The Yacht Club Part 32

"He is; but he don't see anybody so late as this," replied the housekeeper.

"I wish to speak to him on very important business, and it is absolutely necessary that I should see him to-night," persisted Laud.

"I will tell him."

Mrs. Sykes did tell him, and the strange man swore he would not see any one, not even his grandmother, come down from heaven. She reported this answer in substance to Laud.

"I wish to see him on a matter in which he is deeply concerned," said the troubled visitor. "Tell him, if you please, in regard to the Hasbrook affair."

Perhaps Mrs. Sykes knew something about the Hasbrook affair herself, for she promptly consented to make this second application for the admission of the stranger, for such he was to her.

She returned in a few moments with an invitation to enter, and so it appeared that there was some power in the "Hasbrook affair." Laud was conducted to the library,--as the retired s.h.i.+pmaster chose to call the apartment, though there were not a dozen books in it,--where the captain sat in a large rocking-chair, with his feet on the table.

"Who are you?" demanded the strange man; and we are obliged to modify his phraseology in order to make it admissible to our pages.

"Mr. Laud Cavendish, at your service," replied he, politely.

"_Mister_ Laud Cavendis.h.!.+" repeated the captain, with a palpable sneer; "you are the swell that used to drive the grocery wagon."

"I was formerly employed at Miller's store, but I am not there now."

"Well, what do you want here?"

"I wish to see you, sir."

"You do see me--don't you?" growled the eccentric. "What's your business?"

"On the morning after the Hasbrook outrage, Captain s.h.i.+vernock, you were seen at Seal Harbor," said Laud.

"Who says I was?" roared the captain, springing to his feet.

"I beg your pardon sir; but I say so," answered Laud, apparently unmoved by the violence of his auditor. "You were in the boat formerly owned by Mr. Ramsay, and you ran over towards the Northport sh.o.r.e."

"Did you see me?"

"I did," replied Laud.

"And you have come to levy black-mail upon me," added the captain, with a withering stare at his visitor.

"Nothing of the sort, sir. I claim to be a gentleman."

"O, you do!"

Captain s.h.i.+vernock laughed heartily.

"I do, sir. I am not capable of anything derogatory to the character of a gentleman."

"Bugs and brickbats!" roared the strange man, with another outburst of laughter. "You are a gentleman! That's good! And you won't do anything derogatory to the character of a gentleman. That's good, too!"

"I trust I have the instincts of a gentleman," added Laud, smoothing down his jet mustache.

"I trust you have; but what do you want of me, if you have the instincts of a gentleman, and don't bleed men with money when you think you have them on the hip?"

"If you will honor me with your attention a few moments, I will inform you what I want of you."

"Good again!" chuckled the captain. "I will honor you with my attention.

You have got cheek enough to fit out a life insurance agency."

"I am not the only one who saw you that Sat.u.r.day morning," said Laud.

"Who else saw me?"

"Don John."

"How do you know he did?"

"He told mo so."

"The young hypocrite!" exclaimed the strange man, with an oath. "I made it a rule years ago never to trust a man or a boy who has much to do with churches and Sunday Schools. The little snivelling puppy! And he has gone back on me."

"It is only necessary for me to state facts," answered Laud. "You can form your own conclusions, without any help from me."

"Perhaps I can," added Captain s.h.i.+vernock, who seemed to be in an unusual humor on this occasion, for the pretentious manners of his visitor appeared to amuse rather than irritate him.

"Again, sir, Jacob Hasbrook, of Lincolnville, believes you are the man who pounded him to a jelly that night," continued Laud.

"Does he?" laughed the captain. "Well, that is a good joke; but I want to say that I respect the man who did it, whoever he is."

"Self-respect is a gentlemanly quality. The man who don't respect himself will not be respected by others," said Laud, stroking his chin.

"Eh?"

Laud confidently repeated the proposition.

"You respect yourself, and of course you respect the man that pounded Hasbrook," he added.

"Do you mean to say I flogged Hasbrook?" demanded the strange man, doubling his fist, and shaking it savagely in Laud's face.

"It isn't for me to say that you did, for you know better than I do; but you will pardon me if I say that the evidence points in this direction.

Hasbrook has been over to Belfast several times to work up his case. The last time I saw him he was looking for Don John, who, I am afraid, is rather leaky."

In spite of his bluff manners, Laud saw that the captain was not a little startled by the information just imparted.

"The miserable little psalm-singer," growled the strange man, walking the room, muttering to himself. "If he disobeys my orders, I'll thrash him worse than--Hasbrook was thrashed."

"It is unpleasant to be suspected of a crime, and revolting to the instincts of a gentleman," added Laud.

"Do you mean to say that I am suspected of a crime, you long-eared puppy?" yelled the captain.