Meanwhile, Melvin had relapsed into utter silence. He declined to answer any of the teamster’s further questions, and if his knowledge of the locality had been quite as accurate as he had boasted he would have suggested to the girl that they take a short-cut back to the hotel. Yet, he had heard that teasing Molly say they were bound for the fish-grounds. Beyond these lay, also, that notable Battery Point, with its rusty old guns; its ancient, storm-bent trees; and the Indian encampment still further along. He had seen tourists so many times that he fancied they were all alike, full of curiosity, and with ample leisure to gratify it. So, in all probability, the Judge and his friends were still at that end of town and he had better stick to Joel till he conducted the girl and him to their presence. Then he would himself vanish until such time as the Judge might require his service.
They came to the pier and drove along its great length, the teamster pointing out all sorts of interesting things, so that Dolly forgot all else in her eager listening.
“Forty feet high the tide rises sometimes, right on this very p’int. That’s why it’s built so lofty. Look over the edge. See that sloping wharf clean down into the water? Well, sir, that’s where folks land sometimes; and other times away up top here. My heart! The pretty creetur!”
Joel abruptly checked his team and stooped above something lying on the wide planking of the pier. Then he lifted the object and handed it to Dorothy, explaining:
“That’s a poor little coddy-moddy! A little baby gull. Pity! Something’s hurt it, but it’s alive yet. Makes me feel bad to see any young creetur suffer; most of all to see a bird. Put it in the crook of your elbow, Sissy, and fetch it along. I’ll take it home with me and see if I can’t save its life.”
After a moment he added, seeing her look wistful, as he thought:
“I’d give it to you, Sissy, but towering folks haven’t no time nor chance to tend sick birds. It’ll be better off in my house than jogglin’ over railroads and steamboats.”
There was sense in this as Dorothy rather reluctantly admitted, for she would have liked to keep the “coddy-moddy” and made a pet of it. With Joel, however, it would simply be cured and set free, or it would die in peace. Also she was touched by the real tenderness with which the rough-handed teamster made a nest in the straw of his cart and placed the bird upon it.
He had first deposited the trunks in the baggage-room and there was nothing to keep him longer; so with another whimsical glance at Melvin, who had sauntered behind them, he remarked:
“Right this way to the fishin’-grounds! ‘Stinks a little but nothin’ to hurt!’”