Henry C. Rowland

“ What in the nation does Jim think, anyhow?”
“It's his spotless innocence and high endeavor, son,” Timothy answered, a little impatiently. “A good many such snowy birds have made unnecessary work for the intelligence department. They can't jam the odor of suspicion and themselves into the same thought. Well, let's sit tight and see what happens, just for fun. They can't do more than teach him a little something besides plain sailing.” ”

“ Jim Stevens sighted the launch's approach and went down to receive his callers at the landing. He was a young man of small but well-rounded frame, plump in fact except for his face which was lean, alert and of kindly expression. He looked precisely what he was; an indefatigable social worker eager to do his conscientious best and ready to back his efforts with his large,-independent in come. ”

“ Lucien reflected for a moment, when his oval face with its pure and perfect features, clear, fine skin and spiritual eyes would have led a Frenchwoman to exclaim: “Ah, le petit Jésu!”
“Better let on to fall for it like the goop they take you for, Jim, then put a signal over to dad and me. Dad sholy hates odd jobs when he's on his vacation, but it can't be he'ped. A crim'nologist is sorta like a doctor, always on the job. Dad's a roarin' lion when he takes after a crook, if he does look most times like he had to lean against the fence to bark.” ”

“ Both Timothy and Lucien possessed a curious fascination for most people, especially women and children, who invariably offered them immediate friendship. By strange men they were usually accorded a sort of puzzled deference. Despite his slipshod, Southern speech and quaint, flowing style of dress Timothy was immediately assayed as the real thing; an eccentric, but distinguished personality while Lucien's seraphic beauty and hard, worldly knowledge with apt slang often invented for its aplomb excited a desire to know more of the odd pair. ”

“ It struck her as decidedly uncommon to be lectured on the error of jumping to conclusions by a distinguished Southern United States attorney baled up in a rubber suit with a freshly painted hood while tearing miles and miles to sea in quest of lobster. She could not understand why it was necessary to burn so much gasoline in pursuit of this most edible scavenger, and presently said so.
“Why are we going so far?” she inquired. “We've been passing lobster pots ever since we left.”
“Ah, Miss Kath'rine,” said Timothy, “but we're not after the common, ordinary little ol' lobster. ”

“ Timothy greeted and assisted her aboard with old-fashioned Southern courtliness, then rather to her surprise as the swift launch proceeded to rip a long white scratch in the polished surface of the sea, reached in the locker cabin and extricating a newfangled life-saving suit from its sack began to put it on. ”

“ It must indeed be painfully upsetting to reach over for the buoy of a lobster pot presumably containing a liberal stake and in the act of so doing have a bloated, streaming, black and faceless creature leap at you from the depths. In fact it came very near upsetting the dory, both the big Swede and the bulbous Higgs going over backward so violently that if Timothy had not flung his arms over the gunnel the boat might have capsized. ”

“ Nobody wants these poor devils. They'd go on the bum or turn to crime again with wages at five dollars per day's unskilled labor.”
Timothy draped one long leg over the other and rubbed his shaven chin. “Uhn-h'n,” he assented. “There's right sma't of an idea for a solution of the male domestic servant problem. We might requisition a heap of timeservers and go their bonds, thereby savin' the gove'ment their keep. Car thieves and smugglers and fo'gers—and the like.” His luminous eyes rested quizzically on Jim, who flushed a little not quite knowing whether this was irony or not. ”

“ The last thing we want is to steal men from the ranks.”
“I reckon there ain't much danger of thet when this new draft bill goes through,” said Timothy dryly.
“No, of course not,” Jim answered, and seemed embarrassed for a moment. Lucien, glancing at his father whose signals he had learned to read like a book, caught the heavy droop of the eyelid which he knew to be a masked wink. His own face was guileless as a seraph's, which showed this child's extraordinary powers of self-control. He was glad when presently they said good-by and got far enough away to have his laugh out in safety. ”

“ He knew Katherine to be a warm-natured girl, and ripe for matrimony as a peach which yields itself to the hand on the least pres sure of its ruddy cheek, and feeling that she favored him he quite realized the danger of not being on guard. ”

“ It percolated to his brain that the monster was not the Old Man of the Sea or the revivified corpse of a submarined sailor come to get him, but merely a creature of flesh and blood who had managed somehow to pop up out of the water for the purpose of marching him back to prison. ”

“ The big dory rapidly approached and Timothy discovered it to contain two figures, one leaning over either side. He chuckled to himself and decided that there was in this case probably also a third; that of Jim. Neither kidnaper would trust the other to go for the ransom alone and the chances therefore were that they would have brought their victim with them, no doubt secured against the possibility of mischief in the bottom of the boat. ”

“ Experimenting with the life-saving suit proved as Timothy had feared, that it floated him entirely too high for his masked and hooded head to pass possibly for a lobster buoy, even with its Holstein camouflage and liberally fouled with seaweed. ”

“ Summering on the coast of Maine may not be altogether what it seems. Also, there are more ways than one to catch the wily lobster.
WHEN Jim Stevens departed for France with the first contingent of Y.M.C.A. workers his friends and especially Katherine Blue were a little disappointed. They had all expected Jim immediately to secure a commission in the navy, the marines, perhaps, and be among the first to fight. He was thirty-two, sound of body, very rich, extremely unmarried and an experienced yachtsman. ”

“ I do natchully hate buttin' into crim'nal stuff on my vacation. Say, son, it sho' needs a simon-pure honest guy like Jim to rouse suspicion in the human mudhead.”
“And to see through as easy as a Georgette blouse,” said Lucien.
“Listen to me, Luce,” said Timothy, pursuing his line of thought and ignoring Lucien's, “inside a fortni't some o' these porch-settin' gasbags will be botherin' the bureau of public information about a young man flush with money makin' mysterious runs offshore with a professor and a German-lookin' mechanic in a speed launch. Might make Jim a sight o' nuisance.” ”

“ She made no more demur but slipped on the garments Lucien offered for her, when being a tall and slenderly rounded girl of twenty-four she would have passed readily at five-mile range through a strong glass for Timothy.
“I see that Jim Stevens' boat is gone,” said she, looking back toward the bungalow. Her positive, pretty face burned with a sudden flush. “Off for another little cruise, I suppose.” She knit her straight brows and stared down at the recumbent Timothy. “You are an authority on human motive, judge. ”

“ Katherine's head was beginning to spin. “You'll drown!”
“I don't figure to go plum' to bottom,” Timothy answered. “Eve'ybody has his own method, and mine is to bob 'round on the surface and sing. The lobster leads a lonely life and has a shy but sociable nature. Professor Agassiz demonstrated that he was a true music lover. Better slow daown, Luce, and get that mooring stone ready to slide over.”
“Aye, aye, sir.”
“Spotted the fourth buoy?”
“Almost up to it, dad.” Lucien released the clutch and slowed the motor. ”

“ Well, maybe after all that's better, Miss Kath'rine.” And he began to discuss the merits of the new draft.
They had brought their supper with them, and presently Lucien who had grown very quiet as they sped along, gave the wheel to Katherine and proceeded to lay out a repast which the food administration might have disapproved, but could not have censured, all of its directions being duly observed. It takes more than scant material to dismay an Alabama cook, and the absence of meat, sugar and flour are the very least of his cares. ”

“ But if his motive is robbery, he don't need the boat or car. Jim often goes off in the boat overnight and Higgs would have all the time he needed to make his getaway.”
“Of co'se, dad,” murmured Lucien, “but then he wouldn't need to fo'ge a note from Katherine, either.”
“Ce'tainly not. But he must be aimin' to, or he wouldn't have stolen a specimen of her handwritin'. But he has, and that shows that he wants to pull this thing off when Jim is home. Why? Because when Jim is there Jansen is there, and he needs Jansen. Why? He sho'ly ain't fool enough to try to steal the boat or the car. ”

“ This westerly weather is right clear, and if they're watchin' from Pemaquid Point or Monhegan they might smell a rat. You got to keep down on the flooring and I'm such a little tad. Seems like there ought to be two of us always in sight and one of us right tall.”
Timothy rubbed his chin and stared thoughtfully at his son. “Uhn-h'n,” said he. “Maybe you're right. The visibility is mighty high. But Jim is set on keepin' the business secret and you know what these fellas 'round here are like.”
“Katherine Blue is right tall,” said Lucien. ”

“ Jim's got a skin like a shedder crab when it comes to gettin' grilled.”
“Uhn-h'n.” Timothy leaned back, brought the tips of his long, slim fingers together and stared absently at a horse-mackerel harpoon which decorated the wall of the camp. “That boy ain't in a position for much roastin' just naow. For him to get kidnaped like a toddlin' baby might be as much as his chance of a commission was worth. What if they kept him so's he couldn't register? He might have a hard time putting himself right.”
Lucien nodded. “They shorely could make him look plum' foolish, if not worse,” he admitted. ”

“ I declare, dad, I'm jes' like runnin' into the Bay o' Fundy; gettin' thicker and thicker every minute. Of co'se. A lobster pot{bar|2}}”
“There, you guessed right the very first time, Luce,” said Timothy dryly. “That would be my scheme. A lobster pot on a sunken ledge about ten miles aout. A lobster pot with a nice bright red buoy, the third o' the line, maybe, and not too near the aidge of the sunken reef. A nice fat roll of three figgers each in a preserve jar crammed in the way the lobster goes, and there you are. Safe, simple and easy ”

“ Naow, I wonder{bar|2}}”
He paused for so long a time that Lucien asked a little diffidently: “If he got them, dad—or they got him for some game of their own?”
“Uhn-h'n. You said it, son. We don't want to see Jim get in wrong. He did his trick in Y.M.C.A. work because it was immediately up to him and he wasn't then qualified to go after a commission. But he wanted the navy from the start, and naow he's after it tooth and nail, and he's got to go some to beat the draft. That tutor looks like a right capable higher-mathematic wiz.” ”

“ H'm—partly because his friends and likely that Katherine girl of his have got him riled, and partly because he's afraid he might slip up on gettin' his commission, and a man like Jim can't bear a failure. No, he cal'lates to let 'em all go the limit knockin' him fo' a slacker while he's quietly crammin' up on navigation and gunnery and memorizin' pilot charts and all the other requirements, then go up for his naval exam and tear the pants off it. He's playin' dark horse, and he figures to collar his stripes and then give 'em the Cheshire cat. ”