Captain Pott's Minister Part 46

The minister absent-mindedly asked concerning the condition of Miss Splinter.

"She 'peared to be a trifle easier this morning. But what's ailing the both of you? Look as if you'd been setting up all night like two owls."

"Cal'late we're on our uppers, Clemmie. But we'll be fit as fiddles when we get some of them cakes stowed amids.h.i.+ps, and ballast 'em down with a few swallers of that coffee. There ain't everybody that can b'ile coffee like you, Clemmie."

"Don't be foolish, Josiah."

After a very light breakfast, Mr. McGowan excused himself from the table, saying he must do some work on his sermon before the church hour.

As the door to the study closed the Captain pushed back his plate and chair. He slid the latter round the end of the table, and placed it by Miss Pipkin.

"For the lan' sakes, Josiah! You ain't going to make love to me this morning, be you?"

"I ain't sartin, Clemmie. It depends on your partic'lar frame of mind,"

he replied slowly, a quiet kindness in his old eyes.

"I don't know as I feel like being made love-sick," she said, but without the old spirit of stubbornness.

"All right, Clemmie," he said resignedly. "I cal'late you know best. I'm going to spin you a yarn about what took place round these premises last night. That is, if you're willing to listen."

"Why, of course I'm willing to listen. Did that lawyer show up here again with his old mortgage?"

"No, you bet he didn't. And what's more, he won't come prowling round again, either."

The Captain told his housekeeper the whole story. He pa.s.sed as lightly as he could over the part where Adoniah had married the trader's daughter. Miss Pipkin gave no sign that she cared in the least, or that the news had shocked her. But when the Captain rehea.r.s.ed the treachery of Mr. James Fox, she grew rigid. She dabbed her ap.r.o.n into the corners of her eyes as he unfolded the story of the suffering of the little family. The old man paused to wipe the tears from his own eyes as he recounted the finding of the lad in the doorway with a pile of morning papers in his lap. For some time after he had finished neither spoke.

The Captain dangled his bandanna at the end of his nose, and Miss Pipkin dabbed her checked ap.r.o.n against her wet cheeks.

"Josiah," she whispered eagerly, "have you found the boy yet? Is he still alive?"

"Yes." A prolonged blow followed.

She laid her hand in his. "Where is he? Do you think I could see him?"

"He's in there." He pointed toward the study door.

"In that study with Mr. McGowan? Is that what you said?"

He nodded.

"You brought him here from the city yesterday?"

The seaman shook his head. "He come long afore that."

"Where've you been keeping him? Ain't you going to fetch him out?" she cried, rising. "I'll go get him."

"Wait, Clemmie. It's been nigh onto twenty-five year since he was born, so he ain't a baby. Let Mack fetch him. Mack!" called the Captain sharply. A slight twinkle in his eyes offset the a.s.sumed severity of his command.

The door opened and Mr. McGowan stood on the threshold. Miss Pipkin stared from the one to the other.

"Be the both of you clean crazy?" she demanded, as the men grinned rather foolishly at each other.

"No, Clemmie. We've just woke up to our senses, that's all."

"If you think this a good joke,----"

"It ain't no joke," said the Captain, motioning Mr. McGowan to come nearer. "I give you my word, it ain't, Clemmie. There's Adoniah Phillips' son."

With a smothered exclamation Miss Pipkin dropped back against the table.

"You--you----" But she ended with a gasp for breath and words.

"The Cap'n is telling you the truth," confirmed the minister.

"You--and you let me tell you all that nonsense about him and me!"

"You're doing me an injustice, Miss Pipkin. I did not know one thing about all this till last night."

Captain Pott had risen. In his eagerness he stretched out his arms to the confused housekeeper. She turned from staring at the minister, and like a bewildered animal fled blindly in the direction of the kitchen.

She found herself, instead, in the seaman's arms. Here she stuck, and with hysterical sobs clung to the old man. Mr. McGowan came nearer. At sight of him she fled to his arms. For the next few minutes the practical, every-day Miss Pipkin did things of which no one had ever imagined her capable. The Captain's voice roused her.

"Here, young feller, you go loving where you're wanted. I've been waiting for this too many years to be cheated out by a young rascal like you." He seized the not unwilling Miss Pipkin, and pushed the minister in the direction of the kitchen.

"Clemmie, ain't this grand?" asked the old man.

"It's really been you all these years, Josiah."

"Been me? You mean you've loved me all the time, Clemmie?"

"Um-hm," she nodded vigorously. "But I was that stubborn that I wouldn't give in. I always looked forward to your proposing. You ain't proposed to me for a long time, Josiah."

"But, Clemmie, are you sartin sure it'll be all right now? If you get your rest, are you sartin you won't feel different? Don't you think you'd otter wait?"

"Josiah, ask me right now, so I can't back out, or get on another stubborn streak. I thought it all out 'longside Edna's bed last night.

She was raving, and calling for some one, poor thing, who she'd refused to marry when she was young. I said then and there that I wasn't going to my grave with that kind of thing hanging over me. That is, if you ever asked me again."

"You say you made up your mind last night, Clemmie? You sure it wa'n't what I told you about Adoniah being married?"

"That had nothing to do with my decision."

"Then, you mean we're going to get married?"

"You ain't asked me yet."

"Miss Clemmie Pipkin," he began, bending his knees in the direction of the floor, and upsetting the table as he went down with a thud, "will you s.h.i.+p aboard this here old craft as fust mate with a rough old skipper like me?"

"Lan' sakes! Get up off that floor. You look awful silly. Get up this minute, or I'll say no."

The Captain got up with more alacrity than he had gone down.

"Will you marry me, honest, Clemmie?"