As Alec turned the situation over in his mind, his indignation grew fiercer and fiercer. He told himself that Captain Bagley had no right to leave the money in the ship's cabin, as he did; and Alec was right. He told himself that Captain Bagley should have told him to guard the money, when he rushed off after the shipper; and again Alec was right.
"I was free to come and go," said Alec to himself, "and Captain Bagley had no right to assume that I would stay on the Bertha B all the time, when there is so much that is interesting to see and learn. Why, anybody can walk into any of these boats at any time, and Captain Bagley knows that as well as I do. And if somebody dishonest came aboard and nobody was in the cabin and some money was lying loose, what could the captain expect? It wasn't fair for him to do what he did. It wasn't fair. He never said a word to me about his money and now he holds me responsible for its loss. It isn't fair! It isn't fair!"
In deep distress Alec walked up and down under the pier shed. He saw nothing, heard nothing, felt nothing, but his own distress.
"And I was trying so hard to be helpful and to show my appreciation of Captain Bagley's kindness," said Alec to himself. "Kindness! Bah! Let him keep his kindness for others. What I want is justice. I'll leave him and his old boat and go where people will treat me fair. That's all the kindness I want—just a square deal."
In his bitterness Alec was himself unjust. With the inexperience of youth, he reasoned that because he had been questioned as to his honesty he had necessarily been condemned. He failed to see that his employers owed it to him as well as to themselves and all the other oystermen to find out who was the thief. Necessarily they had to question Alec first, for circumstances certainly did point to him.
The more he brooded over the matter, the more indignant he felt. "I won't stay here another minute," he said. "I won't have anything to do with men who have so little fairness." And he headed for the Bertha B to get his valise and the few poor possessions in it. But half-way down the pier he stopped abruptly. A new idea popped into his head. "If you go aboard the Bertha B and take your things, and anything else should disappear, they'll say you stole the thing and ran away."
He pondered over the situation. "Run away!" he muttered. "That's just what you were about to do. An honest man doesn't run away when he's under fire. He stays and fights. Why, if I had run away, they'd never have doubted that I was the thief. Gee! I'm glad I thought in time." And Alec fairly shivered at the thought of what would have happened had he foolishly gone away.
"I'll fight," he muttered. "That's what I'll do. I'll show them I'm as honest and square and smart and able as any man that ever walked these planks. That's what I'll do. I'll be an oysterman, too. That's settled. I'll be a planter and shipper, too. I'll be just as big a man at Bivalve as Captain Rumford or anybody else. I'll show them what Alec Cunningham's got in him. I'll work and work and work and study and study and save my money, and some day I'll have the finest oyster-boat that sails out of this port. And I'll call her Old Honesty, too. And she won't be any old-fashioned sailing boat done over. She'll be an up-to-date oyster-boat, scientifically made. Captain Rumford will have to scrap his whole fleet when my new boat gets to work. He'll find it was a costly thing to call me a thief, that's what he will."
Now all faintness of heart had gone from Alec. The feeling of sickness had left him. He was all aglow with determination and purpose. He felt that the die was cast. He had made up his mind. He felt as strong as Atlas, as indomitable as Jupiter. In his vision he saw the delectable goal, but he could not see the hard and painful path that led up to it.
Nor was all this as foolish as it might seem to many an older head. Dreams are the thing that accomplishments are made of—dreams and work. Often the faith and enthusiasm of youth are more effective than the coldly reasoned acts of maturity. And now, though eventual success was no whit nearer than it had been a few moments previously, Alec felt immensely better in mind. He had come to a decision. He had mapped his course. He meant to keep his job, if that were at all possible, and fight. And he meant to fight until he got to the top.