CHAPTER XXVI
A CLIMAX
When Winn reached his room that evening, a letter from Jack Nickersonand a clipping from the _Market News_ was awaiting him. The letter said:"Come at once to the city, but keep shady when you arrive. Go to a hoteland send for me. Rockhaven is up to ten, the street is all short of it,and a bear panic may come any day. Have held your stock to unload at topprice. May do it to-morrow, but come anyway."
The clipping was as follows: "As we predicted weeks ago, Rockhaven, inspite of countless rumors put forth by the bears, has crept steadilyupward. Most of it is in the hands of conservative investors who knowits value, and some day those who sold it so freely for five and sixwill be bidding fifteen and twenty for it. It is a safe purchase now onany weak spot, and good for ten points more."
And Winn, fresh from the spell of Mona's eyes and the tender mood ofthat afternoon, felt that he had reached a turning-point in his lifeand that independence and the end of his suspense were in sight. Go tothe city he must, and at once, that was certain, and perhaps a smallfortune was almost within his grasp! The thought made his pulses leap.All his life long he had been hardly more than a cipher, a poorly paidmenial, and now possible freedom and escape from serfdom was near. Thenanother impulse came, which was a natural sequence of the others. He hadnever, since boyhood days, felt that he had a home. His aunt's was but afree boarding place, and irksome at that; the city and its ways were notcongenial to him--even the thought of going there now was obnoxious; andas this realization grew, there came to him, much like the sound ofchurch bells, the sincerity, the honest friendship, the simple truth ofthose people he had for three months lived among. And into thisappreciation also entered--Mona.
Like all men, he aspired to some wealth and the protection it means; andnow, when a little of it seemed within his grasp, there followed anobler impulse, and that the home-building one. Then when he thought ofthe city once more, with its social hypocrisy, its vain display ofwealth, its cold, heartless life, where none seemed ready to extend ahand to him, he felt more than ever it never was and never could be ahome for him. And then in sharp contrast to one city product, EthelSherman, came a thought of the girl who that morning had decked the cavewith ferns and flowers, that it might seem more worthy of him. And nowherself and her life passed in review. He saw her at home, patient withher mother's whims, helping when and where she could; at church bowingin reverence to the simple devotions and joining in the singing; and inthe wild gorge where she hid herself away to practice. This last touchof romance seemed to affect him more than all else, and as he thought ofthose eyes, into which no shadow of falsehood ever entered, and how allthat was beautiful in nature, from the roses that grew between thegranite ledges of the island to the boundless ocean beating against itscliffs, appealed to her as to him; insensibly, and quite beyond hispower to check, came the sweet illusion of love. Gone for the moment wasthe memory of Ethel Sherman and the bitterness she had meted out to him,and in its place opened a new world. Gone, too, was the influence of theone man who, above all others, had forced his cynicism upon Winn andtaught him distrust of womankind. Almost, but not quite, did this gentlethraldom win, and then--the reaction came.
"I will tell Mona, as a big brother should," he thought, "all she has aright to know, and leave the island as I came. I may return and I maynot."
But Winn, of wayward impulse and changeful nature, now buoyant, nowdespondent, knew not his own heart nor its needs, and understood not atall how some straw, some pebble of chance, would inevitably swerve himin spite of all resolution.
It is thus with us all.
And now came the business side of his dilemma.
"It goes without sayin' ye best do as yer friend says," advised Jess,when Winn had read the letters to him, "'n' the sooner the better. Sellyer own stock fust, if ye kin, an' then mine if ye hev the chance, butdon't worry if ye can't. I'll take keer o' matters here while ye'regone, an' when ye git back, we'll haul in the net 'n' see whar westand."
"But how about the others here?" queried Winn, who had worried aboutthem fully as much as about himself. "I must see that they are takencare of."
"Wal," answered Jess, slowly, "ye go ahead 'n' see how the land lays,'n' mebbe I'll follow ye if ye send me word; 'n' if ye don't, an' thingsgo to smash, I'll see none on 'em here is loser."
And this was Jess Hutton, the man above all others whom J. MalcolmWeston had urged his dupe to sell stock to! Never before did Winn feelso ashamed that he came there as manager for the Rockhaven GraniteCompany.
"Mr. Hutton," he said earnestly, "I shall always be thankful that I toldyou from the start how matters stood, and if the worst comes, you willknow it was no fault of mine."
"I knowed ye war honest, the fust time I sot eyes on ye," respondedJess, cordially, "an' now ez ye're goin' soon, it won't do ye no harm totell ye. An' more'n that, I'll tell ye I never doubted from the startthis boss o' yourn was a rascal, an' the only reason I bought a littlestock was 'cause I liked ye 'n' wanted to help ye."
Winn felt more ashamed than ever.
When he returned to his room late that evening, the moon, now a few dayspast its full, was just rising over Norse Hill and silvering the darkand silent houses along the way. No one was up, and so still was thevillage that his footsteps on the plank walk seemed to echo across theisland. When he came to where Rock Lane joined the street, he paused.Just beyond he could see the little church and back of it the silentvillage of the dead, each stone distinct and ghostly in the moonlight,to the left the motionless harbor, a glittering field of silver, andbeyond the old tide mill, spectral and solemn. And faintly whispered inthe stilly night the ocean voice.
Many times afterward that picture returned to his memory.
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