“Matter with them? No. They're the finest things I've tasted since I
came here. New receipt, isn't it?”
“Cal'late so.”
“I thought it must be. I'll take another.”
He took another, and many others thereafter. He and his superior cleared
the plate between them.
Brown was prepared for questions concerning his occupation of the
afternoon and was ready with some defiant queries of his own. But no
occasion arose for either defiance or cross-examination. Seth never
hinted at a suspicion nor mentioned the young lady at the bungalow.
Brown therefore remained silent concerning what he had seen from the
attic window. He would hold that in reserve, and if Atkins ever did
accuse him of bad faith or breach of contract he could retort in kind.
His conscience was clear now--he was no more of a traitor than Seth
himself--and, this being so, he felt delightfully independent. If
trouble came he was ready for it, and in the meantime he should do as he
pleased.
But no trouble came. That day, and for many days thereafter, the
lightkeeper was sweetness itself. He and his helper had never been more
anxious to please each other, and the house at Twin-Lights was--to all
appearances--an abode of perfect trust and peace. Every day, when Seth
was asleep or out of the way, “working on the Daisy M.,” the assistant
swam to the cove, and every day he met Miss Graham there! During the
first week he returned from his dips expecting to be confronted by his
superior, and ready with counter accusations of his own. After this
he ceased to care. Seth did not ask a question and was so trustful and
unsuspecting that Brown decided his secret was undiscovered. In fact,
the lightkeeper was so innocent that the young man felt almost wicked,
as if he were deceiving a child. He very nearly forgot the meeting
behind the sand dune, having other and much more important things to
think of.
July passed, and the first three weeks of August followed suit. The
weather, which had been glorious, suddenly gave that part of the coast
a surprise party in the form of a three days' storm. It was an offshore
gale, but fierce, and the lighthouse buildings rocked in its grasp.
Bathing was out of the question, and one of Seth's dories broke its
anchor rope and went to pieces in the breakers. Atkins and Brown slept
but little during the storm, both being on duty the greater part of the
time.
The fourth day broke clear, but the wind had changed to the east and
the barometer threatened more bad weather to come. When Seth came in to
breakfast he found his helper sound asleep in a kitchen chair, his head
on the table. The young man was pretty well worn out. Atkins insisted
upon his going to bed for the forenoon.
“Of course I sha'n't,” protested Brown. “It's my watch, and you need
sleep yourself.”
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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