"Yes, and he would have gone, too, if it hadn't been for you. And you talk about MY takin' risks!"
"Well, Jerry hadn't ought to have let you come."
"LET me come! I should like to have seen him try to stop me. The idea!
Where would I be if 'twa'n't helpin' you, after all you've done for me?"
"I'VE done? I haven't done anything!"
"You've made me happier 'n I've been for years. You've been so kind that--that--"
She stopped and looked out of the window.
"It's you that's been kind," said the Captain. "You've made a home for me; somethin' I ain't had afore sence I was a boy."
Mrs. Snow went on as if he had not spoken.
"And to think that you might have been drownded the same as the rest,"
she said. "I knew somethin' was happenin'. I jest felt it, somehow. I told Elsie I was sure of it. I couldn't think of anything but you all the forenoon."
The Captain sat up on the couch.
"Marthy," he said in an awed tone, "do you know what I was thinkin' of when I was pullin' through the wust of it this mornin'? I was thinkin'
of you. I thought of Luther and the rest of them poor souls, of course, but I thought of you most of the time. It kept comin' back to me that if I went under I shouldn't see you ag'in. And you was thinkin' of me!"
"Yes, when that Mayo man said he had awful news, I felt sure 'twas you he was goin' to tell about. I never fainted away in my life that I know of, but I think I 'most fainted then."
"And you cared as much as that?"
"Yes."
Somehow both were speaking quietly, but as if it was useless longer to keep back anything. To speak the exact truth without reserve seemed the most natural thing in the world.
"Well, well, well!" said the Captain reverently, and still in the same low tone. "I said once afore that I b'lieved you was sent here, and now I'm sure of it. It seems almost as if you was sent to ME, don't it?"
The housekeeper still looked out of the window, but she answered simply, "I don't know."
"It does, it does so. Marthy, we've been happy together while you've been here. Do you b'lieve you could be happy with me always--if you married me, I mean?"
Mrs. Snow turned and looked at him. There were tears in her eyes, but she did not wipe them away.
"Yes," she said.
"Think now, Marthy. I ain't very young, and I ain't very rich."
"What am I?" with a little smile.
"And you really think you could be happy if you was the wife of an old codger like me?"
"Yes." The answer was short, but it was convincing.
Captain Eri rose to his feet.
"Gosh!" he said in a sort of unbelieving whisper. "Marthy, are you willin' to try?"
And again Mrs. Snow said "Yes."
When Dr. Palmer came he found Luther Davis still in bed, but Captain Eri was up and dressed, and there was such a quiet air of happiness about him that the man of medicine was amazed.
"Good Lord, man!" he exclaimed, "I expected to find you flat on your back, and you look better than I've seen you for years. Taking a salt-water bath in mid-winter must agree with you."
"It ain't so much that," replied the Captain serenely. "It's the pay I got for takin' it."
When the Doctor saw Perez alone, he asked the latter to keep a close watch on Captain Eri's behavior. He said he was afraid that the exertion and exposure might have affected the Captain's brain.
Perez, alarmed by this caution, did watch his friend very closely, but he saw nothing to frighten him until, as they were about to start for home, Captain Eri suddenly struck his thigh a resounding slap
"Jerry!" he groaned distressfully. "I clean forgot. I've gone back on Jerry!"
CHAPTER XXI
"DIME-SHOW BUS'NESS"
Elsie and Captain Jerry were kept busy that afternoon. Abner Mayo's news spread quickly, and people gathered at the post-office, the stores, and the billiard room to discuss it. Some of the men, notably "Cy" Warner and "Rufe" Smith, local representatives of the big Boston dailies, hurried off to the life-saving station to get the facts at first hand.
Others came down to talk with Captain Jerry and Elsie. Melissa Busteed's shawl was on her shoulders and her "cloud" was tied about her head in less than two minutes after her next-door neighbor shouted the story across the back yards. She had just left the house, and Captain Jerry was delivering a sarcastic speech concerning "talkin' machines," when Daniel plodded through the gate, drawing the buggy containing Josiah, Mrs. Snow, and Captain Eri.
For a man who had been described as "half-dead," Captain Eri looked very well, indeed. Jerry ran to help him from the carriage, but he jumped out himself and then assisted the housekeeper to alight with an air of proud proprietorship. He was welcomed to the house like a returned prodigal, and Captain Jerry shook his well hand until the arm belonging to it seemed likely to become as stiff and sore as the other. While this handshaking was going on Captain Eri was embarrassed. He did not look his friend in the face, and most of his conversation was addressed to Elsie.
As soon as he had warmed his hands and told the story of the wreck and rescue, he said, "Jerry, come up to my room a minute, won't you? I've got somethin' I want to say."
Vaguely wondering what the private conversation might be, Jerry followed his friend upstairs. When they were in the room, Captain Eri closed the door and faced his companion. He was confused, and stammered a little, as he said, "Jerry, I've--I've got somethin' to say to you 'bout Mrs.
Snow."
Then it was Captain Jerry's turn to be confused.
"Now, Eri," he protested, "'tain't fair to keep pesterin' me like this.
I know I ain't said nothin' to her yit, but I'm goin' to. I had a week, anyhow, and it ain't ha'f over. Land sake!" he burst forth, "d'you s'pose I ain't been thinkin' 'bout it? I ain't thought of nothin' else, hardly. I bet you I've been over the whole thing every night sence we had that talk. I go over it and GO over it. I've thought of more 'n a million ways to ask her, but there ain't one of 'em that suits me. If I was goin' to be hung 'twouldn't be no worse, and now you've got to keep a-naggin'. Let me alone till my time is up, can't you?"
"I wa'n't naggin'. I was jest goin' to tell you that you won't have to ask. I've been talkin' to her myself, and--"
The sacrifice sprang out of his chair.
"Eri Hedge!" he exclaimed indignantly. "I thought you was a friend of mine! I give you my word I'd do it in a week, and the least you could have done, seems to me, would have been to wait and give me the chance.
But no! all you think 'bout's yourself. So 'fraid she'd say no and you'd lose your old housekeeper, wa'n't you? The idea! She must think I'm a good one--can't do my own courtin', and have to git somebody to do it for me! What did she say?" he asked suddenly.
"She said yes to what I asked her," was the reply with a half smile.