When the Cock Crows Part 18

Then, after a moment, she questioned seriously:

"Ichabod, are ye goin' to build the addition on the hotel besides?"

The old fisherman nodded emphatically.

"That," he stoutly declared, "was a gentleman's promise!"

Sarah capitulated.

"Ichabod Jones, I ought to call you a triflin' rascal for starting in to scare me like you've done. Anyhow, I jest can't make it earlier than eleven-thirty. Will that do?"

The fisherman's reply was to take Sarah in his arms. Roy and Van Dusen in the hotel lobby hailed the smack that followed as a signal of the wooer's success.

CHAPTER XXV

DOING HIS BIT

Ichabod saw Ethel come out on the porch and take a seat at the far end.

He somewhat hastily released Sarah from his arms, with the explanation that he ought to leave her free to make her preparations for the wedding. The spinster, blushing with happiness and excitement, hurried to busy herself with making ready for her new state of full womanhood.

Just as Roy reached Ethel's side, Ichabod joined the two with the glad tidings of his sweetheart's acceptance of the "pre-nuptals." The fisherman's apprehensions concerning too much publicity for the wedding ceremony led him rather shyly to suggest that it should take place on board _The Hialdo_, away from the prying eyes of the townsfolk. He explained that he didn't know which would be worse--the small boys, or the older devils, or the cacklin' hens.

Immediately after the bank opened next morning, the cashier readjusted his enormous bone-rimmed spectacles in order to study a check presented for deposit by Miss Sarah Porter. Then he espied the phrase concerning "pre-nuptals" in the upper left-hand corner, and that was sufficient, for he was a man of shrewdness. He pa.s.sed the news along to every person that appeared before his wicket. In less than half an hour, the whole town was agog over the astounding intelligence that the old maid, Sarah Porter, was engaged to be married. There remained the mystery as to the ident.i.ty of the bridegroom. But this was speedily cleared up by the genial Doctor Hudson, who made no scruples of advertising his old friend's happiness. The result was that by the time set for the ceremony, the whole town was out, waiting in eager antic.i.p.ation. It was indeed a season of great excitement. Here was an opportunity to celebrate an event that was at once amazing, romantic and historic.

Captain Ichabod had been known by them for twenty years as an inveterate woman-hater. During that same score of years, as her friends could testify, Sarah Porter had refused no less than seven excellent offers of marriage. Now, these two were to marry. The citizens, with one accord, marveled and rejoiced.

Yet, no one criticized the match. The two were universally liked and respected. While the townsfolk wondered and smiled they did not jeer.

But they were resolved to make a demonstration of their appreciation.

They meant to give the wedded pair a "send off" to be remembered.

Sarah, a.s.sisted by three of her closest friends, pa.s.sed the whole night in making ready for the momentous occasion. By nine o'clock in the morning, her trunk was safely aboard the yacht. Immediately after her return from the bank, Captain Jones escorted her aboard _The Hialdo_--before the townspeople had any suspicion of what was going on.

They were quickly followed by Doctor Hudson and the clergyman. Van Dusen bustled in after them, having finished the paying off of the chartered boats.

The ceremony was duly performed. A woman's dream of years at last became reality.

Van Dusen suggested that the newly wedded pair should go ash.o.r.e to receive the congratulations of the crowd that now thronged the water front. But Ichabod, having in mind pestiferous small boys, steadfastly refused any such exhibition of himself and his bride. His opinion of them would have been confirmed could he have overheard their questioning of Doctor Hudson, which was: Had he examined their teeth to see how old they were?

Nevertheless, the townsfolk, though they got no sight of the princ.i.p.als in the affair, cheered with a l.u.s.ty good-will. And, too, they dragged a cannon down to the sh.o.r.e, where the gunner fired a salute of twenty-one thunderous explosions. The Collector of the Port, who alone knew that this was an honor reserved for the President of the United States, inquired curiously why this exact number was chosen. The gunner replied seriously that it represented the bride's age.

At Uncle Icky's request, the yacht sailed first for the coast-guard station. Here, he had no hesitation in proclaiming his new state and in receiving the congratulations of his friends--for there were no small boys to trouble. He explained the whereabouts of Shrimp and the hens, with a request that they should be rescued from the barren stretch of sand. The coast-guard men promised that the little flock should receive a home at the station itself. Thus, the old fisherman's last concern with the old life was happily ended. In a moment apart, he made a final entry in the diary.

"Through with Shrimp and the shack, by heck! My weddin'-day! Hooray!"

It was owing to a request by Ethel to Van Dusen that the yacht's course was to Portsmouth that night. Early next morning, before the others were stirring, Captain Ichabod rowed Ethel in a small boat from _The Hialdo's_ anchorage to the town. They were absent for a full three hours. On her return, Ethel spoke with enthusiasm of the town's quaint charm, but she gave no details of her visit there, not even to Roy. The old fisherman said nothing at all of the trip, not even to Sarah Jones.

The wedded pair, though urged to prolong their stay on the yacht, insisted on leaving when _The Hialdo_ reached Norfolk. They took with them a promise from their new friends to come south again in order to attend the opening of the new Inlet Hotel.

Colonel Marion was appointed to head a mission to France for study on the war-methods there. On his return to New York from Texas, he urged Ethel's immediate marriage, before his sailing. Naturally, there was no objection on the part of the lovers, and the father was able to depart tranquil in the a.s.surance that his daughter would be safe in her husband's care.

One morning a few months later, as Roy and Ethel sat at breakfast, the servant brought him a letter with a Paris postmark, which was addressed in the familiar hand of Colonel Marion. Somewhat surprised that the letter should be to him rather than to Ethel, Roy opened it and read:

"DEAR ROY:

"Just a few lines to give you the surprise of your life. I have found that our old friend, Doctor Garnet, was not lost in the quicksands, as you supposed. On the contrary, he is here in France, doing n.o.ble, wonderful work in the branch of his profession that he always loved--surgery. I understand that he has been decorated several times. And also, strange to say, he is going under his own name. I am sending this news to you instead of to Ethel direct, because I feared the effect of a sudden shock on her. You can break the information to her gently.

"With love to the dear girl,

"Your father, "STEPHEN MARION."

Roy had little alarm lest his wife should suffer any ill effect from what she would regard as the best of news.

"My dear," he asked at once, "would you be greatly surprised to get authentic information that Gifford Garnet is alive and doing wonders in his profession of surgery? Would you believe it, if I should tell you that he has been several times decorated for his services on the battle front in France?"

To his astonishment, Ethel showed no extraordinary excitement, though her face grew radiant.

"No, Roy," she replied, "I should not be surprised, but I should be very glad!"

"Your answer sounds strange to me," Roy declared, with a puzzled glance across the table. "Anyhow, you are calm enough so that I don't need to hesitate in telling you that your father's letter to me actually contains this astonishing news."

"Thank G.o.d, Roy!" Ethel said reverently. "The madman has become sane again. Thank G.o.d, he did obey my sealed orders."

Roy stared at his wife in open bewilderment.

"What on earth do you mean, Ethel?" he demanded. "Have you been keeping something from me?"

"Yes, my dear husband, I've been guilty of just that thing. I've just been waiting and praying for the hour when I could come to you and give you the very information that father has been able to send you. I'll tell you the whole story. But, first, I must exact a promise. For Ichabod's sake, as well as my own, you must not breathe a word of the truth to Arthur Van Dusen."

Still mightily wondering as to the meaning of all this mystery and eager for its solution, Roy readily gave the required promise that he would keep Ethel's secret. Thereupon she told him the story.

"The night Arthur and poor old Ichabod returned to us aboard _The Hialdo_ with the Doctor's cap and note, I believed as firmly as you did that the unfortunate man had been swallowed up in the quicksands, or swept away to death by the tide. At the time when he left me alone in the shack in order to go for help, I would not let him go until he had agreed to carry with him sealed orders under which he should act. I wrote these and gave them to him, and he promised to follow my instructions. They were for his future guidance. I believed that, if he followed them, he would not only escape punishment, but reform so as to be of service once more to the world. Naturally, when help did not arrive from Portsmouth, I concluded that his strength had not been sufficient for the task, that he had perished. So, I was not surprised by the news brought to the yacht by the men who had been searching for him.

"That morning when I visited Portsmouth, Roy dear, I had two objects in view. One was to verify the fact that Doctor Garnet had not reached the town. The other was to visit the young physician whom I knew to be located there, in order to arrange with him to care for the afflicted man in case he should arrive later on. As I was about to leave the yacht, early in the morning, Captain Ichabod appeared."

Ethel's gravity vanished for a moment. Her l.u.s.trous eyes narrowed and twinkled. She smiled until the dimples in her cheeks were shadows against the rose.

"I suppose he stole away from the fond Sarah while she was asleep. He never could have managed it had she been awake." She became serious again, and Roy, whose mouth had widened in an appreciative grin, again listened with sober attention.

"Captain Ichabod had a confession to make to me. That confession was vastly more of a surprise to me, as you will soon understand, than this news in father's letter. The old fellow first swore me to secrecy. Then he out and told me, not without a certain exultation at his shrewdness, that he had put one over on the greatest detective in America, Arthur Van Dusen. He explained that when he and Arthur reached the false inlet where they found the cap and note, he believed that Doctor Garnet had crossed in safety, for the channel was by no means so dangerous as he represented to the detective. As a matter of fact, he hoped and expected to find the Doctor's tracks on the other side, and he did so although he concealed the knowledge of their existence from Van Dusen. Ichabod went on to tell me that he was moved to sympathy in Doctor Garnet's behalf, that he believed the man would reform, would be of use to the world, that he was worth saving from the law's punishment for offenses inspired by a drug-maddened brain. He insisted that he told no lie to Arthur--only allowed the world's greatest detective to draw a few wrong conclusions from his vague remarks and the melancholy expression on his face when he returned after crossing the inlet to look for tracks.

"Right then and there, that old fisherman and I formed a partnership. We decided that we would locate our man, save him from capture, and have him restored to the normal. This would be comparatively easy since the authorities believed him to be dead. We would demand in return that he should go to France, there to serve those sufferers on the battlefield who might have need of him.

"Ichabod preferred to remain behind, when I went to the physician's house. There I found that Doctor Garnet had in fact been received by the young doctor, who had taken him in and cared for him--proud indeed to do so, since he knew his patient's reputation and held him in veneration for his skill. The younger doctor readily entered into a conspiracy with me when he had heard my story. I had an interview with Doctor Garnet. He accepted my proposition fully. He was glad of a chance to expiate his follies. He swore to me that never again would he take a grain of the drug. At his request, I brought Ichabod to his bedside, and he thanked the old man warmly for all that he had done both for himself and for me, his victim. I offered him funds for the trip abroad, but he told me that he was well supplied with money. He told me also that he had come in a small sailboat to carry me away from the shack, but had seen on approaching that his services were no longer needed, so had returned whence he came.... From that day until now, I have had no word of the man. Yet, I felt that he had kept his promise."

"And he did--n.o.bly!" Roy said. There was a new admiration in the glance with which he regarded his wife, who had accomplished this miracle of regeneration.