Dig Here!

  IX

  Daisy June and the Blue Emerald

  I WAS awakened early next morning by the clatter of a heavy wagon onthe road in front of the house. Stealing to the window in order not toawaken Eve, I was just in time to catch sight of a familiar,blue-shirted figure in the driver's seat. Michael! What was he doing inthis part of town so early in the morning?

  When I went downstairs I found the explanation. Eve was still asleepand, pleased to have got the start of her for once, I resolved to havebreakfast on the table by the time she came down. I unlocked thekitchen door and went out to bring in the milk which is left in a pailevery morning. Beside the pail I found a paste-board box. As I stoopedto pick it up I saw there were holes pierced in the top. And when Ilifted it--it mewed!

  A cat! I pulled off the lid. No, a kitten--a plump gray one withchina-blue eyes and a white spot in its forehead. The mew changed to anoisy purr as I lifted it.

  "What are you doing?" Eve, looking very nice in a fresh blue linendress, was standing in the doorway. In my absorption I had forgottenall about breakfast. Then Eve saw the kitten. "Oh, the darling! Wheredid you find it, Sandy?"

  I pointed to the box and told her about Michael. "I suppose the ideais," I said, "that one cat is as good as another. But I doubt very muchif Aunt Cal will even give it house room!"

  "Well, it was nice of him to think of it anyway!" Eve returned,cuddling the kitten. "I wonder if it's hungry?"

  Aunt Cal returned at ten o'clock. Eve was just taking a loaf ofgingerbread from the oven when I heard the car. Miss Rose Blossom wasat the wheel, there was no mistaking her broad figure. She was beamingat Aunt Cal as she handed down her bag.

  "She's coming!" I whispered, tiptoeing back into the kitchen. "Whatshall we do with Daisy June?" I glanced a little wildly toward Adam'scushion by the stove where the kitten slept.

  Before Eve could even answer, a firm step sounded outside. Aunt Calstood in the doorway. "Well," she inquired, "how have you been gettingon?"

  I stood in front of the stove. "Splendid----" I began and then, fearingI sounded too enthusiastic, I changed hastily to "All right."

  "How is your friend?" Eve asked, inserting a knife around thegingerbread.

  "A little better. Her sister came over from Millport this morning, so Ifelt that I could leave. Mercy, child, I didn't know you could bake!"

  "Well, of course, it isn't as good as yours," Eve began modestly.

  Aunt Cal picked up her bag and started for the stairs. It was thismoment that Daisy June took to wake from her nap. With a sinking heart,I felt her between my ankles. Aunt Cal stopped dead in the middle ofthe room. "Where," she inquired in a very stuffy voice, "did that comefrom? And where is Adam?"

  I swallowed. "Adam's visiting--visiting Captain Trout," I said.

  My relative's face became stonier than before. "Take that cat out ofthe house!" she ordered.

  I took a deep breath and counted ten. Then picking up Daisy June, Iretreated to the side yard. Eve joined me there presently, carrying thebox of carpet rags we were sewing for Aunt Cal. "Eve," I askedsolemnly, "what is to become of her?"

  "I don't know," she said. "But I can't believe that anything soadorable wasn't brought into the world for a purpose."

  We didn't get much sewing done that morning for practically every timewe picked up a strip of cloth Daisy June was dangling on the end of itand as fast as Eve wound the balls, the kitten unwound them. When wewent in for dinner, we left her sleeping peacefully in the box. She atany rate had no misgivings about the future.

  "I see somebody has been trampling the petunia bed," remarked Aunt Cal,dishing out lamb stew and dumplings. "But I suppose it's no more thanis to be expected when one leaves things to take care of themselves!"

  It was Eve who persuaded my aunt to go upstairs after dinner for arest. "After being up all night," she urged, "it's the only sensiblething to do." And though Aunt Cal declared stoutly that she did nothold with naps in the daytime, she finally yielded.

  After we had finished the dishes Eve carried out a saucer of milk forDaisy June. To our dismay the kitten was gone. There was her bed ofcarpet rags, still matted where her soft form had lain, but no sign ofits late occupant. We searched every corner of the yard, calling softlyso that Aunt Cal would not hear. But neither the yard nor gardenyielded any trace of her.

  Could she have got through the hedge, I wondered? I went to look. Andthere she was, big as life, sauntering up the path toward the Captain'sback door. I beckoned to Eve. "Look," I whispered, "for all the worldas if she was about to drop in on a friend for tea or something!"

  I was about to pop through the hedge after her when the back door ofthe house opened and the owner himself emerged. He was jauntily dressedin immaculate white trousers and a nautical blue jacket. I wondered howhe managed, living alone as he did, always to look so spick and span.He was descending the steps when he met the kitten. "Bless my boots!"The words floated across the quiet air. "Now where in blazes did youcome from?"

  Daisy June's answer was to leap up the intervening step and begin heraccustomed twining movement about the Captain's ankle. I hurriedforward. "Oh, I'm so sorry," I began, "we do have such trouble with ourcats!"

  Daisy June continued to twine like a boa constrictor. The Captainretreated and abruptly sat down in the big rocker which occupied thecenter of the porch. Without hesitation the kitten jumped into his lap.I thought for a second that he was going to push her down, but insteadhe asked abruptly, "How's your aunt this morning? Much upset, was she?"

  I collected my thoughts. "Oh, you mean about Adam," I was beginning,when Eve came up behind me. "Aunt Cal wouldn't allow herself to beupset by so little a thing as that," she said with one of her dazzlingsmiles. "She's much too--a--strong-minded."

  The Captain appeared as surprised as I was to hear this. "Well, well,well," he said, "I want to know!" Mechanically, it seemed, his handwent out to stroke the kitten's back and, thus encouraged, she reachedup one fat paw for the large gold chain that spanned his waistcoat."Hi, there, look at that now! Caliph allus used to go after that chainwhen he was a kitten. Well," he added, "I'm glad to hear your auntwasn't upset. Old Judd Craven allus did say she was the only sensibleone in the family!"

  "Judd Craven?" I repeated. "Who was he?"

  "What? What's that? Mean to say you ain't never heard of Cap'n Judd?Why, he was related to you in a sort of way."

  "Related to me? But how? Do you mean that he was related to Aunt Cal?"

  "Mercy me, yes. He was her uncle. Cal's mother was Susan Craven. Cap'nJudd used to set great store by Cal when she was a young one, used tobring her things every time he come back from a voyage."

  Eve dropped down on the step. "Do tell us about Captain Judd," shebegged. "You see, we were up at the place they call Craven House theother day, so we're interested. Did he build it?"

  The Captain shook his head. "No, it was an old house--dates back to theearly settlers. Cap'n Judd bought it and made it over. It was one ofthe show places of the countryside in his day. He fixed it up for hiswife, Emily, who wanted to live inland out of sight of the sea. Emilyhated the sea. Besides that, Judd had a kind of notion he wanted to goin for farming. It was the dream of his life to found a landed estatelike the ones he'd seen in England--handed down from father to sonlike. But--well, it didn't work out. Carter didn't take to farming; hewas a restless chap, wanted to see the world."

  "Carter was his son?" I prompted.

  "Aye, Carter was his only child."

  "It sounds quite like a story out of a book," Eve commented.

  The Captain chuckled. "Yeah, it would make good reading, I calculate,if all the facts of Judd's career was set down. A lively old bird hewas, full of funny ideas, allus getting himself talked about. Not in abad way, you understand, just odd--doing things different from the runof folks."

  "Was it he who set up those statues and vases and things in thegarden?" I asked.

  "Aye, that was one of the things
. Those statues made a great stir.Folks round here had never heard tell of statues in a garden. They usedto drive from all around just to see 'em."

  "But where in the world did he get them?" asked Eve. "They look awfullyold."

  "Uh-huh, they was meant to. Judd said he got 'em from a Greek temple,but I guess more likely he picked them up in a second-hand shop inAthens. Judd allus was one for a joke. There was one he called Mercuryand one Diana."

  "Diana--Mercury," Eve repeated thoughtfully. "There wasn't--wasn't onecalled Circe, was there?"

  I held my breath. The Captain began to fill his pipe. "Circe? Well now,there might have been at that; I can't rightly tell all the names hegave 'em."

  "Tell me," Eve demanded, leaning forward with sudden eagerness, "didCaptain Craven leave any--any money--or valuables or anything?"

  Captain Trout shook his head. "I guess Carter got most of the moneybefore the old man died. Judd used to say in his later days that all hehad in the world was the place. That and the blue emerald," he added,with a chuckle.

  "The blue emerald?" I cried. "But how could an emerald be blue? Ithought they were green."

  "That's what I never could figger out myself," the Captain answered. "Inever saw it myself. Some said it was give him by a Rajah in India'count of some service he done him. But the Cap'n allus was prettymysterious about it--liked to keep folks guessing. Me, I didn't takemuch stock in that Rajah chap. But most folks used to eat up the wholestory."

  "Did anyone ever see the emerald?"

  "Never heard as they did. But then I was away for years. After theCap'n retired and built his house, I didn't see him very often. Butevery now and then when I'd come home, I'd hear talk about the blueemerald and every time it was wo'th a little more. It sure had thevillagers mesmerized."

  "And Captain Judd's son?" I asked hesitantly. "What became of him?"

  The Captain puffed on his pipe and absently put down his hand to strokethe kitten's back. "Carter disappeared about a year after his father'sdeath," he said. "I ain't heard tell of him since."

  "He didn't," inquired Eve, "take the blue emerald with him, did he?"

  "Some said so," Captain Trout answered. "But I reckon no one rightlyknows. But the house--that rightly belongs to your aunt, I was told."

  "To Aunt Cal!" I cried in astonishment.

  "Aye. Judd promised her she should have it. But the will, they say, wasnever found. Some say Carter didn't want it should be, that he wasjealous of Cal for bein' in the old man's good graces. But that's justgossip, I reckon."

  "I think Captain Judd must have been a very interesting person,"declared Eve. "I wish I'd known him."

  "Aye, he was a fine chap. Great loss to the community, his death was."

  "Thank you very much for telling us about him," I said. I felt that weought to go back before Aunt Cal came downstairs. I got up, lookingdoubtfully at the sleeping kitten. It seemed a pity to disturb her.

  The Captain appeared to read my thoughts. "Better let her sleep," hesaid. "You can stop by for her later--if you want."

  As he uttered these words, I was conscious that another figure hadjoined our group. Adam had come out of the open kitchen door. He stoodfor a moment surveying us, advanced to the Captain, sniffed gingerly atthe object in his lap; then, without a word--as it were--turned andwalked down the steps.

  "Caliph," called the Captain, "where you going?" But only a wave of thetail answered him.

  When we got back to our house, a half emptied saucer of fish was on theback porch and Caliph, alias Adam, was asleep on his cushion by thestove.

  "I feel," I giggled, "a little dizzy with all this cat business!"

  "To say nothing," added Eve, "of blue emeralds!"

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