“N-not t-to-day,” he managed. “No w-wind.”
What he meant to say was that he was too dog-tired to hoist sail and take the trial. It took all his strength to make the boat shipshape for the night.
“Oh, isn’t there?” Richard squinted about the heavens. “Well then, if it’s all the same to you, old chap, I’ll just trot up to the house and see my friend Jawn. Jawn’s a wild one when he’s on his vacation, and the Lord only knows what I’ll have to apologize for. So long!”
Walter watched him greedily to see if he really took the road that led to the Big House; and then, when his eyes had assured him, his suspicious brain suggested plots and stratagems. He stood up in the boat and craned his head to listen for sounds of Phœbe talking to her chickens. From the “chicken-runs” came not a single “cluck.” Some of the former “tremor cordis” seized him again, but not so violently; he shot a leg into the tender, tilting it at a frightful angle, and luckily managed to pilot the skiff to shore successfully. There was ten feet of water at the end of the dock.
Phœbe was not among the chickens; nor could he see her in the orchard, nor in the vineyards tilted up in full view on the hill. They had gone off together! It was a ruse to fool him! Oaths slipped from him, as he dashed up the hill and then down through the orchard to Phœbe’s house. He almost ran into her as she emerged suddenly from among the dahlias. She had a large bunch of deep purple flowers in her arm, which she almost dropped at his sudden excited appearance.
“Land o’ Goshen!” she ejaculated. “If you start runnin’ wild about here, I’ll be forgettin’ myself and takin’ ye for Seth and lock you up for the night in the ‘pen’!... What’s the matter with you, boy? You’re all of a shake.”
A little tenderness softened her tone. She tried to take hold of his trembling hand, but he grinned and brought himself together.
“Jus’ l-lookin’ for y-you,” he stammered foolishly.
“You’re a funny boy,” she laughed, with some of her native crooning in her voice. “A funny boy!... Come in and sit down and tell me all about the new boat. I’m all excited about the races. I see myself standin’ on the dock at Alley’s Inn with a pair of field-glasses screwed to me two eyes and rainin’ curses on my good friends Tyler and Fagner.”
“Goin’ to beat ’em both;” Walter glowed under her loyal chatter.