Captain Pott's Minister Part 27

"Why, Josiah! I have told you a hundred times that I was never in Australia," declared the other, paling slightly.

"That's so, you have, Jim. Excuse me."

"As I was saying," he continued, showing great relief, "I feel indebted to them, and I want to pay back----"

"Look here, Jim, you needn't offer none of your blood money. It don't look good to me."

It was a bold stroke, but it went home. The color crept slowly from the Elder's sanguine face.

"I have no intention of offering you charity."

"You know d.a.m.n well you dasn't. I'm not speaking of charity, and you know that, too, Jim. I'm speaking of blood money, and I mean just what I say."

"You are still the same doubting Thomas, I see. Do you recall how you were always the last one--er--to be won over to a new enterprise?" The Elder tried to smile.

"I had good reason to go slow. A mite of caution is a purty fair endowment of nature where some people's schemes is concerned. If I'd used a little of it last spring I'd not be in the fix I am to-day."

"But that b.u.mp of caution on your head is pretty hard on your friends."

"I cal'late it won't hurt my friends none. We wa'n't speaking of them just then. Anyhow, it's kept me with a clean conscience to sleep with, and I'd a heap sight rather ship with clear rigging than be ballasted with some people's money and have to make bedfellows with their conscience."

"Yes,--er--ahem--quite true," was the hasty reply. "What can I do for you, Josiah? If I can be of the least service,--er--I shall be only too glad."

"It depends on what you've got to offer me. The fust thing I'd like to suggest is that you stop that there er-ing and hem-ing. There ain't no one here but me, and it don't make no impression. Being that you're so infernal anxious to get back to boyhood days we might just as well go all-hog on it. You didn't try none of that foolishness then."

"What you say is quite true." The Elder stroked his chops thoughtfully.

"You didn't have them things to pet, neither. You might just as well stop that. It makes me nervous."

Elder Fox eyed him narrowly. He had a mind to tell this man to leave his house at once. He even entertained the thought that it might be a good thing to call Debbs and have him put out. But a certain fear, which had for years haunted the Elder, laid a cold restraining hand on his inclinations.

"Yes, Josiah, those are habits that I have formed in business. Dealing with so many different kinds of men makes us do odd things at times, and if repeated often enough they become habits. I have always tried to be courteous even to men that bore me, and I presume I took on those senseless little syllables to temper my natural brusqueness."

"Well, you don't need 'em to-night, and you can be as brusque as you like."

"Before we speak of that little matter between us, I have something else I want to say. When we have finished, I trust there will be no need to mention the other."

"If it's advice you're wanting to give, I'll tell you right off that I've had enough of it. What I need is time on that mortgage you and your crooked lawyer put over on me."

"There may be lots of money in what I have to propose. In fact, there is, if you do as I say. How badly do you want a ship to man and command?"

"See here, Jim, I ain't in no frame of mind to be fooled with to-night.

If you don't mean just what you're going to say, you'd best not say it."

"I mean every word of it, but I shall expect more consideration and respect from you before I open my mouth again."

"If you're in dead earnest, Jim, I beg your pardon. This d.a.m.n mortgage has got on my nerves purty bad. Heave over your proposition, and get it off your chest."

"I shall have to exact one promise from you."

The Captain took one step toward the Elder's chair, his swarthy old face alight with antic.i.p.ation and hope. One promise! He would give a hundred, and keep them all. The Captain was fine-looking at all times, every span of him a man and a seaman. But when his face was bright with eagerness, and his muscular body tense with antic.i.p.ation, he was superb. To those less steeled against human magnetism than Mr. Fox, he was irresistible at such times. The Elder merely waved him back to the vacated chair.

"That one promise will bind us both," he said coldly. "In fact, it is to your interest as well as to mine to make it. You will not see it at first, but time will prove that I am right in asking it."

"I'll promise anything that's reasonable if you'll only swing me the job of skipper."

"Very well." The Elder began to shuffle some papers with deft fingers.

"But that there mortgage, Jim, is soon due, and----"

"We shall not speak of that for the present. There are other ways of disposing of mortgages than by paying them," he remarked, striking a match and holding it significantly beneath a piece of paper which the Captain recognized as the one displayed by the lawyer yesterday.

Captain Pott did not take his eyes from the face of the man across the table. A suspicion was forcing its way into his mind, and it was as unpleasant as it was unwelcome.

"How do I know that you'll keep your end of the promise, Jim?"

"You have my word."

"I had that afore, at the time you give me that money, but it didn't get me nothing."

"I do not remember that I gave any definite promise. I said I would do my best for you, and I did."

"Maybe you done your best, but----"

"We'll not quarrel about that. There is nothing indefinite about the position I have to offer you this time. I have the papers here on my table, and the command is yours in less than five minutes after you make the promise. At the same time the note for my loan to you goes into the fire."

"Well, is there any special reason why you should take so long to get this thing off your chest?"

"I want you to realize the importance of the request I have to make."

The Elder threw aside what little mask he had been wearing. An imperious note crept into his voice, giving it a hard metallic ring. "It is time for you to recognize, Josiah, that I have you about where I want you. I can make or ruin you in five minutes, and it all depends on how you reply now. Think hard before you answer."

"That's right, Jim, you've got me with a purty tight hip-hold," admitted the Captain. "But I'm waiting just now for them orders to see if I'm going to sign up."

"You'll sign up, I'm not afraid of that. That is, if you really wish to keep your place. The promise that you are to make to me is concerning the man staying in your house."

Captain Pott stiffened, and threw up his guard. He carefully concealed his rising anger, however. He must be more certain of his ground before he made any leap that might prove dangerous.

"What in tarnation has he got to do with this affair?"

"He has everything to do with it, so far as you are concerned at this particular moment. We must get that man out of this town. You must believe me when I tell you that such action is as much to your interest as mine. If he is permitted to stay here----"

"Heave to, there, Jim!" exploded the seaman. He leaned across the table and glared at the man on the other side.

"There, now, sit down and compose yourself," soothed the Elder. "I was prepared for you to take it this way at first. I don't mean anything against the man, so far as his personal character is concerned, but his presence here is a decided menace both to you and me. If I dared to tell you the whole truth, you, too, would see the sense of my request. It is best that he go for his own good, too. Some physical violence will certainly be done him if he remains. You must see with me that it is best on that one point that we remove him quietly from the town. Sim Hicks has sworn to do him harm. Now, you are the logical man to go to Mr. McGowan, and show him the sense of his leaving Little River. You seem to be the only one who can influence him in any degree."

"By the Almighty, Jim Fox! If it wa'n't for your darter, I'd swipe up this floor with your dirty carca.s.s!"

"It will be best if you take this calmly, Josiah, and stop your foolish raving. Just listen to reason for once in your life. There is a past in that man's life known to a very select few. I came across it accidentally. If it became known it would create no end of scandal and ruin our little church. That man had no good intention in putting in his request for the Little River pulpit. What is more, he is not a real minister of the gospel. He is using it merely as a pretext."