Fair Harbor | Page 8

the fence pickets a red and hairy hand, the size of which
corresponded to that of the feet, he roared another string of delighted

exclamations.
"Cap'n Sears Kendrick, on deck and all taut again! Well, by the jumpin',
creepin'! If this ain't--Cap'n Sears, sir, how be you?"
His broad-brimmed, battered straw hat had fallen off in his descent
from the wagon seat, uncovering a partially bald head and a round,
extremely red face, two-thirds of which was hidden by a tremendously
thick and bristly tangle of short gray whiskers. The whiskers were now
bisected by a broad grin, a grin so broad and so ecstatic that its
wrinkles extended to the bulbous nose and the apple cheeks above.
"Cap'n Sears, sir," repeated the driver of the truck-wagon, "I'm proud to
see you on deck again, sir. Darned if I ain't!"
The captain leaned forward and shook the big red hand extended across
the fence pickets.
"Judah Cahoon, you old salt herrin'," he cried heartily, "I'm just as glad
to see you! But what in the world are you doin' here in Bayport?"
CHAPTER II
Mr. Cahoon's grin vanished and the expression of his face above the
whiskers indicated extreme surprise.
"What am I doin' here?" he repeated. "Didn't you know I was here,
Cap'n Sears?"
"Of course I didn't. The last I heard of you you had shipped as cook
aboard the Gallant Rover and was bound for Calcutta, or Singapore or
somewhere in those latitudes. And that was only a year ago. What are
you doin' on the Cape and pilotin' that kind of a craft?" indicating the
truck wagon.
The question was ignored. "Didn't they never tell you I was here?"
demanded Judah. "Didn't that Joel Macomber tell you I been hailin' him
every time he crossed my bows, askin' about you every day since you

run on the rocks? Didn't he tell you that?"
"No."
"Never give you my respects nor--nor kind rememberances, nor
nawthin'?"
"Not a word. Never so much as mentioned your name."
"The red-headed shark!"
"There! There! Sshh! Never mind him. Come in here and sit down a
minute, can't you? Or are you in a hurry?"
"Eh? No-o, I ain't in no 'special hurry. Just got a deck load of seaweed
aboard carting it up home, that's all."
"Home? What home?"
"Why, where I'm livin'. I call it home; anyhow it's all the home I got.
Eh? Why, Cap'n Sears, ain't they never told you that I'm livin' at the
Minot place?"
"The Minot place! Why--why, man alive, you don't mean the General
Minot place, do you?"
"Um-hm. That's what folks down here call it. There ain't no Generals
there though."
"And you are livin' in the General Minot house? Look here, Judah, are
you trying to make a fool of me?"
Mr. Cahoon's countenance--that portion of it above the whisker
tidemark, of course--registered horror at the thought. He had been cook
and steward aboard Captain Kendrick's ships for many voyages and his
feeling for his former skipper was close kin to idolatry.
"Eh?" he gasped. "Me try to make a fool out of you, Cap'n Sears? Me?
No, no, I got some sense left, I hope."

Kendrick smiled. "Oh, the thing isn't impossible, Judah," he observed
dryly. "It has been done. I have been made a fool of and more than
once.... But there, never mind that. I want to know what you are doin' at
the General Minot place. Come aboard here and tell me about it. You
can leave your horse, can't you? He doesn't look as if he was liable to
run away."
"Run away! Him?" Judah snorted disgust. "Limpin' Moses! He won't
run away for the same reason old Cap'n Eben Gould didn't say his
prayers--he's forgot how. I was out with that horse on the flats last
week and the tide pretty nigh caught us. The water in the main channel
was so deep that it was clean up to the critter's garboard strake, and still,
by the creepin', I couldn't get him out of a walk. I thought there one
spell he might drift away, but I knew dum well he'd never run.... Whoa!
you--you hipponoceros you!" addressing the ancient animal, who was
placidly gnawing at the Macomber hitching post. "'Vast heavin' on that
post! Look at the blasted idiot!" with huge disgust. "To home, by the
creepin', he'll turn up his nose at good hay and then he'll cruise out here
and start to swaller a wood fence. Whoa! Back! Back, or I'll--I'll bore a
hole in you and scuttle you."
The old horse condescended to back for perhaps two feet, a proceeding
which elicited a grunt of grudging approval from Mr. Cahoon. The
latter then settled himself with a thump upon the settee beside Captain
Kendrick.
"How's