第78章

Thankful read and reread the letter from Emily Howes.The news it contained was so good that she forgot entirely the fact that there was another envelope in the mail.Only when, as she sprang to her feet to rush out into the yard and tell Georgie that his plea for an extension of his visit was granted, was her attention called to this second letter.It fell from her lap to the floor and she stooped and picked it up.

The first thing she noticed was that the envelope was in a remarkably crumpled and dirty condition.It looked as if it had been carried in a pocket--and a not too clean pocket--for many days.Then she noticed the postmark--"Omaha." The address was the last item to claim her attention and, as she stared at the crumpled and crooked hand-writing, she gasped and turned pale.

Slowly she sank back into her chair and tore open the envelope.

The inclosure was a dingy sheet of cheap notepaper covered with a penciled scrawl.With trembling fingers she unfolded the paper and read what was written there.Then she leaned back in the chair and put her hand to her forehead.

She was sitting thus when the door of the dining-room opened and a voice hailed: "Ahoy there! Anybody on deck?"She turned to see Captain Obed Bangs' cheery face peering in at her.

"Hello!" cried the captain, entering the room and tossing his cap on the table."You're here, are you? I was lookin' for you and Imogene said she cal'lated you was aboard ship somewheres, but she wa'n't sartin where.I've come to get that second mate of mine.

I'm goin' off with a gang to take up the last of my fish weirs and I thought maybe the little shaver'd like to go along.I need help in bossin' the fo'mast hands, you see, and he's some consider'ble of a driver, that second mate is.Yes sir-ee! You ought to hear him order 'em to get up anchor.Ho! ho! I--Hey? Why--why, what's the matter?"Thankful's face was still pale and she was trembling.

"Nothin', nothin', Cap'n Bangs," she said."I've had a--a surprise, that's all.""A surprise! Yes, you look as if you had." Then, noticing the letter in her lap, he added."You ain't had bad news, have you?""No.No, not exactly.It's good news.Yes, in a way it's good news, but--but I didn't expect it and--and it has shook me up a good deal....And--and I don't know what to do.Oh, I don't know WHAT I'd ought to do!"The distress in her tone was so real that the captain was greatly disturbed.He made a move as if to come to her side and then, hesitating, remained where he was.

"I--I'd like to help you, Thank--er--Mrs.Barnes," he faltered, earnestly."I like to fust-rate, if--if I could.Ain't there--is there anything I could do to help? Course you understand I ain't nosin' in on your affairs, but, if you feel like tellin' me, maybe I-- Look here, 'tain't nothin' to do with that cussed Holliday Kendrick or his meanness, is it?"Thankful shook her head."No," she said, "it isn't that.I've been expectin' that and I'd have been ready for anything he might do--or try to do.But I wasn't expectin' THIS.How COULD anybody expect it? I thought he was dead.I thought sure he must be dead.

Why, it's six year since he--and now he's alive, and he wants--What SHALL I do?"

Captain Obed took a step forward.

"Now, Mrs.Barnes," he begged, "I wish you would--that is, you know if you feel like it I--well, here I am.Can't I do SOMETHIN'?"Thankful turned and looked at him.She was torn between an intense desire to make a confidant of someone and her habitual tendency to keep her personal affairs to herself.The desire overcame the habit.

"Cap'n Bangs," she said, suddenly, "I will tell you I've just got to tell somebody.If he was just writin' to say he was all right and alive, I shouldn't.I'd just be grateful and glad and say nothin'.But the poor thing is poverty-struck and friendless, or he says he is, and he wants money.And--and I haven't got any money just now.""I have," promptly."Or, if I ain't got enough with me I can get more.How much? Just you say how much you think he'll need and I'll have it for you inside of a couple of hours.If money's all you want--why, that's nothin'."Thankful heard little, apparently, of this prodigal offer.She took up the letter.

"Cap'n Bangs," said she, "you remember I told you, one time when we were talkin' together, that I had a brother--Jedediah, his name was--who used to live with me after my husband was drowned?""Yes.I remember.You said he'd run off to go gold-diggin' in the Klondike or somewheres.You said he was dead.""I thought he must be.I gave him up long ago, because I was sartin sure if he wasn't dead he'd have written me, askin' me to let him come back.I knew he'd never be able to get along all by himself.But he isn't dead.He's alive and he's written me now.

Here's his letter.Read it, please."

The captain took the letter and slowly read it through.It was a rambling, incoherent epistle, full of smudges where words had been scratched out and rewritten, but a pitiful appeal nevertheless.

Jedediah Cahoon had evidently had a hard time since the day when, after declaring his intention never to return until "loaded down with money," he had closed the door of his sister's house at South Middleboro and gone out into the snowstorm and the world.His letter contained few particulars.He had wandered far, even as far as his professed destination, the Klondike, but, wherever he had been, ill luck was there to meet him.He had earned a little money and lost it, earned a little more and lost that; had been in Nome and Vancouver and Portland and Seattle; had driven a street car in Tacoma.

I wrote you from Tacoma, Thankful [the letter said], after I lost that job, but you never answered.Now I am in 'Frisco and I am down and out.I ain't got any good job and I don't know where Iwill get one.I want to come home.Can't I come? I am sorry Icleared out and left you the way I done, and if you will let me come back home again I will try to be a good brother to you.Iwill; honest.I won't complain no more and I will split the kindling and everything.Please say I can come.Do PLEASE.