Part 36 (1/2)
”It is a bully one, anyhow!” e.j.a.c.u.l.a.t.ed Bob. ”Aren't you curious to hear what Zenas Henry will say when he sees it?”
”I am sorter itchin' to,” admitted Willie in less meditative tone.
”Only last night I was thinkin' after I got to bed how would be the best way of givin' it to him. I've sorter set my heart on springin' it on him as a surprise. What's your notion?”
”I think that would be a fine plan,” replied Bob, eager to humor the gentle dreamer. ”If we could get him and the captains out of the way, it would be good sport simply to fasten the attachment to the boat and wait and see what happened.”
”Wouldn't that be the beateree!” chimed in Willie excitedly. His face glowed and he rubbed his hands with honest pleasure. ”Wouldn't it, though? We could manage it, too, for Delight could arrange to get Zenas Henry an' the three captains out of the way. She's an almighty good one at keepin' a secret, as I reckon you've found out already.”
He stole a sly glance at the young man at his elbow who flushed uncomfortably.
”Yes,” he rambled on, ”Delight can shut her mouth on occasions like as if it was a scallop sh.e.l.l. The only trouble is she'd oughter close her eyes too, for they talk 'most as well as her tongue does. Likely you've noticed that,” he added innocently.
”I--eh--”
”Fur's that goes, your own eyes do somethin' in the speakin' line,”
affirmed Willie, bending to fleck a bit of dust from the appliance before them.
”What!” Robert Morton exclaimed with alarm.
The old inventor nodded gravely.
”Yes,” continued he, ”now I come to think of it, you've got among the most speakin' eyes I ever see. They kinder bawl things right out.”
”What--what--have they--” stammered Bob, crumpling weakly down upon the rickety chair before the stove.
”Bawled? Oh, a lot of things,” was the provokingly ambiguous retort.
His companion eyed him narrowly.
”I'm--I'm--in a horrible mess, Willie,” he suddenly blurted out quite irrelevently.
”I know it.”
Robert Morton gasped, then lapsed into stunned silence.
”Without goin' into any details or discussin' any ladies we know, my advice would be to make a clean breast of the whole thing,” the little old man announced, avoiding Robert Morton's eyes and blowing a ring of smoke from his pipe impersonally toward the low ceiling. ”Have it out with Zenas Henry an' set yourself right with the Belleport folks. You don't want to do nothin' under cover.”
”No, I don't,” rejoined the younger man quickly. ”The reason I didn't do so in the first place was because Zenas Henry was so upset when he heard about Madam Lee that we--I thought--”
”He's calmed down now, ain't he?”
”Yes, he seems to have accepted the facts, especially as the Galbraiths have not been near him and have let the whole matter drop. Of course that is only a temporary condition, however. Mr. Galbraith has been in New York attending to important matters ever since Madam Lee's death.
What will be done when he returns I do not know; but he will do something--you may be sure of that.”
”That ain't no special business of yours or mine, is it?” Willie remarked. ”All that concerns you is to let both those men know where you stand--Zenas Henry first, 'cause he's been like a father to Delight; an' Mr. Galbraith afterwards, 'cause--” he hesitated for the fraction of a second, ”'cause the Galbraiths are the girl's nearest of kin an' legally, I s'pose, have a right--”
”Yes,” interrupted Robert Morton hastily.
”When you get things all squared up, we'll talk more about it,”