The detective, who had been lashed to the pilot house, reused himself to
shout:
"You'll make a nice mess of it trying to get him away from the
Government. The whole lot of you are crooks, and you're holding me at
your peril."
The discharge of freight had not ceased during this colloquy. The crane
swung over the wharf at regular intervals, and the men with the
wheelbarrows trotted back and forth with the spirit and agility of men
intent upon finishing an honest day's work. As Putney Congdon, mystified
but obedient, rowed away, his father began begging Perky to leave the
place and steer for Canada.
"You promised to protect me but you've made a fool of me," the old man
wailed. "You betrayed me to the police; you--"
The Governor flung a sack of potatoes into a wheelbarrow, and surveyed
the infuriated Eliphalet for a moment.
"Pray calm yourself, Mr. Congdon, and please be careful how you charge
people with serious crimes. It seems to be an obsession with you that
everybody on earth is a crook. The proposition interests me
psychologically. When I get through with this freight I'll look at your
data. Meanwhile I solemnly warn you to make no charge against me or any
friends of mine that you can't prove."
It was five o'clock when the last of the cargo was landed in the store
house. The engineer (a gentleman whose grimy face and mournful eyes
belied his record as a hold-up man) sounded the whistle.
Ruth ran down to the shore and Archie and the Governor went to meet her.
"O you angels!" she cried. "I've just taken a peep into the store house
and you've given us enough food to last all next summer. It's perfectly
splendid. I wasn't watching--really, I wasn't--for I had to keep the
girls busy; but you did have trouble of some sort?"
"Nothing of the slightest consequence," the Governor answered. "We tried
to catch Carey but he was too quick for us. But we did pick up a friend
of his--the gentleman you see giving an exhibition of haughty disdain
out there on the tug. Keep everybody well under cover tonight and don't
be alarmed by anything you hear. We'll soon be through with this
business."
"Who's that funny little man on the tug? He seems anxious to attract
attention!"
Eliphalet Congdon was engaged in an argument with the detective, who,
being helpless, was obliged to endure a tirade the old gentleman was
delivering to the accompaniment of an occasional prod of the inevitable
umbrella.
"That," said the Governor, "is Edith Congdon's paternal grandfather; an
estimable person fallen upon evil times."
"You don't mean Mr. Eliphalet Congdon!"
"Most emphatically I do."
"And have he and his son settled their differences?"
"Not so you would notice it! But they'll be loving each other when I get
through with them."
"Do you know," said the girl, looking wonderingly into the Governor's
eyes, "I don't suppose I could ever learn to know when you're fooling
and when you're not."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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