Part 5 (1/2)

She moved her head confusedly. ”Oh--you were always so--so alive, or something.... You just couldn't be....”

He chuckled, released her, and stood away and surveyed her. ”Priss, Priss,” he said contritely, ”you're not a little kid any longer. Dresses down, and hair up....” He wagged his head. ”It's a wonder you did not slap my face.” And then he looked from her to Joel, and abruptly he tossed his great head back and laughed aloud. ”By the Lord,” he roared.

”The children are married. Married....”

Priscilla flushed furiously, and stamped her foot at him. ”Of course we're married,” she cried. ”Did you think I'd come clear around the world with....” Her words were smothered in her own hot blushes, and Mark laughed again, until she cried: ”Stop it. I won't have you laughing at us. Joel--make him stop!”

Mark sobered instantly, and he backed away from Joel in mock panic, both hands raised, defensively, so that they laughed at him. When they laughed, he cast aside his panic, and sat down on the cus.h.i.+ons, stretching his legs luxuriously before him. ”Now,” he exclaimed. ”Tell me all about it. When, and why, and how?”

Priss dropped on the bench beside him, feet tucked under her in the miraculous fas.h.i.+on of small women; and she enumerated her answers on the pink tips of her fingers. ”When?” she repeated. ”The day before we sailed. Why? Just because. How? In the same old way.” She waved her hand, as though disposing of the matter once and for all, and looked up at him, and laughed. Joel thought she had not seemed so completely happy since the day the cabin was finished. ”So,” she said, ”that's all there is to tell you about us. Tell us about you.”

Mark's eyes twinkled. ”Ah, now, what's the use? That will come later.

Besides--some chapters are not for gentle ears.” He nodded toward Joel.

”So you love the boy, yonder?”

Priss bobbed her head, red lips pursed, eyes dancing.

”Why?” Mark demanded. ”What do you discover in him?”

She looked at Joel, and they laughed together as though at some delightful secret, mutually shared. Mark wagged his head dolorously. ”And I suppose he's wild about you?” he asked.

She nodded more vigorously than ever.

Mark rubbed his hands together. He looked at Joel, with a faintly malicious twinkle in his eyes. ”Well, now!” he exclaimed. ”That is certainly the best of news....” Joel saw the mocking and malignant little devil in his eye. ”I've never had a kid sister,” said Mark gayly. ”And it's been the great sorrow of my life, Priss. So, Joel, you must expect Priss and myself to turn out the very best of friends.”

And Priscilla, on the seat beside him, nodded her lovely head once more.

”I should say so,” she exclaimed.

VII

Mark Sh.o.r.e held something like a reception, on the _Nathan Ross_, all that first day. He went forward among the men to greet old friends and meet new ones, and came back and complimented Joel on the quality of his crew. ”You've made good men of them,” he said. ”Those that weren't good men before.”

He listened, with a smile half contemptuous, to Jim Finch's somewhat slavish phrases of welcome and admiration; and he talked with Varde, the morose second mate, so gayly that even Varde was cozened at last into a grin. Old Hooper was pathetically glad to see him. Hooper had been mate of the s.h.i.+p on which Mark started out as a boy; and he liked to hark back to those days. Young d.i.c.k Morrell, on his trips from the sh.o.r.e, gave Mark frank wors.h.i.+p.

Joel saw all this. He could not help seeing it. And he told himself, again and again, that it was only to be expected. Mark had captained this s.h.i.+p, had captained these men, on their last cruise; they had thought him dead. It was only natural that they should welcome him back to life again....

But even while he gave himself this rea.s.surance, he knew that it was untrue. There was more than mere welcome in the att.i.tude of the men; there was more than admiration. There was a quality of awe that was akin to wors.h.i.+p; and there was, beneath this awe, a lively curiosity as to what Mark would do.... They knew him for a quick man, dominant, one with the will to lead; and now he found himself supplanted, dependent on the word of his own younger brother.... Every one knew that Mark and Joel had always been rather enemies than comrades; so, now, they wondered, and waited, and watched with all their eyes. Joel saw them, by twos and threes, whispering together about the s.h.i.+p; and he knew what it was they were asking each other.

Of all those on the _Nathan Ross_ that day, Mark himself seemed least conscious of the dramatic possibilities of the situation. He was glad to be back among friends; but beyond that he did not go. He gave Joel an exaggerated measure of respect, so extreme that it was worse than scorn or mockery. Otherwise, he took no notice of the potentialities created by his return.

Priss had planned to go ash.o.r.e in the afternoon; but Mark dissuaded her.

This was not difficult; he did it so laughingly and so dextrously that Priss changed her mind without knowing just why she did so. Mark took it upon himself to make up for her disappointment; they were together most of the long, hot afternoon. Joel could hear their laughter now and then.

He had expected to go ash.o.r.e with Priss; but when she came to him and said: ”Joel, Mark says it's just dirty and hot and ugly, ash.o.r.e, and I'm not going,” he changed his mind. There was no need of his making the trip, after all. Varde and Morrell had brought out water, towing long strings of almost-filled casks behind their boats; and boats from the sh.o.r.e had come off to sell fresh food. So at dusk, the anchor came up, and the _Nathan Ross_ spread her dingy sails, and stalked out of the harbor with the utmost dignity in every stiff line of her, and the night behind them swallowed up the island. Mark and Priss were astern to watch it blend in the darkness and lose itself; and Priss, when their last glimpse of it faded, heard the man draw a deep breath of something like relief. She looked up at him with wide, curious eyes.

”What is it?” she asked softly. ”Were you--unhappy there?”