ACROSS THE BAY
Darry welcomed the coming of dawn.
He was glad to see that the sky was clear, for he anticipated a long row across the broad bay that day, bearing the mail for those at the life-saving station, as well as several things he had been commissioned to fetch over by Abner.
Hardly had they finished breakfast than there arrived a visitor.
Mrs. Peake saw him coming along the road, for she could look out of the window of the kitchen, where they ate, and have a view of the open stretch.
"Here comes old Hank Squires. I reckon he's heard something about what happened here last night. It's about time he took notice of some of the mean pranks those village boys play on those who live outside. Tell him all he wants to hear, Darry; but unless you can swear to it perhaps you'd better not say that you think it was Jim Dilks and his crowd. If you feel sure, go ahead," she remarked, for with all her temper Mrs. Peake was a woman with a due sense of caution.
The constable knocked, and in response to her call to "come in," he entered.
"I heard ye had a little shindig up to here last night, Mrs. Peake, an' I jest called 'round to see what it is all 'bout," said Hank, seating himself. "I see thar was a fire here all right, an' it kim near burning yer buildings down in the bargain. Some says as how it was sot by a passel o' boys. How 'bout that, ma'am?"
"I didn't see anyone," answered the woman. "When I got out Darry here had the fire pretty well under control, and I only helped him finish. You can ask him about it, Mr. Squires."
Darry had already learned through the grocer that previous to her marriage to Abner the good woman had been for some years a teacher in the schools, which fact accounted for her superior language and knowledge of things that were far above the intelligence of most of her neighbors.
The constable looked keenly at our hero.
"I b'lieve this is the boy wot was saved from the wreck o' that brigantine. So he's gwine to be your boy now, Mrs. Peake? Well, I understand he's got the makin' o' a man in him, so Mr. Keeler sez to me last night, and I hope you'll never have no reason to be sorry. I want to know, Darry, what about this here fire?"
"I'll be only too glad to tell you all I know, sir," replied the boy promptly.
"When did it happen?" began the constable, with the air of a famous lawyer, with a bewildered witness on the rack.
"I think it was somewhere near midnight. I have no watch, and Mrs. Peake took the little clock in her room with her."
"That was near the time. It was half-past one when I went back to my bed with my two little girls," remarked the owner of the house.
"S'pose you tell me what happened, jest as it comes to you, lad."
With this invitation Darry soon related the whole matter, even to his firing after the vanishing culprits.
This latter event appeared to interest the constable more than anything else.
"Do you think you hit any o' 'em?" he asked, eagerly.
"They didn't stop to tell me, but I heard a lot of howling, and they ran faster than ever," replied Darry, smiling.
"That sounds as if you did some damage. Mrs. Peake, I must look into this outrage closer, and if I can only git my hands on any dead-sure evidence somebody's boys is a gwine to pay for the fiddlin'. I'm tired o' sech goings-on. They sure are a disgrace to our village. But you know how it is—my hands are tied acause theys politics back o' it all. If I arrested Jim Dilks now on the strength o' a suspicion I'd get tied up in litigation and lose my job in the bargain. I hears as how theys gwine to be a meetin' called at the house o' the dominie to discuss this question, an' see what kin be did to change things."
"I'm sure I'm glad to know it, and if they want another to join in tell them to count on Nancy Peake. The women must take this thing in hand, since the men are too much afraid of that ruffian, big Jim Dilks, to do anything. Be sure and let me know when that meeting is coming off, Mr. Squires," said Abner's better half; and when he saw the fire in her eyes and the determination shining there Constable Squires realized that the day of salvation for Ashley village was not so very far away.
"Then you wouldn't like to swear to its being any particular pusson?" he went on, turning again to Darry.
"I did not see a face, and without that my evidence would hardly convict. No, sir, I would not swear that one of the three was Jim."
"That's bad. I stand ready to do my duty and arrest the boy if so be any one makes a complaint; but without that it wouldn't pay and only makes useless trouble all 'round. But I'm goin' to keep my eyes open from now on, and when I git a sure case on Jim he comes in."
That was all Mr. Squires would say, and he soon departed; but not before he had called Darry outside for a few words in parting.
"Looks like you was marked to be the central figger o' the comin' storm, lad. Keep your eye open for squalls. If things git too black around jest slip over to the dominie's leetle house and hev a talk with him. I knows more about what's gwine to happen than I let on; but somebody's due to hev a surprise that hain't a donation party either. You seem to have the right stuff in you, lad. I heard from Mr. Keeler how you took that bully Jim into camp mighty neat. He'll never be satisfied till he's paid you back. A word to the wise is sufficient. Goodbye, Darry."
After all the constable did not seem to be a bad sort of fellow.
During the morning Darry accomplished many things for Abner's wife, and she showed in her manner how pleased she was to have him there.
When noon had come and gone he prepared for his row across the bay, for she insisted upon his making an early start.
"Clouds are banking up in the southeast, and we look for trouble whenever that comes about. Still, you will have plenty of time to row over. Stay with Abner to-night and return in the morning if it is safe on the bay. Perhaps you may have a chance to see how the life savers work," said Mrs. Peake.
It was almost two when he pushed off from the float and started on his long row directly across the bay.
Steadily he kept pushing across the wide stretch of shallow water.
As Abner had said, a new pair of oars seemed to be badly needed in connection with the old boat; but a willing heart and sturdy arms sent the craft along until finally Darry reached his goal.
The storm was drawing near, for by now the heavens were clouded over, and the haze seemed to thicken. Perhaps had he lingered another hour Darry might have stood a chance of losing his way, and being drawn out of the inlet by the powerful ebb tide—just as the unfortunate Joe had been.
Abner was waiting at the landing for him.
"Glad to see yuh, lad. How's everything to home?" he asked.
Of course Darry understood this to mean with regard to himself and his relations with the good woman of the house.
Truth to tell Abner had worried more than a little since parting from the boy, for his wife had shown more than unusual ill temper lately, and he feared that he had possibly done an unwise thing in leaving Darry there to be a constant reminder of the son she had lost.
But the happy look on the boy's countenance eased his mind even before the boy spoke a single word.
"He kin do it, if any boy kin," was what the life saver was saying under his breath.
"All well, and your wife sent this over to you, sir. Here's the mail, too. The postmaster didn't want to give it to me, but Mr. Keeler told him it was all right, and that I belonged with the crew over here."
Unconsciously his tones were full of pride as he made this assertion, and the grocer had evidently done more to please the lad in making that assertion than he would ever know.
But Abner seemed to be staring down at something.
"Seems like as if yuh bed ben a leetle mite keerless, son, with them trousers. Don't strike me thet burn was on 'em yesterday," he remarked.
"It wasn't, Mr. Peake. I got that last night," he said, quickly.
"Doin' what?" went on Abner, who seemed to guess that there was a story back of it all that he ought to hear.
"Putting out the pigsty, that was on fire, sir."
"What's that? Who sot it afire, I'd like to know? Them pigs never has smoked, leastways not yit. Jest tell me the hull bloomin' thing, lad."
To begin at the start Darry had to take up the subject of his encounter on the road, and from that he went on until the whole story had been told, including the visit of Hank Squires.