And the boy, because she had spent a night on a desertisland, which he never had, admired her in turn.
"Maybe we'll find 'Laddin on the way," said Margaret, cheerfully, andshe looked up with great eyes at her godlike young friend.
V
Meanwhile to Aladdin and his log divers things had occurred, but thewonderful lamp, burning low or high at the will of the river, hadnot gone out. Sliding through the smoking fog at three miles an hour,kicking and paddling, all had gone well for a while. Then, for he wasmore keen than Margaret to note the fog's promise to lift, at the verymoment when the shores began to appear and mark his course as favorable,at the very moment when the sun struck one end of the log, an eddy ofthe current struck the other, and sent the stanch little craft Good Luckand her captain by a wide curve back up the river. The backward journeywas slow and tortuous, and twice when the Good Luck turned turtle,submerging Aladdin, he gave himself up for lost; but amidships of theisland, fairly opposite to the spot where he had left Margaret, the logwas again seized by the right current, and the voyage recommenced.But the same eddy seized them, and back they came, with only an armstiffened by cold between Aladdin and death. The third descent of theriver, however, was more propitious. The eddy, it is true, made a finalsnatch, but its fingers were weakened and its murderous intentionsthwarted. They passed by the knob of trees at the narrowing of theriver, and swept grandly toward the town. Past the first shipyard theytore unnoticed, but at the second a shouting arose, and a boat wasslipped overboard and put after them. Strong hands dragged Aladdin fromthe water, and, gulp after gulp, water gushed from his mouth. Then theyrowed him quickly to land, and the Good Luck, having done her duty, wentdown the river alone. Years after, could Aladdin have met with that log,he would have recognized it like the face of a friend, and would haveembraced and kissed it, painted it white to stave off the decay of oldage, and set it foremost among his Lares and Penates.
For the present he was insensible. They put him naked into coarse, warmhorse-blankets, and laid him before the great fire in the blacksmith'sshop across the road from the shipyard. And at the same time they sentone flying with a horse and buggy to the house of Hannibal St. John, forAladdin had not passed into unconsciousness without partly completinghis mission.
"Margaret--is--up--at--" he said, and darkness came.
At the moment when Aladdin came to, the door of the smithy was darkenedby the tremendous figure of Hannibal St. John. Wrapped in his long blackcloak, fastened at the throat by three links of steel chain, his faceglowering and cavernous, the great man strode like a controlled stormthrough the awed underlings and stopped rigid at Aladdin's side.
"Can the boy speak?" he said.
To Aladdin, looking up, there was neither pity nor mercy apparent in thesenator's face, and a great fear shook him. Would the wrath descend?
"Do you know where my daughter is?"
The great rolling voice nearly broke between the "my" and the"daughter," and the fear left Aladdin.
"Mister St. John," he said, "she's up at one of the islands. We went ina boat and couldn't get back. If you'll only get a boat and some oneto row, I can take you right to her." Then Aladdin knew that he had notsaid all there was to say. "Mister St. John," said Aladdin, "I done itall."
Men ran out of the smithy to prepare a boat.
"Who is this boy?" said St. John.
"It's Aladdin O'Brien, the inventor's boy," said the smith.
"Are you strong enough to go with me, O'Brien?" said the senator.
"Yes, sir; I've got to go," said Aladdin. "I said I'd come back forher."
"Give him some whisky," said St. John, in the voice of Jupiter saying"Poison him," "and wrap him up warm, and bring him along."
They embarked. Aladdin, cuddled in blankets, was laid in the bow, St.John, not deigning to sit, stood like a black tree-trunk in the stern,and amidships were four men to row.
A little distance up the river they met a boat coming down. In the sternsat Margaret, and at the oars her godlike young friend. Just overthe bow appeared the snout and merry eyes of the spaniel, one of hisdelightful ears hanging over on each side.
"I am glad to see you alive," said St. John to Margaret when the boatswere within hailing distance, and to her friend he said, "Since you havebrought her so far, be good enough to bring her the rest of the way."And to his own rowers he said, "Go back." When the boats came to landat the shipyard, Margaret's father lifted her out and kissed her onceon each cheek. Of the godlike boy he asked his name, and when he learnedthat it was Peter Manners and that his father was Peter Manners, healmost smiled, and he shook the boy's hand.
"I will send word to your cousins up the river that you are with me," hesaid, and thus was the invitation extended and accepted.
"O'Brien," said the great man to Aladdin, "when you feel able, come tomy house; I have something to say to you."
Then Senator St. John, and Margaret, and Margaret's godlike youngfriend, and the spaniel got into the carriage that was waiting for them,and drove off. But Margaret turned and waved to Aladdin.
"Good-by, Aladdin!" she called.
VI
They helped Aladdin back to the smithy, for his only covering wasa clumsy blanket; and there he put on his shrunken clothes, whichmeanwhile had dried. The kindly men pressed food on him, but he couldnot eat. He could only sit blankly by the fire and nurse the numb,overpowering pain in his heart. Another had succeeded where he hadfailed. Even at parting, just now, Margaret's eyes had not been for him,but for the stranger who had done so easily what he had not been able todo at all. The voyage down the river had been mere foolishness withoutresult. He had not rescued his fair lady, but deserted her upon a desertisland. For him no bouquets were flung, nor was there to be any clappingof hands. After a time he rose like one dreaming, and went slowly, forhe was sick and weak, up to the great pillared house of Hannibal St.John. The senator in that stern voice of his had bade him come; nothingcould be any worse than it was. He would go. He knocked, and they showedhim into the library. It was four walls of leather books, an oak tableneater than a pin, a huge chair covered with horsehair much worn, anda blazing fire of birch logs. Before the fire, one hand thrust into hiscoat, the other resting somewhat heavily upon the head of a whalebonecane, stood the senator. Far off Aladdin heard Margaret's laugh and withit another young laugh. Then he looked up like a little hunted thinginto the senator's smoldering eyes.
"Sit down in that chair," said the senator, pointing with his caneto the only chair in the room. His voice had the effect of a strongmuscular compulsion to which men at once yielded. Aladdin sat into thebig chair, his toes swinging just clear of the ground. Then there wassilence. Aladdin broke it.
"Is Margaret all right?" he gulped.
The senator disregarded the question. Having chosen his words, he saidthem.
"I do not know," he began, "what my daughter was doing in a boat withyou. I do not object to her enjoying the society at proper times ofsuitable companions of her own age, but the society of those who leadher into temptation is not suitable." Aladdin fairly wilted under theglowering voice. "You will not be allowed to associate with her anymore," said the senator. "I will speak to your father and see that heforbids it."
Aladdin climbed out of the chair, and stumbled blindly into the table.He had meant to find the door and
go.
"Wait; I have not done," said the senator.
Aladdin turned and faced the enemy who was taking away the joy of lifefrom him.
"In trying to atone for your fault," said the senator, "by imperilingyour life, you did at once a foolhardy and a fine thing--one which Iwill do my best to repay at any time that you may see fit to call uponme. For the present you may find this of use." He held forward betweenhis thumb and forefinger a twenty-dollar gold piece. Aladdin groped forwords, and remembered a phrase which he had heard his own father returnto a tormentor. He thrust his red hands into his tight pockets, and withtrembling lips looked up.
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