Madge nodded. "If I shan't be in your way. You must let me just sit there on the rock by you. I have been reading a perfectly thrilling book about pearl-divers," she announced as soon as she was comfortably settled, "but none of the stories were as thrilling as the ones you told us. The book said that pearls had been found in New Jersey. I wonder if you have ever thought of diving down to the bottom of this bay to see if it holds any treasures?"

The sailor was studying the girl's face so earnestly that he forgot to answer her.

"Oh, yes, I have thought of it," he replied a little later, smiling at his guest. "A man never wholly forgets his trade. But what a taste you have for sea yarns, little lady! I half-way think, now, that if you had not been born a girl you might have followed the sea for your calling."

"I should have loved it best of anything in the world," answered Madge fervently, gazing at the beautiful expanse of sunny, blue water. "I never feel as much at home anywhere as I do on the sea. You see," she continued confidingly, "I have a reason for loving the water. My father was a sailor. He was a captain in the United States Navy once."

"'A captain in the United States Navy,'" Captain Jules repeated huskily.

"I thought so. I thought so."

"Why?" asked Madge wonderingly.

Captain Jules pulled his needle slowly through a heavy piece of sail cloth. It must have stuck, he was so long about it, and his big hands fumbled it so clumsily.

"Oh, because of your liking for the water, Miss Madge," he returned quietly. "You see, there are two great loves born in the hearts of men and women that you never can get away from. The one is the love of the soil and the other is the love of the sea. No matter what your life is, if you have those two pa.s.sions in you, you've got to get back to the country or to the water when your chance comes. But why do you say that your father was once a captain in the United States Navy? Is he dead?"

"I am afraid so," replied Madge faintly. Of late she was beginning to believe that her uncle and aunt, Mrs. Curtis and all her older friends were right. If her father were not dead in all these long years, surely he would have tried to find her. He would have sought to discover some news of the daughter whom he had left when she was only a baby.

Captain Jules seemed about to say something, then, changed his mind. He shook his great, s.h.a.ggy, gray head and looked at Madge tenderly. "Is your mother living?" he inquired.

"No, she died soon after my father went away to join his ship on his last voyage," Madge went on sadly, her eyes filling with tears. She was half tempted to tell the old sailor her father's story, then decided to reserve it until some future day when she felt that she knew him better.

In spite of her liking for the old sea captain, she realized that she had hardly known him long enough to make him her confidant.

Captain Jules continued to sew. He opened his mouth, to speak once or twice and then closed it again. Finally he asked Madge huskily, "What was your father's name, child?"

"Captain Robert Morton," replied Madge slowly. "He was from Virginia. If I knew him to be alive, I'd be the happiest girl in the world."

Captain Jules cast a peculiar glance in her direction which Madge did not see.

"My dear little mate," he said slowly, "some day a young man will come along who will be far more to you than any old father could have been.

But what made your father go away? If he was a captain in the Navy, what made him resign his command?"

"I can't tell you that to-day, Captain Jules. Perhaps I'll tell you some day when I know you better; in fact, I am sure I shall tell you. Perhaps when I do tell you I shall ask you to do me a great favor. Perhaps I shall ask you to help me hunt for him. I'll tell you a secret. Uncle and Aunt have been good to me and I love them dearly, but I want my own father, and I can't, I won't, believe he is dead. That is, not until I have absolute proof."

"Little girl!" exclaimed Captain Jules in such a strange voice that Madge was startled, "I promise you that I'll help you find him." Then in a calmer tone of voice he said: "I told you that I would show you my diver's suit. If you will wait on my porch I will go around inside the house to see if I can find it."

He rose hastily and disappeared into the house, leaving Madge to wonder why the few words she had spoken concerning her father had affected the old sea captain so strangely.

Chapter XIII

TANIA'S NEMESIS

Captain Jules was gone a long time, but Madge did not mind waiting for him. She loved the odd house with its roof shaped like three sails and its restful name, "The Anchorage."

When Captain Jules came back with the great suit his face was pale, almost haggard, but he was smiling good-humoredly. "Come, stand over here by this window while I show you my old togs. I haven't looked at this diving suit myself for several years."

Madge was too much interested in the diving dress to glance in at the captain's window to see if she could catch a glimpse of the inside of the snug little house that she had not yet been invited to enter.

The diving suit was much lighter than she had expected to find it. It weighed only about twenty pounds. It was made of water-proof material and had a large helmet of copper with great circular gla.s.ses in front that looked like goggle eyes.

Captain Jules explained that there were two lines with which the diver communicated with the outside world. The one was the air line, and it was used to pump air down to the man below in the water. The life line was usually hitched around the diver's waist. This line was let out to any depth the diver required, and by pulling on it the diver could signal to the men who followed his course: one jerk, pull up; two, more air; three, lower the bag. Madge was utterly fascinated with the netted bag, made of rope, that Captain Jules showed her. He told her that the pearl-diver always carried a bag to hold the treasures that he finds at the bottom of the sea. To her vivid imagination, the empty bag was even now filled with shining pearls, the rarest treasures of the sea.

The young girl persuaded Captain Jules to let her dress up in his diver's suit, when she stumbled about the veranda in it, her gay laughter mingling with the captain's deep chuckles of delight.

"O Captain Jules!" she pleaded, "do take me down to the bottom of the sea with you. I have always wanted to be a mermaid, and this may be the only chance I shall ever have. 'Only divers know of things below, of water's green and fishes' sheen,'" she chanted gayly.

The old sea captain gazed at Madge, breathing a deep sigh of satisfaction. "I believe you have the courage to do it if I were to let you try," he murmured. "It comes nearer to convincing me than anything else."

"Captain Jules," continued the girl earnestly, "please, please let's go down to the bottom of this bay. You could take me with you and then there wouldn't be any danger. We have been down together without diving suits and here we are safe and sound on land again! You said you thought there might be pearls in the oyster beds of this bay. We could look, at any rate. I saw the most wonderful things when I was searching for Tania. It seemed as though her dress was caught on the broken spar of an old ship, though, of course, I couldn't be sure. Have there been many wrecks in this bay? Do you suppose it was a ship's spar?"

"There are always wrecks on the water, child. And you mustn't be talking nonsense about diving down in this bay along with me," answered Captain Jules severely. He kept his eyes fastened on his diving suit with an affectionate gleam in them. "Maybe, though, I will make a diving party of one and go down in the bay alone. I'd give you the pearls I found down there."

Madge shook her head. "That wouldn't be fair," she said, setting her red lips together obstinately. Captain Jules, she felt sure, would be easy to manage. If he did any diving in the Delaware Bay within the next few weeks, he must take her with him.

She wrote secretly to New York City to ask what a diver's suit would cost. She was discouraged by the answer, but she did not give up hope.

She was also very careful not to let Miss Jenny Ann or Mrs. Curtis know anything of the wild scheme that was evolving in her head.

Almost every day the girls saw Captain Jules. Either they went up the bay to call on him, or he made a visit to the houseboat.

The old captain never invited the girls inside his house, but they had great frolics in his tidy yard. The captain explained that his house was not neat enough to be seen by young ladies, as it had only a man housekeeper.

Even Mrs. Curtis became a little less prejudiced against Captain Jules.

She could not but confess that he was a fine old man, though she still did not see why Madge was so much attracted by him. But the girl bided her time. The four girls and their friends went off on long fishing trips with Captain Jules. Sometimes Mrs. Curtis, Tom, and their guest, Philip Holt, went with them. The enmity between Madge and Philip increased every day, nor did Madge any longer make much effort to conceal her dislike for him.

Philip Holt had a special reason for his dislike for Madge Morton. He had come to Cape May with the idea of making Mrs. Curtis do an important favor for him upon which his whole future depended. He feared that Madge, who looked upon him as a hypocrite, would find out his true character, tell her friend, and thus ruin his prospects.

A singular misfortune had befallen him. Who could have guessed that one of the few people who knew his real history, Tania, the little street child, would be picked up by the houseboat girls and brought to Cape May for the summer? Tania must not be allowed to betray him. If she did, Mrs.

Curtis must not believe either Madge or Tania. The young man had to lay his plans carefully, but he was a born hypocrite and he meant to accomplish his end.

His first opportunity to further his cause came one morning when he and Mrs. Curtis were sitting on the veranda of her summer cottage. Tom had gone out sailing and was not expected back for several hours, so that Philip believed that the coast was clear. He began by telling Mrs. Curtis something of the charity work that he had recently done in New York City and so brought the subject about to Tania.

"Dear Mrs. Curtis, you are so generous," the young man said admiringly.

"I have just learned that after the summer holiday is over you intend to send Miss Morton's protege, Tania, to a boarding school. It is so kind in you."

Mrs. Curtis shook her head. "Oh, no," she answered, "it is very little to do. Really, I don't see what else could be done with the child. She is very queer and not attractive to me, but Madge is fond of her and, as I am very fond of Madge, I shall do what is best for the little girl."

"Ah," murmured Philip Holt vaguely, "but do you feel sure that a boarding school is the best place for the girl? She is so unruly, so untruthful! I fear that she would give you a great deal of trouble and responsibility unless she were placed under greater restraint. I have wondered for some time what should be done for the child. She has caused a lot of mischief among the children on the street in her tenement section. It seems to me that she ought to be sent to some kind of an inst.i.tution where she would be more closely watched--an asylum or home for incorrigible children."

Mrs. Curtis looked worried and bit her lips. "That is rather hard on the child, isn't it? Still, I could not undertake to be responsible for Tania's good behavior at school. She seems very hard to control. I will watch her more closely, and, if she shows more signs of untruthfulness, I shall have to consider your suggestion. However, I will talk the matter over with Madge. I wish you would walk down to the houseboat for me and invite the girls to come up to the hotel for luncheon. I hope they are not off somewhere with Captain Jules. He seems to claim the greater share of their attention lately."

Philip Holt walked off, very well pleased with his interview. He had conveyed to Mrs. Curtis precisely the impression he had intended to convey.

Ever since his arrival at Cape May Philip Holt had wished to see little Tania alone. He had warned the child that she was not to behave as though she had ever seen him before, yet he was still afraid that she might make a confidante of Madge. He needed to make his threat to her more terrifying. He decided to find her and intimidate her so thoroughly that she would not dare betray her previous acquaintance with him.

There was but one person in the world of whom the queer, elf-like Tania was afraid. That person was Philip Holt! She had feared him since the day of her own mother's death, and the very thought of him was enough to fill her childish soul with terror.