The Harbor of Doubt Part 23

Code saw the rage in Pete's eyes and recognized that he could do nothing more to avert the trouble. His part would have to be confined to seeing that his man got a fair deal. He and Pete were unarmed except for their huge clasp-knives--much better kept out of sight under the circ.u.mstances.

The crowd fell back, and the two giants stripped off their coats and shirts. The Frenchman danced up and down, beating his great fists together in a fine frenzy, but Pete, half-crouched, stepped forward on his toes, his hands hanging loose and ready at his sides.

"_Allez, donc!_" It was the starting word, and Jean leaped in. Pete met him with a crashing right to the ribs and dodged out of reach of the clutching hands that reached for his throat. They circled around a moment and again the Frenchman came, this time in one great leap.

On the instant Ellinwood jumped in to meet him. There was a swift flying of arms, a pounding of the great fists, and Pete suddenly shot back from the melee and landed on his back in the dirt. One of the Frenchman's great swings had landed. But he was up in an instant and went after his opponent again.

Jean saw now that he had another man to deal with--unlike a Frenchman, an Anglo-Saxon cannot fight without sufficient provocation. Now all the battle was aroused in Ellinwood, for aside from the shame of his downfall, the crowd was yelling at the top of its voice. Jean began to run away, circling round and round the ring of spectators, Pete after him.

Suddenly he made a stand, but the mate was ready for him. Dodging the straight left, Pete hurled himself forward and seized the burly Frenchman in his arms. Then, with a tug and a wrench, as though he were uprooting a tree, he lifted his opponent and crashed him down to the earth.

Jean, stunned, and with a broken arm, sought to get up. He gained his feet and, game to the last, staggered toward Ellinwood. Pete started to run in again, but some one on the edge of the crowd thrust a foot out and the big islander stumbled.

Code saw the man who interfered, and, his blood boiling, leaped for him. At the same instant there came a cry of "Police! Police!" But Code did not hesitate. He plunged into the crowd after his man and, in an instant, found himself surrounded and fighting the whole mob.

For a moment it lasted. There was a rain of heavy blows that blinded him, and then something that was hard and dull struck him on the head.

Everything began to whirl, and he found he could not lift his arms.

Dimly he heard a voice near him shout: "This way!" in English and felt himself gathered up by men and borne swiftly away.

Then consciousness left him.

CHAPTER XX

AMONG THE HOME FOLKS

The village of Freekirk Head was a changed place.

No longer of early mornings did the resounding _pop! pop!_ of motor-dories ring back from the rocks and headland as the trawlers and hand-liners put to sea. No longer did the groups of weary fishermen gather on the store steps for an evening pipe and chat or the young bloods chuck horseshoes at the foot of the chapel hill.

It was a village of women. True, Squire Hardy, being too old to fish, had remained at home, and Bill Boughton, who was completing details for the immediate and profitable sale of the season's catch, was behind the counter of his general store.

He dealt out supplies to the women and children, and wrote down against their fathers' shares the amount of credit extended. But others, day after day, found nothing set against them, and this was due to the promise of help that Elsa Mallaby kept.

"It's useless to charge supplies to those who have nothing now with the idea of getting it back from their fishing profits," she said.

"What they earn will just about pay for it, and then there they are back where they started--with nothing. Better let me pay for everything until the men get back. Then they will have something definite ahead to go on."

No one but Adelbert Bysshe, the rector, Bill Boughton, and Elsa Mallaby herself knew exactly how much she paid out weekly toward the maintenance of the village. But all knew it to be an enormous sum (as reckoned on the island), and daily the worship of Hard Luck Jim's widow grew, until she occupied a place in Freekirk Head parallel to a patron saint of the Middle Ages.

But Elsa Mallaby was intensely human, and no one knew it better than herself, as, one late afternoon, she sat at her mahogany table, looking absently over the stubs in her check-book. She saw that she had disbursed a great deal of money--more, perhaps, than she would have under any other circ.u.mstances--but she frankly acknowledged that she did not mind that, if only she achieved the end toward which she was working.

For Elsa, more than any one on Grande Mignon, was a person of ways and means.

She was one of those women who seem to find nothing in self-communion.

Hers was a nature destined for light and gaiety and happiness. To sit in a splendid palace and mope over what had happened was among the last things she cared to contemplate.

Being of the pure Grande Mignon stock, she looked no farther for a husband than among the men of Freekirk Head, good, honest, able men, all of them. And her eye fell with favor upon Captain Code Schofield of the schooner _Charming La.s.s_, old schoolfellow, playmate, and lifelong friend.

The money she had mailed to him had only been an excuse to write a letter; the favors to Ma Schofield were, in great part, to help further her plan; the whole business of helping support Freekirk Head was a flash of dramatic display, calculated to bring her ineradicably before Code's eyes--and every one else's.

As she sat near the window and saw the sunset glow die over the mountain ridge she asked herself what she had achieved. Apparently very little. She felt the futility of human endeavor and desire. To her knowledge Code was in love with n.o.body, although rumor had for years linked his name with Nellie Tanner's. That was exploded now, for Nellie was engaged to Nat Burns.

_Why_ did he not respond?

Slowly her smile returned. He would respond when he had heard certain other things. Then he would forget any one else but her--if there was any one else. Her heart leaped at the thought.

As it became dark she rang the bell.

"Light the candles in the drawing-room," she said to the servant who entered. "You remember that Mrs. Tanner is coming for dinner?"

"Yes, madam."

"Very well. That is all." The servant withdrew.

There was nothing unusual in the fact of Mrs. Tanner coming for dinner in the evening to the big house. Elsa simply could not eat all her meals alone, and her old friends at the village were constantly receiving invitations.

Mrs. Tanner arrived at half-past six. It was her first visit since the departure of the fleet several weeks before, and there was plenty to talk about. But Ma Tanner wisely reserved her conversation until after the meal, for the "vittles" of Mallaby House were famous the whole length of the New Brunswick coast.

Afterward when they had retired to Elsa's pink and gray boudoir, the eternal envy of Grande Mignon womanhood, the talk flowed freely.

"It's this way, Elsa," declared ma confidentially. "I think Nellie is pretty well took care of. Now young Nat Burns, as you know, is pretty well off, as the sayin' goes on the island. He really wouldn't have to fish if he didn't want to. His father didn't neglect _him_ when his time come."

Ma Tanner did not see the change in Elsa's expression. The pupils of her magnificent black eyes expanded and the delicate brows drew together over the bridge of her nose. The close mouth, with its ugly set, would not have been recognized by any but lifelong friends.

"And Nat's about's good as any boy," went on ma. "Boys is turr'ble hard to fetch up so they don't disgrace ye and send ye to the grave with gray head bowed in sorter, as the poet says. Nat ain't bad. He speaks sharp to his mother once in a while, but la--what boy don't? I think he'll treat Nellie right and be a good man to her."

"Ma," said Elsa, and her voice was quiet and intense as though she were keeping herself well in hand, "that's what _every one_ thinks about Nat Burns."

"Wal," asked the elder woman, slightly resentful, "don't you think so?"

"What I think has nothing whatever to do with the question. But what I _know_ might have. I don't want Nellie's life ruined, that's all."

"Look here, Elsa, what're you drivin' at?" Ma Turner was becoming wrought up. She knew there must be something behind these hints or Elsa would never venture on such thin ice with her.

"Ye be'n't by any means jealous o' Nellie, be ye?" she asked, peering through her spectacles.

"Heavens, no!" cried Elsa so convincingly that Mrs. Tanner was satisfied once and for all.

"Wal, what's all the fuss, then?"

"Any girl would ruin her life that threw herself away on Nat Burns.

He's got a fine solid-gold case, but his works are very poor indeed, Ma Tanner."

"Don't go talkin' educated or I can't follow ye. D'ye mean he's all show an' nothin' in his mind or heart of Christian goodness?"