“Then, that lawyer feller I see wa’n’t far off his course, after all,” replied the Captain, laying the draft on the table. “Now, Jim, show your hand and be damn quick afore I call your turn on the deal,” demanded the seaman as though certain that a prior conclusion had proven correct.
“I have nothing to show at this time.”
“By the Almighty, then, look out! I sold my Jennie P. to get you that money. It was 359 purty hard to see her go, but it wa’n’t all loss, not by a heap. John Peters bought her. I told him why I was selling her. He was real sorry, and then he spun me the yarn about your crookedness in Australia. I got the rest of the story by installments, about the way you treated Adoniah. John give me some mighty interesting news about an old Mrs. Rogers, who was the mother of Adoniah’s wife. She’s here right now looking for heirs and crooks.”
The Elder had risen again, but the name spoken by the Captain struck him like a shot. He dropped back, his head fell forward, and his hands locked over the head of his stick.
“After that I seen Harold, and he told me where the woman was staying. I looked her up, and she told me the whole enduring yarn. It was Clemmie’s last letter from Adoniah that set me going on your trail, and the old woman cleared up the fog. I had that letter in my pocket up to your place that night, but Providence or something kept me from showing it to you. That old lady had a picture of her darter Emmie, and it nearly knocked me 360 over when she showed it to me. It was the same that Mack has here in this frame of his own mother. Take a look at that picture.” He opened a drawer, lifted out a gilt-frame, and passed a small daguerreotype across to the Elder. “Mack has showed me this often, and I see that he was a chip off the old block on his mother’s side. But I never dreamed the truth, because of his name.” The Captain’s eyes narrowed. “I’ve been wondering, Jim, if that wa’n’t what went to your head that night he had dinner up there,––seeing the likeness, all of a sudden, to his mother.”
He paused to give the Elder time to study the picture.
“Josiah, what on earth has all this nonsense to do with me? Just what are you accusing me of?”
“Nothing yet. I’m coming to that part. I looked up that feller who was with you over there, and I dragged your damned sin out of him. When it comes right down to it, I hate like time to take away your chart and compass this way, but you’ve been doing it to others for so long that I cal’late it’s coming to you. 361 I’d have let the old lady tear out your side-whiskers if it hadn’t been for them children of yours. It was for them that I asked you in here.”
The Elder roused and made a pathetic effort to straighten his drooping figure. “I think,––er,––Josiah, I see your game at last. You purpose to frighten me with these wild tales from some old witch. I shall compel you to offer proof, for all your insinuations, in court.”
“Insinuations! Proof! Lord, Jim!” cried the Captain, aiming a powerful finger in the direction of the Elder. “I’ve got proof enough to lock you up in the London Towers, or wherever it was you let Adoniah suffer for your infernal wickedness. Proof! Hell! You ain’t that big a fool. Set still and hear me. You never see the shores of Africa. It was in Australia that you and Adoniah got in with that trader Rogers,––Emmie’s father,––and you was getting rich trading in opals. Then, the both of you fell in love with Emmie, and Adoniah beat you out and married her. It wa’n’t long after that when Adoniah took 362 down with a fever. God, man! When I think what you done to him when he couldn’t fight back, I could kill you! You got trapped in a bad deal, and while Adoniah was raving with a fever you took all the money there was and skipped. You was careful to ship all the blame for your dirty work on Adoniah afore you sneaked out a rich man.”