“She has? About ’Bije?”
“Well, perhaps she didn’t tell him father was a thief, but she did tell that the estate was gone—that we were flat broke and worse.”
“Hum!” Captain Elisha seemed more gratified than displeased. “Hum!... Well, I kind of expected she would. Knowin’ her, I kind of expected it.”
“You did?” Stephen glared in wrathful amazement. “You expected it?”
“Yes. What of it?”
“What of it? Why, everything! Can’t you see? Mal’s our only chance. If she marries him she’ll be looked out for and so will I. She needn’t have told him until they were married. The wedding could have been hurried along; the Dunns were crazy to have it as soon as possible. Now—”
“Hold on, Steve! Belay! What difference does her tellin’ him make? Maybe she hasn’t mentioned it to you, but I had a talk with your sister the other mornin’. She thinks the world of Malcolm, and he does of her. She told me so herself. Of course she’d go to him in her trouble. And he’ll be proud—yes, and glad to know that he can help her. As for the weddin’, I don’t see that this’ll have any effect except to hurry it up a little more, maybe.”
Steve looked at him suspiciously, but there was no trace of sarcasm in the captain’s face or voice. The boy scowled.
“Ugh!” he grunted.
“What’s the ‘ugh’ for? See here, you ain’t hintin’ that young Dunn was cal’latin’ to marry Caroline just for her money, are you? Of course you ain’t! Why, you and he are the thickest sort of chums. You wouldn’t chum with a feller who would play such a trick as that on your own sister.”