Little Bobtail Part 22

They walked towards the Bay View House. It was nearly tea time, and the guests of the house were seated on the platform, under the shade of the trees which surround the hotel. There was an excited group there, for the particulars of the cruise of the Pen.o.bscot that day had just been related by the Walkers and others.

"I want to see you, Squire Simonton," said Bobtail.

"There he is. Three cheers for Little Bobtail!" shouted Mr. Walker, as he pointed to the hero of the day.

There were gentlemen enough who had heard the story to give the cheers, and the ladies clapped their hands.

"That's for you, Bobtail," said Mr. Hines. "We have heard of your brave deeds, and all the people in the hotel are talking about you."

Little Bobtail blushed like a beet, and while Mr. Hines was telling the deputy sheriff how the boy had saved Grace Montague from the waves and the rocks, the hero related his own troubles to Mr. Simonton. Mr. Walker and Emily came out, and insisted that Bobtail should go into the hotel, and see the ladies. Ever so many of them shook his brown hand, and he blushed and stammered, and thought the scene was ten times as trying as that off Blank Island. Then he must take tea with the Walkers. He could not be excused.

"I can't, sir," protested Bobtail. "I have been taken up for stealing since I came a sh.o.r.e. But I didn't do it."

"For stealing!" exclaimed Emily Walker, with horror.

"I didn't do it."

"I know you didn't, Captain Bobtail," replied Emily.

"This is Mr. Brooks, the deputy sheriff, and he is responsible for me,"

added Bobtail. "So you see I can't leave him."

"Then Mr. Brooks must come too," said Mr. Walker.

The officer was very obliging, and went too. Bobtail was a first-cla.s.s lion, though under arrest for stealing. The gentlemen patted him on the head, and the ladies petted him. A party wanted the Skylark for the next day, another for Monday, and a third for Tuesday. The hero could not go the next day, for he had to be examined before Squire Norwood for stealing the letter. It was dark when he escaped from the hotel, and went home attended by Mr. Brooks. Squire Simonton was there waiting to see him.

After the scene at the office, Ezekiel and his wife had walked to the cottage together. Neither of them was in a pleasant frame of mind. The tippler was sober, because he had neither rum nor money. He wanted both, for he was thirsting and hankering for a dram.

"So it seems you've got money somewhere," said Ezekiel to his troubled wife.

"No, I haven't," replied Mrs. Taylor, who was only thinking how she could extricate herself from the difficulties of her situation, and not at all troubled about the thoughts or suspicions of her worthless husband.

"Yes, you have! When I don't have a dollar, you always have somethin',"

persisted Ezekiel. "You've kept money hid away from me ever since we was married. Your first husband left more'n you told on."

"All that my first husband left me was gone years ago," added Mrs.

Taylor, indifferently.

"You've got money somewhere."

"If I have, I shall keep it."

"You hain't no right to do so."

"Yes, I have. If I had any money, I would not let you have it to spend for rum. Every dollar you get goes for that, and you would have starved to death if I hadn't taken care of you."

"If you've got any money, I wan't some on't; and I'm go'n to have it, too."

"I haven't any money; at least not much of any; and what I have I mean to keep."

Ezekiel was mad. He was fully convinced that his wife had money concealed somewhere, or in the hands of some friend, who gave it to her as she wanted it. She always paid the bills of the house very promptly, and had enough to buy a dress for herself, or a suit of clothes for Robert, and even for him. He felt that he had a right to his wife's property, even if he spent it for rum. But Mrs. Taylor was too much for him; for whatever secret she had, she kept it. This was not the first time that Ezekiel had been vexed by these suspicions, and he had searched the house several times, when she was absent, for the hidden treasure, but without finding it. The debate on this question was continued long after they returned to the cottage, but the husband was no wiser at the end of it than at the beginning.

All the points of the case were stated to Squire Simonton, who volunteered to act as counsel for Bobtail.

"But where did this bill come from, Mrs. Taylor?" asked the legal gentleman.

"I can't tell," replied the troubled woman.

"You can't tell!"

"No, sir; I cannot."

"But your refusal will certainly insure the conviction of your son."

"Robert did not give me that bill," protested she.

"I don't believe he did, nuther," said Ezekiel. "She's got money hid away somewhere."

"If it had been hid away long, it could not have been the bill which was sent in the letter."

"It wasn't hid away," added Mrs. Taylor. "I might injure somebody by telling where I got the bill; and for that reason I can't say a single word, even if I go to prison for it."

"But your son will be sent to prison, certainly, if you don't tell,"

said the lawyer.

"O, dear! What shall I do?"

She positively refused to tell even Squire Simonton, who explained that, as counsel, he could not be obliged to reveal the secrets of his clients. It was finally arranged that a postponement of the examination should be obtained, if possible; and Mr. Walker and half a dozen others had promised to give bail for Bobtail.

CHAPTER XII.

CAPTAIN c.h.i.n.kS IS INDIFFERENT.

"I don't know that we can do any better under the circ.u.mstances," said Squire Simonton, after the arrangement of the legal business had been agreed upon. "But we are making a strange case of it."

The squire bestowed one of his pleasant smiles upon the case, for he was one of those sweet-tempered men who never frown, even when they are vexed. He was perplexed, and very properly claimed the right, as counsel, to know all the facts. But it was evident that Mrs. Taylor had, or supposed she had, a good reason for concealing the source from which came the five hundred dollar bill.

"Squire Gilfilian purposes to make Mrs. Taylor a party to the theft,"

said Mr. Brooks. "Probably he will get out a warrant for her arrest in the morning."

"I never thought it would come to this, that I should be taken up for stealing," added the poor woman, bursting into tears.

"You can hardly wonder at being arrested," suggested the squire. "The stolen property was in your possession, and you refuse even to explain where you got it."