XII ~ NO PLACE POR THE SOLES OP THEIR FEET
Don't you hear the old man roaring, Johnny, One more day? Don't you hear that pilot bawling, One more day? Only one more day, my Johnny, One more day! O come rock and roll me over, One more day. --Windlass Song.
When the subject of the proposed expedition to Hue and Cry was broachedat the breakfast-table, Captain Epps Candage displayed prompt interest.
"It's going to be a good thing for the section round about here--roust'em off! Heard 'em talking it over down to Rowley's store last evening.I'll go along with you and see it done."
Mayo and Polly Candage exchanged looks and refrained from comment.It was evident that Captain Candage reflected the utilitarian view ofMaquoit.
Mayo had put off that hateful uniform of Marston's yacht, and the girlgave him approving survey when he appeared that morning in his shoresuit of quiet gray. With the widow's ready aid Polly Candage had madeher own attire presentable once more. When they walked down to the shoreshe smiled archly at Mayo from under the brim of a very fetching strawpoke.
"I ran down to the general store early and bought a boy's hat," sheexplained. "I trimmed it myself. You know, I'm a milliner's apprentice.Does it do my training credit?"
He was somewhat warm in his assurances that it did.
"I ought to be pleased by your praise," she said, demurely, "becausewomen wear hats for men's approval, and if my customers go home and hearsuch nice words from their husbands my business career is sure to be asuccess."
"Your business career?"
"Certainly, sir!" She bobbed a little courtesy. "I have money, sir!Money of my own. Five thousand dollars in the bank, if you please! Oh,you need not stare at me. I did not earn it. My dear mother's sisterleft it to me in her will. And some day when you are walking down thecity street you'll see a little brass sign--very bright, very neat--andthere'll be 'Polly' on it. Then you may come up and call on the greatmilliner--that will be this person, now so humble."
"But that young man!" he protested, smiling at her gaiety.
"Oh, that young man?" She wrinkled her nose. Then she flushed, consciousthat he was a bit surprised at her tone of disdain. "Why, he will wear afrock-coat and a flower in the buttonhole and will bow in my customers.You didn't think my young man was a farmer-boy, did you?"
She hurried ahead of him to the beach, where her father was waiting withhis men. Captain Candage had borrowed a dory for the trip. He installedhimself in the stern with the steer-oar, and the young man and the girlsat together on the midship seat. The skipper listened to their chatwith bland content.
"There's a fellow that's one of our kind, and he ain't trying to courtmy girl," he had confided to Mr. Speed. "He is spoke for and she knowsit. And under them circumstances I believe in encouraging young folks tobe sociable."
It was still early morning when they arrived at the island, but thestate agent was there ahead of them. They saw him walking briskly aboutamong the scattered houses, puffing on his cigar.
He was making domiciliary visits and was transacting business in a loudtone of voice. That business was paying over the money which the statehad allowed for "squatter improvements." In the case of the settlers onHue and Cry the sums were mere pittances; their improvements consistedof tottering shacks, erected from salvaged flotsam of the ocean andpatched over and over with tarred paper.
There was only one building on the island which deserved
the name of dwelling; from this their communicative caller of thepreceding evening was removing his scant belongings. His wife andchildren were helping. He set down a battered table when he met Mayo andhis party.
"I'm the only citizen who can get away early and--as you might callit--respectable, gents. I took my hundred and fifty and bought thathouse-bo't out there." It was an ancient scow, housed over, andevidently had grown venerable in service as a floating fish-market."They can't drive me off'n the Atlantic Ocean! The others 'ain't wokeup to a reelizing sense that they have got to go and that this all meansbusiness! I'm getting away early or else they'd all be trying to climbaboard my bo't like the folks wanted to do to Noah's ark when they seethat the flood wasn't just a shower." He lifted his table upon his headand marched on, leading his flock.
All the population of the island was out of doors. The women and thechildren were idling in groups; the men were listlessly following thecommissioner on his rounds. No spirit of rebelliousness was evident. Themen acted more like inquisitive sheep. They were of that abject varietyof poor whites who accept the rains from heaven and bow to the reign ofauthority with the same unquestioning resignation.
But Mayo discovered promptly an especial reason for the calmnessexhibited by these men. Their slow minds had not wakened to fullcomprehension.
"What do you men propose to do?" demanded Captain Mayo of a group whichhad abandoned the commissioner and had strolled over to inspect thenew-comers.
"There ain't nothing we can do," stated a spokesman.
"But don't you understand that this man is here with full power from thestate to put you off this island?"
"Oh, they have threated us before. But something has allus come up. Wehaven't been driv' off."
"But this time it's going to happen! Why don't you wake up? Where areyou going?"
"That's for somebody else to worry about. This ain't any of our pickingand choosing."
"What's the use of trying to beat anything sensible through the shellsof them quahaugs?" snarled Captain Candage, with 'longcoast scorn forthe inefficient.
"Not much use, I'm afraid," acknowledged the young man. "But look at thechildren!"
Those pathetic waifs of Hue and Cry were huddled apart, dumb with terrorwhich their elders made no attempt to calm. They were ragged, pitiful,wistful urchins; lads with pinched faces, poor little snippets of girls.Their childish imaginations made of the affair a tragedy which theycould not understand. Under their arms they held frightened cats,helpless kittens, or rag dolls. The callous calm of the men mystifiedthem; the weeping of their mothers made their miserable fear more acute.They stared from face to face, trying to comprehend.
"What can I say to them?" asked Polly Candage, in a whisper. "It'swicked. They are so frightened."
"Perhaps something can be done with that agent. I'm trying to think upsomething to say to him," Mayo told her.
An old man, a very old man, sat on an upturned clamhod and yawled adiscordant miserere on a fiddle. His eyes were wide open and sightless.A woman whose tattered skirt only partly concealed the man's trousersand rubber boots which she wore, occasionally addressed him as "father."She was piling about him a few articles of furniture which she waslugging out of their home; that house was the upper part of a schooner'scabin--something the sea had cast up on Hue and Cry. She was obliged tobend nearly double in order to walk about in the shelter. Dogs slinkedbetween the feet of their masters, canine instinct informing them thatsomething evil was abroad that day. The children staring wide-eyed andwhite-faced, the weeping women, the cowed men who shuffled and mumbled!Among them strode the god of the machine, curt, contemptuous, puffinghis cigar! He came past Captain Mayo and his friends.
"I beg your pardon, sir," called the captain; "but are you sure that youare doing this thing just right?"
"Let's see--if I remember, I had a little talk with you last night!"suggested the agent, frostily. "Whom do you represent?" "Myself."
"Just how do you fit into this matter?" "I don't think I do fit--thereseem to be too many sharp corners," stated Mayo, not liking the other'sinsolent manner. "Well, I fit! I have state authority." "So you havetold me. May I ask you a question?" "Go ahead, but be lively. This ismy busy day." "These people are being rooted up; they don't seem to knowwhat's to become of them. What will be done?"
"I told you last evening! Fools in an institution; able-bodied must goto work. The state proposes--" "When you say 'state' just what do youmean, sir?" "I mean that I have investigated this matter and I
'm runningit."
"That's what I thought! The state usually doesn't know much about whatits agents are doing."
"You are not doubting my authority, are you?"
"No, but I'm doubting your good judgment."
"Look here, my man!"
"We'd better not lose our tempers," advised Mayo, calmly. "You are astate servant, you say. Then a citizen has a right to talk to you. Let'sleave the state out of this, if you question my right. Man to man, now!You're wrong."
The population of the island had drawn close circle about them.
"That's enough talk from you," declared the agent, wrathfully.
"You are trying to make over all at once what it has taken threegenerations to bring about," insisted Mayo. "You can't do it!"
"You watch me and see if I can't! When I transact any business I'm paidto transact it gets transacted. I might have given these people a fewmore days if you had not come sticking your oar in here. But now Ipropose to show you! I'll have 'em off here by nightfall, and everyshack burned to the ground."
"Do you mean to say you're going to rub it into these poor folks justbecause I have tried to say something to help them?"
"I'll show you and them that it isn't safe to monkey with the state whenthe state gets started."
"Oh, the state be condemned!" exploded Mayo, feeling his own tempergetting away from him. "This isn't the state--it's a case of a man'sswelled head!"
"Get off this island, you and your meddlers," commanded the agent.
"Yes, when we are ready to leave, sir."
Mayo was wondering at his own obstinacy. He knew that a rather boyishtemper, resentment roused by the other man's arrogance, had considerableto do with his stand in the matter, but underneath there was protestat the world's injustice. He felt that he had been having personalexperience with that injustice. He knew that he had not come out to Hueand Cry to volunteer as the champion of these unfortunates, but nowthat he was there and had spoken out it was evident that he must allowhimself to be forced into the matter to some extent; the agent haddeclared in the hearing of all that this interference had settled thedoom of the islanders. Polly Candage was standing close to the champion,and she looked at him with eyes that flashed with pride in him andspirit of her own. She reached and took one of the frightened childrenby the hand.
"If I have been a little hasty in my remarks I apologize," pleaded thecaptain, anxious to repair the fault. "I don't mean to interfere withyour duty. I have no right to do so!"
"You hear what your friend says, after getting you into the mess,"shouted the agent, so that all might hear. "Now he is getting ready totrot away and leave you in your trouble."
"You are wrong there, my friend. If you are angry with me, go ahead andhave your quarrel with me. Don't bang at me over the shoulders of thesepoor folks. It isn't a square deal."
"They go off to-day--and they go because you have butted into thematter. The whole of you have got to be shown that the state doesn'tstand for meddlers after orders have been given." Then he added, withmalice: "You folks better ride this chap down to the beach on a rail.Whatever happens to you is his fault!"
This attempt to shift responsibility as a petty method of retaliationstirred Mayo's anger in good earnest.
The agent was dealing with men who were scarcely more than children intheir estimates of affairs; they muttered among themselves and scowledon this stranger who had brought their troubles to a climax.
"I'm not going to allow you to get away with that kind of talk, Mr.Agent. You know perfectly well that people on the main will not hirethese men, even if they _are_ able-bodied. Everybody is down on them.You said that to me last evening. They will be kicked from pillar topost--from this town to that! They will be worse than beggars. And theymust drag these women and little children about with them. I will exposethis thing!"
"That exposure will sound fine!" sneered the commissioner. "Exposing astate officer for doing what the Governor and Council have ordered!"
"Yes, ordered on your advice!"
"Well, it has been ordered! And I'll be backed up! As soon as I can getto a justice I shall swear out a warrant against you for interferingwith a state officer." He flung down the stub of his cigar. "Listen, youpeople! Get off this island. Anybody who is here at sunset--man, woman,or child--will be arrested and put in jail for trespassing on stateland. Now you'd all better give three cheers for your meddling friend,here!"
"They have allus let us stay, even when they have threated us beforenow," whimpered a man. "He has poured the fat into the fire for us,that's what he has done!" He pointed his finger at Mayo.
"It's wicked!" gasped the girl. "These poor folks don't know any better,they are not responsible!"
"Say, look here, you folks!" shouted Mr. Speed, who had been holdinghimself in with great difficulty. "It's about time for you to wake up!"
The plutocrat of the house-boat had come up from the beach and had beenlistening. The whimpering man started to speak again, and the magnate ofthe island cuffed him soundly; it was plain that this man, who had livedin the best house, had been a personage of authority in the tribe.
"I'm ashamed of the whole caboodle of ye," he vociferated. "Here's agent that's been standing up for us. He's the only man I ever heard saya good word for us or try to help us! Nobody else in the world ever doneit! Take off your hats and thank him!"
"I'm in it!" whispered Mayo to the girl. "For heaven's sake, what am Igoing to do?"
"Do all you can--please, Captain Mayo!"
He stepped forward. The agent began to shout.
"Hold on, sir!" broke in the captain with quarter-deck air that made forobedience and attention. "You have had your say! Now I'm going tohave mine. Listen to me, folks! I'm not the man to get my friends intotrouble and then run off and leave 'em. All of you who are kicked outby the state--all men, women, and children who are ready to go towork--come over to me on the main at Maquoit with what stuff you canbring in your dories. I'll be waiting for you there. My name is BoydMayo."
"I'll remember that name, myself," declared the angry agent. "You'll beshown that you can't interfere in a state matter."
"You have turned these folks loose in the world, and I'm going to give'em a hand when they come to where I am. If you choose to call thatinterference, come on! It will make a fine story in court!"
He did not stop to shake the grimy hands which were thrust out to him.He pushed his way out of the crowd, and his party followed.
"Meet me yonder on the main, boys," he called back with a sailorheartiness which they understood. "We'll see what can be done!"
"Well, what in the infernal blazes can be done?" growled CaptainCandage, catching step with the champion.
"I don't know, sir."
"You can't do nothing any more sensible with them critters than youcould with combined cases of the smallpox and the seven years' itch."
"Father!" cried the girl, reproachfully.
"I know what I'm talking about! This is dum foolishness!"
"Captain Mayo is a noble man! You ought to be ashamed of hanging backwhen your help is needed."
"I don't blame you for sassing that skewangled old tywhoopus, sir,"admitted the old skipper. "I wanted to do it myself. But--"
"I'm afraid I don't deserve much praise," said Mayo. "I've been gettingback at that agent. He made me mad. I'm apt to go off half-cocked likethat."
"So am I, sir--and I'm always sorry for it. We'd better dig out beforethat tribe of gazaboos lands on our backs."
"Oh, not a bit of it! I have given my word, sir. I must see it through."
"But what are you going to do with 'em?"
"Blessed if I know right now! When I'm good and mad I don't stop tothink."
"Suppose I meet 'em for you and tell 'em you have had a sudden death inyour family and have been called away? They won't know the difference,"volunteered Captain Candage. "And a real death would be lucky for youbeside of what's in store if you hang around."
"I shall hang around, sir. I can
't afford to be ashamed of myself."
"I think you have said quite enough, father," stated Polly Candage, withvigor.
'"I have heard of adopting families before," said the irreconcilableone, "but I never heard of any such wholesale operation as this. I'mthinking I'll go climb a tree."
They embarked in the dory. Mr. Speed and Dolph splashed their oars androwed, exchanging looks and not venturing to offer any comment.
"You might auction 'em off to farmers for scarecrows," pursued CaptainCandage, still worrying the topic as a dog mouths a bone. "They ain'tfit for no more active jobs than that."
"I do hope you'll forgive my father for talking this way," pleaded PollyCandage. She raised brimming eyes to the sympathetic gaze of the youngman beside her. "He doesn't understand it the way I do."
"Perhaps I don't exactly understand it myself," he protested.
"But what you are doing for them?"
"I haven't done anything as yet except start trouble for them. Now Imust do a little something to square myself."
"There's a reward for good deeds, Captain Mayo, when you help thosewho cannot help themselves. I believe what the Bible says about castingbread on the waters. It will return to you some day!"
He smiled down on her enthusiasm tolerantly, but he was far fromrealizing then that this pretty girl, whose eyes were so brightbehind her tears, and whose cheeks were flushed with the ardor of heradmiration, was speaking to him with the tongue of a sibyl.