To-day she edged near and waited for recognition. Locks of her fair hair, shaken loose by her ride, went straying bewitchingly over her face and forehead. The smile in her eyes crept down to the corners of her mouth as she sought the averted face above her. But all she could glimpse were violent motions of one ragged point of his moustache as it kept imperfect time with the unseen end which was being viciously chewed.
At length, the irresistible little attraction at his side proved too strong for the Captain’s stubbornness, and he looked down into her big blue eyes. At sight of his own blackened and swollen lids Elizabeth uttered a sharp cry. She took the roughened hand in hers and gave it a gentle squeeze. But her deep concern was quickly followed by a ripple of laughter. Hers was a laugh that was as good to see as to hear. The Captain smiled a wholly unintentional 14 smile and returned the pressure of her hand.
“Dear me, Uncle Josiah!” she exclaimed. “You look so like a terrible old storm-cloud! And those awful eyes! Where on earth did you get them?”
“Cal’late I feel a heap sight worse than I look, Beth. That set of females–––”
“But your black eyes!” she interrupted. “Who made them like that? Has some one been fighting you?”
“A feller handed ’em out to me last night, and I didn’t happen to be in a position to refuse ’em,” he replied, his grisly weather-browned features lighting up with a wry smile.
“Who dared strike you like that!”
“Now, don’t you worry, Beth. It ain’t as bad as it looks. You see, I was on my way over from the station last night from the late city train. When I got to the top of the hill I sot down for a spell, and while I was thinking, I looked down on my place. I see a light in the pantry window flicker up, die down, and then settle into a steady glow. I cal’lated it 15 must be pirates aboard the old craft, so I tore down the hill like blazes and busted into the house. Something struck me like a ton of brick, and I went down. I never see so many stars in all my life. The next thing I heard was a voice asking if I was hurt, and saying, ‘You’ll pardon me, sir.’” He chuckled with his first sign of mirth. “When I got my senses back there was a big feller sitting on me, nearly choking off my wind. He brung out one of them lightning-bug flashlights and turned it full on me, and then shouted like a maniac, ‘Why, it’s Cap’n Pott!’ ‘That’s me, but who in hell be you?’ I’m telling you just as I said it. He told me his name was Mack McGowan. Well, I was real glad to see him till he told me he was the new preacher and was going to live with me. Eadie Beaver had put him up in my house a week ago. I was mad as hops when he told me that, and I was going to throw him out, but,”––again he chuckled,––“well, I didn’t.”
“You thought caution was the better part of valor, is that it?” questioned Elizabeth.
“Something like that, Beth. I cal’late 16 we’d best say nothing to a soul about this. There’d be some who wouldn’t understand the details of the transaction. It was sort of confidential, as you might say, and there’d be them who’d blame Mr. McGowan for what he wa’n’t exactly responsible for.”