Laughing Last by Jane Abbott (fun to read .TXT) 📖

cargo to Shanghai. Roughest v’yage I ever ran into,” and “I picked that up when we had to lay to at Buenos Aires ’cause every man jack in the fo’castle had small-pox,” or “found that when Elizy shipped with me on the old Amanda L. Downs. Forget just where—” and so on.

In the cupola on the roof that Cap’n Davies called his lookout and where he spent most of his time, he had put the paraphernalia from the Viking, his last boat. He had rigged up a bunk so that he could even sleep there when he fancied. He explained that he never let Elizy “tidy up.” “When I get a notion I fix things shipshape myself, but I ain’t had a notion now in sometime.” Sidney could see that. Yet the littered room had an individuality that Elizy’s own spotless quarters lacked.

“Now set down on that bunk and let me have a look at you,” the Cap’n commanded, seating himself in an old swivel chair that creaked and trembled under his weight. “’Pears to me you’ve picked up quite a bit!” He smiled his approval and nodded his great head. “Yes, they ain’t starvin’ you and I’d say you’d been runnin’ in the sun and there ain’t anything that can beat our Cape sun for bringin’ out roses on bushes and little gal’s cheeks.” He beamed with satisfaction over his long speech. “Now, tell me, how’s the pirates? Seen any?”

His question came so suddenly that Sidney started. She hesitated, then answered slowly. “Yes, I have.”

“Well, I’ll be dumblasted!” exclaimed the captain, plainly astonished by her answer. He had spoken only in pleasant chaff and had not thought Sidney would take him seriously.

“At least—” Sidney amended, “I think I’ve seen some. I told Lavender and Mart they’re pirates or—or something, and we’re going to watch every move Jed Starrow makes, at least every chance we get—”

The jovial expression suddenly left the Captain’s genial face and a heavy frown furrowed the leathery forehead.

“Jed Starrow! Now what in thunder would make you set on Jed Starrow—”

His frown alarmed Sidney. Perhaps she had made a dreadful mistake in divulging their suspicions of Jed Starrow, suspicions which really Lavender and Mart did not share, except as it helped their fun along—

“Oh, I shouldn’t have said that it’s Jed Starrow we suspect. I heard Mr. Starrow and that—that man with the hook—say something that sounded mysterious and I told the others, Mart and Lav, about it and we’re just pretending that we think they’re pirates! It’s something to do and makes it exciting when we’re down on the wharves. And they do look like pirates—especially the wrecker man. But I ought not to have said their names—as long as it’s only a sort of game we’re playing, ought I? You won’t tell anyone, will you?”

Cap’n Davies promised hastily and took Sidney off to see the new heifer calf, just a week old. In the delight of fondling the pretty little creature Sidney forgot her embarrassing break. She did not notice that the Captain seemed deeply absorbed by some thought and that when he was not talking he still frowned.

After she had visited the Cove and watched the waves dash against the Head and explored the boathouse Miss Letty arrived with King and Mrs. Davies summoned them to dinner. They ate dinner in the big kitchen that stretched from one side of the house to the other so that a breeze, all tangy with salt, stirred the heat of the room. Mrs. Elizy and Miss Letty talked and Sidney ate and laughed as Cap’n Phin surreptitiously, and with sly winks at her, fed the old Maltese cat under the table. There were fried chicken and peas and mashed potatoes and the gingerbread and cocoa and flaky cherry pie. And after dinner they all went out to watch King eat the gingerbread of his choice.

Sidney and Miss Letty helped Mrs. Elizy clear up and then they joined Cap’n Phin under the shade of the trees on the Head from where they could see far out over the bay. Sidney stretched on the grass and listened while the others talked, determining to put down every word they said in “Dorothea” so that she could read it over when she was a very old woman. She loved the way Miss Letty answered back to Cap’n Davies when he teased her and she was not the least bit afraid of Mrs. Davies, now. All in all, though it was a very quiet afternoon, it was one Sidney long remembered.

When Miss Letty announced that they’d “have to be starting for home,” Cap’n Davies recollected that there was something in the lookout he wanted to show Sidney and had forgotten. But when they reached the lookout it appeared that he had forgotten again for he sat down in the swivel chair and faced her.

“Looky here,” he commanded in a voice Sidney had not heard before in their brief acquaintance, “don’t know as it’s any o’ my affair but I want you to keep off the wharves after dark. Off the beach, too. Play your games in daylight. Things are shapin’ to a sort o’ head and there may be mischief anytime and you’d best be at home come dark. If you don’t promise me I’ll speak a word to Achsy Green—”

“Oh, I’ll promise,” cried Sidney anxiously. A warning to Aunt Achsa would most likely curtail their precious freedom. But she could not resist the temptation of questioning. “What mischief?” she asked, eagerly.

Cap’n Davies hesitated. Then he drew a letter from his pocket and tapped it with his finger.

“That’s from the Custom House in Boston. Come last week. They’re sending secret service men down to comb the Cape. Been huntin’ the hul coast for a year and a half and they sort o’ suspicion these parts because a lot of ’em was shipped into Boston that—”

“Oh, what! You haven’t said what—” broke in Sidney, aquiver.

“So I didn’t. I’m sailin’ stern first, I cal’late. Well, there’s always smuggling and smuggling and I guess there always will be, but when it comes to diamonds Uncle Sam sets up and takes notice. And they’re suspicionin’ that they’re comin’ in somewheres along the Cape, and this part of the Cape, too. And this—” he shook another sheet in Sidney’s face, “this is a notice of a reward offered by Wellfleet and Truro counties for findin’ the dog that’s givin’ this part of the Cape a bad name! Five thousand dollars. In two weeks it’ll be stuck on every post hereabouts ’s far as Provincetown. And Phin Davies ain’t goin’ to lay to ’till I’ve found out whether it’s someone on the Cape that’s doing it or not. Cape Cod’s brung up a race of honest men who could sleep with their doors wide open and if anybody is hurtin’ the good name of the Cape I want to know it. ’Taint the money I want.”