In Search of the Unknown | Page 4

until a
signal from the locomotive sent him forward and I was left alone,
lounging at ease, head pillowed on both arms, watching the blue sky
flying through the branches overhead.
Long before we came in sight of the ocean I smelled it; the fresh, salt
aroma stole into my senses, drowsy with the heated odor of pine and
hemlock, and I sat up, peering ahead into the dusky sea of pines.
Fresher and fresher came the wind from the sea, in puffs, in mild, sweet
breezes, in steady, freshening currents, blowing the feathery crowns of
the pines, setting the balsam's blue tufts rocking.
Lee wandered back over the long line of flats, balancing himself
nonchalantly as the cars swung around a sharp curve, where water
dripped from a newly propped sluice that suddenly emerged from the
depths of the forest to run parallel to the railroad track.
"Built it this spring," he said, surveying his handiwork, which seemed
to undulate as the cars swept past. "It runs to the cove--or ought to--"
He stopped abruptly with a thoughtful glance at me.
"So you're going over to Halyard's?" he continued, as though answering
a question asked by himself.

I nodded.
"You've never been there--of course?"
"No," I said, "and I'm not likely to go again."
I would have told him why I was going if I had not already begun to
feel ashamed of my idiotic errand.
"I guess you're going to look at those birds of his," continued Lee,
placidly.
"I guess I am," I said, sulkily, glancing askance to see whether he was
smiling.
But he only asked me, quite seriously, whether a great auk was really a
very rare bird; and I told him that the last one ever seen had been found
dead off Labrador in January, 1870. Then I asked him whether these
birds of Halyard's were really great auks, and he replied, somewhat
indifferently, that he supposed they were--at least, nobody had ever
before seen such birds near Port-of-Waves.
"There's something else," he said, running, a pine-sliver through his
pipe-stem--"something that interests us all here more than auks, big or
little. I suppose I might as well speak of it, as you are bound to hear
about it sooner or later."
He hesitated, and I could see that he was embarrassed, searching for the
exact words to convey his meaning.
"If," said I, "you have anything in this region more important to science
than the great auk, I should be very glad to know about it."
Perhaps there was the faintest tinge of sarcasm in my voice, for he shot
a sharp glance at me and then turned slightly. After a moment, however,
he put his pipe into his pocket, laid hold of the brake with both hands,
vaulted to his perch aloft, and glanced down at me.
"Did you ever hear of the harbor-master?" he asked, maliciously.

"Which harbor-master?" I inquired.
"You'll know before long," he observed, with a satisfied glance into
perspective.
This rather extraordinary observation puzzled me. I waited for him to
resume, and, as he did not, I asked him what he meant.
"If I knew," he said, "I'd tell you. But, come to think of it, I'd be a fool
to go into details with a scientific man. You'll hear about the
harbor-master--perhaps you will see the harbor-master. In that event I
should be glad to converse with you on the subject."
I could not help laughing at his prim and precise manner, and, after a
moment, he also laughed, saying:
"It hurts a man's vanity to know he knows a thing that somebody else
knows he doesn't know. I'm damned if I say another word about the
harbor-master until you've been to Halyard's!"
"A harbor-master," I persisted, "is an official who superintends the
mooring of ships--isn't he?"
But he refused to be tempted into conversation, and we lounged silently
on the lumber until a long, thin whistle from the locomotive and a rush
of stinging salt-wind brought us to our feet. Through the trees I could
see the bluish-black ocean, stretching out beyond black headlands to
meet the clouds; a great wind was roaring among the trees as the train
slowly came to a stand-still on the edge of the primeval forest.
Lee jumped to the ground and aided me with my rifle and pack, and
then the train began to back away along a curved side-track which, Lee
said, led to the mica-pit and company stores.
"Now what will you do?" he asked, pleasantly. "I can give you a good
dinner and a decent bed to-night if you like--and I'm sure Mrs. Lee
would be very glad to have you stop with us as long as you choose."

I thanked him, but said that I was anxious to reach Halyard's