CHAPTER XV
CAP'N PHIN
What made life at Sunset Lane so delightful to Sidney was that shenever knew from one day to the next what she was going to do. Back atMiddletown everything was always arranged ahead--they did this onTuesday and this on Wednesday and always on Saturday there was theLeague. At Sunset Lane she did not even know when it was Tuesday orThursday unless she stopped to think; jolly things happened as thoughthey popped out of the blue ether.
Like that Miss Letty dropped in one evening after supper.
"Do you want to ride over to Wellfleet with me enough to be ready atsix o'clock?" she asked Sidney very casually, as though it were nothingat all to suggest. Sidney had longed to ride with Miss Letty in thesideboard buggy behind King who, Mr. Dugald declared, had come off theArk with Noah. And to go to Wellfleet, perhaps see her friend Cap'nPhin Davies!
"Can we call on Cap'n Davies?" she asked eagerly.
Miss Letty smiled. "I reckon I couldn't steer King away from ElizyDavies' house. I thought I'd take you there and leave you while I givemy lessons and then I'd ride 'round and have a visit with Elizy andPhin and maybe some of Elizy's gingerbread. Elizy and I went to schooltogether."
The next morning Sidney was ready and on her, way to Miss Letty's housebefore six o'clock. She had been far too excited to eat any of thebreakfast Aunt Achsa had set out for her but Miss Letty, guessing this,made her sit down and eat a bit of toast and a boiled egg.
"It's a long way between here and Wellfleet and King's slower than heused to be."
Seated next to Miss Letty, jogging along through the misty morning,Sidney could not speak for pure rapture of delight. She had neverridden behind a horse in her life! She thought King a giant steed; withevery swish of his long tail her heart skipped a beat, the move of hisgreat muscles under his heavy flanks held her fascinated gaze. MissLetty talked to him as though he were human and the animal understoodand tossed his head. She said: "Now, King, we're going to Wellfleet andwe got to get there before noon." And then she let the reins slackenand slip down between her knees as though she had no further care. Onecertainly could not do that with an automobile! Sidney did not wondernow that Miss Letty preferred King to a Ford.
She wished she dared ask Miss Letty how old King really was but she didnot think it polite anymore than if she asked Miss Letty how old shewas. King was not handsome, he was bony like his mistress, but hecertainly understood everything. Miss Letty said he knew they weregoing to Elizy Davies' by the way he loped ahead; King, too, had astrong liking for Elizy Davies' gingerbread.
"She feeds it to him in great hunks. And he won't eat anyone else'sgingerbread, either. Scornful as you please even when I offer him some.Now I say that's discriminating for a horse. I suppose it's what folkscall horse-sense."
Sidney did not know which she liked better, watching the gleamingmarshes through which the highway wound or listening to Miss Letty'sspasmodic conversation. Miss Letty pointed out old landmarks to Sidney,then told her something of the school at Truro to which she and ElizyDavies had gone, then of the little girls to whom she was about to givemusic lessons. She had taught their mothers. Then she lapsed into adeep silence broken only by an occasional "cl-lk" to King which shemade with her tongue against her teeth and to which King paid noattention except for a flick of his right ear.
Sidney, looking down at the great bony hands limply holding the reins,thought it very funny to picture them on the keyboard of a piano. Ifshe had spoken her thoughts aloud Miss Letty would have told her, quitecalmly, that she couldn't play a note now, but that she knew when noteswere played right and she could still rap lagging fingers smartlyacross the knuckles. Folks would have her, anyway. Sidney did not know,of course, that Miss Letty was a tradition and that Cape Cod clings toits traditions.
"You'll think Phin Davies' house the queerest thing you ever saw. Itisn't a house nor is it a boat; it's as much one as t'other and notanything, I'd say, but what two crazy men getting their heads togetherrigged up. Cap'n Davies said as long as he had to live ashore he wantedhis house to look like a boat, he didn't care what folks said, and hehunted the Cape over to find a builder who wouldn't apply to have himlocked up in an asylum, straight off. He got a man from Falmouth, who'dbeen a master once on a trader and sort of knew how Phin Davies felt.But there was Elizy carrying on awful about it and saying _she'd_always looked forward to the time when she could have a nice house--andthere the two of them were. And the house is as 'tis. Phin has thefront of it that's as like the bow of a ship without any rigging asthey could make it, and Elizy has the back that's got as up-to-date akitchen as any on Cape Cod."
A winding road, all sweet with wild primroses led up to the queer houseon the eminence. Sure enough, there was the front part like the forwardhull of a ship, deck-houses and all; and the back like any sensible NewEngland home. Sidney giggled delightedly.
"But there aren't two finer people on this Cape!" declared Miss Letty."And there's Phin coming to meet us. Reckon he spied King through hisglasses along beyond Wellfleet."
Cap'n Phin Davies was overjoyed to see Sidney. "Why, it's the littlegal I found on the train!" he repeated over and over. "Elizy," hecalled lustily toward the kitchen door, "come and see! It's the littlegal I told you 'bout that I found on the train."
Elizy Davies came hurrying from the kitchen door. She was lean togauntness and tall and wore round, steel-rimmed glasses low on thesharp bridge of her nose. Sidney immediately understood how she hadbeen able to hold out for her half of the house. But she greeted Sidneywith kindly interest and Miss Letty with real affection.
"I thought you'd be over this way today. Anne Matthews said Maida wasgoing to have a lesson. Got my gingerbread all mixed."
Miss Letty had not gotten out of the buggy. She turned King's head.
"Thought I'd leave Sidney here while I gave my lessons," she explainedbriefly and then clucked to King.
Mrs. Davies took Sidney into her part of the house. It was cool anddark and sweet-smelling and very, very neat. Sidney sat down in a stiffrocker and answered Mrs. Davies' questions concerning her Aunt Achsaand Lavender, while Cap'n Davies stumped restlessly about.
"Now I cal'late you've heard enough, Elizy, and I'm goin' to carry mylittle shipmate off and show her _my_ part o' the old hull."
Elizy accepted his suggestion with a smile and admitted that she had tofinish up her work. Immensely relieved Sidney followed Cap'n Davies.With the enthusiasm of a boy he took her to the front rooms of thehouse and showed her his treasured possessions. There was not a cornerof the globe that had not contributed something to his collection ofmementoes. And each meant to the old seafarer, not its own intrinsicvalue, but a certain voyage. "I got that when we took a cargo toShanghai. Roughest v'yage I ever ran into," and "I picked that up whenwe had to lay to at Buenos Aires 'cause every man jack in the fo'castlehad small-pox," or "found that when Elizy shipped with me on the old_Amanda L. Downs_. Forget just where--" and so on.
In the cupola on the roof that Cap'n Davies called his lookout andwhere he spent most of his time, he had put the paraphernalia from the_Viking_, his last boat. He had rigged up a bunk so that he could evensleep there when he fancied. He explained that he never let Elizy "tidyup." "When I get a notion I fix things shipshape myself, but I ain'thad a notion now in sometime." Sidney could see that. Yet the litteredroom had an individuality that Elizy's own spotless quarters lacked.
"Now set down on that bunk and let me have a look at you," the Cap'ncommanded, seating himself in an old swivel chair that creaked andtrembled under his weight. "'Pears to me you've picked up quite a bit!"He smiled his approval and nodded his great head. "Yes, they ain'tstarvin' you and I'd say you'd been runnin' in the sun and there ain'tanything that can beat our Cape sun for bringin' out roses on bushesand little gal's cheeks." He beamed with satisfaction over his longspeech. "Now, tell me, how's the pirates? Seen any?"
His question came so suddenly that Sidney started. S
he hesitated, thenanswered slowly. "Yes, I have."
"Well, I'll be dumblasted!" exclaimed the captain, plainly astonishedby her answer. He had spoken only in pleasant chaff and had not thoughtSidney would take him seriously.
"At least--" Sidney amended, "I _think_ I've seen some. I told Lavenderand Mart they're pirates or--or something, and we're going to watchevery move Jed Starrow makes, at least every chance we get--"
The jovial expression suddenly left the Captain's genial face and aheavy frown furrowed the leathery forehead.
"Jed Starrow! Now what in thunder would make you set on Jed Starrow--"
His frown alarmed Sidney. Perhaps she had made a dreadful mistake indivulging their suspicions of Jed Starrow, suspicions which reallyLavender and Mart did not share, except as it helped their fun along--
"Oh, I shouldn't have said that it's Jed Starrow we suspect. I heardMr. Starrow and that--that man with the hook--say something thatsounded mysterious and I told the others, Mart and Lav, about it andwe're just pretending that we _think_ they're pirates! It's somethingto do and makes it exciting when we're down on the wharves. And they_do_ look like pirates--especially the wrecker man. But I ought not tohave said their names--as long as it's only a sort of game we'replaying, ought I? You won't tell anyone, will you?"
Cap'n Davies promised hastily and took Sidney off to see the new heifercalf, just a week old. In the delight of fondling the pretty littlecreature Sidney forgot her embarrassing break. She did not notice thatthe Captain seemed deeply absorbed by some thought and that when he wasnot talking he still frowned.
After she had visited the Cove and watched the waves dash against theHead and explored the boathouse Miss Letty arrived with King and Mrs.Davies summoned them to dinner. They ate dinner in the big kitchen thatstretched from one side of the house to the other so that a breeze, alltangy with salt, stirred the heat of the room. Mrs. Elizy and MissLetty talked and Sidney ate and laughed as Cap'n Phin surreptitiously,and with sly winks at her, fed the old Maltese cat under the table.There were fried chicken and peas and mashed potatoes and thegingerbread and cocoa and flaky cherry pie. And after dinner they allwent out to watch King eat the gingerbread of his choice.
Sidney and Miss Letty helped Mrs. Elizy clear up and then they joinedCap'n Phin under the shade of the trees on the Head from where theycould see far out over the bay. Sidney stretched on the grass andlistened while the others talked, determining to put down every wordthey said in "Dorothea" so that she could read it over when she was avery old woman. She loved the way Miss Letty answered back to Cap'nDavies when he teased her and she was not the least bit afraid of Mrs.Davies, now. All in all, though it was a very quiet afternoon, it wasone Sidney long remembered.
When Miss Letty announced that they'd "have to be starting for home,"Cap'n Davies recollected that there was something in the lookout hewanted to show Sidney and had forgotten. But when they reached thelookout it appeared that he had forgotten again for he sat down in theswivel chair and faced her.
"Looky here," he commanded in a voice Sidney had not heard before intheir brief acquaintance, "don't know as it's any o' my affair but Iwant you to keep off the wharves after dark. Off the beach, too. Playyour games in daylight. Things are shapin' to a sort o' head and theremay be mischief anytime and you'd best be at home come dark. If youdon't promise me I'll speak a word to Achsy Green--"
"Oh, I'll promise," cried Sidney anxiously. A warning to Aunt Achsawould most likely curtail their precious freedom. But she could notresist the temptation of questioning. "What mischief?" she asked,eagerly.
Cap'n Davies hesitated. Then he drew a letter from his pocket andtapped it with his finger.
"That's from the Custom House in Boston. Come last week. They'resending secret service men down to comb the Cape. Been huntin' the hulcoast for a year and a half and they sort o' suspicion these partsbecause a lot of 'em was shipped into Boston that--"
"Oh, _what_! You haven't said _what_--" broke in Sidney, aquiver.
"So I didn't. I'm sailin' stern first, I cal'late. Well, there's alwayssmuggling and smuggling and I guess there always will be, but when itcomes to _diamonds_ Uncle Sam sets up and takes notice. And they'resuspicionin' that they're comin' in somewheres along the Cape, and thispart of the Cape, too. And _this_--" he shook another sheet in Sidney'sface, "this is a notice of a reward offered by Wellfleet and Trurocounties for findin' the dog that's givin' this part of the Cape a badname! Five thousand dollars. In two weeks it'll be stuck on every posthereabouts 's far as Provincetown. And Phin Davies ain't goin' to layto 'till I've found out whether it's someone on the Cape that's doingit or not. Cape Cod's brung up a race of honest men who could sleepwith their doors wide open and if anybody is hurtin' the good name ofthe Cape I want to know it. 'Taint the money I want."
CAPTAIN DAVIES DREW A LETTER FROM HIS POCKET AND TAPPEDIT WITH HIS FINGER]
Sidney was scarcely drawing a breath for excitement. The Captain,suddenly subsiding, observed her tenseness. He laughed embarrassedly.
"Now there I go spillin' everything _I_ know like a ship that's sprunga leak. I'll have to ask you to keep mum 'bout what I've told you,mate, and remember your word to keep off the beach come night. Ain't noplace for a gal like you." And without another word he rose and ledSidney down the narrow stairs.
On the homeward ride Miss Letty found Sidney an abstracted companion.After a few attempts to keep up conversation she subsided into silenceherself. "It's good to find a young one who can keep her tongue still aspell and enjoy her own thoughts."
But Sidney was not enjoying her thoughts, not at all. With therealization that she could not share with Mart and Lavender theastounding revelations Cap'n Phin Davies had made all joy in them hadfled. Had not she and Mart and Lavender agreed solemnly to tell oneanother anything any one of them discovered? It would be so perfectlythrilling to greet them the instant she reached home with "Hook!" Theywould be so surprised. They wouldn't laugh if she told them what sheknew! But she couldn't.
Cap'n Phin Davies had said: "I'll have to ask you to keep mum" and thatwas quite enough to seal Sidney's lips.