Part 50 (1/2)
Tunis Latham was speaking of the latter fact to Aunt Lucretia in the warm and homelike kitchen of Latham's Folly.
”Zeb is a good fellow. He has got together a bunch of hands that aren't afraid of ghosts or bogies. You couldn't make those Portygees or some of the other hands we had see the ridiculousness of their fear of the _Seamew_--bless her! But with this bunch Zeb has got together I wouldn't fear to sail around the Horn.”
His aunt looked startled at the suggestion and shook her head.
”I know you wouldn't want I should go for such a long voyage, Aunt Lucretia,” he replied. ”And I don't want to myself. But I couldn't be content here if I didn't see the prospect bright before me of getting Ida--I mean, of getting Sheila.”
His aunt looked at him again not unkindly, but said not a word.
”I've told you all about it, Aunt Lucretia,” the skipper of the _Seamew_ pursued. ”Everything. If Sheila did wrong to come down here as she did, I did a greater wrong in encouraging her to come and in tempting her with the chance of escaping from the mess she was in.
And she's paid--we've both paid--for our folly.
”As for folks talking, if that Bostwick girl wants to keep her job with Hoskin & Marl's she'll keep her mouth shut about Sheila. She understands that. And Hoskin & Marl--everybody, in fact that was connected with that awful thing that happened to Sheila--have done all in their power to make amends.”
For the first time his aunt's lips opened.
”The poor child!” she said.
”I want more than your sympathy for Sheila, auntie,” he urged earnestly. ”I want your approval of what Sheila and I mean to do--in time. Of course, I must be better established first and be making money enough to support a--a family. And Sheila would not think of leaving the old people up there. They need her so sorely.”
”But you may as well know, first as last, Aunt Lucretia, that I mean to marry Sheila. I know it was wrong in me to try to palm her off on you as somebody she wasn't--to try to fool you--”
”You did not fool me, Tunis; not for a moment,” she told him softly.
He stared at her in amazement.
”No,” went on his usually inarticulate aunt. ”The moment I first looked into her face I knew she was not Sarah Honey's daughter. That baby's eyes were brown when Sarah brought her here years ago; and no brown eyes could change to such a beautiful violet-blue as--as Sheila's. I knew you and she were trying to deceive me, but I could not help loving the dear girl from my first sight of her.”
That was a very long speech indeed for Aunt Lucretia to make. She put her arms about Tunis Latham's neck and said all the rest she might have said in a loving kiss.
Driving as the storm was, there remained something that took the skipper of the _Seamew_ out into the welter of it. With the wet snow plastering his back he climbed out of the saucerlike valley to the rear premises of the Ball place. He even gave a look in at the barn to make sure that all the ch.o.r.es were done for the night. The gray ghost of the Queen of Sheba's face was raised a moment from her manger while she looked at him inquiringly, blowing softly through her nostrils the while.
”You're all right, anyway,” said Tunis, chuckling as he closed the barn door. ”You've got a friend for life.”
He went on to the kitchen door. Inside he could hear the bustle of Sheila's swift feet, the croon of Prudence's gentle voice, and then a mighty ”A-choon!” as Cap'n Ira relieved his pent-up feelings.
”Don't let them fish cakes burn, gal,” the old man drawled. ”If Tunis ain't here mighty quick he can eat his cold. Oh! Here he is--right to the nick o' time, like the second mate's watch comin'
to breakfast.”
Tunis had shaken his peacoat free of the clinging snow and now stamped his sea-boots on the rug. He smiled broadly and confidently at Sheila and she returned it so happily that her whole face seemed to irradiate suns.h.i.+ne. Prudence nudged Cap'n Ira's elbow.