“That’s what he said he was, though he never furnished any proof. His daughter helped him with his inventions, but if she’d cut his hair once in a while ’twould have been a better way of puttin’ in the time, ’cordin’ to my notion. And there was a rich squire, who made his money by speculatin’ in wickedness, and a mortgage, and—I don’t know what all. And those Cape Cod folks! and the houses they lived in! and the way they talked! Oh, dear! oh, dear! I got my money’s wuth that afternoon.”
“What about the wreck? How did that happen?”
“Don’t know. It happened ’cause it had to be in the play, I cal’late. The mortgage, or an ‘invention’ or somethin’, was on board the bark and just naturally took a short cut for home, way I figgered it out. But, Jim, you ought to have seen that hero! He peeled off his ileskin-slicker—he’d kept it on all through the sunshine, but now, when ’twas rainin’ and rainin’ and wreckin’ and thunderin’, he shed it—and jumped in and saved all hands and the ship’s cat. ’Twas great business! No wonder the life-savers set off fireworks! And thunder! Why, say, it never stopped thunderin’ in that storm except when somebody had to make a heroic speech; then it let up and give ’em a chance. Most considerate thunder ever I heard. And the lightnin’! and the way the dust flew from the breakers! I was glad I went.... There!” appearing fully dressed from behind the curtains. “I’m ready if you are. Did I talk your head off? I ask your pardon; but that ‘Heart of a Sailor’ touched mine, I guess. I know I was afraid I’d laugh until it stopped beatin’. And all around the people were cryin’. It was enough sight damper amongst the seats than in those cloth waves.”
The pair walked over to Broadway, boarded a street car, and alighted before the Metropolitan Opera House. Pearson’s seats were good ones, well down in the orchestra. Captain Elisha turned and surveyed the great interior and the brilliantly garbed audience.
“Whew!” he muttered. “This is considerable of a show in itself, Jim. They could put our town hall inside here and the folks on the roof wouldn’t be so high as those in that main skys’l gallery up aloft there. Can they see or hear, do you think?”
“Oh, yes. The accepted idea is that they are the real music lovers. they come for the opera itself. Some of the others come because—well, because it is the proper thing.”
“Yes, yes; I see. That’s the real article right over our heads, I suppose.”
“Yes. That’s the ‘Diamond Horseshoe.’”
“All proper things there, hey?”
“Why—er—yes, I suppose so. What makes you ask?”