Part 27 (1/2)
After that he knew nothing more.
When he opened his eyes later he found himself in the life-saving station, and for a minute or so wondered what had happened, for as he started to rise there was a severe pain in his head, and he sank back with a sigh.
Then it all seemed to pa.s.s before him.
Again he could see the savage face of big Jim, as he turned like a sheep-killing dog caught in the act, and once more Darry s.h.i.+vered with the terrible thought that life had not wholly departed from the wretched pa.s.senger from the ill-fated steamer at the time the wrecker tossed him back into the merciless sea.
Who had found him, and brought him here, when evidently the lawless man had intended that he should share the fate of the doomed pa.s.senger, and thus forever have his lips sealed?
Someone must have heard him sigh, for there was a movement close by, and his eyes took in the eager face of Paul Singleton.
”Bully for you, Darry! We were getting mighty anxious about you, but I can see you're all right now. It has been hard to keep Abner at his duty watching the sh.o.r.e. Every little while he appears at the door to ask if you have recovered your senses yet. Why, he couldn't be more fond of you if you were his own Joe,” said Paul, running his hand tenderly over the boy's forehead.
”I don't understand how I got here,” declared Darry; ”the last thing I remember was being struck by the fist of that brute, big Jim Dilks. He had just robbed a pa.s.senger from the wreck. I saw him pull the body out of the water, clean out the pockets, and then throw the poor fellow back again. And, Mr. Singleton, it's a terrible thing to say, but I'm most sure there was life still in the body of the man he robbed when he tossed him back!”
”The scoundrel, I wouldn't put it past him a particle. And that isn't the first time he and his gang have done the same thing either. But their time has come, Darry. Even now I chance to know that the government has sent agents down here to make arrests, urged on by the women of Ashley, and before another day rolls around all of those rascals will be in the toils. You may be called on to give evidence against Dilks. But please forget all about this gruesome matter just now, my dear boy. There is something else of a vastly different nature that awaits you--some delightful intelligence, in fact.”
Paul paused to let the half-dazed lad drink in the meaning of his words.
”Oh! Mr. Singleton!” he began.
”No, from this hour let it be Paul--Cousin Paul, in truth. You know, I said I wanted you to look upon me as an elder brother, but now it seems that we are actually related, and that I am your full-fledged cousin.”
”My cousin! Oh! what can you mean?” gasped the bewildered Darry.
”I'll tell you without beating around the bush, then. You are no longer the poor homeless waif you used to believe yourself.”
”No, that is true, thanks to dear old Abner and Nancy,” murmured Darry, loyal to his good friends in this hour.
”But there is someone who has a better claim upon your affection than either Abner or Nancy, kind-hearted though they undoubtedly are. It is your own mother, Darry!” exclaimed the young man, leaning over closer as he said that word of magic.
”Mother! My mother! How sweet that sounds! But tell me how can this be?
Who am I, and where is she? How did you find it out, and, oh! Paul, are you _sure_, quite sure? A disappointment after this would be hard to bear.”
”Have no fears, Darry, there is no longer the slightest shadow of a doubt. The minute my aunt set her eyes on that crescent-shaped mark on your arm she knew beyond all question that Heaven had granted her prayers of years, and in this marvelous way restored her only child to her again. She saw you leap overboard to save that little child, and she recognized in your face the look she remembered so well as marking the countenance of her husband, now long since dead. She says you are his living picture as a boy.”
”I remember some lady seizing hold of my arm after they dragged me aboard the lifeboat, but at the time I believed it must be the mother of the child, and I was anxious to get back to my place, for the boat might upset with one oar missing. And that was--my mother?”
How softly, how tenderly, he spoke the word, as though it might be something he had only dared dream about, and had difficulty in realizing now that he could claim what nearly all other boys had, a parent.
”Yes, that was my dear Aunt Elizabeth. I wired her away down in South America, where she was visiting cousins, and it has taken her quite a while to get here. She had to change steamers twice, and meant to come back here from New York by rail, when a strange freak of fortune sent that vessel upon the reef, and placed you in the lifeboat that went to the rescue. After this I shall stand in awe of the mysterious workings of Providence, since this beats anything I ever heard of. I could see something familiar in your looks, and after hearing your story sent for her on a chance. That was why I dared not tell you any more than I did.
If I had only known about the history of that scar on your arm I would have been positive. She asked me immediately about it, and when I told her it was surely there she fainted again.”
”My mother! how strange it seems. Go on please, Paul,” murmured the boy, reaching out and possessing himself of the other's hand, as though its touch gave him a.s.surance that this was not one of his tantalizing dreams.
”I went in search of you, and one of the men told me he had seen you walking down the beach, as though attracted by the light which he believed was a lantern carried by a wrecker, perhaps the feared Jim Dilks. I engaged him to accompany me, and securing a lantern we hurried along. And Darry, we found you just in time, for the sea was carrying you out. I believe that wretch must have cast you into the water just as he did the body of the pa.s.senger.”