for a moment dan's blue eyes flashed, his strong arm quivered. every hardy nerve was tingling to strike out at the insolent speaker who lost no opportunity to fling a scornful word. but this beautiful day had left holy as well as happy memories. dan had knelt at brother bart's side before the altar light, that through all his hard rough young life had been aunt winnie's boy's beacon,--a beacon that had grown clearer and brighter with his advancing years, until it seemed to rise above earth into the dazzling radiance of the stars. its steady light fell upon his rising passion now, and his fury broke as the swelling surf breaks upon the beacon rock--into foam and spray.
"it is a sort of mix up, i must say," he answered. "but i'm out of the bootblack business for good and all; so what are you going to do about it?"
"cut the whole lot," said dud, "just as soon as i can get money enough to do it."
"well, i won't cry after you, i'm sure," retorted dan, good-humoredly; though there was a spark in his eye that told the fire was smoldering still, as even under the beacon light such fires sometimes do.
but a stentorian shout from captain jeb put an end to the altercation.
"wind's a-veering! swing round that ar boom, matey dan! duck, the rest of you boys,--duck--quick!"
freddy was asleep, with his head pillowed safely on brother bart's knee. jim was dozing in the stern, out of harm's reach; but on dud, seated at the edge of the boat and fuming with rage and pride, the warning fell unheeded. as the sail swung round there was s splash, a shriek.
"he's overboard! god have mercy on us!" cried brother bart, roused from his third glorious mystery of the rosary.
"didn't i tell you to duck, ye rascal?" roared captain jeb, to whom a tumble like this seemed only a boy's fool trick. "back aboard with ye, ye young fool! back--aboard! don't ye know there's sharks about in these waters? lord, ef he ain't gone down!"
"he can't--can't swim!" and jim, who had started up half awake and who could swim like a duck, was just about to plunge after dud, when he caught the word that chilled even his young blood to ice--sharks! jim knew what sharks meant. he had seen a big colored man in his own southern waters do battle with one, and had sickened at the memory ever since.
"a rope,--a rope!" thundered captain jeb, whose right leg had been stiffened for all swimming in deep waters ten years ago. "if he goes down again, it's forever."
"o god have mercy! god have mercy!" prayed brother bart, helplessly; while freddy shrieked in shrill alarm.
in that first wild moment of outcry dan had stood breathless while a tide of feeling swept over him that held him mute, motionless. dud! it was dud who had been swept over into those foaming, seething depths. dud, whose stinging words were still rankling in his thoughts and heart; dud, who hated, scorned, despised him; dud who could not swim, and--and there were sharks,--sharks!
dan was trembling now in every strong limb,--trembling, it seemed to him, in body and soul. sharks! sharks! and it was dud.--dud who had said dan was fit only to black his boots!
"o god have mercy! mother mary--mother mary save him!" prayed brother bart.
at the words dan steadied,--steadied to the beacon light,--steadied into aunt winnie's boy again.
"don't scare, brother bart!" rang out his clear young voice. "i'll get him."
"dan! dan!" shrieked freddy, as, with the practised dive of the wharf rats, the lithe young form plunged into the water. "o dan,--my dan, the sharks will get you, too! come back! come back, dan!"
dan caught the words as he struck out blindly, desperately, almost hopelessly, through depths such as he had never braved before. for this was not the safe land-bound harbor; this was not the calm lap of the river around the sheltering wharf; this was a world of waters, seething, surging roaring around him, peopled with hunting creatures hungry for prey.
"dan, dan!" came his little chum's piercing cry as he rose for breath.
"come back, ye fool!" thundered captain jeb. "he's gone, i tell ye,--the boy is gone down!"
but even at the shout something dark swept within touch of dan's outstretched arm; he made a clutch at it and grasped dud,--dud choking, gasping, struggling,--dud, who sinking for the last time, caught dan in a grip that meant death for both of them.
"let go!" spluttered dan, fiercely,--"let go! let go or we'll drown together!" and then, as the deadly clutch only tightened, dan did what all wharf rats knew they must do in such cases--struck out with the full strength of his hardy young fist, and, knocking the clinging dud's fast-failing wits completely out of him, swam back with his helpless burden to the "sary ann."
"the lord, matey, but you are a game un!" said captain jeb, as he and jim dragged dud aboard.
"ah, god have mercy upon the poor lad's soul! it's dead entirely he is!" sobbed brother bart.
"not a bit of it!" said dan, scrambling up the side of the "sary ann." "he's just knocked out. i had to knock him out, or he would have pulled me down with him. roll him over a little, so he can spit out the water, and he'll be all right."
"sure he is,--he is!" murmured brother bart, as dud began to cough and splutter encouragingly. "it's gone forever i thought he was, poor lad! oh, god bless you for this day's work, dan dolan,--bless you and keep you his forever!"
"it was a close shave for all hands," said captain jeb, permitting himself a long-drawn sigh of relief, as dan, after shaking himself like a water-dog, sank down, a little pale and breathless, at his side. "and you were what most folk would call a consarned fool, matey. didn't you hear me say these 'ere waters had sharks in 'em?"
"yes," said dan, whose eyes were fixed upon a drift of sunlit cloud in the distance.
"then what the deuce did you do it for?" said captain jeb, severely.
"couldn't let a fellow drown," was the brief answer.
"warn't nothing special to you, was he?" growled the old sailor, who was still fiercely resentful of his "scare." "ain't ever been perticular nice or soft spoken as i ever heard to you. and you jumping in to be gobbled by sharks, for him, like he was your own twin brother! you're a fool, matey,--a durn young fool!"
and dan, who understood his old sailor friend, only laughed,--laughed while his eyes still followed the drift of swinging cloud fringing the deep blue of the sky. they were like the robe of the only mother he had ever known,--the sweet mother on whom brother bart had called to save dud. and dan had heard and obeyed and he felt with a happy heart his mother was smiling on him now.
but to dud this thrilling adventure left no pleasant memories. he was sick for several days from his overdose of salt water, weak and nervous from fright and shock: there was a bruise over his eye from the saving impact of dan's sturdy fist, which he resented unreasonably. more than all, he resented the chorus that went up from all at killykinick in praise of dan's heroism.
jim testified openly and honestly that the cry of "sharks" got him, and he couldn't have dared a plunge in those waters to save his own brother.
"i saw a nigger cut in half by one of those man-eaters once, and it makes my flesh creep to think of it."
even dull-witted old neb rose to show appreciation of dan's bold plunge, and said he "reckoned all boys wuth anything did sech fool tricks some times."
good old brother bart felt it was a time for warning and exhortation, which dud found altogether exasperating.
"sure it's on your knees you ought to go morning and evening to thank god for bold, brave dan dolan. if it hadn't been for him, it's food for the fishes ye'd be now. the lord was merciful to ye, lad; for i'm misdoubting if ye were fit for heaven. though it's not for me to judge, ye have a black look betimes, as if god's grace wasn't in yer heart. this ought to be a lesson to ye, a lesson that ye should never forget."
"i'm not likely to forget it," was the grim answer. "i couldn't if i tried."
"and i'm glad to hear ye say so," said the simple-minded old brother. "i'm thinking sometimes ye're not over friendly with dan. it was a rough bating he gave ye before we left the college." (dud's black looks grew blacker at the memory.) "but he has more than made it up to ye now, for he has given ye back yer life."
"and what are you going to give him for it, dud?" questioned freddy confidentially, as the good brother moved away.
"give who?" growled dud, who was sick and sore and savage over the whole experience, and, strange to say--but such are the peculiarities of some natures,--felt as if he hated his preserver more than ever.
"why, dud!" continued freddy. "you always give a person something when he saves your life. dick walton told me that a man saved him when he was carried out in the surf last summer, and his father gave the man a gold watch."
"so dan dolan wants a gold watch, does he?" said dud.
"oh, no!" answered freddy, quite unconscious of the sneer in the question. "i don't think dan wants a gold watch at all. he would not know what to do with one. but if i were you," continued dan's little chum, his eyes kindling with loyal interest, "i'd make it a pocket-book,--a nice leather pocket-book, with a place for stamps and car tickets and money, and i'd just fill it chock full. you see, dan hasn't much pocket money. he pulled out his purse the other day at beach cliff to get a medal that was in it, and he had only a nickel and two stamps to write to his aunt."
"so your brave dan is striking for ready cash, is he?" said dud, in a tone that even innocent freddy could not mistake, and that dan coming up the beach with a net full of kicking lobsters, caught in all its sting.
"ready cash," he asked, looking from one to the other. "for what?"
"pulling me out of the water the other day," answered dud. "freddy says you're expecting pay for it."
"well, i'm not," said dan, the spark flashing into his blue eyes. "you're 'way off there, freddy, sure."
"oh, i didn't mean,--i didn't say," began poor little freddy, desperately. "i only thought people always got medals or watches or something when they saved other people, and i told dud--"
"never mind what you told him, kid" (dan laid a kind hand on his little chum's shoulder); "you mean it all right, i know. but dud" (the spark in the speaker's eye flashed brighter,)--"dud didn't."
"i did," said dud. "my father will pay you all you want."
then dan blazed up indeed into irish fire.
"i don't want his pay: i wouldn't touch it. you ain't worth it, dud fielding."
"ain't worth what? my father is worth a million," said dud quickly.
"that for his million!" and dan snapped his two fishy fingers under dud's grecian nose. "you ain't worth a buffalo nickel, dud fielding; and i wouldn't ask one for saving your measly little life."
and dan went off with his lobsters, in a wrath almost fiery enough to boil them alive. pay!--pay for that wild plunge into watery depths--the doubt, the fear, the icy terror of hungry monsters around him! dud fielding was offering him pay for this, very much as he might fling pay to him for blacking his boots. ah, it was a fierce, bad moment for dan! his beacon light vanished; murky clouds of passion were blackening dream and vision; he felt he could cheerfully pitch dud back to the sharks again. and then, as still hot and furious, he strode back with his lobsters to old ned, freddy, who was remorsefully following him--remorseful at having stirred up a row,--piped up in sudden excitement:
"o dan, look--look what's coming here to killykinick! dan, just look!"
dan turned at the cry. past numskull nob, making her cautious, graceful way through rocks and shoals, was a beautiful white-winged yacht, her mast gay with pennants. one, fluttering wide to the breeze, showed her name, "the polly."
