The Harbor of Doubt Part 30

He took a chair and filled his pipe.

"By the way, how long have you been out on this cruise? You weren't aboard, were you, the time the mystery schooner led the revenue steamer such a chase?"

"No," she replied, "but I wish I had been. I nearly died when I heard about that; it was so funny. I have only been aboard about four days.

I'll tell you the history of it.

"I was having a very delightful dinner up at Mallaby House with Mrs.

Tanner, Nellie's mother, you know"--she looked unconcernedly out to sea--"when I got a message, part wireless and part telegram, saying that Nat Burns had nabbed you in St. Pierre and was racing with you to St. Andrew's.

"Well, I've sworn all along that you shouldn't come to any harm through him, so I just left Freekirk Head the next morning on the steamer, took a train to Halifax, and had the schooner pick me up there. Off Halifax they told me that the _Nettie B._ was six hours ahead of us and going hard, so we had to wing it out for all there was in this one. I had provided all the naval fixings before, realizing that we would probably have to use them some time, and that's all there is to it."

"Well, Elsa, I'll say this--that I don't believe that there was ever a schooner built that could outgame and outsail this one. She's a wonder!"

For a while they talked of trite and inconsequential things. It was very necessary that they become firmly grounded on their new footing of genuine friendship before departing into personalities; and so, for two days, they avoided any but the most casual topics.

As the weather was exceptionally warm, with a spicy salt breeze that seemed to bear the very germ of life in its midst, they had breakfast and luncheon on deck, dining below in the rosy little dining-room.

Thirty-six hours before they expected to catch the fishing fleet (it had been maneuvered so that Code should be restored to the _Charming La.s.s_ after dark), Elsa opened the subject of Code's trouble with Nat Burns. It was morning, and his recent days of ease and mental refreshment had made him see things clearly that had before been obscured by the great strain under which he labored.

Code told her the whole thing from beginning to end, leaving out only that part of Nat's c.u.mulative scheme that had to do with Nellie Tanner. He showed Elsa how his enemy had left no stone unturned to bring him back home a pauper, a criminal, and one who could never again lift his head among his own people even though he escaped years in prison.

It was a brief and simple story, but he could see Elsa's face change as emotions swept over it. Her remarks were few, but he suddenly became aware that she was harboring a great and lasting hatred against Nat. He did not flatter himself that it was on his own account, nor did he ask the reason for it, but the knowledge that such a hatred existed came to him as a decided surprise.

When he had finished his narrative she sat for some little time silent.

"And you think, then," she asked at last, "that his motive for all this is revenge, because his father happened to meet death on the old _May?_"

"So far it has seemed to me that that can be the only possible reason.

What else--but now wait a moment while I think."

He went below into his room, secured the old log of the _M.C. Burns_ and the artificial horizon. Together they read the entries that Michael Burns had made.

"Now, Elsa," said Code by way of explanation, "it was a dead-sure thing that Nat could never have beaten me in his schooner, and for two reasons: First, the _May_ was a naturally faster boat than the old _M.C._, although Nat would never admit it. That is what really started our racing. Secondly, I am only telling the truth when I say that I can outsail Nat Burns in any wind from a zephyr to a typhoon.

"He is the kind of chap, in regard to sailing, who doesn't seem to have the 'feel' of the thing. There is a certain instinct of forces and balance that is either natural or acquired. Nat's is acquired.

Why, I can remember just as well when I was eight years old my father used to let me take a short trick at the wheel in good weather, and I took to it naturally. Once on the Banks in a gale, when I was only eighteen, the men below said that my trick at the wheel was the only one when they got any sleep.

"Now, those two things being the case, Elsa, how did Nat Burns expect to win the second race from the _May_?"

"I don't know. It doesn't seem possible that he _could_ win."

"Of course it doesn't, and yet his father writes here that Nat 'swears he can't lose.' Well, now, you know, a man that swears he can't lose is pretty positive."

"Did he try to bet with you for the second race?" asked Elsa.

"Did he? I had five hundred dollars at the bank and he tried to bet me that. I never bet, because I've never had enough money to throw it around. A good deal changed hands on the first race, but none of it was mine. I raced for sport and not for money, and I told Nat so when he tried to bet with me. If I had raced for money I couldn't have withdrawn that day and gone to St. John for cargo the way I did."

"Then it seems to me that he must have _known_ he couldn't lose or he would not have tried to bet."

"Exactly."

"But how _could_ he know it?"

"That is what I would like to find out."

Code absently thrust his hand into his coat pocket and encountered the mirror he had found aboard the _Nettie B._ He drew it out and polished its bright surface with his handkerchief.

Elsa was immediately interested and Code told her of its unexpected discovery.

"And he had it!" she cried, laughing. "Of all things!"

"Yes, and he always wanted it. I remember when father first gave it to me and I was working out little problems in astronomy, Nat used to take the thing and handle it and admire it. You see the back and edges are silver-plated and it is really quite valuable. He tried to get his father interested, but, so far as I know, never succeeded.

"It was a strange thing, but that simple mirror appealed to Nat tremendously, and you know how that would act on a man of his nature.

He is and always has been utterly selfish, and if there was any object he wanted and could not have it increased his desire."

"But how did he get it, I wonder?" asked the girl, taking the object and heliographing the bright sun's rays from the polished surface.

"When did you have it last?"

Code knitted his brows and thought back carefully. He had an instinctive feeling that perhaps in this mirror lay the key to the whole situation, just as often in life the most unexpected and trivial things or events are pregnant with great moment.

"I had it," he said slowly, thinking hard; "let me see: the last time I remember it was the day after my first race with Nat. In the desk that stood in the cabin of the old _May_ I kept the log, my s.e.xtant, and a lot of other things of that kind. In a lower drawer was this mirror, and the reason I saw it was this:

"When I had made fast to my moorings in the harbor I immediately went below to make the entry in the log about the race--naturally I couldn't leave that undone. I remember I looked in the top drawer for the book, but didn't find it. So then I looked in the other drawers and, in doing so, opened the one containing the mirror.

"I distinctly remember seeing it, for the lamp was lighted and the gla.s.s flashed a blinding glare into my eyes. You see we raced in about the worst winter weather there was and the lamp had to be lighted very early.

"The log-book wasn't there, and I found it somewhere or other later, but that hasn't anything to do with the case. I never saw the mirror after that--in fact, never looked for it. I took for granted it had gone down with the _May_, along with all my other things, except the log-book, which I saved and use now aboard the _La.s.s_."

"And you didn't take it out or give it to anybody?"

"No. I am positive of that. I didn't touch it after seeing it that once."

"Then it is very plain, Code, that if Nat Burns came into possession of it he must have taken it himself. He was very angry with you for winning, wasn't he?"

"Terribly. For once I thought he might be dangerous and kept out of his way until the thing had worn off a little."

"Just like him," said Elsa in that tone of bitter hatred that Code had heard her use before when speaking of Burns. "He must have gone aboard the _May_ and taken it, because you prized it so much. A fine revenge!"

"Yes, but we don't do those things in Freekirk Head, Elsa. You know that. We don't steal from one another's trawl-lines, and we don't prowl about other men's schooners. I can't understand his doing a thing like that."

"Perhaps not, but if not, explain how he got it."

"You're right," Code admitted after a moment's thought; "that's the only way."

They were silent for a while, pondering over this new development and trying to discover where it might lead. Under sharp commands the crew brought the schooner about on the starboard tack, for the wind was on the bow, and set a staysail between the fore and main masts. The splendid ship seemed to skim over the surface of the sea, touching only the tops of the waves.

"No, it's no good!" broke out Code suddenly. "Much as I hate Nat Burns, I don't believe he would come aboard my schooner just for the purpose of stealing a silver-plated mirror. That isn't like him. He's too clever to do anything like that. And, besides, what kind of a revenge would that be for having lost the race?"