CHAPTER VII

GETTING ACQUAINTED

Joseph Helmford overtook Cap'n Jonah making his way by easy stages down the Shell Road toward that landmark, A. Silt's general store. It was for the most part a drab landscape in this direction, for the crops were out of the few cultivated fields and the sand lots lacked even the color vouchsafed them in summer.

The white shaft of the lighthouse on the Neck stood out against a tumbled mass of slate colored clouds on the horizon. That cloudbank foretold wind if not rain storms. The ocean was restive over Gull Rocks, that danger spot of all danger spots along the hook of the Cape. Seldom a winter passed that one unfortunate craft did not beat its life out upon the treacherous reef. The bones of many such, like the ribs of prehistoric monsters, were outthrust from the sands along the Neck.

To the left lay the crescent length of The Beaches. The Shell Road curved beyond Cap'n Abe's store and climbed to the bluffs that overhung The Beaches, bordered with the more or less ornate summer dwellings of city visitors.

"It's a purty sight," observed Cap'n Jonah, "even on a lowering day like this. So Sarah's took you on, has she?" he added more briskly. "She'll be signing on a full crew before long, I don't dispute."

"I shall be glad to be one of your family, Captain," Helmford made reply.

"I dunno how you'll like it, but we'll hope for the best," Cap'n Jonah observed, dryly. "But, le's see! Who's this in one o' them rattle-te-bang gas-buggies? She looks like a steam tug makin' heavy weather of it."

"Dr. Ambrose," said Helmford, quickly. "And his sister, Miss Sue. I have an idea the doctor has been over to the new Tapp house on the point. There's been an interesting event there recently, and instead of sending for a specialist from Boston or the like, the young couple were satisfied to have Doctor Ambrose officiate at the mundane appearance of what Cap'n Abe calls 'the last Tapp'--meaning the latest Tapp."

"Whatever!" ejaculated Cap'n Jonah. "I hear you sayin' something, but I'll be keelhauled if I know what 'tis! 'Hem! So this is the doctor, is it?"

The old runabout, rattling in its throat like a dying man, came to a halt beside the two pedestrians. Doctor Ambrose, in a much stained linen duster, peered out at them over a bushy beard.

"'Lo, Mr. Helmford," he said. "How are the eels and pollywogs? Isn't that a stranger you have in tow? I'm always drumming up trade," and he shook in his seat with laughter till the springs of the car wheezed again.

Cap'n Jonah, looking him over, smiled grimly. "If you've done better than any other medical shark I ever heard of, I'll come to see you about my rheumatics," he said. "But if you air still stickin' to salicylate of sody, I reckon I'll dose myself from my own medicine chist."

"You old sea-dogs ought all to write M.D. and D.S. after your names," responded Doctor Ambrose. "I take it you are Cap'n Hand? Make the acquaintance of my sister, Cap'n."

The retired mariner's glance had quickly shifted to the woman beside the rough-and-ready country practitioner. She was petite and graceful, and was dressed much more becomingly and more richly than most Cape women are. Her silvering hair was arranged very prettily, each strand laid exactly, and her quiet, cheerful face blushed under the brim of her hat like an old-fashioned rose.

"Cap'n Hand, Sue," rumbled on the doctor. The captain bowed in his most courtly way and accepted her neatly gloved hand in his huge brown one, where it settled for a moment like a snowflake on a clod.

"I am glad to welcome you among us, Cap'n Hand," Miss Sue said demurely. "We are not alone glad to have a new neighbor, but we are glad to welcome another attendant at the chapel. I have already learned--in fact, Mr. 'Liphalet Truitt told me," and she flushed the deeper--"that you are a church-going man, Cap'n Hand."

"Yes, ma'am," said Cap'n Jonah. "I calc'late to turn out for service on Sunday whenever I can. I shall be glad to attend chapel, an' thank you kindly, ma'am."

"Hi gorry!" said the doctor suddenly. "Here comes 'Liphalet now--and with a face on him like a gargoyle. I don't know what's got into the fellow lately. Likely he needs a good course of jalap."

Mr. Truitt approached with his basket, headed storeward for provisions. 'Liphalet was a brisk, compact figure of a man--neat, light stepping, and with an appearance of deftness. His whole personality and manner bespoke the capable ship's steward.

"Mornin', Miss Sue! Mornin', gentlemen!" was his greeting, and he would have passed right along had Doctor Ambrose not halted him with:

"You going to do what I advised you, 'Liphalet? If any fellow's liver ever needed a course of sprouts, yours does. For weeks now you've been as sluggish as a frozen stream runnin' uphill. You'd better change your tactics or you won't blow that old fife of yours half the night, as I've been hearin' you, of late."

"'Liphalet doesn't play a fife, Sam," said Miss Sue softly. "It's a flute."

"Same thing," snorted the doctor, eyeing the scowling Mr. Truitt with composure. "If he doesn't tend to himself as I tell him he'll have the undertaker stopping at his door instead of my flivver."

"I ain't sure, Doc," said the ex-steward harshly, "but I'd near 'bout have the undertaker come. I'd expect him, anyway, after a few of your visits."

"Hi gorry!" chortled Doctor Ambrose, who could take a joke as well as make one, "you've got me there, 'Liphalet. And that's about the first sarcastic observation you ever made. I believe your liver's at the bottom of _that_."

"Now, Sam!" urged gentle Miss Sue, with a hand on her brother's arm. Then to Mr. Truitt: "I hope we'll see you at the Christmas committee meeting next time, 'Liphalet."

His reply was scarcely audible to the group as he started on again. To cover the grouchy ex-steward's retreat, Doctor Ambrose struggled out from behind the steering wheel to crank up. At once his sister hopped out on the other side.

"She's bound to do that every time I crank the old wheezer," chuckled the physician. "She expects it to back up, or start ahead, or cut some other dido if she's in the thing alone."

The engine started with a snort. In a moment the whole car was throbbing. Before climbing in again Miss Sue said to Cap'n Jonah:

"I suppose I shall find Pearl at home, Captain? We were about to stop at Mrs. Petty's so that I might speak to her. Pearl is one of the very nicest girls in my class."

"She 'pears to be a mighty nice gal," Cap'n Jonah agreed with enthusiasm.

Now that Miss Sue was out of the car the captain eyed her with even greater approval. Her silk gown of broad black and white stripes, the pretty hat, even her slate-colored silk stockings and suede shoes, struck Cap'n Jonah as being the prettiest and most suitable costume for a woman to wear.

"The Doc's sister is a spankin' looking craft," said Cap'n Jonah admiringly, as the car snorted away.

"She's a lovely lady," agreed Joseph Helmford. "And a good deal of a catch, they say, Captain. They tell me she's got forty thousand dollars in her own right."

"For--ty--thou--sand? Whatever!"

"Of course, that's a mere bagatelle to a man of your fortune," added Helmford with twinkling eyes. "But it's been enough during the past ten years to make almost every widower and old bachelor on this part of the Cape sit up and take notice, as Cap'n Abe would say."

"Hem! And they ain't none of 'em caught her yet?"

"Nor her forty thousand dollars," added Helmford dryly. "You see, she's more than a lovely lady. She's a wise one."

"Whatever!" ejaculated Cap'n Jonah, agreeing.

* * * * *

The gold-banded china appeared on the Petty table at supper that evening in honor of Mr. Helmford's coming. Pearl put on a fresh gingham and even Mrs. Petty brought forth a ruffled apron and assumed her best company manners.

Tom had of course met Joe Helmford at the store and elsewhere; and embracing the frequent country doctrine that all city folk are bound to have "some of their buttons loose," he looked upon the man from the fish hatchery as two-parts fool and the other part "dumb lucky to be able to wear such good clothes!"

Helmford was a likable and sociable fellow. He had the knack of getting on with most people, and he had been in the community long enough to learn how best to appeal to the Cape natives. He knew they frequently had a philosophical turn of mind, looked out on life at a rather peculiar angle, but were not lacking in shrewdness and common sense.

Cap'n Jonah he liked from the first. Orrin and Sarah's peculiarities he was prepared to overlook. Tom he had not an iota of interest in. Pearl he watched with more concern than he had ever felt for a girl before.

Yet this concern was no deeper than the superficial pleasure he felt in seeing her move gracefully about, in watching the changing expressions play upon her pretty features, and in speculating as to just what there was beneath that crown of beautiful hair, which she seemed to have a natural taste in dressing.

It must be confessed that this attraction for Mr. Joe Helmford, such as it was, was entirely physical. He had not lived at Cardhaven for eight months or more without having been introduced to a good many girls. He was an outsider, and therefore a person keenly interesting to most young women of the community. For girls who do not meet many men are prone to think that men from afar are better than the local swains.

Helmford's lack of interest in women was not his only reason for passing these girls over lightly. There were some in Cardhaven, perhaps, as pretty as Pearl Holden; but they possessed nothing but prettiness to recommend them. And Helmford happened to be a young man who required something more than personal beauty to hold his interest.

Pearl's gifts of form and feature were her only attraction, he presumed, as had been the case with those other girls he had met. When she opened her pretty lips it was often to use expressions and terms of speech which amused him but which seemed to imply that Pearl was of another world than his.

So little Pearl's attraction for the new boarder remained of small consequence, after all. He was polite to her, as he was to Mrs. Petty. But he noted Tom's hobbledehoy attentions to the girl, and merely shrugged his shoulders.

Yet Helmford could not keep his gaze from following her. She had a purely physical attraction for him; Helmford was too much of a gentleman to build any closer fellowship with the girl upon such an unstable foundation.

Cap'n Jonah, shrewd as he was in his judgment of human beings, could not fully appreciate Helmford's feelings. He liked the young fellow from the first time he had met him at Cap'n Abe's store. He thought Pearl deserved a much better "fellow," as the term was, than Tom Petty. He saw no incongruity in the idea of this man from the outside world and little Pearl being mutually attracted to each other.

In truth, there was a matchmaking streak in Cap'n Jonah's character.

After supper Helmford started out on some adventure of his own and Cap'n Jonah excused himself from the family with the intention of going to his room. As he started for the front hall Sarah Petty cleared her throat.

"Ahem! You'll git to your room a sight easier if you take the back stairs, Uncle Jonah. I had to let Mr. Helmford have that best room, as I told you I should. I've put your chist and things in the room overhead."

"Whatever!" ejaculated Cap'n Jonah under his breath. Then: "Wal, if that's the best you can do, Niece Sarah, I s'pose I'll haf to abide by it. But I was mighty comfort'ble in that other berth."

"We're poor folks, Uncle Jonah," said Sarah Petty with decision. "As you don't feel able to afford to pay full price, course I had to better myself if I could. You won't be in your room much anyway, so I guess you won't mind."

Cap'n Jonah took a reflective pinch of snuff, shut the silver snuff box with a snap, and went up to bed without further word. Orrin Petty leaned forward with an expression of doubt upon his avaricious face.

"I dunno but you air makin' a mistake, Sarah," he whispered. "If he _should_ be rich----"

"Then let him pay me decent board," snapped Sarah. "I give him hints enough. This Mr. Helmford, comin' as he has, is providential--nothin' less. Uncle Jonah might's well know, first as last, that he can't get the best of ev'rything for no pauper's pence. No, sir!" and she straightened her shoulders and tossed her head with determination.

"But s'pose he has got that old note, Sarah?" suggested Orrin.

"It'll be time enough to worry, I've decided, when he produces it. If he's rollin' in wealth, why don't he show some of it? He may have a fortune, or he may not. He ain't free to speak of it, it seems. You can talk as you please, Orrin Petty; anybody who has money is bound to brag about it. And the more they have the more they brag--one way or another. Cap'n Jonah Hand ain't let out a yip about his fortune, so fur as I know."