“You wonder?” he demanded, hysterically; “you wonder what? What are you going to do about it? It’s up to you, isn’t it? You’re our guardian, aren’t you?”
“Yes, Stevie, I’m your guardian.”
“Yes, you are! But no one would guess it. When we didn’t want you, you wouldn’t leave us for a minute. Now, when we need you, when there isn’t a soul for us to turn to, you stay away. You haven’t been near us. It’s up to you, I say! and what are you going to do about it? What are you going to do?”
His uncle held up his hand.
“S-shh!” he said. “Don’t raise your voice like that, son! I can hear you without that, and we don’t want anybody else to hear. What am I goin’ to do? Stevie, I don’t know exactly. I ain’t made up my mind yet.”
“Well, it’s time you did!”
“Yes, I guess likely ’tis. As for my not comin’ to see you, you know the reason for that. I’d have come quick enough, but I wa’n’t sure I’d be welcome. And I told your sister only ’tother day that—by the way, Steve, how is she? How is Caroline?”
“She’s a fool!” The boy sprang up again and shook his fist. “She’s the one I’ve come here to speak about. If we don’t stop her she’ll ruin us altogether. She—she’s a damned fool, I tell you!”
“There! there!” the captain’s tone was sharp and emphatic. “That’s enough of that,” he said. “I don’t want to hear you call your sister names. What do you mean by it?”
“I mean what I say. She is a fool. Do you know what she’s done? She’s written Mal Dunn all about it! I’d have stopped her, but I didn’t know until it was too late. She’s told him the whole thing.”