The Merry Anne

McGlory, it seemed, knew the channel; so Dick surrendered the wheel when they were nearing the island, and stood at his elbow, watching the landmarks. The mate volunteered no information, but Dick needed none; he made out the ranges with the eye of a born sailor. But even he was surprised when the Merry Anne swung around into the landlocked harbor and glided up to a rude wharf that was piled with lumber. Behind it was the mill; behind that, at some distance, a comfortable house, nearly surrounded by other smaller dwellings.

“So this is Spencer, eh?” observed Dick.

“This is Spencer,” McGlory replied.

The owner himself was coming down to meet them, reading over a letter from his friend, Stenzenberger, as he walked. His wife came out of her kitchen and stood on her steps to see the schooner. Two or three men in woodman’s flannels were lounging about the mill, and these sat up, renewed their quids from a common plug, and stared.

“How are you?” nodded Spencer, pocketing the letter. He caught the line and threw it over a snubbing post. “This Mr.

“Smiley?”

“That’s who,” said Dick.

“How are you, Joe?” to McGlory.

“How are you, Mr. Spencer?”

In a moment they were fast, and Dick had leaped ashore. He caught Spencer’s shrewd eyes taking him in, and laughed, “Well, I guess you ‘ll know me next time.”

“Guess I will.” There was a puzzled, even disturbed expression on the lumberman’s face. “I was thinking you didn’t look much like your cousin. The stuffs all ready for you there. You’d better put one of your men on to check it up. Will you walk up and take a look around the place?”

“Thanks – guess I ‘ll stay right here and hustle this stuff aboard. I’d like to put out again after dinner.”

Spencer drew a plug from a trousers pocket, offered it to Dick, who at the sight of it shook his head, and helped himself to a mouthful. Then his eyes took in the schooner, her crew, and the sky above them. “Wind’s getting easterly,” he observed. “Looks like freshening up. Mean business getting out of here against the wind – no room for beating. You’d better leave your mate to load and have a look at the place.”

“Well, all right; McGlory, see to getting that stuff aboard right off, will you? We ‘ll try to get out after dinner sometime.”

When Spencer had shown his guest the mill and the houses of his men, he led the way to his own home and seated his guest in the living room. Here from a corner cupboard he produced a bottle and two glasses.

“I’ve got a little something to offer you here, Mr. Smiley,” said he, “that I think you ‘ll find drinkable. I usually keep some on hand in case anybody comes along. I don’t take much myself, but it’s sociable to have around.” Dick tossed off a glass and smacked his lips. “Well, say, that’s the real stuff.”

“Guess there ain’t no doubt about that.”

“Where do you get it from?”

“I bought that in Detroit last time I was down. Couldn’t say what house it’s from.”

“Oh, you get out of here now and then, do you r

“Not often – have another?”

“Thanks, don’t care if I do.”

“You see I’ve got a little schooner of my own, the Estelle, – named her after my wife’s sister, – and now and then I take a run down the shore to Saginaw or Port Huron, or somewhere.”

“Do you get much lumber out?”

“Enough for a living.”

“I noticed you had a mark on the end of every big stick – looked like a groove cut in a circle – most a foot across.”

“Yes, that’s my mark.”

“The idea being that people will know your stuff, I suppose.”

Spencer nodded shortly. “I’m getting out the best lumber on the Great Lakes – that’s why I mark it – help yourself to that bottle – there, I ‘ll just set it where you can reach it.” Dick would have stopped ordinarily at two glasses. To-day he stopped at nothing. “Much obliged. I haven’t touched anything as strong as this for two years.”

“Swore off?”

“Sort of, but I don’t know that I’ve been any better off for it. There’s nothing so good after sailing the best part of a week.”

“You’re right, there ain’t. And that’s the pure article there – wouldn’t hurt a babe in arms. Take another. You haven’t been working for Cap’n Stenzenberger many years, have you?”

Throughout this conversation Spencer was studying Smiley’s face.

“No, nothing like so long as Henry.”

“How do you get along with him?”

“The Cap’n? Oh, all right. He’s a little too smart for me, but I guess he’s square enough.”

“Doing a good business, is he?”

“Couldn’t say. I don’t know much about his business.”

“Oh, you don’t?” There was a shade of disappointment in the lumberman’s voice as he said this, but Dick, who was reaching for the bottle, failed to observe it.

“McGlory been with you long?”

“No, this is his first trip.”

“You don’t say so! Wasn’t he with your cousin a while back?”

“Yes, for a year.”

“Thought I’d seen him on the Schmidt. Is he a good man?”

“Good enough.”

“Let’s see, wasn’t he in with Stenzenberger once?”

“Couldn’t say.”

“Oh, you couldn’t?”

“No. Say, I ‘ll have to step down and see how things are going. Here, I ‘ll just have another nip out o’ that bottle.”

“Nonsense, Cap’n; sit down, sit down. I guess McGlory’s competent to get the load aboard all right. I ain’t hardly begun to get acquainted with you yet. We ‘ll have dinner pretty soon now, and when you’ve put a little something solid inside you, we ‘ll go down and have a look at things. Don’t get bashful about the bottle. There’s plenty more where that come from.”

“I don’t know but what I’ve had all that’s good for me.”

“Pshaw! A man of your inches? Here now, here’s to you!”

They drank together, and a little later they drank again.

When Mrs. Spencer, a tired, faded out little body, came to the door and said, “Dinner is ready, Ed,” Dick’s spirits were soaring amazingly, and his voice had risen to a pitch slightly above the normal. Spencer nodded toward his guest and remarked, “This is Cap’n Smiley, Josie.”

“Glad to make your acquaintance,” exclaimed Dick, boisterously, striding forward to shake her hand.

“Show the Cap’n to the dining room, will you, Josie?” Spencer said. “I ‘ll step out and call the boys.”

Mrs. Spencer led the way through the short hall to the dining room, where a table was spread for Spencer’s eight or ten men (Mc-Glory and the crew were to eat on the Merry Anne). Dick, stepping high, followed her, and found himself being presented to a blond young woman with blue eyes and an agreeable expression. “My sister Estelle, Cap’n Smiley,” said Mrs. Spencer.

“Glad to meet you,” said Dick, looking so hard at her as they shook hands that she blushed and dropped her eyes.

Mrs. Spencer slipped out to the kitchen after the introduction, leaving them to await the men.

“You’ve never been here before?” she ventured.

“Never have. Do you live here?”

“Yes, I’ve been with sister four years now.”

“Well, say, this is a pretty lonely place for a girl like you. I ‘ll have to sail around often.”

“I guess you will.”

“Yes, ma’am, you’re too pretty for this corner of the woods.”

Estelle blushed and shook her head.

“But that’s the gospel truth, sure as I’m Dick Smiley. And I can see you’re too sensible to get mad at any one for telling the truth.”

“Oh, Captain, I’m afraid you’re a flirt,” simpered Estelle.

“Me, flirt? Never. Not on your diamond ear-rings!”

“Sh! What would Ed think if he was to come in and hear you talking like that?”

Spencer, in truth, was already on the steps; in another moment he came into the room at the head of his men. And Dick, suddenly aware that his tongue was taking liberties with him, shut his lips tight and refused to speak another word throughout the meal. In vain the lumberman rallied him; in vain the men made advances; in vain Estelle, who was waiting on table, threw him glances from behind Spencer’s chair or let her hand brush his in passing him the potatoes; from a flushed, talkative man, Dick had turned abruptly into a silent, moody one, and he ate steadily, with eyes for nothing but his food.

The meal was nearly over when Spencer, looking around the table, said, “Hello, where’s Pete?”

“He’s busy,” replied one of the men, “said he’d be a little late.”

“Well, if he likes his vittles cold, I guess it’s his own funeral.”

“There he is now, outside there.”

At this Spencer pushed back his chair and went to the window. “Hello, there, Pete,” he called. “Ain’t you coming to dinner?”

“Yes, be right along.”

Dick stopped eating at the sound of the last voice, and listened, his fork in the air, for what was coming next. Hearing nothing further, he faced around and watched the door. A moment later in came Roche, trying to greet the men without looking at his former captain, and sliding into his chair with averted face.

“Mr. Roche, don’t you know Cap’n Smiley?” said Spencer.

“Yes, yes, I know him. How are you, Cap’n?”

“How are you, Pete? How’d you get here?”

“Oh, I – ” Roche was embarrassed. “I used to work for Mr. Spencer, and when I left you he took me back.”

Dick merely grunted, and went on eating.

“Here, Estelle!” called Spencer. “Estelle, Cap’n Smiley’d like another piece o’ pie. Ain’t Estelle there, Josie?”

Mrs. Spencer appeared in the kitchen doorway. “No, she ain’t here.”

“Why, I just saw her a minute or so ago.”

“She said it was hot in the kitchen and stepped outside. What is it you want?”

“Cap’n Smiley’d like some more pie.”

“All right, I ‘ll get it for him.”

Dick bolted the second helping in the silence that had enveloped him since the meal began. Then he got up, said something about the schooner that nobody quite understood, and left the house.

Matters were going slowly at the wharf.

There was still a small pile of timber, and another of shingles waiting to be loaded. So far as Dick could see, Harper seemed to be directing the work.

“What are you doing there, Pink?” he demanded, in a tone that made Pink look curiously at him before replying.

“Loadin’ up.”

“Where’s McGlory?”

“I don’t know.”

“You don’t know! Well, why in – don’t you know?”

“I ‘ll tell you, Cap’n.”

“Oh, you ‘ll tell me, will you?”

“Yes, I will. Mr. McGlory was awful partic’lar about the first load o’ stuff that went aboard, handled most of it hisself, and made us work slow, an’ then he just naturally quit workin’ and walked off without sayin’ a word, an’ so I an’ the boys have been tryin’ to hustle it aboard, like you said, without him.”

“Quit workin’! What right’s he got to quit workin’?”

“I don’t know, Cap’n.”

Two of the sailors, standing near by, had been watching their captain during this talk.

Now one of them turned away to hide a grin.

“What are you grinning about there?” roared Dick.

“I wasn’t grinnin’, Cap’n.”

“Oh, you wasn’t. Get to work, then, and shut your mouths. You’re a lot o’ loafers, that’s what you are. Hustle, now!” He lent a strong hand himself, glad to vent in work the explosives that were working in his head; and as he worked he muttered, “So we quit workin’ when we’re tired, do we?”

Meanwhile the mate was strolling in the forest a few hundred yards away with Estelle. He was looking closely at her, as they walked, from under heavy eyebrows. She was flushing a very little and studying the sand at her feet.

“Who’s been giving you that kind o’ talk about me?” he was asking.

“Why – I don’t know as it was anybody especial.”

“You didn’t believe it, did you?”

“N-no – but you see, you told me you were coming right back, and then you didn’t – and I didn’t know whether I was ever going to see you again or not. I thought – ”

“Well, what was it you thought?”

“I thought you probably could have come if you’d wanted to!”

“You know better than that, Estelle. The only way I could come was on the schooner, and Cap’n Henry laid me off before the next trip. The minute I had a chance to come up here with this man, I grabbed it. What I’d like to know is, who is there up here that wants to tell lies about me? What else have you heard?”

“You – you won’t be mad, Joe, if – if I tell?”

“Course not. Here, let’s sit down.”

They found a seat in the hollow of the sand, where the undergrowth screened them.

“You see, Joe, I heard that you – were married.”

He started up. “That’s a lie!”

“You said you – wouldn’t get mad.”

He dropped down again, muttering: “I ain’t mad at you, Estelle, but don’t you see there’s some one that’s just setting out to spread these lies. It’s enough to rile a fellow. Who was it told you?”

“I don’t know – it was quite a while back – maybe it was – Josie.”

“But she don’t know anything about me. Who could ‘a’ told her?”

“I don’t know. You won’t say anything to her, will you, Joe?”

“No, course not. It’s funny, that’s all. But so long’s you don’t believe it, I don’t suppose I’ve got any cause for kicking.”

“Of course I don’t believe it – not now. Before you’d come back, and after all you’d said about – ”

“About what, Estelle?”

“About coming up here for me – and our going away from here – ”

“That’s it,” he broke in eagerly – “that’s just it. I couldn’t do it then because I didn’t have the ready. But now, you see, I’ve got a little put by, and there ain’t nothing to hinder our clearing out o’ here for good.”

“Isn’t there, Joe?”

“Not a thing.”

“Oh, I’m so glad. You don’t know – you don’t know how sick I get of this place, and these men around. I most die with it sometimes – feel as if I could go away alone if I knew of any place to go. Once I thought a little of – of just doing it anyhow, and maybe finding you in Chicago. You’ve told me where your place is, you know, up on the north side.”

“Yes, I know, but we can do it now.”

“Now, Joe?”

“Sure.”

“To-day?”

“Well – you see – I couldn’t hardly do it to-day. I’ve got to finish my trip.”

“Oh – ”

“Now wait, Estelle. If I got impatient, I’d lose the trick, don’t you see. This man, Dick Smiley, is working for the man that’s got to help me. I know a way to make him back me – set me up in my own place in some new town maybe. I couldn’t leave Smiley in the lurch without getting his boss down on me. I’ve got a hold on him, but he’d never stand for that. This Smiley’s a no-good lot, but I’ve got to stick out this trip with him.”

“But – then you ‘ll be back in Chicago.”

“I know. I’m coming up here by train. Or say I meet you at Saginaw.”

“You thought you could do that before.”

“I was broke then. Now I’ve got the stuff. And I know how I can turn a trick on this trip back that ‘ll be worth an easy five hundred to me. That ‘ll take us clear down to Niagara Falls, maybe.”

“Oh, could we go there, Joe?”

“Sure, anywhere you say.”

“But, how ‘ll I know when to start?”

“Well, let’s see. I can’t be sure of getting back to Chicago, and cleaning things up, and coming up to Saginaw inside of seven days. Call it eight; that ‘ll make it – to-day’s Tuesday – next week Wednesday. What day does Spencer drive down to Ramsey?”

“Thursdays.”

“Then that’s our day. You could get him to take you along, couldn’t you?”

“Yes.”

“Then you give him the slip and catch the afternoon train to Saginaw.”

“But how could I take my things? He’d be sure to see them.”

“Leave ‘em behind. I ‘ll buy you what you need. Have you got any money?”

“Not very much?”

He sat up and drew out a handful of bills. “Here – say I give you twenty-five. That ‘ll see you through, won’t it?”

“Oh, yes, Joe.”

She was decidedly pretty now. Her weak face was alive with eagerness, her eyes were dancing. And McGlory, as he looked at her, seemed to feel something approaching a thrill.

There they sat, hearing nothing, seeing nothing, until the brush parted and Dick stood over them.

“Well, Mr. Man,” said he, “I hope you’re passing a pleasant afternoon with your friend.”

Estelle got to her feet first.

“We thought maybe you’d spend a few minutes with us to-day,” continued Dick. “You see we can’t stay very long.”

“Who’re you talking to?” growled the mate.

“I’m a-looking right at you.”

It was an awkward moment for McGlory. He felt that it was downright necessary to show his superiority, for it is only by such a show that women like Estelle are kept constant. On the other hand, even he understood the danger of openly defying his captain. But the seconds were flying.

“You go back to your schooner, Dick Smiley. You ain’t boss here.”

“Well, by – ” Dick checked himself, with a half bow toward Estelle. “I beg your pardon, my dear. Your friend kind o’ surprised me.”

McGlory flashed a suspicious glance at her.

“None o’ your jaw now, Smiley. You can do your talking when it’s time to sail. You ‘ll have to shut up here.”

“Maybe you ‘ll be good enough to tell me when you ‘ll be ready to start,” suggested Dick, with extravagant politeness.

McGlory rumbled an unintelligible reply; and Dick turned again to Estelle. “Will you excuse him, my dear. You see he’s got a previous engagement with me. But you couldn’t hardly blame him for forgetting, with such a lady friend to talk to.”

“Look here,” McGlory broke out; “you’ve said enough. You go back to your schooner where you belong!”

“Thanks, I’m going. We’re all going. You ‘ll come with us, my dear?”

Estelle, who was plunged in confusion, said nothing, but fell in with him. And McGlory, fuming, had to follow.

The east wind was freshening; the sky was darker. Spencer, who stood awaiting them on the wharf, shook his head at Dick. “You aren’t going to start now, are you, Cap’n?”

“Sure we are.”

“It’s mean business with an east wind. But still McGlory knows the channel.”

“McGlory be – !” said Dick, throwing off his ceremonial manner now that Estelle had escaped to the house. “I’d take her through hell for fifty cents. Just watch my smoke.” Spencer said nothing further. The mate was ordered up forward; the lines were cast off; Dick took the wheel. And out they went, with a reckless daring that made Spencer and Pink Harper smile from different motives.

“He’s going to butt a hole clean through Middle Island,” muttered the lumberman. But before the words were out, the Merry Anne swung cheerily about and went skimming along the channel bank. Soon she rounded the island in safety and disappeared.

Not until they were fairly out on Lake Huron did Dick call his mate. Then he gave up the wheel without a word and stumbled down into the cabin. His high spirits had given place to weariness and depression; and, dropping down for a moment on his bunk, he fell asleep.

On deck McGlory, with an expression of smouldering anger, stood at the wheel, glancing now at the sails, now at the water, now at the receding shore. If his eyes could have penetrated the bluffs and the forest, he would not have been happier. For Estelle, who seemed to be the victim of her emotions today, was listening to some earnest talk from a boastful fellow named Roche.