Part 31 (1/2)

”She's Isaac Berry's daughter,” he went on, ”and Ike Berry was my best friend. More than that, she's a good girl, a fine girl. Her mother is more or less of a fool, but that isn't the girl's fault. Keep an eye on her, will you, Kendrick?”

”Why--why, I'll do what I can, of course.”

”Like her, don't you?”

”Yes. Very much.”

”You couldn't help it. She is pretty thick with that young Kent, I believe. He's a bright boy.”

”Yes.”

”All right.... But there's time enough for that; they're both young....

Watch her, Kendrick. See that she doesn't make too big mistakes.

She--she's going to have a little money of her own pretty soon--just a little. Don't let that--that Phillips or--or anybody else get hold of it. I.... Oh, here you are! Confound you, Sheldon, you're a nuisance!”

The doctor opened the door and entered. He nodded significantly to Kendrick. The latter understood. So, too, did Judge Knowles.

”Time's up, eh?” he panted. ”Well, all right, I suppose. Good luck to you, Kendrick. And good night.”

He smiled cheerfully. One might have thought he expected to see his caller the next morning. The captain simply could not believe this was to be the last time.

”Good night, Judge,” he said. ”I'll drop in to-morrow, early.”

The judge did not answer. His last word had to do with other things.

”Don't you forget, Kendrick,” he whispered. ”I've banked on you.”

The feeling of the absolute impossibility of the situation still remained with Sears as Mike drove him to his own door and Judah helped him down from the chaise. It was not possible that a brain like that, a bit of machinery capable of thinking so clearly and expressing itself so vigorously, could be so near its final breakdown. A personality like Judge Knowles' could not end so abruptly. He would not have it so. The doctor must be mistaken. He was over pessimistic.

He sat in the rocking chair until nearly half-past one thinking of the judge's news, that Lobelia Phillips was dead, and of the charge to him.

Fight Egbert--there was an element of humor in that; Knowles certainly did hate Phillips. But for him, Kendrick, to a.s.sume a sort of guardians.h.i.+p over the fortunes of Elizabeth Berry! The fun in that was too sardonic to be pleasant. He thought of many things before he retired, but the way ahead looked foggy enough. And behind the fog was--what? Why, little suns.h.i.+ne for him, in all human probability.

Before blowing out his lamp he peered out of the window at the Knowles house. The lights there were still burning.

The next morning when he came out for breakfast, Judah met him with a solemn face.

”Bad news for Bayport this mornin', Cap'n Sears,” said Judah. ”Judge Knowles has gone. Slipped his cable about four o'clock, so Mike told me. There's a good man gone, by Henry! Don't seem hardly as if it could be, does it?”

That was exactly what Bayport said when it heard the ill tidings. It did not seem as if it could be. The judge had been so long a dominant figure in town affairs, his strong will had so long helped to mould and lead opinion and his shrewd common sense had so often guided the community, and individuals, through safe channels and out of troubled waters, that it was hard to comprehend the fact that he would lead and guide no more.

He had many enemies, no man with his determined character could avoid that, but they were altogether of a type whose enmity was, to decent people, preferable to their friends.h.i.+p. During his life it had seemed as if he were a lonely man, but his funeral was the largest held in Bayport since the body of Colonel Seth Foster, killed at Gettysburg, was brought home from the front for burial.

It was a gloomy, drizzly day when the long line of buggies and carryalls and folk on foot followed the hea.r.s.e to the cemetery amid the pines.

Captain Sears, looking back at the procession, thought of the judge's many prophecies and grim jokes concerning this very journey, and he wondered--well, he wondered as most of us wonder on such occasions. Also he realized that, although their acquaintances.h.i.+p had been brief, he was going to miss Judge Knowles tremendously.

”I wish I had been lucky enough to know him sooner,” he told Judah that evening.

Judah pulled his nose reflectively. ”It kind of surprised me,” he observed, ”to hear what the minister said about him. 'Twas the Orthodox minister, and he's pretty strict, too, but you heard him say that the judge was one of the best men in Ostable County. Yet he never went to meetin' what you'd call reg'lar and he did cuss consider'ble. He did now, didn't he, Cap'n Sears?”

Sears nodded. He was thinking and paying little attention to the Cahoon moralizing.

”Um-hm,” went on Judah. ”He sartin did. He never said 'sugar' when he meant 'd.a.m.n.' But I don't know, I cal'late I'd ruther been sworn at by Judge Knowles than had a blessin' said over me by some others in these lat.i.tudes. The judge's cussin' would have been honest, anyhow. And he never put one of them swear words in the wrong place. They was always just where they belonged; even when he swore at me I always agreed with him.”