Kate Marion Tucker

“ Vaguely Ann heard a bell ringing. She thought that she was lobstering with Jo and that Jo was pulling up a bell in one of the heavy lobster pots. They were bobbing about on waves as high as mountains.
“It is seven o’clock! No farmer stays in bed late, you know.”
It was Mrs. Seymour’s voice.
How could her mother have come away out to sea? Ann sat up in bed, not awake yet. And then she saw the sun pouring in through the open windows. Her mother was standing in the hall between Ann’s room and Ben’s, swinging an old ship’s bell that she must have found somewhere in the house. ”

“ She could tumble him over easily, but she was unusually strong for her age. It was hard for Ann to remember always not to be too rough with Ben and Helen. She was not quite aware of how she was looking forward to being with Jo Bailey, for her father had said, “Jo’s as sturdy as they make ’em.” Jo, Ann knew, would be able to do everything she could and then do more. And Jo would tell them about bears and Indians, for though, like Ben, she knew perfectly well that no Indians or bears would be in the Pine Ledge woods, she liked to imagine that there might be some. ”

“ The light shone straight up into the huge ugly face and, to Ann, the demon still grinned with its eyes looking far out and away, as though it saw something they couldn’t see and knew a great deal more than human beings ever could know. ”

“ Whenever Jo or I ventured out it cut our faces and made them raw and bleeding. At times the wind lifted the house right off its stone foundations and shook it, and I feared it would be blown clear over the bluff and set awash in the sea.”
“How terrible!” exclaimed Mrs. Seymour.
“It was all of that,” Fred agreed. “The second day of the snow I thought the wind hove to a mite, it seemed more quiet. I went to the window to see if the snow had let up. It had—but not in any way I ever had seen it in all my fifty years of life on this bluff. ”

“ But who is going to know what happens to one lone man? If he falls off the deck of that wrecked schooner and hits his head against a rock as the sea washes him about, who is going to connect us with the accident? That farmer will bury him alongside the captain and the mate and blame nobody but the boat itself, blame that figurehead, probably. ”

“ The name plates looked as if a mighty hand had wrenched them loose and great cuts showed in the bow and stern where they had been. There wasn’t a sound but the pounding of the waves along her side. It made a queer sussh-sussh that didn’t seem to come from where the water touched her. We broke open the hatches and went down in her—two by two. Wasn’t a man of us who dast go down there alone, for you never can tell what you’re going to find in a wrecked ship’s cabin. We looked all about, but no one was in the place and I don’t believe that any one was on her when she struck. ”

“ Seymour looked at her in astonishment. “Come, come, my dear child, you mustn’t let a thing like that frighten you. It is strange and grotesque but that only makes it more interesting. I’ll tell you about figureheads. The sailors think of the ship’s figurehead as a sort of guardian spirit that watches over the boat and protects it during storms. Even if it were alive it wouldn’t hurt you because it was created only to protect. But it isn’t alive, Helen, it is made out of wood. ”

“ The squalls out at sea had melted together into one great blot of dark shadow relieved here and there by a bit of foam that showed startlingly white against the somber blackness.
“You two had better skite for the house now,” he said. “Jo and I will hurry and finish this work before the rain comes, and get the critters under cover. The thunder makes them run the pasture.”
“The critters” were Jerry, the horse, waiting with the empty cart, and Maude, the cow, feeding placidly in the pasture near by although she had more than once looked up at the sky as though she understood what was coming. ”

“ Jo swung into a swift pace as waiting for Ben and Ann had made him later than usual. He always timed himself with the sunrise and should have his dory in the water and well started before the sun hopped up over the horizon. The others kept beside him only by running now and then with short quick steps, and when they caught him Jo would spurt ahead and the race would start again.
“Ben Seymour couldn’t have paced this,” Ben cried breathlessly. “But Allan-a-Dale can. Chasing bucks in the wood is fine for strengthening the wind.” ”

“ He knew just as well as I did that he was stealing.”
“Well,” said Ben slowly, “if any one stole my beans I’d punch him in the jaw, too. After a farmer has planted seeds on his own land the crop is his exactly as much as the vegetables in my mother’s kitchen are hers after she has brought them home from the market.”
“There ought to be policemen to watch city people,” said Ann. “They ought to be made afraid to steal, if they are not the kind of persons who would be ashamed to take what isn’t theirs.”
“There don’t seem to be many of that last kind,” said Jo. ”

“ That is, if they name a boat after a man they will carve a statue of him for the bow, or else they will choose a saint or an old-time god, like Neptune, who was once supposed to rule over the sea. Sometimes they will have a mermaid, because mermaids are gay and dancing and will make the ship travel more swiftly; no sea could drown a mermaid. When a sailing ship makes a safe passage through storm and peril and brings the sailors home happy and well, they are very likely to believe that the figurehead has had as much to do with it as the captain with his real knowledge of navigation and charts. ”

“ A man can take care of pretty nigh eighty pots if he has a motor boat, when he used to be held down to twenty, pulling oars.”
Ann had peeped into a shack where a lantern glowed. It was stacked with barrels of salt and open kegs of steeping fishbait; nets were festooned on the walls, coiled ropes were thrown here and there, and a yellow goblin was preparing for his morning’s voyage out to sea. The air was filled with the pungent smell of tar.
Jo opened the padlock of his own shack, reached into the darkness, and pulled out a pair of oars. ”

“ You are trying to ask me whether you can do work that will satisfy yourself, and that no one can prophesy. You will have to work hard. Don’t think that you can be anything you wish by merely wishing it. And besides, some of the greatest painters have only made a bare living after studying and working all their lives long.”
“I don’t care if I don’t make any money,” said Ben stoutly, “if I can paint as much as I like.” ”

“ Ann went on. “You’re clearing things up for the sailors and Mr. Bailey, but I want to know what made the noise that frightened us, and frightened you, too, last night.”
“That’s true,” admitted Bain. He rumpled the hair on his head, knocking his cap sidewise. “And I knew that you must have heard it, some time or other, when you used it just now to scare the men away from me.” He looked at Mr. Seymour. “You haven’t heard the half of it yet. These children had the wit to imitate this strange noise in order to frighten these gentlemen away from trying to make me tell where to find Rand’s money. ”

“ A whisper will frighten a person even when there is nothing to be afraid of, and if anybody screams in my ear I know I shall jump right out of my skin.”
“I don’t see how you have the courage to come back, Jo,” said Ben admiringly.
“I’m not so terribly courageous,” admitted Jo candidly. “If it hadn’t been for Ann’s thinking that the fire had something to do with the ship I shouldn’t be here now, I know that much!”
“Where shall we go first?” Ann asked, and then, because she thought she might have seemed unsympathetic, she added, “I don’t believe we shall find anything wrong to-day. ”

“ It was the imprint of a small cloven hoof and even Ann’s inexperienced eye could see that it was fresh.
“He’s been down here this morning,” Jo whispered. “I wish we had been around—he’s a big fellow all right.”
“Isn’t he here now?” whispered Ann. “How do you know that he isn’t?”
“We’ll find out,” Jo answered. “He may be sleeping under the bushes, but they don’t stay in this neighborhood generally; too many people in the daytime, passing, and deer are nervous, nowadays. They like it best back on the hills where there is more protection.” ”

“ From the deck they peered into the blackness of the hold, but they could see nothing without the flashlight that Ben promised to bring next time. Down in the depths bright little glimmers showed here and there from the opened seams in the side of the schooner, but there was not enough light to reveal any possible secrets hidden in the hold. A ladder led down into the darkness, but after Jo had tested it and descended a few steps he reported that some of the rungs were broken; it was too unsafe to go down unless one could see the exact condition of every step before he trusted his weight to it. ”

“ Like powwowing Indians in blankets and bathrobes they sat before the snapping black stove, the storm shut outside.
Jo had turned red man with the rest and was bundled in one of Mr. Seymour’s big wool robes, his thick hair on end and his blue eyes dancing with excitement and happiness. The dog lay at his feet.
“And now,” said Mr. Seymour, “what are you children going to do with the wealth that the capture of these men will bring you?”
“I didn’t know there was going to be any,” answered Jo in astonishment, and Ann and Ben, and Helen, too, pricked up their ears. “Gee! Money?” said Ben. ”

“ Jo laughed sarcastically at Ann’s question. “They could have used the things, all right,” he said, “and by the law of salvage anybody has a right to take what is found on beaches or in an abandoned boat, if it is not claimed by its original owner. But nobody in these parts has any use for a thing from this boat. I don’t believe that any man in the village would touch these clothes; you couldn’t make anybody wear one of these oilskins out into a storm, not for love nor money. ”

“ You will have to decide first of all, Ben, just how the deer balances his weight on his feet while he is jumping, and then draw him so that this point of balance comes as a straight right angle up from the line where you are going to draw in your ground. That point of balance is what makes people and animals stand upright, for otherwise they would fall down. ”

“ Intelligent, that was what father wanted them all to be, it was his favorite expression, “Be intelligent.”
25 The others began to chatter about other things while they were finishing supper and washing the dishes afterward, but although Ann took part in the work and the jokes and laughter and all the anticipations of a great time to-morrow, she could think in the back of her mind of nothing but the ship. If Jo would help them, she and Ben would try to find out all about the wreck. It would be much more fun than hunting imaginary Indians and bears in the woods. ”

“ He made Jo sound interesting, and the Seymours were waiting to see him quite as impatiently as he was waiting for them.
“Will there be Indians at Pine Ledge?” Helen’s round blue eyes were like saucers as she peered out of the car window into the woods and fields through which the train was sliding so rapidly. “Will there be real live Indians with feathers and paint on them?”
“Don’t be such a silly,” said Ben. He secretly hoped there were Indians but he wouldn’t have admitted it to any one. “Indians moved away from this country years ago, years and years ago, all except a few tame Indians. ”

“ Muskrat builds high, wide, and handsome, look out for thick ice and deep heavy snow.”
“How curious!” said Ann. “How do you suppose they know what the weather is going to be?”
The band walked along beside the swamp until it narrowed into a running river again.
“Gulls like the pond, too,” Jo said. “Especially when a storm is blowing up. When the wind begins to be too strong the gulls sweep into the cove and watch for the fish that are beating into the mouth of the river. They hang up there in the air and laugh as if they liked the storm. They laugh out loud and shriek and have a great time. ”

“ So she told them about that tiny pin point of lantern light.
65 Jo listened silently until she had finished, although Ann could see that he, too, was growing excited.
“I shouldn’t wonder if you were right,” he said at last. “It looks to me as if some one who has no business here is hanging about. But if we tell the other folks about it they will say that it is nonsense; they think that we are too young to know much of what we are talking about. I think we had better keep a good lookout, and if we actually discover anything we can tell them then. This is a job for Robin Hood’s men all right.” ”

“ At first the band made forays into the wood in pairs, Jo and Ann, then Ben and Helen, so that the glade might not be left unprotected. Under this arrangement Jo was always worried when it was his turn to stay in the shelter. He knew that Ben was unfamiliar with big woods and might get lost. So the band was called for conference and it was decided that the entire band should foray together. Meeting enemies in full strength they stood a better chance of beating them, and before starting out they carefully concealed all the trails to the glade and knew that no enemy could uncover them. ”

“ Ann hadn’t thought of that; of course, a man who was willing to buy smuggled goods was exactly as dishonest as the person who sold them. It made it seem to her as though Captain Rand wasn’t quite as—as—— She didn’t like to say “bad” even to herself, for surely a man couldn’t be really bad if he had made his dog so fond of him that the dog had rather starve than go away from the place where he’d last seen his master.
175 As they left the wreck Warren Bain flashed his torch into the face of the figurehead, high above them as they stood on the beach. ”

“ He once had known what it was to eat too much candy. “And if Jo lets me live there with him and with Ann, I’ll promise to do my full share of hoeing.”
“Father will come, too,” said Ann eagerly, “even though he will be the greatest painter in America by that time. When our ranch is paying, neither father nor mother nor Mr. Bailey will need to do any more work for money.”
“That’s a very kind promise,” said Mr. Seymour. “And I shall expect to enjoy visiting you. Helen can bring some of her candy and nuts, for they will make us a pleasant change from a steady diet of beans and potatoes.” ”