At daylight that very morning when he awakened in the life-saving station at old Fort Macon, he had felt that he could never again occupy his old cabin home. Yet, here he was at night, resting well satisfied, without any qualm whatsoever. The exciting happening of the day—perhaps especially the opportunity to tell his old rival just what he thought of the fellow—had proved a balm to his over-strained nerves. He had come back home with a firm resolve to continue on there in tranquillity, and to enjoy to the full the days that were before him. It is true that he missed Shrimp. But, after mature meditation on the matter of the fowl's going away, the fisherman had about come to the conclusion that in all probability he had gone of his own free will and accord. It occurred to the Captain as possible that the bird might have been peeved by his master's sailing away without him as he hurried to Beaufort Town in quest of Doctor Hudson. Ichabod believed that Shrimp had seen his opportunity to cross to the mainland with the strangers and had seized on it in the hope of being able at last to fight it out with his rooster rival, whose challenging salute had been tantalizing him for many a day. Ichabod chuckled as he expressed the wish that Shrimp's encounter with this rival might give him as much satisfaction as had his own with the beach-comber.
Now, under the flow of his meditations, the old man grew loquacious. He went into the shack, shut the door and lighted the lamp. Then he sprawled at ease in his favorite chair, and since there was no other auditor at hand, talked to himself.
"Wall! I reckon I have larned a heap this day. The most important fact is that Icky Jones has been a fool for over twenty year. Jest because a no-'count woman took a notion in her haid that she had rather marry a beach-combin' thief than an honest fisherman I have made myself hate all o' the rest o' the gender, or least-wise to keep away fr'm 'em, an' lead a miserable lonely life. Why! do ye know, I believe that when I spunked up an' told old Sandy Mason what I thought o' him an' his callin', an' rubbed it in some on the poor kid, that it did me more good than a dost o' medicine. It sure put sand in my craw an' made me feel like fightin' every mean thing livin'. If I hadn't been a narrow-fool, an' awful sot in my way, instead o' takin' the loss of Roxana Lee to heart, I'd 'a' braced up an' gone right ahead an' looked fer one o' the right sort. I've learned jest a short time back that I'd gone off on the wrong track. When I revived that fine-lookin' foreign woman an' she opened those eyes—such beautiful brown eyes!—an' looked at me so appealin'-like an' called me Doctor, I jest couldn't he'p but wish that she'd talk to me a leetle more, but fate was agin me, an' she was mum as an adder."
Captain Ichabod fell silent as he undressed for the night, extinguished the light and stretched himself luxuriously on his bed. As he snuggled down into the blankets with a capacious yawn, he drowsily spoke aloud yet once again.
"Wall, hanged if I 'lowed this mornin' when I woke up at the station, that to-night I'd be a-layin' here so peaceable-like an' jest a-pinin' fer sleep. This shack an' this bunk has had a woman in 'em, but I don't reckin it has hurt 'em none after all. I can sleep, you bet. Uncle Icky may dream a leetle might, but it won't be about Roxana Lee."
It was not until the sun was more than an hour high that the old fisherman opened his eyes again to the realization that another day had come. When he felt the warm rays of the summer sun upon his cheek he knew that he had slept beyond his usual time of waking, which stirred him to a fleeting anger against himself. He got up quickly, and while he dressed, admonished himself harshly.
"Betwixt the rust o' time an' a thievin' yachtsman, ye're plumb out o' time, Ichabod. If ye aim to be a successful fisherman in the future as in the past, you must either find ye another rooster, or buy a clock, an' I reckin that a clock, what will run, but can't run away, is the thing fer you."
Breakfast over, Ichabod busied himself in getting his nets and other fishing paraphernalia straightened out, for in his hurry to put them out of harm's way as the big blow came on, he had got them pretty badly tangled. It was mid-forenoon before he considered that things about the shack and door yard were about as they should be at the place of a first-class fisherman. Occasionally as he worked, he would glance toward the oyster rocks, where lay the remains of The Isabel, and he would wonder once again what could have been the occasion of the curious crime that had resulted in the death of the man chained to the engine. But all his musings brought only increased perplexity, until his wits were totally befuddled. He dare be sure only that the yachtsman he had rescued was either a villain or a maniac.
It was a custom in the Sound Country for the natives at frequent intervals to favor their preacher, their doctor and the editor of the gossipy local newspaper with a gift of something attractive, either grown in their vegetable gardens, or taken from the waters round about. In this respect, Ichabod was not different from his neighbors of the other islands and the mainland. Many a time and oft, after he had made a particularly good catch of the delicious stone crabs or scallops, he had set sail to carry an offering of the delicacies to friends in the town. To-day, after he had finally established order in his house and among his accoutrements, he shouldered his clam fork, and, carrying a large bucket to hold the catch, strode out on the point. The tide was extremely low, and Ichabod was aware that now was the time to reach the place where round clams grew in great abundance. The old man was an expert at locating these shell-fish. The keyhole sign made by them in the sand was so familiar to him that he could walk along at a smart pace, while peering alertly here and there in search of it. When his eyes caught the mark, he would strike quickly with his fork into the yielding sand, and so bring to the surface one of the luscious bivalves. On this occasion, Ichabod filled his bucket well within the hour, and then, content, returned to the shack for a midday meal.
When he was done eating, the fisherman washed the clams carefully and wrapped them in a neat bundle. He then took them on board the skiff, and made sail for Beaufort Town, to pay his promised visit to Doctor Hudson, and to present him with the morning's catch, which was of particularly good quality. In addition, he was prompted to the trip by anxiety to learn if anything had been heard in the town as to the identity of the yacht Isabel, or of those who voyaged in her.