CHAPTER XITHE BEGINNING OF TROUBLE
“Madge, I am afraid that you and the girls are not having as good a time at Cape May as I had hoped you would have,” remarked Mrs. Curtis to the little captain about a week later as they strolled along the beautiful ocean boulevard that overlooked the sea. Only the day before Mrs. Curtis and Tom had returned from Chicago. Just behind them, Lillian, Miss Jenny Ann, Phyllis, Tom Curtis and Mrs. Curtis’s protégé, Philip Holt, loitered along the beach. They were too far away to overhear the conversation of the two women.
“On the contrary, we are having a perfectly beautiful time,” answered Madge, her face radiant with the pleasure of her surroundings. “I think Cape May is one of the loveliest places in the whole world! And we girls have met the most splendid old sea captain. He has the dearest, snuggest little house up the bay! He was once a deep-sea diver and knows the most fascinating stories about the treasures of the sea.” Madge ceased speaking. She could tell from her friend’s slightly bored expression that Mrs.Curtis was not interested in the story of a common sailor.
“Yes, Madge, I know about all that,” Mrs. Curtis returned a little coldly. “What I meant is that I fear you girls are not enjoying the social life of Cape May, which is what I looked forward to for you. I do wish, dear, that you cared more for society and less for such people as this old sailor and a tenement child like Tania. I doubt if this man is a fit associate for you.”
Madge’s blue eyes darkened. She thought of the splendid old sailor, with his great strength and gentle manners, his knowledge of the world and his fine simplicity, and of queer, loving little Tania, but she wisely held her peace. “I am sorry, too, that I don’t like society more if you wish it,” she replied sweetly. “I do like the society of clever, agreeable people, but not—I like Ethel Swann and her friends immensely,” she ended. “And, please, don’t say anything against my old pearl diver, Mrs. Curtis, until you see him. I am sure that you and Tom will think that he is splendid.”
Mrs. Curtis looked searchingly at Madge, and Madge returned her gaze without lowering her eyes. Mrs. Curtis’s face softened. She found it hard to scold her favorite, but she had been very much vexed at the story that Philip Holthad repeated to her of Madge’s escapades at Cape May, and how she accused Roy Dennis of cowardice when he had taken her and her friends on his boat after Madge’s and Phil’s own heedlessness had caused their skiff to be overturned. Somehow, the tale of the throwing of the ball on board Roy Dennis’s yacht and of frightening Mabel Farrar had also gone abroad in Cape May. Lillian had confided the anecdote to Ethel Swann under promise of the greatest secrecy. The story had seemed to Ethel too ridiculous to keep to herself, so she had repeated it to another friend, after demanding the same promise that Lillian had exacted from her. And so the story had traveled and grown until it was a very mischievous tale that Philip Holt had recounted to Mrs. Curtis, taking care that Tom Curtis was not about when he told it.
Mrs. Curtis thought Madge too old for such practical jokes. She also believed that Madge should have more dignity and self-control. She loved her very dearly, and she wished her to come to live with her as her daughter after her own, daughter, Madeleine, had married, but Mrs. Curtis was determined that the little captain should learn to be less impetuous and more conventional.
“Philip Holt has told you something about me, hasn’t he, Mrs. Curtis?” asked Madgemeekly, hiding the flash in her eyes by lowering her lids.
“Philip told me very little. He is the soul of honor,” answered Mrs. Curtis quickly. “You are absurdly prejudiced against him. But with the little that he told me and what I have gathered from other sources, I feel that you have been most indiscreet. I can’t help thinking that the various things that have happened may be laid at your door, and that the other girls have just stood by you, as they always do.”
Madge bit her lips. “Whatever has occurred that you don’t like is my fault, Mrs. Curtis,” she confessed, “and Phil, Lillian and Nelliehavestood by me. I am sorry that you are angry.”
The other young people were coming closer. Not for worlds would Madge have had them overhear her conversation with Mrs. Curtis. She was too proud and too hurt to ask Mrs. Curtis just what Philip Holt had said against her. Neither would she retaliate against him by telling her friend of his rudeness.
Mrs. Curtis put one arm about Madge. “It is all right, my dear,” she said, softening a little, “but you must promise me that you will not do such harum-scarum things again, and that you will try to keep your temper.” Mrs. Curtis was on the point of asking Madge to give up her acquaintance with the sailor and not to see theman again, but she knew that her young friend was feeling a little hurt and no doubt resentful toward her, so she put off making her request until a later time.
“Tania has behaved very well, so far, hasn’t she, Madge?” Mrs. Curtis tactfully changed the subject. “I confess I am surprised. Philip Holt assured me that the child was continually in mischief in the tenement neighborhood where she lives. When he took her into the neighborhood house to try to help her she positively stole something. I am afraid Tania’s mother was not the woman you think she was; she was only a cheap little actress, a dancer.” Mrs. Curtis glanced at her companion. Madge was eyeing her seriously.
“It isn’t like you, Mrs. Curtis, dear, to say things against people. Philip Holt must have——” Madge stopped abruptly. At the same time Tom Curtis came up from behind to join his mother and the girl.
“Come on, Madge, and have a race with me across the sands,” he urged. “Mother will be trying to make you so grown-up that we can’t have any sport at all. Besides, you are looking pale. I am sure you need exercise. There is a crowd over there in front of the music pavilion. I will wager a five-pound box of candy that I can beat you to it. Philip Holt will entertainMother. She likes him better than she does the rest of us, anyhow, because he devotes his time to good works and to working good people,” added Tom teasingly, under his breath.
While Tom was talking Madge darted off across the sands. She never would get over her love of running, she felt sure, until she was old and rheumatic. The color came back to her cheeks and the laughter to her eyes.
Tom was close behind her. “Madge Morton, you didn’t give me a fair start,” he protested, “you rushed away before I was ready. I thought you always played fair?”
Madge dropped into a walk. “I do try to, Tom,” she answered more earnestly than Tom had expected. His remark had been made only in fun. “You believe in me, don’t you, Tom?” she added pleadingly.
“Now and forever, Madge, through thick and thin,” answered Tom steadily.
They had now come up nearer the crowd of people on the beach. Up on a grand stand a band was playing an Italian waltz, and an eager crowd had gathered, apparently to listen to the music.
But the two young people soon saw that on the hard sand a child was dancing. Tom stopped outside the circle of watchers, but Madge went forward into it. She had at once recognizedlittle Tania! Eleanor had been left on the houseboat to take care of the child, but Eleanor was now nowhere to be seen, and her charge had wandered into mischief.
Tania was dancing in her most bewitching and wonderful fashion. Madge could not help feeling a little embarrassed pride in her. The child was moving like a flower swayed by the wind. She poised first on one foot, then on the other, then flitted forward on both pointed toes, her thin, eager arms outstretched, curving and bending with the rhythm of the music. She wore her best white dress, the pride of her life, which Eleanor had lately made for her. On her head she had placed a wreath of wild flowers, which she must have woven for herself. They were like a fairy crown on her dark head. With the love of bright colors, which she must have inherited from some Italian ancestor, she had twisted a bright scarlet sash about her waist.
Again Madge saw that Tania was utterly unconscious of the audience about her. She looked neither to the right nor to the left, but straight upward to the turquoise-blue sky.
How different Tania’s audience to-day from the crowd of people that had watched her on the street corner when Eleanor and Madge had first seen her! Yet these gay society folk were even more fascinated by the child’s wonderful art.They could better appreciate her remarkable dancing.
Tania did not even see her beloved Madge, who was silently watching her. Tania’s usually pale cheeks glowed as scarlet as her sash. Unconsciously the little girl’s movements were like those of a butterfly, a-flutter with the joy of the sunshine and new life.
The music stopped suddenly and with it Tania’s dance ceased as abruptly. She stood poised for a single instant on one dainty foot, with her graceful arms still swaying above her flower-crowned head. Her audience watched her breathlessly, for the effect of the child’s grace had been almost magical.
“Wasn’t that a wonderful performance?” whispered Tom in Madge’s ear. “The child is an artist! Where do you suppose she learned to dance like that?”
But Tania had come back to earth in a brief second. To Madge’s mystification, Tania started about among the people who had been watching her performance with her small hands clasped together like a cup.
The child courtesied shyly to a fat old lady. Her gesture was unmistakable. The woman rummaged in her chain pocket-book and dropped a silver quarter into Tania’s outstretched hands. The next onlooker was more generous. Tania’seyes shone as she felt the size and weight of a big silver dollar.
Few people in the Cape May crowd knew who Tania was, or whence she had come. They probably thought that the object of the dance had been to earn money.
For a few moments Madge had been paralyzed by Tania’s peculiar actions. She did not realize what they meant. In this lapse of time the rest of their party joined them.
It was the expression on Mrs. Curtis’s face that made Madge appreciate what Tania was doing.
“What on earth is Tania about?” exclaimed Lillian in puzzled tones. She saw the child standing before a young man who was evidently teasing her and refusing her request for money.
“She has been dancing like a monkey with a hand organ,” answered Philip Holt scornfully. “I am afraid Cape May people will hardly understand it. It looks as though the young women on the ‘Merry Maid’ were in need of money.” The young man laughed as though his last remark had been intended for a joke.
“None of that talk, Holt.” Madge caught Tom’s angry tone as she hurried forward to Tania. The little captain could have cried with mortification and embarrassment. In the crowd of curious onlookers she caught sight of MabelFarrar’s and Roy Dennis’s sneering faces.
“Tania!” she cried sharply. “What in the world are you doing? Stop taking that money at once!”
Tania glanced around and discovered Madge. Instead of looking ashamed of herself, the child’s face grew radiant. “Madge,” she cried, in a high voice that could be heard all about them, “it is all for you!”
Tania rushed forward with her outstretched hands overflowing with silver.
Madge could have sunk through the sands for shame. Mrs. Curtis’s face flamed with anger and chagrin. She might have been able to explain to her friends that Tania was only a street child and knew no better than to dance for money; but how could she ever explain the remark to Madge? It looked as though Madge had been a party to Tania’s dancing and begging.
Madge was overcome with embarrassment and humiliation. She knew that she must, for the minute, appear like a beggar to the crowd of Cape May people. For just that instant she would have liked to repulse Tania, to have thrust the child and her money away from her before every one. But a glance at Tania’s eager, happy face restrained her. She put her arm protectingly about the little girl, hiding herin the shelter of her body. “I don’t want the money, Tania,” she whispered. “It wasn’t right for you to have taken it from these people.”
“Don’t you want it?” faltered Tania. “I thought you said last night that you and Eleanor were very poor, and that you needed some money very much. All the time I was in bed last night I thought of what your Fairy Godmother could do to help you. I know how to do but one thing—to dance as my mother taught me. How can it be wrong to take the money from people? I have often done it in New York. They only gave it to me because they liked my dancing.” Madge could feel Tania’s hot tears on her hands.
She clasped Tania closer. “It isn’t exactly wrong, Tania; I was mistaken. It was just different. I will have to explain it to you afterward. Now we must give the money back to the people again.”
Holding tight to Tania’s hand, Madge walked among the group of strangers, explaining Tania’s actions as best she could without hurting the little girl’s feelings. It was one of the hardest things that the proud little captain had ever been called upon to do. But a part of the crowd had scattered. It was not possible to find them all and return their silver. Tania was too puzzledand heart-broken to continue her errand long. She did not understand why Madge had refused to take her gift, which she thought she had fairly earned. Finally she could hold back her sobs no longer. Dropping her few remaining nickels and dimes on the sand she broke away from Madge’s clasp and ran like a little wild creature away from everyone.
Madge stopped for just a second among her friends before following Tania.
“You see, Madge,” remarked Mrs. Curtis coldly, “Tania is quite impossible. I knew the child would get you into difficulties, and it is just as I feared. She must be sent away at once.”
But Madge shook her head with a decision that was unmistakable.
“No,” she answered quietly, “Tania shall not be sent away. None of you understand, and I can’t explain it to you now, but Tania thought she was doing something for Nellie and me. She was foolish, of course, and I will see that she never does it again.”
With her head held high, Madge hurried away in pursuit of her Fairy Godmother.
CHAPTER XII“THE ANCHORAGE”
Madge was alone in the “Water Witch,” which had been mended and was as good as new. She had just come from an interview with Mrs. Curtis, in which she had tried to make her friend understand the reason for Tania’s behavior of the day before. Mrs. Curtis, however, would not take the little captain’s view of the matter. She dwelt on the fact that Tania had slipped away from the houseboat without letting Eleanor know of it, and that she was a naughty and disobedient child.
Madge also believed that Mrs. Curtis no longer loved her so dearly as in the early days of their acquaintance. The young girl was sure that some influence was being brought to bear to prejudice her friend against her. But what could she do? Philip Holt was trying to destroy the affection Mrs. Curtis felt for Madge in order to ingratiate himself. It looked as though he were going to succeed. Madge was too proud to ask questions or to accuse Philip Holt with deliberately trying to influence her friend against her. Although she was only a young girl, she realized that love does notamount to very much in this world unless it has faith and sympathy behind it. So long as she had done nothing she knew to be wrong, and for which she should make an apology, she could only wait to see if Mrs. Curtis’s affection would be restored to her or cease altogether.
As usual, when she was troubled, the impulse came to her to be alone on the water. She had explained to Miss Jenny Ann that she might be gone for several hours, so there was no immediate reason why she should return to the houseboat. The other girls were yachting with some Cape May friends.
Madge rowed her boat up the bay toward the home of the old sailor. She was not far from the very place where Captain Jules had rescued Tania and her a short while before. She thought of the strange-looking beam sticking up out of the sandy bottom of the bay on which Tania’s dress had caught. It had certainly looked like the broken mast of an old ship. She determined to ask Captain Jules if any wrecks had recently occurred near that part of the bay, and concluded that she would row up to the sailor’s house for the express purpose of asking him this question. Of course, this was only an excuse. She was deeply anxious to call on the old sailor again and, if possible, persuade him to keep his promise to her to show her his divingsuit, and to tell her more of his strange experiences at the bottom of the sea.
Captain Jules was sitting in his favorite place on the big rock just by the water in front of his house. He was mending the sail of his fishing boat.
Madge’s boat came round a slight curve in the bay, dancing toward him. This time Captain Jules spied his guest and saluted her as he would have greeted a superior officer.
The little captain blushed prettily as she returned his salute in her best naval fashion.
The old captain looked hurriedly toward his small house. There was no sight or sound of any one about. He seemed uncomfortable for a moment, then his face cleared. His deep blue eyes gleamed and his mouth set squarely. “Coming ashore to make me a call, Miss Madge?” he asked invitingly.
Madge nodded. “If I shan’t be in your way. You must let me just sit there on the rock by you. I have been reading a perfectly thrilling book about pearl-divers,” she announced as soon as she was comfortably settled, “but none of the stories were as thrilling as the ones you told us. The book said that pearls had been found in New Jersey. I wonder if you have ever thought of diving down to the bottom of this bay to see if it holds any treasures?”
The sailor was studying the girl’s face so earnestly that he forgot to answer her.
“Oh, yes, I have thought of it,” he replied a little later, smiling at his guest. “A man never wholly forgets his trade. But what a taste you have for sea yarns, little lady! I half-way think, now, that if you had not been born a girl you might have followed the sea for your calling.”
“I should have loved it best of anything in the world,” answered Madge fervently, gazing at the beautiful expanse of sunny, blue water. “I never feel as much at home anywhere as I do on the sea. You see,” she continued confidingly, “I have a reason for loving the water. My father was a sailor. He was a captain in the United States Navy once.”
“‘A captain in the United States Navy,’” Captain Jules repeated huskily. “I thought so. I thought so.”
“Why?” asked Madge wonderingly.
Captain Jules pulled his needle slowly through a heavy piece of sail cloth. It must have stuck, he was so long about it, and his big hands fumbled it so clumsily.
“Oh, because of your liking for the water, Miss Madge,” he returned quietly. “You see, there are two great loves born in the hearts of men and women that you never can get awayfrom. The one is the love of the soil and the other is the love of the sea. No matter what your life is, if you have those two passions in you, you’ve got to get back to the country or to the water when your chance comes. But why do you say that your father was once a captain in the United States Navy? Is he dead?”
“I am afraid so,” replied Madge faintly. Of late she was beginning to believe that her uncle and aunt, Mrs. Curtis and all her older friends were right. If her father were not dead in all these long years, surely he would have tried to find her. He would have sought to discover some news of the daughter whom he had left when she was only a baby.
Captain Jules seemed about to say something, then, changed his mind. He shook his great, shaggy, gray head and looked at Madge tenderly. “Is your mother living?” he inquired.
“No, she died soon after my father went away to join his ship on his last voyage,” Madge went on sadly, her eyes filling with tears. She was half tempted to tell the old sailor her father’s story, then decided to reserve it until some future day when she felt that she knew him better. In spite of her liking for the old sea captain, she realized that she had hardly known him long enough to make him her confidant.
Captain Jules continued to sew. He openedhis mouth, to speak once or twice and then closed it again. Finally he asked Madge huskily, “What was your father’s name, child?”
“Captain Robert Morton,” replied Madge slowly. “He was from Virginia. If I knew him to be alive, I’d be the happiest girl in the world.”
Captain Jules cast a peculiar glance in her direction which Madge did not see.
“My dear little mate,” he said slowly, “some day a young man will come along who will be far more to you than any old father could have been. But what made your father go away? If he was a captain in the Navy, what made him resign his command?”
“I can’t tell you that to-day, Captain Jules. Perhaps I’ll tell you some day when I know you better; in fact, I am sure I shall tell you. Perhaps when I do tell you I shall ask you to do me a great favor. Perhaps I shall ask you to help me hunt for him. I’ll tell you a secret. Uncle and Aunt have been good to me and I love them dearly, but I want my own father, and I can’t, I won’t, believe he is dead. That is, not until I have absolute proof.”
“Little girl!” exclaimed Captain Jules in such a strange voice that Madge was startled, “I promise you that I’ll help you find him.” Then in a calmer tone of voice he said: “I toldyou that I would show you my diver’s suit. If you will wait on my porch I will go around inside the house to see if I can find it.”
He rose hastily and disappeared into the house, leaving Madge to wonder why the few words she had spoken concerning her father had affected the old sea captain so strangely.
Chapter XIIITANIA’S NEMESIS
Captain Jules was gone a long time, but Madge did not mind waiting for him. She loved the odd house with its roof shaped like three sails and its restful name, “The Anchorage.”
When Captain Jules came back with the great suit his face was pale, almost haggard, but he was smiling good-humoredly. “Come, stand over here by this window while I show you my old togs. I haven’t looked at this diving suit myself for several years.”
Madge was too much interested in the diving dress to glance in at the captain’s window to see if she could catch a glimpse of the inside of the snug little house that she had not yet been invited to enter.
The diving suit was much lighter than she had expected to find it. It weighed only about twenty pounds. It was made of water-proof material and had a large helmet of copper with great circular glasses in front that looked like goggle eyes.
Captain Jules explained that there were two lines with which the diver communicated withthe outside world. The one was the air line, and it was used to pump air down to the man below in the water. The life line was usually hitched around the diver’s waist. This line was let out to any depth the diver required, and by pulling on it the diver could signal to the men who followed his course: one jerk, pull up; two, more air; three, lower the bag. Madge was utterly fascinated with the netted bag, made of rope, that Captain Jules showed her. He told her that the pearl-diver always carried a bag to hold the treasures that he finds at the bottom of the sea. To her vivid imagination, the empty bag was even now filled with shining pearls, the rarest treasures of the sea.
The young girl persuaded Captain Jules to let her dress up in his diver’s suit, when she stumbled about the veranda in it, her gay laughter mingling with the captain’s deep chuckles of delight.
“O Captain Jules!” she pleaded, “do take me down to the bottom of the sea with you. I have always wanted to be a mermaid, and this may be the only chance I shall ever have. ‘Only divers know of things below, of water’s green and fishes’ sheen,’” she chanted gayly.
The old sea captain gazed at Madge, breathing a deep sigh of satisfaction. “I believe you have the courage to do it if I were to let you try,” hemurmured. “It comes nearer to convincing me than anything else.”
“Captain Jules,” continued the girl earnestly, “please, please let’s go down to the bottom of this bay. You could take me with you and then there wouldn’t be any danger. We have been down together without diving suits and here we are safe and sound on land again! You said you thought there might be pearls in the oyster beds of this bay. We could look, at any rate. I saw the most wonderful things when I was searching for Tania. It seemed as though her dress was caught on the broken spar of an old ship, though, of course, I couldn’t be sure. Have there been many wrecks in this bay? Do you suppose it was a ship’s spar?”
“There are always wrecks on the water, child. And you mustn’t be talking nonsense about diving down in this bay along with me,” answered Captain Jules severely. He kept his eyes fastened on his diving suit with an affectionate gleam in them. “Maybe, though, I will make a diving party of one and go down in the bay alone. I’d give you the pearls I found down there.”
Madge shook her head. “That wouldn’t be fair,” she said, setting her red lips together obstinately. Captain Jules, she felt sure, would be easy to manage. If he did any diving in theDelaware Bay within the next few weeks, he must take her with him.
She wrote secretly to New York City to ask what a diver’s suit would cost. She was discouraged by the answer, but she did not give up hope. She was also very careful not to let Miss Jenny Ann or Mrs. Curtis know anything of the wild scheme that was evolving in her head.
Almost every day the girls saw Captain Jules. Either they went up the bay to call on him, or he made a visit to the houseboat.
The old captain never invited the girls inside his house, but they had great frolics in his tidy yard. The captain explained that his house was not neat enough to be seen by young ladies, as it had only a man housekeeper.
Even Mrs. Curtis became a little less prejudiced against Captain Jules. She could not but confess that he was a fine old man, though she still did not see why Madge was so much attracted by him. But the girl bided her time. The four girls and their friends went off on long fishing trips with Captain Jules. Sometimes Mrs. Curtis, Tom, and their guest, Philip Holt, went with them. The enmity between Madge and Philip increased every day, nor did Madge any longer make much effort to conceal her dislike for him.
Philip Holt had a special reason for his dislikefor Madge Morton. He had come to Cape May with the idea of making Mrs. Curtis do an important favor for him upon which his whole future depended. He feared that Madge, who looked upon him as a hypocrite, would find out his true character, tell her friend, and thus ruin his prospects.
A singular misfortune had befallen him. Who could have guessed that one of the few people who knew his real history, Tania, the little street child, would be picked up by the houseboat girls and brought to Cape May for the summer? Tania must not be allowed to betray him. If she did, Mrs. Curtis must not believe either Madge or Tania. The young man had to lay his plans carefully, but he was a born hypocrite and he meant to accomplish his end.
His first opportunity to further his cause came one morning when he and Mrs. Curtis were sitting on the veranda of her summer cottage. Tom had gone out sailing and was not expected back for several hours, so that Philip believed that the coast was clear. He began by telling Mrs. Curtis something of the charity work that he had recently done in New York City and so brought the subject about to Tania.
“Dear Mrs. Curtis, you are so generous,” the young man said admiringly. “I have just learned that after the summer holiday is over youintend to send Miss Morton’s protégé, Tania, to a boarding school. It is so kind in you.”
Mrs. Curtis shook her head. “Oh, no,” she answered, “it is very little to do. Really, I don’t see what else could be done with the child. She is very queer and not attractive to me, but Madge is fond of her and, as I am very fond of Madge, I shall do what is best for the little girl.”
“Ah,” murmured Philip Holt vaguely, “but do you feel sure that a boarding school is the best place for the girl? She is so unruly, so untruthful! I fear that she would give you a great deal of trouble and responsibility unless she were placed under greater restraint. I have wondered for some time what should be done for the child. She has caused a lot of mischief among the children on the street in her tenement section. It seems to me that she ought to be sent to some kind of an institution where she would be more closely watched—an asylum or home for incorrigible children.”
Mrs. Curtis looked worried and bit her lips. “That is rather hard on the child, isn’t it? Still, I could not undertake to be responsible for Tania’s good behavior at school. She seems very hard to control. I will watch her more closely, and, if she shows more signs of untruthfulness, I shall have to consider your suggestion. However, I will talk the matter over withMadge. I wish you would walk down to the houseboat for me and invite the girls to come up to the hotel for luncheon. I hope they are not off somewhere with Captain Jules. He seems to claim the greater share of their attention lately.”
Philip Holt walked off, very well pleased with his interview. He had conveyed to Mrs. Curtis precisely the impression he had intended to convey.
Ever since his arrival at Cape May Philip Holt had wished to see little Tania alone. He had warned the child that she was not to behave as though she had ever seen him before, yet he was still afraid that she might make a confidante of Madge. He needed to make his threat to her more terrifying. He decided to find her and intimidate her so thoroughly that she would not dare betray her previous acquaintance with him.
There was but one person in the world of whom the queer, elf-like Tania was afraid. That person was Philip Holt! She had feared him since the day of her own mother’s death, and the very thought of him was enough to fill her childish soul with terror.
Tania was playing alone on the sands near that houseboat at the time Mrs. Curtis and Philip Holt were discussing her future. Madge andMiss Jenny Ann were inside the houseboat, within calling distance of Tania, but not where they could see her. The little girl had just built a house of shining pebbles and was gazing at it with a pleased smile when she heard a step near her on the sand. Tania stared up at Philip’s thin, blonde face in terror-stricken silence.
“Tania,” the young man asked harshly, “have you told any one down here that you have ever seen or known me before?”
Tania shook her head mutely.
“Remember, if you do, I am going to have you shut up in a big house with iron bars at the windows where you can never go out or see your friends any more,” Philip Holt went on, keeping his voice lowered to a whisper.
Slowly Tania’s black eyes dropped. She tried to be brave and to pretend that she did not care, but the loss of her freedom was the one thing that Tania feared with all her soul. If she were shut up somewhere, how could she ever talk to her fairies, or see the blue sky that she so loved? And now, to be parted from the girls forever was too dreadful! Indeed, she would not dare to tell what she knew. Philip Holt was sure of it.
It was at that moment that Madge slipped out on the houseboat deck to see if Tania were all right. To her surprise she saw that Philip Holtwas talking to the little girl. She had not thought that Philip Holt cared enough for children to waste a minute’s time with them. She therefore wondered at his sudden interest in Tania. Madge walked quietly off the houseboat. She was wearing tennis shoes and her softly-shod feet made no sound. She caught one glimpse of Tania’s mute, white face and stopped short in time to hear Philip say:
“Even if you do tell that old Sal is my mother, Tania, no one will believe you. She herself will deny it and help me to have you shut up,” declared Philip Holt menacingly.
Madge caught each word as though it had been addressed to her. For Tania’s sake, and because she knew that for many reasons it was wiser, she held her peace for the time being.
“How do you do, Mr. Holt?” she asked innocently. “I just saw you from the deck of the houseboat.”
Philip Holt leaped to his feet. But Madge’s eyes were so clear and serene, her face so calm, that it was utterly impossible she could have overheard him.
Philip delivered Mrs. Curtis’s message and then left the two girls together. Madge dropped down on the sands by Tania and put her arm about her. “You need never tell me who Mr. Holt is, nor why you are afraid of him, Tania,”she whispered; “I overheard what he said, and you need not be afraid. I will take care of you!”
“He is the Wicked Genii,” faltered Tania, “who hated the Princess and wanted to drive her away from her kingdom in Fairyland.”
“But he can’t harm you, Tania, dear,” comforted Madge. “He dare not try to take you away from us. I am going to tell Mrs. Curtis all about this Wicked Genii and if I’m not mistaken it will be he, not you who is sent away.”
CHAPTER XIVCAPTAIN JULES MAKES A PROMISE
Little by little Madge was able to put together the whole story of Philip Holt’s life. He was old Sal’s son, and “Holt” was not his own name, but he rarely came near his mother, never gave her any help, and denied his relationship with her whenever it was necessary. When Philip Murphy was a small boy, he had been taken into the home of a wealthy family named Holt, but he had never been legally adopted as their child. He was raised in luxury and had made a great many wealthy friends, and he had learned to love money more than anything else in the world. But his rich patrons would not allow him entirely to desert his own mother. Twice every month he was made to go to see old Sal Murphy in her tenement home on the East Side. Philip Holt, who now went by the name of his foster parents, fairly loathed these visits. It was because of his hatred of them that he began to take his spite out on Tania when he was a lad of about fifteen, and poor Tania a baby of only six years old.
Tania’s mother had died in the same tenement where old Sal lived. There had been noone who wanted the little girl, so old Sal had taken her, beaten and starved her, and made her useful in any way that she could.
When Philip Holt had grown to manhood his foster parents lost most of their money. A little later they died, leaving their foster son nothing. The young man had been used to luxury and rich friends, and he could not give them up, therefore he told his wealthy friends that because he had once been a poor boy he meant to devote his life to charity. He proposed to work among the New York poor and asked their cooperation. Large sums of money were given him to be used for charity, but Philip Holt believed too strongly in the theory that charity begins at home. Whenever it was possible he used a part of this money for himself. To make more, he began speculating in Wall Street. He lost two thousand, then five thousand dollars of the money that had been entrusted to him. For almost a year he had been the treasurer of a New York charitable organization, and the time was near at hand when he must give a report of the money that he had misused. He knew that disgrace, imprisonment, stared him in the face unless he could persuade Mrs. Curtis to advance him five thousand dollars for some charitable purpose, or give it to him for himself. He, therefore, did not intend to be balked in his plan byeither Madge or Tania, no matter what desperate measures he had to employ.
So there were two persons at Cape May who came to believe that they stood in dire need of money. Yet they wished it for very different reasons: Philip Holt wanted money to save himself from disgrace; Madge desired it to help her uncle and aunt save their old home, “Forest House,” to send Eleanor back to graduate at Miss Tolliver’s in the fall, to start on her search for her father, and, last of all, to take care of Tania.
For Madge had managed the little waif’s affairs most undiplomatically. When she discovered the threat that Philip held over Tania if she told his secret, the little captain went to Mrs. Curtis with the story. She did not wish her friend to be deceived by the young man, so she confided to Mrs. Curtis that Philip Holt, who was supposedly the son of some old friends, was really the child of old Sal of the tenements. Mrs. Curtis thought that Madge must be mistaken. She wrote to old Sal to ask her if it were true. The Irish woman was devoted to her son. She would have done anything in the world not to disgrace him. She answered Mrs. Curtis’s letter by declaring that Philip Holt was no relative of hers, but a young man whom she knew because of his kindness to thepoor. Mrs. Curtis was indignant. She insisted that Tania had told Madge a falsehood, and that Philip Holt was right in his opinion of Tania. It would not be well to send the child to a school; she should be put in some kind of an institution. This, however, Madge was determined should never happen. She had no money of her own, nor did she know where she was to obtain the means, but she made up her mind to find some way to provide for her quaint little Fairy Godmother.
The morning after Madge’s disquieting talk with Mrs. Curtis the four girls and Tania wandered up the bay to spend the morning in the woods near the water. Phyllis carried a book that she meant to read aloud, Madge a box of luncheon, and Eleanor and Lillian their sewing. Tania skipped along with her hand in Madge’s. John had promised to join them later in the day if he returned in time from his trip on the water.
The girls settled themselves under some trees whence they could command a view of the land and the bay. Madge lay down in the soft grass and rested her head in her hands. She meant to listen to Phil’s reading, not to puzzle over her own worries. Phil’s book gave a thrilling account of the early days in the Delaware Bay, when it was the favorite cruising place for pirates.It was rather hard to believe, when the girls gazed out on the smooth, blue water, that it had once been the scene of so many fierce adventures with pirates. Once a crew of seventy men, belonging to the famous Captain Kidd, had actually sailed up the Delaware Bay and frightened the people of Philadelphia.
Madge had forgotten to listen. She could hear Phil’s voice, but not her words. The history of piracy, of course, was very thrilling, but Madge did not see how any long-ago dead and buried pirates or their hidden treasures could help her out of her present difficulties. She stood in need of real riches.
A sailboat dipped across the horizon and headed for the landing not far from where the girls were sitting, but no one of them noticed it.
“Look ahoy! look ahoy!” a friendly voice cried out from across the water.
Phyllis closed her book with a snap, Lillian and Eleanor dropped their sewing, Tania ran to the water’s edge, and Madge sat up.
It was Captain Jules who had hailed them.
“Well, my hearties, is this a summer camp?” demanded the old sailor as his boat came near the land. “I have been all the way to the houseboat to find you. I have something to show you.” Captain Jules’s broad face shone with good humor. He was clad in his weather-beatentarpaulins, and on his shoulder perched the monkey.
Madge covered the sides of her curly head with her hands. “Please don’t let the monkey pull my hair this morning,” she pleaded as the captain came up.
He tossed the monkey over to Tania, who cuddled it affectionately in her arms, and began talking softly to it.
Then Captain Jules seated himself on the grass and the houseboat girls gathered about him in a circle. He put one great hand in his pocket. “I’ve some presents for you,” he announced, trying to look very serious, but smiling in spite of himself.
“What are they?” asked Lillian eagerly.
“That’s telling,” returned the captain. “You must guess.”
“Shells,” said Tania quickly.
Captain Jules shook his head. “You’re warm, little girl,” he replied, “but you haven’t guessed right yet.”
Lillian sighed. “I never could guess anything,” she remarked sadly. “Please do tell us what it is.”
The captain relented and drew out of his pocket a handful of what seemed to be either oyster or mussel shells.
“You’ve brought some oysters for our luncheon,haven’t you?” guessed Eleanor. “You must stay and eat them with us.”
Captain Jules chuckled. “Oysters are out of season, child, and these are never good to eat.”
But Madge had clapped her hands together suddenly, her eyes shining. “You have been down to the bottom of the bay, haven’t you, Captain Jules? And you’ve found some pearls!”
Captain Jules shook his head. “I wouldn’t call them pearls, exactly. They’re too little and too poor. But come, now; maybe they are seed pearls. I went down under the water with the men who were looking over the oyster beds yesterday. Pearl oysters are not found in beds, like the edible oysters, so I wandered around on the bottom of the bay a bit and picked up these.” The captain extended his great hand. Five pairs of eager eyes peered into it. There lay four nearly round, thick shells, horny and rough with tiny little pearls embedded in them.
“‘Pearls are angel’s tears’,” quoted Phil softly.
Captain Jules seemed worried. “I searched about everywhere in the bay, but I could only find these four tiny pearls, and pretty lucky I was to find them!” the sailor continued. “They aren’t of much value, but I wanted to give them to five girls, and that’s just the difficulty.” Thecaptain looked at the houseboat party, which now included Tania, as though he did not know just what he should make up his mind to do.
“Let’s draw straws for them,” suggested Eleanor sensibly.
Madge shook her head. “No; Captain Jules is to give them to you and to leave me out. Remember, some stranger gave me a handsome pearl when I graduated. I have never had it mounted.” Madge slipped her arm confidingly through the old sea captain’s and gazed into his face with her most earnest expression. “Captain Jules is going to do something else for me; he is going down to the bottom of the bay again in his diving suit, and he is going to take me with him.”
“What a ridiculous idea!” protested Eleanor. “Just as though Captain Jules would think of doing any such thing.”
Lillian laughed unbelievingly, but Phil’s face was serious. “It would be awfully jolly, wouldn’t it? There wouldn’t be any danger if Captain Jules should take you. Do please take Madge down with you, and then take me,” she insisted coaxingly.
Captain Jules shook his head, but the little captain observed that he did not look half so shocked at the idea as he had the first time she proposed it. This was encouraging.
Phil took hold of one of the captain’s hands, and Madge the other.
“Please, please,please!” they pleaded in chorus.
“Miss Jenny Ann wouldn’t let you,” objected Captain Jules faintly.
“But if we were to get her permission,” argued Madge triumphantly, “then you would take us down to the bottom of the bay. I just knew you would, you are so splendid! I shall send to New York to see if we can rent a diving suit.”
“Never mind about that, I’ll see about the suit,” promised Captain Jules. “But it’s all nonsense, and I have never said that I would take you. I wish I weren’t a sailor. There is an old saying that a sailor can never refuse anything to a woman.”
“Here comes Tom,” announced Lillian hurriedly.
“Then don’t say anything to him about the diving,” warned Madge. “He will think it is perfectly dreadful for girls to attempt it.”