I regret to say that my father’s welcome was not especially cordial. Nevertheless, he was for some reason evidently pleased by the sudden appearance of his son and his brother-in-law. Releasing himself gently from my clinging embrace, he said, in his deep, grave voice: “Come in and sit down. I never thought to see you again, Sam; and, much less you, Naboth Perkins. But now that you’re here, we’ll have a few mutual explanations.”
Mrs. Ranck, a few paces behind him, was bristling like a frightened cat.
“If them thieves an’ scoundrels enters this house, I’ll go out!” she fairly screamed, in her shrill voice.
“Be quiet!” commanded the Captain, sternly. “This is my house; and, although it’s all that my friends have left to me,” he added, bitterly, “I’m still the master under my own roof. Sit down, Perkins, sit down, Sam, my lad.”
A sudden tenderness that crept into the last words seemed to rouse the woman to fury.
“That’s the boy that robbed you!” she cried, pointing at me a trembling, bony finger. “That’s the boy that skinned the house of all your valeybles and treasures as soon as he thought you was dead, and couldn’t come back to punish him! An’ stole all my savins’ too; and swore he’d be a pirate and murder and steal all his life; an’ that the man,” turning fiercely upon my horrified uncle, “as aided an’ abetted him in his wickedness, an’ threatened to kill me if I interfered with Sam’s carryin’ away of your property! Cap’n Steele, how dare you harbor sich varmints? Drive ’em out, this instant, or I’ll go myself. This house can’t hold Sam Steele, the robber, and me at the same time!”
Captain Steele looked toward me gravely as I stood regarding the woman with unmistakable amazement. Then he turned to Naboth Perkins, to find the little man doubled up in his chair and shaking with silent laughter. A moment later he began to gasp and choke and cough, until, just as he appeared to be on the verge of convulsions, he suddenly straightened up and wiped the tears from his eyes.
“Cap’n Steele, sir,” he said, “this is the best show I ever had a reserved seat at, an’ the admission’s free gratis for nothin’! Why, you measly old she-tiger,” turning with stern abruptness to Mrs. Ranck, “did you ever think, fer a minute, that such a lyin’ tale as you’ve trumped up would deceive grown men?”
Mrs. Ranck turned away and caught her shawl from a peg.
“I’ll go,” she said, sullenly.
“No, you don’t!” exclaimed Mr. Perkins, bounding between her and the door of her room, toward which she was hastening; “you’ll stay right here till this mystery is cleared up. For, if I understand Cap’n Steele aright, he can’t find the property he left in this house, ner imagine what’s become of it; an’ you’ve been stuffing him with lies about Sam’s running away with it. Am I right, Cap’n?”
My father nodded, gazing with lowering brow upon the cowed and trembling form of the housekeeper.
“The Cap’n’s property an’ his savin’s didn’t walk away by themselves,” continued Uncle Naboth, “and no one could ’a’ took ’em except Sam or this woman. Very good. They’re both here, now, an’ you’re going to clear up the mystery and get your money back, Cap’n, before you takes your eye off’n either one. Just flop into that chair, Mrs. Ranck, an’ if you try to wiggle away I’ll call the police!”
The woman obeyed. A dull glaze had come over her eyes, and her features were white and set. In all her cunning plotting she had never imagined that I or my uncle would ever return to Batteraft to confound her. She believed that the knowledge that I was in her debt would prevent my coming back, in any event, and she fully expected me to be buffeted here and there about the world, with never a chance of my being again heard of in my old home.
What a mistake she had made! But it was all owing to this little fat man whom she had driven thoughtlessly from her door the day that I was sent away into exile. She had never heard of Naboth Perkins before; nor did she know, any more than I myself did at the time, of the partnership formerly existing between the two men, or even the fact of their relationship. She felt that she was caught in a trap, in some unexpected way, and the disaster stunned her.
Captain Steele filled and lighted his pipe before the silence of the little group was again broken. Then, turning to me, he asked:
“Why did you believe I was dead?”
“One of your sailors brought the news, sir, and told us of the wreck. He gave Mrs. Ranck your watch and ring, which he believed were taken from your dead body.”
“It’s a lie!” snapped the woman, desperately. “I never seen the watch and ring; but he said the Cap’n was dead, all right, an’ that’s why Sam run away with the property.”
“Who was the sailor?” enquired my father, thoughtfully.
“Ned Britton, sir.”
“Aye, an honest, worthy lad, who sailed with me for years. And he had the watch and ring?”
“Yes, sir. Ned was taken with a fever when he escaped from the wreck, and after he recovered they told him that several bodies had been washed ashore and buried by the villagers. On one of the bodies they found the watch and ring, so Ned naturally thought you had perished.”
“When the ship broke up,” said Captain Steele, slowly, “and I knew the end had come, I sent one of my lads to my cabin to get my trinkets while I attended to lowering the boats. I never saw him again. For my part, my leg was crushed by a ............