Blue 
 Anchor 
 
 Edwin Bateman Morris

 
 IS IT DEEP ENOUGH HERE TO DIVE?
 
 BLUE ANCHOR 
 
 INN 
 
 BY 
 
 EDWIN BATEMAN MORRIS
 
 COPY EIGHT 
 1912 BY 
 
 THE PENN 
 PUBLISHING 
 COMPANY 
 
 jr 
 
 Blue Anchor Inn
 
 To My Mother
 
 Illustrations 
 
 PAGE 
 
 " Is IT DEEP ENOUGH HERE TO DIVE ? " Frontispiece 
 SHE STOOD IN THE DOORWAY . . . -55 
 " IT SOUNDS INTERESTING " . . . .73 
 You MUST TAKE A VERY TINY BITE " . .159 
 " I'M BUSY TO-DAY " 246 
 
 Blue Anchor Inn.
 
 Blue Anchor Inn 
 
 CHAPTER I 
 
 A RICH young man sauntered unassumingly 
 down the street. He was carefully and 
 neatly attired, and appeared jovial and contented 
 in the station of life to which it had pleased 
 Providence to call him. At the street corner he 
 paused, and counted his entire fortune. 
 
 There were three crumpled bills, some loose 
 silver and a nickel no more. It was the fag- 
 end of poverty, judged by the world's standard. 
 His riches consisted only of buoyancy and light- 
 ness of heart. 
 
 For many a day he had watched his small 
 store of money steadily disappearing. He had 
 economized here, pinched there, done without 
 on all sides, fighting every inch of the way as 
 the balance ebbed, living in the tiny hall-room 
 he would have been ashamed to have his friends 
 
 9
 
 BLUE ANCHOR INN 
 
 see, eating meals at quick-lunch counters, walk- 
 ing instead of riding, enduring his winter suit 
 through the warm spring days, and suffering, in 
 a word, all the tortures of poverty, disappoint- 
 ment and humiliation. And now at last when 
 the end had come and there stood between him 
 and the world only somewhat less than four 
 dollars, his jaded capacity for discouragement re- 
 sponded no longer. He was an optimist and a 
 fatalist, and believed that when Dame Fortune 
 gave a cuff with one hand she would soon be 
 reaching out the other to help one up again. So 
 when he saw Adversity waiting for him on the 
 far side of his three dollars and eighty cents, he 
 faced her calmly and was not terrified. 
 
 "I wonder," he said, holding the burden of 
 his wealth in his hand, " what I shall do with all 
 this money." 
 
 There was no immediate answer from the 
 surrounding atmosphere. A newsboy came 
 whistling down the street ; he stopped his tune 
 and his progress to observe with unembarrassed 
 interest the young man standing by the street 
 
 curb. 
 
 10
 
 BLUE ANCHOR INN 
 
 " Want a paper, mister ? " he suggested at 
 length. 
 
 The young man nodded. With one deft mo- 
 tion the boy proffered the paper and received 
 the money. 
 
 "Son," said the purchaser, suddenly, after he 
 had given the head-lines a rather cursory glance, 
 " suppose you had four dollars, and no more, 
 just like that" he showed the money in his 
 hand "and you had no chance of getting any 
 more, what would you do ? " 
 
 The boy answered promptly. 
 
 " I'd blow it in," he said. 
 
 The man on the curb threw back his head and 
 laughed. 
 
 " Why," he demanded, interested in this idea, 
 " wouldn't it be better to make it last just as long 
 as possible ? " 
 
 His companion spat into the gutter with an air 
 of great latent wisdom. 
 
 " No," he observed contemptuously, " a guy 
 never gets no fun out of bein* a tight-wad. 
 Them dubs that keeps a strangle-holt on their 
 
 coin, when they spends a nickel they feel like 
 
 ii
 
 BLUE ANCHOR INN 
 
 they lost an old friend. None o' that in mine. 
 I'd take them four bones and drop 'em all at 
 once so they'd make a noise big enough to hear a 
 block away." 
 
 The man looked at him and nodded specu- 
 latively. 
 
 " Then what ? " he said. " That's not the end 
 of everything." 
 
 " After that you're busted, ain't you ? " 
 
 " Un-doubtedly." 
 
 " When you're busted you can't get any worse. 
 You got to get better. Ain't that so ? " 
 
 But while the man was digesting this philos- 
 ophy the newsmerchant darted away after a 
 gentleman in a silk hat and was lost behind the 
 corner of the street. The young man slipped 
 the money back in his pocket and jingled the 
 coins thoughtfully. 
 
 "Well," he muttered at length, "that's the 
 way I feel, too. I haven't the nerve to be a 
 tight-wad, so I'll be a spender. The whole thing 
 is over now. I'll be a gentleman to-night. To- 
 morrow, perhaps, I can get a job in a department 
 store." 
 
 12
 
 BLUE ANCHOR INN 
 
 A street-car came along and he got aboard. 
 He was hungry for just one more meal in the 
 haunts of civilization. The car stopped at a 
 wide street and he presently found himself before 
 a well-lighted hostelry. A man turned the 
 revolving door for him as he entered. There 
 were great scagliola columns in the lobby, and 
 the whole place fairly glistened with the pomp 
 and vanity resulting from women in expensive 
 clothes, idle men lolling in leather chairs, scurry- 
 ing bell-boys, hurrying porters and all the in- 
 tricate wheels of the great deferential machine 
 called a hotel. 
 
 He gave his hat to the boy at the door of the 
 cafe, placing a coin in an obscure pocket to 
 make sure of being able to tip him when he 
 came out. His air of being on the point of 
 spending all the money there was made such an 
 impression that he was shown to a table by a 
 window. He was pleased. It is a very serious 
 matter to spend every bit of your money at one 
 time, and he wanted to get all the comfort and 
 excitement he could out of it. Brooke stretched 
 his legs luxuriously under the table. 
 
 13
 
 BLUE ANCHOR INN 
 
 There was an air of general sociability in the 
 wide low-ceilinged room. Men were scanning 
 the menu cards with pleasant anticipation, or 
 dining vigorously, or lingering over their tables 
 in a haze of smoke. Everywhere was the 
 stimulating hum of conversation and laughter. 
 Brooke's heart warmed within him. He ran 
 his eye up and down the carte du jour. He 
 ordered a grapefruit with a tiny glass of kummel 
 to pour upon it, for his opening course. Then 
 there was to be a filet mignon (with many direc- 
 tions as to the precise course to be followed in 
 its preparation) and with it brussels sprouts and 
 asparagus. 
 
 The tall, grave waiter, who from his appear- 
 ance might have been a reincarnation of Franz 
 Liszt, suggested as homely a thing as baked 
 potato, which he would doctor with paprika and 
 other things until it was a very wonderful dish. 
 It was a specialty at this particular place. Then 
 there was an elaborate salad with a name like an 
 historical novel, composed of a sort of glorified 
 mayonnaise and fruits and nuts and bits of 
 ambrosia, perhaps. The dessert was a simple 
 
 14
 
 BLUE ANCHOR INN 
 
 thing called a cafe parfait. In the end came a 
 little glass the size of a thimble, in it, half-way to 
 the top, creme de cocoa with white cream floated 
 upon it. 
 
 It was a tremendous occasion for a man who 
 had been an exile from the comforts of civiliza- 
 tion for a long while. Even the strains of the 
 musical comedy frippery the orchestra played 
 lifted him out of himself into a more rarefied 
 atmosphere. It was not until the room began to 
 thin out somewhat and he was smoking his 
 cigarette that he descended to earth. He noted 
 that it was his last cigarette. Following out the 
 line of thought suggested by this, he permitted 
 himself to wonder what steps the world would 
 take to provide for him at breakfast time on the 
 morrow. 
 
 The trouble with Brooke was that he had in- 
 vented something. The second trouble was that 
 something was a useful article in a word, a new 
 species of concrete pile. If he had invented some 
 small and frivolous thing, such as a can opener 
 or a glove fastener, or a tie clasp, he would have 
 found a ready sale for it. But a concrete pile 
 
 15
 
 BLUE ANCHOR INN 
 
 was too big a thing to succeed quickly. It de- 
 pended for its success upon the support of build- 
 ing contractors and structural engineers, a race 
 of incredulous and cautious people who took few 
 chances. 
 
 One man had indeed agreed to form a com- 
 pany for the exploitation of the pile if he would 
 sink three or four full size specimens so their 
 qualifications could be tested. This would take 
 money, which he had not. But though he had 
 been through all the possible forms of discour- 
 agement, he did not despair. There was always 
 hope in his heart. 
 
 There is a verse which says, " Take, therefore, 
 no thought for the morrow, for the morrow shall 
 take thought for the things of itself." Brooke's 
 quality of mind was modeled on that. He was 
 content to shift the responsibility of prolonging 
 his existence to some agency more expert than 
 himself, but at the same time he could not 
 help wondering how it would be done. It 
 did not occur to him to doubt that it would be 
 done. 
 
 A hand was laid on his shoulder. 
 16
 
 BLUE ANCHOR INN 
 
 " Mr. Brooke," said a pleasant voice, " you 
 linger long after your dinner." 
 
 Looking up, the young man recognized a 
 gentleman named Sprague, a lawyer with whom 
 he once had some dealings. 
 
 Pleased at the appearance of even so casual 
 an acquaintance, Brooke rose and greeted him 
 cordially. 
 
 "I have an appointment," he said, smiling, 
 " with my guardian angel." 
 
 The lawyer stared, then smiled. 
 
 " If you intend to wait, you had better have the 
 management set up a cot for you," he suggested. 
 
 Brooke laughed. The other lighted his cigar 
 and blew out the match. 
 
 "What do you mean by your remark?" he 
 asked. 
 
 " Well, I am in the hands of Providence. My 
 money is all gone. I had three dollars and 
 eighty cents at six-thirty this evening, which I 
 have just made over to the hotel in return for a 
 very good dinner. Now I expect my guardian 
 angel to take me by the hand and lead me out 
 of the dark to the bright trail." 
 
 17
 
 BLUE ANCHOR INN 
 
 The other knitted his brows and appeared to 
 view Brooke from a new angle. 
 
 "Are you really down and out?" he asked, 
 pleasantly. 
 
 " Yes." 
 
 A spark of excitement shone in Sprague's 
 eyes. He drew up a chair. 
 
 "Providence," he said, eyeing his companion 
 keenly, "often sends its benefits in strange 
 packages." 
 
 "All right; I'm not exactly in a position to 
 choose." 
 
 The lawyer rose. 
 
 "That being the case," he said, "will you 
 come to my office ? I have a suggestion to 
 make to you." 
 
 18
 
 CHAPTER II 
 
 BROOKE followed his companion in bewil- 
 derment. They went up the street to the 
 building in which Sprague had his office and 
 took the elevator to the tenth floor. The young 
 man knew the office well, as he had had trans- 
 actions there more than a year before when get- 
 ting his patent. They went into the inner room. 
 
 Mr. Sprague looked at his watch and closed 
 the lid with a snap. 
 
 " This is a strange proposition I am about to 
 put before you," he began briskly. " I have had 
 nothing at all like it before in my legal practice." 
 
 "Go on," said his companion. "I am all 
 impatience." 
 
 " On the fifteenth of last November," said the 
 lawyer, " a man by the name of Beckendorf died 
 in East Saint Louis. He was a thrifty old party 
 who managed to die possessed of nearly a hun- 
 dred thousand dollars. He had, however, only 
 one relative, a young girl of about twenty odd 
 
 19
 
 BLUE ANCHOR INN 
 
 living here in Philadelphia. To her he left the 
 entire sum. But either because he had some 
 notions on the subject of the propagation of the 
 race, or because he wanted to make people bear 
 him in mind for a little while after he was dead, 
 he inserted the condition in his will that she was 
 to be married within six months after his death 
 or forfeit the money." 
 
 " He wanted to make her earn it," suggested 
 Brooke. 
 
 " Miss Dean the girl in question seems to 
 feel that way about it. She has put it off and 
 put it off. Instead of selecting a young man in 
 a businesslike way, marrying him and having 
 it all over with, she folded her hands in her lap 
 and waited for the man to come along. Now 
 that's no way for a girl to get a husband. She 
 ought to be right on the jump ready to pull him 
 in the instant he gets his head out of the water. 
 Nowadays there is so much competition in every 
 line of business that no one can afford to be 
 asleep at the switch." 
 
 Brooke gazed at his companion in a bewil- 
 dered sort of way. 
 
 20
 
 BLUE ANCHOR INN 
 
 " Well, to make a long story short," went on 
 Sprague, " Miss Dean suddenly came up against 
 the horrible discovery last week that she had 
 only seven days more in which to get the man. 
 Terrible thought ! She did not want to lose the 
 money any more than you or I would. I saw then 
 it was time to take the matter in my own hands. 
 As a last resort I told her I would get the man." 
 
 The young man smiled. 
 
 " Now," continued the lawyer, " getting a hus- 
 band for a lady in one week's time is a much 
 more difficult undertaking than I suspected. In 
 fact, until I came across you, by the merest 
 chance, in the hotel to-night, I thought I was 
 beaten." 
 
 " Me ! " cried the other. 
 
 He gazed at the lawyer in open-eyed astonish- 
 ment. 
 
 " Yes. Why not ? There is five hundred dol- 
 lars in it for you." 
 
 Brooke surveyed his shoes dubiously. This 
 was a staggering proposition. 
 
 "Got another girl in view?" Sprague de- 
 manded. 
 
 21
 
 BLUE ANCHOR INN 
 
 " No." 
 
 " Married already ? " 
 
 " No." 
 
 Mr. Sprague glanced at his watch again. 
 
 " This will have none of the inconveniences of 
 the usual marriage. The lady leaves for Nevada 
 on the midnight train to-night. She agrees to 
 get a divorce within one year. That relieves you 
 of all trouble. If she wears a veil you won't 
 even know what she looks like, and won't be 
 obliged to as much as speak to her on the street. 
 It is an ideal marriage." 
 
 The young man looked at his companion 
 dubiously. 
 
 "Suppose you don't accept this offer," the 
 lawyer went on ; " what will you do to-morrow 
 morning when you wake up without even the 
 proverbial thirty cents in your pocket ? " 
 
 Brooke set his teeth. 
 
 " That remark went right straight over the 
 plate," he said at length. " I will marry your 
 girl." 
 
 " Good ! " said Sprague, and reached for the 
 
 telephone. 
 
 22
 
 BLUE ANCHOR INN 
 
 The rest happened very quickly. Sprague 
 had bribed the license clerk and a magistrate 
 to be where he could get in touch with them at 
 any moment up to midnight. Being summoned 
 by telephone, they made haste and arrived at 
 the office before the lawyer had finished breaking 
 the glad news of the wedding to the bride-delect. 
 
 After about half an hour of tedious waiting 
 the bridal party arrived. There were but two 
 people in it. A slender woman in a black dress 
 wearing a thick veil, whom Brooke judged was 
 the bride's mother, appeared first. The girl with 
 her was rather more Irish than German, with 
 large hands and a bloom on her cheek like a red 
 apple. 
 
 " Miss Dean, may I present Mr. Brooke," said 
 Sprague. 
 
 He bowed, and wondered why they did not 
 introduce her mother too. 
 
 " Will you take the lady by the hand ? " said 
 the magistrate. 
 
 Brooke was uncertain which hand to use, but 
 decided on his right. He held that out with a 
 
 show of assurance. 
 
 23
 
 BLUE ANCHOR INN 
 
 " The other one," whispered Sprague, hoarsely. 
 
 He disagreed with Sprague, but he held out 
 his- left hand obediently. 
 
 The lawyer grasped him by the shoulder and 
 turned him round. 
 
 " The other girl" he cried. " That's her maid 
 you are trying to marry." 
 
 " My mistake," said Brooke, bowing graciously. 
 
 He took the hand the girl in black held out 
 to him, and the ceremony proceeded. He could 
 see nothing of the face beneath her veil. Only 
 the lobe of one ear was visible. He saw that 
 she was wearing jade earrings. He knew they 
 were jade because he saw some like them the 
 next day in a jewelry shop, and inquired what 
 they were. When it was all over he leaned 
 down and said : 
 
 " Would you mind lifting your veil ? " 
 
 She started to do so. 
 
 " Yes, I should," she decided, suddenly chang- 
 ing her mind. 
 
 " Very good. In small matters," he ex- 
 plained, " I intend to let my wife have her own 
 way." 
 
 24
 
 BLUE ANCHOR INN 
 
 " You have just about time for your train," 
 observed Mr. Sprague. 
 
 " Good-bye," said the girl in black. 
 
 She started to go. 
 
 Brooke tugged at a large seal ring on his 
 ringer. 
 
 " It seems rather niggardly not to give your 
 wife a ring," he told her. " Will you take 
 this?" 
 
 She held out her finger, and he slipped on the 
 gold band. 
 
 " Thank you. Good-bye." 
 
 When they had gone he sank into the nearest 
 chair. 
 
 "Short ceremony, ain't it?" said the license 
 clerk by way of conversation. 
 
 " But deadly," supplemented the bridegroom.
 
 CHAPTER III 
 
 IT was the thirtieth day of May one whole year 
 later. The round red sun was just rising out 
 of the ocean. It was a gorgeous spectacle. The 
 sea was a great sea of claret. The sky was all 
 shot through with deep crimson and purple, and 
 up in the zenith the wandering clouds were pink 
 and light as jewelers' cotton. 
 
 It was some time before the city of Lugger 
 Island began to bestir itself, and when it did it 
 was with an easy air of indolence. The mayor, 
 the president of city councils, the chief of police 
 and the official surveyor wandered down to the 
 beach and put his fishing tackle in the long 
 boat. He was presently followed by the entire 
 permanent male population of the metropolis 
 (four in number) who began to make ready to 
 launch the boat through the waves. Behind 
 them the city rested like a phantom town. A 
 hundred houses were there in all stages of dis- 
 solution. Shutters hung by one hinge, window 
 
 26
 
 BLUE ANCHOR INN 
 
 panes were gone, shingles had disappeared, and 
 here and there a house had settled ridiculously 
 on its foundations, and over all rested the quiet 
 as of the virgin forest. 
 
 The city of Lugger Island was not a metrop- 
 olis in the same sense that New York is. The 
 permanent population consisted at that time of 
 the five qualified voters above mentioned, and 
 seven women. But there had been palmy days, 
 days when the permanent population numbered 
 five hundred, the floating population more than 
 a thousand, and the population that simply sat 
 on the beach in their bathing-suits and did not 
 float at all another thousand. Then the city was 
 a real city. The mayor was elected by a ma- 
 chine ; the town was run by a boss. So great 
 was the interest in elections that out of the five 
 hundred flesh and blood people on the island 
 more than a thousand had their names registered 
 as qualified electors, and quite a half of these re- 
 ceived money for their votes. In fact, no mod- 
 ern municipal improvement was lacking. Two 
 trolley cars toured the island ; the three hotels 
 
 were all that summer hotels should be ; a rail- 
 
 27
 
 BLUE ANCHOR INN 
 
 road that ran across the sketchy trestle from the 
 mainland to the island delivered its trains an hour 
 or so late with almost superhuman New Jersey 
 regularity. 
 
 Those days indeed were the happy, happy days. 
 But one November a great squall came up out 
 of the northeast. The mayor and the city coun- 
 cil saw it, and looked very serious. The railroad 
 trestle saw it first of all, and kissed both shores 
 good-bye. When the first high wave came 
 along it laid its withered form on that billowy 
 crest and never stopped its flight until it went 
 ashore at Cape May, miles and miles to the 
 south. 
 
 That was the beginning of the decline of Lug- 
 ger Island. The railroad company never rebuilt 
 their track. The hotels never reopened. Prop- 
 erty values were so reduced that it was cheaper 
 to move away than to stay. Nobody knew where 
 the five hundred disappeared to. But they did 
 disappear, quickly and silently, and the town was 
 now a mere faded memory of what it once had 
 been. 
 
 Lugger Island was now a poor, tame and un- 
 28
 
 BLUE ANCHOR INN 
 
 exciting place to serve as a human habitation. 
 It would have been still tamer and more unex- 
 citing if it had not been for Mr. and Mrs. Edward 
 Gilpin. They were the two people who upheld 
 the island's self-respect, for they were " summer 
 people," and came there to live for four months 
 every year because they liked it. They had re- 
 paired the old Blue Anchor Inn, a long, rambling 
 structure, and made a house of it. Before this 
 hostelry still swung the old sign. It stated em- 
 phatically, in large blue letters, that the structure 
 was the " Blue Anchor Inn," and the Gilpins, in 
 common with the other inhabitants of the island, 
 continued to use the name. It seemed a dese- 
 cration to remove the sign, and it was a phys- 
 ical impossibility to contradict it. Even the two 
 painted emblems, which preceded and followed 
 the painted name, while they looked more like 
 blue egg-beaters or blue cuff-links or almost any 
 other unmaritime object, were admitted, by reason 
 of the personal force of the name, to be real 
 anchors. So the Gilpins called it the Blue 
 Anchor Inn, as of yore. As the occupants of the 
 
 ancient structure, they furnished the excitement 
 
 29
 
 BLUE ANCHOR INN 
 
 and bolstered up the local pride of that faded 
 resort. For they had guests who furnished theme 
 for gossip and conversation to the whole tiny 
 community. Even now, as the five fishermen 
 pulled their boat out to sea, they were discussing 
 with unflagging interest the two visitors who had 
 arrived the night before a tall, dark-haired 
 young man, and a blond, serious-looking person 
 with black-rimmed eye-glasses. But if these fish- 
 ermen were thrilled by the new arrivals, their 
 excitement was as nothing compared with the 
 animation that possessed the little breakfast table 
 at the Blue Anchor Inn. 
 
 Mrs. Gilpin, looking very trim and pretty, sat 
 at the head of the table, her husband, a rotund, 
 jolly man of about thirty years, facing her. On 
 her right was the blond gentleman with the tor- 
 toise-shell eye-glasses. He was a very serious- 
 looking individual, and rather over-fastidious, as 
 was shown by the wide black band that hung 
 from the glasses. On her left was the tall, dark- 
 haired young man. At any other time Mrs. Gil- 
 pin would have held the attention of the three 
 
 men absolutely to herself, but two of them were 
 
 30
 
 BLUE ANCHOR INN 
 
 intently listening to the tall, dark one, and she 
 was listening with, if possible, even more intent- 
 ness than the others. 
 
 They had not seen the young man in several 
 years. In the last year he had had a strange ex- 
 perience. Presently Mrs. Gilpin's interest in the 
 story he was telling grew entirely too rarefied for 
 silence. 
 
 " But you couldn't possibly think," she cried 
 in astonishment, " of marrying her under those 
 conditions." 
 
 The young man studied his spoon reflectively 
 for a moment. 
 
 " Well, I thought twice," he said slowly, " and 
 then I did it." 
 
 His hostess poured the cream in the sugar in- 
 stead of on her berries. 
 
 " Well, I never ! " she ejaculated. 
 
 " It would be simpler," chuckled Gilpin, " to 
 pour it on the floor." 
 
 " But, Roger Brooke," she cried, ignoring in- 
 terruptions, " I am sure I never heard of such a 
 thing ! " 
 
 " There, Roger," declared the head of the house,
 
 BLUE ANCHOR INN 
 
 " that doesn't leave you a leg to stand on. If 
 Mrs. Edward Gilpin has never heard of it " 
 
 " Ned, do be quiet. You're such a bore." 
 
 The serious young man (whose name was 
 Halsey) took the floor, in a gentleman-of-the-jury 
 manner, which never, even in his moments of 
 relaxation, left him. 
 
 " You say you married her a year ago the fif- 
 teenth of this month?" he asked. 
 
 " Yes." 
 
 " And in all that time you haven't even seen 
 her?" 
 
 " Not to my knowledge." 
 
 " Not to your knowledge ! " cried Mrs. 
 Gilpin. 
 
 " Well, you see, I have no idea in the world 
 what she looks like, except that she wears jade 
 earrings." 
 
 " Is she a Caucasian ? " ventured Gilpin. 
 
 " Don't joke with him, Ned," exclaimed his 
 wife severely. " Roger Brooke, you ought to be 
 spanked and sent to bed without your supper 
 every night for a year." 
 
 " I know it," murmured Brooke. 
 32
 
 BLUE ANCHOR INN 
 
 " Suppose something should turn up, and they 
 wouldn't grant her a divorce, look what a posi- 
 tion you would be in." 
 
 " The chance of that is not so very remote, 
 either," put in Halsey. " If they found there was 
 collusion " 
 
 " What is collusion ? Is that what I have on 
 my thumb?" 
 
 She held up a pretty white hand for inspection 
 and commiseration. 
 
 " Contusion, my dear, contusion," explained 
 her husband, from his superior pinnacle of knowl- 
 edge. 
 
 " If they found there was collusion," went on 
 Halsey, " that is, that you had arranged it all be- 
 forehand, the machinery of the law would not 
 grant a divorce." 
 
 " That would be simply horrible ! " cried the 
 lady. 
 
 Brooke nodded. 
 
 " The lawyer spoke about that collusion idea," 
 he said, in a moment. " He seemed to be 
 nervous about it. He said I was not to com- 
 municate with him for a year in any way what- 
 
 33
 
 BLUE ANCHOR INN 
 
 ever. That would allay suspicion as to the thing 
 having been fixed." 
 
 " And you didn't know anything about it for a 
 whole year ? " 
 
 " Not until two weeks ago, when I went to see 
 Sprague." 
 
 " Well," demanded Gilpin, " what did Sprague 
 say ? " 
 
 Brooke smiled, a little wanly. 
 
 " They wouldn't grant the divorce ! " cried the 
 young hostess excitedly. 
 
 " Worse than that." 
 
 "Worse than that?" 
 
 " The lady has come on East again. She never 
 even applied for a divorce." 
 
 Gilpin laid down his fork and looked at him in 
 astonishment. 
 
 "What do you make of that? " he demanded, 
 at length. 
 
 "I suppose," said the other shortly, "she 
 didn't want one." 
 
 34
 
 CHAPTER IV 
 
 GILPIN'S round face grew very long. 
 "That is a complication," he exclaimed 
 seriously. 
 
 Mrs. Gilpin gazed at Brooke with ready 
 sympathy. 
 
 " Never mind, it will come out all right," she 
 said, with no especial originality. 
 
 "But what is her game? I feel like Damocles 
 with the sword hanging overhead. Any minute 
 it may drop. I'm liable to her for support, pro- 
 tection, love, honor, obedience, milliners' bills, 
 everything. Every strange woman that looks at 
 me on the street makes the cold chills run up my 
 back. Some day one of them will nip me firmly 
 by the ear and say, ' Come on ! ' and that will be 
 the end of me." 
 
 Gilpin helped himself generously from the 
 platter before him. He turned to Brooke with a 
 cheerful smile. 
 
 " Oh, rot ! " he exclaimed. " You don't sup- 
 35
 
 BLUE ANCHOR INN 
 
 pose the lady has arrived at that state of mental 
 depravity where she actually wants you for a 
 husband, do you ? " 
 
 " Then why didn't she get a divorce when she 
 had a chance ? I've lost pounds worrying over 
 the question. I've got so I don't go out on the 
 street any more than I have to in the daytime, 
 and then I stick strictly to the back ways and 
 alleys." 
 
 " Not really," cried Mrs. Gilpin. 
 
 " It's a humiliating state of affairs. But put 
 yourself in my place. Here you are one minute 
 a care-free bachelor, respected by friends and 
 relatives alike, regarding life, in fact, as a pastime, 
 when suddenly some one touches you on the 
 shoulder, and in a moment you are a married 
 man ! " 
 
 " It's gone to his head, Neddy," sighed Mrs. 
 Gilpin sadly. " We shall have to keep him here 
 during June, while you are taking your vacation, 
 and let him have complete rest." 
 
 Gilpin looked up. 
 
 " What people in your condition need is total 
 relaxation," he observed, emphasizing the fact 
 
 36
 
 BLUE ANCHOR INN 
 
 with his pudgy forefinger. " They should be 
 removed from all possibility of contact with their 
 own particular bete noz'r." 
 
 " Exactly," cried his wife. 
 
 " My better half agrees with me. This should 
 be an omen of good luck. Don't you be dis- 
 couraged, Roger, old boy ; you'll pull through 
 all right." 
 
 "You all talk as if I had softening of the 
 brain," said Brooke, half amused and half re- 
 sentful. 
 
 " Ned," said the fair hostess, taking charge 
 of the situation, " suppose you telegraph to some 
 one in his house to send down a trunkful of 
 things for him." 
 
 " Oh, I couldn't think " began the young 
 
 man. 
 
 Gilpin put his hand on his shoulder. 
 
 " What you need is rest, and absolute quiet, 
 Roger. The possibility of a fellow's wife catch- 
 ing up to him after he thought he was safely rid 
 of her is enough to unnerve any man." 
 
 Mrs. Gilpin sniffed. Her husband's eyes 
 twinkled 
 
 37
 
 BLUE ANCHOR INN 
 
 " That is. in most cases," he went on seriously. 
 " Now, Roger, you have only one job in town, 
 and you said that was held up until they settled 
 a flaw in the title. So what's to prevent your 
 staying ? " 
 
 Brooke could remember only dimly his last 
 vacation, and this being an especially propitious 
 time, nothing seemed to develop to prevent his 
 accepting his hostess' invitation without amend- 
 ment. So before he had time to realize the situa- 
 tion entirely he found himself composing a letter 
 to his roommate asking him to fill a trunk with 
 assorted wardrobe and ship it to him. His 
 roommate was a dependable fellow. It was 
 therefore within the bounds of possibility that 
 ere long this paraphernalia would arrive. 
 
 The mere composing of the letter put him in ex- 
 cellent spirits, and by the time he had finished an- 
 other to the Schuylkill Concrete Pile Company, 
 of which he was the junior partner, saying that on 
 account of his run-down condition he would take 
 advantage of the lull in business and begin his 
 vacation immediately, he was jubilant. He 
 strongly suspected that he would be consider- 
 
 38
 
 BLUE ANCHOR INN 
 
 ably more run down at the office on the morrow 
 than his condition had ever been, but that did 
 not worry him. 
 
 In a moment a load had been lifted from his 
 mind. What could be more joyous and sooth- 
 ing than this island with all its peace and quiet, 
 with none of the complications existing in the 
 city he had left behind, with no strange women 
 present, and with no place for strange women to 
 come from? It was an exhilarating spot. He 
 was glad Gilpin lived there and owned the whole 
 island. 
 
 For at the time of the washing away of the 
 railroad trestle, and the subsequent decline in 
 real estate values on Lugger Island, Ned Gilpin's 
 uncle had held mortgages on most of the prop- 
 erty there, and when land had depreciated to 
 such an extent that it was worth almost as much 
 per square foot as the water surrounding it, he 
 found it necessary, when the notes came due and 
 were not paid, to foreclose. By so doing he 
 came into possession of a large tract of real 
 estate chiefly remarkable for its extent. He died 
 a poor man, and Ned Gilpin inherited the whole 
 
 39
 
 BLUE ANCHOR INN 
 
 island from him. It was rather in the nature of 
 a white elephant on his hands, but he and his 
 wife discovered soon that, as they had little 
 money for vacation frivolities, it made an excel- 
 lent summer place. Except for about a month 
 or six weeks of the year when he stayed on the 
 island all the time, Gilpin went to and from the 
 city every day, accomplishing the first lap of the 
 journey by means of a thirty-five foot motor boat, 
 which was their only means of communication 
 with the mainland. 
 
 It was a glorious place to loaf and breathe the 
 fresh air, as Brooke discovered very soon. At 
 eleven o'clock they all donned their bathing-suits 
 and sauntered down the main street of the town, 
 a broad avenue extending from the Blue Anchor 
 Inn to the sea. There was a wooden sidewalk 
 on one side of the street which had come to a 
 state of senile irritability that caused the boards 
 every once in a while to spring up suddenly upon 
 the unsuspecting pedestrian. The houses lining 
 Main Street were inhabited only by the memory 
 of former days. The porches that once, on the 
 
 approach of meal time, had filled with hungry 
 
 40
 
 BLUE ANCHOR INN 
 
 guests were empty now save for the piles of 
 sand drifted ankle-deep upon them, or for the 
 swinging corpse of a hammock in which many 
 an ardent swain, before the invention of the arc 
 light, had pressed his lady love to his breast. 
 The cross streets were neatly designated by 
 printed boards, and sometimes one could dis- 
 tinguish on the houses numbers which guided 
 the former postman in his delivery of long- 
 forgotten love-letters. 
 
 It will be seen that there was no longer any 
 sizzling gayety at Lugger Island. No band 
 played rag-time all the afternoon. No artists 
 modeled figures in the sand. No one sold salt- 
 water taffy, or Mexican drawn work, or Japanese 
 bric-a-brac. But the beach was one wide stretch 
 of sand, smooth and hard, and almost untouched 
 by human feet ; the waves rolled in and broke, 
 and the whine of no merry-go-round made dis- 
 cord with them. The sky was a clear and solid 
 blue. The gulls flew low and wet their wings 
 in the sea. Less than a quarter of a mile off, 
 standing in somewhat toward the shore, saun- 
 tered a trim yawl, her three sunlit sails cutting
 
 BLUE ANCHOR INN 
 
 the horizon sharply. In the foreground riding 
 the waves was the incoming fisher boat, the 
 spray splashing from her bows as the four men 
 bent to their oars. 
 
 The odor of the brine filled Brooke's nostrils. 
 His youth and animal spirits surged within him. 
 He felt the pleasant physical power that comes 
 from the bright sun, the clear air, an unclouded 
 mind, and a sense of no responsibility. He raced 
 down the beach, and, plunging in, swam far, far 
 out until it seemed almost that the spires of 
 London Town were just out of sight in the 
 distance. 
 
 He also might have had a better view of the 
 yawl with the white sails had he been interested. 
 But he was not, and swam on with an easy over- 
 hand stroke, oblivious of everything save the 
 fact that here, far from the haunts of men, his 
 mind rested in peace. 
 
 42
 
 CHAPTER V 
 
 life-boat with its cargo of fish being 
 * safely landed, his honor the mayor took 
 a turn up the beach. There was a lack of ex- 
 ecutive ostentation about him, a certain Jeffer- 
 sonian simplicity that bespoke familiarity with 
 the life of his constituents. His hands were 
 not afraid of the soil he governed. His clothes 
 were not too good to take the spray of the sea 
 which washed his domain. In fact, the executive 
 costume, once of a full black, had corroded to 
 a moss green under the efforts of the broad 
 Atlantic. No ornaments or insignia of office 
 decorated his person save two bright collar-but- 
 tons, fore and aft, which shone in the sun like 
 the brazen belaying-pins of a revenue cutter. 
 His face was the face of a benevolent despot. 
 He had great white, bushy eyebrows, which 
 almost concealed his kindly bright eyes, a tous- 
 led head of white hair, a long, roistering, pi- 
 ratical beak of a nose, a bushy festoon of beard 
 
 43
 
 BLUE ANCHOR INN 
 
 under his chin, and an expanse of upper lip on 
 which the growth had been impeded to such an 
 extent by the use of some edged tool that it 
 might be said in a manner of speaking to be 
 smooth shaven. 
 
 As he strolled along the sands in the general 
 direction in which his midday meal lay, he kept 
 an anxious eye on the yawl running along close 
 inshore. He had never seen a boat sail so close 
 in before, and was interested to know what would 
 happen to her. Presently he came to the street, 
 close by the spot where the Gilpins and their 
 guests lay basking in the sun, by which he must 
 leave the sandy shore and plunge into the heart 
 of the metropolis in search of his dinner. He 
 paused and saluted the party. 
 
 "What's he running so close in for, cap'n?" 
 demanded Gilpin, who was watching the sail 
 through a pair of glasses. 
 
 The mayor passed his hand through his hair. 
 
 " 'Tain't on account of lack of room," he ven- 
 tured. " Th' ocean's about three thousand miles 
 wide at this particular point." 
 
 Gilpin pointed his glasses again. 
 44
 
 BLUE ANCHOR INN 
 
 "They aren't even heaving a lead. What 
 kind of a sailor is he, anyway ? " 
 
 " I jedge that in early life he was trained as a 
 bookkeeper," returned the mayor. " Yes, sir ; 
 he's sailed over about eleven localities where 
 there's scarcely enough water to wet your feet, 
 and only the angels in heaven could 'a' kept 
 that boat from stickin'." 
 
 " 1 don't see why she hasn't." 
 
 " I don't know ; but I know this," said the 
 cap'n with finality ; " if she doesn't bump soon, 
 rm going to my dinner." 
 
 As if in immediate answer to this ultimatum, 
 the yawl came to an abrupt stop. The man at 
 the wheel took a header over it. People appeared 
 out of the cabin. There was no doubt about it, 
 the yawl was fast aground. The big mainsail, 
 and the little jigger sail abaft the wheel, filled 
 and tugged manfully, driving her further on the 
 bar. Presently the man, who had done the somer- 
 sault over the wheel, loosened the halyards on 
 the jigger, and it came down with a run. The 
 foresail came down next, and finally, after some 
 confusion and delay, the mainsail drooped, the 
 
 45
 
 BLUE ANCHOR INN 
 
 big canvas shook and rippled, and lowered itself 
 slowly out of the landscape with a rattle of rings 
 that could be heard on shore. The yawl stood 
 still like a hitched horse, the masts swinging 
 back and forth with the waves and the incoming 
 waves splashing against her quarter. 
 
 " How soon will she float off ? " asked Gilpin, 
 turning to the mayor. 
 
 " High tide now. Too late to get her off till 
 to-morrow," said the mayor. 
 
 Gilpin rose. 
 
 "That being the case, Captain John, either 
 you and the others will have to go out in your 
 boat after them, or I'll have to bring round my 
 launch." 
 
 Captain John surveyed the sailboat through 
 Gilpin's glasses. 
 
 " There's wimmin aboard that yawl," he an- 
 nounced accusingly. 
 
 Gilpin nodded. 
 
 " I'm not going t' land any more females 
 through the surf," added the captain with 
 finality. 
 
 Extracting a well-built chronometer from his 
 46
 
 BLUE ANCHOR INN 
 
 hip pocket, thereupon he took a reading of the 
 time, and nodding pleasantly to them, strode off 
 up the street, eliminating himself from the sit- 
 uation. 
 
 Gilpin looked out at the stranded yawl cheer- 
 fully. 
 
 " We really must move to some quiet place," 
 he remarked. "There is too much excitement 
 at Lugger Island." 
 
 Whereupon they gathered up their sunshades 
 and other paraphernalia and followed Captain 
 John into the city limits. Arriving at the house 
 they released Willy, the butler, mechanician, 
 horticulturist and man of all work in the Gilpin 
 household, from his job of shelling peas, and 
 putting him in the launch, instructed him to 
 make a daring rescue at sea. Willy, who had 
 grown so blase that the shelling of peas was no 
 longer a pastime, joyfully started the engine 
 and went put-put-putting down the strip of water 
 between the island and the mainland. The others 
 departed to lunch. 
 
 A rescue from a boat stuck in the mud is 
 about as romantic as extracting a fat lady 
 
 47
 
 BLUE ANCHOR INN 
 
 from a broken-down hansom cab. Gilpin was 
 very much annoyed at the whole proceeding. 
 It would be impossible to pull the yawl off be- 
 fore noon on the following day, and meanwhile 
 they would have to take care of the party on 
 board, whatever their character, personal attrac- 
 tions, or numerical strength. This was some- 
 what disturbing. 
 
 Presently, from the window of the dining- 
 room, they could see the launch maneuvering 
 about in an endeavor to come alongside the 
 stranded vessel. This accomplished presently 
 without apparent mishap, the passengers disem- 
 barked. 
 
 The launch backed safely away into deep 
 water, stood still for a moment, and then with 
 her exhaust shooting like a Catling gun, made 
 off down the coast. The masts of the yawl were 
 already beginning to slump, as she listed with 
 the falling tide. 
 
 In about half an hour the launch was heard 
 coming back on the land side of the island, and 
 down they went to the shore to greet their 
 guests. 
 
 48
 
 BLUE ANCHOR INN 
 
 They were rather relieved, however, to find 
 that the party really regarded itself as consisting 
 of but two people, an old man of about sixty, 
 and a slim young woman who might have been 
 anywhere from twenty-five to thirty. The old 
 man was a strange individual. He wore a 
 straw hat that must have been in the family for 
 years. His head was so bald that all that re- 
 mained of his former growth of hair was a little 
 fringe connecting his ears in the back, which 
 looked as if it might have been the lining of his 
 hat hanging down. His suit of clothes, which 
 was of good quality, was very much mussed and 
 had creases and ripples running over it in every 
 direction. There was no system about him. All 
 his trappings and accouterments seemed to be 
 shifting for themselves. His thin gray beard and 
 his moth-eaten mustache, the gold-rimmed 
 spectacles mended at the joint with white thread, 
 all had a go-it-alone appearance as though they 
 had never at any time had any one to take care 
 of them. 
 
 " He looks as if he were made up to be funny," 
 Brooke remarked, under his breath. 
 
 49
 
 BLUE ANCHOR INN 
 
 The young woman was very trim and well 
 dressed. Her small white pumps fitted admi- 
 rably. There was a saucy hang to her spotless 
 duck skirt. Her embroidered shirt-waist and 
 the cascade of real lace at her throat were im- 
 maculate to a fault. She was very attractive to 
 look at. 
 
 There were, besides these two, a young woman 
 who appeared to act in the capacity of com- 
 panion or courier for the lady, a sunburned, 
 weathered person, who was doubtless the skipper, 
 and the broad-shouldered coal-black cook, still 
 wearing the apron he had on when the ship 
 struck the bar. 
 
 The lady came forward with easy self-posses- 
 sion. As Mrs. Gilpin took her hand, she noticed 
 that the newcomer wore jade earrings. She 
 turned to introduce her husband and the others. 
 Then it was she observed that Brooke had disap- 
 peared, but she did not have time to reason out 
 why. 
 
 The old gentleman was waiting behind his 
 companion with an absent expression in his be- 
 nevolent eyes. 
 
 50
 
 BLUE ANCHOR INN 
 
 " Let me present my uncle, Mr. Still," said the 
 lady. 
 
 He shook every one firmly by the hand with 
 willing cheerfulness. Halsey, who felt it was his 
 duty to make conversation, seized upon the first 
 idea that occurred to him and inquired : 
 
 "How did you like that sand-bar ? " 
 
 The old gentleman stared at him. Then he 
 smiled pleasantly. 
 
 " No, thanks," he said in a high, hollow voice, 
 " I never indulge," and hurried forward after the 
 others. 
 
 Halsey followed in a dazed sort of way. 
 
 " I'm sorry," Mrs. Gilpin was saying to the 
 lady, " that you had to run aground, Miss Still, 
 is it ? " she suggested hesitatingly. 
 
 The young woman laughed 
 
 " No," she said " My name is Brooke Mrs. 
 Brooke."
 
 CHAPTER VI 
 
 MRS. GILPIN made it a point never to allow 
 her emotions to get the better of her. She 
 shut her lips firmly and nodded, with a show of 
 indifference. Wild horses could not have dragged 
 from her a confession that the name of Brooke 
 meant any more to her than that of Jones or 
 Smith, or any other monosyllabic appellation. 
 The fact that the newcomer appeared to look at 
 her searchingly, as if to discover what effect the 
 disclosure of her name would have on her, sealed 
 her lips the tighter. The Sphinx herself could 
 not have been more reserved than was Mrs. 
 Gilpin. 
 
 Arriving at the house the shipwrecked lady ex- 
 pressed a desire to change to more presentable 
 attire, her clothes (though it was not noticeable to 
 the average eye) having been splashed and soiled 
 in the transit. The two women therefore repaired 
 to regions above, accompanied by Miss Grey, 
 
 52
 
 BLUE ANCHOR INN 
 
 who bore a suit-case which the coal-black person 
 had brought up from the launch. 
 
 Gilpin and Halsey found themselves seated on 
 the long front porch with the amiable Mr. Still. 
 The two young men were both rather cautious 
 about putting forth a conversational opening. 
 Presently, however, the old gentleman looked up 
 at the sign over the door, which said in faded let- 
 ters, " Blue Anchor Inn." It aroused his inter- 
 est. 
 
 " Do much business ? " he asked genially, still 
 in his toneless voice. 
 
 Gilpin suddenly got the idea the old man was 
 deaf. 
 
 " This is not a real hotel," he shouted. 
 
 Mr. Still waved his hand deprecatingly. 
 
 " It does very well, it does very well," he said 
 soothingly. "All of us can't keep Waldorf- 
 Astorias." 
 
 "This is my private residence," cried Gilpin, 
 his cherubic face very red. 
 
 " Best way to run it," nodded the other com- 
 prehendingly. " Just like a private house. What 
 are your rates?" 
 
 53
 
 BLUE ANCHOR INN 
 
 Gilpin stood up and shouted in the man's ear : 
 
 " This is not a business proposition." 
 
 " Maybe you had better raise your voice a lit- 
 tle," suggested Halsey, adjusting his eye-glasses. 
 " He doesn't seem to hear you." 
 
 Gilpin glanced malevolently at him. Mr. Still 
 recrossed his legs. 
 
 " Business proposition," he observed, turning 
 his kindly eyes toward his exhausted host. 
 " Well, I'll make one. Twenty dollars a week," 
 he declared triumphantly. 
 
 Gilpin lowered his form into a chair. 
 
 " You tell him, Halsey," he gasped. 
 
 Halsey stood up. 
 
 " No ! " he thundered. 
 
 " Twenty-five," replied the other. 
 
 Gilpin grew desperate. He made a trumpet 
 of his hands. 
 
 " No hotel," he vociferated. " Nothing doing." 
 
 He stood up and pretended to erase the sign 
 over the door. 
 
 "Thirty," suggested Mr. Still, smiling with 
 childlike amiability. 
 
 The young man waved his hands wildly and 
 54
 
 SHE STOOD IN THE DOORWAY
 
 BLUE ANCHOR INN 
 
 subsided again into the chair. There was a 
 silence, which was broken presently by the ap- 
 pearance of Mrs. Brooke freshly attired in a 
 spruce linen suit of a strawberry shade, or there- 
 abouts. Mr. Still turned as she stood in the door- 
 way. 
 
 " What a wonderful ear he has for color," 
 commented Gilpin. 
 
 " I forgot to tell you," said Mrs. Brooke regret- 
 fully, " that my uncle is deaf." 
 
 It was impossible to be surprised at this. 
 
 " We discovered it," murmured Gilpin. 
 
 " I am so glad. Uncle never asks any one to 
 repeat. He just makes a guess and takes a 
 chance." 
 
 " Fate was against him to-day. Out of twenty 
 tries he didn't hit the mark once." 
 
 " He does have his off-days," admitted Mrs. 
 Brooke. 
 
 " He is very much annoyed now because we 
 won't take him as a guest at this ' hotel.' " 
 
 The young woman laughed. 
 
 " Poor Uncle Samuel. He's crazy to stay 
 somewhere at the seashore." She went over to 
 
 55
 
 BLUE ANCHOR INN 
 
 the old gentleman, secured his attention, and 
 explained in a natural voice that the house was 
 not a hotel. He looked at the sign combatively, 
 but accepted her word for it without further fili- 
 bustering. 
 
 " Our shipwrecked mariners," said Mrs. Gilpin 
 complacently, " are going to stay to-night in the 
 Other House." 
 
 Her husband looked surprised. The Other 
 House was a cottage further down the street 
 which the Gilpins had furnished in a rather 
 sketchy way, but sufficiently for seashore pur- 
 poses, so that any of their friends who wanted to 
 come down for a week or a month, and travel 
 back and forth, might occupy it. Gilpin, who 
 felt hospitality demanded that they keep the 
 castaways at the Blue Anchor Inn, was about 
 to object to the idea of making them shift for 
 themselves, when his wife hoisted the danger 
 signal, and he, being a sagacious husband, de- 
 sisted. 
 
 " Mrs. Gilpin was kind enough to ask us to 
 stay here," said Mrs. Brooke, "but as we have 
 our own servant and our own food and all our 
 
 56
 
 BLUE ANCHOR INN 
 
 own facilities for taking care of ourselves, it 
 would be an imposition to descend on you like 
 that. The house is just what we want, and I as- 
 sure you we shall be very comfortable." 
 
 The matter was therefore settled in that way, 
 not without some relief to both the young men, 
 who did not relish the prospect of carrying 
 on general conversation with Mr. Still. They 
 trooped off together, therefore, and saw the 
 new arrivals safely domiciled in the Other 
 House, bag, baggage, food, servant, sailing 
 master, lady's companion, and all the other ap- 
 purtenances that go to make up a happy house- 
 hold. 
 
 " Where's Brooke ? " Gilpin exclaimed, as he 
 and his wife and Halsey were returning to Blue 
 Anchor Inn. 
 
 " I think he is in his room," replied Mrs. 
 Gilpin. 
 
 "What's that for?" 
 
 " The lady's earrings scared him off." 
 
 " Were they the material they call jade ? " 
 asked Halsey. 
 
 " The same." 
 
 57
 
 BLUE ANCHOR INN 
 
 " Thunder ! " cried Gilpin. " I didn't get the 
 lady's name," he added. 
 
 "That's the funny part of it. She is a Mrs. 
 Brooke." 
 
 Her husband sank down in astonishment upon 
 the step of the porch. 
 
 " It couldn't be " he began, but stopped 
 
 before expressing the awful thought. 
 
 " No, of course not. The name is a mere 
 coincidence." 
 
 " But suppose it were she ? " 
 
 Mrs. Gilpin shrugged her shoulders. 
 
 " Thank goodness," she said, " we can tow their 
 boat off to-morrow and send them on their way." 
 
 The two men found Brooke in his room lying 
 on the bed reading " Peter Ibbetson " with great 
 contentment 
 
 "What's that woman's name?" he demanded, 
 as they came in, without taking his eyes off the 
 book. 
 
 Gilpin slapped him boisterously on the 
 shoulder. 
 
 " Poor old Roger ! Better stow yourself in 
 the garret now." 
 
 58
 
 BLUE ANCHOR INN 
 
 The man on the bed put down his book with 
 such a tragic air of concern that the others burst 
 out laughing. 
 
 " Do you mean " he began. 
 
 "Sure; name's Brooke!" cried Gilpin, pleas- 
 antly. " Charmin' woman. Sure you'll like 
 her." 
 
 " Like the dickens ! " asserted the other. 
 " Do you know," he added vigorously, " when 
 I saw those confounded ear decorations, I had 
 my suspicions." 
 
 Gilpin chuckled. 
 
 " Had suspicions ? " he exclaimed. " You had 
 a nervous chill." 
 
 " This seems to impress both of you fellows as 
 being particularly humorous," returned Brooke, 
 stiffly. 
 
 The two men laughed and left him to his 
 misery. 
 
 Brooke therefore stayed religiously in his 
 room. At eleven o'clock the next day Willy 
 and Gilpin and Halsey and the skipper of the 
 yawl departed in the launch. Brooke from his 
 window saw them go, and from the other 
 
 59
 
 BLUE ANCHOR INN 
 
 window of the room, facing the sea, he saw 
 them bring the launch close up to the stranded 
 yawl. They maneuvered about for a long 
 while, fastening the hawser first here and then 
 there, backing the launch and starting her again, 
 pulling loose the rope, fouling the yawl, choking 
 off the engine, and going through all possible 
 maneuvers, until finally, as if some one had un- 
 bolted something, the yawl slid off into deep 
 water and was pulled to a safe spot and an- 
 chored. Whereupon the launch went back for 
 her passengers, and Brooke, tired of the room, 
 rejoiced that his period of incarceration was at 
 an end. 
 
 But he was just one step in advance of events 
 as laid out by Destiny, acting under the agency 
 of Mrs. Brooke. Whether it was Mr. Still's 
 whim, or because the fatigue of the day before 
 really had been too much for him, or simply be- 
 cause it was what she herself wanted, was not at 
 all evident She simply came to Mrs. Gilpin and 
 explained that the events of yesterday had been 
 a very great strain on her uncle, and that there- 
 fore she deemed it inadvisable to subject him to 
 
 60
 
 BLUE ANCHOR INN 
 
 a trip on the water so soon. Could it not be ar- 
 ranged for them to stay for a few days more in 
 the Other House until Mr. Still was himself 
 again ? 
 
 Poor Mrs. Gilpin was puzzled. She had seen 
 the old gentleman early in the morning, and he 
 had looked as hale and hearty as could be, and 
 certainly very little in need of recuperation. 
 However, if Mrs. Brooke wanted to stay it was 
 difficult to assign a reason why she should not. 
 So, while she was anxious enough to have her 
 guests go, she explained as gracefully as she 
 could that Mrs. Brooke and her uncle were wel- 
 come to stay as long as Mr. Still's physical wel- 
 fare seemed to demand it. 
 
 This change in plans necessitated a change of 
 anchorage for the yawl. So no sooner had 
 Gilpin and Halsey and the skipper of the yawl 
 and Willy returned with the launch ready to 
 transport the passengers to their destination than 
 they were immediately sent back again to sail 
 the yawl around the island to a safe anchorage 
 in a cove facing the mainland. It would have 
 
 been well if all this change of plans had been ex- 
 
 61
 
 BLUE ANCHOR INN 
 
 plained to Brooke, but as it was not, that young 
 gentleman sat by the window watching the sail- 
 boat riding at anchor, from which vantage point 
 he presently saw the launch on its second trip 
 approach her. It drew alongside and waited for 
 some time. People seemed to be stepping 
 aboard, although he could distinguish little de- 
 tail in the glare of the sun. The launch, having 
 accomplished its purpose, pulled away, the sails 
 ran up on the yawl, up came the anchor, and she 
 stood toward the south with the breeze blowing 
 across her quarter. 
 
 Then, and only then, did he feel safe. He 
 chucked " Peter Ibbetson " at the bed, darted down 
 the stairs three steps at a time and burst out on 
 the front porch where Mrs. Gilpin was entertain- 
 ing Mrs. Brooke, awaiting the return of the men 
 in the launch. 
 
 Brooke stopped in his tracks as if he had been 
 struck. He grasped weakly at the window frame, 
 and stared helplessly at the woman before him. 
 He was as pale as if he had seen an apparition. 
 
 " Mrs. Brooke," said Mrs. Gilpin, without a 
 
 smile, " may I present Mr. Brooke." 
 
 62
 
 BLUE ANCHOR INN 
 
 These two young people eyed each other for 
 several seconds without a word. 
 
 Then Mrs. Brooke bowed and smiled, and Mr. 
 Brooke, in his turn, smiled and bowed.
 
 CHAPTER VII 
 
 WILLY was tinkering with the engine on the 
 launch. Not that it needed to be tin- 
 kered with, having been running with smooth- 
 ness and precision for several weeks, but Willy 
 was a born mechanic, and, as such, felt that it 
 was necessary now and then to give the outfit a 
 thorough going over, which meant wiping all the 
 oil off the machine and anointing it with more 
 of the same oil in the same places ; unwiring the 
 batteries, changing their position, running the 
 engine with half of them, with all of them but 
 one, or with any other different permutation he 
 could think of, and finally fixing them as they 
 were at first ; removing bolts and nuts, smearing 
 the side of his nose and most inaccessible spots 
 behind his ears with grease ; polishing up the 
 brass work, cleaning the fly-wheel and cylinder 
 boxes for one last and final time, and then, hav- 
 ing started it going, sitting in front of it and re- 
 flecting what an indispensable thing a knowledge 
 
 of machinery is. 
 
 64
 
 BLUE ANCHOR INN 
 
 Willy, therefore, was in the midst of this de- 
 lightful operation. The Gilpins' housemaid, an 
 inhabitant of the island to whom Willy's su- 
 perior urban wisdom was a source of greatest 
 wonder, sat on the bank, after the manner of 
 housemaids whose mistresses have departed for 
 a dip in the surf, and observed with satisfaction 
 the scientific investigation of the man in the boat, 
 who babbled on all the while with the easy air of 
 the city bred. 
 
 " Take it from me," he was saying, " there's 
 something phoney about the new dame that's 
 just been washed up on the island. I don't get 
 hep to just what her little game is, you under- 
 stand, but the proper dope on the subject is this 
 don't never trust one of these tidy females that 
 keeps herself so clean it hurts your eyes to look 
 at her." 
 
 The housemaid received this idea in wide- 
 eyed astonishment. 
 
 " Do tell ! " she ejaculated. 
 
 " Well, you know how it is. The skipper on 
 the yawl says she wouldn't never sit on anything 
 but a wicker chair, and every time a fly lit on 
 
 65
 
 BLUE ANCHOR INN 
 
 her shoes she went below and changed 'em. 
 Now a loidy that ain't got any more to do than 
 that has got some mischief up her sleeve. Re- 
 ceive it from me, kid." 
 
 " I seen her a-powdering of her nose oncet," 
 remarked the girl on the bank corroboratively. 
 Such an operation in the eyes of the inhabitants 
 of the island was a thing no virtuous and God- 
 fearing woman would do. 
 
 " I seen her pull that off once or twice too," 
 agreed Willy. 
 
 " Pull it off ? " exclaimed the maiden, who had 
 visions of some sort of modern false appendage 
 to take the place of an inferior one supplied by 
 nature. 
 
 " Help ! " cried the man in the boat. " Hes- 
 ter, you are the real ivy green. I mean, in the 
 language of flowers, that I too have seen her 
 dust the talcum." 
 
 Rather than again appear to be ignorant of 
 the terms used in polite society, Hester accepted 
 this as an explanation. 
 
 " Now I'll put you wise to something," went 
 
 on Willy, stopping the engine and lowering his 
 
 66
 
 BLUE ANCHOR INN 
 
 voice to a confidential pitch ; " this running 
 aground the other day wasrit an accident. They 
 can't fool your Uncle Willy." 
 
 She gazed at him in admiration. 
 
 " How do I know ? " cried he. " Simple. The 
 skipper says to me, ' Willy,' he says, ' don't 
 ever get in wrong like I did and ship as the 
 skipper on a pleasure boat. I tell you why. 
 There ain't no man's nerves yet that can stand 
 it. Now take Decoration Day,' he says ; ' I was 
 laying off to take me a holiday when long 'bout 
 eight in the morning comes the dame and her 
 granddaddy on the first train from Philadelphia 
 and says, get up the ank on the jump.' Then, 
 kid, this skipper fellow has to rustle round and 
 stock up the boat and fill her with ice and the 
 rest of the junk, and all the while the loidy tell- 
 ing him, you understand, to shake a leg and get 
 going." 
 
 Willy dived into the bottom of the boat after 
 a runaway nut, and corralled it just as it was 
 about to hide in a deep crevice where nothing 
 but taking apart the whole craft could have 
 retrieved it. 
 
 67
 
 BLUE ANCHOR INN 
 
 " Now you know, kid," he went on, emerging 
 from this encounter with an oily streak over his 
 eye, " there must be some excitement to get a 
 dame like that up from her downy in the morn- 
 ing so as to get to Isle City by eight o'clock. 
 That ain't no pleasure trip for her. Either she 
 got something on her mind, or her granddaddy 
 has, because the first thing they says to the 
 skipper is, 'Suppose you mosey on down past 
 Lugger Island. We ain't never seen it' The 
 mere fact that's a lie, they being perfectly hep 
 to all the geography of it, makes no difference 
 at all. But when they slides into sight of the 
 place they makes the skipper pull in close to 
 get a view, or at least that's the song they 
 sings him. He says shallow water, but the 
 loidy and the old party shuts him up, and then 
 when they are coming head on to the bar, and 
 he knows it's a bar and shows them the mud in 
 the water all around it, they won't let him pull out, 
 not one inch ; and gee ! how they hit that mud." 
 
 Willy hit the palm of his hand with his fist to 
 convey the idea of the bump that the yawl with- 
 stood. 
 
 68
 
 BLUE ANCHOR INN 
 
 "What good would that do 'em?" asked 
 Hester, bewildered. " People in their right minds 
 ain't going to run a good boat aground a-pur- 
 pose." 
 
 "You can't prove it by me. Of course it 
 wouldn't hurt the yawl to stick in the mud for a 
 day, but besides getting a free ride ashore and 
 a change of scene, I don't see what it netted 
 them." 
 
 "Lots of these city folks is /V/sane," said Hes- 
 ter, generally. 
 
 " You just moving in to that idea ? " her com- 
 panion queried. 
 
 Coming up the main street after their morning 
 plunge could be seen Mrs. Gilpin and the other 
 occupants of Blue Anchor Inn. When Hester 
 saw them she hopped nimbly to her feet and ran 
 swiftly to the kitchen, where she was preparing 
 luncheon for the hungry bathers. 
 
 In the afternoon the inhabitants of the inn 
 were apt to do almost anything that occurred 
 to them. Mr. and Mrs. Gilpin were the last 
 people in the world to attempt to arrange any 
 program for their guests or to spend any un- 
 
 69
 
 BLUE ANCHOR INN 
 
 necessary time worrying about their enjoyment. 
 Guests should be treated like children, and made 
 to learn to enjoy themselves. Mrs. Gilpin, there- 
 fore, having retired for an afternoon nap, and 
 Gilpin and Halsey having elected to go crabbing 
 in the launch, a pastime which bored Brooke to 
 death, he sent them off together with his bene- 
 diction, and picking up a book at random from 
 the table in the hall, departed to the beach, 
 where, under the cool shadow of a one-time 
 hotel, you could hollow out a couch for yourself 
 in the sand and watch the sea with your thumb 
 in the book, happy in the thought that you 
 could read when you wanted to. 
 
 Brooke spent the afternoon thus. In the clear 
 air the sea was a solid dark blue, as if it were 
 done in pastel, and extended far out, unchanging 
 in its tone, to the ruled horizon. A long line of 
 shining whitecaps rode in and burst with a fine 
 glorious roar as far to right and left as he could 
 see. The ships sailed close to shore. The long, 
 black steamship with a red band around its stack, 
 bound for Boston, left a dark streak of smoke 
 
 across the sky and disappeared sidewise over the 
 
 70
 
 BLUE ANCHOR INN 
 
 horizon. A huge seven-masted schooner was 
 loafing easily in the mid distance as though it 
 did not have to get there very soon. Numbers 
 of smaller schooners inched along with similar 
 disregard of time, looking very trim and neat 
 with their white sails, but doubtless loaded with 
 bituminous coal. The sea was full of ideas 
 and things going on. There was such a great, 
 inspiring expanse of it. Here was not the shallow 
 coquetry of the babbling brook, nor the placid 
 unsophistication of the country fields, but the 
 force and poise resulting from experience with 
 man, the elements, and the heavens them- 
 selves. 
 
 Brooke was revolving these things in his mind 
 toward the close of the afternoon, and thinking 
 what an everlasting joy the unpeopled beach 
 was, when suddenly, as he gazed out to sea with 
 half-closed eyes, he became aware of some one 
 approaching. He looked up quickly and dis- 
 covered a white-clad figure that was Mrs. Brooke. 
 His first impulse was retreat. He might have 
 scrambled to his feet and walked rapidly up the 
 beach as though a thought had just struck him,
 
 BLUE ANCHOR INN 
 
 or he might have crawled hastily through the 
 piling under the hotel and hidden in the dark 
 until she disappeared. But both of these being 
 undignified and somewhat pointed, he decided to 
 stand his ground and await developments. She 
 had to pass directly by him in her walk up the 
 beach. Had it been on a city street he might 
 have nodded to her, and deemed it sufficient, but 
 on a big island occupied by only a dozen people 
 the meeting was an event deserving of fitting 
 ceremony. 
 
 As she came within conversational distance, 
 she nodded brightly, and called out : 
 
 " How do you do, Mr. Brooke ? Are you 
 writing verses about the sea?" 
 
 " No," he replied, " not about the sea." 
 
 " I adore this wild, uncivilized place," she ex- 
 claimed conversationally. " It is so primeval and 
 exhilarating." 
 
 Brooke nodded. Of course, he said to him- 
 self, he could tell the instant he saw her immacu- 
 late white suit, her immaculate white pumps, her 
 white gloves, parasol, veil, and all the trappings 
 
 of the city, that she loved this wild, simple life. 
 
 72
 
 IT SOUNDS INTERESTING"
 
 BLUE ANCHOR INN 
 
 She was now almost abreast of him, and he 
 stood up. 
 
 " All this is very delightful," he said, waving 
 his hand. Then he executed what he thought 
 was a stroke of diplomacy. 
 
 " Won't you sit down ? " he asked. 
 
 She looked at the sand, and then at her own 
 spotless attire. 
 
 " No, I thank you. It seems dirty." 
 
 This would naturally terminate the interview, 
 but it didn't. She seemed to feel that some re- 
 turn of his courtesy was necessary. 
 
 " I am taking a constitutional up the beach. 
 Won't you come, too?" 
 
 He looked at the beach and then at his attire. 
 He could not think of any of his clothes that 
 would, by any chance, be injured by his walking 
 up the beach. 
 
 " Thank you," he replied, and paused for some- 
 thing truthful. " It sounds interesting." 
 
 He joined her thereupon, and strolled on up 
 the beach with her. 
 
 " We have had so much clear weather of late," 
 he said, " I am sure it will rain soon." 
 
 73
 
 BLUE ANCHOR INN 
 
 She gave this idea thought. 
 
 " I dislike rain. A rainy day at the seashore 
 is so dismal." 
 
 This was a great conversation ! The distin- 
 guishing quality of the remarks offered so far 
 was that they were so true. Brooke wondered 
 if she too were not just a little overcome by the 
 enormity of the situation. His own embarrass- 
 ment was profound. Did she intend to tell him 
 she was his wife ? If not, was she his wife ? He 
 looked at her sidewise for some distinguishing 
 characteristic in her that would bring to his mind 
 in a rush the picture of the woman he had mar- 
 ried in the lawyer's office a year ago ; but there 
 was nothing about her that induced such a mem- 
 ory, principally because his mind served him so 
 ill as to the appearance of the woman he had 
 married. This person walking up the beach be- 
 side him might be she, or might not. He had 
 no means of deciding that. 
 
 Reason enough for any man to be nervous ! 
 But she did not enter the dreaded field of con- 
 versation. In fact, she appeared pointedly to 
 avoid any topic that had to do intimately with 
 
 74
 
 him or with her, until presently from a fear that 
 she would tell him she was his wife, he worked 
 himself up to a frenzy of curiosity which de- 
 manded the facts in the case. So he plunged 
 boldly ahead, selecting his method of attack with 
 some care. 
 
 " I wonder," he said, with apparent innocence, 
 "if your family of Brookes and my family of 
 Brookes are connected ? " 
 
 It was a deadly speech. But she looked him 
 straight in the eye. 
 
 " I don't know," she replied, with plain indif- 
 ference. 
 
 He was about to hit the wedge another whack. 
 
 " Perhaps your husband " he began. 
 
 " Oh, dorit you think they are perfectly beauti- 
 ful shells ? " she exclaimed suddenly. " I must 
 have some." 
 
 She walked toward the sand freshly wet by the 
 waves, drawing off her gloves as she went. He 
 did not follow her. Searching carefully among 
 the bright colored little shapes, she selected sev- 
 eral that pleased her fancy, and returned with them 
 carefully all tied up in her pocket handkerchief. 
 
 75
 
 BLUE ANCHOR INN 
 
 She was pulling on her gloves. The finger of 
 one of them was caught by a ring. If it had 
 slipped on easily she would have had the glove 
 buttoned before she came very close to him. As 
 it was he caught sight of the interfering gold 
 band before it was covered up. No matter what 
 he had thought before, he could not help being 
 startled now. It was his own seal ring !
 
 CHAPTER VIII 
 
 BROOKE'S first impulse was to settle the 
 whole matter then and there. She was his 
 wife, and they both knew it so why dissemble ? 
 But he hesitated, and that hesitation lost him the 
 opportunity if opportunity it was. The incident 
 overwhelmed him. The uncertainty of her iden- 
 tity had, a few moments before, made him anxious 
 to know and have it over with. But when the 
 actual knowledge came, it was like a dash of cold 
 water. It was too real. He could not bring 
 himself to the point of saying, "You are my 
 wife." Why, this was the first time he had talked 
 to her. His whole system revolted at the idea of 
 having to acknowledge the fact yet. He would 
 wait. 
 
 So he walked home with her almost in silence, 
 answering, disjointedly, her conversation, but she 
 had no idea what he had seen and, consequently, 
 no notion of the unrest within him, so she babbled 
 on about various things, and, if she noticed his 
 
 77
 
 BLUE ANCHOR INN 
 
 abstraction at all, she preferred to ignore it. He 
 left her, finally, without having spoken of the 
 ring. 
 
 Whatever Mrs. Brooke's plans and intentions 
 may have been, departure from the island did not 
 seem to be included among them. During the 
 next week she and her uncle became a part of 
 the island and its institutions. If any one ever 
 thought, or hoped, or feared (according to his 
 disposition in the matter) that they would leave 
 shortly, it was an idle idea. For the island suited 
 them exceedingly, from all outward appearances, 
 and when Mrs. Brooke announced that, on ac- 
 count of the great benefit the clear sea air had 
 been to her uncle, they would stay on as long as 
 they were permitted, no one was surprised, nor 
 were the Gilpins displeased. Ned Gilpin's law 
 practice, never too voluminous, dwindled to ob- 
 scurity in the summer ; and the chance now pre- 
 sented to scrape a little revenue out of the house 
 the newcomers occupied was extremely accept- 
 able. 
 
 The island was rather a sore point with the 
 Gilpins. They could not get rid of it, and they 
 
 78
 
 BLUE ANCHOR INN 
 
 could not very well afford to hold it. The taxes, 
 while light, were for a large acreage, and sundry 
 other expenses were continually arising, which 
 utterly discouraged and demolished any system 
 of retrenchment in the household. Therefore, 
 the prospect of actual rent from the island greatly 
 increased their self-respect. Mrs. Brooke re- 
 ceived cordial cooperation in her idea from the 
 proprietors, in spite of the fact that they sympa- 
 thized with Brooke. But, as that gentleman 
 said, he could go away whenever he saw a storm 
 coming. 
 
 Mr. Still's enjoyment of the place was prodig- 
 ious. He was like some mechanical toy turned 
 loose every morning, guaranteed to run all day. 
 He taxed the ingenuity and patience of every- 
 body. If he saw anybody within hailing distance, 
 he trotted up gladly and captured him for his 
 very own. The disjointed conversations he held 
 with these people were perfectly satisfactory to 
 him. Except when his mind demanded instant 
 information, he disregarded any pearls that might 
 fall from his companion's lips, finding it much 
 easier and much more convenient to guess at 
 
 79
 
 BLUE ANCHOR INN 
 
 their import and continue blandly with his own 
 train of thought. 
 
 He found Captain John the easiest person of 
 all to flush, and spent most of his days in the 
 company of that amiable individual. The cap- 
 tain must have found the old gentleman excellent 
 company, for he would talk to him by the hour 
 without any apparent attempt to make him hear. 
 And Mr. Still, listening with placid good humor, 
 had just as fine a time when he did not hear as 
 when he did. 
 
 Their keenest form of pleasure was crabbing. 
 The old gentleman did not like crabbing, but it 
 was a new experience, and was full of strange 
 excitements, so he always went willingly on the 
 days when the duties at the mayor's office would 
 permit that gentleman to leave, which days were 
 frequent. 
 
 Although it is doubtful if Mr. Still ever fully 
 solved the principle by which a crab is elevated 
 from its home to the interior of the boat, yet he 
 went through certain motions with the utmost 
 cheerfulness. He would lower his piece of 
 
 meat on a string and, when told by the cap- 
 So
 
 BLUE ANCHOR INN 
 
 tain, bring it up again. Then if there chanced 
 to be an actual crab clinging to it, he would 
 carefully remove his far-seeing glasses and put 
 on his near-seeing ones, lean far out of the 
 boat, drop his hat into the water, retrieve the 
 crab and hat at the same time in his net and 
 deposit them both dextrously in Captain John's 
 lap. 
 
 " Cross-eyed fool," the captain would there- 
 upon remark to him in a purely conversational 
 tone. 
 
 Then, overcome with chagrin, Still would 
 study the anatomy of the animal seriously for 
 several minutes, selecting the very best place 
 to seize it, and, grasping it firmly about the 
 waist, immediately between its claws, hold it 
 over the basket and wait for it to let go. He 
 never fully solved the crab problem until he 
 discovered one day in the captain's boat a pair 
 of heavy gloves, reinforced at the fingers with 
 leather. 
 
 His curiosity about all things pertaining to 
 Lugger Island was insatiable. If he divined, from 
 
 such words of the captain's discourse as reached 
 
 81
 
 BLUE ANCHOR INN 
 
 the inner sanctuary of his hearing system, that 
 that person was letting fall facts about the 
 island, or the inhabitants thereof, or the water 
 surrounding it, or the heavens above it, he 
 seemed to compose himself to listen. And 
 when Mr. Still listened, there were very few 
 ideas that escaped him. 
 
 Captain John, therefore, was able to unbosom 
 himself about the community to his heart's con- 
 tent ; and if Mr Still had ever found the infor- 
 mation in demand, he would have been able to 
 state at once, after a few conversations with the 
 mayor, the exact price paid by Mrs. Gilpin for 
 her hall rug, or the amount her servant received 
 per month, or the probable income of her hus- 
 band, or any other such matter of public interest, 
 without stopping to think. The captain ex- 
 plained fully Mr. Halsey's presence in the 
 house, his profession, and estimated yearly 
 earnings. 
 
 " Now," said he, " this Mr. Brooke. He's a 
 triflin' young feller. Spends his time inventin' 
 concrete piles instead o' workin' for a livin'. 
 
 That ain't any way t* get along." 
 
 82
 
 BLUE ANCHOR INN 
 
 The old man nodded gravely. 
 
 " I like th' ole fashioned young man that 
 turns out at sunup and does a day's work be- 
 fore breakfast. Why, when I was a boy I used 
 to row to th' far end o' the island before six in 
 th' mornin', and that's two good mile." 
 
 Mr. Still instantly began to delve in his 
 pockets. 
 
 " Wait a minute," he cried. 
 
 Presently he brought forth a dilapidated note- 
 book and jotted down the figure the captain had 
 named in the first unoccupied spot. 
 
 He took a very vivid interest in useless sta- 
 tistics. His greatest joy was to substitute a 
 piece of lead for the meat on the end of the 
 crabbing line and take soundings of the channel 
 between the island and the land, all of which 
 he noted carefully in various irrelevant spots in 
 the book. 
 
 " Fiddlin* ole fule," Captain John would in- 
 form him irritably, in a low tone. "What 
 makes you act just as if your head was a 
 sponge ? " 
 
 Mr. Still would smile good-humoredly in re- 
 83
 
 BLUE ANCHOR INN 
 
 turn, and drop the lead in the water with a 
 great splash, thereby fanning the mayor's irri- 
 tability into a flame, which would result in his 
 seizing the line, pulling off the lead and re- 
 placing it with a piece of meat. The old gentle- 
 man, following this tactful hint, would thereupon 
 meekly drop the meat into the water and fish 
 and fish. 
 
 He was experimenting with his plumb-line 
 one afternoon as Brooke was walking along the 
 shore. Brooke, who had supposed they were 
 crabbing, cast many a puzzled glance in their 
 direction until he saw the object of these investi- 
 gations was to ascertain the depth of the water. 
 As the boat drew, probably, not more than six 
 inches, and the water was at least twelve or 
 fourteen feet, this performance appeared doubly 
 ridiculous to him. 
 
 He wandered on down the shore. There 
 were certain little blue flowers that bloomed 
 there, which he was intending to gather. But 
 their day seemed to have passed, for he found 
 none. Presently he came suddenly upon the 
 
 cove which was the anchorage of the yawl. The 
 
 84
 
 BLUE ANCHOR INN 
 
 cove was a large semicircular bite out of the 
 land, surrounded by trees, and having rather 
 steep banks instead of the sandy beach that 
 characterized the rest of the island. Here the 
 boat lay anchored very close inshore, so close 
 indeed that a plank had been laid across from a 
 fallen tree to the deck. This made access easy, 
 and the young man, to whom boats and their 
 fittings were always a subject of interest, decided 
 to go aboard. 
 
 Reflecting on the honesty of a community 
 that would allow a sailboat to lie unmolested 
 close to shore without going aboard and taking 
 everything that was not nailed down, he stepped 
 lightly on the tree and was about to run along 
 the plank, when he discovered some one was be- 
 fore him and was coming up the companionway. 
 When she turned toward him, he saw it was Mrs. 
 Brooke. 
 
 He started, but nodded politely. 
 
 " I am so glad to see you," she said, " being 
 bored to death, I have just been thinking if I 
 saw you on the way home to-night I'd ask you to 
 dinner." 
 
 85
 
 BLUE ANCHOR INN 
 
 The prospect rather disturbed him. He did 
 not reply.; 
 
 " Well," she continued, smiling, " will you 
 come ? " 
 
 He could think of no excuse. 
 
 " With pleasure," he said. 
 
 86
 
 CHAPTER IX 
 
 I FREQUENTLY come down here to the 
 boat and nap in the afternoon," said Mrs. 
 Brooke. " The silence on this island at night is 
 so deafening I scarcely sleep at all." 
 
 " I like the silence," replied Brooke. " It 
 soothes my nerves and mellows my disposition." 
 
 She shook her head. 
 
 " I like to be lulled to sleep by street-cars, 
 automobile horns, fire-alarms and people playing 
 tunes on pianos. It sounds like human beings. 
 But here the only sound you hear at night is the 
 vegetables growing." 
 
 " A purely metropolitan idea," commented her 
 companion. " What time is dinner ? " 
 
 This ascertained he presently left her and re- 
 turned to Blue Anchor Inn to change to a some- 
 what more festive garb, and inform his hostess 
 of his invitation. This bit of exciting news caused 
 the exchange of knowing looks all around. 
 
 87
 
 V 
 BLUE ANCHOR INN 
 
 " Well," asked Mrs. Gilpin, " are you glad or 
 sorry you are going ? " 
 
 ' I'm always sorry, of course, to miss one of 
 your excellent " 
 
 " Rubbish," said she, laughing. " Don't evade 
 the question." 
 
 " There is no reason to be sorry," he stated. 
 " Mrs. Brooke has not informed me that she 
 is " 
 
 " Your wife." 
 
 " Exactly. And until she does, I may be in- 
 different about it." 
 
 " You may," observed Mrs. Gilpin, " but you 
 won't." 
 
 Mrs. Brooke was sitting on the front porch of 
 her cottage when he arrived. She had on a light 
 summery dress, conspicuous for its perfect white- 
 ness. There never was such a clean and un- 
 mussed person as she. She moved about and 
 lounged in her chair, and did all the things other 
 people do, but her dress still retained its original 
 spruce air of having been donned the moment 
 before. Brooke approved of her white, well- 
 shaped neck, her round, bare arms, and her gen- 
 
 88
 
 BLUE ANCHOR INN 
 
 eral freshness, which was like a newly-plucked 
 bunch of flowers. 
 
 At the table there were four. Opposite Mrs. 
 Brooke was her uncle, who, after his coat collar 
 had been turned right side out, his necktie 
 coaxed down to the bottom edge of his collar, 
 and a length of iron chain extracted from his 
 pocket, presented a tidy appearance. Brooke 
 was frightened at the idea of having to converse 
 with this formidable person, but made up his 
 mind to make the most strenuous effort possible. 
 Opposite him sat the young Miss Grey, Mrs. 
 Brooke's companion. He had never seen her at 
 close range before, and had to be presented to 
 her. She was very pleasant and pretty and 
 quiet. 
 
 Mrs. Brooke's table was simply a reflection of 
 her own personality. She took a great pride in 
 having it irreproachable. The dishes and linen 
 and table accessories she carried on the yawl 
 were well appearing enough to be a credit to 
 any household. Mrs. Gilpin had said of her 
 that in the two weeks she had been on the island 
 she had learned more about the food problem 
 
 89
 
 BLUE ANCHOR INN 
 
 than they would in the next five years. She 
 had canvassed the island gardens, and found a 
 person who raised asparagus and peas and beets 
 of extraordinary quality. On the main shore 
 she discovered the proper place to go for ber- 
 ries, chickens, beef and a hundred things the 
 Gilpins had purchased directly from a grocery 
 at the point of railroad hesitation where Gilpin 
 took the train for the city. Therefore Brooke 
 enjoyed a very good dinner that night in spite 
 of interruptions in the way of conversation from 
 the amiable Mr. Still 
 
 For, as soon as the old gentleman had his 
 napkin safely tucked into his collar, it became 
 apparent that he intended to assume the burden 
 of entertaining the guest. The guest perceived 
 this tendency with dismay. 
 
 " Mr. Brooke," said the old gentleman, " I 
 understand from my friend the mayor that you 
 have patented a concrete pile." 
 
 Brooke hesitated. He wished to be easy and 
 affable, yet, at the same time, the paramount 
 consideration was to be audible. He filled his 
 
 lungs. 
 
 90
 
 BLUE ANCHOR INN 
 
 "The mayor was correct," he shouted, very 
 red in the face. 
 
 Mrs. Brooke smiled. 
 
 " Modulate it," she said, when the echoes had 
 died away. " Be firm, but not brutal." 
 
 He laughed. 
 
 " I didn't want him to miss anything," he said, 
 a little sheepishly. 
 
 " If he is interested he watches your lips. If 
 he is very much interested he brings out his 
 little telephone." 
 
 Brooke thereupon talked in more comfortable 
 tone and explained one or two things about his 
 invention to the old gentleman. He made his 
 explanation brief and general and of such a na- 
 ture as he conceived would be intelligent to the 
 lay mind. But his companion was by no means 
 satisfied with superficial description. He wanted 
 to get at details. With juvenile persistence, 
 backed up by a mind thirsting for statistical in- 
 formation, he egged the young man on until at 
 last they got to the stage where Brooke found 
 himself explaining things with a knife and a 
 fork and the pepper shakers. Not to be outdone,
 
 BLUE ANCHOR INN 
 
 Mr. Still presently brought out his little tele- 
 phone and most of the time had it so close to 
 the young man's lips that nourishment was im- 
 possible. 
 
 Brooke explained to him the advantages, in 
 the first place, of the concrete pile over the 
 wooden pile, being, in general, durability and 
 greater bearing power. The concrete pile is 
 practically indestructible. The bearing strength 
 of a pile (all this the young man telephoned to 
 Mr. Still) is made up of a great many component 
 forces, the least of which, unlike the post or 
 column in the building, is its bearing at its base, 
 and the greatest the friction of the earth on its 
 sides. 
 
 It must then be very apparent that this factor 
 is by no means constant, as the pile is frequently 
 surrounded by loose sand or by water, which 
 offer little friction. It would therefore be pos- 
 sible for one pile to sustain a weight of ten tons, 
 while another of the same length and thickness 
 would hold up but five tons. Brooke's idea had 
 been to make the pile depend more on the bear- 
 ing at its base. He had therefore given his pile 
 
 92
 
 BLUE ANCHOR INN 
 
 more horizontal surface at that point so it would 
 have the effect of a huge pin head down rather 
 than a huge pin point down. Having arrived 
 at this conclusion, the rest was a simple matter. 
 
 The pile was made, as all concrete piles are, by 
 pouring the mixture into a hollow tube. It was 
 then subjected to pressure until a great knuckle 
 developed at its foot, which gave it some eight 
 or nine times the bearing power. And that was 
 Brooke's pile. Mr. Still devoured all this expla- 
 nation like food and drink, and reviewed the dis- 
 covery from twenty different angles. It was 
 keen enjoyment for him to find a great expanse 
 of brand new facts, the existence of which he had 
 never known before, and rush in pell-mell, gath- 
 ering right and left like a child picking butter- 
 cups. 
 
 Brooke was not so devoid of humor as to let 
 his enthusiasm run entirely away with him. He 
 was perfectly aware of the fact that while he was 
 giving the old gentleman the time of his life, the 
 others were not enjoying the dissertation with 
 equal enthusiasm. Mrs. Brooke listened only oc- 
 casionally, and made side remarks to Miss Grey, 
 
 93
 
 BLUE ANCHOR INN 
 
 commiserating herself for having to sit at her 
 own table and endure such dinner conversation. 
 Miss Grey agreed, but at such times as she was 
 not conversing with Mrs. Brooke, listened to her 
 opposite neighbor, and, if she did not find the 
 subject edifying, at least she was entertained by 
 its exponent. 
 
 At length the dinner was over and Mr. Still, 
 having gorged himself with information, was re- 
 lieved of his telephone, and when that instrument 
 had been put away so that he would know again 
 where to find it, was provided with a tall pitcher 
 of water and sent to bed. 
 
 When it was moonlight all the inhabitants of 
 the island, save the permanent citizens, sought 
 the beach, and sat in all sorts of uncomfortable 
 places for the fun of watching the moon on the 
 waves. Brooke hardly expected his hostess to 
 agree to any such suggestion, involving as it did 
 such sartorial dangers ; but she did accept it 
 readily, and threw him a steamer rug, which, 
 when they arrived at the beach, solved all 
 problems. 
 
 Presently they found themselves propped up 
 94
 
 BLUE ANCHOR INN 
 
 against a sand-bank, reclining at ease on the rug. 
 There was a fine largeness to the night. The 
 long beach had that clean whiteness as if it had 
 been dusted with sugar. The dark shadows were 
 uncompromisingly dark. The logs of driftwood 
 lying on the sand took on new shapes, as of liv- 
 ing things. The old life-boat, half buried in the 
 beach, was like a specter craft plowing her way 
 through some phantom sea, and who could say 
 the austere, forbidding hotel, the depths of whose 
 silent shadows no eye could fathom, was not the 
 festive scene of some ghostly reveling ? 
 
 Brooke looked down at the woman sitting be- 
 side him. She was as uncertain and elusive as 
 the other phantom shapes that populated the 
 beach. What was her game ? 
 
 Why did she not, when she had the golden op- 
 portunity, obtain her divorce from him and be 
 free ? What complication had arisen meanwhile 
 that made her return to him, still his wife ? There 
 was a link in the chain somewhere that he had 
 missed. One thing he felt certain of. She did 
 not know that he was aware of her identity. This 
 enabled him to bide his time. 
 
 95
 
 BLUE ANCHOR INN 
 
 She turned in a moment and found him look- 
 ing at her. 
 
 " Well," she said smiling, " what do you think 
 of the view ? " 
 
 " Good," he replied. 
 
 She clasped her hands behind her head with a 
 luxurious air of indolence. 
 
 " Thank you," she said, daringly. 
 
 He looked up in surprise. 
 
 " Are you responsible for the view ? " 
 
 " As much of it," she vouchsafed, glancing at 
 him out of the corners of her eyes, " as you were 
 looking at." 
 
 He laughed. She began to be interesting. 
 
 " I didn't realize," he said presently, " how I was 
 staring." 
 
 " Oh, I don't mind. I like to be looked at of 
 course." 
 
 When she smiled the corners of her mouth 
 lifted only a little. She had an amused air, as if 
 she had withdrawn from herself and were watch- 
 ing the conversation between them from a 
 distance. 
 
 "That is a sign you have a clear conscience," 
 96
 
 BLUE ANCHOR INN 
 
 he suggested. This brought the talk a little too 
 near his thoughts, but he wondered if he could 
 displace her self-possession. 
 
 But she laughed. 
 
 " Or a clear complexion," she amended. 
 
 There was no apparent reply to this. Her 
 easy, nonchalant way of taking care of herself 
 entertained him exceedingly. He could not help 
 thinking, since this was his wife, he was glad she 
 was so human, and that her wits were always 
 about her. She was attractive more attractive 
 than most women. Perhaps, he thought, as time 
 wore on, as they grew to know each other better, 
 and therefore to understand each other. . . . 
 Well ! there was no limit to the wonders time 
 could work. 
 
 She glanced up at him once more. 
 
 " A penny for your thoughts," said she. 
 
 " They are entirely too undeveloped as yet," 
 he replied, " to be for sale." 
 
 97
 
 CHAPTER X 
 
 WHEN Brooke returned to Blue Anchor 
 Inn at about eleven o'clock, he found 
 Halsey sitting up reading a muck-raking maga- 
 zine. Halsey looked over his glasses. 
 
 " Nice time o' night for an old married man to 
 come rolling in," he observed. 
 
 Brooke smiled placidly. 
 
 " My youth is imperishable," he explained, 
 extracting a cigarette from his companion's 
 open box. 
 
 " Have an enjoyable time in the society of the 
 widow ? " 
 
 " Very. Why do you call her a widow ? " 
 
 Halsey swung his glasses on their wide black 
 string. 
 
 " The term per se is one of endearment, and 
 distinction and sympathy. But in due course 
 of time you will be able to eliminate the neces- 
 sity for this last item." 
 
 98
 
 BLUE ANCHOR INN 
 
 " What do you mean? " 
 
 " I mean that your condescension is increas- 
 ing. You allow the lady to eat out of your hand 
 almost whenever she wants to." 
 
 Halsey merely meant this to be a serious state- 
 ment of fact, but it made Brooke laugh. 
 
 "A most ungallant remark," he said. 
 
 "Not in the least. The lady in question, 
 whether for reasons of expediency, or necessity, 
 or you will pardon the suggestion affection, 
 has assumed the rdle of aggressor. I therefore 
 consider it no discourtesy to refer to her actions 
 from that standpoint." 
 
 " But what reasons of expediency or necessity ? 
 the third thing you mentioned being an ab- 
 surdity." 
 
 "Legal reasons," responded Halsey. "The 
 sincerity and force of your marriage may have 
 been questioned in court. Perhaps the phrase- 
 ology of the will was such that some one may be 
 able to prove that a merely nominal marriage 
 will not fulfil its conditions." 
 
 " I see." 
 
 
 
 " I said, perhaps" went on the other, anxious 
 99
 
 BLUE ANCHOR INN 
 
 to present the case in all its phases. "It is a 
 possibility I present for your consideration. My 
 personal opinion is that she is lonely, and being 
 legally united to you, has come to look over the 
 situation before attempting to sever the vincula 
 matrimonii" 
 
 "That's a preposterous situation." 
 
 " On the contrary, it is a very sensible idea. 
 If there is, by any chance, a possibility that you 
 two would be happier together than apart, why 
 separate ? " 
 
 "True enough," assented the other thought- 
 fully, " but as regards her own temperament, 
 would her let us call it womanly modesty, for 
 want of a better term allow her to appear to 
 pursue any man ? " 
 
 " Any man, no. But her own husband ? " 
 
 Brooke rose, and strode up and down the 
 room. 
 
 " Was ever any man in such a position ? " 
 he said, and then began to laugh. " I feel as if 
 I were being angled for like a speckled fish in a 
 stream." 
 
 There was a silence. 
 
 100
 
 " She is a very pleasant woman," observed 
 Brooke, presently. 
 
 " Cuisine satisfactory ? " 
 
 " Never knew better." 
 
 " Did she have something cold for you when 
 you came back from the beach ? " 
 
 " What a fellow you are for deducing things. 
 You bet she did. Tiny sandwiches with a slice 
 of tomato within, and shandy-gaff." 
 
 " Perfect treasure," murmured the other. 
 
 Brooke looked at him hard. 
 
 " Roger," said Halsey at length, peering 
 through his glasses, " best wishes, old man. 
 Go after her, vi et armis." 
 
 His companion produced his watch and began 
 winding it thoughtfully, but did not reply. 
 
 Halsey picked up his muck-raking magazine, 
 preparatory to reading more about the iniqui- 
 ties of a huge monopoly which appeared to be 
 sapping the life blood of the nation without any 
 one, up to this time, being aware of it but the 
 editors of this particular magazine. 
 
 "By the way," said Brooke, on the bottom 
 
 step of the stair, "since you have bee'n so 
 
 101
 
 BLUE ANCHOR INN 
 
 curious about my goings and comings, what 
 keeps you out of your bed at such an unearthly 
 hour?" 
 
 The other finished reading his paragraph. 
 
 " I was observing a few social amenities." 
 
 " Chatting pleasantly with the moon ? " 
 
 " I a made a call," vouchsafed the other, a 
 little embarrassed. 
 
 " The saints preserve us ! Where ? " 
 
 Halsey began cutting the pages of the maga- 
 zine with exaggerated care. 
 
 " You having one of the ladies, what was there 
 left?" 
 
 " Miss Grey 1 " 
 
 The other nodded. 
 
 " Help ! " cried Brooke. 
 
 He sank into a chair. 
 
 " How long has this been going on ? " he asked 
 severely. 
 
 " Four festive occasions, thus far," responded 
 Halsey, reluctantly. 
 
 "The social gayety of this place makes a 
 fellow's head ache. Well, Herbert, I wish you 
 
 good luck." 
 
 102
 
 BLUE ANCHOR INN 
 
 He gathered up his coat and started up-stairs 
 again. 
 
 " Is this young person a lady ? " he asked. 
 
 The other took up his book. 
 
 "My dear Roger, am I a gentleman ? " 
 
 Brooke raised his eyebrows and went on up 
 the stair. 
 
 " Good-night," he said. 
 
 " Good-night." 
 
 As Brooke was dressing in the morning he 
 saw old Mr. Still stepping blithely along in the 
 direction of the mayor's residence. Regularity 
 at his meals was not one of the old gentleman's 
 strong points. He was apt, when anything was 
 on his mind, to rise with the first crack of dawn, 
 blunder into his clothes by a process of falling 
 over furniture and dropping shoes and toilet 
 articles until the whole house was wide awake, 
 attack the refrigerator and walk obliviously down 
 the street with half a cantaloup in one hand and 
 a piece of Edam cheese in the other. 
 
 This morning he found Captain John seated 
 on his door-step reading with interest day before 
 
 yesterday's paper. 
 
 103
 
 BLUE ANCHOR INN 
 
 " John," he said with easy good humor, " get 
 your boat." 
 
 <l Hey," cried the captain, still reading his 
 sheet. 
 
 " Get the boat. We're going on a sightsee- 
 ing trip." 
 
 " Oh, 's thet so ? " responded the captain, 
 into the midst of his paper. 
 
 " What' re you reading?" 
 
 " Paper." 
 
 " Let me read it while you get the boat." 
 
 The mayor laid down the paper in surprise. 
 Still picked it up and was soon deep in the news. 
 
 " Well 1 " ejaculated the other. 
 
 " Tears t' me 's if the number of crazy people 
 is increasin'," he said at length, and went after 
 the boat. 
 
 Mr. Still devoured the news while Captain 
 John was bringing the craft around to the 
 wharf. Just as he was folding the paper up 
 preparatory to returning it, his eye fell on a 
 small item. This he read with interest, and 
 producing his pocket-knife, cut it out and stored 
 
 it in his pocket. 
 
 104
 
 BLUE ANCHOR INN 
 
 " John," he said pleasantly, as he sat in the 
 boat, " let's you and me go look at the place 
 where the railroad used to come across to the 
 island." 
 
 " All right," grumbled the mayor, " and after 
 thet I'll pint out th' place where th' whale 
 swallered the train." 
 
 This biting piece of sarcasm was lost on Mr. 
 Still. 
 
 " Was it built on piling ? " he asked, not re- 
 ferring to the whale. 
 
 " They built it on mos' everything," acceded 
 Captain John. "They built it on pilin' and 
 thet rotted. They built it on stones which every 
 now and agin disappeared in the mud. And 
 fin'ly when the whole thing washed away and 
 some engineer fellows told 'em they'd have to 
 sink cay-sons and build stone abutments, they 
 give the whole idee up." 
 
 " I want to see the piles," remarked the old 
 gentleman, whose interest in this subject was 
 thoroughly aroused. 
 
 " Well, all you got t' do is t' look," responded 
 
 the mayor, and bumped the boat into the head 
 
 105
 
 BLUE ANCHOR INN 
 
 of a pile just below the surface. Poor old Mr. 
 Still's head bounced forward as if it were going 
 to come off at the neck, and his hat and glasses 
 fell down into the boat. 
 
 " See that one ?" inquired the captain, sympa- 
 thetically. 
 
 " Why, no," returned the old gentleman, 
 simply. 
 
 Captain John bumped into another. 
 
 " See that one ? " he asked, as his companion 
 slid off the seat and occupied a lowly position on 
 the floor of the boat. 
 
 " I think," said he, " since they are coming 
 along so fast, you had better stop rowing while 
 we watch them go by." 
 
 The captain, absolutely pleased with the suc- 
 cess of his humor, stopped rowing. Still 
 patiently searched for his spectacles and hat, 
 and putting them on, with no show of irritation, 
 poked gravely at the pile under water with the 
 blade of an oar. 
 
 " 'Pears t' be made o' wood, don't it ? " de- 
 manded Captain John, soberly. He had never 
 
 seen a person with such aggravated symptoms 
 
 1 06
 
 BLUE ANCHOR INN 
 
 of insanity as Mr. Still exhibited, and he felt it 
 incumbent on him to essay humorous speeches 
 on the subject. 
 
 " Seen all you want t', Aunt Susan ?" he asked 
 at length. 
 
 But Still had not. They rowed up and down 
 along the piling. Every now and again, to the 
 captain's complete disgust, Still would stand up 
 in the boat and drop the lead into the water with 
 all the enthusiasm of a boy dropping a penny in 
 the slot. These soundings he entered carefully 
 in his note-book in the first vacant spot. 
 
 " What's the object o' all thet?" demanded the 
 other on one of these occasions. 
 
 " How should I know how deep it was if I 
 didn't?" 
 
 Captain John determined to test his insanity, to 
 see if it were acute or merely chronic. 
 
 "And then what'll you do with the informa- 
 tion ? " 
 
 " John," said the old gentleman in a man-of- 
 the-world tone, " suppose I were to rebuild the 
 trestle ? " 
 
 Captain John picked up his oars. 
 107
 
 BLUE ANCHOR INN 
 
 " You ain't got many more years o' freedom," 
 he vouchsafed, and pulled back toward the 
 wharf. 
 
 That evening when Mrs. Brooke was remov- 
 ing from the old gentleman's pockets the day's 
 haul of old pulleys, pieces of rope, scrap-iron and 
 other useful junk, she discovered the clipping he 
 had taken from Captain John's newspaper. He 
 explained to her that he had brought it home for 
 her to read. It bore the date line of a city in the 
 far West, and read somewhat as follows : 
 
 " CHANGES HER MIND ALWAYS A 
 WOMAN'S PRIVILEGE 
 
 " Mrs. Roger Brooke, of Philadelphia, 
 who came West with the intention of 
 securing legal separation from her hus- 
 band, has found after mature considera- 
 tion that she does not want a divorce, 
 and has left for the East again in search 
 of her husband." 
 
 Mrs. Brooke smiled. Then she struck a match 
 and holding the clipping by one corner, burned 
 it up. 
 
 1 08
 
 CHAPTER XI 
 
 MISS GREY sat on the gunwale of the yawl, 
 gazing out to sea and swinging her bare 
 feet in the water overside. It was a biting hot 
 day. Not a cord on the boat was stirred by 
 breeze of any sort. The only cool thing she had 
 heard of all that day was the water in which she 
 paddled. 
 
 A step sounded on the shore behind her. 
 
 " May I come aboard ? " said a brisk voice. 
 
 She looked dubiously at the unprotected 
 members, as if she would reprove them for their 
 indiscretion, and turned her head with a radiant 
 smile. 
 
 " I don't know, Mr. Halsey," she cried over 
 her shoulder. " Listen." 
 
 She splashed her feet in the water. 
 
 He stood still in embarrassment. 
 
 " They say it's next to godliness," he ventured 
 at length. 
 
 She laughed aloud at him. 
 109
 
 BLUE ANCHOR INN 
 
 " I think I will walk back through the pines," 
 he observed, " and call on you in a few min- 
 utes." 
 
 "Say five," she suggested. 
 
 Whereupon he departed with unruffled dignity 
 and returned again at the appointed time to find 
 her sitting on the deck house with her feet, 
 decently clad in white stockings and pumps, 
 stuck out impudently before her. 
 
 " The day," he said, " has been hot." 
 
 " And so have I." 
 
 " I hope you are refreshed after your 
 your " 
 
 " Bath ? " 
 
 " Oh, no," he replied, having revised his ideas 
 on the subject. " Some term less utilitarian and 
 more " 
 
 " More ? " 
 
 " More nymph-like." 
 
 " Thank you, Mr. Halsey." 
 
 " What then would you suggest ? " 
 
 " I should suggest ' bath.' " 
 
 He nodded gravely. 
 
 "Having then argued ourselves around a 
 no
 
 BLUE ANCHOR INN 
 
 circle, tell me whether any limit has yet been set 
 to your stay on Lugger Island." 
 
 " So far none. I grieve that I cannot give 
 you better news." 
 
 " True," returned he, with a weighty facetious- 
 ness, " You could not give me better news." 
 
 She laughed. 
 
 " You had a guest to dinner last night," he 
 said at length. 
 
 She looked at him curiously. 
 
 " Perhaps before you leave the island," rumi- 
 nated he, " he may become a part of your house- 
 hold permanently." 
 
 She surveyed the bows on her shoes with in- 
 terest. Then she looked up brightly. 
 
 "Is there such a possibility?" she asked, 
 naively. 
 
 " Well, Mr. and Mrs. Brooke I mean Mr. 
 Brooke and Mrs. Brooke are seeing a great deal 
 of each other." 
 
 She made a little mouth. 
 
 " Don't you think it is strange," he went on, 
 as if endeavoring to interest her with a new idea, 
 
 " that they should both be named Brooke ? " 
 
 in
 
 BLUE ANCHOR INN 
 
 " Why," she said 1 , with no intention to deceive, 
 " I think one of them might very well have been 
 named say, Stream." 
 
 She looked at him with a cheerful, impu- 
 dent smile. He did not quite understand her 
 banter. 
 
 " I wish to say that you are very exasperat- 
 ing," he said at length. " I ask you for informa- 
 tion, and I get nothing but dimples." 
 
 " After all, Mr. Halsey, if there were a choice 
 between the two " 
 
 She smiled. He polished his glasses reflect- 
 ively. 
 
 " Well, if it were reduced to that " he be- 
 gan. 
 
 " Yes " 
 
 "I think I might dispense with the informa- 
 tion." Which only goes to show that some 
 witnesses cannot be browbeaten. 
 
 " I never knew such a hot day," she exclaimed^ 
 at length. 
 
 " What can you expect?" he replied, promptly. 
 " Do you realize that in the month of June the 
 sun is nearer to us than to the people living on 
 
 112
 
 BLUE ANCHOR INN 
 
 the Equator ? We must naturally expect to have 
 tropical weather." 
 
 " But that doesn't make it any more comfort- 
 able." 
 
 " Of course not. However, isn't it interesting 
 to consider that the people in the tropics, who 
 are wearing linen suits and cork helmets, are not 
 receiving any more heat from the sun than we 
 are at this moment ? Now, isn't that a surpris- 
 ing fact ? " 
 
 " Is it true ? " she said. 
 
 " Of course it is true. It is an established fact." 
 
 She smiled pleasantly. 
 
 "I don't know why you don't bore me to 
 death, Mr. Halsey," she said. "Your mind is 
 all full of facts with briars on them. And you 
 keep sticking them into me until I haven't any 
 peace of mind left." 
 
 " But they are instructive pieces of information. 
 You ought to think about such things." 
 
 " I don't want to think about things that don't 
 interest me c When I see a pretty green leaf, I 
 don't want to have you tell me as you did the 
 other day the thing which makes it green is a
 
 BLUE ANCHOR INN 
 
 fluid called chlorophyl, or something like that, 
 which is deadly poison." 
 
 " That's just what makes the world interesting," 
 he cried, eagerly. " That is finding out exact in- 
 formation about the things around you, which is 
 necessary for every intelligent being. Or else 
 what is the use of having a mind ? " 
 
 She tied a knot idly on the end of her hand- 
 kerchief and then untied it again. 
 
 " Of course you understand," she said, " that 
 that point of view takes all the human interest 
 out of life. There are certain things, like hydro- 
 chloric acid, for instance, that you can't consider 
 except in a scientific way. But you don't want 
 to be made to consider every flower as a chem- 
 ical formula, and the condition of the weather as 
 a problem in astronomy." 
 
 " It trains your mind," he insisted. 
 
 " I know," she replied, " and I suppose I am 
 going right on until the end of time allowing you 
 to practice vivisection on my intellect, and graft 
 into it a thousand foreign ideas that have no 
 place there." 
 
 He looked uncomfortable. 
 114
 
 BLUE ANCHOR INN 
 
 " Of course," he said, stiffly, " if my conversa- 
 tion does not entertain you, I can make an effort 
 to discuss other things. I have simply been talk- 
 ing about subjects which were of interest to me." 
 
 She laid her forefinger for an instant on his 
 sleeve. 
 
 " No, no," she cried, " I did not wish you to 
 take it that way. Of course I like what you talk 
 about. To prove it, I want to know now why 
 this white paint has all the network of little lines 
 running through it ? " 
 
 He glanced at the paint on the gunwale and 
 his eye brightened. 
 
 " Why," he began, eagerly, " it is because 
 they used zinc in the paint instead of white lead." 
 
 And she listened through the remainder of the 
 dissertation with an amiable toleration, and 
 parted from him later almost with the conviction 
 that she had enjoyed herself. 
 
 " I don't see the use," remarked Mrs. Gilpin, 
 at the dinner table that night, " of my having 
 two men as guests if they always run off and 
 leave me with no one to amuse me but my hus- 
 band."
 
 BLUE ANCHOR INN 
 
 Halsey, who had never given the subject 
 thought before, felt a smiting of his conscience. 
 
 " I'm sorry," he said. " I fear I have neglected 
 my hosts." 
 
 Brooke looked up cheerfully. 
 
 " That's not the way to proceed with this con- 
 versation, Herbert," he interrupted. "You'll get 
 stung sure as fate if you do. What you should 
 say is, ' Mrs. Gilpin, it is very sweet of you to 
 notice our absence.' " 
 
 Mrs. Gilpin laughed. 
 
 " As though I could help noticing it," she ex- 
 claimed. 
 
 Gilpin leaned back in his chair. 
 
 " But isn't Halsey marrying rather beneath 
 him ? " he inquired gravely. 
 
 " Tut, tut," cried the person in question, 
 " aren't you rather jumping at conclusions ? " 
 
 Gilpin's round face beamed with delight. 
 
 " What I meant," he went on, " is, won't it be 
 rather a preposterous situation for Halsey here 
 to marry the lady's maid of the wife of our friend 
 Brooke." 
 
 Halsey grew very earnest. 
 116
 
 " To begin wfth," he announced, " Miss Grey 
 is no ordinary lady's maid. I mean by that she 
 comes of a good family. But both her mother 
 and father died when she was very young, and 
 she has to support herself. She does not im- 
 press me as having the air of a lady's maid." 
 
 " Certainly not," said Gilpin, humbly. 
 
 " But what puts every one in this match-mak- 
 ing humor ? " demanded Brooke. 
 
 Mrs. Gilpin made a mouth. 
 
 " Match-making," she cried, disdainfully. " It 
 isn't worth the trouble. This affair of yours is 
 the most hopelessly unromantic thing I ever 
 heard of. When it's all settled, there won't be 
 any engagement, or trousseau, or reception, or 
 things to eat, or anything exciting. I call that 
 a poky old affair." 
 
 " Also," observed Gilpin, his spherical face 
 wreathed in smiles, " there won't be any presents." 
 
 " Miss Grey," Mrs. Brooke was saying about 
 the same time, " what about this Halsey man ? " 
 " I don't know," replied the girl, cautiously. 
 
 " What do you think ?" 
 
 117
 
 BLUE ANCHOR INN 
 
 " Well, I don't want to hurt your feelings, dear, 
 but I should class him as a bore." 
 
 Miss Grey nodded. 
 
 " Of course he is." 
 
 " Good-bye, then," Mrs. Brooke cried. " There 
 are few women who can resist marrying a bore." 
 
 " Oh, no ! " the girl exclaimed incredulously. 
 
 " It's the truth. It seems to be the nature of 
 the female of the species. If she sees that a man 
 is putting himself out to make her uncomfortable, 
 she takes a joy in allowing herself to be pun- 
 ished." 
 
 " Mr. Halsey is so interested in the things he 
 says." 
 
 " Of course. Bores are always sincere." 
 
 The girl smiled. 
 
 " But he appears to be making an earnest 
 endeavor to interest you to enable you to see 
 things the same way he sees them. He has 
 made it a practice to pick up information on 
 every subject ; so that, if a man on the witness- 
 stand says the buttons on his coat are bone 
 buttons, he can contradict him and say they are 
 
 celluloid." 
 
 118
 
 BLUE ANCHOR INN 
 
 " And he bullies you into listening ? " 
 
 "Yes," she replied, meekly, "I suppose he 
 does." 
 
 Mrs. Brooke folded up her embroidery 
 
 " I can see the end of this story without read- 
 ing the last chapter," she announced. 
 
 " No, indeed," cried Miss Grey, laughing. 
 " My husband must be a man that is congenial." 
 
 " That's what we all say theoretically ! But 
 in practice, if a man comes along who is not 
 congenial but has the perseverance to bully the 
 woman into it, she takes him with thanks." 
 
 " And is sorry." 
 
 " Oh, perhaps not. A conscientious woman 
 appears to derive a certain amount of righteous 
 satisfaction from enduring the conversation of 
 her husband." 
 
 The girl threaded her needle carefully. 
 
 " Still," she observed, " I don't want to marry 
 Mr. Halsey." 
 
 " That is another bad sign," said Mrs. Brooke. 
 
 119
 
 CHAPTER XII 
 
 ON the following day Miss Grey was mak- 
 ing herself a shirt-waist, which, like all 
 shirt-waists in process of construction, had to be 
 finished before lunch time. As she and Mrs. 
 Brooke sat on the porch of their house, Halsey 
 came into view and approached them with long 
 strides. 
 
 " Good-morning," he said, with his usual di- 
 rectness. " Are you going walking with me, 
 Miss Grey ? " 
 
 This was characteristically awkward, leaving 
 poor Mrs. Brooke, as it were, stranded on a lee 
 shore. 
 
 " Can't do it," replied the girl. 
 
 " Do go, Miss Grey ; the sea air will do you 
 good," urged Mrs. Brooke promptly, with a 
 covert smile. 
 
 " I must finish this shirt-waist." 
 
 " Take it with you," he said. 
 1 20
 
 BLUE ANCHOR INN 
 
 " No-o. Couldn't we take the walk to-mor- 
 row?" 
 
 " I have something I want to say to you to- 
 day." 
 
 Miss Grey hesitated. Then she folded up her 
 sewing. 
 
 "All right, I'll go." 
 
 She turned to Mrs. Brooke. 
 
 "Won't you come?" she suggested, and the 
 corners of her mouth turned up just a trifle. 
 
 Halsey set his teeth. 
 
 " No, thank you," replied Mrs. Brooke. 
 
 Whereupon the young man nodded to her and 
 proceeded to carry off Miss Grey immediately, 
 before there could be any opportunity for recon- 
 sideration. 
 
 She was excited and curious to know why he 
 wanted to see her so urgently. He did not 
 talk to her at first, but stalked along solemnly 
 beside her. He was a difficult person to be 
 natural with unless he were talking, and she 
 always went ahead cautiously, with a care- 
 ful eye for hidden rocks in his disposition. 
 
 This gave him a certain control of the situ- 
 
 121
 
 BLUE ANCHOR INN 
 
 ation which she did not actually resent, but 
 which puzzled her. She knew that simply in 
 order to be comfortable she would always hand 
 over the reins to him when she was in his com- 
 pany. 
 
 They walked along the streets between the 
 tumble-down houses, and when they came to one 
 particularly withered specimen of a residence 
 which had settled so on its foundations that there 
 were no horizontal or perpendicular lines at all 
 in it, he stopped, and they went in. 
 
 " Let's sit here," he observed, indicating the 
 dingy stair. 
 
 It did not seem natural, but she would have 
 been surprised if he had suggested anything 
 else. She seated herself on the bottom step 
 without comment 
 
 " I have been considering our talk of yester- 
 day," he began ; " about my style of conversa- 
 tion, you know." 
 
 She nodded. 
 
 " So that was what was on your mind," she 
 thought. 
 
 " I don't understand, quite," he went on. 
 122
 
 BLUE ANCHOR INN 
 
 " Don't all people talk about only the things 
 which they are thinking of ? " 
 
 " But all people," she said smiling, " don't 
 think about the same things." 
 
 " I understand that all people are not alike. 
 But in what way do I seem peculiar ? " 
 
 " Well, for instance," she said slowly, " I am 
 wearing a crimson necktie. Suppose I said I 
 thought that shade was particularly becoming to 
 me. It wouldn't be an especially graceful 
 speech on my part, but as I think it I should 
 be apt to say it. What would you reply to 
 that?" 
 
 He considered a moment. 
 
 " I suppose I should be apt to say that that 
 shade was made with the dye from cochineal 
 insects." 
 
 " Exactly," she cried. " But the average man 
 would probably have told me it was becoming 
 on account of the contrast it made with my hair." 
 
 " Is that a better style of conversation ? " he 
 demanded, incredulously. 
 
 " Most minds seem able to assimilate it with 
 
 less effort," she replied. 
 
 123
 
 "But, in my case, do you wish me to talk to 
 you like that ? " 
 
 She laughed. 
 
 " I am afraid you couldn't." 
 
 He frowned. 
 
 " Then what is the remedy ? Not to talk at 
 all?" 
 
 " Certainly not. I am not attempting to 
 change the leopard's spots. Whenever you wish 
 to talk to me " she thought of Mrs. Brooke as 
 she said it " I shall always enjoy anything you 
 have to say. You must never take any of my 
 criticisms too seriously." 
 
 He was silent for a moment. 
 
 " I am very glad," he said. " You are the 
 only girl " 
 
 He hesitated. She looked at him curiously, 
 wondering what this talk was leading to. 
 
 "The only girl what shall I say whom I 
 ever enjoyed conversing with. There seems to 
 be a sympathy between us. And when I 
 thought last night that perhaps I was peculiar 
 and I wearied you " 
 
 " Nonsense," she said. 
 124
 
 BLUE ANCHOR INN 
 
 " When I thought that, I could not wait until 
 I saw you and found out." 
 
 She nodded. He was looking straight into 
 her eyes. Then he reached forward and took her 
 hand. She felt everything was going too fast. 
 She must do something to divert him. With a 
 deft movement she pushed her watch through 
 her belt and it fell on the wooden step. That 
 broke the spell and at the same time the crystal 
 of the watch. 
 
 He instantly forgot what he was going to say 
 and reached for the watch. In a second he had 
 the back of it open and was examining its in- 
 terior with the aid of a pocket magnifying glass. 
 Having pronounced that uninjured, he delicately 
 and skilfully removed the crystal from his own 
 watch and replaced it on hers. When they went 
 out from the house upon the hot street ten min- 
 utes later, he had apparently forgotten their 
 previous conversation. 
 
 Brooke saw them come out of the house, and 
 smiled reflectively as he followed slowly down 
 the street. He was strolling idly toward the 
 sea, wondering what marvelous force of nature 
 
 125
 
 BLUE ANCHOR INN 
 
 made it possible for the hot air to remain so ab- 
 solutely stationary ; he was suddenly surprised 
 to hear his name called, and, turning round, dis- 
 covered old Mr. Still trotting along after him. 
 It took but one glance to see that he was in the 
 midst of a statistical convulsion. His hat was 
 thrust on the back of his shining head, his face 
 was red with excitement, his hands trembled, and 
 all the pores of his skin were open ready to re- 
 ceive information. He grasped Brooke firmly by 
 the coat lapel. 
 
 "Are you busy this morning?" he asked, 
 breathlessly. 
 
 The young man tried to think of something, 
 but the effort was a dismal failure, so he replied 
 in the negative. 
 
 " I want you to go on a little expedition with 
 me," exclaimed Still, thereupon, very much ex- 
 cited at the prospect. " I have found the place 
 where the piling of the old railroad trestle is 
 still standing. I want you to go with me and 
 see it." 
 
 " I've seen it," replied Brooke. 
 
 "You would like to," exclaimed the other, 
 126
 
 BLUE ANCHOR INN 
 
 briskly. "Excellent! It will interest you. 
 Right in your line. I love to see a young man 
 enthusiastic about his business." 
 
 " I'm on a vacation now," objected the other. 
 
 " Certainly. Just like a vacation. I'll enjoy 
 it myself. Suppose we start before it gets hot." 
 
 Brooke looked at the incorrigible old gentle- 
 man and laughed. It was almost miraculous the 
 way he managed to hear only the things which 
 fitted in with his own desires. 
 
 " How do we get there ? " he inquired, deeming 
 further objection futile in the face of such odds. 
 
 "We'll take John's boat," exclaimed Mr. Still 
 briskly. " There it is." 
 
 He pointed to the lumbering rowboat now in 
 process of blistering on a glaring bosom of the 
 channel. He might well have passed for Charon 
 indicating the ferry across the Styx. 
 
 Even a less acute intellect than Brooke's 
 would instantly have divined who was expected 
 to propel the boat. The young man glanced 
 about for relief. Just at that moment Willy hap- 
 pened to be approaching. 
 
 " Oh, Willy," he cried, "are you busy?" 
 127
 
 BLUE ANCHOR INN 
 
 Approaching thus on the spur of the moment, 
 Willy lost his presence of mind too, and an- 
 swered in the negative. 
 
 " Suppose you take Mr. Still and me in the 
 launch up to the old trestle." 
 
 Willy looked dubiously at Mr. Still. 
 
 " Captain John says it's going to storm," he 
 said, tentatively. 
 
 " Nonsense, you rascal," cried Brooke ; " that 
 can't happen before afternoon, if at all." 
 
 The boy relented. 
 
 " Sure thing. I'll take you up. Mr. Gilpin 
 says youse was to have the put-put whenever 
 you wanted it." 
 
 They therefore followed the mechanician to 
 the dock where the launch lay. Willy stepped 
 aboard. 
 
 " Get on to the smoothness of the water," ob- 
 served he, pointing to the mirror surface of the 
 channel. "That's the camm that precedes the 
 storm. The hot weather is going to bust some 
 time to-day." 
 
 "Let her bust," observed Brooke, stepping 
 aboard. 
 
 128
 
 BLUE ANCHOR INN 
 
 " You better stand on the old party's ear and 
 break it to him gentle that one more hawser on 
 his yawl won't do no harm." 
 
 "Is that so?" demanded the young man, 
 pricking up his ears. 
 
 " Surest thing you know. They got one little 
 hook out in the mud, and a one inch line made 
 fast to a tree ashore. That lets her stern swing 
 all around the dock." 
 
 "I'll tell him," said Brooke. 
 
 He went forward to where the old man was 
 playing solitaire with a jumble of figures selected 
 from the more legible spots in his impossible 
 note-book. 
 
 "Let's go down by your yawl," the young 
 man observed, " and put an extra fastening on 
 her." 
 
 "Certainly she's extra fast," returned Still, 
 with his nose in his book. "I've been in her 
 before." 
 
 Brooke shook him by the shoulder to gain his 
 attention. 
 
 "Your yawl," he began, pointing south to 
 
 where she lay, determining to give him the idea 
 
 129
 
 BLUE ANCHOR INN 
 
 in sections. The old man jumped excitedly to 
 his feet. 
 
 " No, not that way. This way, this way 1 " he 
 cried, pointing north to where the trestle lay. 
 " There. You can see what's left of it on the 
 shore." 
 
 "I know. I understand," said Brooke pa- 
 tiently persistent, " but it is going to storm this 
 afternoon." 
 
 Whether the old man thought Brooke was try- 
 ing to formulate an excuse for not going, or 
 whether his hearing was really not up to the 
 mark that day, it was impossible to tell. At 
 any rate his train of thought could not be shifted 
 over to any other subject than the old railroad 
 trestle. 
 
 " Go ahead," said Brooke to Willy. " We'll 
 go down when we come back and take a rope 
 from the yawl's stern." 
 
 Old Mr. Still had a capacity for childlike en- 
 joyment that was positively marvelous. As 
 they approached the spot where the trestle had 
 been he was like an eight year old boy coming 
 in sight of the circus tent. He plied Brooke 
 
 130
 
 BLUE ANCHOR INN 
 
 with questions until the young man's throat 
 ached with shouting. How much did it cost 
 to drive a wooden pile? How many could one 
 machine put in in a day ? Were they practical 
 in salt water? Then having pumped the well 
 dry on that subject, he switched around and 
 asked the same questions all over again about 
 concrete piles, and every once in a while he 
 would bring out his crazy note-book and smother 
 it with figures while Brooke got his wind. 
 Willy was almost exhausted with joy at the per- 
 formance. 
 
 "Tell it to him, Mr. Brooke," h would mutter. 
 " Blow it down his ear. You got the crowd with 
 you." 
 
 It is doubtful if this would have encouraged 
 Brooke had he heard it, but during the conver- 
 sation it began to dawn on him that the old 
 man, besides simply storing his mind with hard 
 facts, really comprehended the purport and 
 meaning of them. He could refer back to what 
 Brooke had told him before, and connect appar- 
 ently irrelevant information in a surprisingly 
 convincing way. Brooke wondered if this were
 
 BLUE ANCHOR INN 
 
 merely the abnormal brilliancy of a failing mind, 
 or whether Still really was more rational than the 
 world believed him. 
 
 At any rate, they went five times up and down 
 the former course of the trestle, poking at ends 
 of rotten piling, examining the remains of old 
 stone abutments and figuring out the probable 
 method or lack of method by which the track 
 had been supported. When the young man 
 found his companion was quite sanely, even if 
 somewhat strangely, interested in the proposition 
 as an engineering accomplishment, he entered 
 into the discussion of it with some show of enthu- 
 siasm. In fact, in picking out the old supports 
 here and there, and observing the bad state of 
 the whole affair, the thing became to him a po- 
 tential problem as well as a matter of history. 
 No man in any line of endeavor ever saw a bad 
 example of his own particular work without the 
 spark of egotism in him rising to point out the 
 proper way of doing it next time. 
 
 Mr. Still, with his almost juvenile intuition, 
 discovered the line of thought in Brooke's mind 
 and followed the scent eagerly. Brooke, for his 
 
 132
 
 BLUE ANCHOR INN 
 
 part, needed only the starter. After that he was 
 soon deep in the exposition of his idea for a hy- 
 pothetical trestle across the channel. This natu- 
 rally involved the use of his own pile. The ex- 
 planation took half an hour in the blazing sun, 
 while Willy ran the launch around in circles. 
 At the end of that time Mr. Still had half a dozen 
 sketches on scraps of paper showing the proper 
 method of accomplishing this wonderful feat. 
 He studied over these documents assiduously for 
 a while. 
 
 " How much will it cost ? " he demanded in 
 his hollow voice. 
 
 The young man took thought, and named a 
 sum. His companion immediately became 
 stricken with an impenetrable deafness, and no 
 amount of shouting could apparently get the fig- 
 ures into his head. They had to be written out 
 on paper before he could comprehend them. He 
 studied the amount for a moment. 
 
 " Would your firm build it for that ? " 
 
 The other looked at him in surprise. 
 
 "Yes," he said good-humoredly, " with a little 
 more for contingencies." 
 
 133
 
 BLUE ANCHOR INN 
 
 "How much?" 
 
 " Go to it. Keep right after him, kiddo," said 
 Willy to the septuagenarian. 
 
 Brooke laughed. He mentioned a figure ; but 
 the old man's ear passages seemed to be useless 
 for receiving sums of money. His companion 
 therefore wrote it on one of the sheets of paper, 
 but to his surprise this did not satisfy the other, 
 who beat about the bush a little more, evidently 
 seeking for something else. 
 
 At last a suspicion flashed across Brooke's 
 mind. He seized a piece of paper and wrote, 
 " I propose to build the trestle for twenty-five 
 thousand dollars," dated it and signed his name. 
 
 The old man instantly gathered up all the 
 papers in a tight little roll and stuffed them in 
 his pocket. Brooke, with a queer expression on 
 his face, told Willy to make for the wharf. 
 
 134
 
 CHAPTER XIII 
 
 THE afternoon started with the rumble of 
 thunder in the distance. The four people 
 on the porch at Blue Anchor Inn scanned the 
 perfect blue heavens inquiringly. Captain John, 
 who had just been down to the shore to drag his 
 heavy boat up on the bank, paused as he went 
 by to pass a few remarks on the state of the 
 weather. 
 
 " Coming plum out o* th' north," he prophe- 
 sied, pointing to as clear a bit of heaven as it 
 had ever been their privilege to witness. " I've 
 just been down to take a few extra hitches on 
 my dory. Better get your launch made fast, 
 Mr. Gilpin. This ain't goin' to be an ordinary 
 summer rain." 
 
 "How about the yawl?" asked Brooke, re- 
 membering what Willy had said. 
 
 " I'm on my way down t' see her skipper," re- 
 sponded the mayor. " I seen Mrs. Brooke goin' 
 down along the shore a few minutes ago. Had 
 
 135
 
 her white sunshade with her 's usual. I reck'n 
 she won't take her aft' noon nap in th' yawl, 
 though, when she hears the wind and thunder 
 startin'." 
 
 " We must ask her in here when she returns," 
 said Mrs. Gilpin. " I know she will be fright- 
 ened. I will go over presently and ask Miss 
 Grey too. We will have a regular thunder and 
 lightning party." 
 
 She glanced mischievously at Halsey. 
 
 "Are we urged to attend ?" asked that gen- 
 tleman. 
 
 "That's what the party's for," she replied, 
 pleasantly. 
 
 Thereupon they all trooped down to the boat 
 landing and made the launch fast, putting her 
 leather cushions away in the lockers, covering 
 her engine and steering gear with the tarpaulins, 
 and making her generally shipshape and tidy to 
 withstand the coming storm. Captain John pro- 
 nounced the arrangements satisfactory. 
 
 The sky in the north was now a dull gray 
 instead of the clear blue of a few minutes before. 
 There was a steady rumble of far distant thunder, 
 
 136
 
 BLUE ANCHOR INN 
 
 apparently coming from behind the gray clouds. 
 The air was no longer still and hot, but a brisk, 
 cool breeze had sprung up, which chopped the 
 smooth water into little waves and made the 
 launch rock at her moorings. 
 
 " How long before the storm will be here?'* 
 asked Brooke of the captain, looking north at 
 the lowering clouds. 
 
 " In ten minutes nobody'll need a sunshade," 
 he replied. "That storm is comin' down the 
 coast at a two-forty gait." 
 
 Brooke stopped doubtfully at the edge of the 
 landing. 
 
 " I think, fellows," he said, " I shall take a stroll 
 down the island." 
 
 Gilpin grinned. 
 
 " That's right," he urged ; " save the women 
 first." 
 
 The other laughed. 
 
 " Want to come along ? " he asked. 
 
 " No, thanks," cried Gilpin ; " we have wives of 
 our own to look after." 
 
 And Brooke went on alone. 
 
 The evidences of a real storm became more 
 137
 
 BLUE ANCHOR INN 
 
 pronounced as he proceeded. The gray cloud 
 in the east was now jet black. Across this 
 actinic flashes of white light sprang from sky to 
 sea. The distant thunder was like the steady 
 roar of a huge battle. The blue sky was pushed 
 steadily back toward the afternoon sun, and 
 already the trees were casting long shadows in 
 the saffron light. The whole sea to the north was 
 lead, and it seemed as if rain was pouring down 
 at the horizon. 
 
 He saw he would have to hurry to get Mrs. 
 Brooke back dry-shod to the house before the 
 storm broke. The cold gale that blew now 
 almost tasted of rain. He looked across toward 
 the sea and saw the rain coming. There was no 
 sun. A darkness like dusk surrounded him. 
 The birds scurried through the trees. A mo- 
 mentary lull, and great torrents of water de- 
 scended all about him. 
 
 Instantly his clothing was soaked. In almost 
 incredible time the ground all about him ran 
 rivulets of muddy water. His progress was im- 
 peded by wet branches, wet clothes, wet under- 
 brush, water everywhere. The lightning flashed 
 
 138
 
 BLUE ANCHOR INN 
 
 and the thunder banged overhead. For the mo- 
 ment he was terrified and stood perfectly still in 
 his tracks. 
 
 Then the consciousness that he was there for 
 a purpose aroused him and he pushed ahead. 
 When he came out of the trees to the shore of 
 the channel he was astounded. Great whitecaps 
 rode from shore to shore, and the waves threshed 
 the banks like the sea itself. He looked toward 
 the yawl, and it was drifting stern foremost away 
 from shore out to the rough water ! 
 
 For an instant he paused in doubt. Was she 
 aboard, or had she returned at the approach of 
 the storm ? He thought he should have seen 
 her had she returned. At any rate it was too 
 great a chance to run. If she were there he 
 would never forgive himself for not making the 
 effort to save her. He decided to go aboard, 
 lady or no lady. 
 
 This was more easily said than done, however. 
 He noted that the boat was drifting rather slowly, 
 her anchor dragging smartly in the mud. He 
 would have time to run around the cove and 
 catch her as she rounded the tiny peninsula that 
 
 139
 
 BLUE ANCHOR INN 
 
 jutted out from the southern end. This he did, 
 tearing off his coat as he ran. When he came to 
 the point of land the boat was bearing down upon 
 it, running a little faster now, bow foremost. 
 
 He perceived that it would come within thirty 
 feet of him, and had some slight hope that it 
 would ground there, but with the heavy sea run- 
 ning there was not much chance of it. He 
 kicked off his shoes, waded out into the water, 
 and as the boat came along, plunged into the 
 waves. The sea was so high, and the water so 
 unruly that he was unable to make any headway 
 against it. The waves rolled him over when 
 they struck him, unused as he was to such 
 aquatics. If it had not been for the lively current 
 he would never have reached the yawl. As it 
 was it carried them both along together until 
 presently he was swimming along under her 
 bows. More from fear of being run down by 
 the bow of the boat than with any laudatory 
 desire at that moment to be of service to any one, 
 he reached up and grasped the ratlines, and with 
 one mighty heave drew his dripping form up on 
 
 the bowsprit. 
 
 140
 
 BLUE ANCHOR INN 
 
 For a moment he lay panting on the long tim- 
 ber, revolving in his mind what to do now he was 
 there. It was not more than five or six hundred 
 yards from where they were to the southern point 
 of the island, and after that the open roaring sea. 
 
 He must act quickly. He could feel by the ac- 
 celerated motion of the yawl that the anchor had 
 dragged entirely free. In a few minutes they 
 would have passed out of the channel. Scram- 
 bling hastily down the bowsprit, he began to at- 
 tack the wet knots of the stops on the jib. He 
 did not even try to find out if Mrs. Brooke was 
 aboard, so deep was he in the scheme of getting 
 enough steerageway on the craft to run her 
 ashore on the island before she could drift out 
 into the open sea. 
 
 The sail finally unstopped, he drew it up 
 briskly to the masthead. So fast had the boat 
 been drifting, it was now a matter of nip and 
 tuck as to whether he should be able to get her 
 nose around in time. 
 
 "Tightest tooting I ever saw," he muttered, 
 and making three jumps of it to the wheel, threw 
 
 her helm hard over. 
 
 141
 
 BLUE ANCHOR INN 
 
 The bow began to creep over slowly to the 
 port. At the same time the point of the island 
 came nearer and nearer. The companionway 
 hatch opened, and a wet, disheveled figure 
 emerged. He might have seen concern and 
 amazement in her face, but he did not even look 
 at her. 
 
 " Hold that wheel over hard," he shouted 
 roughly, and made a dash for the little jigger 
 sail abaft the wheel. He whipped out his knife 
 and cut the stops from end to end. 
 
 " We'll make it," he cried, exultantly. It was 
 the work of an instant to draw up the sail and 
 make fast the halyards. The bow of the little 
 yawl swung sharply around, and she made for 
 the shore. 
 
 " Hold the wheel," he bellowed over the roar 
 of the storm, and started for the bow, ready to 
 jump ashore with a line as soon as she struck 
 the ground. 
 
 It looked as if they had every chance to make 
 it, but the shore slipped rapidly by. The boat 
 was sliding. With an exclamation Brooke made 
 
 a dive for the center-board halyards. Down 
 
 142
 
 BLUE ANCHOR INN 
 
 went the board with a thud, but it was too late. 
 The good yawl slid neatly past the point of the 
 island, and they were in the open sea. 
 
 The young man was stupefied with amaze- 
 ment. It had all happened so quickly. He knew 
 there was little chance of their being able to beat 
 their way back against that terrific wind and sea 
 with only the jib and the little jigger sail. And 
 as for attempting to set the mainsail, it would 
 have been suicide, for one blast of that gale 
 would have overturned the boat as if it had been 
 a child's toy. The situation was serious. De- 
 termined, however, to show a cheerful front he 
 went toward the stern where she sat. For the 
 first time he saw her face. 
 
 In sheer amazement he stopped still in his 
 tracks, for facing him was not Mrs. Brooke, but 
 Miss Grey 1 
 
 143
 
 CHAPTER XIV 
 
 A LIVID flare of lightning illumined the sea 
 for an instant, and sudden thunder ex- 
 ploded above the masthead. But it was not 
 more startling to him than the discovery that it 
 was not Mrs. Brooke aboard the yawl. 
 
 She smiled at him with a frightened attempt 
 at good humor. Had Brooke been less con- 
 cerned about the storm and the sea, he might 
 have laughed at the poor bedraggled figure. 
 Her hair hung down over her nose. Her dress 
 clung tightly to her, and streams of water ran 
 from the hems of her garments. She looked 
 like a statue in a fountain. He, himself, was in 
 the same condition. All his clothes stuck to him. 
 The only comfort either of them might derive 
 was that it was quite impossible to be more wet 
 than they were. 
 
 He went forward to the windlass and hauled 
 up the dragging anchor. When he returned, 
 
 144
 
 BLUE ANCHOR INN 
 
 edging his way carefully down the slippery deck, 
 she relinquished her place at the wheel to him. 
 
 " There are a couple of oilskins in the locker," 
 she suggested. 
 
 " I am afraid I am too wet already," he said. 
 " But you'd better go down and get one for 
 yourself." 
 
 She shook her head. 
 
 " What are you going to do ? " she demanded, 
 as he brought the yawl around into the wind. 
 
 " I am going to try to beat back to the island." 
 
 The instant he brought the boat around from 
 her course straight before the wind, the gale and 
 the seas descended upon her with all their force. 
 The wind hit the two little sails, and the craft 
 careened until the whole lee gunwale was awash 
 and the waves splashed in the cockpit. 
 
 " Afraid ? " he demanded. 
 
 She picked up a bucket that hung under the 
 seat. 
 
 "Not yet," she replied, and began to bail. 
 
 When they got the bow headed toward land 
 again, the full power of the gale, the flying rain 
 and the sea fell upon the yawl. A great wave 
 
 145
 
 BLUE ANCHOR INN 
 
 hit her bows with the force of a trip-hammer, 
 and she stopped as if she had run into a wall. 
 No sooner had she gained more headway than 
 another struck her and another and another. 
 The sea washed the length of the deck by the 
 barrelful. The cockpit swam with water. Had 
 they been at anchor they could not have been 
 more stationary, except for the dizzy careen of the 
 yawl. 
 
 " I'm willing to give it up, if you are," he said 
 at length, as a wave came down the full sweep 
 of the deck and drenched them from head to 
 foot. 
 
 " Please do," she gasped. 
 
 He let the bow swing around, and again they 
 ran before the wind. He tried to make the girl 
 go below, but she insisted she was as comfortable 
 on deck as it was possible for her to be anywhere, 
 so they stayed there together as long as the 
 storm lasted. 
 
 While they were running before the wind they 
 were safe. Although the sea was rough and 
 tossed them about considerably, they shipped 
 
 but little water and the boat stood upright as she 
 
 146
 
 BLUE ANCHOR INN 
 
 tore along. They might have been considerably 
 disturbed had they attempted to estimate how 
 much distance they were putting between them 
 and Lugger Island. But neither of them was 
 thinking of anything, the results of which were so 
 far in the future. The present five minutes was 
 their only concern. All Brooke hoped for was 
 to keep their craft right side up and above the 
 surface of the water. The question of what was 
 going to happen in twelve hours was too su- 
 preme a problem to consider. 
 
 Of two possible evils, that of being swamped 
 at sea worried him less than the possibility of go- 
 ing ashore on some reef or rock. As long as 
 they could keep in the open water, they had an 
 even chance for safety. The yawl was a sea- 
 worthy craft, and if they could keep afloat for a 
 few hours more, the storm would doubtless run 
 its course. Following out this line of reasoning, 
 Brooke, therefore, kept her head as much as 
 possible to the southeast. He was able to do 
 this without much difficulty, as by so doing he 
 got the wind directly over the quarter. This 
 took them safely away from land and at the same 
 
 147
 
 BLUE ANCHOR INN 
 
 time got them further and further from the 
 center of the storm. 
 
 The rain continued until about half-past five 
 by his watch, and then began to abate with all 
 the suddenness of its coming. The thunder 
 rumbled off into the distance. The light broke 
 through the clouds in the east, and within an 
 hour the whole black bank had rolled across the 
 heavens and disappeared beneath the western 
 horizon. The wind died down to a zephyr, and 
 they lay rolling on the breast of the ocean, with 
 sea to the four sides of them and the setting sun 
 shining on their dripping decks. 
 
 Worn out by exertion and worry, they stretched 
 out on the boards, and let the little craft bob her 
 own way about amidst the waves. The red disk 
 of the sun had already touched the sea before 
 they felt energy enough to move. 
 
 " I don't like to seem dictatorial," he said 
 presently, " but hadn't you better change your 
 wet clothes?" 
 
 She looked doubtfully at her dripping, be- 
 draggled attire. 
 
 " It's not very beautiful." 
 148
 
 BLUE ANCHOR INN 
 
 " I was thinking," he said, " that you might 
 catch cold." 
 
 She debated for a moment upon a question, of 
 whose exact nature she did not enlighten him. 
 Then she smiled and went dutifully below. As 
 Brooke gave more consideration to the problem, 
 he became a little perplexed. When she had 
 come aboard she had brought no luggage but a 
 parasol. 
 
 But he had not given due credit to her inge- 
 nuity. She reappeared presently clad in her 
 bathing-suit, which she had kept aboard the 
 sailboat, so that she might swim in the channel. 
 She informed him that there was a duck sailor 
 suit below, which he might wear. He retired 
 to try the experiment of putting this costume on. 
 
 The result was very successful. The mating 
 of that particular pair of trousers with that par- 
 ticular jumper was the result of circumstance and 
 not of congeniality. The jumper had the ap- 
 pearance of having been plucked before it had 
 attained its full growth, and fitted with an ear- 
 nestness and sincerity of purpose that gave him 
 
 somewhat the appearance of having attempted 
 
 149
 
 BLUE ANCHOR INN 
 
 to crawl through a fire hose and stuck in the 
 middle. The trousers, on the other hand, en- 
 cased him largely and liberally. The final result 
 gave him the graceful and sinuous form of a 
 bottle of olive oil. 
 
 He was somewhat modest about the beauty of 
 this composition, and ascended to the deck du- 
 biously. When the ensemble was presently in 
 view, the young woman at the wheel started in 
 alarm. But as the full glory of it all struck her 
 she burst out laughing. 
 
 "What's the matter?" he demanded, with 
 dignity. 
 
 She thought a moment 
 
 " I think," she said, " you've dislocated your 
 lungs." 
 
 He burst out laughing. 
 
 " One might well envy the figure of the man 
 for whom this costume was designed," he said, 
 looking down ruefully at it. " In the meantime, 
 are you hungry ? " 
 
 They thereupon turned their attention to that 
 important item the food supply. They found 
 
 there was plenty of water. The tank had been 
 
 150
 
 BLUE ANCHOR INN 
 
 filled the day the yawl had gone aground and 
 practically none of it had been used. They 
 found, too, that when they began investigations 
 in the galley the larder had been sufficiently 
 well stocked by the providential Mrs. Brooke to 
 last for a week, if used judiciously. There was 
 an abundance of flour, sugar, salt and such 
 staples, and many cans of corn, peas, sardines, 
 salmon, and other delicacies, in addition to some 
 potatoes. There was also oil for the stove, and 
 matches. They blessed the housewifely foresight 
 of Mrs. Brooke. 
 
 With this working material, they prepared the 
 first of what appeared likely to be a long series 
 of meals. For he figured that they must be sixty 
 miles out at sea, and, with light winds, his rather 
 rusty seamanship, and their lack of knowledge 
 as to their bearings, it might take three or four 
 days to return to land. Of course, there was al- 
 ways the possibility of their being picked up 
 (looking at the question from the bright side) and 
 (looking at it from the other side) the possibility 
 of another storm like the one they had just gone 
 through and probable shipwreck.
 
 BLUE ANCHOR INN 
 
 The three-quarter moon came out bright in a 
 cloudless sky. The wind was a mere breath. 
 They crawled along on an endless tack to star- 
 board, scarcely making way enough to ripple 
 the water along the boat's sides. The girl lay 
 out on one of the long benches watching the sky. 
 He held the wheel in one hand. The stillness of 
 the night was broken only by the rattle of the 
 jib now and again as he came inadvertently too 
 close up into the wind. It was a strange situa- 
 tion. 
 
 Had they still continued to battle with storms 
 and lightning and sudden death, her presence 
 would have been no more disturbing, save for 
 anxiety for her safety, than the presence of a 
 man. But now that the troubled sea had sub- 
 sided, and the wind had gone down, he was not 
 pleased with the responsibility of the young girl 
 in his care. 
 
 As a sedate, married man, Brooke felt his po- 
 sition. Now that he was no longer candidate for 
 the blandishments or charms of young woman- 
 hood, he was filled with a sudden consciousness 
 
 that he owed a paternal protection to them all. 
 
 152
 
 BLUE ANCHOR INN 
 
 He surmised that Miss Grey would naturally be 
 embarrassed at being thrown into such intimate 
 contact with a man, and it was his place to dispel 
 this. His reasoning was the natural one for a 
 young man endeavoring to be straightforward 
 and decent in an unaccustomed position, but 
 could he have seen himself through her eyes, he 
 would have found it all unnecessary speculation, 
 for the instant she had looked into his frank, 
 clear eyes she had dismissed all such questions 
 from her mind. 
 
 These were the last things he remembered 
 thinking before he unintentionally went to sleep. 
 When he awoke, the sun was rising and the 
 yawl was motionless except as she rocked to and 
 fro in a dead calm. 
 
 153
 
 CHAPTER XV 
 
 WHEN Miss Grey awoke as the result of his 
 stirring about, it was some seconds before 
 she realized where she was. Then she stumbled 
 to her feet, rubbing her eyes like a newly- wakened 
 child, and waved her hand to him. 
 
 " Good-morning, captain," she said, sleepily, 
 " Have we passed the Azores ? " 
 
 " I don't know. I've been asleep all night," 
 replied the faithful skipper. 
 
 She stepped up on the gunwale and held on 
 by the stays. " Is it deep enough here to dive ? " 
 she inquired. 
 
 Brooke, who had no idea that she would, 
 replied smilingly in the affirmative. Where- 
 upon, without further ado, she plunged in. He 
 watched her come up and swim about with good 
 strong strokes. 
 
 "There's a bathing-suit under the starboard 
 bunk," she called. " Water's fine." 
 
 With some misgivings as to his probable 
 154
 
 BLUE ANCHOR INN 
 
 appearance in this new costume, he went below 
 and extricated himself from the toils of his sailor 
 jumper. The bathing-suit proving to be a good 
 fit, he was presently splashing in the water be- 
 side her. 
 
 This was a very pleasant way to start off a ship- 
 wrecked day. If you can imagine a very young 
 and especially playful dolphin making tildes and 
 parentheses of itself and being here and there and 
 everywhere all at the same time, you have a 
 picture of Miss Grey disporting her agile self in 
 the water. Brooke paddled about lazily for the 
 pure fun of watching her dive overboard, swim 
 about, pull herself up at the bowsprit, and dive 
 again. 
 
 He could not help thinking how well she con- 
 cealed the embarrassment he had decided the 
 night before she must certainly feel in her strange 
 position. It pleased him to think that this was 
 perhaps due to the delicacy with which he had 
 handled the situation. It was a pleasant thought 
 to know that he had advanced into a more 
 elderly and respected epoch of his life and was 
 fulfilling the duties attendant thereto with credit 
 
 155
 
 BLUE ANCHOR INN 
 
 to himself and with benefit to others. He there- 
 fore relaxed somewhat from the elderly and 
 paternal attitude he had assumed and became 
 again the free and easy, boyish young man. 
 
 " How many lumps, captain ? " Miss Grey 
 inquired as they sat comfortably at breakfast in 
 the cockpit. 
 
 " One, please. Why do you call me captain ? " 
 he added. 
 
 She glanced at him over the rim of her coffee 
 cup. Her eyes were mischievous. 
 
 " Captain," she observed, " is a term of re- 
 spect, of veneration, and" buttering a small 
 cracker with much seriousness " of endear- 
 ment." 
 
 He helped himself to some sticky marmalade. 
 
 "What appellation," said he, "could I use in 
 addressing you which would convey the same 
 idea?" 
 
 " Rather a bold speech," he informed himself, 
 " for an old married man." 
 
 She glanced at him quizzically. 
 
 " Call me Yndita," she said. 
 
 He eyed her warily. 
 
 156
 
 BLUE ANCHOR INN 
 
 " No, you don't. You read that name in a 
 book." 
 
 " Truly I didn't. It's my own name. It's an 
 Indian name meaning ' rain.' " 
 
 "Appropriate in the last few days," he ob- 
 served. 
 
 She paused for a moment in thought. 
 
 " My friends call me ' Dita,' " she said, irrel- 
 evantly. 
 
 There was just a shadow of a smile on 
 Brooke's lips. 
 
 " Yes," he said, politely. 
 
 She leaned forward with her elbows on her 
 knees and gazed with refreshing interest into his 
 eyes. 
 
 " Say ' Dita,' " she demanded. 
 
 After all, he reasoned, if he were to act as her 
 guardian and protector, he might properly ad- 
 dress her by her Christian name. 
 
 " Dita," said he. 
 
 " No, no. Not like saying a piece. Say it as 
 though you were calling me Dita." 
 
 He looked down into her animated, cheerful 
 face. 
 
 157
 
 BLUE ANCHOR INN 
 
 " Did you say," he asked, following the train 
 of thought induced by this glance, " that Yndita 
 meant Rain or Sunshine ? " 
 
 As soon as he had said it, he knew that this 
 was not well advised. 
 
 She smiled ; but did not enlighten him. 
 
 " I think you ought to dispose of the break- 
 fast dishes now," he said. 
 
 She picked up the tray meekly. Then she set 
 it down again. 
 
 "To whom were you speaking?" she asked. 
 
 " You." 
 
 " And what is my name ? " 
 
 " Dita." 
 
 She smiled sweetly, and picking up the dishes, 
 disappeared into the cabin. Brooke knew this 
 was not in the least the ideal footing for them to 
 be on. It was too intimate, too entirely personal. 
 A flirtation with this girl would produce an ab- 
 solutely intolerable situation. She was in the 
 employ of the woman he had every reason to be- 
 lieve was his wife. He had a duty to perform. 
 Although he had not married with the intention 
 
 of loving and cherishing his wife forever, the re- 
 
 158
 
 "YOU MUST TAKE A VERY TINY BITE"
 
 BLUE ANCHOR INN 
 
 sponsibility of that wife was imposing and final. 
 She blotted out forever the image of every other 
 woman. 
 
 Therefore he saw immediately the only solu- 
 tion of the problem was to tell her he was mar- 
 ried. That would not be a very easy thing to 
 do, as it had the air of presupposing it would 
 make any difference to her. However, he would 
 do the thing very casually, some time when it 
 would appear as if the idea had just sprung into 
 his head. And when she had classified him ac- 
 cording to this new information, it would make it 
 possible for him not to be sensible to her fascina- 
 tions without thereby seeming to be disrespect- 
 ful to her. 
 
 His opportunity came very soon. That even- 
 ing for dinner she baked biscuit, which she took 
 doubtfully to him to taste as he sat at the wheel 
 urging the reluctant yawl against a light fitful 
 wind. 
 
 " You must take a very tiny bite," she said, 
 "and if it makes you ill, you mustn't eat any 
 more." 
 
 Brooke, who came of a family of brave men, 
 159
 
 BLUE ANCHOR INN 
 
 took the biscuit and tasted it without an instant's 
 hesitation. 
 
 " Does it make you ill ? " she demanded imme- 
 diately. 
 
 " Not yet." 
 
 She waited a while with ill-concealed impa- 
 tience. 
 
 " I think they're good," he said. 
 
 She laughed in great delight. 
 
 " I think you would be an ideal husband," 
 she cried. 
 
 He seized this opportunity. 
 
 " I am," he replied. 
 
 After he had said it, the idea did seem rather 
 dragged in by the horns. 
 
 She opened her eyes wide. 
 
 " An ideal husband ? " she said. 
 
 He saw that his statement had been a little too 
 general. 
 
 " Just a husband," he corrected. 
 
 She sat down on the seat in surprise. 
 
 " Think of you being married." 
 
 Brooke had nothing to say, so he did as di- 
 rected. 
 
 160
 
 BLUE ANCHOR INN 
 
 " Does your wife," she asked, " make as good 
 biscuits as these ? " 
 
 He was embarrassed. 
 
 " Well, she she in fact, I don't believe she 
 ever made biscuits just like these." 
 
 The girl considered. 
 
 " Is your wife a blonde or brunette ? " 
 
 The young man shifted his position uneasily 
 while he considered this. 
 
 "She has golden hair," he said, boldly, Mrs. 
 Brooke's hair having a tendency in that direction. 
 
 "Tell me some more about her," she demanded 
 with interest. 
 
 He cudgeled his brain. 
 
 "Well, she is very well dressed, and good 
 
 looking, and entertaining and " He paused 
 
 in embarrassment. " That's about all I can think 
 of just now," he said. 
 
 She looked at him queerly. 
 
 " It's a very comprehensive description,' 5 she 
 observed. " But I mustn't stand here gossiping, 
 when I have dinner to get." 
 
 He gazed after her with interest. He began 
 
 to realize that the paternal and protecting posi- 
 
 161
 
 BLUE ANCHOR INN 
 
 tion he had decided to occupy was no longer 
 tenable. He did not feel paternal and protect- 
 ing. There was a pleasant air of companionship 
 about her that made it impossible for one to be 
 deliberately aloof and afar off. 
 
 His experience with women had been rather 
 spasmodic and unexciting. If during all his 
 young manhood there had been no girls what- 
 ever in the world, it would have left no gap in 
 his life. His interest had been first of all in pay- 
 ing his way through college, second, in getting 
 his money's worth while at college, and third, in 
 keeping up with the few men friends he found 
 time to cultivate. To him, women had meant 
 the friends of his mother, whom he met when 
 he went home ; and the sisters of his companions 
 who were brought to college dances to be 
 waltzed with, fanned, and returned to their re- 
 spective spots along the wall where they kept 
 their scarfs, handkerchiefs, and, sometimes, their 
 mothers. 
 
 Brooke had never had an unfavorable opin- 
 ion of them. In fact, they had been nice. If 
 
 he had said something funny, they had been 
 
 162
 
 BLUE ANCHOR INN 
 
 willing to laugh. Sometimes they had said in- 
 teresting things to him. But he had found that 
 on such social occasions they conversed irrele- 
 vantly, or excitedly, or simply for the sake of 
 saying something. He had been unfortunate 
 enough never to come across a girl who would 
 lay aside the superficial manners that are neces- 
 sary in the complicated civilization in which we 
 live and take the trouble to invite his attention to 
 the elemental and human feelings that were in 
 her heart just as in every man's. Such a 
 person he could have treated as a companion, 
 and to her would have been said the real things 
 he felt. 
 
 However, as no such girl had happened to 
 appear, he had continued to be of the opinion 
 that the sex was somewhat a failure as far as he 
 was concerned. 
 
 He was therefore surprised to find himself 
 taking pleasure in the presence of Miss Grey. 
 It was comfortable to have her consider his 
 wants and pleasures, to have her bustle up on 
 deck when it grew cooler in the evening and in- 
 sist, with an air of motherly concern, that he put 
 
 163
 
 BLUE ANCHOR INN 
 
 on the sweater she had rooted out of one of the 
 lockers below ; to have her, as soon as she found 
 he liked a certain thing which the materials at 
 hand permitted them to have, sit down immedi- 
 ately with a forlorn cook-book in her hand and 
 puzzle out how it was made, with frequent calls 
 upon him for his opinion upon this point or upon 
 that. 
 
 It was a pleasure to have her wandering in- 
 quisitively about the boat, finding at every turn 
 strange things that required explanations, argu- 
 ing about the old established rules of seaman- 
 ship which she did not " see any sense in," learn- 
 ing how to do things and then doubting the 
 advisability of doing them that way, and so 
 forth. He felt, as he had never felt in the case of 
 any other woman, her physical charm. Her 
 round, white arms, which the rolled-up sleeves 
 left bare, pleased him. When her hand had 
 touched his that morning as she passed him his 
 coffee, he had experienced a little unfamiliar 
 tremor of interest, no, perhaps of so strong a 
 sentiment as excitement which had never oc- 
 curred on similar occasions heretofore. 
 
 164
 
 BLUE ANCHOR INN 
 
 Presently, interrupting his reveries, she came 
 running back with a burn on her wrist. She 
 carried a package of soda and a piece of muslin 
 in her hand. 
 
 "Are you sorry?" she demanded, pathetically. 
 
 " Yes," he said. 
 
 " Very sorry ? " 
 
 " Extremely sorry." 
 
 She knelt down before him and put the soda 
 and the muslin and the wrist on his lap. He 
 bound up the injured member carefully. When 
 he was making the final knot in the bandage, he 
 pulled it too tight over the burn. She winced. 
 He leaned over instantly and kissed the en- 
 swathed wrist. 
 
 She laughed lightly, and held up the other 
 one. But he did not kiss that. 
 
 165
 
 CHAPTER XVI 
 
 '" said Brooke " there is no doubt that 
 you are still very much of a child." 
 
 She stopped in the midst of sweeping the 
 cockpit. 
 
 "Now, what could you mean by that? "she 
 cried. 
 
 " I have been making a study of your char- 
 acter." 
 
 She dropped upon the cockpit seat, and 
 balanced the broom across her knees. 
 
 " All right," she said, expectantly. " Tell me 
 about it." 
 
 " I hadn't meant it for publication," he replied, 
 laughing. 
 
 " Oh, tell me anyway." 
 
 " Well," said he, slowly, " your first salient 
 characteristic " 
 
 " Yes," she cried, eagerly. 
 
 " Is curiosity." 
 
 1 66
 
 BLUE ANCHOR INN 
 
 Her face fell. She looked at him hard and 
 they both burst out laughing. 
 
 " Now, the other salient characteristics, please," 
 she said, sweetly. 
 
 " First of all among them, an amiable and 
 charming disposition." 
 
 She checked it off on her little finger with the 
 handle of the broom. 
 
 " Second, poise, aplomb, self-possession." 
 
 She checked on her ring finger. 
 
 " How did you deduce that ? " 
 
 " When we went adrift," he asserted, " instead 
 of wringing your hands and being generally in 
 the way, you bailed out the cockpit. Now, in- 
 stead of wondering when under the canopy you 
 are ever going to get on dry land, you bake bis- 
 cuits." 
 
 She pursed her lips. 
 
 "That's only common sense. I don't think 
 that is such a great compliment." 
 
 "Please get it out of your head that I am try- 
 ing to compliment you," he said. " Nothing is 
 further from my thoughts." 
 
 " Yes," she replied, meekly. 
 167
 
 BLUE ANCHOR INN 
 
 " Salient feature number three," he went on, 
 " would be industry." 
 
 She moved the broom-handle reluctantly to the 
 next finger. 
 
 " One of those homely old virtues but I 
 don't mind counting it." 
 
 " It is one of the best virtues we have," he as- 
 serted. " I might add to that, as a corollary, 
 capability." 
 
 " That's just as big an insult as the other. Isn't 
 there anything more exciting on your list ? " 
 
 He smiled good-humoredly. 
 
 " Well," he said, " there is one more, and that 
 is the one I like best." 
 
 She lost the count on her fingers and leaned 
 forward with her elbows on her knees. 
 
 " Yes," she said. 
 
 " You are so sincerely a human being," he be- 
 gan. " There is no veneer of humanity on the 
 surface, with simply a lifelike clockworks within." 
 He paused a moment. "That doesn't explain 
 exactly what I mean. I think all I am trying to 
 say is that I find you tremendously congenial." 
 
 She colored with pleasure. 
 1 68
 
 BLUE ANCHOR INN 
 
 " And still," she said, slowly, quoting him, 
 " there is no doubt I am very much of a child." 
 
 She looked out across the twilight sea, and 
 then she began to laugh. 
 
 " Why do you laugh ? " 
 
 " Oh, dear," she complained, " I never could 
 be lugubrious enough to convince people I had 
 any brains at all." 
 
 " Your brains haven't been called into ques- 
 tion," he observed. 
 
 " Oh, yes, they have. I have made a mistake 
 a fatal mistake. I should have adopted an 
 attitude of extreme seriousness. I should never 
 have sat down with one foot curled up under me 
 as at present. I shouldn't have laughed be- 
 cause I have dimples. Those things indicate 
 immaturity. And immaturity, captain, is noth- 
 ing more or less than an inability, at present 
 date, to cope successfully with the serious prob- 
 lems of life. Isn't it so ? " 
 
 " Yes and no," answered he, temporizing. 
 
 " You know it is." 
 
 " Perhaps what you say is true. I hadn't gone 
 so deeply into it." 
 
 169
 
 BLUE ANCHOR INN 
 
 She rose. 
 
 " Oh, well," she sighed, " some day I shall 
 convince you that I am not so disgracefully 
 young." 
 
 She looked over the gunwale at the dark 
 waters reflecting the night and the stars, and, 
 seeming even more dark, the dull light of the 
 cloud-obscured moon. She shuddered. 
 
 " The ocean is ugly at night," she said. 
 
 " Then you wouldn't care to dive in now ?" 
 
 She came away and sat down again. 
 
 " No. I don't like it. It is like some huge 
 monster a huge reptile." 
 
 " If you will take the wheel," he said, " I will 
 light the running lights." He took a box of 
 matches from his pocket. " Did you ever 
 realize just how much two oil-lamps mean to 
 us? They are our eyes and ears. Those two 
 on a cloudy night might mean just the dif- 
 ference between being run down or being picked 
 up." 
 
 She nodded. The threadbare idea had a very 
 real meaning to these two mariners bobbing 
 
 about on the open sea. They could not help 
 
 170
 
 BLUE ANCHOR INN 
 
 having a strong affection for the red and green 
 eyes of the boat. 
 
 " Am I too young to suggest something?" she 
 asked presently. 
 
 He looked at her warily. 
 
 " No," he replied. 
 
 " Then I should suggest that you investigate 
 their contents. No one knows when they were 
 filled last." 
 
 He made a wry face. 
 
 " I knew I was going to be shown up," he 
 said. " I never thought about it." 
 
 The lamps proved upon investigation to be all 
 but empty. 
 
 " Jingo 1 " he cried. 
 
 " Well," he said, in a moment, " is there any 
 oil?" 
 
 She was thinking. 
 
 " I think I know where it ought to be. Take 
 the wheel, please." 
 
 He took the wheel, and waited anxiously for 
 several minutes. At the end of that time she 
 emerged from the cabin with a dusty oil can. A 
 
 potato was stuck over its spout to keep its con- 
 
 171
 
 BLUE ANCHOR INN 
 
 tents from spilling. When they unscrewed the 
 top they discovered it half full of kerosene. She 
 screwed it on again. 
 
 " Isn't that bully ? " she cried. 
 
 " It helps a great deal," he responded, con- 
 tentedly. 
 
 Putting the can on the deck-house she ran 
 forward to get the lamps, looking, in her bathing- 
 suit (which she had been compelled to put on by 
 'reason of having upset a saucepan on her dress), 
 very much like a nymph or dryad, or some other 
 such graceful creature. He smiled approvingly 
 as he looked at her. Perhaps his interest in 
 her made him just a little less attentive to the 
 other things about him than he should have 
 been. 
 
 " Don't come aft yet," he called. " I'm coming 
 about." 
 
 " All right," she replied. 
 
 He threw the wheel over, and she waited for 
 the big sail to swing across to the other side. 
 
 " Careful 1 " she ejaculated, suddenly. " Wait 
 a minute ! " 
 
 He looked up, threw the wheel back hard, but it 
 172
 
 BLUE ANCHOR INN 
 
 was too late ! The boom struck the can on the 
 deck-house and knocked it clear off. It fell on 
 the gunwale, balanced a moment and then as the 
 craft listed to leeward slid out into the water. 
 Brooke made two jumps to the side, but the tin 
 cylinder was gone when he got there. 
 
 He was dumbfounded. 
 
 But before he had time to actually realize 
 what had happened, Dita was at his side, stand- 
 ing on the gunwale. What she was about to do 
 never entered his head, until, after a moment's 
 hesitation, she leaned calmly forward and plunged 
 into the somber tide ! 
 
 He caught his breath in astonishment and stood 
 for an instant dazed. It was an act of boyish 
 courage and perfect control. He could not but 
 notice that even in the excitement of the moment 
 she had made a perfect dive and entered the sea 
 with scarcely a splash. 
 
 His every impulse was to plunge in after her ; 
 but he knew his place was on board. He ran to 
 the wheel and held the yawl's head up in the 
 wind. He strained his eyes and ears astern. 
 Sometimes he thought he could hear the girl
 
 BLUE ANCHOR INN 
 
 above the noise of the cracking canvas. He 
 could not see because the faint glimmer of the 
 moon under its cloud made deceiving reflections 
 on the rolling water. He would have sailed after 
 her had he not been afraid of getting too great 
 headway before the wind, and losing her position 
 entirely. Picking up the helmsman's megaphone 
 he began calling, so that she would not miss her 
 direction. 
 
 Presently after what seemed to be hours he 
 heard her voice calling. 
 
 Deserting the helm, he ran to the side to help 
 her aboard. She came into view paddling along 
 with the oil can under her arm ! He reached 
 down and pulled them both over the side. Then 
 he drew a long sigh of relief. 
 
 " I didn't know what was happening to you," 
 he said. 
 
 She smiled. 
 
 " You aren't going to be rid of me so easily 
 as you think." 
 
 He picked up the blanket he had ready and 
 threw it over her dripping shoulders. 
 
 "Now run down and change those clothes, 
 174
 
 BLUE ANCHOR INN 
 
 quickly," he cried. "And when you come up 
 I'll tell you what a wonder you are." 
 
 She stopped. 
 
 " Tell me now." 
 
 " Not a word. Please run on before you catch 
 cold. I'm thoroughly ashamed for not having 
 gone overboard myself. But I thought the con- 
 founded can had sunk at once to the bottom of 
 the sea." 
 
 She stopped in the companion way. 
 
 " So did I at first," she cried eagerly. " And 
 then I remembered that it was all closed up tight 
 and being half full of air, would therefore prob- 
 ably float. So I took a chance and went over 
 after it." 
 
 " Your brain was working then," he cried, 
 admiringly. 
 
 " I thought I never should find the thing. 
 When you're in the water you can't see more 
 than three or four feet away from you. Finally, 
 when I had given it up, I bumped right into 
 it." 
 
 " But you're shivering. Please run down and 
 change." 
 
 175
 
 BLUE ANCHOR INN 
 
 " You haven't told me how nice I was to get 
 you your kerosene." 
 
 He left the wheel to its own devices, and going 
 over to the head of the companionway caught 
 both her wet hands in his. She looked up into 
 his eyes with a half smile. 
 
 " You're a brick," he said, in a low tone, " and 
 I humbly apologize for ever having called you a 
 child. I can never tell you how wonderful you 
 were to do that" He jerked his head toward 
 the sea. 
 
 She stood for some seconds without moving. 
 In spite of her shivering, a warm flush rose to 
 her cheeks. 
 
 " Thank you," she said at length, and, drawing 
 her hands away, she ran down into the cabin. 
 
 176
 
 CHAPTER XVII 
 
 BROOKE was certain that Lugger Island 
 lay about northwest from the spot where 
 they had been left at the conclusion of the storm, 
 and had been sailing (with a great deal more 
 coming about and shifting of booms than real 
 progress) in that direction all day long. The 
 wind was against them and was scarcely strong 
 enough to more than simply keep them moving 
 through the water. At sundown, even what lit- 
 tle breeze there was fell away, and the yawl lay 
 still, rocking with the waves. 
 
 Worn out with their respective exertions dur- 
 ing the day, after Brooke had lowered all the 
 canvas, they lay down on the mattresses they had 
 spread in the cockpit. The girl was soon asleep. 
 He did not sleep, but lay upon his back, staring 
 speculatively above him. Her regular breathing 
 stirred in him a new sense of excitement that 
 
 awoke all the cohorts of his brain. Her open 
 
 177
 
 BLUE ANCHOR INN 
 
 hand lay relaxed on her mattress almost touch- 
 ing him. He could see the round shoulders ris- 
 ing and falling as she breathed. It was a strange 
 thing that it was only necessary for all her con- 
 scious movement to be stilled and he became 
 immediately alive to her physical personality. 
 An unexpected feeling of exultation came over 
 him when he realized that this girl was in his 
 care and his alone. If those high stewards of 
 Fate who direct the lives of young people had 
 wished to awaken such thoughts in him, they 
 could not have chosen more potent means 
 than to cast them away thus on the face of 
 the sea. His mind thrust aside the overtures 
 of sleep. This was a moment of exultation. 
 It was a piece out of a pleasant dream and 
 he lay awake to listen to the fine melody in his 
 heart. 
 
 At length, however, the wide-awake dreams 
 merged unconsciously into sleeping ones. The 
 sweet little cherub that sits up aloft was the 
 skipper of the yawl. Brooke slept the fine, 
 straightforward slumber " that knits up the 
 
 raveled sleeve of care." He was awakened after 
 
 178
 
 BLUE ANCHOR INN 
 
 a long while by a light hand on his shoulder. It 
 was still dark. She was sitting up beside him, 
 her hands clasped over her knees. 
 
 " I wanted you to see it," she said. 
 
 Across the sea over the indistinct horizon hung 
 the flattened moon. All its bright light had 
 faded, save only the silver band of reflection 
 across the black waters. The rigging rose across 
 the dark sky, scarcely distinct in the ghostly 
 glow of the stars. The sea, swelling and sinking 
 mysteriously, was unfeeling and repulsive in its 
 vastness. It all seemed supernatural and unreal. 
 No human or reassuring thing appeared upon it. 
 No light moved on its surface. No line on any 
 side showed where the black sky met the black 
 sea. 
 
 The only sound was the slapping of the water 
 against the boat's keel. They felt all the strange 
 wonder of primeval man afloat for the first time 
 alone in his cockerel on a strange sea. Here 
 was no sight of the deep over the taffrail of 
 a steady, pounding liner with an electrically- 
 lighted cabin at one's elbow. This was the same 
 
 mysterious sea that Magellan and others sailed, 
 
 179
 
 BLUE ANCHOR INN 
 
 and feared lest they should drop over its edge. 
 This was the uncharted waste that the Roman 
 galleys tried, putting out past Gibraltar. There 
 was no hint here of the knowing twentieth cen- 
 tury with its contemptuous tolerance of the forces 
 of nature. This was the sky and the stars and the 
 sea itself, which filled two civilized young people 
 with all the savage superstitions of centuries ago 
 and a half-forgotten fear of the great Creator of 
 it all. 
 
 She glanced into his face to see if he too were 
 thinking the things she was. 
 
 " I had to wake you," she said, in a low tone. 
 " There is something so strange and big about 
 it." 
 
 He was feeling about for an expression of his 
 idea. 
 
 " I feel," he exclaimed, " as if we were two 
 people set down alone upon a new world." 
 
 She gave him a quick glance of sympathy. 
 
 " Yes," she cried. " See ! It is an absolutely 
 deserted planet. The water extends to infinity 
 in every direction. And you and I are the only 
 
 living things," 
 
 1 80
 
 BLUE ANCHOR INN 
 
 It was pleasant to him to be linked together 
 with her like that. 
 
 " We did not know," he said, presently, " what 
 wonders we were to see when we came on this 
 little journey." 
 
 She smiled. 
 
 " And to think," she cried, " how hard we 
 tried not to come." 
 
 Her hand touched him. He put his hand upon 
 it and she let it stay in his clasp until the mis- 
 shapen moon dropped behind the sea. They 
 said nothing during all that time, but a new and 
 wonderful sympathy arose between them. Then 
 they lay down in the chilly night and drew 
 their rugs about them. They did not realize 
 then that they had indeed been set down in a 
 new world. 
 
 It was daylight when the fretful flapping of 
 the rigging awoke Brooke. Another intermittent 
 breeze had sprung up. He ran up sail and, 
 bringing the yawl's head up into the wind, made 
 off slowly toward the north. Dita lay with her 
 
 head on her arm, sleeping peacefully as a baby. 
 
 181
 
 BLUE ANCHOR INN 
 
 He did not disturb her, and she slept on until 
 presently the bright morning sun, jealous of 
 Brooke's uninterrupted view, peered over the 
 edge of the combing and fell on her face. 
 Whereupon she opened her eyes, but instantly 
 closed them, as if trying to persuade herself that 
 she was not really awake, but that it was simply 
 part of an unpleasant dream. This artifice, how- 
 ever, proved futile, and at length she had to 
 acknowledge that she really was awake. She 
 smiled dimly at Brooke, and, putting her white 
 arms over her head, yawned luxuriously in his 
 face. 
 
 " Now I'm awake," she said at length. 
 
 She ran down into the cabin to change again 
 to her bathing-suit. When she returned she 
 brought one of those doughnut-shaped life pre- 
 servers. She made this fast to a hawser and the 
 hawser fast to a pin in the stern. When she 
 threw the preserver overboard, it floated the 
 length of the line and then followed the yawl, 
 dancing and skipping over the waves, forty or 
 fifty feet astern. 
 
 Without further ado, she dived over the side 
 182
 
 BLUE ANCHOR INN 
 
 and, swimming lazily along, caught the great 
 ring as it passed her. She slid through the 
 water bobbing over the waves with all the exu- 
 berance and joy of a very young mermaid. But 
 the skipper presently became alarmed and 
 brought the boat up into the wind. She paddled 
 back and clambered aboard, happy and con- 
 tented as a child. 
 
 She was glorious as she stood there, all drip- 
 ping with the sea, the water glistening on her 
 bare arms, and her cheeks pink as spring roses 
 with the dew on them. 
 
 " You look like an allegorical figure of Un- 
 dine," he observed. 
 
 She leaned over and tried to shake a drop of 
 water off the end of her nose upon an unsuspect- 
 ing fly. 
 
 " Who was Undine? " she asked at length. 
 
 " She was the goddess of the waves." 
 
 " Then I am like her. See, wherever I go I 
 leave a small ocean on the deck. No one but a 
 goddess could do that." 
 
 " Not without being put off the boat." 
 
 She wrinkled her nose at him. 
 183
 
 . BLUE ANCHOR INN 
 
 " If you are disagreeable to your crew," she 
 said, " there will be a mutiny." 
 
 " Are you the crew ? " he demanded. 
 
 " Of course I am, or what is worse, a mere 
 scullery maid." 
 
 " I am sorry," he said, " that you have to work 
 like that." 
 
 She laughed very softly and sitting down 
 cross-legged on the deck, looked at him fixedly 
 for a second. 
 
 " / shall be sorry," she said, " when it is all 
 over." 
 
 " Why ? " 
 
 She nursed her ankle thoughtfully. 
 
 " I don't know," was all the reply she could 
 give, however. " It's just pleasant and nice." 
 
 He smiled. 
 
 " That's the way I have felt about it," he said. 
 " All the time I ought to be worrying my head 
 about when we are going to be rescued. I 
 haven't taken the least interest in it." 
 
 He let his glance fall on her for just a moment. 
 For no accountable reason, the color mounted to 
 
 her cheeks. 
 
 184
 
 BLUE ANCHOR INN 
 
 "The sea," she said, demurely, "is very beau- 
 tiful and comforting and homelike." 
 
 He started to say something and then checked 
 himself. But it was not about the sea. 
 
 About noon that day a breeze sprang up dead 
 astern. The yawl ran before it with all the ease 
 and speed of a motor boat. The great mainsail 
 forward hung over the water on the one side, 
 the little jigger sail abaft hung over the water 
 on the other side, and all the canvas pulled and 
 drew like mad. A great letter V stretched away 
 to both sides astern. 
 
 Along about three in the afternoon they 
 sighted a motor boat in the distance and made 
 efforts to attract attention, but without success, 
 for presently she turned and made down across 
 the horizon, leaving them alone on the waters. 
 This was a disappointment. But, as Brooke 
 said, with clear weather and a fair wind, they 
 would soon run across other sails. This point 
 was well taken, but in spite of that, it was not 
 until after dark that they saw the red and green 
 running lights of a craft of some sort coming 
 toward them. 
 
 185
 
 BLUE ANCHOR INN 
 
 It was some time before they dared let them- 
 selves believe it actually was coming toward 
 them. But when Brooke signaled with a 
 lantern and was answered from the other boat, 
 there was no longer any room for doubt. 
 
 This ascertained, he came aft to relieve her at 
 the wheel. 
 
 " Well," she said, gently, " that is the end of 
 this little adventure." 
 
 "I am sorry," he replied, reaching for the 
 spokes of the wheel. 
 
 For no reason at all, she still held them, look- 
 ing up into his face mischievously. 
 
 He put both his hands down on hers, as she 
 still grasped the wheel, and threw the helm over 
 a little to bring the yawl to leeward of the ap- 
 proaching launch. She did not move, but let 
 her hands stay in his. 
 
 The dim light in the binnacle threw a warm 
 glow on her face. She returned his gaze with 
 bright eyes, a faint, provoking smile on her lips. 
 
 In moments of excitement a man often does 
 the thing that surprises himself more than the 
 
 world. Something within Brooke suddenly 
 
 1 86
 
 BLUE ANCHOR INN 
 
 gave way. He reached forward and gathered 
 the girl in his arms. 
 
 There was a moment of silence. The yawl 
 wavered in its course. He released her. She 
 stood up and walked slowly toward the bow. 
 
 187
 
 CHAPTER XVIII 
 
 THE disappearance simultaneously of Miss 
 Grey, Brooke, and the yawl had thrown 
 the island into a turmoil. When the man and 
 girl had not returned after the clearing away of 
 the storm, Gilpin and Halsey and Captain John 
 had sauntered down in that direction to see what 
 could have detained them, and had come upon 
 the vacant anchorage. A search had immedi- 
 ately been started. The entire resident and non- 
 resident male population had piled into the 
 motor boat and started out to spread the news. 
 They had made a landing at the nearest life- 
 saving station, had the news telephoned up and 
 down the entire coast, filled the tanks with gaso- 
 line, and made a hundred mile cruise out to sea 
 and back without finding a single sail. It was 
 ten o'clock in the morning when they had re- 
 turned, worn out and discouraged ; and on the 
 
 instant a half dozen other craft, seeking news- 
 
 188
 
 BLUE ANCHOR INN 
 
 paper notoriety, had put out from half a dozen 
 places ; but all they had discovered of importance 
 on the high seas was each other. 
 
 It was generally acknowledged that if the yawl 
 were afloat it must be on a line south-by-east 
 from the island, the wind having blown steadily 
 from a point north-by-west all during the storm. 
 It was also acknowledged that having been car- 
 ried before the wind for some four or five hours, 
 they must have traveled a distance of about 
 fifty or sixty miles. That rendered very definite 
 the spot where the craft must have been, if afloat, 
 at the end of the storm. And furthermore, since 
 the wind after the storm had been exceedingly 
 light, the yawl could not have sailed very far 
 away from that point. When, therefore, the 
 several expeditions that went out to discover her 
 and rescue her in triumph failed to find her 
 within a radius of fifteen miles of a spot fifty 
 miles south-by-east of Lugger Island, and the 
 life-saving service failed to report any vessel 
 ashore, there was but one inference to be drawn. 
 She had gone down. At the end of the second 
 
 day that was the accepted version. The theory 
 
 189
 
 BLUE ANCHOR INN 
 
 that Brooke might have kept out to sea did not 
 occur to them. 
 
 " Ned," said Mrs. Gilpin, on the morning of 
 the second day, " what am I going to do about 
 Mrs. Brooke?" 
 
 " Do about her ? " 
 
 " Well, I ought to say something. If Roger 
 was is her husband, we cannot sit by and take 
 no notice of her." 
 
 Ned Gilpin thought a moment. 
 
 " Well," he said, " you had better do the best 
 you can." 
 
 Mrs. Gilpin thereupon made a call upon Mrs. 
 Brooke. Who can blame her if, into this errand 
 of mercy, there might have crept an element of 
 curiosity as well as of commiseration. There 
 can be no doubt in the world that when she first 
 put on her stiffly starched, white dress, her most 
 formal and uncomfortable summer hat and her 
 hot lisle-thread gloves, in preparation for the 
 visit, no thought was in her mind but the sadness 
 of the occasion. 
 
 As a matter of fact the seriousness of the sit- 
 uation had been borne down upon them all in the 
 
 190
 
 BLUE ANCHOR INN 
 
 last few days. Here was an occurrence of the 
 same sort they had seen announced with large 
 headings a thousand times in the daily papers and 
 had passed by without comment as being part of 
 the regular order of things. But when such a 
 thing befell, as it did, a person who might be 
 said to be a member of their own household, the 
 tragedy of it left them stunned. Mrs. Gilpin had 
 had no knowledge of sudden death save only in 
 such vague ways as, for instance, having been 
 present in the house when an aged uncle who, 
 alive and well at breakfast time, had died in his 
 chair before noon. Therefore, her mind was 
 now numbed and incredulous. She could not 
 quite believe that the thing had happened. She 
 found herself providing for four people in the 
 dining-room, and when her husband and Halsey 
 came down, alone, ready for dinner, once or twice 
 she had waited a moment, and then suddenly 
 realized that there was no one else to come. On 
 such occasions, the tragedy of it struck her 
 with redoubled force, as if she had heard of 
 the accident for the first time. It was after 
 
 one of these occurrences that she decided, 
 
 191
 
 BLUE ANCHOR INN 
 
 with genuine womanly sympathy, to visit Mrs. 
 Brooke. 
 
 But, as she walked along the sandy street, suf- 
 focating but beautiful to behold, her sympathetic 
 impulses and even her eyes, still slightly red and 
 hot (from tears shed when her brain had, without 
 warning, begun to speculate as to what she 
 would have done if it had been her husband who 
 had disappeared), could not gloss over the fact 
 that the imp of curiosity had a prominent place 
 in her heart. 
 
 Indeed, it would have been hard for him not to 
 have been there. For how could one commiser- 
 ate a person for the loss of her husband, when 
 one was not at all certain he was her husband, 
 without wondering if, in the seriousness of the 
 situation, the truth would at last be disclosed. 
 So, while pity and sympathy sat enthroned in the 
 very center of her heart, the imp curiosity was, 
 if not seated beside them, at least occupying a 
 prominent position on the top step of the throne. 
 
 Mrs. Brooke's coal-black servant took her 
 name up and returned immediately. Yes, Mrs. 
 
 Brooke would see her, and would be down in a 
 
 192
 
 BLUE ANCHOR INN 
 
 moment. Mrs. Gilpin's heart thumped. What 
 would she look like when she came? Would 
 she be red-eyed and pale ? Or would she be 
 cheerful and willing to discuss the event impar- 
 tially? It was rather difficult for the caller to 
 properly adjust the scenery, when she was so 
 uninformed of the nature of the play that was to 
 be staged. 
 
 Presently, after about ten minutes' suspense, 
 the lady in question swept into the room. If 
 Mrs. Gilpin had expected to get the hint the in- 
 stant she appeared and arrange the scene ac- 
 cordingly, she was disappointed. Mrs. Brooke 
 exhibited the same careful, spotless attire, the 
 same faultlessly accurate arrangement of her 
 hair, the same well-groomed hands and the same 
 inscrutably pleasant untear-stained face she would 
 have shown had her whole family been drowned 
 at sea. For the life of her Mrs. Gilpin couldn't 
 tell whether it was indifference, or bravado. It 
 certainly was true that, whatever her motive may 
 have been, it was Mrs. Brooke's first thought not 
 to let any one see her at anything else but her 
 best. 
 
 193
 
 BLUE ANCHOR INN 
 
 " Well," she said, instantly, with no intonation, 
 " is there any news ? " 
 
 It immediately occurred to Mrs. Gilpin that 
 she had perhaps raised the other woman's hopes 
 by coming, and she felt as if it were almost her 
 own fault that there was no news. 
 
 " No," she said, uncomfortably. " But no news 
 is good news." 
 
 Mrs. Brooke gazed at her visitor calmly. 
 
 " I don't think that is exactly true," she re- 
 marked. 
 
 " In a way, though," replied the other quickly, 
 groping about for something comforting to say, 
 "it is true. While of course it is tremendous 
 suspense for you to hear nothing at all, yet as 
 long as you don't hear there is always a chance 
 that they will come back to you." 
 
 It was a very good speech, but she used the 
 pronoun "you" three times too often. Mrs. 
 Brooke raised her eyebrows. 
 
 "Yes," she returned, "as long as we don't 
 hear there is always a chance that they will come 
 back to us." 
 
 She added the last two words almost as an af- 
 194
 
 BLUE ANCHOR INN 
 
 terthought. Mrs. Gilpin colored. It was just as 
 if Mrs. Brooke had gathered up all the sympathy 
 she had presented and put it back again in her lap. 
 
 " Mr. Brooke," she went on, bravely, " was 
 such a comfort and constant joy to us. It was 
 only last week I told Mr. Gilpin he was the most 
 delightful person we ever had had visit us." 
 
 "Yes," replied Mrs. Brooke without apparent 
 interest. " I should certainly think you would 
 miss him." 
 
 Mrs. Gilpin grew cold. 
 
 " We, at least, do," she said, with tight lips. 
 
 There was a pause. She tried to be calm. 
 Only one thought restrained the rising tide of 
 anger. The lady before her, if she were Roger 
 Brooke's wife, was his wife under very trying 
 circumstances. It would have been hard for her 
 herself, under similar circumstances, to have ac- 
 cepted sympathy from an acquaintance of a few 
 weeks' standing and to have confessed as her 
 husband a man whom she could not but be 
 eternally aware she had bought just as she 
 would have bought a parasol. Mrs. Gilpin's 
 temper stopped in its rise. 
 
 195
 
 BLUE ANCHOR INN 
 
 " / miss him," she said, gently. Her idea was 
 to keep the talk still in that quarter, so that she 
 might offer her sympathy more indirectly. 
 
 The other still gazed at her with her cool im- 
 personal regard. 
 
 " You miss him," she said, speculatively. 
 
 " I miss him very much," replied Mrs. Gilpin, 
 innocently,, 
 
 For the first time the eyes opposite showed a 
 gleam of the personality within. Was that 
 jealousy? Or if it were not jealousy, was it only 
 the effort of a woman, for some reason in a false 
 position from which she could not extricate her- 
 self, to assume the offensive ? At any rate her 
 eyes showed fire. 
 
 " Does Mr. Gilpin miss him too ? " she asked, 
 with the air of a person touching a match to the 
 precise center of a charge of powder. 
 
 Mrs. Gilpin sprang to her feet. The blood 
 flamed in her face. 
 
 But just at that moment Mr. Still entered the 
 room.
 
 CHAPTER XIX 
 
 MR. STILL'S presence always succeeded in 
 breaking off any existing situation and 
 starting an entirely new one. 
 
 " Mrs. Gilpin," he said, blandly, all indications 
 of storm in the atmosphere being lost upon him, 
 " I believe you have a map of this part of the 
 coast prepared by the Geodetic Survey." 
 
 It was a ridiculously matter-of-fact question to 
 ask a woman trembling all over as she was with 
 passion. 
 
 " Yes," she said, however, not knowing whether 
 there was one or not. 
 
 "When you go," proceeded the old gentle- 
 man, tactfully, " I will step over to your house 
 with you and borrow it." 
 
 Mrs. Gilpin, with a scarcely perceptible nod to 
 her hostess, swept from the room. Mr. Still, 
 thrusting his venerable straw hat down over his 
 head until it rested firmly on his ears, trotted 
 
 along amiably beside her. When she gave him 
 
 197
 
 BLUE ANCHOR INN 
 
 the map he tucked it under his arm and disap- 
 peared down the sandy street. 
 
 " He wants it to play with," she confided irri- 
 tably to her husband. " He will doubtless come 
 back within an hour with a pin stuck in the exact 
 spot where the yawl went down." 
 
 And, true to her prediction, he did return 
 within the hour, but not with a pin stuck in the 
 map. Instead he had traced a wabbly black line 
 in pencil running from the island to the point 
 where it seemed the sailboat must have been 
 when the storm ceased and the wind fell. Then 
 he showed that there was a current setting to 
 eastward at this place showed it marked plainly 
 on the map which must have carried the boat 
 out from shore and away from the spot where 
 every one had been looking for it, so that, sup- 
 posing the boat still to be afloat, if its occupants 
 were endeavoring to return over the same course 
 they went, they would be carried to seaward and 
 miss the island altogether. 
 
 Gilpin and Halsey listened with polite con- 
 sideration, and then attempted to show him why 
 
 this hypothesis was an impossible one, and how, 
 
 198
 
 BLUE ANCHOR INN 
 
 had the yawl been afloat, it would have been dis- 
 covered at this particular point at such a time 
 or at that particular point at such another time ; 
 but it was of no use, for the arguments he could 
 not answer the old gentleman would not hear, 
 and the ones he consented to hear he refuted so 
 entirely to his own satisfaction if not to any one 
 else's that he became more convinced than ever 
 of the righteousness of his cause ; and therefore 
 more urgent that they should take the motor 
 boat straightway, go to the spot indicated on the 
 map, and bring back the yawl. At last, exas- 
 perated beyond measure, and seeing that noth- 
 ing would satisfy him except an actual visit to 
 the spot, Gilpin said he could go out in the motor 
 boat with Willy and convince himself as to 
 whether the yawl was there or not. Whereupon 
 Gilpin and Halsey, exhausted and hoarse, retired 
 from the field of action, and sought quiet and re- 
 pose. 
 
 " But," remonstrated Willy, when informed of 
 the expedition, " he's a bug, Mr. Gilpin. The 
 elevators don't run to his top story no more." 
 
 " Well, he won't hurt you." 
 199
 
 BLUE ANCHOR INN 
 
 " I wouldn't trust him, Mr. Gilpin. Them fel- 
 lows always has carving knives stuck under their 
 vests." 
 
 " If he gets violent step on his feet," suggested 
 Gilpin on the spur of the moment. " That al- 
 ways fixes them." 
 
 With this thorough understanding of how to 
 manage such a desperate character, Willy 
 blithely set about getting ready for the trip. 
 He was exceedingly dubious about spending 
 several hours alone with the old gentleman, for 
 above all things he loved to talk, and talking, 
 with Mr. Still as audience, he conceived would 
 be more of an exercise than a pastime. There- 
 fore, when he saw Hester leaving the house 
 after the completion of the few duties that fell to 
 her lot after luncheon on the occasion of her 
 afternoon out, he hailed her joyously. 
 
 " What ye goin' to do, kid ? " he cried, when 
 she approached the landing. 
 
 Hester went over the various possible things 
 that might occupy her afternoon, and then with 
 a fine recklessness vetoed them all. 
 
 " Nothing," she replied, blandly. 
 200
 
 BLUE ANCHOR INN 
 
 " You're elected. Step right aboard. Sight- 
 seeing motor boat starts in a few moments." 
 
 " Oh, you silly." 
 
 She hesitated on the shore, with one finger 
 dubiously resting on her under lip. 
 
 " I guess you're sort of thinkin' it over, ain't 
 you ? " demanded Willy presently, screwing the 
 top on the gasoline tank. 
 
 " What would Mr. Gilpin say ? " 
 
 " Listen, little one. Who do you think is the 
 chauffer of this ferry-boat? Mr. Gilpin is only 
 the owner. I'm the boss. Do you get me ? " 
 
 Hester giggled. 
 
 " Willy Holdefer," she exclaimed, bewildered. 
 " How you talk ! " 
 
 But still she did not come aboard. Willy 
 stepped ashore with firmness in his eye. She 
 backed away from him laughing, but he caught 
 her and swung her up into his arms. She 
 screamed, as a matter of course then he set her 
 down in the launch by the wheel. This is a 
 primitive way of dealing with woman, but has 
 been often found efficacious. Hester was far 
 
 from showing resentment. 
 
 20 1
 
 BLUE ANCHOR INN 
 
 " I declare I wouldn't of thought you were that 
 strong ! " she observed. 
 
 " Strong ! " cried Willy. " I can tie a lead pipe 
 into a knot with one hand." 
 
 Hester was genuinely astonished. 
 
 " No 1 " she exclaimed. 
 
 Mr. Still came shuffling down the board walk 
 at this juncture, and was stowed away in a safe 
 corner with his map, field-glasses, note-book and 
 stub of a pencil to amuse him. Willy started 
 the machine, and they fared forth on their jour- 
 ney to salvage the yawl. 
 
 " He's so hard of hearin' he can't understand 
 a word we say, can he ? " demanded the girl. 
 
 Willy glanced at the old man thoughtfully. 
 
 " That's too much for yours truly, Hester, " he 
 replied. "Sometimes he's deef, and sometimes 
 he's on the job. But I dope it out like this, you 
 understand : hearin', to him, is woik, just like 
 me and you doin ' 'rithmetic ; and if he ain't inter- 
 ested in the talk, he don't take the trouble to hear. 
 But if he's interested, he starts all the machinery 
 in his bean, and he makes it his business to listen." 
 
 They sailed directly east, at the direction of 
 202
 
 BLUE ANCHOR INN 
 
 Mr. Still. The old man sat forward on the deck- 
 house like an allegorical statue of Discovery, 
 and scanned the empty horizon for a familiar 
 sail. Hester and Willy sat in the stern-sheets 
 warily watching the old man. 
 
 "Take it from me, little one," Willy observed 
 presently ; "he' s clean bug, but every once in a 
 while a real idea moves in and takes possession. 
 Now this thought of his about the yawl listens 
 good. He dopes it out that since the boat didn't 
 go ashore, there's ten chances to one that she 
 didn't sink in the ocean. Bone, as the French 
 waiters say. If they didn't sink in the briny, and 
 they're still alive, you understand, they're sailing 
 right straight for the island, and not standing 
 still." 
 
 "I do declare," said Hester. 
 
 " Now, my private opinion," went on Willy, 
 " is that if it hadn't been for the current, which 
 the old party discovered carrying her out to sea, 
 the yawl ought to have come back to the island 
 about to-night, but with the current carryin' her 
 out she will pass twenty-five or thirty miles east 
 
 of it." 
 
 203
 
 BLUE ANCHOR INN 
 
 They continued on their course until dark, 
 making about eight miles an hour in the rough 
 sea. Then they saw the running lights of a boat 
 to south of them. As they came nearer to it 
 they saw in the moonlight that it was a yawl. 
 The excitement aboard was at fever heat. The 
 old gentleman changed from his far-seeing to 
 his near-seeing glasses at least twenty times in 
 one minute, referring first to the map and then 
 to the sail in the distance. 
 
 " I told you," he cried, " I told you we should 
 find them." 
 
 Willy eyed him warily. 
 
 " You're the Christopher Columbus," he said. 
 
 He let Hester steer while he went forward and 
 signaled to the yawl, and after half an hour they 
 came abreast of it and had the satisfaction of 
 finding it really was Mr. Still's boat, with Brooke 
 and Miss Grey aboard. But the situation when 
 they got there seemed to be somewhat strained, 
 for Brooke was steering, and Miss Grey sat in 
 the bow. 
 
 204
 
 CHAPTER XX 
 
 WILLY stood at the wheel of the launch. 
 They were heading for the alternate red 
 and white flash of the light on the spit south of 
 Lugger Island. It was a very quiet party. On 
 the one boat Brooke sat alone aft by the wheel 
 and Miss Grey sat alone forward by the bow- 
 sprit. On the other, Mr. Still, his part of the 
 work accomplished, slept the sleep of the just and 
 righteous on the long cushioned seat ; Willy was 
 full of the responsibility of sailing home ; and 
 Hester, sitting beside him with her hands folded, 
 was thinking of a number of things. Presently, 
 a little preparatory wave of action ran through 
 her, and she edged closer to the man at the wheel. 
 
 " Say, Willy," she whispered, somewhat awe- 
 struck at the idea, " do you think they're in 
 love ? " 
 
 The skipper looked at her in astonishment. 
 
 " Who V ye talkin' about, little one ? " he de- 
 manded. 
 
 205
 
 BLUE ANCHOR INN 
 
 Hester looked at the two on the yawl and back 
 again to Willy. Willy, thereupon, made an offi- 
 cial survey for himself, as though he had never 
 seen them before. Then he consulted his com- 
 pass and brought the launch's head over a point 
 or two. 
 
 " Two much for little Willy," he confided to 
 her presently. " I can't keep hep to the doin's of 
 all these people. All the dope seemed to be 
 pickin' Mr. Brooke for a winner with Mrs. 
 Brooke previous to this storm." 
 
 Hester nodded a sympathizing head. 
 
 " But what gets to me is," Willy went on, 
 " what's this Mrs. Brooke doin' down here, any- 
 way ? There's somethin' phoney about that dame. 
 She's a-playin' this game with an ace in her cuff, 
 you take it from me. How do I know ? Well, 
 did you ever hear of her tellin' any one she was 
 a widow ? Or sayin' who her hubby was ? No. 
 And when you hear Mrs. Gilpin and Mr. Gilpin 
 talkin', all they know is she's Mrs. Brooke. I 
 tell you she's got a scheme." 
 
 " Is she an adventuress ? " demanded Hester, 
 
 thrilled. 
 
 206
 
 BLUE ANCHOR INN 
 
 Willy laughed. 
 
 " You talk like Bertha the Sewing-Machine 
 Girl," he commented. " No, she ain't no flim- 
 flam artist. But, believe me, she's got the 
 kibosh on Mr. Brooke for fair. One day I says 
 to Mr. Brooke casual-like, when he was in the 
 launch, ' Mr. Brooke,' I says (just as if the 
 idea hadn't ever entered me head before), ' is 
 Mrs. Brooke a relative of yourn ? ' And Mr. 
 Brooke he got red and says, ' Only be mar- 
 riage,' he says, 'only be marriage.' And, say, 
 I thought Mr. Gilpin would throw a duck-fit 
 a-laughin'." 
 
 "Ain't folks silly s'mtimes ? " commented Hes- 
 ter. 
 
 Willy peered anxiously into the binnacle. 
 
 " And let me tell you this," he observed pres- 
 ently. " I think I got the answer." 
 
 " No ! " she cried, excitedly. 
 
 " Surest thing you know. I've been sitting 
 tight and usin' me eyes and me ears. I've heard 
 a thing or two, and I've seen a thing or two ; 
 and I've got it all doped out that Mrs. Brooke is 
 
 Mr. Brooke's wife." 
 
 207
 
 BLUE ANCHOR INN 
 
 Willy looked straight before him. Hester's 
 eyes grew to be saucers. Then she gasped. 
 
 " You don't tell me ! " she cried. 
 
 " Don't tell you ? I'm a-shoutin' it in yer ear. 
 Didn't I put you wise to the idea that they run 
 that yawl in the mud a-purpose the first time 
 they comes to the island ? And didn't Mr. 
 Brooke beat it the first peep he got at the dame 
 an' have all his eats brought up to his room un- 
 til he thought she'd cut loose and left ? Well, I 
 guess yes. And what's she hangin' round the 
 island for now ? 'Cause she's so tickled to death 
 with it she can't let go ? No 1 ' Nevaire,' as 
 my friend Henri the waiter says. She's stayin' 
 here because she's got the joker in her hand, and 
 she's waitin' for the chance to slip it in." 
 
 Hester was bewildered. 
 
 " But," she asserted, in her bucolic simplicity, 
 " if she was his wife, he'd live in her house in- 
 stead of in Mr. Gilpm's." 
 
 Willy shook his head wisely. 
 
 " Not no more. Anything but that when they 
 gets sick of each other. Marriages nowadays is 
 
 like automobiles. You got to get your hooks on 
 
 208
 
 BLUE ANCHOR INN 
 
 a new one every year ; most guys get in low 
 spirits as soon as they're wise to the idea their 
 wives is last year's models. So they get Renoed 
 and renewed." 
 
 " What say ? " asked the girl, blankly. 
 
 " They buy a divorce and try again." 
 
 Hester's lips drew themselves into a tight 
 line. 
 
 " I never did like that Mrs. Brooke. So 
 there ! " She delivered this opinion with the air 
 of a Christian martyr who expected to be thrown 
 to the lions for it instantly after. 
 
 " That makes two of us, kid." 
 
 " I'd rather see Mr. Brooke marry Miss Grey," 
 went on Hester. 
 
 " Nothin' to it. He's froze to the cushion." 
 
 She meditated seriously for a long while. 
 
 " Mustn't it be awful not to be allowed to 
 marry the one you want to marry ? " she said, at 
 length, in a burst of wisdom. 
 
 Willy leaned forward and carefully polished 
 the glass of the binnacle with a piece of cotton- 
 waste. 
 
 " Fierce ! " he exclaimed, presently. 
 209
 
 BLUE ANCHOR INN 
 
 The girl twined her handkerchief in and out 
 between her fingers. 
 
 " Say, Hester." 
 
 " Um-huh ! " 
 
 " Mr. Gilpin," he began, thoughtfully, " says 
 he's got to have an automobile next winter 
 needs it in his business." 
 
 " Oh, my ! " No especial interest 
 
 "And I'm to be the chauffer, understand? 
 Now I sings a little song to meself like this I 
 says, Why don't Hester get on the job and be 
 Mrs. Gilpin's maid?" 
 
 Her interest revived somewhat. 
 
 " I'd just love it. But ma and pa " 
 
 " Oh, forget that" His voice had an air of 
 finality. 
 
 She held one corner of her handkerchief in her 
 hand and pulled consciously at the other. She 
 was a child of the people, and like an alert young 
 animal, she recognized pursuit afar off. 
 
 Willy threw the wheel over three spokes. 
 
 " Hester," he said, leaning forward, " 'jever 
 think of gettin' married?" 
 
 She shook her head. 
 
 210
 
 BLUE ANCHOR INN 
 
 Willy scratched his head, and frowned as if 
 uncertain how to proceed. But an idea occurred 
 to him. 
 
 " That is," he exclaimed, " not until now ? " 
 
 She did not look up, but she reached over and 
 gave him a little shy push with her hand. 
 
 A nudge to the wise is sufficient Willy 
 steered the boat with one hand. 
 
 " Say, kid," he whispered, " you're the only 
 goil I ever loved." 
 
 It was the refrain of twenty cheap popular 
 songs, but it was real music to her. She hid her 
 flushed face in the shoulder of his flannel shirt. 
 This might have gone on for a long while, had 
 not Brooke called out from the yawl. 
 
 " Say, Willy," he cried, " are you trying to do 
 the grape-vine twist with these boats ? " 
 
 Hester sprang away. Willy looked ruefully 
 astern at the atrocious wake he had left. Then 
 he laughed sheepishly. 
 
 " Mr. Brooke," he said, " can you come 
 aboard?" 
 
 The launch was lashed beside the yawl. 
 
 Brooke jumped aboard. 
 
 211
 
 BLUE ANCHOR INN 
 
 " Mr. Brooke," he stammered, in an agony of 
 embarrassment, " Hester and me we've fixed 
 it up." 
 
 " Good," cried Brooke, and shook hands with 
 them both. Hester, her face scarlet, could not 
 raise her eyes from the deck. They were like 
 two criminals discovered in their evil deeds. 
 Brooke tried to cheer them up. And as he 
 looked at them both, a great feeling of envy 
 rose up in his heart. 
 
 " God bless you," he cried, " God bless you 
 both." 
 
 He went quickly back to his place on the 
 yawl 
 
 212
 
 CHAPTER XXI 
 
 WHEN the town clock (a brilliantly nickeled 
 timepiece with an alarm attachment, 
 which reposed on the cherry bureau in Captain 
 John's room) pointed to two in the morning, the 
 mayor of Lugger Island rose and made a survey 
 of the stretch of sea shining before him in the 
 moonlight. What he saw warranted executive 
 action. Selecting at random several pieces of ap- 
 parel most easily put on, he was presently in the 
 main thoroughfare of the metropolis, excitedly 
 summoning a special session of the town council. 
 The town council, in their turn, picking up 
 those garments which came most easily to hand, 
 swarmed out upon the streets. The wives, 
 daughters, and the first cousin of the town coun- 
 cil, realizing that on such a momentous occasion 
 any formal dressing would be in bad taste, 
 garbed themselves promptly in sundry conveni- 
 ent coverings and appeared in public with the 
 celerity of city firemen. Seldom of late years 
 
 213
 
 BLUE ANCHOR INN 
 
 had such a concourse of people crowded the 
 streets of Lugger Island at such an hour of the 
 night. In fact, it may have been the general 
 belief up to that time that there was no such 
 hour as two o'clock in the morning. Such was 
 their regularity of habit that the island might 
 well have been removed from its position at nine 
 every evening and put on a shelf until five the 
 next morning, and the space it occupied used for 
 some other purpose. Therefore, to have the en- 
 tire population awake and socially inclined at 
 such a wicked and dissipated hour thrilled them 
 through and through. The fact that Captain 
 John's spouse, who was supposed to be the ex- 
 ample of deportment for the city, had been able 
 to find only one stocking (a state of affairs which 
 would have shocked the community beyond rec- 
 ognition on any other occasion) was considered 
 excessively funny just now. In fact, all barriers 
 were down. With the possible exception of the 
 time when Captain John had bought a derby hat 
 to wear to a funeral, no such excitement as this 
 had touched the town in ten years. 
 
 " The lanch is coming back," was the slogan 
 214
 
 BLUE ANCHOR INN 
 
 that brought this seething crowd out on the 
 streets. And sure enough there in the distance 
 was the launch, towing a yawl. 
 
 The arrival and disembarking of the long-lost 
 mariners and their rescuers was a time of keen 
 excitement and embarrassment on all sides. It 
 was embarrassing to Brooke and Miss Grey, be- 
 cause they were not used to such publicity and 
 throngs of people. It was embarrassing to the 
 mayor, because he felt he might be called upon 
 to make a speech, tendering them the keys of 
 the city. In reading books concerning mayors 
 and the duties of mayors, he had discovered that 
 they invariably presented people with the keys 
 of the city ; but as the only keys in his posses- 
 sion were the key to his dory and the key to his 
 tool house which were unfortunately in his 
 other trousers anyway the ceremony did not 
 seem appropriate. He therefore did the simplest 
 and most Jeflersonian thing. He stood on the 
 shore and shook them by the hand as they 
 landed, saying to each, "You done well, sir," re- 
 gardless of sex. 
 
 This democratic ceremony finished, every 
 215
 
 BLUE ANCHOR INN 
 
 one hastened to shake hands with every one 
 else and all heroes were permitted to retire to 
 their beds. The great concourse of people were 
 drunk with excitement. The sun was almost up 
 when every one retired to bed again, and break- 
 fasts that morning were hours late. But conver- 
 sation during the day was more varied and en- 
 tertaining than it had been for years. In fact, 
 the townsfolk seemed to have actually taken an 
 interest in being alive. 
 
 Things, however, gradually got down to the 
 normal again, and affairs on the island returned 
 to the same state they were before the disappear- 
 ance of the yawl. Halsey renewed his atten- 
 tion to Miss Grey as though no interval at all had 
 intervened. Captain John and Mr. Still made 
 further depredations on the crabs residing in the 
 channel. When not otherwise occupied, Willy 
 and Hester took the engine on the launch apart 
 and Willy thoroughly lubricated all its parts with 
 oil and Albany grease. It was he alone who 
 had stood between the town of Lugger Island and 
 eternal and lasting fame. A reporter, an actual 
 
 reporter from a real city paper, had made a visit 
 
 216
 
 BLUE ANCHOR INN 
 
 to the island to write up the romantic rescue. 
 He had been willing to print names and photo- 
 graphs of everybody concerned. It was the 
 chance of a lifetime. He wanted to publish por- 
 traits of Miss Grey and Brooke and the mayor 
 of the town with a pen-and-ink picture of a ship 
 in the background weathering a heavy storm, 
 and head it, " Society Woman Blown to Sea." 
 But Willy had forestalled him. He had occupied 
 the landing with a boat-hook and fended off the 
 reporter's rowboat when he attempted to come 
 ashore. The explanation of the glorious pub- 
 licity contemplated had fallen on deaf ears. At- 
 tempts to extricate information had been worse 
 than futile. 
 
 The reporter had at last begun to suspect that 
 the information he was getting from Willy was 
 more or less extemporaneous, so he presently de- 
 parted ; and Lugger Island lost its opportunity 
 to be immortalized in print, for the picture the 
 paper published in its story of the episode, with 
 the legend under it, " Cross marks spot where 
 yacht went adrift," was not of Lugger Island at 
 
 all, but was taken miles down the coast. 
 
 217
 
 BLUE ANCHOR INN 
 
 After having thus missed fame by a small 
 margin, the island, as has been said, settled down 
 to the even tenor of its ways. And Brooke, see- 
 ing every one else doing the things they had 
 been doing a week before, went to see Mrs. 
 Brooke. 
 
 He discovered her on the beach, her immacu- 
 late attire protected from the sands by a steamer 
 rug, and her dainty complexion protected from 
 the sun by a pink parasol. She wore a hat a 
 hat of cascades of white laciness do they call it 
 a lingerie hat? Her dress was starched and 
 modeled and ironed till its folds fell and hung 
 with the careless precision of a picture. Around 
 its hem were hemstitching and feather-stitch- 
 ing, and briar-stitching (if there is such a 
 thing) and every other variety of stitching 
 known to the civilized world, until she was 
 almost a compendium of needlework. The 
 zenith of neatness and trimness to which she 
 had attained had always been an annoyance 
 to him. If ordinary cleanliness were next to 
 godliness, her kind of cleanliness would have 
 
 taken her into heaven at a bound. It made 
 
 218
 
 BLUE ANCHOR INN 
 
 her inapproachable, as if he were convers- 
 ing with an exhibition of mere sartorial cor- 
 rectness rather than with a live, breathing 
 person. 
 
 " How does it feel," she said, " to be a ship- 
 wrecked mariner ? " 
 
 He thought a moment, wondering if any one 
 really could give a sane answer to a question of 
 that sort. 
 
 "Why," he ventured, " I'm sure I'm glad it's 
 over." 
 
 " You had very good company, too ! " 
 
 She said this with an attempt at archness. 
 
 " Miss Grey ? " 
 
 She nodded. 
 
 "Do you like her?" 
 
 " Yes," he replied. " Don't you ? " 
 
 " Oh," she said, " I'm a woman." 
 
 " That's a non-committal reply." 
 
 " Oh, no. But the woman who is liked by 
 men only as much as by other women isn't very 
 attractive." 
 
 "Then you don't think women like each 
 
 other ? " he asked thoughtfully. 
 
 219
 
 BLUE ANCHOR INN 
 
 " Of course they do. But men demand fasci- 
 nation." 
 
 He appeared doubtful. 
 
 " Haven't you found it so ? " 
 
 " Oh, I don't know. To me a woman is like 
 a picture puzzle with several pieces missing." 
 
 " Didn't Miss Grey fascinate you ? " 
 
 He looked at her quickly, wondering why she 
 came back to that subject. 
 
 " Oh, no," he replied. " Not so bad as that." 
 
 She looked straight before her at the sea. 
 There was a pause. It appeared that he had 
 offended her. 
 
 At last he said : 
 
 " Have you enjoyed your visit at Lugger 
 Island?" 
 
 " Oh, yes." 
 
 " It was a strange accident that brought you 
 here." 
 
 " Yes," she replied shortly. 
 
 Brooke was surprised at her manner. Some- 
 thing had piqued her. But what could it be? 
 He went over their conversation in his mind. 
 
 He was no judge of women, but a friend of his, 
 
 220
 
 BLUE ANCHOR INN 
 
 who knew all about them, had once given him 
 seven axioms, which was the sum of all human 
 wisdom concerning the sex. Or at least he said 
 so. Brooke had forgotten all but one, and that 
 was, " If a woman asks a man about another 
 woman, she is not concerned about the man at 
 all, or is concerned about that woman a great 
 deal." 
 
 He was worried. She had to be concerned 
 about him because she was his wife. She was 
 concerned about the other woman, of course. 
 Wives were always concerned about the twenty- 
 three million other women in the world. He 
 had heard it said frequently. And, as he looked 
 at her, realizing that she was his wife and for 
 all time would be his wife, it brought him up 
 with a round turn. He did not love her. She 
 meant no more to him than any piece of prop- 
 erty toward which he had certain responsibilities 
 and duties. But the net was around him and 
 there was no escape. He belonged to her. He 
 shrugged his shoulders, and, like a dutiful 
 husband, proceeded to attempt to alleviate the 
 
 situation. 
 
 221
 
 , BLUE ANCHOR INN 
 
 " What made you think," he said, "that Miss 
 Grey would have fascinations for a man ? " 
 
 She seemed to be glad to get back to this 
 topic. 
 
 " Oh," she replied, "three days alone with any 
 woman, and the stoutest heart is gone." 
 
 He saw an opening. 
 
 "Suppose then it had been you instead of 
 Miss Grey." 
 
 She shot forward her chin and set her teeth 
 tightly. 
 
 " We will not discuss me," she said sharply. 
 
 He would have admitted then he did not 
 understand women. Also it seemed apparent 
 that he was not very congenial with his wife. 
 
 "You seem annoyed at the idea?" 
 
 " I am." 
 
 " Then we won't discuss it." 
 
 " I'm very glad." 
 
 He saw that his effort to mollify her had either 
 not been appreciated or had been too easily seen 
 through. So he determined to defer further 
 conversation until another time. He rose to 
 
 leave her. 
 
 222
 
 BLUE ANCHOR INN 
 
 " I am sorry we quarrel so soon," he said. 
 " It is a very bad beginning." 
 
 "A bad beginning of what?" she replied, 
 with no effort to understand. 
 But he simply nodded and went away. 
 
 223
 
 CHAPTER XXII 
 
 THEY were at the lunch table at Gilpin's. 
 Halsey, beaming like a contented owl, 
 arrived just in time to have himself included in 
 the grace Gilpin muttered before the meal. 
 
 " Dita made the remark " he began, pres- 
 ently. 
 
 " Who's Dita ? " interrupted Gilpin, blandly. 
 
 " Neddy ! Don't be so obtuse," his wife 
 inserted. 
 
 Gilpin's humor expanded. 
 
 " Oh, yes, yes," he exclaimed, comprehend- 
 ingly. " Go on with your story. You said : 
 ' Ditto made the remark ' " 
 
 " Dita," corrected the other, embarrassed 
 
 " All right Only what did she say ? " 
 
 " Now, Neddy, don't embarrass him. Can't 
 you see he is in love ? " 
 
 Halsey turned pink. 
 
 " This is a painful subject, I'm sure," he ob- 
 served. " What I was about to remark was that 
 
 224
 
 BLUE ANCHOR INN 
 
 Miss Grey said she would like to live on this 
 island all the time." 
 
 The head of the house and his wife exchanged 
 knowing glances. 
 
 " Did you follow up that lead ? " observed the 
 latter. 
 
 Halsey, who never quite understood banter of 
 this sort, took refuge in silence. 
 
 " Mrs. Gilpin caught me on one of those soft- 
 pedal ideas," said Gilpin, blandly. 
 
 " Oh, Neddy, I didn't." 
 
 Her husband grinned seraphically. 
 
 " Well," he conceded, " perhaps it was some 
 other girl." 
 
 Mrs. Gilpin maintained her dignity. 
 
 " Well," she said, turning to Halsey and ignor- 
 ing completely the monster who was her husband, 
 " I am sure you would make her a fine husband." 
 
 Brooke looked intently at the man opposite 
 him. What was there about him to make a 
 good husband ? He said to himself : " How 
 can any woman ever love a man with a perpetual 
 little pimple on the side of his nose?" He was 
 
 surprised that he had never noticed before what 
 
 225
 
 BLUE ANCHOR INN 
 
 an unprepossessing person Halsey was. He was 
 eccentric. That was the word for it. Nobody 
 but an eccentric person would have worn a purple 
 tie with tiny yellow spots on it. Could any 
 woman be happy with a man who wore a purple 
 tie with yellow spots on it ? To come right down 
 to brass tacks, how could any woman get romance 
 out of loving a man who wore eye-glasses ? It 
 was inconceivable. 
 
 "Well, Roger," cried Gilpin, "stop looking 
 at Halsey and tell us whether you think he would 
 not make a fine husband." 
 
 Brooke roused himself suddenly. 
 
 " Would he make her a good husband ? " 
 
 " Yes. You have seen something of her. You 
 ought to know." 
 
 "Yes," Brooke found himself saying, "I ought 
 to know. Halsey has a great deal to live up to. 
 The person who is a fine husband for her must 
 be fine all through to the very heart of him. For 
 she is wonderful. She is all gold. The man 
 who is her husband will have to do his best, if he 
 wants to deserve her and even then he may not 
 
 succeed." 
 
 226
 
 BLUE ANCHOR INN 
 
 " You see," said Halsey, " even if I aspired to 
 the honor of being her husband, Roger doubts 
 if I should be worthy." 
 
 Mrs. Gilpin looked at Brooke wonderingly. 
 
 "You talk almost as if you loved her your- 
 self." 
 
 The young man laughed. 
 
 " Why," he said, " I'm married. " 
 
 Which statement was accurate and unanswer- 
 able. 
 
 Brooke gave the subject of Halsey' s conjugal 
 qualifications further thought in the afternoon as 
 he strolled up the beach. But he arrived at no 
 conclusion. He saw nothing humorous in the 
 fact that he had up to this time considered his 
 fellow guest as a highly entertaining and uplift- 
 ing person. He was astonished that he had not 
 been able to see the man's character more clearly 
 before. It was not until now he realized his prim 
 preciseness, his unoriginality, his utter colorless- 
 ness, his lack of all the sterling qualities that are 
 necessary for a husband and a man. It did not 
 seem strange to him that he had known Halsey 
 
 intimately for about ten years and had never 
 
 227
 
 BLUE ANCHOR INN 
 
 suspected the existence of all these criminal 
 deficiencies in him. But then Brooke was just a 
 little warped in his judgment. There was some- 
 thing the matter with him. 
 
 His ruminations on this subject were presently 
 interrupted by some one in the distance shouting 
 his name. He faced about and discovered Damon 
 and Pythias, in the persons of Captain John and 
 Mr. Still, hastening wildly toward him, with 
 antics and gesticulations giving the idea of run- 
 ning like two men in a moving picture drama. 
 The young man sat down to wait for them, and 
 in due time they arrived. 
 
 " Where's the fire ? " asked Brooke. 
 
 " Eh ? " demanded Still, breathlessly. 
 
 Captain John glanced at him malevolently. 
 
 "Nothin' th' matter, Mr. Brooke. He just 
 hed t' run and tell you an idee before he spilled 
 it" 
 
 The old gentleman was sitting on the sand, 
 gasping like a newly-caught fish. 
 
 " I bet you he's forgot it already," observed the 
 captain, with something like pride in his associ- 
 ate's abilities. 
 
 228
 
 BLUE ANCHOR INN 
 
 But Mr. Still gave a final gasp and emerged 
 from the piscatory kingdom. 
 
 " John and I," he said, in a high voice, " have 
 been having a discussion." 
 
 " He did the ' dis ' and I did th' cussin'," inter- 
 polated the mayor, with the air of one propound- 
 ing a jest. 
 
 Mr. Still looked at him with unseeing eyes. 
 
 " It wasn't so much of a discussion either. 
 Poor old John's brain has a flat wheel, and he 
 can't get up much speed with it." 
 
 The mayor writhed with offended dignity. 
 
 " Get rid of th' idea quick," he grumbled, " be- 
 fore it oozes out of th' pores of your skin." 
 
 " Well, Mr. Brooke," went on the old man, 
 " the thing I said to our genial friend was that I 
 liked this island." 
 
 " I don't see how you could get up much of a 
 discussion on that." 
 
 " Well, I went further. I said I'd like to live 
 on the island. I said I'd like to spend the rest of 
 my days on the island." 
 
 " Nobody but a soft-head like him," put in the 
 
 captain, "could ever get an idee like that in him, 
 
 229
 
 BLUE ANCHOR INN 
 
 What he ought to do is t' buy a berth in an old 
 man's home where they have plush sofys and 
 white waiters and a elevator to take you up 
 t' your room. Why, look at me. I've lived 
 here all my life, and all I want t' do is t' get 
 away." 
 
 " I'm an old, old man," said Mr. Still, begin- 
 ning to speak in the middle of the mayor's dis- 
 course. " My course of life is nearing its close. 
 All my days have been spent amidst the noise of 
 the city and of the city people making money. 
 It has been my dream since I was a boy some 
 day to live near the noise of salt water, where 
 I could be quiet and think where I could see the 
 ships on the sea." 
 
 Brooke was profoundly touched. 
 
 " I am sure, Mr. Still, it could be arranged for 
 you to do so," he said. 
 
 " What I should want would be a house up 
 there where those trees are." He pointed to a 
 couple of oak trees growing on a little rise of 
 ground. " A house with a great fireplace in 
 it." 
 
 "That jest shows how practical he is," 
 230
 
 BLUE ANCHOR INN 
 
 grumbled Captain John. " There ain't no heat 
 in a fireplace. What he wants is a nice sheet- 
 ir'n stove." 
 
 " Well, Mr. Still, why don't you do it?" 
 
 " Mr. Brooke," said the old man, " I want to 
 buy the island." 
 
 Brooke started. 
 
 " See," observed the mayor. " Needs a new 
 topmast." 
 
 " Why, Mr. Still," said the young man, with 
 the air of one reasoning with a child, " the 
 island is two miles long and a quarter of a mile 
 wide." 
 
 Out came the little note-book, and the old gen- 
 tleman carefully jotted down the figures. 
 
 " Why don't you buy simply a small lot, say 
 an acre ? " 
 
 He shook his head. 
 
 " No. I want the whole thing. I don't want 
 any one else to come and change it." 
 
 The young man looked troubled. 
 
 "See. All gone. Rotted away," said Cap- 
 tain John. 
 
 " Keep quiet," remarked Brooke, roughly. 
 231
 
 BLUE ANCHOR INN 
 
 " What I want to know from you," babbled on 
 the old man, " is the value of this land." 
 
 Brooke smiled rather grimly. It had had 
 practically no value for the last ten years. 
 
 " What would you think ?" he said. 
 
 " A hundred dollars an acre? " 
 
 " Perhaps." 
 
 " Will you undertake to purchase it for me at 
 that price ? " 
 
 Brooke looked at him uncertainly, wondering 
 what was the best way to deal with him. 
 
 " I think," he replied, " you had better see 
 them yourself." 
 
 The old man shook his head vehemently. 
 
 " No, no," he said. " They would argue with 
 me. If I told them a hundred they would think 
 I meant a hundred and fifty. I am too old for 
 that. Tell them a hundred. That's what I've 
 decided I can pay for it. If it is too little, no one 
 is harmed. If it is too much, so much the better 
 for them." 
 
 Brooke looked at the kindly old gentleman, 
 his glasses supported on the apex of his nose, his 
 
 venerable straw hat thrust back on his bald pate, 
 
 232
 
 BLUE ANCHOR INN 
 
 and his benevolent eyes shining with childish 
 enthusiasm. A wave of pity swept over him. 
 He could not encourage such lunacy. 
 
 " Perhaps," he said, gently, " if we wait a 
 while " 
 
 "That's right," cried Still, "no use to wait. 
 No use to wait." 
 
 Brooke filled his lungs. 
 
 " I say," he shouted, " let's give it considera- 
 tion. Let's think it over." 
 
 The old gentleman nodded vigorously and ap- 
 provingly. 
 
 " My idea exactly. Find out what they think 
 about it. If it's too little, no harm done. If it's 
 too much, why, so much the better for them, you 
 see." 
 
 Brooke sighed. 
 
 "You could not expect them," he replied with 
 unflagging patience, " to sell the house they live 
 in." 
 
 " Let them keep it. And an acre of ground. 
 I'll take the rest." 
 
 The young man gave it up. He could think 
 of no other excuse. 
 
 233
 
 BLUE ANCHOR INN 
 
 " The best way to treat 'em when they get 
 like that," observed Captain John, wisely, " is t' 
 humor 'em. If you oppose him he'll have 'n 
 atheletic fit." 
 
 " Quiet, quiet," cried Brooke, irritated by the 
 captain's volubility. 
 
 Mr. Still smiled benignly. 
 
 " When will you go ? " he observed. 
 
 " Oh, now," said the other. " Now. Come 
 along." 
 
 He rose to his feet. 
 
 " But," he continued, hoping to confuse the 
 old man with practical details, " you must have 
 money, a deposit cash. Perhaps we should 
 wait for that." 
 
 Mr. Still fumbled through all the pockets of 
 his attire. His two companions eyed him in 
 breathless suspense, wondering what new phase 
 of his insanity he was going to reveal next. He 
 first removed his far-seeing glasses, as he usually 
 did in moments of excitement, and adjusted his 
 others with clumsy eagerness. 
 
 " How many acres on the island ? " he stopped 
 to ask, irrelevantly. 
 
 234
 
 BLUE ANCHOR INN 
 
 " Three hundred and sixty. Three hundred 
 and eighty, maybe," Brooke informed him, im- 
 patiently. 
 
 " I thought it was more. But no matter. No 
 matter." 
 
 He presently unearthed from some improbable 
 cache a decrepit pocketbook, which he ungir- 
 dled and spread out on the sand. From the 
 midst of its heterogeneous cargo of iron wash- 
 ers, street-car transfers, receipted bills, fish-hooks 
 and money rumpled almost beyond recognition, 
 he at length extracted a dirty, dog-eared piece 
 of folded paper, and passed it over to the young 
 man. 
 
 "If they agree, give them this," he said, 
 vaguely. " No deposits for me. I'm too old 
 too old for delays. Let's get it over with one 
 way or the other." 
 
 Brooke took the paper and opened it with 
 fumbling fingers, and having done so, sat staring 
 at it. 
 
 " Humor him," counseled Captain John. 
 " Humor him." 
 
 Brooke, however, did not reply to this 
 235
 
 BLUE ANCHOR INN 
 
 observation, for what he held was a prop- 
 erly certified check for forty thousand dol- 
 lars. 
 
 236
 
 CHAPTER XXIII 
 
 WHEN Brooke, laden with his wealth, ar- 
 rived at the Blue Anchor Inn, he did not 
 waste time on idle small talk. He found them all 
 sitting on the porch awaiting dinner. 
 
 "Ned," he said, sitting on the porch rail, 
 " would you like to sell the island ?" 
 
 " Um-huh," said Ned, deep in the sporting 
 page of his paper. 
 
 "The whole of it?" persisted Brooke. 
 
 " Quiet, Roger. Quiet. I'm too old for fairy- 
 tales." 
 
 "What makes you ask?" demanded Mrs. 
 Ned, pleasantly. 
 
 " Because I have been thinking it might be ar- 
 ranged." 
 
 Gilpin favored his guest with a sardonic smile. 
 
 "What do you think it is worth an acre?" 
 pursued the guest. 
 
 The other put down his paper. 
 237
 
 BLUE ANCHOR INN 
 
 " Well, just as a matter of mental relaxation," 
 said he, " seventy-five dollars." 
 
 " Can you get that ? " 
 
 " No." 
 
 "We tried once," said his wife. 
 
 " Oh, yes, we tried. There was a real estate 
 whirlwind named Smithers, who tried to pull off 
 the deal. He was willing to pay the price 
 about twenty-nine thousand dollars in all, but 
 when he saw the wreck of the old trestle, it was 
 all off." 
 
 " The old island is too inaccessible," said Mrs. 
 Gilpin. 
 
 " Should you like to build a concrete trestle?" 
 Brooke asked. 
 
 " No, Roger, no. I shouldn't risk a cent on 
 it." 
 
 The other hesitated a moment. 
 
 "If you were offered forty thousand for the 
 whole of it, exclusive of this house," he said, 
 " would you consider it ? " 
 
 Gilpin picked up his paper. 
 
 " No," he replied. 
 
 " Why, Ned ! " cried his wife. 
 238
 
 BLUE ANCHOR INN 
 
 " No," exclaimed Ned, putting down the sheet, 
 " I wouldn't stop to consider it. I'd catch the 
 man by the throat and shake the money out of 
 his clothes before he had time to change his 
 mind." 
 
 Brooke threw the check in his host's lap. 
 
 " Consider it shaken out," he observed. 
 
 Gilpin picked up the piece of paper gingerly. 
 He glanced at it hastily, and then, with the air 
 of a man not quite sure of his faculties, read it 
 carefully through from number to signature. His 
 wife and Halsey, overpowered by curiosity, 
 arose from their chairs and stared at the incom- 
 prehensible thing over his shoulder. Nothing 
 was heard on the porch but the busy drilling of 
 a wasp in the rafter overhead. Gilpin's face 
 hardened. 
 
 "What is it?" he demanded at last. "A 
 joke?" 
 
 Brooke assured him it was not, and went on 
 to relate the story of the offer. 
 
 " Go get him quick," counseled Halsey. " He 
 is an old man. He may die." 
 
 But Gilpin hesitated. 
 
 239
 
 BLUE ANCHOR INN 
 
 " I don't want to take advantage of an insane 
 person." 
 
 " I have been thinking that, too," said Mrs. 
 Gilpin. " It seems to me, Roger, you had better 
 tell the story of this offer to your to Mrs. 
 Brooke, and ask her what she thinks we should 
 do." 
 
 For some reason or other, Brooke did not rel- 
 ish this idea, but he nevertheless acquiesced. 
 Immediately after dinner he set out on his mis- 
 sion. 
 
 " And if she says it is all right," admon- 
 ished the prospective vendor of the island, 
 " bring the old man back with you dead or 
 alive." 
 
 Mrs. Brooke was alone on the front porch of 
 her cottage. Preliminary formalities being dis- 
 posed of, he stated his mission. 
 
 " You say he offered forty thousand dollars ? " 
 she asked. 
 
 " Yes. What would you advise ? " 
 
 " Take it," she said. 
 
 " But is he in his his right mind ? " 
 
 " I think so," a little stiffly. 
 240
 
 BLUE ANCHOR INN 
 
 " I didn't want to take advantage of an old 
 man." 
 
 She smiled. 
 
 " Have no fears on that score. But be very 
 careful he doesn't take advantage of you." 
 
 Brooke laughed at this quaint conceit. 
 
 " Very well," he replied, " we shall be quite 
 careful." 
 
 The old gentleman trotted along beside him 
 back to the Blue Anchor Inn. 
 
 Gilpin and Halsey, being lawyers, had drawn 
 up the deed before the two arrived. There was 
 no thought of delay on an occasion like this. In 
 fact, every one felt a little trepidation lest some 
 hitch might develop. 
 
 Mr. Still adjusted his glasses with care, and 
 seizing the document sat down evil omen in 
 the chair on which reposed the ancestral straw 
 hat. But such was the tension of the moment, 
 they forebore to call his attention to it. After 
 about five minutes of oppressive silence, while he 
 read the deed, apparently with the end of his 
 bony forefinger, he said : 
 
 " Give me the pen." 
 
 241
 
 BLUE ANCHOR INN 
 
 And he signed with a shaky hand " Samuel 
 Still." 
 
 In the morning, immediately after breakfast, 
 the Gilpins, accompanied by Brooke (Halsey be- 
 ing otherwise occupied), repaired to a little hill, 
 from which could be seen the entire island, the 
 Gilpins to see if they repented of the bargain, 
 Brooke for no reason at all. And the Gilpins, 
 after close scrutiny, decided that they did not re- 
 pent of their bargain. 
 
 " I suppose, Roger, you will live here now." 
 
 "I?" 
 
 "Where did you think you were going to 
 live ? This is all part of a gigantic scheme to 
 ensnare you. And the crowning touch of humor 
 was to have you manage the deal yourself, 
 wasn't it ? " 
 
 " I don't see how it affects me," observed 
 Brooke. 
 
 " Well, she has shown you that she is a good 
 housekeeper, and a fine dresser. Now she has 
 proved she can give you a home." 
 
 Brooke laughed in spite of himself. 
 
 242
 
 BLUE ANCHOR INN 
 
 " Let's talk of something pleasant," he said, 
 however. 
 
 The lady looked at him keenly. 
 
 " Are you going back, my dear?" asked her 
 husband. 
 
 " Presently," she replied, and seated herself be- 
 neath the tree. 
 
 Her husband descended the hill. 
 
 " Now, Roger Brooke," said she, " what is 
 the trouble between you and your wife ? " 
 
 " We are very uncongenial," he began. 
 
 " Ned says all wives and husbands are uncon- 
 genial." 
 
 " Oh, but this is deep. The sort of unconge- 
 niality that might exist between an angora cat 
 and a porcupine. I should be throwing things 
 at her in a week." 
 
 " You have made up your mind then not to 
 eat from the hand." 
 
 " How can I make up my mind about any- 
 thing? I am all in the dark." 
 
 He thought a moment. 
 
 " Of course I've made up my mind," he said, 
 suddenly. " I made it up the instant I first saw 
 ' 243
 
 BLUE ANCHOR INN 
 
 her. She's not of my world. She's too showy. 
 The channel of her mind is dress. I want hu- 
 manity, not artificiality. I want a mind, not a 
 mental machine. You must understand the dis- 
 tinction that exists between her and yourself, for 
 instance. In other words," he said, with a smile, 
 " I fear I did not choose wisely." 
 
 She pondered a long while. 
 
 "Well," she said, finally, "we must find a 
 way." 
 
 But that remark does not always settle vexed 
 questions. 
 
 When she had gone, he wandered down 
 toward the channel, where a little cat-boat lay. 
 It was then that he saw Dita Grey for the first 
 time since the night they returned in the yawl. 
 He had wanted to see her. He had made sev- 
 eral efforts to see her. But the relations between 
 him and Mrs. Brooke being strained by their 
 conversation concerning her, he could not well 
 ask for her at Mrs. Brooke's house. And at 
 other times the girl adroitly avoided him. 
 When he remembered his last act in her pres- 
 ence, he saw the reason for it. He could not 
 
 244
 
 BLUE ANCHOR INN 
 
 apologize in words for an act like that But he 
 could show her by his actions if she would let 
 him that it had been the result of a misguided 
 impulse, and that in his heart he had had no 
 shred of disrespect for her. This was necessary 
 for his peace of mind. Heretofore, he had never 
 had to make excuses to any one for his bearing 
 toward the whole female phalanx. It had been 
 as cool and deferential as toward the statues in 
 the park. Imagine the incredulity of his senses, 
 the astonishment of his whole moral system, when 
 he had reached forward and held one of those 
 untouchable creatures in his hands. Certainly 
 it disrupted his peace of mind. 
 
 As for the girl, who could tell what her 
 thoughts were? 
 
 But as she approached him, she nodded to 
 him with a faint smile, and would have passed 
 on without a word. But he stood almost in her 
 path. 
 
 " Dita," he said, " may I have a word with 
 you?" 
 
 She stopped. 
 
 " Yes," she replied, coolly. 
 
 245
 
 BLUE ANCHOR INN 
 
 He hesitated. He did not know what that 
 word should be. She was looking at him nar- 
 rowly. 
 
 " Will you go sailing with me ? " 
 
 "I'm busy to-day," she replied, promptly. 
 But there was the slightest pause before she said 
 " to-day," as though she might have added it as 
 an afterthought. He did not perceive it. 
 
 " I'm sorry." 
 
 He paused. 
 
 " Are you angry with me ? " 
 
 " No," with no intonation. 
 
 " Nothing has displeased you ? " 
 
 Pride prevented her entering into a discussion 
 by answering in the affirmative. Whereas "no" 
 would have conveyed the idea that the evening 
 in question had been a period of enjoyment. 
 
 "I'm sorry for anything that has occurred," he 
 said, while she hesitated. 
 
 " You may well be." 
 
 Whereupon, without other words, she walked 
 quickly away. He looked after her for a moment 
 and then went on down to the water. But she 
 
 had not gone a hundred yards before she turned 
 
 246
 
 I M BUSY TO-DAY
 
 BLUE ANCHOR INN 
 
 suddenly. When she did not see him, she called 
 his name. Her voice echoed against the empty 
 walls. She ran down the sandy street. But he 
 had already disappeared behind the tumble-down 
 houses. 
 
 247
 
 CHAPTER XXIV 
 
 WILLY glanced at the gentleman who was 
 being propelled across the channel in a 
 rowboat. 
 
 " Here comes something," he confided to Hes- 
 ter, " that don't look good even when it's far 
 away." 
 
 What Hester saw was a gentleman tastefully 
 attired in the height of fashion. His brilliant 
 white vest, to which the daintiest hint of color 
 was given by circles of crimson about the size of 
 quarter dollars, shone brightly across the water 
 like a compound sunset. His necktie was com- 
 posed of horizontal layers of chocolate, pistachio 
 and orange ice. He wore a black ribbon to his 
 tortoise shell eye-glasses, and his patent leather 
 shoes sparkled like the tappings of a coach- 
 horse. This refulgent being was a thing of 
 beauty and a joy forever in the eyes of the girl, 
 but Willy's delight was somewhat tempered and 
 restrained. 
 
 248
 
 BLUE ANCHOR INN 
 
 " Guaranteed-forever hose ? " he inquired solic- 
 itously as this vision of loveliness stepped out on 
 the dock. 
 
 To this somewhat cryptic remark the vision 
 replied nothing. 
 
 " Which is Mr. Gilpin's house, my boy ? " he 
 asked with a certain aloofness. 
 
 Willy shaded his eyes from the glare of the 
 vest. 
 
 " See all those houses over there ? " he asked, 
 pointing toward the center of the island. 
 
 "Yes." 
 
 " All those are his." 
 
 Whereupon the young man fell to polishing 
 the brass running lights of the launch. The 
 stranger grew red and fingered his watch fob 
 uncertainly. 
 
 " Which house does he live in ? " he demanded, 
 severely. 
 
 Willy looked up as if he were surprised the 
 man had not left long ago. 
 
 " Right over there," he said obligingly. 
 
 The man started in the direction indicated. 
 
 " Did you want to see Mr. Gilpin hisself ? " 
 249
 
 BLUE ANCHOR INN 
 
 " I did." 
 
 Willy glanced down the street. 
 
 " Looks as if he is gonna be in our midst in a 
 few minutes," said he, indicating a figure saunter- 
 ing toward them. 
 
 "I'll go meet him," replied the man, and 
 departed. 
 
 The stranger approached Mr. Gilpin with out- 
 stretched hand. 
 
 " Mr. Gilpin ! " he cried gladly. 
 
 The other looked at him with speculative in- 
 difference. 
 
 " I've seen you somewhere before." 
 
 " It's Smithers," exclaimed the newcomer, 
 coming to the rescue, " Smithers." 
 
 This information failed to awaken any spark 
 of recognition in Gilpin. 
 
 " Oh, yes, Smithers. How are you, Smithers? " 
 he said. 
 
 One felt almost as if he were insulting the man 
 when one called him by his right name. Smith- 
 ers assured him he was well. 
 
 " I came to see you about the property, Mr. 
 
 Gilpin," he went on. 
 
 250
 
 BLUE ANCHOR INN 
 
 " Oh, yes. About the property. Would you 
 mind standing a little bit sidewise, Smithers ? 
 I've been having trouble with my eyes." 
 
 The other buttoned up his coat with a pained 
 air. 
 
 " About the island here," he continued. " You 
 remember about a year ago you offered it to me 
 for seventy-five an acre." 
 
 " Yes." 
 
 " Well, I'm ready to buy it at that price." 
 
 He made a gesture as of one conferring eternal 
 good fortune on his fellow man. 
 
 "Too late, Smithers. Sold it yesterday." 
 
 The agent's jaw dropped. 
 
 " To whom ? " 
 
 " A man named Still." 
 
 The other's face expressed disgust. 
 
 " Stung again," he muttered. 
 
 " What's the matter with you real estate 
 agents ? " inquired Gilpin. " You blow first hot 
 and then cold." 
 
 Smithers grew confidential. 
 
 " I'll explain the situation," he said, lowering 
 
 his voice, although there was no one within a 
 
 251
 
 BLUE ANCHOR INN 
 
 quarter of a mile. " There has been a remarkable 
 boom in seashore property, and every one is 
 wild to get control of a block of undeveloped 
 coast. I found out yesterday that Still was down 
 here, and I smelled a rat, sir, I smelled a rat at 
 once." 
 
 " Do you know Mr. Still ? " inquired Gilpin, 
 puzzled. 
 
 " Not personally, but by reputation. He is the 
 cleverest real estate agent we have." 
 
 The other smiled. The idea of old Mr. Still as 
 a clever real estate agent was funny. 
 
 " You're thinking of the wrong man, I guess. 
 But I understood you to say that the inaccessi- 
 bility of the island was an unsurmountable 
 objection." 
 
 The agent smiled importantly. 
 
 " There are new developments. If Still made 
 up his mind to get the property, he would get it 
 at any price. Our idea was to get control of it 
 and make him buy from us at an advance. Any 
 way, you know, to turn an honest penny. He 
 knew what he had to expect. That's the reason 
 
 he's been so quiet." 
 
 252
 
 BLUE ANCHOR INN 
 
 Gilpin laughed aloud. 
 
 " Smithers," he said, " the amount of misinfor- 
 mation you get together is astounding, simply 
 astounding." 
 
 He escorted the visitor to his boat, and hurried 
 back to the house to tell his wife and guests 
 the humorous story that old Mr. Still was the 
 cleverest real estate agent in the business, which 
 tale of mistaken identity caused no little amuse- 
 ment. 
 
 Prior to his arrival Brooke had been wasting 
 his powers of persuasion in an effort to arouse 
 either Mrs. Gilpin or Halsey to such a state of 
 semi-activity that they would consent to sail with 
 him in the cat-boat. But Halsey was enmeshed 
 in the snares of a book on the single tax which 
 bid fair to keep him in a trance for the rest of the 
 day, and his hostess, whose intention had been 
 to do some fancy cross-stitching on stockings, 
 was in the midst of a nerve-racking picture puz- 
 zle. Brooke turned to Gilpin, but that gentle- 
 man proposed to beguile the hours by painting 
 the fence around his vegetable garden, and also 
 refused. 
 
 253
 
 BLUE ANCHOR INN 
 
 " You are like the wedding guests in the 
 Bible," said Brooke, in despair, and went on his 
 expedition alone. 
 
 It was one of those clear blue skies over which 
 moved leisurely white shaving-soap clouds. The 
 blue sky met the blue sea in a crisp line. A 
 brisk, energetic breeze swept in from the water, 
 bending over the tops of the trees and keeping 
 the leaves all aflutter. It was like a fine man's 
 day in October, such as gives the actively in- 
 clined person an opportunity to speak contemp- 
 tuously of others of the human race who prefer 
 summer novels, picture puzzles, and dissipations 
 like painting the garden fence, to the muscle giv- 
 ing exercise of sitting in a sailboat while the wind 
 blows you somewhere you have no especial desire 
 to go. 
 
 Brooke surveyed the sky and the sea with ab- 
 solute approval. The ozone in the air filled his 
 lungs and he went whistling along like a school- 
 boy, perfectly happy to be out in the open. And 
 when he arrived at the landing where the cat- 
 boat was moored, there was Dita Grey sitting in 
 the boat. 
 
 254
 
 BLUE ANCHOR INN 
 
 " Dear me," she said, " I thought you were 
 never coming." 
 
 He stared. He had not known he was ex- 
 pected. 
 
 " Well," he said, suavely, " I was a little de- 
 layed." 
 
 Whereupon, without another word, he ran up 
 the sail, cast off and took his seat by the tiller as 
 though he had been planning this party for 
 some time. She smiled. If he had known the 
 turmoil that upset her young mind since he had 
 seen her the day before, he would not have been 
 surprised, perhaps, that she was waiting there at 
 the slip. 
 
 Indeed it might be that a more reserved, a 
 more self-conscious and less impulsive person 
 would not have come at all. Such a course 
 might have been more advisable and less fraught 
 with embarrassment, but it would not have satis- 
 fied her. The day before it had pleased her to 
 view him from a pedestal when he gave her that 
 opportunity. She had made an elaborate show 
 of resentment for an act of his for which he had 
 been only half guilty. At the time, there was 
 
 255
 
 BLUE ANCHOR INN 
 
 nothing for her to do but repudiate it, for had she 
 tacitly acquiesced by showing absolutely no dis- 
 approval she would have created an impossible 
 situation. It would have been a simple invita- 
 tion for a repetition of the performance. Thus 
 far her action had been proper, but when he 
 apologized she should not have further humili- 
 ated him. 
 
 It was not until he had left her that the full 
 significance of what she had done struck her like 
 a blow. She ran after him with the vague 
 idea of wiping that mark off her score, but 
 he had gone. Of course it made no differ- 
 ence what he thought of her (she made this 
 perfectly clear to herself) but it was necessary, 
 when she had done an unchivalrous thing, to 
 undo it at the first opportunity. But would 
 he now give her that opportunity ? Had she 
 not rebuffed him more than his pride would 
 stand ? 
 
 She had considered this question through the 
 night when she should have been sleeping ; and 
 in the morning had decided that if the mountain 
 
 would not come to Mahomet, she would go to 
 
 256
 
 BLUE ANCHOR INN 
 
 the mountain. Hence her presence at the land- 
 ing, in the hope (she winced when she thought 
 how she had abased herself) that he would come 
 there also. 
 
 " Will you accept my apology of yesterday ? " 
 he said presently. 
 
 " I think," she replied, " I must have accepted 
 it at the time." 
 
 " You conceal your thoughts very well, then," 
 he replied. 
 
 She pulled a large red flower from the knot of 
 her hair. 
 
 " I brought this to give you so you wouldn't 
 scold me," she said, meekly. 
 
 Whereupon she pinned it to his shirt. 
 
 " I think it was more appropriate where it was 
 before," he said, looking from the bright flower 
 to her rich, brown hair. 
 
 " Oh, no," she pleaded. 
 
 " Let's put it back. You are much more be- 
 coming to it." 
 
 " But," said she, " if you don't accept my 
 gift, then I shall know you are angry with 
 
 me." 
 
 257
 
 BLUE ANCHOR INN 
 
 " But what on earth have I to be angry 
 about?" 
 
 She pretended to think a while. 
 
 " Aren't you angry ? " 
 
 "With you?" 
 
 She nodded vigorously. 
 
 " How the world turns about," he said 
 by way of reply. "Yesterday my spirit is 
 torn to shreds because I think a certain girl 
 is angry with me to-day that same girl 
 brings rich gifts to me not to be angry with 
 her." 
 
 She smiled. 
 
 " And to-morrow " he went on. 
 
 She was nothing if not unexpected. She 
 dropped on her knees to put two fingers on his 
 lips. 
 
 "You were just about to say to-morrow I 
 should be angry with you again." 
 
 He did not deny it. 
 
 " And then you were going to make some re- 
 mark about the changeability of woman," she 
 cried, holding up a finger at him. 
 
 "The changeability of woman," he said, 
 258
 
 BLUE ANCHOR INN 
 
 thoughtfully. " Oh, that's really their greatest 
 charm. Please don't hold up your accusing 
 finger at me." 
 
 " That's the thing that finds out everything 
 that is in you," she explained. " It frightens 
 you so you cannot dissemble the thoughts of 
 your wicked heart." 
 
 He caught the finger. 
 
 " Let's curtail its powers, then. I don't want 
 it to find out the things that are in my wicked 
 heart." 
 
 She moved a little nearer, and put her elbows 
 audaciously on his knees. 
 
 " Do you suppose I need that?" she said, in- 
 dicating the finger in his hand. 
 
 He looked at her fairly. 
 
 " What you know," he said steadily, " I shall 
 not deny." 
 
 " You would not ? " she replied, gently. 
 
 She was very alluring, and very near. Her 
 handsome eyes changed with every idea that re- 
 volved behind them. There were two spots of 
 high color in her cheeks. She was so close that 
 
 sometimes the blowing strands of her hair 
 
 259
 
 BLUE ANCHOR INN 
 
 touched him. He held the tiller very tight, with 
 both hands. 
 
 " I must say something very discourteous," he 
 said in a low tone. 
 
 She looked at him wonderingly. 
 
 " Would you mind sitting over there ? " 
 
 She did not move. 
 
 " You send me away ? " 
 
 " Yes." 
 
 " Then you must give me my flower." 
 
 " No," he asserted, firmly, " I will not give it 
 to you." 
 
 She broke into smiles. 
 
 " I will not go without my flower." 
 
 " I intend to keep it." 
 
 " Why do you send me away?" she demanded, 
 wondering. 
 
 " Because," he said, " I am afraid I shall touch 
 you." 
 
 The little boat, untended now, was running far 
 out of her course in a fine exhibition of lands- 
 man's seamanship. 
 
 " Touch me ? " she repeated. 
 
 " Yes," he cried fiercely, " because I am afraid 
 260
 
 BLUE ANCHOR INN 
 
 I shall take you up in my arms like this," and he 
 crushed her to him, "and tell you I love you, I 
 love you, I love you ! " 
 
 She lay quiet in his arms with her head on his 
 shoulder. 
 
 " And," he added, " may God help us." 
 
 261
 
 CHAPTER XXV 
 
 BROOKE walked back to the Blue Anchor 
 Inn with a singular lightness of step. The 
 sky was clearer and more deeply blue than in 
 the morning. The great handfuls of fleecy 
 clouds were more fleecily white. The whole 
 world became unaccountably more personal, 
 more sympathetic, more a thing to be held in 
 the hand as a personal belonging. His mind 
 took a larger and more optimistic view of the 
 extent of the universe. It was something outside 
 and beyond, which did not matter. The ground 
 which his own feet trod was all the world, and 
 that world was happy, glorious, Elysian. There 
 might be a hundred million people beyond, plan- 
 ning, plotting, with soiled hands and selfish 
 hearts ; but no thought of them, no remem- 
 brance of unhappiness, strife, discouragement 
 reality itself broke through the rainbow bubble 
 
 in which he walked. The rose glasses of a man's 
 
 262
 
 BLUE ANCHOR INN 
 
 love ! Oh, what view is more wonderful, more 
 glorious, more evanescent, more ethereal and 
 what else, save only God's rainbows, is so 
 forever-returning ! 
 
 As he walked along the unpeopled street, he 
 met Willy. He felt in the depths of his pockets, 
 and drawing forth what wealth was there, counted 
 it hurriedly. He stopped the man-of-all-work as 
 he was about to pass. 
 
 " Willy," he demanded, " did I ever give you 
 a dollar and sixty-five cents ? " 
 
 " No," replied Willy. 
 
 " Well," he cried brightly, " there is no time 
 like the present to begin." And he poured the 
 loose silver into the boy's hands, much to the 
 latter's astonishment. 
 
 Mrs. Gilpin saw the sunshine in his eyes, and 
 it started a little eddy of conjecture in her mind. 
 Halsey even took time enough from the business 
 of unraveling the solid stuff in his hands to re- 
 mark that " that foggy grouch seems to have 
 disappeared." When he went into his bedroom, 
 he found Gilpin there before him sitting on the 
 
 window sill fondling Brooke's automatic pistol, 
 
 263
 
 BLUE ANCHOR INN 
 
 his favorite and most valued possession, which he 
 had admired for months on end in the shop, and 
 had purchased at length with his first twenty 
 dollars. 
 
 " Excuse me for invading your sanctum," said 
 the host, " but I had to come and look at this 
 again." 
 
 The other looked at his possession fondly. 
 
 " Isn't it a wonder ? " he cried, with enthusi- 
 asm. 
 
 " I'm crazy about it." 
 
 " You really like it ? " 
 
 " Really like it ! I'm going to buy one 1 " 
 
 Brooke picked up his hair brushes. 
 
 " Ned," he said, " I want to make you a pres- 
 ent of that gun." 
 
 The man on the window sill started. 
 
 "Huh?" he said. 
 
 " I want to give it to you." 
 
 The other put down the pistol and started 
 across the room. Brooke caught him at the 
 door and held him. 
 
 "What's the matter?" 
 
 His companion laughed. 
 264
 
 BLUE ANCHOR INN 
 
 " I haven't time to stay here and listen to you 
 talk rag-time, Roger, old boy." 
 
 The other grew serious. 
 
 " Here, take it," he said, picking up the pistol, 
 " and don't be foolish. I have been wanting to 
 give you something you would like. This is 
 my first opportunity." 
 
 And he thrust it upon his host with such evi- 
 dent earnestness that Ned Gilpin took him at his 
 word and kept the pistol. 
 
 Ned Gilpin's wife was a very wise young 
 woman. Her searching glance did not overlook 
 the fact that something unusual had happened 
 in Roger Brooke's career. There was no mis- 
 taking his exalted humor. There was no deny- 
 ing his flagrant optimism. This thing was not 
 an incident, a bare occurrence, a mere pleasant 
 taste in the mouth. It was a turning about, a 
 reversal, a crisis, a phenomenon. And it did not 
 take so much as her woman's intuition to know 
 what the phenomenon was. 
 
 Had she divined such a phenomenon in the 
 life of any other man, she would have waited, 
 
 but, added to the contorted and doubtful cir- 
 
 265
 
 BLUE ANCHOR INN 
 
 cumstances already complicating this particular 
 young man's biography, it appeared to demand 
 further diagnosis and prescription. She there- 
 fore made an opportunity presently for seeing 
 him alone. 
 
 " Now," she said, with unusual abruptness, 
 " what's the matter ? " 
 
 "There is a woman," he answered, "in my 
 life. I shouldn't have said woman, either. Per- 
 haps " 
 
 " I know," she supplied, " angel. When did 
 this happen ? " 
 
 "This morning." 
 
 " Not your wife ? " she asked. 
 
 The faintest suspicion of a cloud passed over 
 his face. He shook his head. 
 
 " Miss Grey, then. Or do you call her Dita? " 
 
 " I call her Dita." 
 
 She twisted the rings on her fingers. 
 
 " You poor boy ! " she said, at length. 
 
 "I know," he answered, "but I can't think of 
 it that way yet" 
 
 " You must," she said. 
 
 He looked thoughtfully at the same blue sky, 
 266
 
 BLUE ANCHOR INN 
 
 and the same clear air, and the same world 
 around that had seemed so felicitous to him a 
 while ago, and even now, perhaps, the illusion 
 was fading. 
 
 " What a fool I was a year ago," he said at 
 length. " But how could I have known ? My 
 freedom had never then been of value to me, 
 
 and now when I haven't it " He made a 
 
 gesture. 
 
 " That seems to be," she said gently, " the 
 scheme of our lives." 
 
 " I understand," he replied. " A man gains 
 strength only by going up-hill." 
 
 He thought a while. 
 
 "A man can chasten himself to the end of 
 time," he went on presently, " and not be bitter, 
 but when that means driving some one else along 
 the same road, it's hard. How can I stand that ? 
 How can I do it at all ? I've known that I loved 
 this girl for a " he laughed " well, it has been 
 only a week, but it has seemed a long while, 
 and all that time I knew I could not have her. I 
 was resigned to that." 
 
 " Of course," she said. 
 267
 
 BLUE ANCHOR INN 
 
 " I tried not to tell her, for two reasons. One 
 of these was that it never occurred to me she 
 wanted me. It has not been a common trait in 
 women. And then when she told me she did 
 well, no matter what happens for all the rest of 
 time, I would not have missed being as happy 
 as I am now." 
 
 " Well," she said, quietly, " that's your reward. 
 You can never forget that." 
 
 " But the girl ? " 
 
 " She has the same thing." 
 
 " You are so ethereal so hypothetical." 
 
 She thought a moment. 
 
 " But not quixotic," she replied. " You have 
 this thing to do. Why not take all the joy along 
 with it that there is ? " 
 
 He arose and paced the porch before her. 
 
 " But since this has happened," he cried, " that 
 other woman shall never darken my threshold." 
 
 At the moment he forgot that he did not pos- 
 sess such a thing under the skies. 
 
 " Perhaps she does not wish to," replied Mrs. 
 Gilpin. 
 
 He stopped eagerly. 
 
 268
 
 BLUE ANCHOR INN 
 
 " Perhaps, then 
 
 She held up her hand. 
 
 " I shouldn't bank on it," she said. " Now that 
 you agree with me, I shall confess I don't like 
 that woman. She has a hold on you. She has 
 also some scheme, because she is not frank. You 
 will never be safe until you are clear of her 
 skirts." 
 
 " I know it." 
 
 "Well, then I don't want to discourage you 
 but don't be optimistic." 
 
 He took several turns up and down the porch. 
 
 " Well, what am I to do ? " he said. 
 
 " How much have you told the girl ? " she de- 
 manded. 
 
 He explained that she knew the bare fact of 
 his marriage. 
 
 "Then she has not gone thus far blindfold. It 
 makes your course easier. You must tell her the 
 whole thing." 
 
 " Yes," he said. 
 
 " After that do you think you can honorably 
 keep on seeing her? " 
 
 " No, I guess not" 
 
 269
 
 BLUE ANCHOR INN 
 
 " If ever you are free," she said, " there will be 
 time enough." 
 
 " Of course you're right. I'll go away." 
 And when he went out in the air again, the sky 
 was dulled, and the breeze that stirred the trees 
 was gone. The little world that had seemed so 
 glorious to him in its perfectness, lo, was a 
 mere sandy island. The mirage had passed 
 away. 
 
 270
 
 CHAPTER XXVI 
 
 A GREAT change had come over Halsey. In 
 a thoughtless moment Gilpin had brought 
 him a copy of Henry George's book on the 
 Single Tax, little thinking what a high explosive 
 that volume might prove to be. And before 
 Halsey had read three-quarters through it, his 
 soul underwent a change. It was a singular 
 thing that the subject had never been presented 
 to him before. But when it did come it found 
 his system receptive and eager for a new idea. 
 For nearly a month the man had discovered no 
 hills for his brain to climb and had let it run easily 
 along the level. The intellect was not accustomed 
 to this, and now at the end of the period the con- 
 tinued inaction was beginning to be irksome. 
 
 Some new food for thought was necessary. It 
 might have been Bahaism, or Christian Science, 
 or Socialism, or World Peace. It happened to 
 be the Single Tax, and at the end of the second 
 
 day he found that he had always been a single- 
 
 271
 
 BLUE ANCHOR INN 
 
 taxer. He read and reread parts of the book 
 that appealed especially to his reason. He took 
 long walks on the beach at night, wandering 
 on with his hands clasped behind him, turning 
 the points of the argument over in his mind, ap- 
 plying it to his own experience, coming upon 
 unexpected flaws and endeavoring to reason them 
 down, trying always to carry the reasoning one 
 stage further and see what happened. This was 
 like food and drink to him. 
 
 He went back to the city and returned with 
 other literature on the subject. It was almost im- 
 possible now to entice him from his books or his 
 contemplations. He even began the composing 
 of a monograph on the subject, or a special phase 
 of the subject, for publication in a magazine 
 that sometimes published his writings when he 
 was in the throes of a new idea. Conversations 
 with him all began to lead to the same subject, 
 and if you mentioned to him, for instance, that 
 you liked lemon in your tea, in three speeches 
 he would have twisted things around until you 
 found you were talking of the crime of taxing a 
 
 man for improving his land. 
 
 272
 
 BLUE ANCHOR INN 
 
 He found no time now for the relaxations that 
 had heretofore occupied him. Gilpin could no 
 longer tease him for his visits to Miss Grey. For 
 he had not seen that lady since the Single Tax 
 book came. 
 
 It is doubtful if he realized this change in his 
 habits. He did not give himself time to reflect 
 that from seeing her on an average of two or 
 three times a day, he had suddenly stopped and 
 now saw her not at all. 
 
 But one day he met her on the beach. When 
 he saw her coming, he paused in his ruminating 
 walk on the sands and passed his hand bewil- 
 deredly over his eyes, like a person trying to recall 
 something that had occurred long ago in some 
 past existence. She stopped as she approached 
 him. In a confused way he seemed to realize that 
 there was something more youthful and buoyant 
 and happy about her. 
 
 " And where have you been for so long ? " she 
 cried. 
 
 " I ? " he said. " I've been occupied. I have 
 been reading a wonderful book." 
 
 "What book?" 
 
 273
 
 BLUE ANCHOR INN 
 
 " It's a book on the Single Tax theory." His 
 face brightened. " Let's walk up the beach. I 
 want to tell you about it." 
 
 But she held up her hand. 
 
 " No," she cried, " no. Not to-day." 
 
 He gazed at her with an air of hurt surprise. 
 But instantly he appeared to forget all about her. 
 
 " Very well," he said, dismissing the subject, 
 " very well." 
 
 Thereupon he nodded absently and left her. 
 She watched him speculatively as he walked up 
 the beach with his hands clasped behind him. 
 She realized now that Herbert Halsey was no 
 longer a chattel of hers. She sighed and con- 
 tinued her walk toward home. 
 
 No woman realizes that she has lost her hold 
 on any man, however little he may mean to her, 
 without a pang of surprise and regret. The men 
 she leaves behind her are the milestones of her 
 youth ; and as she sees them disappearing in the 
 distance, she discovers that her most precious 
 possession is slipping slowly away from her. 
 Yet no melancholy is so sweet as the regret for 
 
 a past that one would not recall if one could. 
 
 274
 
 CHAPTER XXVII 
 
 IT had been many a long day since two stran- 
 gers had graced Lugger Island with their 
 presence in the same week. The arrival and 
 departure of Mr. Smithers had been food for 
 conversation among the citizens of the town. 
 But hardly had the excitement caused by this 
 visit died down, than another stranger appeared 
 on the shores. Two strangers in three days was 
 the record up to that time. 
 
 This second stranger was a roly-poly sort of 
 man. He was a nice, sleek, little Jack Horner, 
 whose round, pink cheeks and spherical bosom 
 would have endeared him to the heart of the 
 world had he not been ashamed of these heavenly 
 blessings and attempted to gloss them over with 
 an unconscionable amount of dignity. He sat 
 bolt upright in the stern of the little boat, wearing 
 an expression of inscrutable hauteur, while the 
 
 nose of the craft pointed up in the air at an angle 
 
 275
 
 BLUE ANCHOR INN 
 
 of thirty degrees. He landed at the wharf, 
 chucked the boatman half a dollar as though he 
 hated to see it lying around, waddled across the 
 boards and shook hands with Mr. Still. 
 
 "You got my wire?" asked the old gentleman, 
 kindly. 
 
 " No, Sam, no. I've just come down here for 
 a little pleasure trip." 
 
 " I am glad you got the wire," said the old 
 gentleman, simply. 
 
 " Well," responded the newcomer, impatiently, 
 " now we've fallen on each other's necks and 
 kissed each other, let's go talk." 
 
 Still took him to a quiet, cool spot under the 
 shadow of one of the old hotels. 
 
 " Now tell me about it," demanded Jack 
 Horner. 
 
 " Well, we started in the yawl on the thirtieth 
 of May." 
 
 " I know that. Begin where I don't know." 
 
 " On the thirtieth of May," went on the old 
 man, "and sailed down the coast to the island. 
 As there was no very good place to land, it 
 
 seemed best to run aground." 
 
 276
 
 BLUE ANCHOR INN 
 
 " Very good," said the little fat man, taking an 
 interest. 
 
 " The people were very kind to us and at 
 length we succeeded in renting a house from 
 them. I got a lot of data and distances and 
 soundings (by jingo, I've been bitten by every 
 crab male and female this side of Atlantic 
 City) and then I decided everything was O. K. 
 except a means of getting here." 
 
 " Found that out, did you? " 
 
 "Eh?" 
 
 " Should think you'd have known that be- 
 fore." 
 
 " Should you ? " The old man fanned himself 
 with his hat. " Well, as I said, that was the ob- 
 jection. Which," he added, absently, " has been 
 met." 
 
 " In what way ? " 
 
 " Concrete piles." 
 
 " How much will it cost ? " 
 
 Still extracted a little wad of paper from his 
 pocket. This was Brooke's estimate for the pi- 
 ling. Then he explained the nature of the piles 
 as it had been explained to him. 
 
 2/7
 
 BLUE ANCHOR INN 
 
 " Do they know you are a real estate agent ? " 
 asked the fat one at length. 
 
 " No. I don't believe they do." 
 
 " What do they think you are ? " 
 
 The old man smiled pleasantly. 
 
 " A lunatic," he said. 
 
 His companion arranged his gold-rimmed eye- 
 glasses on his nose pompously and did a lot of 
 figuring on the back of an envelope. 
 
 "Well," he said, presently, "we ought to 
 make a million dollars out of this. Give it three 
 years, and this place will be a seething summer 
 resort." 
 
 The old man gazed sorrowfully into the crown 
 of his straw hat. 
 
 " I believe," he said, greatly depressed, " I'll 
 soon have to buy a new hat." 
 
 " What's that got to do with the business ? " 
 demanded the other. 
 
 " Nothing." 
 
 " You don't seem to be pleased with the trans- 
 action ? " 
 
 " No, I'm not," replied the old man, in his hol- 
 low voice. " I don't want to see the place made 
 
 278
 
 BLUE ANCHOR INN 
 
 into a summer resort. I like it this way. For 
 two cents I wouldn't put the confounded deal 
 through at all." 
 
 The rotund party started in alarm. 
 
 " What ! " 
 
 " I say I wouldn't put it through. These peo- 
 ple have treated me well better than most peo- 
 ple in the world have treated me. I told them I 
 wanted to live here to pass the rest of my days 
 here by the sea." 
 
 " Live here ! " cried the little Jack Horner, 
 gasping for breath. " The way it is now ? Good- 
 night." 
 
 " Well," said Mr. Still, " I should like it." 
 
 His companion scrambled to his feet. 
 
 " They're right. You're crazy ! " he exclaimed. 
 
 " Wha' d' ye say ? " demanded Still. 
 
 "Nothing, nothing." 
 
 " Good thing," grumbled the old man. " I don't 
 mind putting through a good stroke of business, 
 but I hate to pull off a sell on people who have 
 treated me well." 
 
 " Is that what's bothering you ? " cried the lit- 
 tle man. "Well, forget it. All they want is the 
 
 279
 
 BLUE ANCHOR INN 
 
 money. They're hard up. We're doing them 
 a favor." 
 
 "Well," said the old man, at length, "all 
 right. All right." 
 
 He rose slowly to his feet and shambled on 
 after his partner, one trouser leg caught in the top 
 of his high shoe, his coat collar half turned up, 
 and the straw hat, perhaps for the last time, 
 swinging back and forward on his ears as a 
 fulcrum. 
 
 " Now," said the partner, " let's go see the 
 Easymarks." 
 
 "Who?" 
 
 "The Gilpins, if that's their name." The 
 little man rubbed his hands together glee- 
 fully. "This transaction is the greatest piece 
 of business the firm of Still and Brooke ever 
 pulled off," he said, trying to get his com- 
 panion to rejoice with him in their good for- 
 tune. 
 
 But Still only shambled on, thinking of any- 
 thing but the avoirdupois beside him. 
 
 Meanwhile, at the Blue Anchor Inn, Brooke 
 
 was packing a steamer trunk. 
 
 280
 
 BLUE ANCHOR INN 
 
 "When are you going to see her?" asked 
 Mrs. Gilpin. 
 
 " Her " meant only one person to him. 
 
 "To-night," he replied. " I'll send my trunk 
 this afternoon, and then there will be no tempta- 
 tion to linger." 
 
 "Why are you going, Roger?" asked Halsey, 
 dropping into the room. 
 
 Brooke chucked a pink shirt into the depths of 
 the trunk. 
 
 " Running away from my wife." 
 
 Halsey was abashed. 
 
 " Oh, say, that was my pink shirt," he cried, 
 by way of covering his embarrassment. 
 
 Brooke fished it out. It had pale blue stripes 
 in it. He handed it to Halsey. 
 
 " Thanks," he said gratefully. " I might have 
 worn it." 
 
 Gilpin lounged in. 
 
 "Sorry to see you going, old chap. But 
 would you mind leaving those shoes of mine?" 
 
 " Not at all," responded the other obligingly. 
 
 Halsey sat on the foot of the bed, where he 
 
 could exercise a more thorough supervision. 
 
 281
 
 BLUE ANCHOR INN 
 
 "The fellow that leaves first," he said with un- 
 expected perspicacity, "always has the advan- 
 tage." 
 
 Mrs. Gilpin, whose wardrobe was not imper- 
 iled by the packing operation, was standing by 
 the front window. 
 
 " Oh, here they come," she cried, presently. 
 
 "Who?" 
 
 "Callers. Mrs. Brooke, old Mr. Still and a 
 globular person." 
 
 " Hard luck," observed her husband. 
 
 " Let's all go down if we have to talk to Mr. 
 Still." 
 
 " You will excuse me," said Brooke. 
 
 " No. This is your opportunity to say good- 
 bye to Mrs. Brooke," said Mrs. Gilpin. 
 
 They went down together. 
 
 " Who is the wide gentleman ? " asked Gilpin. 
 
 There was no answer. When Mr. Still's pom- 
 pous partner waddled up on the porch after his 
 companions, with an expression like Caesar as- 
 cending the throne, the others were so fascinated 
 by the ridiculousness of the little pouter-pigeon 
 
 that they could scarcely forbear from laughing 
 
 282
 
 BLUE ANCHOR INN 
 
 in his face. When Mrs. Brooke introduced him, 
 he made a stiff little bow. 
 
 " Mrs. Gilpin," said Mrs. Brooke, " I wish to 
 present my husband, Mr. Brooke." 
 
 A certain young man in the background 
 gasped and backed up against a post for sup- 
 port. An unnatural silence reigned on the Gil- 
 pins' porch. 
 
 283
 
 CHAPTER XXVIII 
 
 THIS thunderbolt having been casually 
 dropped into their midst, the dazed inhabit- 
 ants of the Blue Anchor Inn were reduced to a 
 state of mere gibbering insensibility. Mrs. 
 Brooke, aided and abetted by her husband, 
 thereupon proceeded to unfold a little authentic 
 history dealing with the true inwardness of Mr. 
 Still's activity in the past three or four weeks. 
 She explained their real reason for coming to the 
 island and why they had stayed so long. Mr. 
 Still did not want to spend his old age by the 
 sad sea waves. Oh, no. That was just put in 
 to obscure things, to give human interest to the 
 event. But the real purpose in purchasing the 
 property was to make a great, live-wire summer 
 resort out of it ! 
 
 Mrs. Brooke paused to let that statement sink 
 in. But the ground was no longer porous. The 
 victims were not to be caught again. Nothing 
 
 could astonish them now. If they had been 
 
 284
 
 BLUE ANCHOR INN 
 
 informed that the purpose of the investment was 
 to mine for diamonds, or to erect an office build- 
 ing, or to found a university, or to establish an 
 independent republic, their benumbed brains 
 would have considered it as the obvious and 
 proper means of developing the natural re- 
 sources of the island. 
 
 It was not until their guests were preparing to 
 go that their wits and good-humor began to re- 
 turn. The fact that they had been deceived and 
 duped in the sale of the land made no difference to 
 the former owners, because all they wanted was to 
 sell it and the future disposal of it did not greatly 
 concern them. And then the true significance 
 of this unforeseen Mr. Brooke dawned upon them. 
 Roger Brooke, in the twinkling of an eye, was 
 released from the toils and machinations of a 
 woman, who appeared none the less terrible now 
 that they knew that there never had been any 
 toils and machinations. The fact that he was 
 merely transferred from the power of a known 
 woman to the power of an unknown one had no 
 force, so glad were they that this was not his wife. 
 
 Brooke had further cause for joy in the fact 
 285
 
 BLUE ANCHOR INN 
 
 that the two men made arrangements with him 
 for a meeting in the city to talk over plans for the 
 immediate construction of the concrete trestle and 
 roadway from the main shore across the channel. 
 This would be the biggest commission his firm 
 had yet had, and the resultant advertisement 
 would mean a great stride toward ultimate suc- 
 cess. He felt that his vacation had really been 
 wdrth while. 
 
 " Marianne," observed Mr. Brooke an hour 
 later in the privacy of their boudoir, " let's beat 
 it, quick." 
 
 " I'm with you," cried his fair and dainty wife 
 enthusiastically. " I feel as if I had done thirty 
 days in jail." 
 
 " Oh, this place is the best regulated cemetery 
 in the East. How do the Easymarks stand liv- 
 ing here?" 
 
 " Oh," she said, yawning, " they've had a 
 liberal Sunday-school education, and they lead a 
 sheltered life. They'd just as soon look at a sun- 
 set as a moving-picture show, and when they're 
 in town they eat at home in preference to a swell 
 cafe." 
 
 286
 
 BLUE ANCHOR INN 
 
 " I guess they hold on to it," observed the hus- 
 band with apparent irrelevance. 
 
 " Glue on their fingers," said she. 
 
 " Say," he asked, at length, " what did they 
 rubber at me like that for when you introduced 
 me to 'em ? " 
 
 His wife began to giggle. 
 
 " Why, it's this way," she explained. " That 
 Brooke man you met has got a wife somewhere 
 who can't make up her mind whether to divorce 
 him or not. I got that from a clipping Uncle 
 Sam cut out of the paper, and from a few things 
 Mrs. Gilpin has let fall. It seems none of these 
 Gilpins ever saw her and there's some mystery 
 in it. I don't believe Brooke ever talks about 
 her." She paused to toss a few things into her 
 open suitcase. 
 
 " Well," she continued, " when I began keep- 
 ing dark about you, and side-stepping all solic- 
 itous inquiries you know it wasn't any use their 
 getting next to who you were and then doping 
 out who Uncle Sam was " 
 
 She interrupted herself to look at him inquir- 
 ingly. 
 
 287
 
 BLUE ANCHOR INN 
 
 " Sure. That's right. Good business ! " com- 
 mented her husband. 
 
 " Well," she went on, " when I got to doing the 
 mysterious game, I think they jumped to the con- 
 clusion that I was his Mrs. Brooke, and was try- 
 ing to rope him in. Anyhow, that's the way 
 they acted. Well, I didn't mind a little flirta- 
 tion with him at first, because it was some slow 
 down here ; but when it got too fervent, I had to 
 ice it down." 
 
 The husband frowned. 
 
 " Too fervent ? " he said. 
 
 " Oh, nothing real. I thought he was trying 
 to jolly me along so as to learn what we came for. 
 He was some curious." 
 
 Mr. Brooke summoned together all his mus- 
 cular force and hoisted himself slowly out of his 
 chair. 
 
 "Well, I'm glad we found him. He'll do us 
 good. I never saw that jewelry before," he said 
 abruptly, picking up a couple of pins that were 
 lying on her bureau. 
 
 " Miss Grey's," she replied. " I borrow hers 
 
 sometimes." 
 
 288
 
 BLUE ANCHOR INN 
 
 " What good is she to you ? " he asked. 
 " Does she earn her way ? " 
 
 " Sure she does," announced his wife, emphatic- 
 ally. " She's lived with swell people, and she 
 knows the smart ideas. She posts me all the 
 time on how the real chosen few do it. Why, 
 when I was in town I was the best dressed 
 woman in any of the hotels. Oh, Miss Grey's 
 been worth all I've paid her." 
 
 " All right. Good advertisement," agreed the 
 other. " Can you trust her to pack up every- 
 thing to send back on the boat and close up 
 things generally here ? " 
 
 " Certainly." 
 
 " Then let's hike for civilization now. She can 
 follow us to-morrow." 
 
 " The sooner the quicker," said Marianne, with 
 a great sigh of relief. 
 
 Meanwhile the other Mr. Brooke was unpack- 
 ing his trunk again. His host came into the 
 room and planted himself comfortably in a chair 
 before him. 
 
 " Now, Roger," said he, " my advice to you is 
 
 to find out where your confounded wife is, and 
 
 289
 
 BLUE ANCHOR INN 
 
 find out quick. Telegraph to the lawyer that got 
 you into this mess and tell him to wire her bank 
 for her address. He knows where she keeps her 
 money. Or perhaps he knows what securities 
 she owns. There must be some place her divi- 
 dends are sent if she's alive, or isn't a myth. 
 You're sure you did marry some one ? " he de- 
 manded. 
 
 " Yes," replied the other, meekly. 
 
 " Then, when you find her address, go and see 
 her. Find out what she intends to do. If she 
 says she won't get a divorce, explain to her that 
 she can go to the dickens. If she says she will, 
 then you can be happy and stop bothering your 
 friends." 
 
 Brooke folded up a pair of trousers and laid 
 them thoughtfully in the drawer. 
 
 " No matter how fully I explained to her," he 
 said slowly, " that she had my permission to go 
 to the dickens, I'm afraid it wouldn't help me 
 much." 
 
 " Well," replied his companion, lamely, " you 
 would at least know about it." 
 
 The great advantage of being thus informed 
 290
 
 BLUE ANCHOR INN 
 
 did not appeal to the young man. Nevertheless, 
 he wrote out the telegram as directed and des- 
 patched Willy with it in the motor boat to the 
 mainland. 
 
 At the same time Willy took the telegram, he 
 took also Mr. and Mrs. Brooke and Mr. Still. 
 The entire population of the island accumulated 
 to see them off, Captain John foremost among 
 them. He pushed forward to shake the old man 
 by the hand. 
 
 " You may not be jest right 'n the head," he 
 said, tactfully, " but I will say you're real good 
 comp'ny." 
 
 " Thank you, John," said Mr. Still. " Same to 
 you." 
 
 Still drew aside Brooke the wifeless Brooke. 
 He fished a yellow ball out of his trousers pocket. 
 When unfolded it proved to be a twenty dollar 
 bill. 
 
 " Buy something for Mrs. Gilpin from me," he 
 whispered. 
 
 Brooke nodded and stepped forward to say 
 good-bye to Mrs. Brooke. She looked at him 
 
 with a knowing smile. 
 
 291
 
 BLUE ANCHOR INN 
 
 " It was a strange coincidence, wasn't it, that 
 we should have the same name ? " she said. 
 
 " It was an invention of the devil," he as- 
 serted. 
 
 292
 
 CHAPTER XXIX 
 
 BUT when Roger Brooke actually received a 
 telegram on the following day from Mr. 
 Sprague giving a street and number in Philadel- 
 phia as his wife's address, he was stricken with 
 fright at the prospect before him. However, 
 there was no excuse for delay, and he prepared 
 to make the trip to Philadelphia by the evening 
 train. No actor on the occasion of his first per- 
 formance, no public man making his maiden 
 speech could have been more perturbed. 
 
 He called on Dita Grey, ostensibly to bid her 
 good-bye, but also in the hope that she might be 
 arranging to leave by the same train. He 
 might have bluntly asked her to do so, but it ap- 
 peared inadvisable to make a point of it, under 
 the circumstances. He found her seated on the 
 floor in the midst of the disarray occasioned by 
 the rounding up of Mrs. Brooke's belongings and 
 sending them to the yawl. From her careless 
 and nonchalant attitude and her apparent sur- 
 
 293
 
 BLUE ANCHOR INN 
 
 prise at seeing him, it would not have seemed 
 that she was expecting him. 
 
 " I am going away to-day," she said, placidly. 
 
 "So am I," he replied. He rather hoped this 
 would bring about a discussion of trains. But 
 conversations are very unmanageable things. 
 
 " Are you going to see your wife ? " was what 
 she asked. 
 
 This was rather blunt. She was often blunt. 
 
 " Yes," he replied, for want of something bet- 
 ter to say. 
 
 She picked up a piece of paper and began to 
 fold it. 
 
 " You don't often speak of your wife." 
 
 "No." 
 
 She looked up quickly. 
 
 "Norther?" 
 
 " I must tell you," he said, humbly. " I don't 
 know who my wife is." 
 
 She only made little tracks in the paper with 
 her thumb nail. 
 
 "I I it's very humiliating to have to tell it," 
 he went on " but I married her because some 
 
 one gave me five hundred dollars to do it." 
 
 294
 
 BLUE ANCHOR INN 
 
 He looked at her to see how she took that 
 statement. Her head was averted. He was 
 thoroughly miserable. 
 
 " Don't you think that was contemptible?" he 
 demanded. 
 
 When she looked up her face was wreathed in 
 smiles. 
 
 " But," she said, brightly, " think how happy 
 it made her." 
 
 He had no reply to that. But he was glad 
 she did not despise him. 
 
 " What did she look like?" demanded the girl 
 in a moment. 
 
 " I don't know. She wore a veil." 
 
 " Was she fat ? " 
 
 " No." 
 
 " Was she slim like I am ? " 
 
 He looked at her. 
 
 " Yes, I should say slim like you are." 
 
 " And you haven't seen her since ? " 
 
 " No. She went West to get a divorce." 
 
 The girl looked up with interest, and moved 
 across the floor till she was close to his knees. 
 
 " And," she asserted, " she didn't get it?" 
 295
 
 BLUE ANCHOR INN 
 
 He shook his head. She laughed softly. 
 
 " Why do you laugh ? " 
 
 " I don't blame her," she said, and gave him a 
 wonderful glance from under her long lashes. 
 
 They were interrupted then by the entrance of 
 Mrs. Brooke's colored retainer, who slouched 
 across the room and lifted a box of china Dita 
 had been packing. She followed him to the 
 door to explain minutely just how it should be 
 carried and where it should be put and what 
 should be put on top of it and what should 
 not, and so many other things that it took the 
 colored retainer nearly five minutes to forget 
 them. Having thus attended to her duties, she 
 returned to find out how many things she had 
 forgotten to put in the box. This was discour- 
 aging, because there were a great many. But 
 finally she got them all corralled and huddled in a 
 bunch where she could keep an eye on them and 
 see that they did not escape again. She went 
 to the window and looked out at the gray sea. 
 
 " I've been thinking about the lady," she said, 
 with her back to him. " I've been thinking that 
 
 perhaps I understand her." 
 
 296
 
 BLUE ANCHOR INN 
 
 " Yes," he replied. 
 
 She hesitated. 
 
 " This girl she was an orphan or, at least, 
 there was no near person to look after her ? " 
 
 He nodded. 
 
 " I think I can understand," she said. " I was 
 like that. I do not remember my father and 
 mother. I worked in an office when I was fif- 
 teen. And I lived in a boarding-house and met 
 no one. I never saw a man of my own age 
 whom I could like or even talk to. If she were 
 like that " 
 
 She paused a moment. 
 
 " Yes," he said. 
 
 " Why," she went on, "when the girl got out 
 West it might have occurred to her that since 
 she was married to a cleaner and finer and a 
 more upstanding man than had ever before come 
 into her life " 
 
 " How could she have thought it ? " he broke in. 
 
 " It's possible." She gazed attentively at the 
 whitecaps rolling in over the lead sea. " I 
 thought those things when I first saw you." 
 
 He made two steps and caught her to him. 
 297
 
 BLUE ANCHOR INN 
 
 She held him close, her white arms about his 
 neck. Then she freed herself. 
 
 " You interrupt me," she protested. 
 
 He retired and stood before the fireplace. 
 
 " Go on." 
 
 She nervously crumpled her handkerchief in 
 her hands. 
 
 " If she thought those things about you that I 
 have said," she went on, " she might have de- 
 cided to come back out of curiosity to see 
 what her husband was like." 
 
 " It isn't probable," he asserted. 
 
 She smiled a little. 
 
 " Were you ever a woman ? " was her unan- 
 swerable reply. 
 
 The little clock on the mantel-shelf struck 
 eleven. 
 
 " I must go," he forced himself to say. 
 
 She put her hands on his shoulders and looked 
 into his face. 
 
 "And are you never coming to see me 
 again ? " 
 
 "Not until " He paused. "Well, I 
 
 think you understand." 
 
 298
 
 BLUE ANCHOR INN 
 
 " You mean when she lets you go? " 
 
 He nodded. 
 
 " I wonder," he exclaimed, " if she ever 
 will ! " 
 
 She shook her head. Keen surprise showed 
 in his face. 
 
 " Why ? " he asked. 
 
 Her reply was simple. 
 
 " I know the woman." 
 
 "You know my wife? How? Where?" he 
 cried, excitedly. 
 
 " She came to Mrs. Brooke for the position I 
 have now." 
 
 " But she has plenty of money," he exclaimed 
 quickly. 
 
 " I know. She told me. I was in her confi- 
 dence," Dita went on hurriedly. " She told me 
 that she wanted to meet her husband you, that 
 is without your being aware of it. Through 
 somebody's mistake she understood that these 
 Brookes were related to you. So she thought if 
 she connected herself with them she might meet 
 you." 
 
 He was thoughtful. 
 
 299
 
 BLUE ANCHOR INN 
 
 " That's pathetic," he said. 
 
 " Oh, no. It's funny. If she had only known 
 then how wrong and yet how right her guess 
 was." 
 
 " And she would have had your place," he 
 said, thoughtfully. 
 
 She looked at him quizzically. Then she 
 waited. Still his face gave no sign. Presently 
 she began to laugh. 
 
 She tried again. 
 
 " Would you like to know the name your 
 wife assumed in applying for the place ? " she 
 asked. 
 
 " Why, yes," he replied, innocently. 
 
 " It was Grey." 
 
 She looked and the spark had caught 
 
 " Thunder ! " he said, dazed. 
 
 And this time when he held her in his arms he 
 knew she was his. 
 
 " The ring ? " he asked, at length. 
 
 There was a fine gold chain about her neck. 
 He had seen it sometimes when she wore low-cut 
 dresses. Fastened to the end of it she showed 
 him the ring. 
 
 300
 
 BLUE ANCHOR INN 
 
 " Mrs. Brooke the other Mrs. Brooke " 
 she laughed, shyly " found it on my bureau 
 once and wore it. I was so frightened I have 
 worn it on this chain ever since." 
 
 He took it off and put it on her finger, where 
 it belonged. 
 
 " How about the jade earrings?" 
 
 "Jade earrings?" she answered, puzzled. 
 
 " Mrs. Brooke has been wearing them. That's 
 what put us on the wrong track." 
 
 " Has she?" she cried. " I never thought of 
 that. She has been wearing a good many of 
 my trinkets. I got tired of them. I can't en- 
 dure dangley things like they are." 
 
 They did not hear the little clock when it 
 struck twelve. Nor when it struck one. But it 
 seemed they had scarcely been sitting in the chair 
 a minute when Ned Gilpin burst in. 
 
 " Oh, Roger," he called, before he came in, 
 " come on to lunch." 
 
 Then he entered. 
 
 Of course it was an embarrassing situation 
 for Dita. But the high color became her im- 
 mensely. 
 
 301
 
 BLUE ANCHOR INN 
 
 " Ned," said Roger, " I present you to my 
 wife." 
 
 But, as has been said before, by this time you 
 could not astonish Gilpin with anything. 
 
 302
 
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