The Skipper and the Skipped | Page 5

fifty-six--wouldn't be here if it wasn't for that. I ain't stuck on a
penny-flippin' job of this sort."
"I should think it would be very pleasant after all the storms and the
tossings. And yet the sea--the sea, the glorious sea--has always had a
great fascination for me--even though I've never seen it."
"Nev--nev--never seen salt water!" This amazedly.
"Never." This sadly. "I've been kept--I've stayed very closely at my
home. Being a single lady, I've had no one to talk to me or take me
about. I have read books about the ocean, but I've never had any chance

to hear a real and truly mariner tell about the wonderful waste of waters
and describe foreign countries. I suppose you have been 'way, 'way out
to sea, Cap'n Sproul--across the ocean, I mean."
She had timidly edged up and taken one of the chairs on the porch,
gazing about her at the curios.
"Well, ma'am," remarked the Cap'n, dryly, as he seated himself in
another chair, "I've waded across a cove wunst or twice at low water."
"I should love so to hear a mariner talk of his adventures. I have never
had much chance to talk with any man--I mean any sailor. I have been
kept--I mean I have stayed very closely at home all my life."
"It broadens a man, it sartain does, to travel," said the skipper, furtively
slipping a sliver of tobacco into his cheek and clearing his throat
preparatory to yarning a bit. The frank admiration and trustful
innocence in the eyes of the pretty woman touched him.
"I suppose you have been out at sea in some awful storms, Cap'n. I
often think of the sailormen at sea when the snow beats against the
window and the winds howl around the corner."
"The wu'st blow I ever remember," began the skipper, leaning back and
hooking his brown hands behind his head like a basket, "was my
second trip to Bonis Airis--general cargo out, to fetch back hides. It
was that trip we found the shark that had starved to death, and that was
a story that was worth speakin' of. It--"
There was a hoarse bellow of "Giddap!" up behind the willows. Then
into sight came galloping the tall, gaunt horse of Colonel Gideon Ward.
The Colonel stood up, smacking his whip.
With one leap the Cap'n was at his rope, and began to haul in hand over
hand.
The big gate at the mouth of the bridge squalled on its rusty hinges.

"You mustn't shut that gate--you mustn't!" shrieked the little woman.
She ran and clutched at his sturdy arms. "That's my brother that's
coming! You'll break his neck!"
The gate was already half shut, and the doughty skipper kept on pulling
at the rope.
"Can't help it, ma'am, if it's the apostle Paul," he gritted. "There ain't
nobody goin' to run toll on this bridge."
"It will kill him."
"It's him that's lickin' that hoss. 'Tain't me."
"It's my brother, I tell you!" She tried to drag the rope out of his hands,
but he shook her off, pulled the big gate shut, set his teeth, clung to the
rope, and waited.
The rush down the hill had been so impetuous and the horse was now
running so madly under the whip that there was no such thing as
checking him. With a crash of splintering wood he drove breast-on
against the gate, throwing up his bony head at the end of his scraggy
neck. At the crash the woman screamed and covered her eyes. But the
outfit was too much of a catapult to be stopped. Through the gate it
went, and the wagon roared away through the bridge, the driver yelling
oaths behind him.
Cap'n Aaron Sproul walked out and strolled among the scattered debris,
kicking it gloomily to right and left. The woman followed him.
"It was awful," she half sobbed.
"So you're Miss Jane Ward, be ye?" he growled, glancing at her from
under his knotted eyebrows. "Speakin' of your pets, I should reckon
that 'ere brother of yourn wa'n't one that you had tamed down fit to be
turned loose. But you tell him for me, the next time you see him, that
I'll plug the end of that bridge against him if it takes ev'ry dum cent of
the prop'ty I'm wuth--and that's thutty thousand dollars, if it's a cent. I

ain't none of your two-cent chaps!" he roared, visiting his wrath
vicariously on her as a representative of the family. "I've got money of
my own. Your brother seems to have made door-mats out'n most of the
folks round here, but I'll tell ye that he's wiped his feet on me for the
last time. You tell him that, dum him!"
Her face was white, and her