"Sandy, you may think as how tain't none o' my affair, an' that I'd look a heap better to keep my lip out o' it. Maybe as how that's a fact, but G.o.d knows when I'll ever get another chance to rub it in hard on the likes o' you. I've heard, year after year, that you was still at the old tricks--too lazy to work, with your eye always turned to the sea hoping that some poor devil would misread his reckonin' an' put his ship where you can ransack its vitals fer an easy livin' fer you and yours. I'll lay my all agin a two pence that that wife o' your'n has wished many's the time that she had married an honest man an' not a thief. Judging from what I knew o' her years ago, I'll allow that it mighty nigh breaks her heart to see the man that infatuated her as a gal a-takin' her child an' a-bringin' him up in the ways o' a thief. Shame on ye, Sandy Mason!

I'm goin' to ask the boys to turn ye loose, an' I hope to G.o.d that this will be a lesson that ye'll not soon forget, an' that ye'll straighten up an' be a man afore it's too late. If so be you an' the woman are past redemption, quit your thievin' an' beach-combin' for the sake o' the boy."

Ichabod then turned to the lad, and addressed him in a kindly voice.

"Young man, I'm sorry to have had to hurt your feelin's with the truth, an' I hope ye'll forgive me. Take this experience of to-day as a warnin'. Don't be a beach-comber. For when you are, to my mind, you are what folks call a grave-robber--a ghoul. Now go home to your mammy, who used to have some good thoughts. Unless they're all gone through livin'

with that no-'count daddy o' your'n, she'll tell you that Captain Ichabod is right fer once. Yes, I say, quit it all! Be a man, an' show folks, that, after all, it _is_ possible to make a silk purse out o' a sow's ear."

After this parting thrust, Ichabod turned on his heel without another word, and walked swiftly away down the sh.o.r.e. The men from the station added a few phrases of very trenchant advice to Sandy and his son. They waited until the beach-combers had entered the sharpie and set sail due north toward the hamlet of Portsmouth.

When the coast guard came up again with Captain Ichabod, they found him seated on the sand hard by the noisy breakers. Three Dominick hens clucked about him. The old fisherman was throwing them kernels of corn, which he took from his pocket. The men gazed somewhat somberly at the fowls. It was plain that these were the only creatures that had escaped alive from the three-master whose bones littered the beach.

Ichabod looked up at his friends with a wry smile, that was touched with grimness.

"Boys," he remarked whimsically, "it seems to me as if Icky had had about enough reminders fer one day without these pesky Dominick pullets a-b.u.t.tin' in."

CHAPTER XI

THE AWAKENING OF ICHABOD

The door to the fisherman's shack stood ajar, and in the opening showed the form of a man. As the light from the newly risen moon fell full upon the wrinkled features of the face, a pleased, contented smile was to be seen as he placidly puffed his corncob pipe and blew rings before him in the quiet, heavy, midnight air. It was Captain Ichabod, home again after the momentous happenings of the day when the dead body was found in the wreck of _The Isabel_.

The Captain had been more or less methodical in his ways all his life, but he had never carried routine so far as to keep a diary. Probably during the past twenty years, living the life he had upon his lonely island, there had not been enough of incident to have suggested even the idea of such a record. But on this particular night, the fisherman, closeted within his shack, had been toiling through three long hours in order to set down a detailed narrative of the strange happenings in which he had been concerned since the coming of the great storm. He had ransacked his belongings until he found pencil and paper. Then, with his characteristically painstaking and deliberate manner, he had indited an itemized account of the various events. Now he had completed his work, and rested well content with his accomplishment. As he lounged in the doorway, he was taking a glimpse over the beautiful expanse of water, the while he smoked a final pipe before turning in. He felt that after the arduous endeavors of the day he was ent.i.tled to a sound and refreshing sleep. His usual calm had returned to him.

At daylight that very morning when he awakened in the life-saving station at old Fort Macon, he had felt that he could never again occupy his old cabin home. Yet, here he was at night, resting well satisfied, without any qualm whatsoever. The exciting happening of the day--perhaps especially the opportunity to tell his old rival just what he thought of the fellow--had proved a balm to his over-strained nerves. He had come back home with a firm resolve to continue on there in tranquillity, and to enjoy to the full the days that were before him. It is true that he missed Shrimp. But, after mature meditation on the matter of the fowl's going away, the fisherman had about come to the conclusion that in all probability he had gone of his own free will and accord. It occurred to the Captain as possible that the bird might have been peeved by his master's sailing away without him as he hurried to Beaufort Town in quest of Doctor Hudson. Ichabod believed that Shrimp had seen his opportunity to cross to the mainland with the strangers and had seized on it in the hope of being able at last to fight it out with his rooster rival, whose challenging salute had been tantalizing him for many a day.

Ichabod chuckled as he expressed the wish that Shrimp's encounter with this rival might give him as much satisfaction as had his own with the beach-comber.

Now, under the flow of his meditations, the old man grew loquacious. He went into the shack, shut the door and lighted the lamp. Then he sprawled at ease in his favorite chair, and since there was no other auditor at hand, talked to himself.

"Wall! I reckon I have larned a heap this day. The most important fact is that Icky Jones has been a fool for over twenty year. Jest because a no-'count woman took a notion in her haid that she had rather marry a beach-combin' thief than an honest fisherman I have made myself hate all o' the rest o' the gender, or least-wise to keep away fr'm 'em, an' lead a miserable lonely life. Why! do ye know, I believe that when I s.p.u.n.ked up an' told old Sandy Mason what I thought o' him an' his callin', an'

rubbed it in some on the poor kid, that it did me more good than a dost o' medicine. It sure put sand in my craw an' made me feel like fightin'

every mean thing livin'. If I hadn't been a narrow-fool, an' awful sot in my way, instead o' takin' the loss of Roxana Lee to heart, I'd 'a'

braced up an' gone right ahead an' looked fer one o' the right sort.

I've learned jest a short time back that I'd gone off on the wrong track. When I revived that fine-lookin' foreign woman an' she opened those eyes--such beautiful brown eyes!--an' looked at me so appealin'-like an' called me Doctor, I jest couldn't he'p but wish that she'd talk to me a leetle more, but fate was agin me, an' she was mum as an adder."

Captain Ichabod fell silent as he undressed for the night, extinguished the light and stretched himself luxuriously on his bed. As he snuggled down into the blankets with a capacious yawn, he drowsily spoke aloud yet once again.

"Wall, hanged if I 'lowed this mornin' when I woke up at the station, that to-night I'd be a-layin' here so peaceable-like an' jest a-pinin'

fer sleep. This shack an' this bunk has had a woman in 'em, but I don't reckin it has hurt 'em none after all. I can sleep, you bet. Uncle Icky may dream a leetle might, but it won't be about Roxana Lee."

It was not until the sun was more than an hour high that the old fisherman opened his eyes again to the realization that another day had come. When he felt the warm rays of the summer sun upon his cheek he knew that he had slept beyond his usual time of waking, which stirred him to a fleeting anger against himself. He got up quickly, and while he dressed, admonished himself harshly.

"Betwixt the rust o' time an' a thievin' yachtsman, ye're plumb out o'

time, Ichabod. If ye aim to be a successful fisherman in the future as in the past, you must either find ye another rooster, or buy a clock, an' I reckin that a clock, what will run, but can't run away, is the thing fer you."

Breakfast over, Ichabod busied himself in getting his nets and other fishing paraphernalia straightened out, for in his hurry to put them out of harm's way as the big blow came on, he had got them pretty badly tangled. It was mid-forenoon before he considered that things about the shack and door yard were about as they should be at the place of a first-cla.s.s fisherman. Occasionally as he worked, he would glance toward the oyster rocks, where lay the remains of _The Isabel_, and he would wonder once again what could have been the occasion of the curious crime that had resulted in the death of the man chained to the engine. But all his musings brought only increased perplexity, until his wits were totally befuddled. He dare be sure only that the yachtsman he had rescued was either a villain or a maniac.

It was a custom in the Sound Country for the natives at frequent intervals to favor their preacher, their doctor and the editor of the gossipy local newspaper with a gift of something attractive, either grown in their vegetable gardens, or taken from the waters round about.

In this respect, Ichabod was not different from his neighbors of the other islands and the mainland. Many a time and oft, after he had made a particularly good catch of the delicious stone crabs or scallops, he had set sail to carry an offering of the delicacies to friends in the town.

To-day, after he had finally established order in his house and among his accoutrements, he shouldered his clam fork, and, carrying a large bucket to hold the catch, strode out on the point. The tide was extremely low, and Ichabod was aware that now was the time to reach the place where round clams grew in great abundance. The old man was an expert at locating these sh.e.l.l-fish. The keyhole sign made by them in the sand was so familiar to him that he could walk along at a smart pace, while peering alertly here and there in search of it. When his eyes caught the mark, he would strike quickly with his fork into the yielding sand, and so bring to the surface one of the luscious bivalves.

On this occasion, Ichabod filled his bucket well within the hour, and then, content, returned to the shack for a midday meal.

When he was done eating, the fisherman washed the clams carefully and wrapped them in a neat bundle. He then took them on board the skiff, and made sail for Beaufort Town, to pay his promised visit to Doctor Hudson, and to present him with the morning's catch, which was of particularly good quality. In addition, he was prompted to the trip by anxiety to learn if anything had been heard in the town as to the ident.i.ty of the yacht _Isabel_, or of those who voyaged in her.

On this occasion, the customary group of loungers was not present on the sh.o.r.e to welcome the little red skiff and her skipper. The quay was practically deserted. The fishing fleet had put to sea again in order to take advantage of as many days as possible with favorable weather for their labor. Ichabod made his boat fast, and then with his bundle of clams took his way at once to the physician's house. Doctor Hudson himself met the fisherman at the threshold with a warm handshake.

"Why, Ichabod!" he exclaimed, with a cheery smile. "Now, what in the world has come over you? In all my life I don't think I ever saw such a change for the better in a man's appearance within the few hours since I saw you last. I guess that wrecks and strange women and the finding of dead men in the sea agree with you."

Ichabod grinned a.s.sent.

"Yes, Doctor, I 'low that I'm improved a sight," he replied enthusiastically. "I come down to bring ye a few clams, an' to tell ye that since I saw ye I found a housekeepin' job fer life. An' so, while I'm obleeged to ye fer a-keepin' your weather eye open fer me, why, ye needn't no more, fer I've beat ye to it."

Doctor Hudson looked a little disconcerted.

"Why, Ichabod, are you really goin' to leave the Island?"

The fisherman shook his head solemnly.

"No, sir, I ain't a-goin' to leave the Island except on business, an' to call on my friends. I've took the job right thar. I've done hired out to the new Ichabod Jones, an' I cal'late I'll be the most satisfactory help ole Icky ever had."

"What in the world do you mean?" the Doctor questioned, with much perplexity. "I'd suppose you were clean crazy, if it weren't for a mischievous twinkle in your eye. Come on now, and tell me what really has happened. I am interested all right, for it must have been something important to make this remarkable change in you, which I can't understand."

Ichabod nodded sagely before he replied.

"Right you are, Doctor. But it took a heap more than a sudden scare like what cured the feller with the hiccoughs. Yes, it took more'n that to cure me. You know, Doc, I think now, as how I was diseased."

The physician perceived that nothing was to be gained by any attempt at hurrying the old man.

"Come on into the house," he urged, "and make yourself comfortable while you tell me the whole story."

As the two came into the reception-room, the Captain fumbled in his inside coat pocket for a moment, and then carefully drew forth his narrative of the events in which he had been concerned during the last few days. He handed this to the physician as the two seated themselves by the open window.

"Doctor," Ichabod declared with gravity, "I never did think as how I was a partic'lar good story-teller, an' knowin' as how you an' one or two other friends o' mine would have to know the story, I made up my mind last night that I'd put it into writ fer you-all, so then thar couldn't be no dispute as to the exact words of Ichabod. The story starts right from the beginning o' the blow. A part of it, the first part, you already know, so jest skip along until ye come to whar Sandy Mason shows up."

Doctor Hudson perused the doc.u.ment with great interest. The unconscious drollery of the old man's literary style gave piquancy to the account.

At times, the fisherman's bits of humor were amusing enough; again, there was often pathos of a very genuine sort, in the paragraphs. But as the physician neared the end of the roughly written record, the Captain interrupted him.

"Say, Doc," he asked, "would ye mind a-readin' o' that last stanzy right out loud? I think it has got stuff in it that'll make my blood warm up a heap to hear it read."

The doctor nodded a.s.sent, for he at this moment reached the paragraph by which the old man set such store.

"I, Ichabod Jones," the words ran, "age unknown, bein' as how the family Bible was burnt up, announces to my friends, all an' sundry, that fer the past twenty year I've been a coward an' a fool, but was not a-knowin' of the same until to-day. I ain't been called to preach nor nothin' like that. I has jest _woke up_! From this day on to the end o'

me in this world, I aim to git all o' the honest enjoyment I kin out o'

this life. An' I want my friends to know that the rule for twenty year as made and provided has been busted. From this day forward women, ole and young, will find a welcome on the sh.o.r.e an' in the shack at Ichabod's Island."